Hannibal's Wake

The sun beat down on Hasdrubal Barca, making him squint as the cotton under his armor clung to his skin in the humid air. For a while he sat quietly on his mount as he surveyed the gathered Roman army that lay south of his own. There had been five days of skirmishes between his army and that of Gnaeus and Publius Scipio each testing for any weaknesses in their tactics and soldiers, both groups hoping in vain for an easy victory. But neither side had yielded and so here they were, preparing for a clash on a field just south of the Ebro River. Hasdrubal knew he needed to gain a decisive victory to prevent the further harassment of his allies in the town of Ibera and the fall of Hispania. If he lost this battle, the Scipio forces would have a nearly unopposed march into the rest of the peninsula and more Punic forces would be needed to retake Hispania, depriving Hannibal of vital reinforcements in the Italian peninsula. Worse, Carthage grew weary of another war with Rome to satisfy what some in the Hundred and Four called “a blood feud started by Hamilcar” and would most likely use this failure as a chance to weaken Hannibal’s command over the Punic army. Scipio the Elder and Publius Cornelius Scipio were formidable presences on the battlefield but here he hoped he’d be able to prevail against them. With a quick word to his commanders, and a general shout from his soldiers, the army from Carthage engaged their foe. As the battle began, he wasted little time in deploying the double envelopment technique. The Romans drove the Iberian infantry back but were unwittingly flanked by the Punic elephants, but unlike Hannibal’s experience, the Roman and Italian horsemen held firm, battered though they were. As the battle raged on, the Carthaginian cavalry fully engaged with the Roman and Italian horsemen, both sides giving into a mad urge to kill the other. Hasdrubal wheeled around on his horse cutting down man after man, while still hoping that the envelopment strategy would work, desperately scanning the Roman line for weakness. There! A number of Roman cavalry men had gotten too close to a bloodstained elephant and their horses panicked in fright, weakening the line that had thus held firm against the Punic onslaught. Combined with the earlier losses inflicted by Barca’s forces, the line crumbled, leading to a general slaughter of the Roman force trapped by the Carthaginians. Recognizing the battle as lost, Gnaeus and Publius Scipio gathered their remaining forces and fled the battlefield. And for the first time that day as Hasdrubal’s cavalry rode in pursuit of the Romans, he smiled.


Unlike the Carthaginian defeat at Dertosa that occurred IOTL, a better performance of Punic cavalry led to a decisive victory against the Romans for Hasdrubal Barca. Momentarily giving up the idea of engaging the Carthaginians in Iberia, the Scipios took the remainder of their army and headed back to the Italian peninsula to support the Roman armies against the armies of Hannibal and Hanno the Elder. Instead of only two Punic armies in the Italian peninsula, there were now four commanded by Hannibal Barca, Hasdrubal Barca, Mago Barca, and Hanno the Elder. With reinforcements from Mago and Hasdrubal, Hannibal successfully sieged and took the city of Nola in 214 BCE. Several more city-states on the Peninsula decided to ally with Hannibal after the Battle of Nola.

With the might of almost all of southern Italy at his disposal, Hannibal now contended with the legendary Roman legions harassing him whenever he turned to face another region of the Italian Peninsula. However, with four armies at his command instead of the one he had IOTL, he managed to inflict several crushing defeats on them. Having been rebuffed when he came to Rome to talk peace terms, Hannibal had a new goal: to capture Rome itself and make the Romans see that their cause was lost. Hannibal suffered a devastating blow when the Scipios in charge of an extremely large legionary force managed to crush the forces led by Mago Barca and kill Mago at the Battle of Latina in June 212 BCE while sustaining heavy losses of their own. After Latina, a stalemate developed a few miles east of Latina and continued throughout the summer. During this time, Hannibal appealed to Carthage to send more troops so he might break the stalemate and more quickly secure victory. However, the anti-Barca factions of Carthage worked to reduce the number of troops that were sent, saying “Hamilcar’s sons began this war, now let them end it.” Only 3000 Libyan spearmen, 2000 Numidian cavalry and 12 elephants were sent, a fraction of the forces Hannibal needed. In desperate need of greater manpower, Hannibal sent Hasdrubal to Ptolemaic Egypt in July 212 to hire mercenaries that would fight in his war. Hasdrubal hired a total of 10,000 infantry and 1,680 cavalry composed almost entirely of native Egyptians and returned in early August. In September 212 BCE, Hannibal ambushed the Scipios a few miles from Latina and managed to win a decisive victory against their forces, killing most of the men along with both Scipio the Elder and Publius Cornelius Scipio.

