The Punic Wars have been called the ancient equivalent to the twentieth century’s World Wars. They both involved great super powers of their time with enormous amount of soldiers fighting in epic battles like Cannae and Normandy. Both wars had their fair share of famous and infamous individuals who helped create a dramatic story like Hannibal and Scipio and Patton and Rommel. The Punic Wars and World Wars took place in Western Europe and North Africa and both effectively shaped the course of history in those regions as we know it. A very important aspect that is similar between the World Wars and the Punic Wars is that it involved a competition between ideas and philosophies. The prior were experimental concrete ideologies on governing while…show more content… Since Goldsworthy is a military historian and the book’s title is Adrian Goldsworthy. The Punic Wars. (London: Cassel, 2000), he devotes much of the book to analyzing key battles and decisions made that tie together with his thesis on differing philosophies of warfare. Besides his book on the Punic Wars, Goldsworthy has written several other ancient history books all of which are on Roman history. His latest books, Adrian Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra. (London: Yale University Press, 2010) and Adrian Goldsworthy. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. (London: Yale University Press, 2014) both would be considered more for entertainment purposes than for academic research. His earlier books, however, seem to be very much more academically driven like his first book, Adrian Goldsworthy. The Roman Army at War, 100 BC-AD 200. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996). What he chooses to write about is half academic and half entertainment with and Adrian Goldsworthy. The Punic Wars. (London: Cassel, 2000) seems to be a mixture of the two. He utilizes what is available to him for primary sources, especially Livy and Polybius, as well as a substantial amount of secondary sources and attempts to fill in the gaps with his own educated guesses and speculations when sources do not agree on the specifics. He also has a concrete thesis that he constantly goes back to. He also delves into the entertaining intrigue and drama that lay readers would