Customer Reviews

Hannibal Crosses the Alps: The Invasion of Italy and the Second Punic War

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After reading David Anthony Durham's vivid novel "Pride of Carthage", a good follow-up for the reader interested in learning more about Hannibal and the Second Punic War is John Prevas' "Hannibal Crosses the Alps". Prevas has made the journey himself many times, so he is able to give accurate site reports of the various routes Hannibal is speculated to have taken over the Alps. Hannibal traveled with an army of tens of thousands of soldiers and as many as 37 war elephants. As Prevas makes his case for a crossing at Col de la Traversette, the reader is held in awe of Hannibal's tenacity and daring.

"Hannibal Crosses the Alps" is just the right size for the reader looking for a good snapshot of the Second Punic War: the book is not too short, but neither does it drown in detail. There is a good chronology in the front, some maps and photos, an extensive bibliography, and an index. More remarkable, though, is Prevas' case for Hannibal's route. The actual route has been lost to history, but Prevas has hiked though the region, and he painstakingly compares the natural features he observed to those recorded in Polybius and Livy. His conclusions are hard to refute, and baring future archeological finds, I believe his conclusions are very sound. His book will also help the reader of Durham's novel fit what is known into Durham's fictional account.

Never have so many books sprung from such meager sources. The exploits of Hannibal come to us from 1000-year-old translations of 2000-year-old lost manuscripts, Polybius and Livy being the main waterbearers here and highly recommended. I've been studying Hannibal for the past year now and have read dozens of books. This book by John Prevas is a worthy effort but feels flawed in many respects. Frankly, I felt that Mr. Prevas never let the facts stand in the way of a good story and took far too many liberties. For example, he frequently tries to tell us what Hannibal was thinking and how he felt at each juncture of the crossing when we don't even know what Hannibal looked like! There were many times when his summaries of the history leading up to the crossing varied from many of the other sources I've read. Who should I trust?

However, the heart of the book is the actual crossing of the alps and the route that Hannibal took. This section was excellent and backed up by five years of Mr. Prevas hiking in the alps and 8-10 pages of photos proving that Hannibal's route did NOT follow the Isere River, as most historians and books allege, but began on the Drome River and continued up the Durance toward the gorge where the second ambush by the Gauls occurred. This section felt authentic, for me, made the book well worth purchasing.

So, I recommend this book... as long as you also grab a copy of Lancel's Hannibal and Polybius and Livy. All three are good reads.

John Prevas has done some very fine research here and should be commended for giving so much evidence to his theory on the path that Hannibal took over the Alps. However, he continuously repeats himself many times in the book and this made it sometimes difficult to get through. All in all a very convincing theory of Hannibals pass over the Alps. Until a body or some other hard physical evidence is found that proves without a doubt where Hannibal actually crossed the Alps, I will stick with Mr. Prevas and his theory. Highly recommend the book for students of military history who do not want a whole lot of excitement with their reading, you will not find much action here. If you want action, read Caesers Commentaries. I give 4 stars for the amount of time and personal sacrifice that Mr. Prevas put into the work by going to the locations through a number of years of research and on site camping, must have been exciting to be where Hannibal had been.

Not a bad book but often times dry and unexciting.

In "Hannibal Crosses the Alps" John Prevas focuses on what the title suggests, which is the actual crossing of the Alps by Hannibal and his mercenary army. Three of the seven chapters deal with the crossing of the Alps, while the other chapters cover the prior history between Rome and Carthage, Hannibal's rise to power, the ancient sources from which we know this history, and the rest of Hannibal's campaign in Italy after his crossing. There is also an Epilogue in which he discusses what happened to Hannibal, and what happened between Rome and Carthage through the Third Punic War.

John Prevas traveled repeatedly through the Alps seeing for himself the terrain of the many possible routes that Hannibal may have taken in his search for the correct route. The route he pieces together he supports with as much evidence as he can, using the ancient sources as well as the visual information that he was able to gather on his trips. While his case is strong and very persuasive, he does temper his argument with the acknowledgement that as of yet there isn't any physical evidence in the form of remains as of yet to turn conjecture into fact.

