Rome: A History

Rome: A History

What if the Roman Republic was never founded?

What if the Persians conquered Greece?

What if Carthage survived the Punic Wars?

Would Rome fall like so many others?

Or would they rise to conquer the world…

Notes Beforehand:

• This is a history book written as if it was written by a historian in the alternate history world.
• Each chapter would be about 1200 words-ish long.
• The dating system will be explained in the prologue.
• Some events will be based on historical ones, others will be completely made up.
• I'm new at this whole writing business so Critic Level 3 please :yes:
• When I cant post whole chapters up I will post small bits of extra infomation related to this world but dont fit in the story.

Onward with the story....

Quote:

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The rise of the Roman Empire is nothing short of a miracle, Sir, no wonder you wish to know how it happened, it grew from a tiny state in the central of Italy, to a world-wide empire that would last for more than a thousand years. Chronicling all of its long history in one book would be an impossible task, and that is why I have decided to split this chronicle into ten volumes. The first volume is already finished when your letter reached me, and is sent to you as requested. It is as accurate as it can be, as many sources from the Romans themselves were destroyed through war or neglect.

Your faithful servant, Romanos Angelos

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---Letter sent with the first volume of “Rome: A History” to King Alexander of Morea, written in 1143

Volume 1: The Early Roman Kingdom

Quote:

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“It is said that Rome was founded by the two sons of a wolf! Will we fear the upstart cubs of them? No! We are the Molossian Hounds! We conquered the world with Alexander the Magnificent, we triumphed over the wild Illyrian tribes; what have they achieved? Nothing! How can we be defeated by these mongrels?”

---Extract from Pyrrhus of Epirus’ speech before the battle of Maleventum in 317 BC

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Quote:

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“The Carthaginians were the rulers of Messana in all but name; will we stand for it? They betrayed us in the Great War against Pyrrhus; will we let them do it again? We must not let such a vital city to fall into their hands, we must take back Messana!”

---Extract from speech of King Gaius Junius Brutus in the Senate in 305 BC

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Prologue
The ancient legends of the Romans themselves say that Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, orphans who were raised by a she-wolf; they were followed by six more kings from the original line, they were mostly insignificant. However, the reign of the last original king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud, was prematurely ended, when a mob led by a Lucius Junius Brutus, one of his many relatives, stormed his palace and killed the King. The cause and what happened during the rebellion is unclear, although one source, a Roman author called Livy, reports that after the murder of the King. “Brutus stood upon the body of the fallen King, preparing to begin a speech, he only got out the words “Never shall Rome be ruled by a…” before the sound of the mob overwhelmed him. They had found the crown of King amongst the bodies, and in their wild excitement, urged Brutus to take it. He was aghast, he had been preaching to the mob before they came here about the virtues of a free republic. However, after much persuasion from the crowd, he accepted the crown, and became the first Roman King of the Brutii line, which would last for more than four hundred years.” Livy was a Roman historian who lived during the Great Casesarion’s time, for the purpose of putting an accurate time-scale upon the history included in this book, all time periods will be referred to as BC, which stands for Before Caesarion, and AC, After Caesarion. Using this scale, the new Brutii dynasty lasted from 549 BC to 99 BC, when the divine Caesar took power from the King, and made himself Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Immediately after his coronation, the new King ordered Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, another nobleman who was related to the old king, to lead an army to crush Tarquin the Proud’s family and their allies in Etruria. It resulted in a brilliant victory, but unfortunately, the mob that had brought the new noblemen into power could not stand the thought of having another Tarquin having power, and he soon was exiled to Massila, a Greek city friendly with Rome, his descendants later would cause much devastation to the Roman people.

In a few years, Rome’s power was secured around its immediate surroundings, and could interfere easily with the weakened Etruria and the Latin states around them, however, it still have not nearly enough power to contend with either the great Carthaginian empire of Africa, or the many Greek states to the north and east.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Chapter 1

More than a hundred years after the founding of the new dynasty, which had expanded steadily, and which now was now one of the most powerful of the Latin states, a dispute within the kingdom itself in 443 BC threatens to destroy it forever. According to the same source I have used earlier, “The Plebs rose in a great rebellion, calling for the formation of a free republic, many plebs moved out of the city, and formed a make-shift government a few miles outside and equipped a great army, but with plebeians as its officers and leaders. King Caius Junius Brutus, rallied the equestrians and the senators, and some of the Latin allies, and made a great army out of them. They attacked the Pleb’s positions, but they put up a stiff resistance. It is not until a small contingent of Sabine cavalry attacked from behind that they put down their arms. The king ordered that all the ring leaders to be crucified, but the remainder were spared and allowed to go back to Rome.”

