Otherwise known as my third, and hopefully final, version of Carthago Invicta. The title is in anglicized Punic, and roughly means in my guesstimated Punic ‘the nation of wealth’, which is here meant to be the Carthaginians. This version won’t be like the last one, which was basically a revised version of the first – this is completely different, and quite a bit more detailed. Hopefully it’s not too dry, that you enjoy it, and please remember to comment in any form that you see fit. Thank you.
Xamm Anim
- Thread starter Monopolist
- Start date
Put Hannibal in the scales: how many pounds will that peerless
General mark up today? This is a man for whom Africa
Was too small a continent, though it stretched from surf-beaten
Ocean shores of Morocco east to the steamy Nile,
To tribal Ethiopia, and new elephants’ habitats.
Now Iberia swells his empire, now he surmounts
The Pyrenees. Nature sets in his path
High Alpine passes, blizzards of snow: but he splits
The very rocks asunder, moves mountains with vinegar.
Now Italia 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 in the City’s heart.’ And a fine sight that must have been
To see such tremendous victories, such noble deeds!
As the one-eyed Hannibal, striding atop noble and most fierce Beast
Shook fear into the hearts of Romans, Iberians;
Even greedy Carthaginian alike. Mighty Hannibal, with power
Unseen since Alexander himself,
Stormed upon the greatest cities in the world,
Announced himself its Glorious Malik [1] for life. He gave power back
To the people, purged the former élite of the city,
And reinvigorated her great empire across the land.
No sword, no spear, no battle-flung stone was to snuff
The fiery spirit that wrecked a world:
Those crushing defeats, those rivers of spilt treacherous blood
Forged a great nation that embodied the spirit
That was Hannibal. On, on, O blessed one!
Drive over the savage Alps, march upon Rome, to thrill the Heavens
And supply a theme for speech-day recitations!
-Agbal, Bin Xam Adiir 1 [2], lines 187-215
[1] - “Malik” is the Punic word for King. Foreshadowing, in many cases, will be as blunt as that; after all, I am using the guise of an author in hindsight, which expects his audience to know the future.
[2] – Means “great countrymen”; Bin Xam being ‘countrymen’, and Adiir being ‘great’. Also, as I can’t use Roman numerals for obvious reasons, and Punic numeric inscriptions being a mystery for me (and I’m not using Hebrew numbers!), we’ll have to use our numbers instead. The 1 is just Book 1. The poem’s not that great, because I fudged a bunch with the original, as I am cancer to ancient literature… but it gets the job done. The original is Juvenal’s Satire X, lines 147-167.
Background Information on Gisgo Jabbur [1]:
Gisgo, an officer in Hannibal’s Italian army, and a supporter of him in his subsequent civil war, began writing the first major history of Carthage in 614 AY [2], which would eventually encompass the entire history of his civilization from its beginnings with Dido to merely a year before Hannibal the One-Eyed [3] died: so from 0-638 AY. His 151 book History of Carthage was the first true Carthaginian-written history of their people, and was as monumental of an achievement as Mago’s Agricultural Manual written over a century earlier. Being inspired by Hannibal’s campaigns, Gisgo often wrote favorably of the new Malik, crediting him for ‘restoring the honor and integrity of the Carthaginian people’, who’s ‘honor and values had withered since Hanno the Navigator’s feats’. Much like Thucydides is to the Hellenes, one of the greatest aspects of Gisgo’s work is that you know that he actually took part in some of the battles that he describes, and that even if he didn’t, he often knew people that did that were perfectly apt to tell it.
By far and away the most popular series of books in Gisgo’s history is The Campaigns of the Barcas, which makes up the final twenty-nine books. They deal with the immediate time leading up to the First and Second Roman Wars, and then Hannibal’s campaigns afterwards against the revolting Hellenes of Sicily, the loyalist Oligarchic forces of Carthage, and the tribesmen of Iberia, and life during those times in Carthage.
Much of Gisgo’s history has been lost to time. Books 43-101 are all gone, as are books 8-11 - although all the ancient and even later sources knew about them. Amongst those books are the tales of Hanno the Navigator, the beginning of the colonization of Iberia, the disaster at Himera, and the first set of Maliks of Carthage. We have to rely on less reliable authors such as Germelqart and various Hellenic historians for those stories. However, it is important to realize that it is impressive that so much of Gisgo’s work remains open to the public now, over twenty Mi’ats [4] since his death, and even more impressive still that people are even interested in his work. Such is the magnitude of his history, and such is the magnitude of the greatness of the people in it.
Gisgo, commonly referred to as Gisgo Jabbur, was a proud patriot and, as mentioned, a supporter of the new Barcid rulers, which often shows this through his work. Being a patriot, he often makes snide remarks about opponents to Hannibal – most often of those being the Romans, as Gisgo personally fought against them. Gisgo often ‘subtly’ remarks about the savagery of the Roman barbarians and the necessity to eliminate them. While he lived in a fairly tolerant society for its day, with Carthage being such a beacon for migrants everywhere, Gisgo is fairly ignorant and therefore stereotypical of the other barbarians who fought with him, namely the Celts [5], whom he saw as the least ‘Punic-ized’ barbarians of them all, and therefore the least civilized. Likely his tendencies come from his tenure in the army, which often breeds knowledge-inadequacies such as these, especially in ancient times. However, while often clearly rude towards these peoples, he is clearly a light-hearted man, and perhaps the majority of his remarks are meant to be more humorous than what us modern readers realize – but those are to be expected during peace time; in war time, his remarks are certainly not comedic. But, on the whole, ancient Carthage, even if they were better, was not ahead of their time with regards to ignorance, stereotypes, and utter racism against minority contemporaries of theirs. Most notable in the Punic case is the plight of the Libyans, who were often a leader away from complete revolution during the Oligarchy and during the later times of the Maliks; even when the Libyans achieved citizenship within the Empire.
Gisgo also reports that he and Hannibal had several private conversations after his usurpation – this very well could be true, as Gisgo would become the governor of Tinji. Luckily, we have one surviving Latin account of the wars between the two nations, and several Hellenic accounts, so that we are able to get a greater grasp on what exactly transpired between the two greatest powers of the western half of the Yamadiir [6]. Of the pro-Roman accounts, Gnaeus’ work is most often used, and is just as if not more of a patriotic work than Gisgo’s. Such is the biggest problem of using contemporary historians! However, what is important is that neither overwhelmingly exaggerates numbers and characters (outside of the favorites and enemies of both – Hannibal on Gisgo’s side, several relatives of Gnaeus and Hannibal negatively on the Roman side), and because of that, they are reliable and provocative sources for the wars that proved Punic dominance over the tribal peoples of Europe for many years, and thus is the reason for the continued translations of Gisgo’s work. [Intro continues…]
[1] – “Jabbur” is the Punic equivalent to English’s “Warrior”, so he’s Gisgo the Warrior, or Gisgo the Soldier, making obvious reference to Gisgo’s military career prior to writing his history.
