Carthage and the lost Libyan War

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Chapter 142: Second Battle of Herdonia
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    Chapter 142: Second Battle of Herdonia
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    The Second Battle of Herdonia was actually a battle nearby Herdonia when the Roman Forces intruding into Apulia meat with the Carthagoan cavalry and infantry heading north to stop them, supported by a group of local Apulian, Calabrian and Samnitian forces, mainly militia joining them. They meat with Roman Legionaries, at first only cavalry scouting then infantry as well in the Second Battle that took place outside Herdona in the farmlands and hedges nearby the city. This made movement for the original cavalry engagement hard and the infantry had it even harder, as half the time they were unable to directly see the enemy and how he moved. Therefore the Second Battle of Herdonia was a confusing mess and the Punic general actually lead his forces from the top of one of four elephants participating in the battle to have a better overview, while also staying closer to the forces themselves, unlike the Roman commander who watched from afar atop of a nearby hill, so that his orders took some time to reach his Legionaries. Still many infantry forces were limited in their sight and even the cavalry had problems with their movements in this maze of farmland and hedges. This confusion not only slowed down the battle, but actually lead to some confusion overall were some smaller groups of both sides ended up completely surrounded by the enemy. The strangest thing was that some of these forces managed to get back to their own lines in all of the confusion, sometimes even without actually clashing and fighting enemy forces at all. The Punic forces then retreated the best they could as they started to lose coordination and overview of the battle themselves and started to burn down the estates and farms belonging to Roman senators and noble families while leaving alone those that belonged to the locals and Punic allies alike. This lead to the Roman commander fearing the Punic forces and their allies might burn down most of Herdona and the surrounding farmlands in a scorched earth tactics, so he pushed after them, right into the burning hedges, farms and town itself. By doing so he left his overview position and leading to even further confusion of the Roman forces near Herdona. Once the Punic commander saw this move, he let his forces turn around and surround the Roman Legionaries who had now a confused forward march trough smoke and hedges.

    Unlike they had formerly believed however, the Punic forces had not retreated so they could take out the fire, but actually moved around, allowing the Punic soldiers and allied militia to surprisingly turn around them and actually flank the Roman sides. The Roman legionaries were stunned and completely surprised by this unexpected move and together with the partly still burning hedges and farms around them, they soon routed, turning into a full routing that became a complete chaos were several Roman Legionaries would be overrun and stepped to death while trying to escape, while a few others burned in the fire. The Second Battle of Herdona thereby was a completely disaster for the inexperienced Roman Commander, loosing 16,000 of 18,000 total Roman forces, but helped the Romans to keep the siege of Brundisium going for longer, as well as helping them deal with the Punic Army of Hasdrubal Barca coming from the North with Gallic mercenaries. Their goal was to catch and fight his Punic army before they would be able to unite with those in the South of Italy. To delay the Siege of Brundisium or maybe even relief the city, so that Hannibal was forced to let a army stay in the south to deal with it, leaving him less forces to unite his armies with Hasdrubal and march into Rome itself. Hannibal knew this danger as well and marched with his northern army between Capua and Sarguntum in hope of tricking the Romans into believing that they marched onto Rome or at least could put it in direct danger, thereby forcing the Roman Legions here to remain in Central Italy, instead of heading north and combining forces to crush Hasdrubal's army heading down south towards them. This still meant that Hasdrubal's forces needed to engage and defeat at least one Roman army himself, but Hannibal believed that he would be up for such a task, otherwise the Punic position in Italy would be compromised and in need of further reinforcements from Hesperia and Libya.
     
