Jabrut: Qart-Hadast (Power: Carthage)

NO! Hannibal's getting old, Carthage is in crisis, and Rome's coming back! Excellent! :)

Seriously, good update. This third war will be great. :cool: Keep it up!
 
The Third Latin War - Part 1

95,000 Latin soldiers marched into the territory of Carthage's Italian allies. The larger force, composed of 60,000 men, besieged Bovianum, the capital of the Pentri, Samnium's dominant tribe. Meanwhile, the remaining 35,000 Latin troops besieged Capua, on the frontier of Roman territory. Capua was the most significant city in Capua, and one of the few in Italy that were now under direct Roman rule.

In Samnium, the situation seemed dire. The Pentri could only muster 10,000 men outside of the city walls, whilst the rest of the Samnite tribes could collectively muster 15,000 men. The majority of the Samnite tribes immediately mobilised their armies, notably the Caraceni, Caudini and Hirpini. The Frentani, however, largely due to the proximity of their lands to Roman territory (but also no doubt motivated by a feud between the Frentani prince Titus Egnatius and the Pentri king, who had refused to allow his daughter to marry Egnatius, due to Egnatius' drunkenness and occasional violent outbursts), kept their army in their own lands. By 184 BC, seeing the utter hopelessness of their situation and acknowledging the fact that Carthaginian reinforcements could not be counted on until the cessation of the Carthaginian civil war, the Pentri moved their army to the South-East, in order to meet up with the other armies of the Samnite Confederation. The Pentri themselves even managed to escape the city via escape tunnels built before 15 years earlier. Shortly after the flight of the Pentri monarchy, Bovianum surrendered. Having been exposed to 2 harsh winters in the mountains of Samnium, the Latin "Army of Samnium" had been reduced to 56,400 men.

The "Army of Samnium" moved South, as part of an initiative to take Beneventum, then move West to link up with the Latin forces besieging Capua. This was because the Latins expected a more rapid defeat of Carthaginian cities, and the siege of Capua was taking longer than expected. En route to Beneventum, the Samnite forces attacked the Latin army near Foglianise. The Latins numbered about 56,000, against a Samnite force of 25,000. The Samnites lured the Latins into a series of ambushes in the mountainous woodlands, winning a significant victory, against the odds. The Latins lost 17,000 men, to 4,000 Samnites. The Samnites utilised their light infantry in a way that prevented the Latins from being able to enter an even melee.

Despite the defeat, the Latins regrouped and moved to besiege Beneventum. The Latins built double walls around Beneventum, preventing the Samnite forces from coming to Beneventum's aid. After two unsuccessful attempts at breaking through the walls, the Samnites withdrew to the North, harassing supply caravans moving to Beneventum. At Capua, the siege finally ended in the Autumn of 182 BC. The "Army of Campania" however, was attacked as it continued to move further South. In a battle with roughly equal forces, the Campanians were defeated by the Latins, losing 12,000 men to 4,000 Latins, due to the Latins' defeat of the Campanian left flank. Whilst the situation in Southern Italy looked bad, the Carthaginians, Campanians and Samnites were saved by an event which was for many years attributed to divine intervention. In the Spring of 181 BC, a confederation of Gauls flooded into Northern Italy (on the advice of the Carthaginians in Massalia), laying waste to many Latin colonies in the North.

* The Romans have largely become referred to as "Latins" in this update. This is because that, whilst the Romans continue to call themselves the "Roman Republic", they have extended citizenship to all the Latin peoples in the Republic. This dilution of Roman authority, as well as the ascendancy of other towns and cities in the Republic, means that many modern historians (as well as the ancient Carthaginians) refer/red to the Roman Republic as the "Latin Confederation".
 
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Good update. And really excellent timing by the Gauls! Soon, hopefully, the civil war will be straightened out in favor of Barcas, and order can be restored to Italy.
 
The Carthaginian Civil War

In response to the Latin invasion of Southern Italy, Magon a 45,000 man-strong contingent across the Strait of Messana, whilst Hannibal finished preparations for the invasion of Africa. Hannibal's naval forces (which composed approx. 2/3 of the Carthaginian fleet, anchored at Lilybaeum) decisively defeated the Conservative fleet at the Battle of Utique. Following the establishment of Barcid naval supremacy, Hannibal's army (due to the lack of a large enough port in the area) were forced to split and land at Utique and Hippo Diarrythus. The Barcid navy kept grain from Sicily delivered to Carthage, allowing Carthage to hold off the Conservative armies in the extended siege. Hannibal's armies converged on the besieging Conservative forces, and inside the walls of Carthage, a mass sacrifice of goats was made, in the hope that this would bring victory. Recently, however, historians have argued that the sacrifice was for political, more than spiritual motives. The clergy of Carthage, some of the few in the Republic that were Ba'alyatonites, knew that Hannibal would defeat the Conservative forces, and wanted to use the sacrifice as "proof" that human sacrifice was unnecessary. In 183 BC, Hannibal defeated the Conservative forces outside Carthage. The Conservative forces suffered many disadvantages: Their leadership structure was unclear, confusing the chain of command. The forces under Conservative control were untrained peasant levies, and they lacked supplies as well as skill. They lacked any significant auxiliary support, having only minimal amounts of unreliable Numidian light cavalry. By contrast, the Barcid army was largely composed of Iberian swordsmen and Sicilian Greek hoplites, of far superior quality than the light spearmen and axemen opposed to them. They also had an effective Punic cavalry wing, as well as a small but effective force of Balearic Islanders, who were the Punic missile troops.

