Today’s book is The Punic Wars by Adrian Goldsworthy. It is a history of the three wars between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. It is very good and worth the read if you are interested in Roman history.
The excerpt is from page 166 and it is, perhaps, the best known episode in the struggle between the two ancient superpowers.
The army suffered badly from the elements during the delay imposed by this obstacle, forced as they were to camp on the bare mountain sides. All were weary and weak by the time they moved down into the lower valleys, where the snow had not yet settled and there was grass for the animals. Three days after clearing the landslide, the army reached the flatter country. Polybius tells us that the army took fifteen days to cross the Alps, but it is not certain if this includes the entire journey or only the passage of the last, highest pass. It may be that three to four weeks elapsed between the beginning of the ascent in the territory of the Allobroges and the arrival on the plain to the south of the mountains. The entire march from New Carthage had taken five months. It had been an epic journey, leading in ancient minds to an obvious comparison with the hero and demigod Herakles, who had also crossed the Alps in the mythical past. Not for the first or last time, Hannibal had done what the Romans had not expected or believed impossible. It now remained to [be] seen what his invading army could achieve now that it had reached its destination.
Add your own baseball context to this excerpt.
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