As before, the cause of the great rebellion was unclear, and there was clearly more to this affair than recorded in the surviving sources. The mostly likely cause would be class difference between the upper class Patricians and the lower class. Although from Livy’s book for that time he described the event as a definite Patrician victory, one of his later books on Roman politics says that at 413 BC “One of the Consuls was from the famed Plebeian family Sempronii, which had produced several consuls in the past.” This must have meant that the Plebs some how gained the right to stand for any political office that they had fought for in those thirty years between 443 and 413 BC. This event also demonstrated the Plebs, with their numbers, could cause havoc with Rome if they rebelled, and the Patricians have to hand some powers to the Plebs in order to have internal peace.

After the domestic dispute was ended, Rome looked to its neighbours to expand. One of the most obvious targets was Samnium, a war-like tribe to the south of Latium, which had long disputed with Rome over lands. But before the war could be begun, an army from Gaul, under the leadership of Brennus, marched on Rome in 430 BC, defeating several Roman legions on the way. He quickly captured Rome and all but destroyed the city, burning down monuments and looting temples. Only when the Roman King, the same Caius who crushed the Plebeian rebellion, gave a huge amount of gold and silver to the Gauls, did they leave.

The sack of Rome undoubtedly hardened the Roman’s determination to wage further wars in order to protect their land; the Samnites themselves did not help either, for they raided the territories of the Romans many times after the sack of Rome, when the Romans were at their most vulnerable. The Romans would only need a motive for war, and the war would begin.

The war began in 428 BC, when the small cities in Campania asked Rome for help in their war against Samnium. Rome agreed, and soon sent a large force to attack the Samnites from the north, whilst the smaller army cobbled together from the Campanians attacked from the west. The Samnites were fearsome fighters, and defeated the Campanians easily. As their main army shifted north to face the Romans, leaving only a few garrisons in Campania, the Roman army split in half, and attacked the Samnite army from two sides. The Roman general behind this manoeuvre was a man called Marcus Furius Camillus, who would later be Consul, the magistrate who is just beneath the King in power, for the five years of the Samnite War and the Latin War.

With their main army destroyed, the aristocrats leading the Samnites did not sue for peace; instead they levied more troops, whilst the garrisons in Campania forced the natives to send huge number of their male citizens to Samnium. The huge manpower drain from Campania would cripple the farms there for years to come. The men from Campania was forcibly drilled as soldiers and sent to the Romans as a distraction, the resulting battle was a massacre.

Meanwhile, the real Samnite army was being gathered, the soldiers knows that a defeat would not be acceptable, for it would mean submitting to the Romans, their most hated enemy.

The two armies met at a place called Suessula; the Roman army was exhilarated with their earlier victories, whilst the Samnites were fighting for their country. It should have resulted in a Roman victory, due to the brilliant manoeuvring by Marcus Camillus, but in the middle of the battle, news came from Rome of rebellion amongst the Latin states against Rome, due to the fact that Rome waged war without consent from them.

The army retreated in mid-battle and diplomats were sent to Samnium to make peace. The Samnites won very favourable turns, they gained most of Campania, and Rome was not to attack Samnium or their allies for fifty years.

Meanwhile, Rome itself was besieged for the second time in three years; the Latin army was almost identical to the Roman’s, and so they were evenly matched when a Roman relief army arrived. Only when Marcus Furius Camillus arrived did they force the Latins into retreat.

This however did not end the war, the Latin states joined together to form the Latin Republic, and the war would continue for four more years. At the end, a grudging armistice was made between the two sides, neither side conceding defeat.

Shaken from the wars, Rome would need more than fifty years for it to recover, when they did, they found the Latin Republic and the Samnites weak from internal conflicts; with lightning speed, they conquered both countries in 370 BC, doubling the size of the Roman Kingdom in the process, making it the incontestable dominant power in Central Italy.