While overall I enjoyed this book, there are definitely some weaknesses which could have easily been addressed but sadly were not. First of all, for a work which focuses so much on the routes traveled, there are surprisingly few maps to help the reader visualize things. You may want to arm yourself with an atlas of the ancient world, or even perhaps other books about Hannibal which do contain more maps to help compensate for this lack. In addition, while I do like his writing style, there are places where he repeats himself as well as contradict himself.

In an example of repetition and contradiction, he says more than once that none of the elephants perished on the march through the Alps, but he also says more than once that the finding of elephant remains would help determine the route. Clearly there cannot be remains if no elephants were lost. He also contradicts himself with regards to the climate where he first states that there is no significant difference in the snow levels in the Alps from Hannibal's time to ours (this is in support of his argument that the pass which Hannibal took must have been at a higher elevation than those usually selected by historians), and then later he talks about the receding ice and thawing out of areas which may help find supporting evidence.

I enjoyed reading this book; however, I don't think this would be the first book I would read on Hannibal or the Punic Wars. With some minor updates and rewrites this book could easily be four stars, but for now I can only give it three.

I recommend this book for anyone looking for an easy-to-read and yet informative introduction to Hannibal. The author focusses on one of Hannibal's most famous exploits - the crossing of the Alps. It's good material and looking at it closely definitely has rewards. I don't come away from the whole discussion of just which pass Hannibal used with definite opinions, but what's interesting is the process of comparing and contrasting the different passes and asking questions.

The book does manage to be about more than just the Alps crossing. It places the conflict, says something about Carthage and Rome, and gives a quick synopsis of how the war played out. Someone who knows a lot about Hannibal will learn a thing or two here. Readers not familiar with the subject could do worse than starting with this book. It should wet your interest and convince anyone that Hannibal is one of the greatest military minds to have walked the earth. Give it a try.

If you want more... For an indepth look at the war I suggest Nigel Bagnall's The Punic Wars, and for a great novel about it all check out David Durham's Pride of Carthage.

Although an avid reader, I seemed to have avoided this period in history in general and Hannibal in specific. I came to the subject with a very sparse knowledge of Hannibal and went away with an improved understanding, not only of Hannibal, but also of the political/cultural make up of this period in history. Of particular interest, and well expounded in the book, is how Rome and Carthage related and how ultimately Rome won out.

I saw Professor Prevas speaking on C-SPAN in early February 2006 about his book on Alexander the Great (Envy of the Gods) and found his lecture to be very intriguing. As a result I picked up this book as well as his others. I also highly recommend his book about Xenophon's march of the Greek 10,000. All three are easy reads and very interesting.

