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It really did feel like I was reading Polybius. This isn't just a manga, it's a full-on illustrated narrative history of the Second Punic War (itself perhaps the greatest epic of Rome, at the very least a story up there with those of Caesar and Atilla) combining beautiful art with an impressive level of attention to detail and more than one quote taken straight from antiquity.

I do quibble with Archimedes' treatment - he's merged with another figure in a way which is not justified by the sources, and while it fit the whole scheming geniuses aspect of the story I don't think it was flattering ... to that great Syracusean patriot. The rest, from the crossing of the Alps to Zama, is simply outstanding - two great minds constantly scheming against one another, an existential war that gripped the whole of the Western Mediterranean, battle scenes and elephants galore. If you at all like the period - or just historical epics in general - you won't be disappointed.