I'm reading The Story of Mankind, which won the Newberry children's book award in 1922. Though it is Euro- and Judeo-Christian-centric, it is also quite progressive-minded. It is doubtful whether a contemporary child can enjoy or even get through this 500+ page tome.
I'm currently at the part about Carthage versus Rome. Here is a map of what the Tunisia-based empire controlled in the 3rd century B.C.
Its most famous son is Hannibal. The next time you're at a cocktail party or BBQ with your nerdy friends, you can share some of the trivia you learned from this clip about the Alps-crossing war elephants.
Finally, I just learned that I had been mistaken for years. The Range Rover HSE does not stand for Hannibal Special Edition. As far as I can tell, it's not short for anything.
The Romans also figured out that the sight/smell of horseblood would spook the elephants. Prior to the beginning of the later battles, the Romans would slaughter a horse. The elephants near that would either retreat or go berserk away from the Roman line.
ReplyDelete@MattC: Nerd.
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