![]() ![]() ![]() In three wars with the emerging superpower of Rome, Carthage was first given a bloody nose, then soundly defeated, then utterly annihilated. But even in this, there's a saving difference: Claudius' lost work on the empire and city of Carthage was reputed to be extremely dull, but Miles' book, Carthage Must Be Destroyed, is taut and often exhilarating.It has a tough row to hoe, in order to get to exhilarating: the maxim that history is written by the victors might as well have been invented for Carthage. Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles Viking Press, 2010However else media-friendly historian Richard Miles might resemble the Roman emperor Claudius (fond of mushrooms? touch of scrofula? perhaps a niece who gets too many Christmas presents?), he's now got one similarity locked: they both wrote histories of the most famous dead civilization this side of the planet Krypton. ![]()
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