With Latina conquered, near the end of September 212 BCE, Hannibal was eager to end the war and began a rapid march to Rome to lay siege to the city but was met with a large force of 25,000, mainly the dregs of Roman soldier commanded by Scipio the Younger and Gnaeus Fulvius. The seasoned Carthaginians and fresh mercenaries made short work of them and continued their famed March to Rome. Rome was in a panic not seen since Hannibal took Cannae as the Senate desperately raised a combined force of free men and slaves to face Hannibal. But farmers, city-dwellers, and slaves posed little challenge to the armies of the Lion’s Brood and the army was crushed in a bloodstained grove with many made prisoner. And so late in 212 BCE, Hannibal started to siege Rome while the Senate debated whether to sue for peace. Hannibal had repeatedly stressed through peace envoys that Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica would be returned to Carthage and Rome would be mostly confined to the Italian Peninsula. Generous terms one might say, but the Senate greeted the prospect of submission to Carthage as nothing less than choosing bondage. As one senator said, “Should Hannibal should breach our gates, all the people of Rome will be made slaves of Carthage.” While the siege was in place, Carthage sent an additional 4,000 infantry with supplies to aid Hannibal in his siege. The Romans mustered another force of 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry to force the Carthaginians out.

The Battle for Rome in December 212 was a bitter one but ended in the utter defeat and merciless slaughter of the Roman force. After the battle, the Senate once more debated whether to raise yet another force to fight the Carthaginians. As Cato the Elder began an impassioned speech for Rome to fight until “Hannibal is forced to march his men through the streets of Hell”, a grief stricken Scipio the Younger without a word wrenched him down from the platform, ending his speech and any more discussion about fighting Carthage. And so in December, the Roman Senate sued for peace. Hannibal consulted with the Carthaginian government to determine the terms of Roman surrender. The terms were thus: Rome would return Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica to Carthage and pay a war fine, thus acknowleding the supremacy of Carthage in the western Mediterranean.

An existential threat had been vanquished but Carthage still had its allies to placate. Carthage had never possessed a large standing army and had made extensive use of mercenaries to fill its ranks and promised riches to several Barbary kingdoms to prevent them from throwing their lot in with Rome. Now it was time to produce the gold they had promised or face uprisings in Hispania and Numidia outside of their core territory that would endanger the city Hannibal had struggled to defend. And so Carthage turned to the lands just south of the Great Desert. Trade between North and West Africa through Berber nomads had gone on for some time now and Carthage was well versed in the tale of the fields of gold of Jenne Jeno. With new trading opportunities available already known to Carthage from Berber nomads and the introduction of camels into the Maghreb through Ptolemaic Egypt from Persia, a few diplomats and merchants made the journey to Jenne Jeno in the fall of 210 BCE. And so the ancient trade of salt for gold across the Great Desert reached new volumes with far reaching consequences for those involved.

The Ptolemaic dynasty was never truly accepted by the native Egyptians, the occasional small-scale riots and rebellions sparked by native frustration were a constant reminder of this. At best, the Greek dynasty was tolerated in the same vein as other foreign dynasties had been in the past. And perhaps the Ptolemaic reign would have continued, but the events of the last quarter of the third century set the Egypt on a chaotic trajectory. And while many thought the Revolt of 217 BCE that took place just after the Fourth Syrian War was the last demonstration of native resistance, it was in truth a prelude to a much larger and violent civil war.

