Romani Contra Orientem: Rome Turns East

A New King, A New Carthage

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Hasdrubal Barca​

Barcalona
Kingdom of Barca
Late 191

Hasdubal sat in his throne room with a large smile on his face. In front of him was Maharbal, a king of a smaller kingdom straddling the Pyrenee Mountains. He had been the victim of Hasdrubal's latest campaign and reportedly almost died in a recent battle. That is probably why he is here, taking a knee to his new ruler. "It is with great sadness that I submit to your demands Hasdrubal. Your brother Hannibal would be proud of what you have done." he said.

"Leave Hannibal out of this. I am not him, and he is not me...I am my own man." Hasdrubal said. He had been compared to Hannibal for to long, now he was an Emperor in his own right. Hasdrubal turned to one of his aides to his right "Tenicus, notify the world that Iberia has been united, and the Kingdom of Barca is not the Empire of Hispania." he said. Tenicus nodded and ran off as Maharbal rose to his feet.

"Now what you plan on doing...Emperor." he said. He had a certain taste of bitterness in his voice when he said that, Emperor.

"I plan on taking Carthage! We cannot let our homeland stay under Roman vassalage." Hasdrubal boomed. He was getting annoyed not at the man in front of him, but at Rome.

"You know Rome is right now preoccupied fighting your brother in the East, near Grecia and Asia Minor last I heard[1]." Maharbal said with a smile.

"Hannibal went East...to the Seleucid's?" Hasdrubal thought. He had lost track of Hannibal after Carthage's surrender. "Then we must strike when they are pre-occupied. We must move through the place they call Narbonensis." Hasdrubal declared. One of his generals, Syphax spoke next.

"Hasdrubal if we provoke Rome we risk a repeat of the Punic Wars." he said worryingly.

Hasdrubal waved them away "They are too involved in Grecia to do anything, all we need to do is strike Rome itself and they will sue for peace." Hasdrubal said with a firm tone. He was going to subjugate Rome like his brother never did.
 
Revenge

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Scipio Asiaticus's special Coin minted on the eve of his Expedition.​

Rome, Roma
Roman Republic
Late-191

Scipio Asiaticus stood in front of his new army. In front of him were over 50,000 light infantry, 20,000 heavy's and 20,000 cavalry. It has been the largest force assembled in Rome's history, probably in the history of the Mediterranean world. Just a week ago Roman scouts located a Hispanic invasion force ambling through Southern Gaul, on a attempt to pass the Alps and surprise Rome. That was a week ago and Rome needed to hurry to meet the threat. Well Rome had learned from Hannibal and Scipio had been told to halt the Hispanics. As an added bonus the invasion force is being led by Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother. "Well Hasdrubal, prepare to meet your match" Scipio thought. He reasserted his attention to the men in front of him. With the loudest voice he could Scipio began to speak "Almost 50 years ago Carthage tested the might of Rome, not once but twice. They were defeated. Just a year ago the Syrian's tried to test Rome's hegemony over Grecia, they to were defeated. Now Rome is being faced with a new threat from the past. Hanniba's brother Hasdrubal has assembled an Army to try what his brother never could. He is on a direct course for Rome itself to avenge Carthage's past defeats. That is why you are here now, to stop him at all costs! Hasdrubal cannot rampage through Italia again! Rome will be victorious!" Scipio finished. "That was a little all over the place but it seemed to do it's job" he thought as a rousing cheer rose from the ranks."Now!" Scipio continued "We march"!

An Hour Later...

An hour later and he had finally wended his way out of Rome. All it took was a lavish parade to distract the populace enough to allow his men exit, a day early to boot. He looked up into the sky and saw the sun had begun to end it's trip across the Heavens. "We are going to have to make camp soon." he thought. He debated whether to just stake camp now and came to a conclusion when the beating sun and stifling heat continued. He turned to the pretorian next to him "Tell the men to set camp here, we will restart the march early tomorrow". He halted his horse and the men as the pretorian began to shout orders at whoever would listen. Scipio turned to see the men had begun to converge on a old field right next to the road. Many were digging trenches and latriens while others were scouring the surrounding area for building materials. They will find them and within the hour a makeshift camp will emerge as if from nowhere. In typical Roman uniformity it will look like the possibly hundreds of thousands of others dotting the countryside. It was a beautiful sight to Scipio who was hell bent on exacting revenge on not a resurgent Carthaginian general turned Emperor, but the brother of the man who killed his brother.

He heard someone approaching and turned his horse to see a man in little more than a potato sack approaching. He had in his hand a letter wrapped in silk, it was from the North. When Scipio opened it and it read as such:

To: Scipio
From: Consul Publius Nasica

We have gotten word of a band of Hispanic scouts has razed a city on the Alps to the ground. It has been a reported two days since, you must make haste and stop them.


Scipio rolled it back up and gave it back to the man, who ran off. He turned his horse back to his tent "They will pay." was his only thought.
 

Hecatee

Donor
hum potato sack is a slight mistake, as potato would not come to Europe until the age of Columbus... but maybe "an oignon sack" ?
 
The fact Hannibal escapes East will only means other Anatolian kingdoms will fall under the heel of Rome. One could only wonders which will the next country to fall. Pontus? Cappadocia? Armenia? Or... :eek:

Out of curiosity, who was the one who defeated Hannibal in Africa?
 
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