Xamm Anim, version 4.0

[Monopolist]

This is a redo of Xamm Anim (which means something like “The People of Wealth” in ancient Punic), and is my fourth try at a “Hannibal beats Rome” timeline. The previous incarnation can be found at this link. The specific point of divergence is that Hasdrubal Barca successfully manages to merge with Hannibal’s army in 207 BC, avoiding the disastrous Battle of the Metaurus that killed him and obliterated his army in our timeline. Questions, comments, etc. are implored. Also, please do keep in mind that I am an amateur at history (all of my knowledge comes through Wikipedia, Google, and a couple great books I’ve found for research over the last couple years), and even moreso at writing (of which all my experience comes from bullshitting essays in English classes, and from my failed attempts at this timeline on here). Thanks for reading this, and I hope that you like the timeline.

 

[Monopolist]

Xamm Anim v. 4.0​

Put Hannibal in the scales: how many pounds will that peerless​

General mark up today? This is the man for whom Africa​

Was too small a continent, though it stretched from surf-beaten​

Ocean shores of Morocco east to the steam Nile,​

To tribal Ethiopia, and new elephants’ habitats.​

Now Spain swells his empire, now he surmounts​

The Pyrenees. Nature sets his path

High Alpine passes, blizzards of snow: but he splits​

The very rocks asunder, moves mountains with vinegar.​

Now Italy is his, yet still he forces on:​

“We have accomplished nothing,” he cries, “till we have stormed​

The gates of Rome, till our Carthaginian standard​

Is set in the City’s heart.” A fine sight it must have been,​

Fit subject for admiration – the one-eyed hero​

Perched upon his noble beast! All still there was glory to be had.​

Corrupt aristocracy, irreverent priests – all soon died for their own sins of state.​

And Hannibal, most worthy of all, ended tyranny and revived tradition,​

Ruling a righteous state.​

No sword, no spear, no battle-flung stone was to snuff​

The fiery spirit that saved a world:​

With absolute victories reborn a great nation that embodied the spirit​

That was Hannibal. On, on, O blessed one!​

Drive over the savage Alps, march upon Rome, defeat purveyors of tyranny,​

To thrill the Heavens,​

And supply a theme for poetic recitation! [1]​

[1] – This is based on a selection from Juvenal’s Satire, which starts off the introduction to the Penguin version of Livy’s Books XXI – XXX in his History of Rome. The in-timeline writer… we’ll say is anonymous; a mystery. This is how I started the last incarnation of this timeline, and I like it, so I’m doing the same thing here, except I’ve rewritten the new poem from the old one in Xamm Anim. All I’ve done is change a few lines here or there to make more sense in the context of a Carthaginian victory. A couple posts down will be where it gets real interesting.​

​

 

[Monopolist]

Gisgo Katab and his The Campaigns of Hannibal [1] [2]

Like many primary sources, Gisgo has his problems, but regardless, he is by far and away our best source on the life and campaigns of Hannibal Barca, since the account of Hannibal’s Hellenic tutor, Sosylus, was cut short due to an untimely death, and by the sands of time. [3]

He served in Hannibal’s army as one of his officers from the beginning of his war with the Romans in 596 AY [4], all the way to the end of the war eleven years later in 607 AY [5], and would later support Hannibal in his Civil War against the aristocracy of the city. After the civil war, Gisgo served as the governor of Lilybaeum, spending much of the remainder of his life in governing that city. [6] It is in that post that Gisgo began writing his history of the greatest Carthaginian commander, and especially his campaign against Rome, in his The Campaigns of Hannibal.

Naturally, being an officer under Hannibal, and having served at a high ranking post within the new Punic government of the Barcid Maliks, Gisgo is a very biased source – he nearly always sticks up for Hannibal’s reputation, and can be seen in a sense as the earliest tool of Hannibal’s propaganda war that had to have taken place shortly before and throughout his reign as the absolutist ruler of the Carthaginian Empire. However, that does not stop him from being the best source on Hannibal’s life – the lies one tells says quite a bit about the liar, so in a way, the propagandizing that Gisgo partakes in can almost help us better understand who Hannibal was (and, to a lesser extent, Gisgo himself). [7]

Also, that Gisgo was part of Hannibal’s army gives us as historians a perfect source for the battle tactics, the campaign, and the city’s armies before the reforms were instituted under the Barcid Dynasty. Being a soldier, his knowledge of the tactics is sound, and most historians agree that Hannibal’s propaganda work was more about his actual reign as Malik rather than his campaigns against the Roman enemy – only numbers are contested as exaggerated, as few historians believe that the Romans were capable of sending not only as many men as they did to a battle like Cannae or Falerii, but to be so consistently able to field enormous armies, even after Hannibal dealt them the most terrific defeats seen in history, seems unlikely to say the least for one city-state and its protectorates. [8] These revisionist historians often point out how often Gisgo repeats the size of armies, even when not in battle, and see this as a clever attempt to trick the reader into trusting the validity of his claims. [9]

It isn’t just troop totals that Gisgo tends to repeat and emphasize – repetition, long and sometimes overly-complicated sentences, and liberal foreshadowing are key elements of his prose. [10]

However, for most historians, the most important trend in Gisgo’s writing is how he rarely refers to Hannibal’s faction as Carthage or Carthaginian; nearly always, Gisgo portrays the war as a conflict between the Roman Republic and the House of Barca, with the Barcids having nominal support from the Carthaginian establishment. On rare occasion Gisgo will refer to Hannibal’s army as a “Punic” army (most frequently during his siege of Rome, when Hannibal did get significant aid from the establishment in Carthage), but far more often, it is described as a Barcid army, or even as a “coalition” of the enemies of Rome. This, clearly, derives in part from his pro-Hannibal bias, and the negligence of the Carthaginian Oligarchy is probably exaggerated; however, there is very probably an underlying truth to the war being a private war waged by the Barcids through their resources in Iberia against the Roman state as revenge for the humiliations of the first war, a private war that found a lot of support amongst Celtic and Italian communities that were abused by the Roman Oligarchs.

Gisgo clearly got the idea for writing a history about Hannibal’s campaigns from Sosylus and other Hellenes, who had been writing history in this format ever since their confrontations with Darius and Xerxes. In fact, Gisgo’s writings can be seen as an early step of the process of Hellenization of Carthage, which many consider to have blossomed during Hannibal’s reign over the Carthaginian Empire. [11]

… [12]


[1] – This is the Gisgo that commented at Cannae at how large the Roman army was, when Hannibal responded that despite the size of the Roman force, not one of them was named Gisgo. I used the same character as my principal narrator in Xamm Anim, and he will play a similar role ITTL (though somewhat less prominent, I’d say – I want to add in more voices this time).