To truly understand the course and causes of The Great Egyptian Revolt, it’s necessary to examine the society and history of Ptolemaic Egypt. Ptolemaic Egypt was established in 305 BCE when Ptolemy Soter I, a general of Alexander the Great, declared himself pharaoh of Egypt following the death of Alexander and the subsequent dissolution of his empire. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the native aristocracy was deposed and Greek settlers became the new upper class. Egyptians were largely excluded from government positions and the army, only allowed to serve at low level governing post and only in the military as either auxiliaries or sailors. While the Ptolemies emulated aspects of Egyptian culture to appease the natives, the general attitude among the aristocracy was that Egyptian culture was inferior to that of their own. Greek gods were widely worshipped among the elite and the native script of Demotic gradually lost its prestige and was slowly replaced by Greek as the legal language of contracts and agreements.

Greek control of Egypt was weakened by the events of the Fourth Syrian War. From 219 – 217 BCE, Ptolemaic Egypt warred against the Seleucid Empire for control over the Levant, which while brief was financially expensive, resulting in higher taxation which heavily impacted the lives of the lower classes, where native Egyptians were disproportionately represented. Additionally, approximately 30,000 Egyptians had served in the Fourth Syrian War in the main army due to manpower needs. This was highly unusual and the military experience these soldiers gained would prove useful during the Revolt. And the final straw was the return in 211 BCE of 10,000 handsomely paid Egyptian mercenaries that had fought for Carthage in the Second Punic War. They garnered great prestige among the peasantry for they represented an earlier time when Egyptians served in the army with distinction and earned a comfortable living. Certainly, contemporary Greek historians noted the increased assertiveness of these mercenaries and their acolytes. And so this was how Egypt’s third century ended: a quagmire of ethnic, economic, and religious tensions.

The Great Egyptian Revolt began in 205 BCE when there was a general uprising against the Ptolemaic Dynasty after the events of the Fourth Syrian War. It is unknown what exactly triggered the rebellion, but once ignited it quickly consumed the entire kingdom. The influence of the Egyptian mercenaries from both the Fourth Syrian War and Second Punic War was instrumental during this time as part of the leadership of the Revolt. People flocked to the cause as the mercenaries represented a chance to return Egypt to that of one ruled by powerful natives. They also used their extensive experience to train the rebellion’s army and advise the military tactics of their self-proclaimed pharaoh of Upper Egypt, a Nubian named Hugronaphor. Operating from his base in Upper Egypt and appealing to the masses as a pharaoh of old come to drive out the oppressive Greeks, he managed to extend his reach into Lower Egypt and the delta region by 202 BCE. In response, the Ptolemies mounted an offensive that managed to push Hugronahpor back down to Memphis where the two sides stalemated for several years and built up their armies that would reunite the country. During this time Macedon and Persia capitalized on Egypt’s civil war by conquering pieces of its land. Macedon invaded Egyptian held islands within Thrace and Caria in Anatolia while Antiochus III attacked the region of Coele-Syria. In the decisive battle of Panium in 198 BCE, Egyptian forces led by Scopas of Aetolia were soundly defeated by a Persian army led by Antiochus III the Great, reducing Egyptian dominance to parts of Judea.

Hugronahpor died around 197 BCE and his possible son Ankhmakis ascended to the role of pharaoh. During the stalemate, it became popular among the peasantry to carve the name of Ankhmakis and Hugronaphor onto the stomachs of stone and clay scarabs. Acts of rebellion such as desecrating the temples of priests that collaborated with the Greek nobility and graffiti praising “the pharaoh ordained by Amon” became commonplace. Additionally, taxes had been raised to pay for the civil war which led to further discontent and riots from the common folk which threatened internal stability. Knowing that the rebels soon intended to break the ceasefire and mindful of the threat within his own borders, Ptolemy V became fearful about the prospects of defeat and begins to enact harsher measures (curfews, taxes, stricter prohibition on Egyptians being able to serve in the bureaucracy and army) on the native Egyptian population, including selling those suspected of colluding with Ankhmakis into slavery. The most important result of this was the considerable desertion of the army by native Egyptians.

