A review by ayla_derammelaere
Carthago: opkomst en ondergang van een stad by Rob Kuitenbrouwer, Richard Miles

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0



I've always read books written from the Roman perspective. This is the first time ever I read a book based on writings from the other side and I really intruiges me.

The book starts with the birth of Carthages. I 'knew' Carthages was a lot older than Rome but I never realisef how much older. Reading this book made that very clear : how evolved Carthages already was before there even was a Rome. 

The people of Carthage were evolved and understood they didn't want to be dependent of raids or other cities to grow their people or their land. They realised how much wealth they could aquier from the trade in gold, silver and other luxuary products so they went to Cyprus to build a city and take part in the trade.

The part of the book that intruiged me the most, was to read about the 3 wars with Rome. I knew the stories from the Roman side and even now it was difficult to know the Cartegian side since there a few written pieces left of what they wrote. 
When they write about Rome's tactic when concurring a city, it made me feel even more in awe with Rome than before : how they understood that making a concurred city part of your own culture and religion, would lower the risk there would be another war. This in contradiction with how all other realms used to behave.

I am more in awe now with Hannibal (the one from the Punical wars) and Scipio Africanus. How Hannibal changed so much of the 'normal' way battles were conducted and how Scipio learned from that and made it his own tactic.

This book writes about an important part of history, of an ancient world that impacted how all of our history looks like and developed. And it shows how 2 sides to every story have tales of heroes and foes.