For the next few years, Rome expanded its influences, almost all of the Italic cities to the north of them became allies, although some towns founded by the barbarians still refused to join Rome’s growing network of alliances. To the south, the rich town of Capua and others were protected by Rome, although the cities founded by the Greeks at the foot of Italy are still loyal to their kinsmen in Greece.

In 320 BC however, a war broke out between Rome and the Greek cities, the effect would be enormous, but without understanding of the status of the other great powers in the Mediterranean, the war would be hard to be comprehended. Thus, in the next chapter I will describe the many Greek states and their histories, and how eventually the Pyrrhic war would begin.

OOC: I will post the next chapter once I get some responses.

I refuse to read it if the Carthginians don't win...

:shame: Goes off to change the entire story...

Carthage would besiege Rome, thats all I'm going to say. :beam:

Edit: No responses? I'll post the next chapter a few hours later then... :(

Chapter 2

The history of the Greek states was as turbulent as itself, throughout its history it had been invaded and conquered many times. The most successful invaders would be undoubtedly the Persians, who invaded under their King of Kings, Xerxes, in 520 BC. It took them many hard battles to eventually win control of most of the Greek cities in 517 BC, although one of the cities hold out, the city’s name was Sparta.

The other city states who had opposed the Persians most fervently either submitted, or sent the bulk of their citizenry to friendly tribes to the far north of Greece, or to other Greek colonies across the Mediterranean; this is why most of the cultures that developed in Europe during the Roman period has at least some Greek influence on them. The cities that were evacuated to the barbarian tribes would later win dominance amongst the barbarians due to their superior technology, and in time would develop into the Greco-Germania empires, which would stretch from Thrace to the Baltic Sea; the most powerful of them was New Macedonia, whose own homeland was conquered by the Persians, they would field professional armies of Phalanx Pikemen augmented with fearsome barbarian warriors armed with falxes and broadswords.

Sparta, as the only city who did not acknowledge the Persian power in Greece itself was constantly attacked by the Persians, but they held the city for over sixty years, until when a Persian civil war occurred in 444 BC between two rival claimants for the throne, did they went on the offensive, quickly retaking the Peloponnese from the weak Persian satraps. Thousands of young Greeks from across the Mediterranean, hearing the news of the victory, travelled to Sparta. The Spartans which were now extremely spread out to hold in check the Persian armies, welcomed the newcomers as “Honorary Citizens”, doubling the size of their army and their citizenry.

Gradually, armies from the exiled Greeks returned and retook their old cities. Within two decades the Persians were thrown out of Greece, and the old cities were re-established. Very quickly though, one of the most powerful of the returning cities, Athens, quickly quarrelled with Sparta, and started the Peloponnesian War. Few records regarding the Peloponnesian War survive, although it is clear at the end of the war, in 419 BC. AthensSparta and would never rise again, until well after Sparta was gone. was reduced to a vassal of

The Spartan Hegemony on Greece was gradually weakened over the coming years, and in 386 BC, Thebes, a bitter opponent of Sparta, called upon the aid of the Emperor of New Macedonia, Philip the Second, who had already destroyed the other Greco-Germania empires and reconquered Macedonia itself, to smash Sparta. The ensuing war was brutally short, in months their Hegemony in northern Greece was broken, although the Spartans held firm in the Peloponnese. Has Phillip not been murdered in 376 BC, he might have crushed the Spartans once and for all. But when he was murdered, chaos reigned in his empire; dozens of claimants for the throne appeared, despite the fact that the rightful heir, Alexander, the twenty-two year old crown prince, was already crowned. Showing a force of will that is very rare, young Alexander marched north and rallied his vassal tribes, the northern claimants to the throne were quickly defeated.

Travelling with only his elite Agema, Alexander raced south and reached Greece in a week. Again, he rallied the Greek cities which were favoured by his father, and defeated the southern claimants.

