Good day I’m Elena, thanks to be here on Alessandro III di Macedonia – your resource for Alexander the Great and Hellenism! I’m pointing out a book that I’m interested in reading and I’ll also tell you why, given that the connection with Alexander the Great is not so immediate.
The Wars Between Greeks and Carthaginians
by Sotirios F. Drokalos
Pen & Sword, 2025
Sotirios Drokalos explores the epic and often overlooked conflicts between the Greeks and Carthaginians in the Western Mediterranean.
Before the rise of Rome, the Greeks and Carthaginians were, for centuries, the two most powerful nations of the Western Mediterranean. From the Pillars of Hercules to Sicily and Cyrenaica, the Greeks and the Carthaginians founded cities, created trade routes, interacted with each other as competitors and collaborators, and often went to war. However, the long conflict between the Western Greeks and the Carthaginians has been neglected by modern historians, even though the wars between them are definitely among the greatest, longest, and most dramatic clashes of great powers in history when it comes to the historical breadth and the forces involved. Sotirios Drokalos gives these epic events the attention they deserve.
The competition and conflicts between Greeks and Phoenicians in the West began by the time of the first colonizations during the eighth century BCE and the development of the cultural and economic activity of the two cultures. They intensified after the Greek colonies’ consolidation and Carthage’s rise as the most significant Phoenician city and a commercial empire during the sixth century BCE. Especially from the beginning of the fifth century BCE and for the next roughly 200 years, the Western Mediterranean was the field of a ruthless bipolar confrontation between the Greeks of the West and the Carthaginians, marked by the actions of remarkable personalities of the ancient world. This historical clash, apart from the vast and bloody battles, the invasions of one side by the other, the sieges and the mass slaughters, also included elements of cultural interaction and exchange, consisting essentially of a practical test of constitutions, social systems, and political views. Under this prism, studying that tumultuous era could be necessary today to better understand Mediterranean and European historical evolution.
Sotirios F. Drokalos holds MAs in International Relations, Military History, and International Anti-terrorism from the University of Bologna and the Niccolò Cusano University of Rome. He is the author of several books and articles published in Italian, Greek, and English, including contributions to the British Journal for Military History.
HARDBACK
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Pages: 192
Illustrations: 16 mono illustrations
ISBN: 9781036116408
Published: 28th February 2025
£ 22.00 – 27,59 €
Sotirios posted a post on Facebook that convinced me to read the book because he wrote: “This book, the first in English devoted exclusively to the conflicts between Greeks and Carthaginians, is both a work of ancient Greek history and a contribution to the history of Italy. The protagonists are the Greeks of the West: from Syracuse and Agrigento to Taranto and Cumae, to the lesser-known settlements of the North, such as Adria, near modern-day Venice, and the Greek quarters in Etruria.
The interactions and conflicts between Western Greeks and Carthaginians, the heart of the book, deserve to be considered an integral part of the history of Italy, alongside the more famous wars between Rome and Carthage. From the legendary era of Greek and Phoenician colonization of the Mediterranean to the great battle of Himera, the Carthaginian invasions of Sicily, the advent of Dionysius I of Syracuse, Timoleon, the Syracusan invasion of North Africa, and the campaigns of Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily, just before the advent of Rome. A particularly notable chapter explores the cultural and political triangle between Rome, the Western Greeks, and Hannibal during the Punic Wars. Additionally, I am excited to share my interpretation of the possible Aristotelian plans that Alexander the Great may have had for Rome, Italy, and Carthage.” The bold is mine and I’m very curious to read that part, hoping it’s a bit long because is an aspect of Alexander that I want to explore further (but is there an aspect of Alexander the Great that I don’t want to explore further? By now you know me well enough!).
Alessandro III di Macedonia 