Carthaginian Warrior 264-146 BC [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Thankfully, a relative wealth of knowledge about Rome and its armies has come down to us today. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Carthage and its military. It is no surprise, therefore, that textbooks about Carthaginian soldiers are as rare as hen's teeth. There simply isn't much information to be had. Frustrating, but there it is.

In my opinion, this new volume from Osprey does well in laying out what is known in a presentable, understandable way. We are told the reasons for Carthage's armies being made up primarily of levies or mercenaries rather than citizens. The areas from which the soldiers came. Their weapons, equipment food and pay. What made a man become a mercenary, and what it might have been like.

As ever in Osprey books, the illustrations (by Steve Noon) are excellent. The picture on the cover, of the Spartan general Xanthippos addressing his Carthaginian troops, is particularly good. It's a shame that there weren't more! For those who are interested, there are some excellent illustrations of Carthaginian soldiers in Warfare in the Classical World, which is a top class text in itself. In my opinion, it's also necessary to read Armies of the Carthaginian Wars.

My only gripe with this volume was that it felt frustrating reading about Carthaginian soldiers under the various heading of weapons, equipment etc. rather than giving each class of soldier their own section which would have described everything about that particular type of warrior.

Ben Kane, author of The Forgotten Legion.

I've never read a book from Dr. Nic Fields that I didn't liked. He always has interesting points of view, clear analyses, excellent pictures of artifacts and modern reconstructions and naturally this "Carthaginian Warrior" have all those qualities. But in this book Dr. Fields faced an insurmountable challenge - there is almost no information on THE Carthaginian warrior...so he chose to focus on the Carthaginian army instead, and their mercenaries that composed the majority of military manpower of Carthage.

So this isn't like most other warrior titles that focus on a "warrior" class or type. Just for example, in the roman army there are books for the Roman legionary, late roman infantryman, Roman Cavalryman, Auxiliary soldier...there is no Roman Warrior with everything compacted, it focus on each individually. Another example, there is no Irish medieval warrior...but there are Galloglass (and hopefully in the future, maybe Kern and cavalryman).

So this book details the Carthaginian army as a whole and the reader gets a clear picture of the changes in the military through the history of the City, specially the focus change from militia to mercenaries after serious debacles against Greeks.
Interesting as this book is, most information applies to all who used Celts, Iberian, Balearic or Greek mercenaries - very few sources supplied on those warriors are specific to the Carthaginian army, and if you read the other Osprey books you probably already know much that it's written in this work. The same happens with nutrition, appearance and experience of battle, most data is quite generic and it applies as easily to Carthaginians, Greeks or Romans.

Although the author isn't naive and knows the flaws of mercenary units in questions of loyalty, he as a strong belief that mercenaries had better morale and where better prepared to face battle psychologically and physically than citizen soldiers. I believe that the actual experience of each soldier and unit is what really matters, not mattering that he is a "professional" or "amateur". For example, a roman legionary is a citizen soldier, but usually hardened by labour and many campaigns...probably much more than most mercenaries employed by the Carthaginians! And unless really well led, by Xanthipus or Hannibal for example, Carthaginian were usually trashed in combat against Romans. Citizens beating easily mercs - contradicts the authors point. Obviously a mercenary probably has more chances to be involved in conflict then most citizens, but that's not exactly true to many societies in which most male members are also warriors (there are no relevant differences in fighting skill IMHO from a mercenary gaul who fights for Carthage in Africa, and a "citizen-soldier" Gaul that fights his neighbors, Germans and Romans). Also related to Mercenaries discipline, I believe that Greek mercs were really disciplined and unit trained, I don't believe the same applied to Iberian or Gaulish Mercs - so the point of better discipline shouldn't be related to mercenaries as a whole.

Another side-issue: in page 56 Dr. Fields shows pictures of beautiful Spanish swords identifying one as a Kopis and the other as a Falcata; but the one identified as a Kopis is a Falcata (I'm aware that falcata is a "modern" term; again the Machaira/Kopis/Falcata issue). You can see the artifact in the Museo Arqueologico Nacional in Madrid, or if you can't visit it see their online catalog - They're both in the permanent exhibit and both are classified as Falcata. If you read Spanish or Portuguese please consider the book of one of the leading experts in Iberian Weapons "Armas de la Antigua Iberia - De Tartessos a Numancia" from Prof Fernando Quesada Sanz.

Very good book, but I can't finish this review without humbling myself before the fabulous Steve Noon and his color plates. They are the very best quality I've seen - Mr. Noon, I'm waiting for an art book. The realism, the lighting, the well imagined and dramatic scenes and events, the emotions in the faces of the depicted men! Just great!!! My favorites are "The mutineers make demands, Libyan War 240 bc", "Xantiphus addresses the troops, 255bc Tunis", "Street Fighting, Carthage 146 bc". Thank you for the art (also thanks to Dr. Nic Fields that probably helped with the choice of the events and gave information about appearance, weapons and armour).

Highly recommended.

I rated this book at three stars due to its mediocrity. I have found that you really must purchase all three books concerning Carthage and the Carthaginian warriors to obtain a decent overview of the Carthaginian Army. None of them deal deeply into history before the Romans came onto the scene. Everything dealing with the Punic Wars is well documented in a 'he went here and did this, then rested' type of way. However, I do recommend purchase of this book for any indepth studies.