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For The Sons of Carthage: A Victorious Carthage TL
A/N: The first time I tried this, it went largely unnoticed, because I had made it neither pretty nor interesting. So here is my second try.
PoD: Carthaginian forces are not ambushed by Timoleon of Corinth, and instead, successfully defeat Syracusan forces, leading to an end to the Second Sicilian War that was more favorable to Carthage, and more Carthaginian reliance on Punic, rather than mercenary troops.
Note: For no reason other than the obvious, years will be reckoned in standard AD/BC terms, and names of geographic places, as well as people, will be referred to by the most common Anglicization.
Note: For this TL, unlike my other one, and the previous incarnation of this, I will use a mix of “historical texts” and narrative, so to make it slightly more interesting.
“Do we have any information on what’s across that river?” Hasdrubal asked Salicar, the commander of his cavalry. Knowledge of what would be across that river would be of the most vital importance for the Carthaginians, it seemed Hasdrubal had realized. A fortunate thing too- Salicar didn’t know how much longer he could let them blunder around in Sicily, but he also didn’t want to displease his powerful commander. “Do we?” Hasdrubal repeated, shocking Salicar out of his daze.
[Later Marble Bust of Hasdrubal]
“No, sire,” Salicar said, nodding his head deeply as Hasdrubal spoke.
“Then I want you to take the cavalry across the river, see what you can see, and harass the enemy if you see any. Carthage will be made mighty, and Carthaginian traders shall roam throughout all the lands. Syracuse must be destroyed!” Hasdrubal ranted. He really did think himself charismatic, and perhaps he was. But he was not a great tactician, and Salicar didn’t want to get killed. With luck, should any trouble arise, the Carthaginians would hold. The Sacred Band was there- there would be no need to fear. And Salicar knew he would do his damndest to save the army. To save himself.
Marshalling his cavalry, Salicar cried out, “Across the river! With me, Numidians, with me, chariots! For Carthage!” The cavalry poured across the river, and scouts separated. Only minutes after the last scout left, some returned, bearing news of a large cavalry force attacking.
“Baal protect us all,” Salicar muttered, and sent news back to Hasdrubal of the oncoming cavalry force, and hoped that the infantry would return to the other side of the river. “Attack!” he cried out, as the Numidians began hurling their javelins at the lightly armored Greek cavalry. The chariots, with Salicar, quickly began to flank, in order to split the Greeks in two between charging towards the Numidians, and charging towards the chariots.
Salicar snuck a glance backwards as the driver of his chariot forced the horses to swerve. The infantry was returning to the opposite bank, and he could see the Greek infantry marching forwards. He would just have to delay a few seconds more-
A missed Numidian javelin caught him in the hip. “Cross the river, damnit!” he cried out in pain, as the jolts from the chariot drove the javelin in deeper. “Cross the bloody river!” Turning, the chariots, followed by the Numidians, fled across the river, outpacing the Greeks, and retreated- but not across the river. The cavalry moved away from the banks of the river- of course! Through the haze of pain, Salicar grinned. “Keep distracting their cavalry! Feign retreat!” he roared, and for once, the chariots heard him. “Be prepared to charge into the infantry” he groaned, and sank into unconsciousness.
…
[Sacred Band Soldier, later idealized image]
Gisgo held his spear resolutely at his side as the Greeks marched into the river. If he looked hard enough, he could see Timoleon, he was sure, just across the river, looking cursed bothered. He nearly laughed, but maintained his composure. The Sacred Band had to set an example for the rest of the army, and by the gods he would. He heard Hasdrubal’s orders to advance down the bank to meet the Greeks as they attempted to climb out of the river, and calmly advanced, lowering his spear. From his position at the far right of the line, he could see most of the battle that was about to happen.
A cold chill ran through his body, as the Greeks began to charge forward, in an attempt to break Carthaginian will preemptively. The two shield walls collided, the Greek phalanx outnumbered slightly by the Carthaginians. As his spear screeched through a Greek’s armor, and into his gut, Gisgo felt the hot fury of battle strike him, but he kept his discipline. Across the line, he saw the less well trained troops losing theirs, and wildly hack at the dismayed Greeks. The line was holding- the line was holding, and rain began to pour down. The Greeks holding their position against the cavalry at the far end of the river looked confused, as if they couldn’t see.