[2] – “Katab” means “write” in Ancient Punic – so it’s Gisgo “the Writer”. How do I know that? Well, a couple years ago now, I found this nice site, which is essentially a Punic-English dictionary… for what little Punic we know. At times, I might be forced to use Hebrew for in-timeline Punic phrases, but I can promise that I’ll make a strong effort to avoid that at all costs, taking advantage of what Punic we do know.

[3] – Sosylus is not an invented character, and he actually did write a history of Hannibal’s campaigns, in favor of the Carthaginians. Unfortunately, it’s been lost for centuries – maybe even millennia. I prefer to use Gisgo again though as my proxy ancient historian, as that makes it an actual Carthaginian writing their history.

[4] – “AY” stands for “Abbid yawm”. The phrase means “from the time of our ancestors”: “ab” is “ancestors”; “bid” is “from”, and “yawm” is “time of”. Put together, they get the above… or at least close enough. I have no knowledge of Punic grammar; I’m not cool like that. One thing I have learned from studying French for a few years though, is that the right version is probably the one that sounds right, so that’s how I’m operating with in-timeline Punic phrases/grammar. Anyways, think of AY as the same as Rome’s “AVC” – it’s just dating from the founding of Carthage itself, which was around 814 BC. I’ll put up footnotes whenever I post a date, and convert it to our system down there. And I may as well start now: 218 BC.

[5] – 207 BC

[6] – “Malik” is essentially the Punic word for King, and indeed is the same for many Semitic languages. Whenever Gisgo talks about a King, he’s going to say “Malik”… part of the in-timeline language that I’ll be using plenty of.

[7] – The writer of this (I am not giving the background information behind Gisgo, I’m speaking as a concise version of one of those historian or translator intros you see in Penguin Classics for Livy and Herodotus and all of them – that’s where I got the idea from, anyways) clearly sees Hannibal as an ambitious power-hungry conqueror, and as a result, is less forgiving of him. Hannibal here is in many respects Carthage’s Julius Caesar, and will be criticized plenty by in-timeline historians. (In actuality, Hannibal will actually be a pretty decent ruler for the most part, on the whole nicer than Caesar, but that won’t wholly be believed by historians.) Meanwhile, the Romans will often play the part of the persecuted (semi-)lost civilization sort of like Carthage. Quite the reversal of roles, eh?

[8] – It’s not Gisgo that really exaggerates – occasionally, I’ll have him give Hannibal’s enemies a few more men at a couple battles, but nothing spectacularly over what they “really were” – rather, it’s the historians of this timeline that are disbelieving at just how many men one city (and it’s conquests) could send after such overwhelming victories by Hannibal. I know I’d be skeptical that Rome could still field as big an army after Cannae as they did in an ATL where Carthage won.

[9] – In actuality, I repeat numbers a lot (and I’m going to make a concerted effort to make Gisgo most infamous for that) just as reminders as to how big the armies are for both the reader and myself, because I think it can get a little confusing sometimes.

[10] – Since I basically write like Gisgo (except, in RL, I try a little less to pass as an ancient historian ), those are my big criticisms of my own writing style (and, I expect, other peoples’). For other historians, I will attempt to write differently, but we’ll see how it goes – last time, as I recall, I didn’t do so well… but maybe now with a little more experience under my belt I’ll do a lot better at it.

[11] – Don’t worry – Carthage will still be very different culturally from the Greeks. But Greek culture will increasingly become adopted by Carthage, and Hannibal – who was a sort of Hellenophile, evidenced in part by his having a Greek tutor as part of his retinue – will help begin that trend once he becomes Malik. The Greek language/culture was the most influential one of its time, and elites of those days from modern Pakistan to Sicily were Hellenizing to show their “elite-ness”, whether they were friendly with Greeks or not. Think of it like the French language/culture during the enlightenment and the reign of Louis XIV – I’d say that’s the best example, as I think the total and global domination of American culture today is a bit too extreme an example.

[12] – Most of what I write here will end in an ellipsis, because many of my updates will essentially be excerpts from ATL histories – most notably of those, Gisgo. Often, I will break up the passages themselves with ellipsis to “skip” unnecessary stuff and get to the important information.

 

[Monopolist]

An excerpt from Gisgo’s The Campaigns of Hannibal

Book 7 [1]

16. With every passing day the Romans quaked with the knowledge of Hasdrubal’s march from the war in Iberia, and Hannibal’s armies in the south bristled with anticipation, eager to show their worth once more with the arrival of their companions. There was a sense that grew each day that the war would be over soon, and Hannibal would finally defeat the Romans, who had held out against him so long.

While Hasdrubal marched towards Rome’s territories, through those Celtic lands that lay between the colonies [2] and Italy, gaining those barbarians in droves to fight for their cause, peculiar things were rumored to be happening to the Romans, omens from the heavens at their drained and hopeless efforts. At Veii, it rained stones, and at Minturnae, the temple of Jupiter and the grove of Marica were struck by lightning, and later legend arose that there was a river of blood that incepted at the town’s gate. At Capua, a wolf attacked a Campanian sentry, and in Frusino, a child was born, whose size was proportionate to that of a four year old, and its’ sex was indeterminable. These things scared the Romans, but brought joy to the coalition of armies against Rome, for these were signs that the heavens were behind the sons of Hamilcar, backing the Barcid standards in the renewed campaigns to come.

The Romans’ Ab-Adyriim [3] would bid of the people a great sacrifice to be made, as the new consuls Gaius Claudius Nero and Marcus Livius had not left yet to campaign against the brothers. Over the course of several days afterwards, a procession of virgins would be marched around the city, singing a hymn, and several cows would be sacrificed to gods of Rome, for luck on the Roman campaign, and to end the recent chaos that came over the state with the recent divine messages and Hasdrubal’s march over the Alps. While the Romans believed that this was enough to please their gods, it was not enough, as the fates would be far less kind to the Romans in the coming weeks.

