Ship Of Rome By John Stack Analysis

Historical fictions are generally criticized for prioritizing telling a fictional story over historical accuracy, however Ship of Rome, by John Stack, almost perfectly balances living up to the source material and telling a compelling story. Readers are often left wondering what really happened and what was a product of the author’s imagination. The fictional elements that are put in the story to make the book more dramatic are: the motives of the Carthaginians, the state of Roman leadership at the time, and who was really the underdog in the war. First, the motives of the Carthaginians to attack Rome, in the book, are they are power hungry and wanting to become the world’s superpower, which was a title held by Rome. However, the true

While in the novel, Carthage is presented as a nation that is always one step ahead. It is also said that Rome suffers defeats in many of the opening battles and there were many smaller civilizations joining Carthage in the hopes of defeating Rome. However, it is contradictory to what truly happened, Rome was already a dominant power by the time the Punic Wars started, as stated by the article title Punic Wars by the History.com staff. The Romans won the opening battles of the First Punic War very brutally. Cities such as Segesta had joined the Roman making the war even more one sided. The Carthaginians would eventually get back on even ground with the Romans and win many battles of their own, although, through large parts of the war, the two nations were at a stalemate. The book however treats Rome as a nation fighting an uphill battle. The protagonist, Atticus a Roman soldier says when discussing the Romans, “they lacked the skills necessary for boarding so could not carry the fight to a deck on an enemy galley” (Stack, 187). This is also a false statement because the Romans, despite not having a strong a navy as the Carthaginians, had a very strong navy. The reputation of Rome is one of the more important aspects of the war because it is the reason they are in this war to begin with. It was because of Rome’s reputation of conquering land dominantly, Carthage chose to fight. However, the navy is the field Carthage was relying on to win the war and the sea is where most battle are fought during the war. Portraying the Romans as weak and inexperienced undermines all of Carthage’s grievances against the empire. Had Rome been that way in reality, the Punic Wars most likely would have never taken