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    • Chapter 143: Capture of Brundisium
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    Chapter 143: Capture of Brundisium​

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    The ultimate capture of Brundisium by the Punic Carthaginians came with Macedon help, when a Macedonian fleet and aided the siege with bombardment from catapults on boats and blockading the harbor alongside the Punic forces. They did so to secure their conquest of the Apollonia and Epidamos as former roman colonies on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. As long as Brundisium survived a return of Roman Legions to challenge his power there and to call a uprising of the Greek City-States against him seamed only a matter of time. At the same time Bodashtart a Punic diplomat and commander of the Libyan War traveled the Achaean League, the Boeotian League and the Aetolian League to rally a Greek mercenary army at Phoenice that would with Punic and Macedon transport ships travel to Tarentum in Southern Italy to aid the Punic forces there with half of this men marching onto Brundusium to help in the siege and the other half heading north to Beneventum and Capua in a attempt to strengthen the garrison forces there. With combined forces the Punic and Macedonians besieged Brundisium, cut of the harbor with the help of the forts at it's entrance and their fleet and surrounded the city itself with three major camps along the gates. Engineers began digging walls and earthwork, as well as tunnels to get into the city itself to finally take it for good, when suddenly, some of the Greek population within the city sympathetic towards the Punic, or more accurate the city-state independence they had promised everyone rebelling against Roman rule. Still the Roman Garrison of legionaries within was not ready to give up and so a fierce fight occurred but the Romans were quickly outnumbered and out manned. When they finally managed to capture the city, a local Brundisium citizens were given the chance of setting up their own government, like in any other cities liberated by Hannibal Barca during the Second Roman War in the Italian Peninsula. When all was done the Macedon forces retreated once again, being needed to crush a rebellion of some Greek city-states back in the Greek Peninsula that the Macedon Kingdom now ruled hegemonic over thanks to Hannibal distracting the Roman forces in Italy and the central Mediterranean.

    The city of Brundisium itself quickly created a militia and raised forces to defend itself against the Roman legions, as clearly relying on the Punic forces or the Macedonian forces alone and so local troops were rallied and trained in the hopes they could be enough to secure their city even if the Punic army was far away fighting the Roman Legions. They were trained by some of the Carthaginian Punic mercenaries from Libya, Hesperia, Gaul, Italy itself and even Greece to help them train their own armed forces, including militia, Hoplites and even some archers, spear throwers and cavalry. A few of this forces would even join the Punic ones heading north to fight the Romans directly, believing that doing so would prevent them from facing the Romans back in their home town and countryside if they could be stopped and forced somewhere far away and beaten. Brundisium itself soon served as a major trade harbor between Carthage, Italy, Greece and Macedonia, similar to Tarentum that beside Capua became one of the main supply harbors and routes for the Punic fighting in Italy. Ita also became a source for trade and income for the newly liberated Italian city states trading between the Punic Western Mediterranean and the Greek Eastern Mediterranean like a partly neutral, partly Greek force in between. It would make them rich, but also lead to them becoming partly involved in Punic, Macedon and Greek economic, diplomatic and military interest in the Italian Peninsula once the Second Roman War was over and the various south and central Italian city-states and regions had become independent. Their ambitions and rivalries, some ancient started to grow once more and Rome, Macedon, Carthage and some local tyrants and rulers alike tried to use this diversion, mistrust and opposition to one another in hopes they could gain the upper hand in all of this. This would later spark the Third Roman War, as well as the Carthaginain-Macedon rivalries and proxy wars over Southern Italy, that would later lead to the Punic intervention in the Greek-Macedon wars and rebellion, as well as the Hellenic conflicts in the Eastern Mediterranean resulting from that.
     
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    • Chapter 144: Battle of Metaurus
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    Chapter 144: Battle of Metaurus​