17. To confront the Carthaginian armies, who were rallying their armies in both the north and the south, the Romans in turn split their armies in two, between their Shophets [4]. Marcus Livius, chosen for his experience [5], was sent to the north to meet Hasdrubal as he descended from the Alps, before his army could wreak havoc upon the Romans of Italy. Meanwhile, Nero was sent with an army south, to attempt to contain Hannibal and his army, whom now found themselves in Bruttium in the south.

Livius’ march north was delayed, according to every source’s account, by arguments with the Romans’ government. He did not believe in his men, some twenty thousand in number [6], feeling that they were not eager to fight a revived Hannibal. They were weaker men, who had not fought in the earlier years of the war. Nero’s army, on the other hand, was filled with veterans and experienced men, who could best hope to challenge Hannibal’s veterans from Saguntum on, and Livius became jealous. If he were to fight with less quality troops than Nero, he would fight with more men than him. After some time of holding out, ignoring his duty to defend Rome from Hasdrubal, Livius got his wish – he received ten thousand barbarians, two thousand Romans, five thousand skirmishers, and two thousand mounted men. In addition to this, slaves were conscripted to fight for their Roman masters against Hasdrubal’s growing army – men, certainly, of dubious loyalty to the Romans and their Shophets.

18. The pettiness of Livius cost him and his city. So long did it take for Livius’ problems to be addressed, that the necessary men were still being conscripted when the Romans’ commander in Gaul, Lucius Porcius Licinius, failed to stop Hasdrubal, and had alerted Rome that the Barcid was had left his winter quarters in Gaul and crossed the Alps, and began to conscript more fighting men from the Celtic tribes to wage war on Rome. Despite his failure, Livius was still granted his men and chief command of the armies. [7]

Hasdrubal marched across an Alps that had been well-subdued by Carthaginian arms. Hannibal’s earlier efforts to gain the loyalties of local chieftains – by sword or coin – eased Hasdrubal’s journey, and instead of losing men to the perils of such hostile lands, Hasdrubal’s army grew in size, burgeoning with new barbarian allies. This only further encouraged the men, and full of energy, Hasdrubal besieged the Roman colony of Placentia – near the site of the victory at Trebia – after descending from the Alps. This was an attack in futility – the defenders were stout, and it was soon decided that it would take too long for the Carthaginian to assert his superiority over the Romans there. Hasdrubal’s mission was one of speed moreso than the conquest of the Po River and all the peoples that made that place home. The only accomplishment of note was that Hasdrubal managed to successfully send six messengers across all of Italy to open communications with Hannibal, brother talking to brother – a rarity during the unfortunate course of war for any pair of siblings. [8] This correspondence, which was to be the only one before their armies merged, discussed where and when Hamilcar’s sons should meet. Despite Hasdrubal’s initial insistence on meeting in Matilica, Hannibal convinced his younger brother that the colony of Ancona would be a better place for the armies to meet. [9] As the town was a port, it made a good base to receive friendly troops from Philip of Macedonia, whom Hannibal planned to contact; in addition, Ancona was a strong point to recruit from, and a comfortable site for the men to stay at, compared to Matilica, which was small and prone to misfortune. [10]

19. After the siege of Placentia, Hasdrubal continued his march towards Ancona, trying to avoid the Romans who were pursuing them. Little rest was taken by the Hasdrubal’s army, who knew that if they were to fail to reach Hannibal, their doom was assured. The Metaurus River marked Hasdrubal’s only rest, where he made sacrifices to the proper gods and gained some more men to bolster his forces from some of the locals whom called that region home. When this was done, Hasdrubal’s men continued their march to the south, which wouldn’t last much further.

The armies of Livius and Porcius, which numbered forty thousand men, could never quite catch Hasdrubal’s army. They did not know his destination, and Hasdrubal was a cunning enemy for them to catch – even Scipio, one of the few Roman generals of worth, could not prevent his escape from Iberia. [11] After days of hard pursuit by the humiliated Livius, word was sent to Rome that the Roman Shophet was unable to catch Hasdrubal, and that the northern armies – which included Varro, who commanded Etruria – would return south to Latium, where a proper defense could be made against their Carthaginian adversaries. There, the Romans could regroup their armies in Italy, where they could both strongly fortify Latium and, in particular, Rome, and create an army that could rival or even outdo that of the army at Cannae nine years earlier.

20. Meanwhile, the consul Nero, with a better force than Livius, marched south, and was there in full force at the expected time. He and the Rab-Sheni [12] Quintus Fulvius Flaccus headed the Roman forces of the south, and together had a force of nearly forty thousand. There was another army, comprised of another twenty thousand men, in Tarentum, which was commanded by Quintus Claudius. Sixty thousand Romans, then, were lined against Hannibal to prevent his merger with Hasdrubal’s army. In comparison, Hannibal’s entire force was located in Bruttium, and was made of slightly over thirty thousand, many veterans from the beginning of the war and his great battles at Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae – and some even still from the campaigns of Hamilcar in Iberia.

With knowledge of his brother’s doings and intentions, Hannibal began to prepare for the coming year of campaigning. His first action was to gather his men to his Bruttian rally point. Also of immediate importance was to contact his ally, the Macedonian Malik Philip, to try to secure whatever troops he could as soon as possible. Philip was instructed to send men to Ancona by the time he expected to be there – he would leave the city as soon as he could with or without them, for speed remained his foremost priority. These tasks done, Hannibal began his attempt to reach Ancona and Hasdrubal’s reinforcements. The hope was to avoid confrontation with Nero’s army – for their quantity might still get the best of Hannibal’s quality, even after Hannibal had prevailed so often against larger Roman armies.

Nero gathered his forces in the Lucanian town of Grumentum, which was seen as a strong position for Rome to make a defense against Hannibal. There was a river to the north of the city, which would protect the Romans from letting Hannibal escape. To the east, there was a large lake – Nero’s forces always remained to the opposite of this lake, very conscious of the disaster at Lake Trasimene, and not wanting a similar fate in the battle to come with Roman backs to the water. He feared to look the part of the dead fool to his countrymen, men like Gaius Flaminius, who had respected careers until Hannibal cast them the role of incompetent to his genius. Another reason for this was because there were hills to the west of the settlement, which could offer the Romans all the benefits of the high ground in the coming battle. Nero and his officers – namely Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, who had contributed the other half of the Shophet’s army [13] – discussed the Roman stratagem for the coming battle within Grumentum’s walls, while the common soldiers toiled in creating the Roman camp, and waited for Hannibal’s arrival.