Few knew what the young emperor was thinking during those days, although all of them must have thought that he was planning something monumental, it was. He led army 100,000 men strong into Asia Minor in 374 BC, to conquer the Persian Empire. He quickly defeated the Satraps who were ordered to fight him. Meanwhile back in Greece, the Spartans realised that this is their chance to regain their power in Greece; they amassed an army and attacked their old vassal Athens, which had wisely allied with the Macedonians. Hearing the news, Alexander left 60,000 men in Asia Minor under Ptolemy, his childhood friend and an able general, and raced back to Greece, defeating the Spartans during the decisive Battle of Athens, and signed the treaty of Corinth, which limits the Spartan territories to the Peloponnese; never again would the Spartans attack a city in central and northern Greece.

Having secured peace in Greece, Alexander returned to his campaign in Persia. Ptolemy was an able to take several cities in Alexander’s absence, and the Emperor rewarded him by giving him an army to attack Egypt; the Persian Satrapy of Egypt would fall the following year.

Still left with the bulk of his army, Alexander pressed on, reaching Persepolis, the Persian capital in the summer of 373 BC. He spent the rest of the campaign season settling the conquered land, but moved on again the next year, with phenomenal speed, he defeated the last of the Persian satraps in Bactria and captured the last Persian king, Darius. After suppressing some renegade Persian generals, the campaign was completed. He had conquered the Persian Empire in five years, and he was only twenty seven years old.

Throughout the next ten years, he consolidated his empire, although rumours has it that he planned to invade India, he never did, for managing his empire, which now stretches from the Baltic to the border with India, took much of his attention.

However at the age of thirty-seven, he launch a campaign against the Saka to the north of the Persian Empire, the Saka, a nomadic people who lived on the plains, had raided across the border for a long time, and he decided to strike back. During a battle against a scouting Saka force, Alexander was shot by a Saka horse-archer, he died later that night.

Although he had a young son also named Alexander, he did not succeed his father but instead was murdered by the Captain of the Agema, Meleager. A civil war developed quickly, in the chaos, the Germanic tribes declared their freedom, although a few were still ruled by Greek aristocrats. Egypt was successfully defended by Ptolemy and he watched as Alexander’s empire was ripped apart. Thirty years later, in 333 BC, new empires emerged from the ashes of the old one: Antigonus the Cruel ruling over Macedonia; Lysimachus ruling over most Asia Minor; Antiochos the Saviour ruling most of the former territories of the Persian Empire and Ptolemy and his son ruling Egypt. Amongst the new empires, there were also many small states, like the state of Epierus, founded by a relative of Alexander.

The King of Epeirus, Pyrrhus, was a determined military man, he yearns to be recognised as an equal to his far more famous relative Alexander the Great, and in 320 BC, he got his chance. But neither the Romans nor the Epirotes would know that their war would soon grow into a clash between empires.

Interesting. An alternative history is certainly an intriguing idea. Beware that it doesn't become too dry, though. Perhaps you should try to follow a few interesting characters. Also, the first paragraph of the second chapter contains some obvious errors.

I only started writing this a week again, the beginning might look boring, but the next couple chapters should be better. (I think...)

No idea where those errors came from, on my word file it looks fine.

Chapter 3

Like so many wars in the ancient world, the conflict started with a small dispute in a relatively weak city. This time it was Tarentum, a wealthy Greek city who thought that a small Roman exploration fleet was violating their territory. Using its own considerable fleet, they sunk the Roman ships and launched an attack on Roman allies. The Romans were furious, and several legions were massed under the command of their King, Lucius Junius Brutus.

The Tarantines responded by calling upon their powerful allies, the Epirotes to their aid. King Pyrrhus was delighted, he was always searching for new wars to take part in, and quickly his army was assembled; Illyrian tribesmen formed the shock infantry, whilst the citizens were armed as Pikemen or cavalry, and the pride of their army, the Indian elephants exported from Pyrrhus’ ally Antiochos’ empire.

When the invasion fleet reached Italy, the Samnites and other Italian tribes who had been suppressed by Rome immediately joined Pyrrhus’ cause, in fact, most of southern Italy joined Pyrrhus, the Romans were aghast; they had expected an easy campaign against the Tarantines. But they did not falter, the doubled their preparations for war, whilst urged their powerful ally, the rich trading empire of Carthage, to send troops to them; Carthage was hesitant, for Epierus was friendly with the powerful Ptolemaic Egypt, which borders with Carthage.