Knowledgeable of the Delta population’s discontent with Ptolemy V, Ankhmakis launched a new offensive with a focus on living off the land that resulted in his forces diving deep into the delta to attack and when forced to retreat, adopting a scorched earth policy. Battle after battle raged on, depleting the strength of both sides, but the public opinion turned steadily in favor of Ankhmakis, especially when he announced payment and opportunities to those who would join his army and commit sabotage within the Delta to the Grecian army. This strategy worked and the rebellion saw more and more of Egypt submit to them. Thus in 190 BCE, the siege of Alexandria began. Here the Egyptian veterans that fought in the Battles for Rome proved themselves invaluable with their experience. They instructed Ankhmakis in how to minimize the losses of his forces while maximizing his opponents’ and how to effectively break the will of a city under siege while chipping away at their defenses. Their leader, a wiry man named Abayomi, is to have remarked in disgust, “These perfumed Greeks do not have an ounce of the fire and rage of Rome. They deserve their fate.” The city fell late in the year in 189 BCE and Ptolemy V fled along with most of his court across the Mediterranean to Macedonia. Ptolemy V was promptly executed by order of Philip V of Macedon and his court either imprisoned, married off, or scattered. So ended Egypt's Diadochi dynasty.

In 188 BCE, Ankhmakis was crowned and officially recognized as pharaoh of all of Egypt by the priests of Alexandria. He lifted the bans on Egyptians fully serving in the different branches of the military and in government positions while also granting amnesty to the Macedonian troops that fought against him in the Revolt. He rewarded those in his army regardless of ethnicity who had served with great distinction with titles of nobility taken from Greek nobles that refused to recognize his rule or had fled Egypt to Persia or Macedonia. During his reign, he encouraged a revival in using Demotic in royal records and business transactions and proclaimed a return to the days of the pharaohs.

But Egypt had changed under 117 years of heavy Hellenic rule. Both the Egyptian language and Demotic script now included Greek words and were influenced by the Greek writing system. This new writing system was known as Late Demotic. To avoid the revolt of communities with large Greek populations, Ankhmakis gave Greek, Coptic, and Late Demotic equal standing in certain urban centers. While worship of the native Egyptian pantheon was still the dominant religion, much of the Greek population continued to worship the gods of their homeland instead of Egyptian gods, due to Ptolemaic efforts to retain a distinct Greek population. There were also a substantial number of Jewish, Arab, and Greek civilians in Egypt that were largely left to continue on as they had before the civil war. Hellenic cuisine had blended with the native fare and so had the art styles of the two cultures. Finally, the Greek play remained very popular with both the peasants and nobility and the amphitheaters continued to be supported. Egyptian plays were also performed in these open-air theaters and eventually borrowed aspects of Hellenic plays in their own routines while more traditional religious Egyptian performances were done by priests outside of Egyptian temples. Ankhmakis later took a half Egyptian-Ptolemaic wife named Cleopatra in 186 BCE to pacify any Ptolemaic loyalists and presided over an Egypt that now blended a predominant Egyptian culture with strong Greek influences.