Hannibal and his men reached the city shortly thereafter and, finding that the north, east, and west were taken by Romans or by natural barriers, he camped to the south, along the lake, for there, there was easy water for his men as they lay in wait for the battle with the Romans. For three days thereafter, light skirmishing took place between the armies as they scouted the opposing force, trying to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Generally, these skirmishes went the way of the coalition, whose cavalry always overwhelmed the Roman senators sent on scouting missions they always deemed themselves above.

21. All this time, Hannibal was plotting his escape from Grumentum. He did not want to risk losing any men, lest he lose the manpower to defeat the larger Roman armies that he knew were coming, and still have enough men at his disposal to threaten Rome itself, even with Hasdrubal’s army and potentially Philip’s Macedonians to relieve him. He believed he could beat the Romans here, despite their defensive advantages, for he was always a confident man, and he his veterans were of a unique class, an unmatched mass of talent. But the risk was too great. Every night, he offered lavish sacrifices to Ba’al Hammon and other gods, praying for some storm or other distraction to allow his escape. After the third day, his prayers were answered, and a loud and furious storm came that would last throughout the night.

The next phase in Hannibal’s plan then went into action. Before he left, he wanted the Romans to believe that he had no intentions to leave the site. He sent an envoy of trusted Latins to go to the Roman officers’ headquarters within the Roman camp, and ask them if battle the next morning would be acceptable to the Romans. Nero and his men were delighted – cheers came roaring out of all their men at the news. This was the signal to leave – Hannibal had the camp stay as much how it was as possible, so as not to raise immediate suspicion from the Romans, and then guided his armies around the lake and to the north, with the noise of the storm and of the cheering Romans canceling out and more any noise the Carthaginian soldiers made. The gods had clearly rewarded Hannibal for his respect for them throughout the war and at Grumentum, for the plan had worked perfectly.

At daylight the next day, the Romans discovered their failure, finally learning that Hannibal had left Grumentum altogether, and now was several hours ahead of them on forced march. Nero, embarrassed and infuriated beyond the capabilities of normal men, quickly rounded his army, and began to chase Hannibal’s army, but soon found that he could not catch up with Hannibal’s army without forcing the men at such a pace that would kill them. He would continue the chase for several days following this disaster, but for all of it, he knew that all chance at immortal glory for Rome and for him seemed to be lost. Hannibal had escaped right when it seemed the Romans had their best chance at defeating him since Cannae.

Eventually, Nero gave up his chase, and returned back to Rome, where the armies of Marcus Livius and Lucius Porcius Licinius had returned in their shame to catch Hasdrubal. Both men, despite their failures [14], were granted command of the Romans’ stand against what would be the combined forces of Hasdrubal and Hannibal Barca. The armies of those four men, plus those of Gaius Terentius Varro and Quintus Claudius, stationed in Etruria and Tarentum, respectively, would be summoned at Praeneste, where they would be combined to give Rome its largest army that it would ever assemble in one place: an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, numbers which since Gaugamela were unheard of by any man.

22. While the armies of Rome rushed to the city of Praeneste, to merge their armies for the coming battle, the Barcid armies too were conglomerating, at the town of Ancona. There, the three brothers and their core officers met for one week to discuss the logistics of the march to Rome, and how they would be able to tactically defeat the growing enormous Roman army at Praeneste, which was over a hundred thousand men in size. Philip’s Macedonians – three thousand men in number, along with artillery [15] – arrived only three days after Hannibal, and were incorporated into the army with much rejoicing from the brothers’ weary men, whom had travelled long and far to get there. It had not been expected that Philip’s men would manage to avoid the Roman patrols in the Illyrian Sea, but, surprisingly, the brothers’ success had reinvigorated the Malik of Macedonia. Philip had put significant effort into achieving this feat, and what had seemed unlikely had been done. These men, along with the several hundred men from local Italian and Celtic tribes and cities that Hasdrubal had befriended while waiting for Hannibal to reach Ancona, only added further to the ranks of Hannibal’s army, and with that improved morale even more. But their morale could not last for long – victory was needed to whet their appetite.

New troops added, and Hamilcar’s great sons finally reunited, Monophthalmus [16] and his men restarted their march towards Rome. The combined Barcid forces, which now numbered over sixty thousand with the newly added troops, took the Via Flaminia west towards Latium – Ancona was the easternmost stop of that road. [17] They would rest from their journey from the Apennines at the town of Falerii [18], which was a prominent Roman town that was a strong place to make the Punic base for the final campaign in Latium. If the Romans would not surrender after nearly sixty thousand of their countrymen [19] around all of Italy, and if they would not surrender if their greatest enemy lay untouched upon their soil for nearly a decade, than they must when their battles came on their own territory, within the boundaries of Latium itself, with Hannibal himself leading those responsible.


[1] – I’m trying not to use Roman numerals, because, well, just think about it. It just looks wrong with a regular, Arabic-style number though… it bothers me. *Sideshow_Bob_shudder*

[2] – He means the Punic colonies in Iberia, like New Carthage (Qart-Hadasht).

[3] – Back to that Punic I said I’d be using… I will have the Edamim-Adyriim (“Council of the People”) be the in-timeline Punic for the Council of 104, and Gisgo sees this as the Punic equivalent of Rome’s Plebeian Council. The Ab-Adyriim (Council of Elders), then, is seen as the Punic equivalent of the Roman Senate.

[4] – He means their consuls.

[5] – Marcus Livius had served as consul once before in his life.

[6] – Each consul had been given two legions (and with the two legions, two allied groups). Other subordinate commanders, like Varro, had been given a similar number, and were expected to meet up with the consuls’ should a true, pitched battle arise against either Hannibal or Hasdrubal.

[7] – Gauls and Iberians, to be specific.

[8] – This, of course, is the Point of Divergence, the “PoD”. IOTL, the Romans caught these messengers, figured out where Hasdrubal was going, cornered him, and crushed him at the Battle of the Metaurus.

[9] – According to Adrian Goldsworthy’s book, Hannibal and Hasdrubal’s armies were supposed to meet in Southern Umbria (Matilica is an actual site in the area, one that I chose just for no real reason other than that it’s there). I’ve decided to change it to Ancona for a couple reasons: it’s the very end of the Via Flaminia, so it’s easy to follow their trip across Italy’s width, and also because it’s a port where Philip would be able to land troops. Assume that Hannibal changed the plans to help get Philip’s troops, and that Gisgo just failed to mention that Hannibal did change the plan.