[2] – 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-ish. (Meaning I’m guesstimating this – I have little to no knowledge (depending on how nice you want to be to me) of Punic grammar.) To make life easier, AY and MTA will be the standard years to date from – MTA being from the years since Alexander the Great’s death [323 BC] and AY being the years since the founding of Carthage [814 BC]. Those will be the only two that I will use in the immediate future – AVC [753 BC] might see an appearance with Gnaeus and another surprise writer, but as this TL features a mostly Greco-Phoenician dominated Europe/North Africa/Near East, those cultures’ great moments receive the most attention by emerging cultures (i.e. the Arvernians and other Celts), and thus those dating systems will likely stick, unless I bring in some kind of Christianity-esque religion into the mix that spreads across the area. China, India, and other cultures obviously won’t date from Alexander’s death, but, as just alluded to, most cultures west of the Indus will likely use either of the two.
[3] – Hannibal is often referred to as “The One-Eyed”, or “One-Eye” by Carthaginians ITTL, and it is often used as an affectionate epithet. Cyclops is also used. The other and most common major title given to him is ‘great’, or Adiir. (e.g. Hannibal Adiir)
[4] – A “Mi’at” is Punic for a hundred. Add an ‘s’, and it become TTL’s word for ‘century/centuries’.
[5] – As “Gaul”, “Gauls”, “Gallic”, and etc., are all Latin words used for the ‘barbarian’ tribes of modern France (and numerous other places, namely Galatia), and as this is a Punic timeline, and not a Roman one, we’re using Greek terms, so it’s Celts, not Gauls… unless of course we have Latin writers. Obviously, I can’t do this everywhere, as English and Latin are indirectly kind of related, and thus many English words have some Latin origin that I’m not going to bother to track down and eliminate. Also, the author is over-glorifying Carthaginian ethics.
[6] – “Yamadiir” means “Great Sea”, again with my guesstimated Punic grammar. Yam means ‘sea’, and Adiir of course means ‘great’. ITTL, it’s the Mediterranean.
Gisgo, an officer in Hannibal’s Italian army, and a supporter of him in his subsequent civil war, began writing the first major history of Carthage in 614 AY [2], which would eventually encompass the entire history of his civilization from its beginnings with Dido to merely a year before Hannibal the One-Eyed [3] died: so from 0-638 AY. His 151 book History of Carthage was the first true Carthaginian-written history of their people, and was as monumental of an achievement as Mago’s Agricultural Manual written over a century earlier. Being inspired by Hannibal’s campaigns, Gisgo often wrote favorably of the new Malik, crediting him for ‘restoring the honor and integrity of the Carthaginian people’, who’s ‘honor and values had withered since Hanno the Navigator’s feats’. Much like Thucydides is to the Hellenes, one of the greatest aspects of Gisgo’s work is that you know that he actually took part in some of the battles that he describes, and that even if he didn’t, he often knew people that did that were perfectly apt to tell it.
By far and away the most popular series of books in Gisgo’s history is The Campaigns of the Barcas, which makes up the final twenty-nine books. They deal with the immediate time leading up to the First and Second Roman Wars, and then Hannibal’s campaigns afterwards against the revolting Hellenes of Sicily, the loyalist Oligarchic forces of Carthage, and the tribesmen of Iberia, and life during those times in Carthage.
Much of Gisgo’s history has been lost to time. Books 43-101 are all gone, as are books 8-11 - although all the ancient and even later sources knew about them. Amongst those books are the tales of Hanno the Navigator, the beginning of the colonization of Iberia, the disaster at Himera, and the first set of Maliks of Carthage. We have to rely on less reliable authors such as Germelqart and various Hellenic historians for those stories. However, it is important to realize that it is impressive that so much of Gisgo’s work remains open to the public now, over twenty Mi’ats [4] since his death, and even more impressive still that people are even interested in his work. Such is the magnitude of his history, and such is the magnitude of the greatness of the people in it.
Gisgo, commonly referred to as Gisgo Jabbur, was a proud patriot and, as mentioned, a supporter of the new Barcid rulers, which often shows this through his work. Being a patriot, he often makes snide remarks about opponents to Hannibal – most often of those being the Romans, as Gisgo personally fought against them. Gisgo often ‘subtly’ remarks about the savagery of the Roman barbarians and the necessity to eliminate them. While he lived in a fairly tolerant society for its day, with Carthage being such a beacon for migrants everywhere, Gisgo is fairly ignorant and therefore stereotypical of the other barbarians who fought with him, namely the Celts [5], whom he saw as the least ‘Punic-ized’ barbarians of them all, and therefore the least civilized. Likely his tendencies come from his tenure in the army, which often breeds knowledge-inadequacies such as these, especially in ancient times. However, while often clearly rude towards these peoples, he is clearly a light-hearted man, and perhaps the majority of his remarks are meant to be more humorous than what us modern readers realize – but those are to be expected during peace time; in war time, his remarks are certainly not comedic. But, on the whole, ancient Carthage, even if they were better, was not ahead of their time with regards to ignorance, stereotypes, and utter racism against minority contemporaries of theirs. Most notable in the Punic case is the plight of the Libyans, who were often a leader away from complete revolution during the Oligarchy and during the later times of the Maliks; even when the Libyans achieved citizenship within the Empire.
Gisgo also reports that he and Hannibal had several private conversations after his usurpation – this very well could be true, as Gisgo would become the governor of Tinji. Luckily, we have one surviving Latin account of the wars between the two nations, and several Hellenic accounts, so that we are able to get a greater grasp on what exactly transpired between the two greatest powers of the western half of the Yamadiir [6]. Of the pro-Roman accounts, Gnaeus’ work is most often used, and is just as if not more of a patriotic work than Gisgo’s. Such is the biggest problem of using contemporary historians! However, what is important is that neither overwhelmingly exaggerates numbers and characters (outside of the favorites and enemies of both – Hannibal on Gisgo’s side, several relatives of Gnaeus and Hannibal negatively on the Roman side), and because of that, they are reliable and provocative sources for the wars that proved Punic dominance over the tribal peoples of Europe for many years, and thus is the reason for the continued translations of Gisgo’s work. [Intro continues…]
[1] – “Jabbur” is the Punic equivalent to English’s “Warrior”, so he’s Gisgo the Warrior, or Gisgo the Soldier, making obvious reference to Gisgo’s military career prior to writing his history.
[2] – 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-ish. (Meaning I’m guesstimating this – I have little to no knowledge (depending on how nice you want to be to me) of Punic grammar.) To make life easier, AY and MTA will be the standard years to date from – MTA being from the years since Alexander the Great’s death [323 BC] and AY being the years since the founding of Carthage [814 BC]. Those will be the only two that I will use in the immediate future – AVC [753 BC] might see an appearance with Gnaeus and another surprise writer, but as this TL features a mostly Greco-Phoenician dominated Europe/North Africa/Near East, those cultures’ great moments receive the most attention by emerging cultures (i.e. the Arvernians and other Celts), and thus those dating systems will likely stick, unless I bring in some kind of Christianity-esque religion into the mix that spreads across the area. China, India, and other cultures obviously won’t date from Alexander’s death, but, as just alluded to, most cultures west of the Indus will likely use either of the two.
[3] – Hannibal is often referred to as “The One-Eyed”, or “One-Eye” by Carthaginians ITTL, and it is often used as an affectionate epithet. Cyclops is also used. The other and most common major title given to him is ‘great’, or Adiir. (e.g. Hannibal Adiir)
[4] – A “Mi’at” is Punic for a hundred. Add an ‘s’, and it become TTL’s word for ‘century/centuries’.