After the glorious victory at the Battle of Carthage, Hannibal had himself crowned Moloch Il Qart-Hadast (King of Carthage). Having defeated the Conservatives, Hannibal purged the government of the landowners who had opposed him. To gain support, he also instituted land reform, giving significant tracts of land to smaller landowners and to Carthaginian citizens in general. This gained the Barcids significant support amongst the common people, especially as many of the Carthaginians who were given land had been peasants unwillingly in the Conservative army. Whilst the Conservative aristocracy was executed for treason, Eshmunkhilletzim clergy were allowed to escape into exile (in the case of those who were from significant settlements), although the Eshmunkhilletzim clergy were allowed to remain in small towns if they had not been involved in "subversive activities". The exiled clergy often found sanctuary with the inland Numidians, many of which converted from their tribal religions to that of the Eshmunkhilletzim. Although Ba'alyatonite missionaries would often visit Numidian tribes to convert them, livestock was often valued above human life, as it was vital to the Numidians' existence. In fact, Numidian warlords near the Carthaginian frontier began to raid Carthaginian colonial settlements with increasing frequency. For a while, they got away with it, due to the Carthage being momentarily pre-occupied with the Latin Confederation.
 
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The Battle of Panaro

Having been crowned Moloch, Hannibal made the decision to stay in Carthage, rather than travelling to Italy. Magon had the spiteful Latins on the defensive, and the Numidians were becoming an annoyance in Africa.

In Northern Italy, the Latin commander Publius Brutus, attempted to halt a Gallic advance into Northern Italy. They Latin forces took defensive positions to the South of the Panaro River, South of a little town called Mutina. Mutina had just been sacked by the Gauls. Every able man was killed, whilst the women and children were taken into slavery. Only the old and lame remained, and they were unlikely to survive the winter. Brutus commanded two legions at this battle, whilst the legion to the right was commanded by Gaius Domitius. Domitius' family had lived in Mutina, and his rage was said to have been truly horrifying. According to the few remaining pages of the "Po Chronicle", a heavily damaged manucript found by archaelogists in the ruins of the library at Syracuse, he was a very large man for the time and was prone to fits of violence. It was said that he had once ripped out a man's throat with a cheese knife after finding his women in bed with two men. The second man ran away but disappeared under mysterious circumstances months later. Despite his volatility, he had few enemies due to his "don't ask" attitude. Domitius was also a talented commander, if not always the most disciplined, so he did well in the military.

The Gauls were advised by a Carthaginian officer, who had significant knowledge of Latin culture from his experience in Capua. The Carthaginian officer, Ahirom Baltser had advised the Gauls that attacking the Latin troops when they were behind such a natural barrier was foolish. Whilst the Gallic chieftain Berotgetorix had been getting annoyed at the Carthaginian (who had a habit of stating the obvious), Berotgetorix was intrigued by the possibility of a plan which Baltser had devised. Having realised that Domitius was commanding half of the opposing Latin army, and knowing Latin attitudes towards certain sexual practices, he intended to provoke the Latins into leaving their advantageous position.

The Battle of the Panaro began the next morning, when the Gallic troops formed up opposite the Latin troops. Berotgetorix and Baltser rode out before the troops, and in full view of the Latin troops and their commanders, forced Domitius' wife to perform the practice known as 'fellatio' on Baltser. The Gauls, despite having little understanding of this practice (which seemed alien to Gallic society), had been ordered to cheer, and did so aggressively, bashing their shields and howling. The ruse worked. Domitius found it impossible to tolerate, and, against Brutus' orders, his legion, the Legio XIV, poured across the river. Baltser, Berotgetorix and Domitius' wife fled to the back of the Gallic army, which collided with Legio XIV in a dramatic clash of shields and weaponry. In a quandary about whether to support his ally or keep his defensive position, Brutus decided that defending the Panaro would be untenable if Legio XIV was wiped out, so he had the other legion, Legio VIII, join the fray. Both were annihilated almost to the man. Northern Italy was now open for the Gauls.
 