Pyrrhus however have no reservations, he had already sent diplomats to Carthage, and was confident that they would abandon their weak Italian ally and aid him instead. Comforted by this, he levied huge amount of troops from the allied cities, and ruled the cities that defected to him harshly, drawing mainly upon their gold to pay for his armies.

The Romans soon responded and invaded the territories of one of the tribes who had defected to Pyrrhus, Lucania. Pyrrhus raced to their aid, and they met on the fields near the city of Heraclea.

The two armies faced each other for hours, until at last Pyrrhus ordered his elephants to charge, whilst his light infantry followed. The Romans were terrified of the huge beasts and the front line, made out of inexperienced Hastatis, was routed quickly. Eager to take advantage of the situation, Pyrrhus sent forward his cavalry to flank the Romans; the Roman King, Lucius, fearing that the battle would be lost and he be killed, fled towards the camp with his guard. The rest of the Roman army routed almost immediately.

Many of the routers were killed by the pursuing cavalry, although the elite troops of the Romans, the veteran spear-wielding Triarii, survived because they were guarding their camp.

Having won his victory on the only Roman army in his immediate vicinity, he marched on Capua and other cities still loyal to Rome. In the coming months, all of them will fall to his army.

The fall of southern Italy shocked the Carthaginians, and soon they decided that Rome would lose the war, quickly they changed sides, and sent their huge fleet to blockade the Roman ports. Egypt, now with a new king Ptolemy the Second, was having doubt over their alliance with Epeirus, for another of Pyrrhus’ ally, Antiochus, was massing troops on the border between Egypt and the Antichoan Empire. Changing their mind, they broke their alliance with Epeirus, and allied with Rome instead; they would much prefer being allies with a weak and subordinate state, than with a strong state that could easily make war with them. The Antiochoan Empire, honouring their alliance with Epeirus, launched an attack on Egyptian-controlled Syria. The complex web of alliances and changing allegiance had now attracted into the war three other major powers in the Mediterranean, in time many other smaller nation would join the war.

Delighted at the turn of events, Pyrrhus readied his enlarged army for another campaign next year, whilst his new allies the Carthaginians, with their huge amount of gold, hired a large mercenary army to guard the Carthaginian-Egyptian border.

In 319 BC, Pyrrhus launched a foray into central Italy, capturing many towns. The Romans sent another army, this time under the command of the consul, Publius Decius Mus, to drive Pyrrhus out; but the blockade maintained by the Carthaginians were strong, and the lack of trade and supplies in Rome had created tension amongst the citizens and soldiers.

When the armies met in Asculum, Pyrrhus used the same tactic as in Heraclea; this time the result was even more spectacular, 10,000 Romans were killed whilst thousands more were taken prisoner. The King’s son, Cnaeus Junius Brutus, was killed as he fled.

Despite the twin defeats and their precarious supply situation, the Romans still fought on, and so did their Latin allies. Pyrrhus was now content to station his army on the border, as he expects a peace offer very soon. Throughout 318 BC the situation remained a stalemate in Italy, although in Africa the Great Cyrene War had broke out between Carthage and Egypt.

Carthage had planned in 318 BC to take the land of Cyrene by a sea-borne assault, in order to loosen the pressure on the Antiochoan Empire, since the Syrian War was going very badly for them, their initially strong army destroyed in Tyre days after the war begun.

Unfortunately, the Egyptians had placed a strong army in Cyrene, because the ruler of Cyrene, Magas, was the half-brother of Ptolemy the Second. The initial invasion army was utterly destroyed; the few prisoners taken were executed in plain site of the Carthaginian fleet, which the Egyptian fleet were unable to defeat.

Spurred on by the massacre of their soldiers, Carthage hired another army and again transported the troops to Cyrene, but this time the army was landed in a chosen site, and soon they had established a defensive fort in a cluster of hills.

Unable to dislodge them, the war became a bloody stalemate, which unlike the one in Italy, was filled with acts of cruelty and ruthlessness by both sides. Small groups of mercenaries would sweep into Cyrene, burning and plundering the villages, if they were caught by the Egyptians, they would tortured and murdered in sight of the fort built by the mercenaries.

By the end of the year, neither side had made much progress, but they were both still determined to fight on.

