Three men, three vows: one to destroy Rome, another to protect it, a third to defeat the both of them. This is the saga of Scipio Africanus, one of history's greatest generals, and his history-defining clashes with Carthage and the Roman Senate. Born into a wealthy and powerful military family, Cornelius Scipio is a brilliant scholar who dreams of educating the common people of Rome. But he has promised his father he will become a soldier and defend Rome against Hannibal, its sworn enemy. Young Scipio soon finds himself fighting on two fronts: in Italia against the Carthaginians and in the Rome against Cato the Elder's austerity party. When all the veteran commanders fear to confront Hannibal and his brothers, Scipio steps forward to become Rome's boy general. Leaving his mother and betrothed to wage his political war at home, he sets forth to defeat the undefeated, relying on visionary genius to compensate for an outnumbered army of raw recruits.
Genre: FICTION / HistoricalAmazon #1 Best Seller in Ancient Roman History (2014)
Sales Rank: 154, 355 (June 19, 2018).
IBERIA, 230 BCE. The Iberian ram’s horns blare out their call to battle. A hundred thousand Iberians line up on the riverbank opposite the Carthaginian army, crashing their thick curved swords against their oblong shields.
On the other side of the Tagus River, twenty-six-year-old Hannibal Barca leans over the side of his elephant and grins down at Hasdrubal.
“This is it, brother. My trial by fire. The men will all be watching me.”
“You will do fine,” Hasdrubal replies. “You have our father’s blood in you.”
Hannibal looks back at the rows of infantry behind him. “I’d rather I started with a foe that did not outnumber us two to one,” he says. “But at least we have the river as our ally.” He raises his long spear over his head. “It’s time. Sound the horns.”
Within minutes a hundred brass trumpets echo the final call to formation. Hannibal taps his spear against Surus’ table-sized head, and the massive elephant lumbers forward to the front line.
You have to win this one, Hannibal tells himself. These mercenaries must believe in you before you face the Romans. He grins. That is, if you survive this horde.
Hannibal leads Surus out in front of his army and turns him about, surveying the ranks in front of him. The heavily armored Carthaginian cavalry wait in the center of the front line, poised to ram into the Iberian front and deliver maximum shock. A wall of twenty elephants is on each side of the cavalry. Knots of Balearic Island slingers stand between the elephants, ready to fling their river stones into Iberian skulls. The elephants and islanders occlude the thousands of Libyan soldiers hiding behind them.
Good. We are ready to deliver shock and surprise. Time to earn my purple tunic.
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Giovanni Torremacco
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Author review: Giovanni worked hard to deliver every translated chapter in a timely manner. HIs author-to-translator communications were always prompt and considerate. I hired a proofreader to check his translations, and the proofreader found very few corrections. I've been very satisfied. |
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Rosina Iglesias
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Author review: Rosina is the best translator I have worked with. She is quick, efficient, and thorough. She also provided some valuable copy editing that I used to revise the original version of the book. I would highly recommend her. |