The trip to Jenne was a success and Carthage’s need and desire for gold, along with the introduction of the camel, quickly fueled the rise of an expanded Aai Merewan* trade with the inhabitants of West Africa south of the Great Desert. Due to their strategic location along the Niger River, the Mandinka people were the greatest beneficiaries of this trade and local chieftaincies grew larger in response to the increased trade. During this time, there appears to have been little direct contact made between Carthage and the various Soninke and Mande polities as they grow in size and power. Carthage gained dyewoods, kola nuts, gold, ivory, and slaves whereas the West Africans gained beads, cloth, iron tools, and most vital of all, salt. This gold enabled Carthage to repay the tens of thousands of mercenaries it had hired and ensured its stability by avoiding a debilitating retread of the Mercenary War. In Carthage, Hannibal, along with the rest of his brothers were regarded as national heroes, lionized as a military genius who had ensured the continued existence and supremacy of Carthage in the western Mediterranean. In 208 BCE, Hannibal was still only 33 and while he what he had accomplished would have been the crowning achievements of other men, he was not yet satisfied with what he had done. He left behind the military and pursued a career in politics, running for and easily being elected as one of the two suffetes of Carthage. During his time in office, he enacted reforms upon the government body that judged the military and generals of Carthage, the Hundred and Four. Shrewdly leveraging his massive popular support, he opened up elections of the Council to direct voting and also limited the term of office from life to that of two years. He, along with Hasdrubal Barca and Gisco were immensely popular with both the common people and the military. Later on while he was in office, he married a woman named Sisa and had three boys and two girls with her.

In 150 BCE, a son named Kebba was born to the chief of the Mandinka state, Jenne. Starting in 130 BCE, Kebba expanded the borders of Jenne to the north and east to better control the Aai Merewan trade routes. The introduction of the dromedary camel and horse to North and West Africa revolutionized the trade and Sahelian states. The dromedary was better adapted to the arid heat of the Great Desert than the bactrian camel was and enabled far more regular and intensive contact between the different Sahel states and Carthage, and as a result, trade with the Sahel came to be a larger part of Carthage’s income and more importantly, gold supply. The horse revolutionized warfare, allowing the quicker movement of armies and aiding states in maintaining larger borders they previously had been able to. Although expensive to purchase and maintain, the horse gave the Sahel states an undeniable military advantage over the people in the tsetse belt, allowing them to occasionally raid for slaves for both foreign sale and domestic use. State formation and greater ease of transportation prompted greater political unity and the beginnings of a common Mande culture dominated by that of the Mandinka people began to spread among the Niger River. The Niger River was critical for transportation and easy efficient access to the forest region of West Africa and so the Sahel states competed with each other for control over the river. However, during these early years, the Sahel states stayed mostly confined to the region bounded by the Aai Merew and its tribes to the north and the tsetse fly belt to the south.

By the end of his conquests in 123 BCE, Kebba had enlarged Jenne’s borders twofold. He then devoted his time and energy to the task of governing, using the oral traditions that all chiefs utilized. But Kebba had always had a more outward looking mind than others; it was what drove him to expand Jenne to control more of the trade across the Great Desert and it was that same mind that led to his curiosity and interest in the Punic writings which he would discuss with the most prominent Carthaginian merchants that would traverse through his chiefdom. Realizing the potential that the Carthaginian script had for aiding the governing of his newly expanded chiefdom, he imported Punic literature in the form of scientific, historical, and business transaction texts. In 120 BCE, he also sponsored several Punic merchants to live in Jenne while they taught him, his family, and his jalis (griots) how to read and write in the Punic script. This is known because one of the merchants, a man named Abibaal, kept a journal of the nearly three years he and ten other men spent among a people he called the “Mndnk”, a black skinned race that lived next to a very large river in the “land of Jnn”. Once the jalis knew how to reproduce the script, they would then use the letters to aid their administration and would teach their descendants how to read and write as well. Because of Kebba’s actions, a modified Punic script gradually spread throughout Jenne and later to the savannah and forest expanses of West Africa in the following centuries.

The Sahel trade also affected its surrounding regions. The demand for exotic goods such as palm oil, kola nuts, ivory, leopard skins, and slaves prompted the regular gathering and collaboration of large groups in order to satisfy the quantity of goods demanded. Leaders emerged that dealt with the foreign merchants and directed the work and organization of their people to balance between producing luxury goods and agriculture needed to support the community. Trade routes that had been used for millennia were expanded, branched, and strengthened between the desert, Sahel, savannah, and forest regions and prompted the rise of small states originating from the political institutions in place among the Africans. The Asante, Yoruba, Fon and more formed loosely organized polities at this time though their populations remained quite low. Minimal Sahel influence was found here during this time due to the differences in climate and was mostly manifested in prominent members of the community being buried with foreign goods and murals and sculptures depicting horses and camels.