Then he heard the Numidian cavalry returning. They must have taken advantage of the rain, and subsequent lack of visibility to destroy the Greek reserves, and now were returning. Gisgo roared with delight as the Numidians crashed into the rear of the Greek line, shattering it. He saw Timoleon fall before one of his shield brothers, and he let himself slip into a battle rage, and countless Greeks fell before his sword, his spear long since broken, and his back unbowed. Carthage was victorious!
Battle of the Crimissus
[A later engraving of the battle]
In the year 341 BC, Carthaginian forces once again invaded the lands of the other predominant power on the island of Sicily, Syracuse. Having unsuccessfully prosecuted a similar conflict twenty-two years earlier, Carthage by this point urged to revenge herself against the Greeks.
At the battle of the Crimissus, Carthaginian forces clashed decisively against the forces of Syracuse, commanded by the Corinthian Timoleon. According to most of the old accounts, Timoleon attempted to draw the Carthaginian forces into an ambush while they were crossing the river, but that plan was thrown awry when Carthaginian chariots, as well as light, javelin-armed Numidian auxiliaries skirmished with the cavalry, crossing the river to join battle more effectively.
[Numidians]
By the time the Greek infantry had arrived, the Carthaginian infantry was secure on the opposite bank of the river, having abandoned the crossing. According to sources of the time, the Carthaginians had thirty thousand men arrayed against twenty thousand of Syracuse. Taking a risk, Timoleon split his forces, sending the bulk of his army to cross the river, assuming that his steadfast Greek troops would carve their way through the Carthaginian line, while leaving a portion behind to guard against attacks by the looming Carthaginian cavalry, who had driven off the Syracusan cavalry forces, and now lurked around his flanks.
Reportedly, rain began to fall at this time, obscuring both of the armies’ views equally as the Greeks ran onto Carthaginian spears. Most crucially, the troops guarding Timoleon’s crossing were blinded by the falling rain, which left them unprepared for a sudden charge by Carthaginian cavalry.
Shattered, they began to flee, as the Carthaginian cavalry dashed across the river, where they met with the remainders of the main body of Greek troops. Surrounded, and increasingly weary, Greek troops fought, reportedly, and to their credit, to the last man. The Sacred Band, the elite heavy infantry of Carthage, were said to have distinguished themselves greatly, and were awarded with a monument upon the spot where Timoleon fell.
Hasdrubal, who commanded these forces, sent the finest of the Greek armor back to Carthage, to show to the Council of Elders, and continued to march, besieging Syracuse herself within the week’s end.
Unable to request any further aid from Corinth, and unwilling to sue for peace, Syracuse held out for almost two months.
…
Gisgo growled quietly, as quietly as he could, as yet another of the Syracusan fell before him. They had been pouring out of the walls, from what he could see, nearly five thousand of them, arraying in the proper lines of battle, and he was prepared to fight. The Carthaginians drew up their lines in response, and oh, the poetry of the moment, as the two hosts silently watched each other from across the relatively thin strip of land, and Gisgo, once more, felt that calm before a storm.
Then the Greeks had advanced, pressing forward until the two lines collided, shield grinding and grating against shield, many spears broken in the initial push, the crush of men dying everywhere. In the center, Gisgo could see that the battle did not go so well- the weaker auxiliaries were there, and the thin array of the Greek line proved more than enough to drive them nearly over the edge. Gisgo realized, with shock, that per usual, the day rested on the Sacred Band. It was their duty, he realized, to cut through the foe, and be the anchor upon which the battle lines rested.
More Greeks than Carthaginians fell in the ensuing moments, as Gisgo cut down a Greek, as the left side of the Greek line, and the right side of the Carthaginian line shifted, the Greeks falling back, and the Carthaginians advancing. Gisgo, in these moments, called for, if memory served him well, an attack, to save the battle in the center, and wrap around the flank of the Greek center, since their left had crumbled.
The Sacred Band came roaring and hooting to the aid of the middle of the line, shattering the Greeks, as, in the distance, the Numidians were cutting down many of the fleeing foes, their short swords proving more than effective enough to kill a routing enemy. It was, Gisgo decided, a sweet and seemly thing to die for one’s country, as these Greeks were doing. Not that it was graceful, but it was seemly. It was right that they should die to defend their homes- they were honorable foes. Not that it would help them any.
Soon, his unit was given the orders by Hasdrubal to draw up the ladders, that an assault might be made. Pleased to hear that the Sacred Band would be first to ascend them, and first to cut a swathe through the foes, Gisgo beat his sword against his shield, then shouldering his spear, as he prepared to ascend the walls. Few Greeks must be left within those walls, he realized. Nearly five thousand had been captured or killed, and battle would be quick.
