Next week (Friday 19 Oct) I’m giving my PhD confirmation seminar paper: Treachery Worse Than Punic: Livy’s Landscape and Hannibal’s Invasion of Italy. It examines the way that Livy draws the representation of the Italian landscape in the Second Punic War, in particular in Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps and the battles of the Trebia and Lake Trasimene.

Just in time for my paper next week comes an excellent overview of Hannibal and his career by Melvyn Bragg who does the “In Our Time” program on BBC4. It’s a program I can’t recommend highly enough: it’s always eclectic and interesting. This program won’t be contain any new information to most Classicists, especially Romanists or anyone who has read Polybius or Livy’s third decade, but it’s well worth the entertaining 43 minutes for a good overview of the Carthaginian general for the layman or anyone needing a refresher. There’s a bit at the end about his reception in the modern world too.

In our Time – Hannibal

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and achievements of Hannibal. One of the most celebrated military leaders in history, Hannibal was the Carthaginian general who led an entire army, complete with elephants, across the Alps in order to attack the Roman Republic. He lived at a time of prolonged hostility between the two great Mediterranean powers, Rome and Carthage, and was the Carthaginians’ inspirational leader during the Second Punic War which unfolded between 218 and 202 BC. His career ended in defeat and exile, but he achieved such fame that even his enemies the Romans erected statues of him. Centuries later his tactical genius was admired and studied by generals including Napoleon and Wellington.

With: Ellen O’Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol; Mark Woolmer, Senior Tutor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham; Louis Rawlings, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University.