The Pyrrhic War had already created much bloodshed amongst the combatants, but within one year, one great power would be knocked out of the war, never to rise again, and the effect of this war would in time, destroy one of the greatest empires in the Mediterranean, and produce some of the greatest victories and defeats in history.

Chapter 4

Having won already two great victories, Pyrrhus was surprised that the Romans did not ask for peace. Knowing that his allies were having a hard time in other theatres of war, he knew he had to at least inflict another serious defeat on Rome in 317 BC, to lower Egypt’s morale. He marched north to an Italian city still loyal to Rome, Maleventum the only city in Samnium who still resisted, and laid siege to it, hoping to attract the attention of the new Roman legions recently drafted.

The legions quickly moved also to Maleventum, so as to prevent another loyal city to fall in to Epirote hands. This time the army was led by the famed Plebeian general Manius Curius Dentalus, although they were outnumbered and out-equipped, they are still determined to defeat the Epirotes.

Taking his chance, Pyrrhus deployed his army outside the Roman camp and waited, ready to send in his elephants in when the Romans attacked.

But instead, the Roman general ordered his army to stay put; Pyrrhus at first was not concerned, for he knows that he has huge amount of resources to draw upon, and can afford to wait, whilst the Romans were surrounded and does not have any methods to gain supplies. But only the third day after Pyrrhus found the Roman camp, he received a message from Antiochus; he had been defeated once again by the Egyptians and is considering pulling out of the war, unless Pyrrhus returns the 9000 men he had given to him at the beginning of the war. Pyrrhus was aghast, he could not return the 9000 men until the war with Rome is over, because they were the only force defending Epierus from Macedonian and the other Greek states; if they were returned to Antiochos, he would have no army to defend his own homeland.

With heavy heart, he ordered his army to form in battle formation outside the Roman camp, hoping to inflict a final defeat on the Romans. The Roman general, Manius, also knows that if this battle is lost, the faltering will of the Roman people to fight on could be easily broken. But he also knows that if they stay here any longer, their supply would run out, and eventually they have to break out or die of starvation.

Manius led his army out, but kept his army close to the camp, so that the Latin archers on the rampart could aid them in the battle. He also sent his small force of cavalry through a side gate, ready to flank the enemy; they would play a critical part in the battle.

Seeing the enemy advancing to meet his challenge, Pyrrhus sent forward his cavalry and light infantry to test the enemy strength. The Romans beat off this feint attack easily, but were still very nervous about advancing to face the Epirote army, mainly due to their innate fear of elephants and unwillingness to charge straight into a mass of pikes in the Phalanx formation.

Guessing the same thing, Pyrrhus ordered an attack, elephants at the front, followed by Pikemen. If the elephants faltered, they would be immediately killed by the Pikemen behind them; he was taking no chances with his elephants, for he knew they were unreliable beasts, and he could always buy more from his allies.

Manius knew that Pyrrhus would send out his elephants first, and had already worked out a plan to defeat them, although it was untested in Roman hands, it had proven its worth in the Battle of Tyre, where the Egyptians defeated the Antiochoan elephants this way.

When the elephants were yards away from the Roman lines, gaps suddenly appeared in their formation, and out of the gaps, charged pigs with their tails on fire. Despite the fact that most of them never reached the elephants, their sound and smell was enough to root the elephants to the ground; making them easy target for the archers.

The Pikemen continued to advance despite this minor set back, even without the elephants Pyrrhus was confident that they could win. The cavalry and light infantry that now had recovered were sent to flank one side of the Roman camp. The Roman flanking force however was on the other side, and when the Roman and Epirote infantry met, they quickly charged out and smashed into the Pikemen’s side. The phalanx doctrine dictates that their vulnerable flank must be protected, but unfortunately Pyrrhus had underestimated the Romans and thought that the Romans must have slaughtered the horses for food, and sent the only forces that he has that could easily repel the Roman flanking force to another section of the battle.

The unprotected flank was destroyed by the flanking Romans, and soon it routed. But the central and right part of the formation stayed firm, and fought even harder to break the Roman lines. Pyrrhus was dismayed at the sudden turn of the battle, but it is not enough for him to lose the battle. He quickly ordered part of his central formation to turn to the cavalry, so that the Romans would charge into the front of the Phalanx, rather than the side.