*I decided that the name for the Sahara would be Aai Mewer which is Egyptian for "Great Desert". "Sahara" is an Arabic term which wouldn't make sense since due to the timeline's butterflies.

In 185 BCE, Ankhmakis and Seleucus IV Philopator signed the Judean Treaty that stated Egypt and Persia would respect their current holdings and to no longer war against each other. As the new pharaoh is recorded to have said in private, “I have no interest in a rotting Greek’s dead empire.” His interests were directed inward, specifically on making Egypt impervious to foreign domination. To accomplish this he maintained a relatively large standing army and navy and fortified the Sinai Peninsula, dotting it with forts at critical choke points, especially the entrance to the delta, the verdant heart of Egypt. While the army was large relative to the size of Egypt’s population, widespread use of Ptolemaic watermills, better irrigation practices, and consistent good Nile floods made Ankhmakis’ policies feasible.

When Egypt and Seleucid Persia agreed to respect their holdings in the Levant, there was a certain tension between the two empires. Both suspected the either of one day breaking the peace to reconquer lost land but the treaty did introduce a new dynamic to the eastern Mediterranean. Both sides were initially skeptical that the peace would hold but Ankhamis’ actions of inward reformation dispelled the worst of Persia’s fears. With the Levant border secured, the Seleucids turned westward and starting in 172 BCE, waged a series of campaigns against Macedon, weakening their position in Asia Minor and using diplomacy and force to spread Persian influence in the peninsula. By 165 BCE, the Seleucids controlled the entire southern coast of Asia Minor and Macedon clung only to the western coast of the peninsula. Encouraged by their success against the Macedonians in Asia Minor, the Seleucids prepared for the next assault to drive them from the peninsula and eventually conquer the Grecian homeland. In time, Antiochus IV planned to invade the Nile Valley to reunite Alexander’s empire and then perhaps extend it past its original bounds further down the Nile to bring the land of Kush under his sway. During this time, the Persians feared a counterattack by the Macedonians or perhaps eventual war with a resurgent Roman Republic or Egyptian Empire, but discord came from the east. Taking advantage of the Seleucid’s concentration of forces in its west and preoccupation with defeating the Macedonians, Mithridates I enlarged the borders of Parthia to the east, south and west from 163 to 148 BCE, conquering the region of Mesopotamia. Losing such a densely populated and productive region would prove to be a fatal blow to the Seleucid dynasty, though it would be several more decades before this became apparent and over a century before their end came.

To secure Egypt’s Levant territories, Egyptians were encouraged to immigrate to the area to hopefully eventually constitute a large section of the local population. To the Jews of the Levant, the migration of the Egyptians and the erection of their temples in Judea looked to some to be a near reversal of the covenant between them and Yahweh. This had the effect of causing Judaism to simultaneously gain more extremist and more pagan elements to it as people searched for answers on how to reverse this invasion. Thus the Levant became one of the greatest mosaics in the Mediterranean world, with Jews, Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians all interacting and exchanging ideas on philosophy, technology, and most far reaching, religions. In 150 BCE, Ankhmakis’ successor decided to mount an offensive against Meroe with the hope of acquiring strategic depth and securing its natural resources of timber. The conquest was a failure, partially due to generals underestimating the forces needed to subdue Meroe and partially due to the famed skill of the Nubian archers.