The ladders were carried slowly to the walls, largely uncontested due to a Greek lack of missile troops, while citizens and troops from below threw stones. Many of these were not effective against his armor, but Gisgo received a deep graze along his back from one stone, and he saw three or four of the Sacred Band fall of the ladders, knocking several others to their death too. He recognized some of those men- one was his cousin. He sighed- how disgraceful that a stone should kill him.
He was fifth up to the walls, as his shield brothers had cut a way through to ascend before, and the citizens, reduced to mob tactics, and the few remaining Greek troops were slowly being pushed out, some falling off the walls, some falling to the sword. Soon more troops arrived for the Carthaginians, largely well-armed Libyans, who whooped and hollered their battle joy, cutting down even more Greeks. The gates were opened, and all of the army but the cavalry passed in, massing just in front of the gates.
Then, more Syracusan hoplites showed up, blockading the alleys that were the Carthaginians’ path towards the citadel. Gisgo realized, with a sinking heart, that battle would be long and bloody, but soon roused himself once more into battle’s frenzy. Breaking the will of the hoplites, he soon learned, would be a long a bloody process.
Worse for wear, several hours later, Gisgo stumbled through the streets, the populace hiding in their houses, afraid to even throw window tiles in terror of the imposing Sacred Band, and the savage looking Libyans. Night had gathered Syracuse in its shadows by the time that Hasdrubal gave the orders to stop the painful march. Gisgo groaned as he settled into his pallet, his battered and bloody body aided none by the roughness of his fine bedding.
Third Siege of Syracuse:
Syracuse was an extremely fortified city for those times, well prepared by Dionysius the Elder in the years before. However, with the invading army, Carthage had made allowance for major sieges, and quickly readied siege engines once the walls of Syracuse were reached.
Soon one major sortie by Syracusan forces was repelled, with heavy casualties to both sides, ladders, the simplest of siege equipment were brought to the walls. To carve a path up to the wall, Hasdrubal sent all three thousand Sacred Band onto the walls first, followed by the heaviest of the Libyan infantry.
These forces successfully opened the walls to further Carthaginian encroachment, and after several hours of brutal fighting, Syracusan forces were forced back into the city. Hasdrubal’s troops, by this point exhausted, made a final effort to reach the citadel, but halted before night fell.
Carthaginian forces, over the next week, further prepared for a siege, occupying the city, and ransacking farms in the nearby countryside. However, such preparation was not needed, as after a further day, a traitor was convinced to open the gates of the citadel.
In the middle of the night, Carthaginian troops poured through the gate, and overwhelmed Syracusan resistance, putting Syracuse to the swords, and adding it to the empire of Carthage.
And so the Greco-Punic wars came to an end, an overwhelming Carthaginian victory over their greatest foe so far. The territory of Syracuse was soon amalgamated into the Carthaginian Empire, and all its manifold treasures buried away within the city itself, whilst Hasdrubal returned to Carthage, greeted with highest accolades and honors available.
[Captured Greek Armor]
Interwar Period:
During this time, in 337 BC, Carthage sent envoys to the other major Western Mediterranean states, including the Greek colony of Massilia, and to the Roman Republic, who had defeated their central Italian rivals, the Samnites, in the same year that Carthage defeated Syracuse.
[Scene from a recreation of a Roman vase depicting the Samnite Wars]
However, the Romans had not as decisively defeated the Samnites, and the Romans, in return for Carthaginian aid in flushing out the remaining hill people, promised a pact of alliance, an addition to their previous treaty of 348 BC, which guaranteed sovereign rights to Carthage and Rome in matters of the other’s territory.
This pact of alliance promised troops to the other ally if they should fall under attack, and promised aid in prosecuting wars that were not against each other’s interests.
This treaty is considered to be the event that most saved Rome from defeat and led it to unimaginable glory under Carthaginian dominance.
Massilia also joined this alliance later in the same year, serving as a less powerful, though still potent, addition to the western Mediterranean coalition. It is not known to what extent Massiliotes disapproved of the conquering of a city of their fellow Greeks, though they seemingly joined the alliance willingly.
The Macedonian Empire
In 336, king Philip II was nearly slain by the captain of his guards, who was captured, and interrogated, revealing Philip's own son, "Alexandros," and his fourth wife, Olympias. The three were killed for their perfidy, as Philip, enraged at the actions of his own, began to consider greater and further reaching conquests...