The Revenge of Remus - A Derailed Rome

It seems I'm on a role, another update! Its simpler when you have older materials to work off of, hopefully more is coming soon!
 
Chapter 1 - Calm before the Storm

Part 6 - Fear The Seas Like You Fear Me

Background

The Ambrones were the first people to settle along the coast of the North-Western Italiot peninsula after the last ice age, they were a disorganized group of Pirates who spoke similar languages and were experienced sailers. Later on there was several migrations of Keltoi people, who integrated into Ambrone society and began to mix in their own culture into that of the native people. Still however the Ambrones remained distinct from the Keltoi, and they would remain that way for centuries to come.

As Ushiluna began to expand its power in the more southern areas of the Italiot peninsula the Ambrones began to raid the ships moving through the ports and they became quite good at it too. Eventually they were noticed by Qart-Hadast who felt threatened by the success of Ushiluna and was willing to go to great lengths to try to keep down this emerging power. This lead Qart-Hadast to make a strategic alliance with these pirates which transformed them almost into mercenaries, and also saw them change into a more modern fleet.

In less than a decade the Ambrones were able to build fleets of pirate ships that could rival most of the vessels travelling through the Tyrrhenian Sea, moving even along the coast became a dangerous game for smaller operations. Instead vessels began moving in groups, new technologies such as the lupumarish came into use, and mega-projects such as large roads were started. Together it began to offer relief to Ushiluna and made the process of trade safer for anybody travelling through the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The Response

When once again Qart-Hadast noticed the city of Ushiluna expanding its influence, it started financing a new plan to defeat the city once and for all. This event would happen during a major festival for the Rasna, all of the rulers of Campania would be gathered in Ushiluna for the event. Qart-Hadast began to encourage rebellion among the Latins, especially farmers who were fed up with the treatment they received. The farmers were instructed by Qart-Hadast to enter Ushiluna for the festival and during the event when the rulers were all together they would hit them with all they had, rocks, arrows, and whatever they could get.

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An illustration for a children's retelling of the story.

That night, the Ambrones would hit them with all they had. Hopefully catching them off guard and unable to respond fast enough, and with one fatal blow they could be crippled until the entire network of cities collapsed.

That was the plan but when it was put into action it did not go so smoothly. The Latins were able to get in but when it came time to strike they were unable to do much damage, the king of Parthenope would go on to die from the wound he received but other than that it was a total failure. And in the mean time the city prepared for the revolution they were concerned that this might be the start of, including the preparation of the navy in case of attack. The Ambrone attack was a complete failure, and the Ambrones were essentially crippled by [450 BC] from the response.

The Consequences

The consequences were far-ranging and altogether it seems to be almost a complete victory for Ushiluna. The Ambrones were defeated and along with those ships, we also saw several experienced crews go down, and that is something that the Ambrones could not replace. However the area had started the process of urbanizing and in the coming years they would transform into a more united society, with consequences for the wider Mediterranean, for now however they were devastated.

Ushiluna came out of it relatively unscathed, and it soon became much safer to travel by ship, piracy was almost eliminated with one failed raid. This initiated a short period of growth for Ushiluna, the navy was expanded and they would gain more experience during small skirmishes with Carthage who in the absence of their pirate proxies were fighting directly with Ushiluna. Ushiluna however also came out of it with paranoia towards the foreign, including the Oscans that lived inland, one group in particular, the Safineis [1] bore significant persecution. An important city of the Pentri tribe known as Bovianum [2] was completely destroyed during a heated period. This bloated military costed the city too much and harmed Ushiluna in the long run.

Qart-Hadast faced a foe that had up to this point thwarted its efforts to crush it, and finally their psyche began to adapt to this basic fact, they still invested in raids but now there was less urgency to it as they faced trouble in their Iberian colonies and with Syracuse. They still were the most powerful regime in the Western Mediterranean but they faced significant challenges that they would have to face in order to continue on.

[1] Samnites. Yep, those Samnites.
[2] Modern Bojano.
 
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This is an entirely original update to fill in some of the cracks that are in my other timeline spread out over several updates.
 
Chapter 1 - Calm before the Storm

Part 7 - Things Set in Motion

Chapter 10 - Conclusion, The Forgotten City: The Decline of Ushiluna

As we have already seen the paranoid reaction the new Ushiluna produced led to massive changes, and in the long term it hurt the city. The city began to field large armies it could barely maintain, much less control. However the process that got them there was even worse for the natives, the villages that operated independently of Ushiluna just outside the reach of the city were burned and trade diminished. On several occasions this led to uprisings that lessened the influence of Ushiluna and encouraged reliance on the Italiot cities, Egypt, and ironically on Qart-Hadast for fruit, oils, and grains. Money and precious metals were leaving the peninsula and not being replaced, and in the opinion of this author this effect is extremely underestimated for its consequences on a trade city such as Ushiluna.

It was however not the only factor that strained the forgotten city, the instability connected to the large army grew with each decade until eventually the aristocracy was all placed in power by the military with the express purpose of feeding the military machine. The army became arrogant and decadent while their city crumbled under taxes forced onto the traders to ensure the strength of the military’s position. The military became decadent and was poorly prepared for battle.

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Home of the last lauχum (king/leader) of Ushiluna.

This alone was not enough to seal their fate but what came next surely would. There was still many groups that were not as decadent in the surrounding country and more were to come, in [434 BCE] the Safineis tribal confederation began pushing back and extended their influence down south. In [400 BCE] the Senoni settled in Italiote, causing chaos on some transportation routes in the North and the East. These all disrupted the travel of goods and forced some of Ushiluna’s trading partners to look elsewhere for stable trade.

The cities associated with Ushiluna formed the Cumae League in [397 BCE] which declared their independence and ensured Ushiluna lost its most important safety net. The military did not like that but after several major defeats they were forced to accept it. The Cumae League allied itself with Veia, who had grown jealous of the success of Ushiluna and was concerned about the erratic behaviour that characterized the city.

Ushiluna became, like the Rasna who founded it, irrelevant and out of place. And the rivalry between Qart-Hadast and Ushiluna was soon replaced by a different axis that would define the next several centuries of rivalry. This is the return of an ancient rivalry between Lennic culture and Phoenicia, the participants would Syrakoussai and Qart-Hadast, the battleground had already been set over the divide between East and West at the island of Sicily. Already Sicily had played an important part in another case of decline, the fall of Athenai in the Peloponnesian War.
 
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