The cavalry charge lost its momentum due to the turned Phalanx, and the battle again became a melee. It would last for, according to Livy, hours and only after nightfall did the Epirotes retreat, failed in their objective to rout the Roman army, although neither side were conclusively defeated. Pyrrhus himself was wounded by an arrow, and the huge casualties inflicted upon his army made any thought of further campaign this season impossible. He led his battered troops back to Tarentum, and returned to his kingdom, effectively abandoning the southern Italians to the Romans. The Romans at the battle of Maleventum did not escape unscathed either, but the small victory gave them confidence to continue the war.

The Antiochoan Empire quickly made peace with Egypt, losing all of its territories in Syria, although Carthage would fight on for few more months in Cyrene, the mercenaries who fought them rebelled due to the lack of pay and mounting casualties, Carthage pulled out of the war and the First Mercenary War, as it was known to the Romans, would unsettle Carthage for years to come.

Despite losing their powerful allies, the southern Italians still fought on, but the Roman legions thrust south immediately after Pyrrhus went back to Greece, by the beginning of 316 BC, the southern Italians were subjugated, and now Roman power spreads from the River Po in the north, to the tip of Italy.

For a decade after the devastating Pyrrhic War, the Mediterranean powers recuperated. Pyrrhus would eventually invade Macedonian to try and gain its throne, he would succeed, briefly, until Antigonus and his son allied with Alexander, the son of Lysimachus and King of Asia Minor, drove him out. Pyrrhus died as his broken army retreated from Macedonia. His sons, Alexander and Helenos, tried to expand their weakened kingdom; but Epeirus would never rise again, eclipsed by the Macedonians and the Romans.

The Romans enjoyed a golden age during the next decade, as they expanded their diplomatic network, and soon their list of allies grew, although the most powerful of them remained Egypt, which gained large tracts of land, although most of them are deserts, from Carthage at the end o the war.

Carthage defeated the rebelling mercenaries, and although they lost huge amount of trade and was severely weakened in their protracted war against Egypt, by the year 304 BC, it had once again become a major power. It had steadily expanded into Iberia, whilst their trade agents went beyond the Great Desert into Central Africa. They also asserted their dominance upon the cities of Sicily; the island produces huge amount of grain and acts as an easy jumping-off point for traders to Italy.

Not surprisingly, the island became a haven for pirates and other people of dubious reputation; and is because of them, that the second great conflict involving Rome would begin.

Chapter 5

The main cause of the First Punic War was undoubtedly the presence of the Sons of Mars, or Mamertines as they were called by the Romans. They were originally mercenaries hired by the King of Syracuse, a major city in Sicily, but when the King died, they abandoned Syracuse to forge their own destiny. They attacked the city of Messana, a strategically important city that dominates the strait separating Italy and Sicily.

The Greeks in the city were ousted easily by the war-hardened veterans, and quickly the town became a haven for pirates and mercenaries. This made the Sons of Mars a hated force in Italy and Sicily, and the new King of Syracuse, Hiero, attacked the Mamertines between 310 and 305 BC. During what should have been a decisive defeat for the Mamertines during the Siege of Messana, a Carthaginian trade fleet, escorted by dozens of war ships, came into the sight of the city. The Syracusans, fearing the mercenaries had made an alliance with Carthage, retreated. The Mamertines welcomed their saviours, although soon they themselves resented the protection the Carthaginians gave them. They secretively called for Roman aide, although the Senators advising the Roman King, Marcus, brother of the previous King, Lucius, were cautious, the King himself was all for an expedition to Italy.

Legions were levied from the huge manpower pool that Rome now commands, and the troops set off for Sicily in 304 BC, and despite the efforts of a small Carthaginian fleet guarding the Straits of Messana, the much larger but inferior Roman fleet reached Sicily without hitch.

The small Carthaginian garrison in Messana retreated further inland, whilst Hiero of Syracuse remained neutral, waiting to see who would gain the upper hand in what would be a conflict lasting more than twenty years.

It took several days for the Carthaginians to register the fact that they are at war again, but soon huge armies of mercenaries were amassed at their main base in Sicily, Lillybaeum. But neither side were willing to engage each other in the mountainous island, and soon both sides settled to siege the minor cities which supported the other side.

