Alexander invades Italy and Carthage?

So, I was doing some research, and I accidentally came across something that peaked my interest. Apparently before Alexander died, he was building a fleet and planning on invading Italy and Carthage!

Is this correct? and if so, could he have pulled it off?
 
Yes. He was. I imagine if he wants support against Carthage and Rome, he would need the support of the local Greek city states in southern Italy and Sicily. Most notably, Taras and Syracuse.
 
Wasn't that just Roman propaganda? Western Mediterranean in that era doesn't seems to be something that Alexander would consider worthy of conquest.
 
Wasn't that just Roman propaganda?

That could be weird...why the Romans want to antagonize Alex by using propaganda that he want to invade their own land? Most, if not all, of the Romans admired him...including Pompey, Caesar, Augustus, and many other Roman emperors and generals...

Western Mediterranean in that era doesn't seems to be something that Alexander would consider worthy of conquest.

Another military glory maybe? It was Alex's desire to conquer the known world, afterall...

Back to the OP question...yes, I think he was planning the conquest of the West, starting with the invasion of kingdoms and states in southern Arabia...IIRC it was mentioned by some historians, including Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Justin...
Anyway, this timeline and its second version aren't bad things to read...
 
I once read a book whose title I can not recall which had as the premise Alexander turning west instead of invading India, conquering both Rome and Carthage, then spending the remainder of his life forging his empire into a lasting whole. The book also had amusing glances at the future including the heir to the empire(the entire planet) on the first space station in what would have been the 16th Century AD.
 
Prior to his death, Alexander planned on invading Arabia, that is a maratime, based expedition to subjugate the coastal kingdoms of Arabia, while marching all the way inland through the desert would have been logistically unsound. As for the western Mediterranean, he may have wanted to create a new military hegemony with the Greek colonies in Megale Hellas/Magna Graecia against the naval dominance of Carthage. Rome in the late Fourth Century BCE was really just one of the main city-state leagues in Italy and was still competing against the Samnite League, and was in no position, during the 320's BCE, to be challenging either Carthage or the Macedonian Empire.
 
I once read a book whose title I can not recall which had as the premise Alexander turning west instead of invading India, conquering both Rome and Carthage, then spending the remainder of his life forging his empire into a lasting whole. The book also had amusing glances at the future including the heir to the empire(the entire planet) on the first space station in what would have been the 16th Century AD.

I read that. Alex returned from the Oxus area because of a major rebellion in Greece. I don't recall the Empire having conquered the whole Earth (although they did take Pakistan). Alexandria in Orbit!

As I recall it, Alexander allied with Republican Rome and they destroyed Carthage together.
 
I once read a book whose title I can not recall which had as the premise Alexander turning west instead of invading India, conquering both Rome and Carthage, then spending the remainder of his life forging his empire into a lasting whole. The book also had amusing glances at the future including the heir to the empire(the entire planet) on the first space station in what would have been the 16th Century AD.

A Choice of Destinies by Melissa Scott (1986).

Her background on the Hellenic area and such is good, but her portrayal of Republican Rome of that era is a bit spotty.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Was Italy even a part of the World? Sure there were Syracuse, but really nothing else worth mentioning.

Carthage was already quite rich though.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
Sicily was quite worth it, there were a number of large greek cities in the Magna Grecia.
The Samnites, Messapians, and Latins were not exactly barbarians. And the Etruscans were there, along with the Ligurians.
If anything, the "World" of the classicists is often smaller than it really was; Phoenician and greek trade covered Gaul, Spain and Britain.

It's not the east, admittedly, but Alexander went for Greece proper when it was already just the backwards part of the larger greek lands compared to Magna Grecia and Sicily.
 
Last edited:
Top