[5] – As “Gaul”, “Gauls”, “Gallic”, and etc., are all Latin words used for the ‘barbarian’ tribes of modern France (and numerous other places, namely Galatia), and as this is a Punic timeline, and not a Roman one, we’re using Greek terms, so it’s Celts, not Gauls… unless of course we have Latin writers. Obviously, I can’t do this everywhere, as English and Latin are indirectly kind of related, and thus many English words have some Latin origin that I’m not going to bother to track down and eliminate. Also, the author is over-glorifying Carthaginian ethics.
[6] – “Yamadiir” means “Great Sea”, again with my guesstimated Punic grammar. Yam means ‘sea’, and Adiir of course means ‘great’. ITTL, it’s the Mediterranean.
Gisgo’s The Campaigns of the Barcas [Abridged Version]
BOOK 144
11. Whilst the younger Barca voyaged across the tribal lands of the Celts, peculiar things were happening in and around the city of Rome. 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. All of these events happened within two weeks of each other, and each shook the nerve of Roman alike. The Senate 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 Barca. 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. Whilst 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 of Italia beginning with 607 AY.
For the first time during the war, the Romans would split their consuls geographically. The consul Nero would take up the war of attrition against Hannibal, in Bruttium and Lucania, whilst the already one-time consul Marcus Livius would take up the war in the north, to defend Rome and her allies against the invading Punic forces of Hasdrubal Barca’s. Each would receive two legions, and would also ultimately wield control of the legions under the command of their subordinate praetors in Italia once Hannibal became an active force once more.
Hasdrubal Barca conquered the Alps by the spring of that year, crossing them with a fair amount of ease compared to the hardships that his brother faced in the mountains, and, whilst besieging the Roman colony at Placentia, he sent six messengers to seek out Hannibal’s army. After nearly being caught by Roman patrol near Tarentum [1], Hannibal received the message, and, with the knowledge that Hasdrubal had made it to Italia, began to mobilize his full force to engage Nero, and to rendezvous with Hasdrubal in the south of Roman Umbria.
Hasdrubal’s force failed in its siege of Placentia – the defenders were stout, and it was not worth the effort to fully eradicate the Romans – and Hasdrubal decided to leave the colony to quickly reach the rendezvous point that he had told Hannibal to meet him at. While he had an embarrassing enterprise, he still had had good fortune, and the expected Roman army under Livius that Hasdrubal feared would intercept and destroy his chances of reaching Hannibal did not come, and therefore did not slow his army’s advance. Only a couple skirmishes, led by the praetor (and former consul, famed for his role in the defeat at Cannae) Varro, slowed the Punic force, but with a force so small, only a few Celts and Iberians were lost.
Later, I learned that the cause for of Hasdrubal’s much eased crossing was due to common vanity and arrogance of his opposition. Livius reportedly was stalled because of a dispute with the Senate, upset that Nero had more quality legions than he did, and he demanded that he had an upgrade over the supposed inadequacy of his force. To make up for this, Livius successfully bartered for a ‘slave division’ to join his force, therefore giving him quantity instead of quality. Still slightly spiteful, Livius still left Rome with time, but had the ill fortune of being slowed by a case of dysentery. [2] While Hasdrubal had descended from the Alps earlier than the Romans had anticipated, the Romans erred tremendously here, and if Livius had had slightly better fortune, the Romans might have won the war.
12. The consul Nero, with a better quality force than his colleague, marched south, and was there in full force at the expected time. He and the praetor Quintus Claudius headed the Roman forces of the south, and together had a force of perhaps forty thousand – however, these forces were scattered across the entire south of Italia. Hannibal’s entire force was located in Bruttium, and was made of slightly over thirty thousand. The greatest advantage that Hannibal enjoyed, however, was he. His deity-esque courage and genius single-handedly made the Roman legions lesser, making them fear new Cannaes, Trasimenes, and Trebias to wreak havoc on the Roman civilization.
Hannibal gathered all forces in or near his winter quarters in Bruttium, and began a march on to Umbria. First, however, he would have to march out of Bruttium, and then out of Lucania, which was the region in-between Campania and Bruttium, and was home to the Oscan speaking Lucanians until Rome annexed them along with much of the rest of the southern quarter of the peninsula after Rome’s war with the Tyrant Pyrrhus of Epirus.
Nero, attempting to stop Hannibal from reaching his brother and creating an army that could do the unthinkable and storm Rome itself, shadowed Hannibal until they reached Potentia, a town in the north of Lucania. Potentia had abandoned the Romans after Hannibal’s great victory at Cannae nine years previous. Hannibal, in the hopes of bolstering his weakened army after going so long without reinforcements from the Oligarchy, drew up five hundred extra men from the town – men who realized that the Romans would, in the case of a Nero victory, face the chance that their town could be subjugated by a garrison, and the slaughter of many innocents. The tales of the towns that could not pay tribute to Rome two years earlier haunted the townspeople, and many were willing to aid the Carthaginians as much as they could to avoid a Roman victory. While many of the town’s inhabitants were descended from Roman colonists that had arrived over sixty years ago, the entire town went its roots, and performed ancient Lucanian and Roman rituals in the hopes of preserving their city. Some, in the hopes of inspiring the gods of Carthage to help them, prayed in a distinctly Canaanite fashion.
Potentia was located near the final round of the Apennine Mountain range that dominated the central regions of Italia, and thus the nearby battlefield upon which Roman and Carthaginian fought was a hilly region – however, more flat than many nearby areas. Many places were good for ambushes, with many of the hills dotted with trees, and the battle would take place very near to the city itself – merely a mile from the city’s gates. The Romans would take the northern side of what was to become the battlefield, and the Carthaginians were to take the southern side.
Skirmishing between the armies would take up the next several days, as Nero stalled. His primary goal was to keep Hannibal pinned down in the south as long as possible; while he certainly openly felt that he could defeat Hannibal, one is less sure if he felt the same inside, and that could be the second reason for the Cunctator-esque [3] delay. Hannibal was the complete opposite of Nero – he needed to break through the Romans as quick as possible, and reach his brother Hasdrubal in the south of Umbria. Once he joined his brother, we felt that we could break through any Roman line that stood in our way, and smash into the gates of Rome, with our Carthaginian standards held high in the air. A glorious dream that was, but it would only make the men overzealous for battle, and would ultimately hinder Hannibal’s war effort.
Hannibal had the men wake before dawn on the morning of June 2 [4], and aligned them into formation as the sun rose over the horizon. Nero, hearing the noise, realized that Hannibal intended battle, and he would send his men out likewise. Nero sent out scouts while it was still dark across the field, to search for a possible ambush, and the Romans found no sign of one.