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    Hasdrubal's campaign to reach Italy and aid his brother Hannibal had finally reached the Italian Peninsula and went excellent up until this point. He had recruited fresh mercenaries in Celtiberia, Gallia and Northern Italian Gaul. His way had been aided by some of the constructions and works left behind by Hannibal's army before and the Gauls in the region respected and feared the Carthaginians enough to allow him not only to pass trough their territory, but to increase his ranks even further. The Romans feared to face not only Hannibal but now also his brother, especially after their last defeats and so they hoped Claudius Neros force of 40,000 men would keep Hannibal busy in the south, so that Marcus Livius could head north with two Roman armies to oppose and defeat Hasdrubal before he would have a chance to untie his forces with that of Hannibal. Planning to meet Hannibal in Umbria, Hasdrubal's plans fell into the hands of the roman consul Claudius Nero and he marched north with 7,000 men and 1,000 cavalry to defeat him and further soldiers were gathered among their way north, boosting their numbers with young and veteran volunteers alike. In Sena the Roman forces met and combined and because they arrived at night, they were not detected until the next morning when they would meet Hasdrubal to battle. Hasdrubal quickly realized that the Roman army had grown significantly over night, especially in cavalry and he knew the Roman tromped had sounded the arrival of a important Roman leader the night before from his encounters with Romans in Hesperia. This lead to him rightfully believing he now faced two Roman armies and retread from the field before facing defeat. During the night Hasdrubal retreated his forces, planning to head back to Gaul and establish communications with Hannibal once again, but along the march some of his guides betrayed him and left him lost at the banks of the Metaurus were he hoped to cross. Trapped against the banks of the Metaurus, many Gaulic troops had gotten drunk the night before and the Roman cavalry headed quickly towards them their Legions right behind. Hasdrubal's army was made up of 48,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 15 elephants, including 8,000 Ligurians, while the Romans fielded 37,000 to 40,000 Legionaries, but many had refused Rome's call to arms out of their allies and auxiliaries (only 2,000 additional forces) while Hasdrubal had around 3,000 Roman prisoners in camp from previous engagements with the Romans. Between the mountains and the river, Hasdrubal used his cavalry on the right flank, were they would face the Romans alongside his ten elephants, while his left flank was secured by hill terrain were he positioned most of the tired and drunk Gauls. The Roman cavalry faced the Carthaginian one, while the center and the left were mainly infantry, in hopes of crushing them with superior numbers.

    The battle started with the Roman left flank and center pushing into the Carthaginians, but their superior cavalry numbers were of little use as many feared the elephants and routed from them, giving the Punci cavalry the chance to chase them and flank the Roman center, while the Punic center and right wing held and some Romans there fleed from the elephants and cavalry now flanking them as well, breaking the Roman lines and spreading mass confusion. On the infantry flank Claudius Nero did not manage to overcome the terrain and reach the Gauls on Hasdrubal's left flank. On the other flank meanwhile the Cavalry, Elephants and Hispanics flanked and routed the Roman center together with the Logures and forced the Roman to fall back, thanks to the Punic two pronged attack. Claudius Nero fought alongside his men and exhorted them to keep fighting, rallying fleeing soldiers and re-starting the battle wherever he was present. However his Roman Legionaries now faced a thee pronged attack, as the Punic forces by now had also made their way to the back of his lines, completely defeating the Romans and leading to a mass retreat and chaos. Four of his ten elephants died during the battle either to enemy attacks, or because they were killed by their own mounts to stop them from rampaging trough their own lines when chaos broke out all around them. Seeing that the Battle was lost and unwilling to be captured Livius. Around 10,000 Romans and mostly auxiliary forces fled the battle while around 40,000 additional Gallic Umbrian and other tribal soldiers joined Hasdrubal after this victory or raid and pillage Roman lands taken from them and destroy Roman colonies under the Carthaginian officer, Hamilcar. Hasdrubal quickly informed Hannibal of his victory and that he would come to march alongside him while Hamilcar and his Gauls would remain a threat to the Romans in the north, raid and pillage the countryside, towns and cities there. Hannibal knew thanks to this victory, the Star of Rome had began to sink before it fully had risen. Hasdrubal's officers Hamilcar, who stayed behind in Cisalpine Gaul would later sack the city of Placentia and Cremona with his unified Gallic army of 40,000 men and later some of the mercenaries and local tribal warriors of his would head south and reach Hannibal and Hasdrubal to join them as well once they heard the Romans Legion left in the North had headed south to help in the defense of Central Italy and the city of Rome. On his way down south, Hasdrubal's victory forced the remaining Romanarmy Legionaries to travel trough the marches and be unsure if he would chose to cross the Apennines to instigate a uprising in Etruscan lands against Roman rule there, or if he would head further south into Senoni, Picentes and Umbria, while the Veneti and Boii in northern Italy's Po Valley would rose up and destroyed Roman colonies and allies in the region.
     
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    Rooki said:
    Great to see this back! Looking forward to seeing the outcome of the war and developments down the track.
    Click to expand...
    Rome will survive, but they will loose most of Italy, with parts of it put under Carthaginian protection and extensive trade, while Macedon will increase it's influence in the South. Afterwards Carthago will expand it's trade into the Eastern Mediterranean as well as Africa and Gaul.
     
