alternatehistory.com

Collaborative Alternate Timeline

Basically, we all add to the same timeline/story. Maps and pictures are completely optional, and you don't have to continue from the same map, but if you can continue from the previous map, that's just fine.

Rules:
- At least 3 sentences in a contribution. More than that is preferred.
- Be sensible, no ASB stuff but you can be creative. If people think something is ASB, it may be vetoed
- Consider the butterfly effect.
- Claim before you post your contribution. No one wants to discard their stuff because multiple people posted at once
- You can cover a range of time from a single day/battle/event described in intricate detail, or twenty years as a summary.

First Post/Contribution (all OTL stuff)

Note: This does not break the twenty year limit, because all the stuff before 270 BC is just descriptions of empires. Only 270-264 is described eventwise. Plus it's all OTL stuff in here, this is all just background. If one of you, after the game has gotten pretty far, want to describe old stuff, more than twenty years, before saying what happens in your turn, which must be less than twenty years, you can.

The Roman Republic is a state that has secured the whole of the Italian peninsula in the 3rd century BC, excluding Gallia Cisalpina. During this century, Rome has defeated every rival that stood in their way. The Latin League was forcibly dissolved, the Samnites were broken during three prolonged wars, and Magna Gracia, unified by Pyrrhus of Epirus, were annexed at the end of the Pyrrhic War.

The Empire of Carthage is considered the dominant naval power in the western half of the Mediterranean Sea. Its roots are from a Phoenician colony in Africa, which gradually became a civilization that stretched from the North African Coast to the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, western Sicily, and Southern Hispania.

The Mamertines, based in the city of Messana, were defeated by Syracuse forces in a battle near the river Loitanus in 270 BC. They plead for help from Rome and Carthage. Rome felt that allying with the Mamertines would likely place them into war with Carthage. In 264 BC, Appius Claudius Caudex is appointed commander of a military expedition with orders to cross to Messana.

A war between the Romans and the Punics has begun... 264 BC shall be a fateful year... (note: since this is OTL stuff, no one really knows the exact date within 264 BC when it started, so next poster can choose any date in that year)

Map of the Roman Republic, Carthaginian Empire, and Syracuse:

collab.png

collab.png
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