The Roman commander placed his army in the typical odd Roman fashion, dotting his hastati, principes, and triarii in their unique, and usually effective, way. Rome’s allies (alae) flanked the legions. His remaining velites (Roman javelins) would be in the front of the formation. Nero would be very close to the action, and would be towards the center-right of the formation. The praetor Claudius would be on the left flank. Hannibal, of course, used more ancient formations. He placed the few remaining veterans from his wars with the Iberian tribes in the center of the formation, them being the most experienced and strongest of morale. The majority of them were Iberians, but there were still remnants of other cultures, most notably the Phoenicians. On their flanks, he placed Libyans and Celts, with the majority of the Celts on the right of the center, and the majority of the Libyans left of center. Less experienced Iberians and Italians made up the flanks of the infantry line, and the majority of the reserves were the more numerous barbarian Libyans and Italians. Cavalry guarded the flanks, with Maharbal commanding the left wing of cavalry, and a trusted officer named Milkpilles commanding the right wing. Maharbal’s force was primarily made of Numidians, and Milkpilles force was primarily made of Celts and Iberians. Hannibal and his Punic guard were slightly right of center, and were immediately behind the reserves. His skirmishers were placed evenly in front and behind the formation, with the close range infantry in front much like the velites, and the long range archers and Balearic slingers behind Hannibal and the reserves. Hannibal had approximately ten thousand less men than the Romans did, but it was not enough of a Roman advantage for Hannibal to use a strategy like the one employed at Cannae.
This would be the first major battle fought between the Romans and the Carthaginians on Italian soil since Cannae itself; much of the past nine years of course had seen Rome go into its reclusive Fabian strategy, that, while had its deal of detractors before Cannae, had served the Roman Republic well over the course of the war, and ultimately had been the key strategy in keeping Hannibal at bay for almost a decade. But now that Hasdrubal had crossed the Alps, and was now passed the River Metaurus, the Romans obviously could not afford to allow the two to merge their armies, for that would be the suicide of their state.
However, Rome had learned lessons from Hannibal’s war over the years – the legions shadowed Roman armies from great heights, in the Apennines, so as to avoid allowing Hannibal to use his advantages on plains, where Punic cavalry could run rampant over the legions. Their commanders had steadily gotten more intelligent with their encounters with Cyclops, showing more ingenuity, and were more organized and prepared for Punic armies. The legions had also, over the course of the long war, become nearly professional forces. Defeated armies were never broke, and Rome absorbed all blows. Certainly, the army that Hannibal faced at Potentia was a far more advanced version than the massive force he had encountered at the great plain of Cannae.
After brief skirmishing by the velites and by the javelins of Carthage, and between the other skirmishers of the two armies, a battle cry roared out, and the battle began. Hannibal’s forces under Maharbal quickly engaged the weaker Roman equites, and the force under Milkpilles did much the same on the other flank. The Roman infantry marched at a similar pace to the advancing Canaanite line, and, when the Carthaginians came near enough, the legions threw their pila at the Punic line, inflicting a fair amount of casualties on the less armed barbarian Libyans and Celts.
Shortly after the pila were thrown at their Punic counterparts, the Romans charged forward to engage the Carthaginian line. The Carthaginians, who held the defense, also held the higher ground, and were able to hold off the legions and their allies well upon their first charge. The Celts, who primarily came from the Arvernian nation amongst those peoples, did markedly well against the Romans. However, the Libyans, having faced primarily Roman legionaries, were less successful. After two more quick charges by the Romans, Hannibal sent Italians in to aid the Libyan cause.
Meanwhile, the cavalry engagement had died down at this time, again with Hannibal’s forces emerging victorious. Milkpilles had some difficulty in keeping his men from chasing the routed equites, but Maharbal, being a more experienced commander, had little difficulty at all. Hannibal’s officers than rained down whatever missiles that they had remaining upon the alae of Rome, and charged the flanks of the Roman line.
With the cavalry charge, the infantry stalemate that had dominated the flanks of the infantry engagement between Rome’s allies and the primarily Libyan and Italian forces under Hannibal rapidly changed into a Punic rout on both sides, as the cavalry slammed into the back and sides of the engagement. Two encirclements were being made, as the Roman line was divided and surrounded by Punic foot and horse. Slowly, the brave Roman infantry line collapsed, and was routed. Nero was amongst the line, and shouted at his men hopelessly to regroup. Eventually, he joined them, realizing the battle was lost. The Numidians and other cavalry engaged the routed force for some time, but eventually halted their chase of the Roman legionnaires. Nero himself was killed during the chase; Hannibal had ordered that if the opportunity ever presented itself, to capture Roman commanders, so as to demand ransom from the Senatus Populusque Romanus; but, unfortunately, a Numidian misfired with one of his missiles, hitting the general instead of the routed horse that he rode. As they rode him back to the Punic camp, he died, and Hannibal, after ordering a punishment for the Numidian, gave the Roman a worthy funeral, giving him the proper respect that Hannibal felt that commanders should get from both sides. [5]
Hannibal’s army lost slightly over four thousand men in the engagement, and Nero’s Romans lost over ten thousand. It was a disastrous defeat for Rome, and Rome was nearly in the state of fear that it was in 598 after Cannae. While it was not as spectacular of a victory for the Hannibalic forces as Cannae was, Hannibal and Hasdrubal’s armies were now able to join together, and were capable of marching upon Rome itself, and Rome had not been in such a precarious position since that summer nine years previous. Not all was lost, however, for the Romans, as they still had the remains of the combined forces of Nero and Claudius, and had Gaius Terentius Varro, Lucius Porcius Licinus, and Marcus Livius’ armies, which combined to give Rome an army of well over sixty thousand, which was numerically superior to the force that Hannibal and Hasdrubal could muster. (Hannibal and Hasdrubal’s armies combined for around 51,000 men) However, the legions that would be put in the defense of Rome were of lesser quality than the ones just mustered at Potentia. Nero’s legions were a broken squad, their morale weakened after their disastrous loss and the death of their consul, and the legions of Livius and the praetors, while still efficient and proud, were watered down by slaves and more recent conscripts.
[1] – The primary point of divergence. In our timeline, Hasdrubal sent messengers whilst besieging Placentia, but they failed to reach Hannibal, being caught near Tarentum. The Senate read the message, and knew exactly where Hasdrubal was heading for, helping Livius reach Hasdrubal’s army in time (Hasdrubal’s army descended from the Alps much quicker than expected IOTL) at Metaurus, and of course he and Nero’s good timing won the day for Rome at the river.
[2] – A very minor secondary point of divergence, just to ensure that it works. While the arguments between Livius and the Senate did happen IOTL, they didn’t slow down Livius’ army enough. (BTW, as this is a Punic author, the hostility between Livius and the Senate is slightly exaggerated, to put Rome in a lesser light. Watch for things like this – the author briefs before the actual timeline should help you with things like that. Occasionally, I might even throw you in for a loop with exaggerated army totals and battle losses. Nearly every time, I’ll explain at the end.) So, I gave his army dysentery too, just to, as said, to ensure that the POD works without any hitch. The dysentery doesn’t affect the rest of the timeline – we’ll say it’s a very minor case.
[3] – Cunctator is Latin for ‘delayer’, and is one of two ‘nicknames’ for Quintus Fabius Maximus, the man behind the Fabian strategy. The other is Verrucosus, which means ‘spotty’, referring to a facial wart.
[4] – I unfortunately don’t know anglicized Punic months. Gregorian will have to do.
[5] – Kind of a random way to die, but Nero was a major jerk (see his actions after the Battle of the Metaurus, if you don’t know what I’m talking about – jerk’s a pretty nice way to describe him, IMHO), and he deserves to die in a random and humiliating way.