After two different decisive battlefield victories, Hannibal was in a position to move on a panicked, and practically defenseless Rome and destroy it. He decided to wait. When he finally did decide to attack the capital city of the Roman Empire, he found the city so well defended that he turned away within sight of the gates and returned to plundering the Italian Countryside. Even years after Hannibal was dead, the mothers in Rome would whisper to their naughty children that they had better behave because "Hannibal was at the gates." This terrifying thought cowed even the most impish, mischievous child. The same idea had terrified the Romans of all ages two times before when they thought Hannibal was indeed on the way to rape, plunder and murder everyone in the city.
Hannibal was a great leader by anyone's measurement. In fact I only became aware of this book from reading and reviewing Steve Forbes and John Prevas's excellent new book, "Power, Ambition Glory," which is a book about some of the greatest leaders in Western History. It was so readable and interesting that I ordered this book and I certainly wasn't disappointed. The book starts out with an introduction to Carthage and it's civilization, which was at its zenith when Rome was still organizing within the boot of Italy. Carthage was located just across the Mediterranean Sea from Sicily, the toe of the boot to be more exact. It was situated on the North African coast near what we now call Tunis at a place where the channel connecting the Mediterranean is less than 300 miles wide. All shipping from the west end of the sea to the east end had to pass between the toe of Sicily, which Carthage also controlled and Carthage itself. It built a navy that could control all of the ancient Mediterranean and the ancient city became incredibly wealthy.
For those people who don't care much for Roman History, if the Romans had not won the 100-year Punic War, the world today would indeed be much different and the Carthaginians were in many ways more brutal than the Romans. The Romans didn't crucify their own Generals and Admiral's, all of whom were elected to office by the senate and were fellow aristocrats, because they lost a single battle. The Romans did not sacrifice infant children to "the lord of the furnaces" the God Baal, which is the God Hannibal was named after. Infanticide consumed thousands of live infants in the burning furnaces of Baal.
After introducing the reader to the basic historical facts of the rise and fall of Carthage, the author concentrates on Hannibal's career. His father successfully transferred his own hate of the Romans to his sons, especially Hannibal The most exciting part of the Hannibal's life was his daring crossing of the Alps from Spain where he surprised, defeated and plundered the Romans for 12 years. After losing some of the biggest battles in Ancient History including one where Hannibal killed 50,000 legionnaires while only losing about 1,200 of his own men, the Romans decided to shadow Hannibal and his army of mercenaries but not to engage him in battle.
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps was not as easy or successful as it should have been because he didn't have trustworthy guides to show him the way. He was ambushed twice in narrow gorges where the locals had purposely led him. His troops had to transverse narrow ledges above deep canyons while savage Celtic tribesmen rained boulders and arrows down of his helpless troops and their terrified pack animals. Half his army died on the trek, but miraculously, all his war elephants survived the journey. Not long ago I read and reviewed "The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride" by Daniel James Brown. There were many similar experiences to the two books. In both cases the parties were misdirected and ended up missing the easier passes through the mountains and ending up having to travel the most difficult and costly routes in bitter weather. The chief difference was that much of the Donner Party was children and they didn't have enemies dropping rocks on their heads as they crawled and climbed through the mazes of sheer canyons in the snow and ice. John Prevas makes Hannibal's historic feat come alive for the reader. If you like reading about history in the making, this tale will amaze you. The descriptions of the battles are as if the reader is hovering in an invisible time capsule above the raging battlefield reading the thoughts of the generals and their soldiers below.
In addition, the author spent several summer's hiking through the various routes that Hannibal and his army might have taken. Comparing his own observations and photographs to the historical texts, he concludes which route had to indeed be the one Hannibal and his army transversed. None of the others matched the historical data.
Hannibal lived to be an old soldier of 64, which in itself is amazing since he was always in the heart of one battle or another and was often wounded. What happened to Hannibal and Carthage is also related. There is a surprise ending to the story in the last couple of sentences of the book. It's something that most people aren't aware of and something that illustrates the superior instincts of one of Rome's own great generals, Julius Caesar. This is a page-turner once the reader gets through the book's necessary introduction and into the personal story of Hannibal. This reviewer loved it.

Quite frankly, this book is one of the best detailed overviews of the Second Punic War. Like any other good history book, you need to know the surrounding factors behind an event in history such as the Second Punic War and Hannibal's invasion of the Italian peninsula. Prevas does just that.

As the book opens, Prevas gives a brief over view of the events leading up to the Second Punic War, including basic histories and legendary origins of Rome and Carthage, the Hamilcar and the First Punic War, a detailed account of Hannibal's invasion of Rome, and also brings the book to a close by giving a brief overview of the Third Punic War and also the death of Hannibal.

The only place Prevas lacks is more maps and diagrams. Not that it has to do with crossing the Alps, but a rough diagram of the Battle of Cannae and other battles would have been an added bonus. Thats just my opinion. If you want more detailed books about the Punic Wars I suggest the "Punic Wars" by Adrian Goldsworthy.

Overall, Prevas does a remarkable job by getting the points across while sticking close to historical records and descriptions of the Second Punic War just over 200 pages. Great great read.

If you are a student of Roman history, the Punic Wars and Hannibal's invasion is important to you. This book is an excellent, easy read of Hannibal's adventure over the Alps and into Italy. It starts with a background of the times and the relationship between Rome and Carthage. It later goes into a detail description of Hannibal's trek and his route citing the works of Polybius, Livy and others as source material. I enjoyed it, felt like yesterday, not 2,200 years ago.

John Prevas has revived the interest in the Traversette Pass as a potential Hannibal alpine route in this excellent book. Very readable and with a lively narrative, the ability of Prevas to tell the dramatic story of what led to Hannibal's intrepid crossing in 218 BCE and what followed in Italy is evident. Though not all will agree about the exact route, this book makes a good case for the importance of Hannibal's battles and the daunting circumstances Hannibal's army faced from terrain and enemies as well as bad weather and the length of the march. Having used it in teaching university classes, I know this well-written book by Prevas is a must for Hannibal studies.