Hannibal and the Crisis of the Struggle Between Carthage and Rome

Hannibal, like Napoleon, towers over all the figures of an age of war in its grandest aspects, and of the shock of nations in conflict. We possess hardly anything which has emanated directly from this extraordinary personage, scarcely a phrase, not a line of correspondence; his achievements and character are described by bitter enemies. Yet through the mists of calumny and detraction we can see the form and the lineaments of that gigantic figure, one of the most commanding that has appeared in history. - Summary by Adapted from the Preface