[10] – Intentionally vague. Mostly, Gisgo’s making a “because I said so argument” for Hannibal.

[11] – Scipio gets more respect from Gisgo due to his post-war achievements… plenty more on Scipio later.

[12] – Rab-Sheni will be the name I use (in Gisgo’s and academic texts) for, well, a position similar to a praetor in the field – they’re a high ranking elected command, but not the highest. I’m not sure if Quintus Claudius or Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was a praetor that year, but they were in a position of similar power in the field. Thanks to Lysandros Aikiedes for the title.

[13] – Nero’s army at Grumentum is four legions, or forty thousand men. Hannibal, meanwhile, has a little less than thirty thousand.

[14] – To put it in perspective, the Carthaginians might have crucified the both of them for their failures – emphasis on might, but still, there’s a chance it’d be on the table, for such a critical failure in such a critical situation.

[15] – The main artillery at this time would be ballistae.

[16] – Every once in a while, to break up the monotony, I’ll refer to Hannibal as Monophthalmus, or some sort of synonym of that. In real life, Hannibal only had one functioning eye – conjunctivitis got it in the Alps. ITTL, Carthaginians will affectionately refer to Hannibal as “the one-eyed general”, “cyclops”… you get the gist. Later, it’ll be one of his regnal epithets, along with “the Thunderer”, to go with the name Barca. I decided to go with Monophthalmus here in part because of the Hellenization that I referred to earlier… plus, it’s an awesome word, a lot better than “one-eye”.

[17] – This might prove helpful.

[18] – Modern Civita Castellana. At least, it’s around that area. The ancient city might be slightly off the current settlement, but you get the gist of where it’s at.

[19] – The figure is a high estimation of the body count of the Roman dead at Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae – Italian socii are not counted.

 

[Monopolist]

A picture I took of Grumentum from Google Earth. You can see the lake and the hills, and the river, while narrow and thin, is visible in the north. The main Roman camp would have been near the city, whereas Hannibal would be maybe a little further south-southeast, probably out of the picture, but still near the lake.​

 

[Monopolist]

I do want to warn people that I have posted everything that I have done thus far, so it’ll be a few days – maybe even over a week – before I post another update. I’m posting early purely because I want to force myself to really get started on the reboot – college, common laziness, and an unhealthy desire for perfection with what I’ve already written have retarded my efforts significantly. I need to just start writing, and the pressure of providing updates is a great way to make me do that.

 

[Monopolist]

Any thoughts?

 

[nlspeed]

I was afraid to be the first to comment, I've checked here thrice.

But, hey, it's about Carthage, and I believe I've read all previous incantations, so based on that, this will be great!

But yeah, I suck at giving constructive and useful criticism. I may as well copy paste 'awesome story, keep going' in a few hundred threads.

 

[St. Just]

Huzza! It is back!

 

[werdna]

Looks good, I'll be waiting for the next part to be posted.

 

[Errnge]

Ah!

It's back! And I can start from the beginning this time!

 

[willbell]

Its back! Too bad the last one is finished.

 

[Monopolist]

Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments. And for remembering that this even existed - I was kind of worried that no one would remember what the hell Xamm Anim even means, let alone that it's a Carthage timeline.

Its back! Too bad the last one is finished.

The last one's been dead for over a year!

There were too many details that I wanted to change to simply revive the old one... maybe I'm a perfectionist (and if I am, it's only with this timeline ), but I just couldn't start back where I left off last year. The hows of how Hannibal beat Rome and the Carthaginian state last time needed to be changed fairly significantly, in my mind, and quite a few small things. And I have in mind some big changes for the stories of Scipio and of Antiochus the Great for TTL. Just too little things (and some big things) about it have bugged me....

EDIT: That said, any thoughts about the content? I know there's nothing surprising or really all that interesting yet... but still, any thoughts?

 

[Monopolist]

An excerpt from Gisgo’s The Campaigns of Hannibal

Book 7

29. Despite the Romans’ considerable advantage, having at their disposal far more men than Hannibal could ever produce, the Roman leadership was confused and argumentative, even at the best of times. And these were not the best of times for them, as Hannibal and his men had left Ancona and were now making their confident march towards Rome and their much greater armies. Once this news reached the Romans, who were largely stationed in Praeneste, panic and chaos erupted amongst their leadership, and leaked to their men. Their officers and magistrates had not settled on a plan, yet, to confront Hannibal, and how to allocate their immense resources to achieve their goals.

These passions having reached their tipping point, constructive argument out of necessity began. The decisions they would reach would finally become final.

30. The Shophet Claudius Nero spoke first, as he was amongst the two chief Roman magistrates and officers, and he was the more senior Shophet, being of a more distinguished line than his colleague, Livius. [1] Nero was a rash and unforgiving man, and while nearly every Roman citizen hated Hannibal unlike any man since they had ousted their Maliks, he seemed to hate him more – especially after Hannibal had made the politician look like a fool at Grumentum, escaping right when he had thought that he had trapped the Carthaginian commander for good. He had been quick to believe that glory and respect had been won, before he had won them, and now, he pushed for his vengeance.

According to the best sources [2], he addressed his countrymen in the following way. “The answer to our problems is boldness – a boldness that we Romans, the most bold of any civilized people, have thoroughly lacked throughout this great war with our great enemy. We have become fearful of Barca and his barbarian army. We do not believe, anymore, in the great skill of our officers, and of our armies. We have not carried ourselves in the way that our fathers did back when Hamilcar Barca, and not his sons, menaced our troops. Fabius – perhaps wisely, perhaps not – set us on this course nearly a decade ago. And still, Hannibal remains.

“Now, the great barbarian commander shows a distinctly Roman boldness. It was thought, ages ago, that only a mad, brutish, Celtic warlord would invade and wreak havoc from the Alps – a conniving, deceitful, perfidious Carthaginian, we believed, would never take such a route, when so many safer options remained. And then, Hannibal marched an army of tens of thousands of men and elephants over the snowy mountains, laid waste to our northern settlements, enrolled thousands of barbarians, slaughtered many armies worth of our citizens and allies, and still remains unbeaten in Italy after over a decade.

“Hannibal is a different breed Carthaginian than any we have ever fought before, for he is a Carthaginian willing to fight us in our own ways. And against him, we do not fight by our own standards. Instead, we bow to him, as Carthaginians should do to Romans, and let him and his men slaughter our men, rape our women, and enslave our children. All because we refuse to fight him as Romans are meant to fight; all because we refuse to take action, as true Romans should.