BOOK 144
11. Whilst the younger Barca voyaged across the tribal lands of the Celts, peculiar things were happening in and around the city of Rome. 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. All of these events happened within two weeks of each other, and each shook the nerve of Roman alike. The Senate 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 Barca. 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. Whilst 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 of Italia beginning with 607 AY.
For the first time during the war, the Romans would split their consuls geographically. The consul Nero would take up the war of attrition against Hannibal, in Bruttium and Lucania, whilst the already one-time consul Marcus Livius would take up the war in the north, to defend Rome and her allies against the invading Punic forces of Hasdrubal Barca’s. Each would receive two legions, and would also ultimately wield control of the legions under the command of their subordinate praetors in Italia once Hannibal became an active force once more.
Hasdrubal Barca conquered the Alps by the spring of that year, crossing them with a fair amount of ease compared to the hardships that his brother faced in the mountains, and, whilst besieging the Roman colony at Placentia, he sent six messengers to seek out Hannibal’s army. After nearly being caught by Roman patrol near Tarentum [1], Hannibal received the message, and, with the knowledge that Hasdrubal had made it to Italia, began to mobilize his full force to engage Nero, and to rendezvous with Hasdrubal in the south of Roman Umbria.
Hasdrubal’s force failed in its siege of Placentia – the defenders were stout, and it was not worth the effort to fully eradicate the Romans – and Hasdrubal decided to leave the colony to quickly reach the rendezvous point that he had told Hannibal to meet him at. While he had an embarrassing enterprise, he still had had good fortune, and the expected Roman army under Livius that Hasdrubal feared would intercept and destroy his chances of reaching Hannibal did not come, and therefore did not slow his army’s advance. Only a couple skirmishes, led by the praetor (and former consul, famed for his role in the defeat at Cannae) Varro, slowed the Punic force, but with a force so small, only a few Celts and Iberians were lost.
Later, I learned that the cause for of Hasdrubal’s much eased crossing was due to common vanity and arrogance of his opposition. Livius reportedly was stalled because of a dispute with the Senate, upset that Nero had more quality legions than he did, and he demanded that he had an upgrade over the supposed inadequacy of his force. To make up for this, Livius successfully bartered for a ‘slave division’ to join his force, therefore giving him quantity instead of quality. Still slightly spiteful, Livius still left Rome with time, but had the ill fortune of being slowed by a case of dysentery. [2] While Hasdrubal had descended from the Alps earlier than the Romans had anticipated, the Romans erred tremendously here, and if Livius had had slightly better fortune, the Romans might have won the war.
12. The consul Nero, with a better quality force than his colleague, marched south, and was there in full force at the expected time. He and the praetor Quintus Claudius headed the Roman forces of the south, and together had a force of perhaps forty thousand – however, these forces were scattered across the entire south of Italia. Hannibal’s entire force was located in Bruttium, and was made of slightly over thirty thousand. The greatest advantage that Hannibal enjoyed, however, was he. His deity-esque courage and genius single-handedly made the Roman legions lesser, making them fear new Cannaes, Trasimenes, and Trebias to wreak havoc on the Roman civilization.
Hannibal gathered all forces in or near his winter quarters in Bruttium, and began a march on to Umbria. First, however, he would have to march out of Bruttium, and then out of Lucania, which was the region in-between Campania and Bruttium, and was home to the Oscan speaking Lucanians until Rome annexed them along with much of the rest of the southern quarter of the peninsula after Rome’s war with the Tyrant Pyrrhus of Epirus.
Nero, attempting to stop Hannibal from reaching his brother and creating an army that could do the unthinkable and storm Rome itself, shadowed Hannibal until they reached Potentia, a town in the north of Lucania. Potentia had abandoned the Romans after Hannibal’s great victory at Cannae nine years previous. Hannibal, in the hopes of bolstering his weakened army after going so long without reinforcements from the Oligarchy, drew up five hundred extra men from the town – men who realized that the Romans would, in the case of a Nero victory, face the chance that their town could be subjugated by a garrison, and the slaughter of many innocents. The tales of the towns that could not pay tribute to Rome two years earlier haunted the townspeople, and many were willing to aid the Carthaginians as much as they could to avoid a Roman victory. While many of the town’s inhabitants were descended from Roman colonists that had arrived over sixty years ago, the entire town went its roots, and performed ancient Lucanian and Roman rituals in the hopes of preserving their city. Some, in the hopes of inspiring the gods of Carthage to help them, prayed in a distinctly Canaanite fashion.
Potentia was located near the final round of the Apennine Mountain range that dominated the central regions of Italia, and thus the nearby battlefield upon which Roman and Carthaginian fought was a hilly region – however, more flat than many nearby areas. Many places were good for ambushes, with many of the hills dotted with trees, and the battle would take place very near to the city itself – merely a mile from the city’s gates. The Romans would take the northern side of what was to become the battlefield, and the Carthaginians were to take the southern side.
Skirmishing between the armies would take up the next several days, as Nero stalled. His primary goal was to keep Hannibal pinned down in the south as long as possible; while he certainly openly felt that he could defeat Hannibal, one is less sure if he felt the same inside, and that could be the second reason for the Cunctator-esque [3] delay. Hannibal was the complete opposite of Nero – he needed to break through the Romans as quick as possible, and reach his brother Hasdrubal in the south of Umbria. Once he joined his brother, we felt that we could break through any Roman line that stood in our way, and smash into the gates of Rome, with our Carthaginian standards held high in the air. A glorious dream that was, but it would only make the men overzealous for battle, and would ultimately hinder Hannibal’s war effort.
Hannibal had the men wake before dawn on the morning of June 2 [4], and aligned them into formation as the sun rose over the horizon. Nero, hearing the noise, realized that Hannibal intended battle, and he would send his men out likewise. Nero sent out scouts while it was still dark across the field, to search for a possible ambush, and the Romans found no sign of one.
The Roman commander placed his army in the typical odd Roman fashion, dotting his hastati, principes, and triarii in their unique, and usually effective, way. Rome’s allies (alae) flanked the legions. His remaining velites (Roman javelins) would be in the front of the formation. Nero would be very close to the action, and would be towards the center-right of the formation. The praetor Claudius would be on the left flank. Hannibal, of course, used more ancient formations. He placed the few remaining veterans from his wars with the Iberian tribes in the center of the formation, them being the most experienced and strongest of morale. The majority of them were Iberians, but there were still remnants of other cultures, most notably the Phoenicians. On their flanks, he placed Libyans and Celts, with the majority of the Celts on the right of the center, and the majority of the Libyans left of center. Less experienced Iberians and Italians made up the flanks of the infantry line, and the majority of the reserves were the more numerous barbarian Libyans and Italians. Cavalry guarded the flanks, with Maharbal commanding the left wing of cavalry, and a trusted officer named Milkpilles commanding the right wing. Maharbal’s force was primarily made of Numidians, and Milkpilles force was primarily made of Celts and Iberians. Hannibal and his Punic guard were slightly right of center, and were immediately behind the reserves. His skirmishers were placed evenly in front and behind the formation, with the close range infantry in front much like the velites, and the long range archers and Balearic slingers behind Hannibal and the reserves. Hannibal had approximately ten thousand less men than the Romans did, but it was not enough of a Roman advantage for Hannibal to use a strategy like the one employed at Cannae.