By 120 BCE, Carthage was the undisputed master of the Western Mediterranean. Trade with the Sahel was immensely profitable and gold, and to a lesser extent slaves, flowed into the city-state and its surrounding territory. Though Carthage rarely attempted to integrate the surrounding people into its empire, it was able to buy their loyalty with their wealth, giving them considerable influence over the locality in Hispania and the Libyan chiefs. With the gold from the trans-Saharan trade, Carthage was able to routinely pacify the Numidian Berbers and maintain a larger mercenary Berber presence in their cavalry. Over time, the Berber people had managed to unify into two loosely organized kingdoms that were intent on expanding in the Atlas Mountains: the eastern kingdom of Massylii, which was loosely allied with Carthage and the western state of Masaesyli, which was nominally so. Though they shared significant ancestry with the people of Carthage, both Carthage and Massylii and Masaeslyi regarded the other as more stranger than kinsman, due to the Phoenician roots that so influenced Carthaginian society. Because of this, though the two Barbary kingdoms would war against each other, there was a great sense of kinship between the two states that would later trouble the Punics to no end. Carthage could not easily expand into the interior of the mountains due to the Berber presence and while relations were currently warm, that was due more to Sahelian gold as than the renewed diplomatic overtures by Carthage. As was discovered during the aftermath of the Mercenary War and the Second Punic War, the Berbers were more than willing to turn on Carthage if its position seemed weak. Always looking to for new trading opportunities, the Carthaginians focused on expanding abroad by turning the Western Mediterranean into a Punic lake.

Intrepid diplomats and merchants established alliances with the local Gauls of the region and established trading towns on the southern coast. During this time, after initial hostilities, the Greek town of Massilia became a vassal of Carthage and was obligated to serve as a port for Punic ships that were used for general transportation of people, goods and war supplies. In later years, it would become a fortified military base to serve as a bulwark against Romans and any hostile Gauls and Germanics looking to plunder the riches of the Mediterranean. By 80 BCE, Carthage solidly controlled the coastal region of the Atlas Mountains, nearly the whole of Iberia and the entire southern coast of Gaul as well as the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. As the trade with the Mandinka polities expanded, Carthage grew wealthier and Egypt saw a potential ally in Carthage. Carthage was interested in keeping the Mediterranean, especially the section west of Sicily out of Greek domination and Egypt was intent on remaining independent from Persia.

At the same time Egypt was observing the expansion of Carthage in the west and the Seleucids in the east with increased trepidation. Persia’s actions against the Macedonian empire stoked fears of an ambitious Persian campaign to conquer Egypt and thus unite the rest of Alexander’s empire. And while Carthage and Persia had little history of cooperation, the pharaoh Merenre (158 - 90 BCE) was primarily concerned with the increased indirect limiting of Egypt’s sphere of influence and eventual encirclement. Egypt saw a perfect opportunity to destabilize Persia through the Parthians. They covertly supplied the fledging empire with powerful weapons and taught Parthian forces battle formations proven to be effective against Seleucid forces to ensure Persia was too preoccupied with fighting draining wars against the Parthians to consider invading Egypt. To counter against greater Punic financial influence against its eastern borders, Egypt increased its own ties with the Libyan chiefs that controlled the most powerful cities through nobility intermarriage and periodic military expeditions to what they called the “desolate coast” to aid allies in order to reinforce its bonds and power in the region. While Egypt later formed a pact of mutual defense with Carthage against Persia, it began to build up its own navy and reinforced its military base located just south of the city of Abiad, formerly known as Balagrae in the province of Cyrenaica. For its part, Carthage was far more preoccupied with establishing and maintaining its trade network that connected the Mediterranean Sea with the Niger River. There was also the matter of the water-mining Garamante civilization that also served as middlemen, carrying the goods of the Niger to the Nile Valley.

The mixture of religions in the cultural mosaic of the Levant caused many “hybrid” religions to spring up that combined Judaism with the polytheism of the Greeks or Egyptians. A notable individual influenced by these cults was a simple man born to a typical Jewish family. Around 10 BCE, a Jewish carpenter named Meir began to preach a new faith. Central to his belief was the idea that there were two supreme gods, not one. After a short stint in Judea, he gathered a modest following and traveled to Avaris, Egypt to continue spreading his faith.