Release date is 2026-01-14

Tim Lindell, David King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

"A greater than Napoleon" by Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart is a historical biography and military study written in the early 20th century. It reassesses Scipio Africanus as a master of strategy and leadership, arguing that his blend of political, economic, and moral calculation makes him more “modern” and instructive than any other commander. Drawing on Polybius and Livy, it traces Scipio’s rise, campaigns, and statecraft to show how psychological insight, surprise, and disciplined exploitation won Rome a world empire.

The opening of this study sets out Liddell Hart’s case against the glamor of “heroic failure,” contending that historians have unfairly exalted Hannibal over Scipio despite the clear testimony of Polybius. It then sketches Scipio’s scarce-recorded youth, his rescue of his father at the Ticinus, his firm action after Cannae, and his early cultivation of a sacred aura as a tool of morale. The narrative shifts to Spain, where at twenty-four he takes command, seizes Cartagena by a meticulously prepared surprise—fixing the defenders frontally while wading a tidal lagoon to scale the walls—and couples ruthlessness in the storm with humane, politic clemency afterward. He defeats Hasdrubal at Bæcula by flanking a strong plateau, refuses the title of “king,” and begins shaping Numidian alliances; then at Ilipa he crafts a classic victory through early deployment, hungry opponents, a reversed order of battle, and a double oblique that smashes both wings and drives the enemy into ruin. Between battles he courts African power-brokers, personally securing Syphax, and consolidates Spain with swift punishment for treacherous cities. When illness sparks Iberian revolts and a Roman mutiny, he coolly restores order—drawing the mutineers to Cartagena, isolating the ringleaders for execution, paying the rest, and reasserting discipline—before moving to outmaneuver the rebel Spaniards with bait, ambush, and a wide turning movement by Lælius. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1926