Scipio Africanus
by B. H. Liddell Hart

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Book Reviews of Scipio Africanus

Book Review: The day we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head
Summary: 4 Stars

I've known about this book a long time, and finally I've read it. It's the bible of the 'indirect approach': how to get the better of your enemy by heading purposefully in the opposite direction, and never, ever engaging his main force. After the horrors of the First World War, when the Western Allies engaged the enemy's main force for four solid years (one and a bit solid years for some) and didn't like it, this came as welcome news, and it made Liddell Hart's reputation as a military thinker.

A plausible case can be made for it: think of Sherman sweeping from hell to Dixie in 1864, or Patton (almost) running rings round the Germans in 1944. Spoilsports, on the other hand, including the theorist of mechanized warfare, Gen. J. F. C. Fuller, call it the strategy of evasion. They say that Sherman, Patton & Co. were only able to stay in business because other poor saps were beating their heads against, guess what, the enemy's main force. Spare a thought, please, for Grant's boys 'fixing' Lee in Northern Virginia, the Russians tying down most of the German army in Belarus and Poland.

On with the story. In the Second Punic War, Hannibal, the undisputed champ of Punic perfidy (he outsmarted Romans!), had been ravaging Italy for a decade. P. Cornelius Scipio, brilliant and precocious young Roman contender, having read his Liddell Hart, opted to head for Spain, then North Africa via Sicily, finally knocking out Hannibal and his scratch force outside Carthage in 202 BC. He beat Hannibal and saved Rome; he qualifies as a Great Captain.

Most people who have read ancient history will know the outline. What I hadn't realized was just how remarkable Scipio was as a strategist, tactician, planner, diplomat and all-round achiever. Liddell Hart makes a strong case for his hero. I'm half persuaded that Scipio was 'greater than Napoleon', greater than Caesar and Alexander too, bearing in mind that these captains had more or less a free hand, while Scipio, as a loyal servant of the Republic, had to put up with suspicion and obstruction from his own government. He seems to have been an honorable fellow, too, which is more than you can say (oh dear) for some of the others. Just think, Roman emperors for seven centuries might have been called 'Scipios'; and instead of Kaiser Bill we'd have had Skippy Bill.

If you like the less-traveled roads of history and you don't mind Ciceronian prose, this book is for you. Equip yourself with a good historical atlas, though, because the maps are substandard. As for the strategy of indirect approach - who knows? Maybe we should hold the forthcoming invasion of Iraq in Syria, if only we can persuade the Iranians to attack Baghdad ...

Summary of Scipio Africanus

Biographies & Memoirs Books

• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs
• History > Ancient
• Military