    Chapter 145: Carthaginian and Roman Diplomacy of an Ancient World War
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    Chapter 145: Carthaginian and Roman Diplomacy of an Ancient World War
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    Shades of Purple: Carthage and Allies or Vassals, Shades of Red: Rome and Allies or Vassals
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    The Second Punic War, also known as Second Carthaginian War, Second Roman War, or Second Latin War was a conflict between the Carthaginian Republic and the Roman Republic, that unlike the first one no longer spanned the Western Mediterranean alone, but quickly engulfed Greece, the Balkans, Egypt and Western Asia as well, thanks to Carthaginian and Roman networks of alliances, pacts and shared rivals, or enemies. In Africa the Numidian tribes had mainly sided with the Romans against Carthage. In Italy itself, the northern Celts and the Southern Samnites and Greeks had mainly sided with Carthage, while Massillia in the Western Mediterranean was a strong Roman Ally. Syracuse itself shifted, often depending on who held most of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Southern Italy, which at the time was Carthage. In Greece Macedonia and Achaea were the main Roman allies, while Aetolia, Elis, Messenia and Sparta were the main Roman ones. In Asia Carthage and Macedon were allied with the Seleucids and together managed to conquer coastal regions of the Seleucid rival and Roman ally of Ptolemaic Egypt, which also rivaled Carthage in North Africa. So far the important food shipments from Egypt to Rome itself, could however not have been intercepted by the Carthaginian and Seleucid Naval Forces, until Tarentum fell in Southern Italy and Punic Naval Fleets blockaded the Western Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea in a tight grip. While Bithynia in Western Asia became more pro Roman as a protectorate against Seleucid expansion against them, Pontus outright became a Roman ally, rivaling the Seleucids over the territories of Armenia, Galatia and Pisidia. Many Ptolemaic territories in Anatolia and West Asia meanwhile, cut of by Seleucidia and even unable to be supplied over Ptolomaic Cyprus, would become hot-spots for Mediterranean Piracy, especially Creta, Lycia, Pisidia and Palphylia in Southern Anatolia. These pirate areas, alongside Greek Rivaling City-States, Kingdoms and Mediterranean Powers, would alongside the planned reconquest or buying of the Phoenician/ Philistine Ancestral homelands of the Punic Carthaginians become one of their main overall goals and concerns for Hannibal Barka’s campaigns to Byzantium and into the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and Coastal regions after the Second Roman War.

    Depending on the overall state of the Second Punic/ Roman War, or their regional war theatre, several of these medium and minor allies of the conflict would also switch sides throughout the course of it and Carthaginian and Roman diplomats, spies and assassins had an equally important role and competing tasks, or goals, then their direct admirals and generals of the conflict. When enemy armies, navies, forts or other installations controlled, or blocked several roads or travel means for these more civil participants, these diplomats, spies or assassins. Meanings they sometimes had to take longer detours, but most often were still much quicker, then the marching armies and rowing navies of the time with their much larger numbers and higher overall supply, food and reinforcement needs. At the same time this was why diplomats were beside enemy rulers the target of Carthaginian and Roman assassins and spies alike during most of the Second Roman/ Punic War. Sometimes this meant that these diplomats, assassins and spies themselves would become targets, because they had a certain fame, or influence in a local court, or with a local ruler, which was how they themselves, as much as certain rulers and individuals themselves became targets as well. Unlike those they negotiated with, assassins, diplomats and spies, often lacked an own personal guard, mostly even any form of bodyguard they were much easier targets and quit a few dozen famous ones would be assassinated with knifes, poison, or dealt with which was why these positions and jobs became as prestigious, as they were dangerous to occupy during the Second Roman/ Punic War. As a result the Diplomat, skilled in negotiations between several people, often by means of his own bilingual translations of various nations, as well as some skilled talking and empathy for those he talked with became a highly regarded position, something of a politician among enemy and rivaling lines, who while not seen as highly as true rulers, priests, or military leaders would still rise in overall prestige further then his birth into a noble family, or upper society alone would have allowed for.
     
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