“What I propose, then, should be obvious. If we are not too cowardly, and still have our innate Roman courage, then we should send all these eager men to do the deed we have trained them to do – to defeat Hannibal once and for all. We should march out, use our advantage to its fullest, confront the enemy head on where we can, and finish him. Our numbers are overwhelming, our men steady and virtuous. All that remains to be seen is if our officers have virtue, or if they have the hearts of barbarians, masquerading themselves as Romans. If we fail to do this, we cannot win, and we will not win. Rome will be destroyed, and us all dead, or worse.” [3]

31. At the conclusion of this speech, Nero received a considerable amount of applause from his fellow soldiers. Their passions were stirred, and their hearts ready to again confront the great Hannibal Barca. However, there were many still opposed to this plan, and their thoughts were summarized by the Rab-Sheni Gaius Terentius Varro, the man who had led the men to disaster at Cannae after having spoken similar rhetoric to that of Nero now.

“Countrymen – we all know, I think, that Hannibal is a different enemy than any we have ever fought before. Pyrrhus, compared to him, was no threat – not even a remote one. Nor were the Carthaginians in the first war, for their only leader was Hamilcar Barca, and even he could not compare to his son. Perhaps Brennus, that brutish barbarian that sacked Rome two hundred years ago was of a similar caliber to Hannibal, but he is far out of the memory of any living Roman or Celt today.

“We have tried to conduct this war against Hannibal as any other we have fought in our history – we have confronted him in pitched battle several times now. Cannae was the last of these battles against Hannibal, a battle that, as you all know, I commanded alongside poor Paullus. There, I was of the same opinion that Nero is now espousing – that Fabius’ strategy is of no virtue and ineffectual. We had many, many more men than Hannibal did at the battle, and we had the ground that we wanted to fight him on. But still, we could not prove victorious against Hannibal.

“Now here, in this position, we cannot afford to follow the Fabian tactic, and let Hannibal march up to Rome’s gates as he pleases – this is obvious even to the most foolish amongst us. I am not arguing for the continuance of Fabius’ tactics, effective though I have found them to be. It is clear that we must send out an army to defeat Hannibal, hopefully once and for all.

“However, I do not feel that it is necessary to send out all twelve of these armies [4], gathered from all about Italy, to defeat Hannibal and, in fact, I believe it to be foolish to send out all of these men.

“We have one hundred and twenty thousand men at our disposal, and already, even here, close to Rome’s gates, we have trouble feeding the men, and maintaining order and stability over them here in the barracks. In the field, against the wiliest of men, these problems will almost certainly be exploited by the enemy. He will use our clumsiness against us, urging us to extend our lines to several miles in length. He will use our enormous amount of officers, and therefore differing opinions, against us, dividing us further and weakening us on the whole. He will destroy supplies, provoking hostility from us, but only starving the men. In addition, the men’s morale will already be weakened by the insult of needing all of them to defeat Hannibal – we tell them every one of them is worth two of the enemy, yet, should we march out all of our men, we will be telling our men that every one of the enemy is worth two of our men. We will be weakened by our enormous strength and our divided leadership, and we will not be able to hold out. Hannibal will prevail.

“Instead, I propose that we divide our armies in half – two armies, each of sixty thousand men, each commanded by one of the Shophets. One can venture out to attack Hannibal reasonably, with safe supply lines, order, and united leadership, and hope to gain victory, while the other remains closer to Rome, prepared to force Hannibal into a second battle, should he emerge victorious in the first. If Hannibal can defeat two armies of equal size to his in succession, and still threaten the safety of the city of Rome, then we are not the caliber of Romans that our fathers were, and we should deserve whatever Hannibal deals.”

32. With this, Varro concluded his speech, and he received some applause as well. However, many supporters of Nero’s position jeered at the former Shophet, accusing him of not being a true Roman, amongst other things. The support, clearly, was more with Nero and glory than with Varro and caution. However, final Roman support for this plan was not possible until Nero’s fellow Shophet, Marcus Livius, made his support for Nero’s plan known to all.

… [5]

33. With the conclusion of Livius’ speech, nearly all of the Roman officers outside of Varro and his closest supporters stood and clapped and cheered for their generals’ decision. The Romans were again excited at the prospect of finally defeating Hannibal, believing that they were ready to finish him. All the men were mobilized the next morning, and they marched out to a field outside Falerii, which rests near the Via Flaminia, and made camp, preparing to take on Hannibal Barca on their own battlefield, on their own terms.

34. One can never know exactly what might have happened had Varro’s advice been followed; we can only know what happened in history, and speculate had things gone otherwise. Perhaps it is because Hannibal would prove victorious in the battle to come at Falerii, but it is my belief that the Romans would have won the war had Varro’s advice been followed. Two battles in quick succession with sixty thousand Romans would have devastated Hannibal’s army at least to the point where he might not have been able to threaten Rome any further, and might have even defeated him, in the end – this has been admitted by Hannibal himself. [6] But, instead, the Romans chose to confront Hannibal with all their resources and, as we all know, Hannibal proved, in the end, victorious over his hated enemies. [7]

…


[1] – Gaius Claudius Nero was a member of gens Claudii – one of the oldest families in Rome – and was the Patrician consul. Actually, IIRC, gens Claudii had more senior politicians over the course of the Roman Republic than any other family. Either it was them, or gens Cornelii – of whom Scipio Africanus was a member.

[2] – Who are these sources? I dunno. Enslaved Roman officer or something?

[3] – Nero’s speech is somewhat livelier than most ancient historians would write a speech - at least, it's more confrontational than most I can recall right now. So why is this? We’ll say there’s two reasons: one, Gisgo wrote it exactly as his source remembers it, and two, it’s one of Gisgo’s quirks – for the Greek historians, I’ll try and tone it down a little bit; make the scenes more... Thucydides-ish.

[4] – Refusing to use the word “legion”; haven’t come up with a suitable Punic translation for it.

[5] – Skipping Livius’ little speech in support of Nero… he offers some rebuttals to Varro’s argument, and concludes that Nero’s way is the only sensible path. I’m skipping it because you don’t need to read another speech, especially one that restates a lot of what the first one said. And because I’m lazy.

[6] – In-timeline historians dispute this.

[7] – Considered the first foray into alternate history ITTL.