This would be the first major battle fought between the Romans and the Carthaginians on Italian soil since Cannae itself; much of the past nine years of course had seen Rome go into its reclusive Fabian strategy, that, while had its deal of detractors before Cannae, had served the Roman Republic well over the course of the war, and ultimately had been the key strategy in keeping Hannibal at bay for almost a decade. But now that Hasdrubal had crossed the Alps, and was now passed the River Metaurus, the Romans obviously could not afford to allow the two to merge their armies, for that would be the suicide of their state.
However, Rome had learned lessons from Hannibal’s war over the years – the legions shadowed Roman armies from great heights, in the Apennines, so as to avoid allowing Hannibal to use his advantages on plains, where Punic cavalry could run rampant over the legions. Their commanders had steadily gotten more intelligent with their encounters with Cyclops, showing more ingenuity, and were more organized and prepared for Punic armies. The legions had also, over the course of the long war, become nearly professional forces. Defeated armies were never broke, and Rome absorbed all blows. Certainly, the army that Hannibal faced at Potentia was a far more advanced version than the massive force he had encountered at the great plain of Cannae.
After brief skirmishing by the velites and by the javelins of Carthage, and between the other skirmishers of the two armies, a battle cry roared out, and the battle began. Hannibal’s forces under Maharbal quickly engaged the weaker Roman equites, and the force under Milkpilles did much the same on the other flank. The Roman infantry marched at a similar pace to the advancing Canaanite line, and, when the Carthaginians came near enough, the legions threw their pila at the Punic line, inflicting a fair amount of casualties on the less armed barbarian Libyans and Celts.
Shortly after the pila were thrown at their Punic counterparts, the Romans charged forward to engage the Carthaginian line. The Carthaginians, who held the defense, also held the higher ground, and were able to hold off the legions and their allies well upon their first charge. The Celts, who primarily came from the Arvernian nation amongst those peoples, did markedly well against the Romans. However, the Libyans, having faced primarily Roman legionaries, were less successful. After two more quick charges by the Romans, Hannibal sent Italians in to aid the Libyan cause.
Meanwhile, the cavalry engagement had died down at this time, again with Hannibal’s forces emerging victorious. Milkpilles had some difficulty in keeping his men from chasing the routed equites, but Maharbal, being a more experienced commander, had little difficulty at all. Hannibal’s officers than rained down whatever missiles that they had remaining upon the alae of Rome, and charged the flanks of the Roman line.
With the cavalry charge, the infantry stalemate that had dominated the flanks of the infantry engagement between Rome’s allies and the primarily Libyan and Italian forces under Hannibal rapidly changed into a Punic rout on both sides, as the cavalry slammed into the back and sides of the engagement. Two encirclements were being made, as the Roman line was divided and surrounded by Punic foot and horse. Slowly, the brave Roman infantry line collapsed, and was routed. Nero was amongst the line, and shouted at his men hopelessly to regroup. Eventually, he joined them, realizing the battle was lost. The Numidians and other cavalry engaged the routed force for some time, but eventually halted their chase of the Roman legionnaires. Nero himself was killed during the chase; Hannibal had ordered that if the opportunity ever presented itself, to capture Roman commanders, so as to demand ransom from the Senatus Populusque Romanus; but, unfortunately, a Numidian misfired with one of his missiles, hitting the general instead of the routed horse that he rode. As they rode him back to the Punic camp, he died, and Hannibal, after ordering a punishment for the Numidian, gave the Roman a worthy funeral, giving him the proper respect that Hannibal felt that commanders should get from both sides. [5]
Hannibal’s army lost slightly over four thousand men in the engagement, and Nero’s Romans lost over ten thousand. It was a disastrous defeat for Rome, and Rome was nearly in the state of fear that it was in 598 after Cannae. While it was not as spectacular of a victory for the Hannibalic forces as Cannae was, Hannibal and Hasdrubal’s armies were now able to join together, and were capable of marching upon Rome itself, and Rome had not been in such a precarious position since that summer nine years previous. Not all was lost, however, for the Romans, as they still had the remains of the combined forces of Nero and Claudius, and had Gaius Terentius Varro, Lucius Porcius Licinus, and Marcus Livius’ armies, which combined to give Rome an army of well over sixty thousand, which was numerically superior to the force that Hannibal and Hasdrubal could muster. (Hannibal and Hasdrubal’s armies combined for around 51,000 men) However, the legions that would be put in the defense of Rome were of lesser quality than the ones just mustered at Potentia. Nero’s legions were a broken squad, their morale weakened after their disastrous loss and the death of their consul, and the legions of Livius and the praetors, while still efficient and proud, were watered down by slaves and more recent conscripts.
[1] – The primary point of divergence. In our timeline, Hasdrubal sent messengers whilst besieging Placentia, but they failed to reach Hannibal, being caught near Tarentum. The Senate read the message, and knew exactly where Hasdrubal was heading for, helping Livius reach Hasdrubal’s army in time (Hasdrubal’s army descended from the Alps much quicker than expected IOTL) at Metaurus, and of course he and Nero’s good timing won the day for Rome at the river.
[2] – A very minor secondary point of divergence, just to ensure that it works. While the arguments between Livius and the Senate did happen IOTL, they didn’t slow down Livius’ army enough. (BTW, as this is a Punic author, the hostility between Livius and the Senate is slightly exaggerated, to put Rome in a lesser light. Watch for things like this – the author briefs before the actual timeline should help you with things like that. Occasionally, I might even throw you in for a loop with exaggerated army totals and battle losses. Nearly every time, I’ll explain at the end.) So, I gave his army dysentery too, just to, as said, to ensure that the POD works without any hitch. The dysentery doesn’t affect the rest of the timeline – we’ll say it’s a very minor case.
[3] – Cunctator is Latin for ‘delayer’, and is one of two ‘nicknames’ for Quintus Fabius Maximus, the man behind the Fabian strategy. The other is Verrucosus, which means ‘spotty’, referring to a facial wart.
[4] – I unfortunately don’t know anglicized Punic months. Gregorian will have to do.
[5] – Kind of a random way to die, but Nero was a major jerk (see his actions after the Battle of the Metaurus, if you don’t know what I’m talking about – jerk’s a pretty nice way to describe him, IMHO), and he deserves to die in a random and humiliating way.
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I honestly didn't mean to make the two coincide; I just was almost to the point I wanted to get to before starting, and I didn't really feel like studying for exams today... but, by all means, please make a Carthage timeline! We need more out there!!!
Also, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully this one will be the one I end up sticking with...
EDIT: Also, this is where I'm getting my Punic from, in case any of you wants to check I'm not creating random jibberish. I'm more or less just adding the words together in a way that makes sense to me (e.g. I don't know if Xamm Anim is the right order that it would go in, but it sounds best that way, and after spending four years learning French, I've learned that often the way that sounds best is the right way.).
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I can't believe your are making another one
(it's better thant the second)
I am subscribed
(it's better thant the second)
I am subscribed
This is pretty good so far! Subscribed.