I would think that the Gauls of northern Italy would have a pretty good understanding of Roman tactics, and no less so then the Carthaginians. I know that this is your TL, and you have your reasons for writing it the way you do, but characterising the Gauls as backward primitives with no understanding of strategy or even psychological warfare is far from accurate. The Romans real advantage over the Gauls, at this time, was manpower.

And while fellatio is a Latin word, I'm not so sure that the physical act of a blowjob would be as alien to the Gauls, or any other ethnicity, as this post suggests.
 
I would think that the Gauls of northern Italy would have a pretty good understanding of Roman tactics, and no less so then the Carthaginians. I know that this is your TL, and you have your reasons for writing it the way you do, but characterising the Gauls as backward primitives with no understanding of strategy or even psychological warfare is far from accurate. The Romans real advantage over the Gauls, at this time, was manpower.

And while fellatio is a Latin word, I'm not so sure that the physical act of a blowjob would be as alien to the Gauls, or any other ethnicity, as this post suggests.

I dont know if I inferred this clearly enough, but I was trying to depict the Gauls as knowing about Roman tactics and such, but the Carthaginian was a bit of a condescending prick. And about the fellatio thing, its hard to tell, since we have no documented evidence of what kind of things the Gauls were into, but I don't think they would consider it as demeaning as the Romans did. The Romans kinda took the idea of the mouth as oratory, and added a special significance in that. Therefore I dont think the Gauls would perceive it in the way it was intended by the Carthaginian, even if they did had blowjobs (which they probably did, but for some reason, I imagine it was less common in Gallic society).
 
The Latin forces were in rout across all fronts, and so the Latins sued for peace with Carthage. Hannibal realised, however, after hearing news of the victory of the Gauls in the North, that the Latins were vulnerable to complete destruction. All these years, Rome had been the primary enemy of Hannibal's city, and he was all too happy to be able to preside over the defeat of the perennial enemy - the Roman. Hannibal did not despise these Latins though, in fact, he had sometimes wished that his people had more qualities in common with their people - ingenuity, discipline, militarism, virtuousness. But Hannibal now felt satisfied. He had defeated the Romans on many occasions, and would now conquer Rome itself. He had laid the foundations for the successful transition of his nation from a merchant democracy to a stronger, more stable empire.

In the summer of 181 BC, Carthaginian troops entered Rome. The rest of Latium had been pillaged by the wandering Gauls. Rome was now a bastion in a sea of barbarians. Hannibal marched his forces up to the River Tiber, demanding Roman surrender in exchange for a guarantee for safety against the marauding Gallic horde. Despite their pride, and initial disdain of the idea, they decided that at least the Carthaginians were "civilised" and so acquiesced to the Carthaginian demands. Hannibal marched through the streets of Rome, in triumph (figuratively). As a reward for his help, Ahirom Baltser, who was sent to Rome to meet his ruler, was awarded governorship of Rome (and, according to the contemporary Carthaginian historian Magon Baltser, who was not related to Ahirom, not too soon, as the Gauls were becoming increasingly irritated by the Carthaginian). Hannibal returned to Carthage, where he died of old age in 179 BC, a hero of Carthage, who was to be known throughout the world as one of the most influential figures in history [such as Julius Caear is OTL] . Work was not allowed on the day after his death, and all of Carthage mourned the passing of their greatest general, their glorious Moloch.

Hasdrubal was named Moloch of Carthage after the death of his brother, but Hasdrubal was older than Hannibal, and was becoming senile. Hasdrubal died only 3 seasons after his accession to power, being killed by the injuries endured when he was kicked by a horse he was going to ride to a military parade. Magon then took the throne, and was to be proven a capable ruler, although not capable of matching his brother Hannibal's genius for command and leadership. After the deaths of Hannibal and Hasdrubal, the enemies of Carthage perceived weakness. Syphax, king of Numidia (which he had recently united, by defeating Ozalces, predominant chieftain of Eastern Numidia, at the battle of Sitifis) threatened Carthage in Africa, armed with religious zeal (they had been converted by the Eshmunkhilletzim, who had radicalised following their expulsion from Carthage. Many of them had start to teach that the gods, particularly Ba'al Hammon and Ashtart, were to destroy the world if the Old Gods were not honoured once more, especially by the Phoenician and neo-Phoenician peoples) and the best cavalry in Africa, were expanding aggressively. Syphax's forces had fought several border skirmishes with the Punic Kingdom.

For years Syphax had been held back from attacking Carthage by his wife Sophonisba, and this marriage reflected an uneasy alliance between Syphax and Carthage. In 177 BC, Sophonisba died of a fever, and Syphax no longer was obliged to leave Carthage alone. Syphax attacked Carthaginian border towns later that year, burning many and putting their inhabitants to the sword. After the sacking of Iol, Magon sent Hasdrubal Gisco to fight Syphax's army. Near Zama, the two armies clashed. The Carthaginian army was largely made of light infantry units, and was defeated by Syphax's cavalry, which had superior mobility.
 
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