" The title refers to a famous quote of Cato the Elder, a Roman statesman, about the threat to Rome from Carthage. The book is a case study of the rise and fall of Carthage. It is very thorough and mostly interesting. There are several nice lines in the book. One of the more interesting is that Carthage was important as an opponent to Rome and the conflictual history with Carthage forced the Roman state to mature in order to survive and thus contributed to the long period of Roman dominance under the Empire. Another line of thinking that I had not appreciated until now was the role of ideology in the wars between Carthage and Rome -- which Gods were triumphant and how did these states adapt the array of gods in an area to serve their needs. Another interesting line is the complex politics within these states. Both Rome and Carthage were far from monolithic actors and understand the politics was critical for success. Indeed, this point is made concerning Hannibal and his ineffectiveness in following up on his military triumphs. The ability of the winners in a conflict to write the official history is also clearly brought across in the narrative. Finally, Miles does a good job covering Hannibal and Scipio and brilliant tactical generals and key battles, such as Cannae, are well covered.
On its weaker side, the book seems a bit willing to digress in order to fill in detail - and lengthen the page count. Given the lack of common familiarity with ancient African, Roman, and pre-Roman history, I am sympathetic to the author's efforts to inform and provide background and the book is fairly successful at this. "
— Marks54, 1/6/2014