I can't believe your are making another one
(it's better thant the second)
I am subscribed
Glad to see further support!
@ Russian Sailor: What happened with the last one was... well, I don't know... it never completely felt right after I was done with that timeline's Third Punic War; it felt like I could've did a lot better, and, so, after reaching a writer's block with that one, I wrote this one for the last couple weeks and thought it was decent, so here it is! Hopefully I can commit to this one... otherwise, I'll have to be mad at myself, and would have to write something else (I have way too many timeline ideas floating around in my head).
Another update will come tomorrow.
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For the names of the months, you can go with the old Hebrew calendar derived from Babylon. I'm not 100% sure it was used by Carthaginians at this time (it is possible they shifted to a Greek calendar) but the Phoenicians surely had some version of it early on as probably all Canaanites did. Nisan (March-April) is probably the first month of the year in this case (unlike modern Jewish use, that for civil purposes counts Tishri as the first month). So the year starts approximately at the spring equinox (as it does today in many agrarian calendars of OTL Middle East). Punic names would differ a little from the Hebrew ones, but not that much, and I'm sure they can be deduced easily even if they are not attested.
Otherwise, you can delve into the whole mess of Greek calendar systems.
Otherwise, you can delve into the whole mess of Greek calendar systems.
Interesting... I honestly didn't do a ton of reserach on the Punic calendar; but after searching for the Hebrew calendar, I got this. You'd have to tell me if it's accurate. It doesn't make a huge deal to me if I use the Hebrew calendar over Gregorian...
Thanks for the info!
I think that this converter is quite accurate for any AH purpose. Of course it would not be for accurate dates of OTL, since it messes up between Julian and Gregorian calendars.
Whatever calendar the Carthaginians used, it probably lacked the sophisticated pattern of leap years and other adjustations that the Hebrew calendar has developed over time. But calendar is mess even when you stick to the Roman one for the times before Caesar, so not caring much of accurateness is the best way to spare headaches.
For the months between Tishri and Adar, you should count them in the year before (i guess that this converter assumes the year beginning in Tishri).
The months have a relationship with seasonal cycles (thanks to the leap years thing) so using that converter you'll avoid military campaigns in winter or the like, in any case.
We have no way to establish exact equivalence with the Punic calendar no matter what, and you can still put the blame on silly Melqart and Shamash priests
. If you want you can tailor a calendar reform on the exigences of your TL making and have Hannibal enforce it (well, of course it will be accurate as knowledge of the time permits, but still. Probably analog to Caeser's reform).
Still on the calendar: after some research, I have to say that going Gregorian is the best way. What we know about the Punic calendar is:
a) too much to connect it strictly to any well-known calendar such as the Neo-Babylonian/Hebrew ones, the similar Syrian one, the Egyptian solar one, or the Greek ones.
b) too little to fully elaborate it.
It is not even certain whether it was lunisolar (like the Semitic ones) or fully solar (like the Egyptian one) though I'd bet on the former. Nor it is known for sure if the year started around the autumn (old Caananite usage, probably) equinox or the spring equinox (Neo-Babylonian and old Hebrew way).
I was totally wrong in supposing its adherence to Neo-Babylonian standard (the Nisan sequence) in previous posts and I apologise for it.
a) too much to connect it strictly to any well-known calendar such as the Neo-Babylonian/Hebrew ones, the similar Syrian one, the Egyptian solar one, or the Greek ones.
b) too little to fully elaborate it.
It is not even certain whether it was lunisolar (like the Semitic ones) or fully solar (like the Egyptian one) though I'd bet on the former. Nor it is known for sure if the year started around the autumn (old Caananite usage, probably) equinox or the spring equinox (Neo-Babylonian and old Hebrew way).
I was totally wrong in supposing its adherence to Neo-Babylonian standard (the Nisan sequence) in previous posts and I apologise for it.
Looks interesting... if I have some time, I'll check it out! One of the other timeline ideas I have is a 'Neo-Babylonia survives' timeline; and, if I were to ever do that, that book looks like a great resource, if I don't use Babylonian/Hebrew stuff for Carthage ITTL.
No need to apologize!
OK, I'll stick with Gregorian - but don't worry; Roman, Macedonian, and Gallic calendars will have appearences too!
Perhaps I should get in the habit of putting parentheses of the standard date next to this timeline's dates (e.g. 607 AY (207 BCE))...
Good TL! I think I'll follow it! if I may offer a suggestion... a shorter update would be probably easier to read ( it took me three times to finish it). anyhow, great quality.
And they only get longer sometimes!!!!!
Thanks for the responses everyone; glad all seem to enjoy.
Thanks
Update:
13. The praetor Quintus Claudius took control of the fractured remains of Nero’s once strong Roman army after the legionnaires realized that the consul Nero was killed in their escape from Potentia. Playing a similar role to that of Varro after Cannae, Claudius regrouped the Legions, and had camped for a week near Beneventum, the site of the glorified battle between Pyrrhus of Epirus and the Roman legions almost seventy years previous. At the time, the site was called ‘Maleventum’, meaning ‘bad outcome’, and was renamed to Beneventum (good outcome) after the draw that concluded Pyrrhus’ campaign in Italia.
Immediately after the Battle of Potentia, Claudius sent a runner to the senate, and sent three squads of four allied horsemen to find the armies Gaius Terentius Varro, Marcus Livius, and Lucius Porcius Licinus, informing them of the terrible outcome of the battle, and to bid them to merge their armies, so as to provide as complete of a defense of Rome as possible. The army would be commanded by Livius, as he was the only consul – a replacement consul (Consul Suffectus) had yet to be decided. Under the plan illustrated by Claudius, the merged armies would meet at Praeneste, which was an Apennine town southeast of Rome. That would be the Roman base, as they waited to learn precisely when and where Hannibal intended to cross the Apennines. Praeneste was near Rome, and was in a central location, with close proximity to a fair amount of passes, and thus was a reasonable location for such a base. In addition, if there was to be battle at or near Praeneste, the ground was uneven and thus easily advantageous to defenders, and also negated Hannibal’s large and oft used cavalry advantage. Also, the supposed battle would also give numerical superiority to the legions, with Rome’s quantity of men nearing seventy thousand, and Hannibal’s just over fifty thousand. While the logistics would be difficult at such short notice, Claudius hoped that that would be made up for with the obvious need for victory to preserve the power of the Roman state and possibly the city of Rome itself.
Claudius advised the Senate to levy and hastily train eight thousand slave conscripts, mercenaries, and fit volunteers to be the city’s garrison in case of a Punic siege, and also advised them to send for the general Publius Cornelius Scipio from Iberia. All parties, in the desperation of the situation, agreed to the praetor’s plan. As a reward for the dignifying manner that he showed in the wake of the defeat at Potentia (Claudius, dictating all messages, made sure to exaggerate his role in salvaging as much of the travesty), and for the described plan, was elected consul suffectus by the Comitia Centuriata. An aged and somewhat unwilling Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator would be assigned the job of captaining the garrison, as he was most noted for military prowess throughout the Republic. While his actual military accomplishments were unimpressive, as only his retaking of Tarentum in 605 AY, he had set Roman military policy of making the war one of attrition, which was a revolutionary military tactic amongst the aggressive Romans. His only rival was Marcus Claudius Marcellus (in military prowess – the two weren’t enemies), who had been consul five times, including the year before, but died that year. The only living candidate then was Scipio, son of the consul from 596 of the same name, was achieving any sort of success similar to that of Fabius.