 

[Monopolist]

Hannibal’s army, a couple miles south of the ruins of Narnia [1] along the Via Flaminia, 207 BC [2]

Hannibal sighed when he heard the news from the scouts.

“Twelve legions at Falerii? [3] And both consuls? You’re sure?”

The leader of the scouting party – an older Roman turncoat called Lucius – gruffly affirmed this once more. “Yes sir – never seen anything like it. They just kept coming and coming…. I served my time in the legion… fought as a velite in the wars… probably fought at Telamon against some of your barbarians, actually. But in all my time fighting for the “glory of Rome” and all that, I’ve never seen so many men in one place. Never.”

“Damn,” Hannibal muttered to himself, “and it was only a day to Falerii.”

Hannibal now began to feel that changing the plans to merge in Ancona might have been a bad idea. Sure, now they had three thousand of the vaunted Macedonian Argyraspides, the “silver shields” that had conquered the world with Alexander and decided the outcome of the Diadochi Wars in the east, access to some of the greatest siege weapons and engineers in the world, plus nearly a thousand extra Italian tribesmen at his service. But were those allies better than that of speed, which he would have had, had he met Hasdrubal in Umbria as initially planned? They could have marched quicker over the Apennines in two separate armies without siege weapons, and would have come from two directions: Hannibal from the southern Via Salaria, and Hasdrubal from the northern Via Flaminia. Had they done that, the Romans might not have been able to create a unified defense – the Italian legions would have still been making their way to Praeneste – and Hannibal’s job could have been significantly easier. But now… now he did not know if Ancona and extra men was the right choice.

Hannibal shook his head.

The “what if” game, however, was pointless – he was at war. He had been convinced a month before that he would have to defeat at least twelve legions worth of Romans, no matter if they were arranged in one army, or two, or more, and that he would be best served by accepting as many men of quality into his service as possible before he fought them. No use even considering regretting that decision.

Lucius again spoke up, noticing how worried his new master was. He might be a turncoat and a Roman, but he was not without sympathy for his new allegiances. “Look Hannibal – I know as well as anyone how many men twelve legions are.

And I know how many men you’ve got; how much fewer you are. But you’re a genius! You’re presence alone is worth what the Romans have extra! Surely you of all people can outmaneuver them, or whatever! Right?”

Hannibal seemed to ignore this, and called up Maharbal, who was nearby. “Tell the men that we’ll camp early tonight. Prepare them for a long march tomorrow –
I want to be outside Falerii’s walls tomorrow night.”

Once Maharbal left his presence, Hannibal looked out to the south, towards Falerii. He sighed again.

**

Hannibal’s tent at the camp outside Narnia that night, 207 BC

“Yes, Maharbal?” Hannibal asked upon noticing the Numidian captain enter the tent alone. Maharbal had actually been there for nearly a minute, but Hannibal had not been paying attention – his mind was occupied with worry on the inevitable battle to come.

“General… I have some concerns about our strategy.”

Hannibal smiled at Maharbal. “What might those concerns be, friend? Unlike sixty thousand other men in this camp, you have earned the right to question my judgment.”

“I believe that meeting the Romans at Falerii would be a mistake. I think they are under rash and clumsy leader – which you showed brilliantly at Grumentum – and I think they are clumsy in their numbers. We should provoke them into a chase, in which they wound themselves terribly through attrition, and eventually confront them in an ambush, on our own terms. We would obliterate them, and would be able to threaten Rome itself comfortably.”

Hannibal stared for a minute, not responding immediately to Maharbal’s argument.

“General….”

“Yes, yes.” Hannibal quickly responded. “I’ve just been thinking… worrying all day that your advice is right, that we must trick the Romans into a long chase, and hope that we get the opportunity to ambush them at the perfect time.”

Maharbal looked confused. “So are you agreeing with me… or what?”

“I’m not sure.”

Both men now sat and stared, pondering this difficult question. Not a word was spoken for several minutes, until Hannibal again spoke.

“I think not, Maharbal.”

Maharbal looked surprised, and questioned with that same tone, asking “Can I hear your rationale, sir, so that I may be enlightened as to why accepting battle with the Romans now is the better choice?”

“Two reasons, friend. First, we must consider the morale of our men – they are as tense as the Romans, as you yourself have told me, and they would not take kindly to wait for battle, and instead travel all about the peninsula through the mountains and valleys and along its rivers and streams. And second, like the Romans, we need supplies. Under Fabius’ strategy, the Romans have denied our foragers, and we ourselves have burnt and pillaged much of their land. We cannot last a war of attrition against an army that outnumbers us two to one, regardless if more of them will die.”

Hannibal looked grim, and, after a few moments, continued speaking. “I too fear pitched battle with so many eager Romans, who seem to have learned their lesson after Cannae. But I fear starving to death, isolated and without cause, chased by tens of thousands of Romans, even more.”

Maharbal bit his tongue – he still disagreed, but respected Hannibal’s judgment too much to continue arguing with the great general after he seemed to have made up his mind.

“As you wish, general.” Maharbal then bowed, and exited the tent, leaving Hannibal alone once more, to be with his thoughts.

**

Four days later, Hannibal’s tent at the Punic camp at Falerii, 207 BC

“And just how do you expect that to work Bomilcar? They’ve got more than double our infantry – these aren’t the same bastards we fought earlier! They’re trained and experienced soldiers on par with professionals! We can’t thin our lines to that extent!”

“Well neither can we mass our men and attack at random throughout the lines! We can’t just let our men get swamped in the enemy’s numbers! Is that what you want Mago?!?”

Hannibal and Hasdrubal’s merged armies had camped outside Falerii’s walls for three days, and still, the generals had not agreed to a battle plan. Sensing battle was near, whether Hannibal was ready or not, he called an urgent meeting between him and the chief officers of his army, to ensure that he would be ready. Eleven men were counted amongst this company: the three sons of Hamilcar Barca; Bomilcar and Hanno the Younger, Hannibal’s brother-in-law and nephew, respectively; Hanno the Elder, who was Bomilcar’s father [4]; Maharbal, who was captain of the Numidians and Hannibal’s good friend; Gisgo the Writer, who would later write Hannibal’s story; Hannibal Monomachus, a longtime officer and friend of Hannibal [5]; Nicanor (who was fittingly called “the elephant” due to his size), the officer of the Macedonians [6]; and Sosylus, Hannibal’s Greek tutor, who was trusted by Hannibal like no other, and would serve as Nicanor’s translator in the discussion.

