"Carthage Must Be Destroyed"

Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization (Richard Miles)

Carthage - the Nicole Richie to Rome's Paris Hilton (I'm not dating myself with these refrences, am I?)  - has never had a proper English-language history (that I'm aware of) up until now. Happily, this is an excellent history, easily pulling off the difficult trick of being a page-turner even though you know what and when the end of the story is going to be. I only have two small nits to pick, the first one being that the author opens with the sacking and total distruction of Carthage, which I thought was kind of pointless, since nerds like me who will read this book alread know what happens. The second is the author's obsession with Hercules, who he won't stop talking about (Hey, I know that's where Xena got her start, but we don't need to hear about the guy all the time). Otherwise, this is a great book, and you owe it to yourself to give it a read even if your only interest in Carthage is as an early nemesis for the roman republic.

Grade: A-