Since Hasdrubal had escaped past the Roman general, Scipio had been far less aggressive in the Iberian Peninsula. The previous year had seen hard campaigning on the Roman side, and the Romans had conquered much of the peninsula from Carthage. The Battle of Baecula, which occurred the year before against Hasdrubal Barca’s escaping army, was perhaps his greatest accomplishment. He, Mago [1] Barca (who was not the military genius his eldest brother was, nor the less effective but still very capable elder brother Hasdrubal, but was an average Punic general – he was more effective with books and politics rather than generalship) and the Carthaginian Hasdrubal Gisgo had spent the majority of the year thus far campaigning against the indigenous tribes, and skirmishing against each other.
14. Whilst the Romans were frantically communicating amongst themselves, the two Carthaginian armies under Hannibal and Hasdrubal neared.
After Placentia, Hasdrubal’s army of nearly thirty-five thousand marched from the Roman colony towards Umbria. The army, being forced to march at a quicker pace by Hasdrubal, who feared that the always sanguinary Romans under Marcus Livius would approach the army quicker than expected. In reality, it was his army that had made extremely good time, and he had little trouble from the Romans on his march; though he was always alert, aware of the Romans that had camped far in the Apennines to spy on first his brother Hannibal, and now him as well.
Calming his guard after escaping what the Romans called Cisalpine Gaul, Hasdrubal allowed his army two days of rest at the River Metaurus, where they would ensure that the elephants were in proper health, the horsemen well equipped, restock food supplies by raiding from nearby granaries, and, in general, rest. During this break, Hasdrubal conducted a sacrifice to the gods, to ensure that the merged force would be successful in its attempts to destroy Roman will, and had ten oxen ‘donated’ from nearby barbarian [2] farmers, whom were allies of the SPQR. The lives of the oxen were given to Ba’al Hammon, the supreme force amongst the deities of the city, and the sacrifice went as they should.
With good omens, the Carthaginian general marched his army along the Mare Superum[3], not stopping for more than the nights to rest after their stop at the Metaurus. Self-chiding at his perceived waste of time, he worked the army extremely hard for the four day journey across the coastline to the meeting place in the south of Umbria [4]. Once there, Hasdrubal pressured two hundred farmers to be conscripted into the force to be used as extra workers and as petty reserves.
Hannibal Barca, after resting his men for two days after his victory at Potentia, forced his men to march more quickly like Hasdrubal did. He was a week behind Hasdrubal’s army, but was unaware of this; he needed to hurry his troops so as to ensure that the Punic armies didn’t waste the grand opportunity that lay in front of them to destroy the Roman Republic. Hannibal’s only stop (and a brief one, at that), was at Asculum, where the Epirot Basileus Pyrrhus of Epirus had won a “Pyrrhic” [5] victory against the Romans in 535 AY. Being a great lover of Hellenistic culture, Hannibal paid homage to the general there, and then gave the following short speech:
“Here, a great victory was won, by a people who attempted to fight the tyranny of an Italian people; those people whom, in their greed and lust for total dominance, continued their quest for hegemony across the entire Italian peninsula. Today, and indeed only merely a couple years more than a decade after his tragic defeat at Beneventum, we continue this war against that people.
“While we did not seek war with the Romans, and indeed war was only fought when they stuck their nose into affairs not concerning them, we will continue the mission of Pyrrhus. This is a crusade! A war of liberation! The Romans must fall, their allies must collapse, if we are to rid the world of such a threat to the safety of our friends, our families… Tarentum, the first fully civilized people to attempt to hold off such barbarians, failed with Pyrrhus’ failure to maintain the safety of those close to them. A great man began this mission. As great a man continues it, and with greater men under him.
And so, come now men; onward, onward! To Rome, my soldiers, and let us complete the task the gods have assigned to me. The Republic will fall, the hegemony crushed, and Carthage will be safe to bask in her empire for millennia! This is the time, this is the place. Our good Carthaginian standards have ripped through Roman steel, and, provided the will of the gods aligns with ours, victory afresh will come. Now men, take heart, and march on. Win the campaign that Pyrrhus couldn’t, and you will go down in history as the great army of justness, of virtue, of honor, that vanquished a great army of tyranny.”
After Asculum, Hannibal’s army rushed towards the arranged location, meeting Hasdrubal’s force four days after his fellow Barcid had arrived. For the next week, the two and their officers would begin the process of merging, and would discuss the final strategies in reaching Rome most effectively. During this time, they would also send small reconnaissance parties to scout the trails.
Hannibal’s assembly of officers decided on the largest and most populated nearby pass, which would lead them directly to Narnia, which was a once an allied town of Rome, but now a devastated region, after the city could not afford to pay Rome tribute in 605 AY. Its location is near Italia alongside the River Nera, which is a tributary of the River Tiber. Narnia was due north of both Rome and Praeneste (though, Hannibal did not know of his enemy’s base location, and thus was no factor in the decision), and was nearby areas that Hannibal deemed advantageous battlefields for the Carthaginians.
The crossing of the Apennines into western Umbria and Latium were not nearly as epic as Hannibal’s journey across the Alps, and instead, the Carthaginian commander made good time, and lost a small fraction of his men. The main casualty was the death of one of Hasdrubal’s elephants, who was named Dariik [6].
The Romans soon learned of Hannibal’s descent from the Apennines, and, being that Narnia was far more northwards than Claudius had assumed, the entire force of nearly seventy thousand was mobilized into furious action, and, under the command of Consul Marcus Livius, marched northwards towards Rome to stop the Carthaginian force.
[1] – Just as a point of interest, Mago (according to Wikipedia), may have indirectly named mayonnaise. The port of Mahón was apparently founded by Mago, and was named after him, and that town created the local egg sauce that is now known as mayonnaise – presumably after the town, but I could be wrong.
[2] – Mostly Senones and Umbri
[3] – Latin for the Adriatic Sea
[4] – If you’re wondering why the vagueness as to exactly where these armies are supposed to meet, the official reason is because Gisgo doesn’t want you to know for unknown reasons… the real reason is because I don’t know where they were planning to meet IOTL, and didn’t know where exactly would be a good place for it (outside of it being southern Umbria), and thought that it was fairly irrelevant.
[5] – I’m assuming the term was coined by this time. If not, assume that Gisgo just coined it. Side note: As the Hannibal I’ve seen is a that of a very Punic aristocrat, but a Hellenophile to boot, you’ll see him pay a lot of respect to conquered Greek peoples, accelerate Greek customs within Carthage, and he will make frequent remarks to Pyrrhus and Alexander – Pyrrhus especially, because they both campaigned against Rome, and because I personally know more about Pyrrhus. I’m not saying that Greek culture absorbs Carthage to nearly the extent that it did Rome, but there will be increasing amounts of Hellenistic culture merging with Punic culture.
[6] – Means ‘Journey’ in that basic anglicized Punic that I’m going to frequently use. I figure that they name the elephant after the long journey passed the Alps and stuff. Seemed like an ok name for something inconsequential.
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