The Fall of Carthage — Adrian Goldsworthy

Goldsworthy traces the three Punic Wars — the century-long struggle between Rome and Carthage for mastery of the Mediterranean — with the same command of military detail that marks his Roman biographies. He is particularly strong on Hannibal's Italian campaign: sixteen years in enemy territory, winning battles that should not have been winnable, unable to convert tactical brilliance into strategic victory. The destruction of Carthage in 146 BC — every building demolished, the ground reportedly salted — is treated not as an inevitable outcome but as a choice, Rome's most deliberate and total act of annihilation.

'The best account of the Punic Wars in a single volume. Goldsworthy writes military history as it should be written — with intellectual rigour and narrative pace.' — Literary Review