Great Captains of Antiquity

Gabriel expands upon the groundbreaking work of B. H. Lidell-Hart's Great Captains by offering detailed portraits of six great captains of the ancient world who met the challenges of their age and shaped the future of their societies, and civilization itself, through their actions. While all were great military men, with the exception of Caesar Augustus, they were also great political leaders who, in this capacity more often than through their feats of arms, shaped their societies. All were educated men, and all possessed the quality of imaginative reasoning.

Gabriel analyzes the lives of Thutmose III of Egypt, Sargon II of Assyria, Philip II of Macedon, Hannibal of Carthage, Scipio Africanus of Republican Rome, and Caesar Augustus of Imperial Rome for the lessons contemporary leaders, particularly military leaders, can learn.

This is a short and interesting survey of the careers of some of the great captains of the ancient world. B. H. Lidell-Hart’s Great Captains Unveiled is an expansion of an earlier work Great Captains by Theodore A. Dodge. Dodge’s book examines the military leadership of Alexander, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, and Frederick. Lidell-Hart’s book adds Genghis Khan, Sabutai, Saxe, Wallenstein and James Wolfe. Gabriel’s is the more modern analysis in the form of short biographical sketches.

TB