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Scipio: A Novel (The Carthage Trilogy #2)
by
Ross Leckie
In the name of Rome, Scipio Africanus systematically destroyed the hard-won empires of Hannibal and Alexander the Great. With breathtaking battle scenes and a tale of violent passions, Scipio is a stunning sequel to Hannibal. This inspired narrative reveals the aristocrat, general, politician, and aesthete behind the Roman triumph to bring us a novel of love and betrayal,...more
Paperback, 392 pages
Published
August 1st 2008
by Canongate Books
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Scipio is the second installment of a trilogy by Ross Leckie.The first Hannibal was an outstanding,and revealing story of a tactition and soldier whose ideas were used by Generals such as George Patton in WW11.Scipio Africanus was the FIRST to see the genius of Hannibal and utilise and manipulate Hannibal's tactics for his own strategy,eventually being the one to finally stop Hannibal.This book,although very much a continuation from another point of view,is not quite as vigorous and 'page-turnin...more
This is a good historical novel of the fascinating struggle between Rome and Carthage in the third century BCE, and each power's respective favorite sons, Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. However, as so often happens, the elements imagined by the author are only an entree to the much more compelling true history. Leckie makes some very strange choices where he chooses to deviate from history - for example eliminating Scipio's actual wife and children entirely. Mostly good, though.
One caution: this...more
One caution: this...more
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Hmm, well, aah, it's an okay read for resting the mind, March 30, 2006
"Scipio Africanus: The Man Who Defeated Hannibal" by Ross Leckie is an interesting account of what may have happened with the Roman leader before and after he defeated Hannibal. If you like the show "Rome", you'd definitely like this book. The descriptions of the roman legions, the senate, the Latin, the ancient lusts for gold, glory and power, it's all well packaged and wou...more
Hmm, well, aah, it's an okay read for resting the mind, March 30, 2006
"Scipio Africanus: The Man Who Defeated Hannibal" by Ross Leckie is an interesting account of what may have happened with the Roman leader before and after he defeated Hannibal. If you like the show "Rome", you'd definitely like this book. The descriptions of the roman legions, the senate, the Latin, the ancient lusts for gold, glory and power, it's all well packaged and wou...more
I find the prospect of summing up this book difficult. It was absolutely excellent. The only thing I will add to that is that the Latin and Greek made me happy to see, especially Scipio's difficulty with the Greek verb titheimi - I don't think that I will ever get the hang of that one! The great thing about Leckie's inclusions of Greek and Latin words and sentences is that he always offers a translation which meshes well with the narrative, so those who do not speak the languages don't miss out...more
A middling good book of historical fiction. I read the companion book about Hannibal a couple of years ago. The author writes in a quite brutal fashion, which is natural for books about warfare, strife, and generalship in a brutal age. I noted some continuity errors in the timing of events vs. the age of some of the characters, most notably Scipio's little brother, which I found quite annoying.
Feb 29, 2008
Jason
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ancient-and-medieval,
war
This was a bit of a letdown after Leckie's magnificent Hannibal. In Scipio, the amanuensis plot gets in the way of the "real" plot, an annoying device that, for unknown reasons, gets used over and over again in this genre. More than that, though, what weakens this volume is a near-lethal dose of what I call "epochism": the kind of historical fiction in which the more modern-seeming characters are the obvious heroes, imbuing the entire work with a naive sense of "progress." In this case, epochism...more
A bit odd. On the whole I liked it, but there were some problems. It started telling two stories - one of Scipio the soldier and one of Bostar the teacher. A few pages of one story, then a few pages of the other. I assumed that by the end the two stories would have meshed and interracted. But the Bostar story just fizzled out about 2/3 way through the book and it became just about Scipio. Then near the end Bostar pops up and the two meet.
Also a couple of historical innaccuracies. At one point t...more
Also a couple of historical innaccuracies. At one point t...more
Another very good book, although not quite as good as Hannibal.
I read this after reading Hannibal, and the story line is new but completely up for war. It was brilliant, a fantastic outline of the history of the world :)
May 02, 2013
Travis Gomez
added it
Apr 18, 2013
Susan Greenwood
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Since reading Classics at Oxford, Ross Leckie has worked variously as a farm labourer, roughneck, schoolmaster, and insurance broker. He is best known for his Carthage trilogy.
He is now a full time writer living in Edinburgh.
More about Ross Leckie...
He is now a full time writer living in Edinburgh.
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