Deciding upon a strategy between these men proved far more difficult than Hannibal had ever imagined, and tempers were rising, as yet another discussion seemed to be futile once more. The pressure of defeating the Roman army opposite them had gotten to all of them, and despite all (except the Macedonian and his translator) being good friends and many even family, the Carthaginians turned on each other here, shouting at each other, and resorting to petty blows.

“How could our elephants be best used as the initial wave? We’ve got about as many of them as the Romans do entire legions! Better keep them in reserve; release them when the time is most critical, like Pyrrhus the Epirot – that’s what I say!”

Perhaps surprisingly, only Hannibal abstained from the arguing – instead of spending his time arguing senselessly with his friends for argument’s sake, he resolved himself to solving this seemingly unsolvable problem on his own. Defeating the Romans at Cannae seemed all too easy now looking back, back when his crescent formation was new and the Romans overconfident, too cocky for their own good.

Repeating the crescent formation and all of Cannae’s tactics was one of Hannibal’s thoughts, and was discussed earlier by the Punic generals. Six of them – most enthusiastically Hasdrubal – were in favor this. But Hannibal had shot them down then, and he would again to himself here. Cannae worked because the Romans were naïve, believing simply that their mass of bodies would win the day. And, in addition to that, he had a great cavalry advantage at Cannae, outnumbering their horsemen nearly two to one. Now, neither is the case: the Romans have grown smarter – too smart – over the years, and their force of twelve legions finally gives them enough horsemen to outnumber my own.

But what else was there to do? After all, the crescent formation had worked so perfectly last time – so perfect, that Hannibal had learned rumors that the Romans had adopted it amongst their arsenal of tactics.

The tactics of Trasimene and Trebia wouldn’t work either. At Trasimene, he had ambushed the Romans en masse – here, there was nowhere to ambush them at. At the River Trebia, he had been able to provoke the Romans into attacking when they weren’t ready, and used an ambush to seal his victory – and there was, again, no place to hide men. And how could he possibly provoke such a cautious giant?

And how should he use the elephants? He hadn’t used them in any kind of numbers since the Trebia. Could they provide any advantage, when pitted against one hundred and twenty thousand men?”

Hannibal thought back to that crescent formation at Cannae. Then the elephants. Then… what if….

Hannibal stood up suddenly, getting their attention at once – only such a general as he could so easily demand full attention from griping, bitter, disputing comrades. A fire was lit in his eyes that even those closest to him had seldom seen in years, ever since the Romans didn’t surrender after Cannae.

“Friends… brothers” – Hannibal smiled at Mago and Hasdrubal – “I know how we can win.”


[1] – Unfortunately, the Romans proved a trickier problem than the White Witch – Aslan and the Pevensies couldn’t save Narnia from the Romans when the Pevensie-regime decided that it couldn’t keep contributing funds for the Roman war effort against Hannibal in 209 BC.

[2] – One of the bigger changes I want to make from the last time is things like this – little snapshots of what actually happened, as opposed to Gisgo’s story, or anything else. I’ll use this format primarily around important battles and things like that… Gisgo (and other ancient historians) will still be the primary storytellers, but they won’t be the only storytellers, like what was pretty much the case last time. So, uh, expect more of this throughout the reboot. Hopefully it went fairly well.

[3] – Using the word here, because Hannibal would know what a legion is, whereas Gisgo does not (or at least doesn’t believe it’s important for his audience to know).

[4] – I’m not sure if Hanno the Elder was Bomilcar’s father, but it works better if I want to differentiate the two Hannos as the “Elder” and the “Younger” if they are family.

[5] – This was the guy that Polybius claims was a bit too supportive of the idea of cannibalism, if Hannibal’s supplies should fail along the Alps.

[6] – A real Macedonian officer; you’ll see more of him, especially once we get to the Diadochi wars.

 

[Monopolist]

A birds-eye view of the battlefield at Falerii.​

EDIT: I don't think I mentioned that modern Civita Castellana is Falerii... just to avoid confusion on the map.

 

[Lysandros Aikiedes]

Great to see this TL reborn. I see that Philip V of Macedon is lending military aid to Hannibal for the upcoming siege of Rome. The last version of this had a spectacular destruction of the city which culminated in a huge, city-wide fire that took the lives of as many Carthaginian troops as Roman citizens. With the Republic annihilated, I look forward to see the brewing conflict between the ambitions of Hannibal Barca and the Ab-Adyriim's desire to redeem Carthage's international prestige, which would likely start over the control of Sicily.

I wonder, though, when Rome gets trampled, how soon will Philip's interests collide with that of Hannibal's? Would this start over territories in Sicily, or would Philip of Macedon already have his eyes on the great Greek cities in Megale Hellas?

 

[Monopolist]

I wonder, though, when Rome gets trampled, how soon will Philip's interests collide with that of Hannibal's? Would this start over territories in Sicily, or would Philip of Macedon already have his eyes on the great Greek cities in Megale Hellas?

I can guarantee two things: one, that the remainder of Philip's career will be quite interesting, albeit overshadowed by his Seleucid counterpart; and two, that the Greeks and Macedonians will not forget their Greek brethren in the west under Punic control. Details... I won't comment on. Especially not yet, while Rome still lives and a battle has yet to be fought.

EDIT: Forgot to announce that the plan is to get the battle up by the end of the week, and to be finished by the civil war by Thanksgiving or so, hopefully sooner, so that we can get to the East, which I think will be a lot more interesting, and will go quite a bit differently than last time (as I've already said). So, um, that's the announcement.

EDIT 2: Other thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns?

 

[Herzen's love-child]

Keep it coming, Monopolist! I liked the tone of a couple of the earlier speeches.

 

[Errnge]

I can guarantee two things: one, that the remainder of Philip's career will be quite interesting, albeit overshadowed by his Seleucid counterpart; and two, that the Greeks and Macedonians will not forget their Greek brethren in the west under Punic control. Details... I won't comment on. Especially not yet, while Rome still lives and a battle has yet to be fought.

EDIT: Forgot to announce that the plan is to get the battle up by the end of the week, and to be finished by the civil war by Thanksgiving or so, hopefully sooner, so that we can get to the East, which I think will be a lot more interesting, and will go quite a bit differently than last time (as I've already said). So, um, that's the announcement.

EDIT 2: Other thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Exciting, Exciting Exciting!!!

Can't wait to see how things play out in Spain