Multipolar mediterrean classical era

ar-pharazon

Banned
So during the classical era and until the end of late antiquity the mediterrean world was dominated by the Roman's.

How can we have a multipolar mediterrean world with at least 3-5 big empires and smaller states vying for control and influence of the region?

Maybe with one power centred in Italy, another in Egypt, another in Iberia, Anatolia, etc...

How can we avoid the mediterrean being the lake of one single empire but a sphere of competition for many states?

By classical era I mean the period from the death of Alexander the Great 323 BC to about 476 AD.

So about a period of 800 years.

How can we have a multipolar mediterrean world?
 
Off the top of my head, I’d imagine Massila “pulling a Carthage” and becoming a colonial power in its own right, making two major powers in the Western Mediterranean (Carthage and Massila), which would hopefully be enough to stop the rise of Rome from consuming the western med. that leaves the eastern med, where the Seleucids, Ptolemies, Phoenicians, or a resurgent Greek State to fill in a few more spots. Perhaps a successful Seleucid integration of Greece would allow them the resources to compete with the Ptolemies? That puts four big cities as your centers of power in the Mediterranean, Massila, Carthage, Alexandria, and Antioch.
 
That's an interesting idea.

Maybe we could still keep Rome but just as power in north Italy or something?

Yeah, perhaps Rome and Carthage are much more evenly matched and the Punic Wars end in a draw or morph into a kind of ancient Cold War rather than outright Roman victory. Another possibility is that Romans are not as expansionist as in OTL. Maybe a POD where they come to see naked conquest as unroman?
 

ar-pharazon

Banned
Perhaps.

You could have Carthage, Rome and the Greeks fighting over Sicily.

Maybe you could have a stronger indigenous power in Iberia-thus counterbalancing the Carthaginians in Iberia.

With fierce competetition in the eastern Med between the ptolemies, Seleucids and antigonids.

With maybe some indepedent Greek city states and an Anatolian power or two.
 
Carthage winning the Second Punic War could lead to many butterflies:
-Most of the Mediterranean west of Sicily becomes Carthaginian, as the city-state conquers most of Iberia and reconquers Corsica and Sardinia from Rome, which gives them some precious mineral resources. Perhaps they can expand further into Morocco, too. I doubt Massilia would be able to wothstand Carthage's blows, though, and i hear they also had problems with the Celts.
-After Rome's hegemony is destroyed and most of its allies in Italy rebel, the Etruscans and Samnites may see a revival.
-Syracuse, meanwhile, can go both ways. Either it is overshadowed by Carthage, or it rises and gains hegemony over Magna Graecia. They could also expand into the Adriatic, thus bringing them into contact with the Illyrians.
-With no First Macedonian War, Philip V's Macedon ends up better able to deal with the Achaean and Aetolian leagues, and conquers most of the Aegean.
-Meanwhile, the Seleucids expand into the Eastern Mediterranean. They take Syria, most of Anatolia, and may even topple the Ptolemaics from Egypt.
As for the technological, cultural, and political effects of no Roman Empire in the Mediterranean, i'm unfortunately not sure.
 
Major Naval Powers
Byzantium-Crimea
Egypt-Punt
Rome-Carthage-Gaul

Lesser Naval Powers
Seleucid Syria
Macedonian Greece
Celtiberians
Mauritania-Ghana
 
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