"Rome, on the other hand, lost—suffering on that one day more battle deaths than the United States during the entire course of the war in Vietnam, suffering more dead soldiers than any other army on any single day of combat in the entire course of Western military history." (Chapter 1, The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. p. 4).

A"nd the talisman of all of this change was one lucky survivor, a young military tribune named Publius Cornelius Scipio,* known to history as Africanus." (Chapter 1, The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. p. 4).

"Mark Twain seemed to have gotten it about right when he concluded that although history doesn't repeat itself, it does sometimes rhyme." (Chapter 1, The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic. p. 12).

"More to the point, perhaps...