WI: What if Jugurtha had not been betrayed by Bocchus I? TL

This is my first ever TL.

105 BC: Jugurtha discovers Bocchus's plan to betray him and poisons Bocchus (and thus disguising the murder as natural). He declares himself King of Mauritania.

Late 105 BC: Jugurtha, using the Mauritanian army and his own veteran (however, still small) legionary trained army, takes back Numidian cities from Gaius Marius. People who felt suppressed under Roman rule join Jugurtha's army, and several Romans desert Marius due to lack of victory and the loss of honor.

104 BC: Marius is forced to fall back to the last city in Africa still loyal to Rome that is not in the process of riots: Hippo Regius. Roman senate begins to worry about the lack of victories from Marius as the elections approach. A patrician by the name of Gaius Librius is elected consul and immediately sails to Hippo Regius with the Roman navy.
Librius is assassinated aboard his ship by a slave named Hasdrubal, who was embolded after overhearing that they were going to reinforce a weak Roman army. Meanwhile, Sulla leads a mutiny against Marius and a street war between Marius's and Sulla's factions breaks out. This allows Jugurtha to take the city and take 216 Roman soldiers prisoner. Sulla nd Marius were both killed in the street fighting.

103 BC: Roman navy, missing its leader, arrives at Hippo Regius to see a Numidian flying. Roman ships land outside the city and begin a siege. Jugurtha marches out in late 103 and routes the Roman army using his superior cavalry, as well as archers. A small force of local peasants viciously attacks the back of the Roman lines and breaks their will.
The other consul and dictator of Rome, Gnaeus Junius, meets with Emperor Jugurtha I in Hippo Regius and negotiate what is called the Great Peace of Africa in the year of the consulship of Gnaeus Junius and Gaius Libris*

*Roman years were generally denoted beginning with 'of the consulship' and then listing the names of that year's consuls.

102-89 BC: Carthage is rebuilt on unsalted land and is made a client kingdom of Jugurtha's North African Empire. Mago, a descendant of Carthaginian land owners, is made the king.

89 BC: At age 72, Jugurtha dies. King Mago, his son-in-law, is made Emperor. Carthage joins the rest of the Empire. As the first Mithradatic war is brewing and the Social War is raging, Pontic ambassadors arrive from Shahanshah Mithradates VI, asking for help; in exchange for the North Africans invading Italy, Mithradates would give premium trade to Mago. Emperor Mago delays, wanting to remain neutral.

88 BC: Mithradates VI massacres over 70,000 Roman and Italian settlers, kicking off the First Mithradatic War. Mago's advisers suggest they help Mithradates. The Social War is still being waged.
 
87-85 BC: Emperor Mago keeps his neutrality pact, while training troops in legionary tactics and instituting social programs in Carthage, including sweeping reforms in education and healthcare.
However, Mago also has begun to experience paranoia. He had his son, Prince Mago II of Carthage, executed as a suspected traitor.

84 BC: Mago's cousin, Prince Jugurtha II of Numidia, overthrows Mago in a popular coup. Mago is executed and Emperor Jugurtha II is crowned. He is a much more progressive ruler, and his speeches attract listeners from far away. His oratory skill brought him fame in the western Mediterranean.

83 BC: Pontic ambassadors come to Jugurtha II with the proposition of war on Rome. Jugurtha accepts, and secretly plans an invasion of Sicily. He fears Sertorius, the proconsul in Spain, might invade Mauritania.
North African ambassadors meet with Sertorius, who agrees not to attack when Jugurtha invades Sicily, as Sertorius also opposes the Roman government and is going to start his revolt soon.

82 BC: North African troops lay siege to Lilybaeum. Meanwhile, a young man in Carthage named Hanil Coba begins to write a scroll denouncing ruke by a foreign king. He seeks to restore Carthage to being a client kingdom ruled by a Carthaginian. His work catches on like wildfire, his philosophies being translated into Egyptian Demotic, Latin, Greek and othe languages. Hanil gathers together his followers in Carthage and forms the Hanilids.
Lilybaeum is taken as Roman legions struggle to deal with the Second Mithradatic War, the Invasion of Sicily and Sertorius's revolt. After six months, the western half of Sicily has been taken over by Jugurtha II's commander, Hanno Batat, and his legionaries.

Meanwhile...

In Egypt, the Ptolemies come under scrutiny from a warlord in Upper Egypt named Aman-Ka, who preached Hanil's philosophy. Aman-Ka begins to gather forces in Upper Egypt.

81 BC (Sicily): Roman legions cannot reach Lilybaeum to cut the head off the African-Sicilian snake. The Roman Navy, having been rebuilt, sails directly to Lilybaeum from Sardinia with an army on board. Led by the consul Lucius Publius, the army landed outside Lilybaeum while the navy, led by Lucius's Master of the Horse Maximus Brutus, besieged the harbor. Hanno Batat, realizing there was no way to win, negotiated the surrender of Lilybaeum.
Confronted with the loss in Sicily, Jugurtha II began to negotiate with Lucius Publius.

80 BC: Aman-Ka invades Lower Egypt. The Ptolemies begin mass recruiting as well as rationing, making them more unpopular with lower-class Egyptians. Within the year, the 33rd and ethnically-Egyptian dynasty was born. The first thing Aman-Ka did after reinstating Sun-Worship was to travel with several ambassadors to Carthage to meet with both Hanil and Jugurtha II.
Jugurtha II negotiates the Second African Peace, wherein he was made to pay a fine and to remain neutral for the remainder of the war.
Jugurtha II, recognizing the political sway of the Hanilids, meets with Hanil and appointed him the Prince of Carthage. He also meets Aman-Ka, and negotiates an alliance that vowed to go to war if the other went to war.
Sertorius flees to Mauritania after a major defeat in Spain and, as there was nobody better for the job, Jugurtha appointed him Prince of Mauritania after arranging for him to marry his daughter.

79 BC: Lucius Publius, elected again after his many victories, demands Jugurtha II hand over Sertorius or face war with Rome. Jugurtha II declines and Rome declares war on North Africa. Egypt joins the war and begins sailing towards Asia Minor.

79-77 BC: The Afro-Roman war rages on with invasions in Spain and Asia Minor.

77 BC: After the capture of nearly all the towns on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the Romans surrender. Jugurtha II comes to Mauritania to congratulate Sertorius for victories in Spain. While there, a disgruntled Mauritanian follower of Hanil stabs Jugurtha II to death for putting a former Roman in charge of Mauritania. The Empire splits into Numidia, Carthage and Mauritania (which includes Mauritania and the Spanish territories) and the empire descends into civil war.
 
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