The Romans, in the autumn of 304 BC, made the first major move. The King, who had now arrived in Sicily to personally command the army, decided that the neutral city of Syracuse was too good a target to miss. The Carthaginians, hearing this ordered their main campaign army there as well, so that the Syracusans would think that they were defending them from the Romans.

The first major of the war was fought on a relatively flat plain just several Roman miles outside of Syracuse. The Romans gained the upper hand quickly over the inexperienced mercenaries, and pushed them back. However, a Carthaginian fleet arrived, and most of their fleeing army were rescued.

This minor defeat convinced Hiero to join the Romans, although the common people of Syracuse were more inclined towards the Carthaginians, since they viewed the Romans as the aggressors, and the Carthaginians as their protectors. Despite this, Hiero still contributed a large number of hoplites to the Roman army.

Unfazed by the small defeat and still determined to oust the Romans from Sicily, the Carthaginians mustered an even larger army and attack by land in 303 BC. The army ravaged the Roman-controlled land and defectors for two years, with weapons and food supplied by Syracusan sympathisers, until the Romans defeated them in the battle of Mount Etna.

The situation in Sicily then gradually degenerated into slow but gradual advances by the Romans across the island, but not a single decisive defeat was inflicted by the Romans; and so the naval engagements would decide the conclusion of the war.

At the beginning of the war, Carthage has a definite advantage over the Roman navy. They have a history of maritime exploits, whilst the Roman fleet was mainly cobbled together from its Italian allies.

The first naval engagement of the war, in 301 BC, was a complete victory for Carthage; they wiped out the allied fleet, and consequently allowed the Carthaginians to dominate northern Sicily. The Romans appealed to their allies, Syracuse and Egypt, and soon a new fleet was made, but with more modifications added, including legionnaires which would board enemy ships, which would in time develop into the Legio Marina, and the corvus, a hammer like structure that could pierce the hull of a ship, and allow boarding parties to go through.

The next naval battle, near the island group of Mylae, was an attempt by the Romans to win back control of the sea north of Sicily. The new modifications proved a success, and the Carthaginian fleet was soundly defeated and scattered. For the next few years, the Carthaginian fleet was beaten again and again. Until the Roman senate decided that the time was right for an invasion of Africa itself.

The fleet and the army for the task were made ready on the coast of Syracuse on 296 BC, under the command of Marcus Atilius Regulus. It brushed off the light resistance from the small Carthaginian fleet placed near Africa, and landed the troops near the city of Apsis, it was quickly taken.

The Carthaginians were shocked at the sudden invasion by the Romans, they hastily gathered an army made out of militias and its Numidian allies, they were put under the command of Xanthippus, a disgraced Spartan who became a mercenary commander for the Carthaginians. He found the Roman army near the city of Tunis, and utilising the open ground, used his cavalry and elephants, the Carthaginians’ most powerful weapon, to good effect. In a few hours, the entire Roman army, consisting of 5 legions, were destroyed. The commander, Regulus, was captured; he was executed shortly before the end of the war.

Despite the small victory in Africa, in all other fronts the Carthaginians were losing, especially in Sicily, where they were in control of less than half of the island, but they still fought on. A respite came in 289 BC when they sent a new general, Hamilcar to Sicily and, in the same year, the battered Carthaginian fleet managed to defeat a full Roman fleet.

Hamilcar, now commander of Sicily, quickly struck where the Romans were weakest, and in a few years, he had reconquered several cities and had set up a new base on Mount Etna, where he was virtually impregnable from attacks. The government of Carthage however, especially the old land-owner Hanno, thought that the war was over, as the Roman fleet was completely destroyed. They ordered the demobilisation of the fleet, which Hamilcar had hoped to use to invade and raid Italy. Without a fleet, Hamilcar was trapped in Sicily, and when a new Roman fleet was built in 281, the Carthaginians sued for peace.

The Romans gained Sicily, as well the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, adding, for the first time, territories not in Italy to the Kingdom of Rome.

Several sources, including Livy, claimed that the Carthaginians did not want peace because they had been defeated so many times, but because the island of which the war was fought for, Sicily, was so devastated by the war that its riches and grain were almost completely used up. Livy even continued to say that “The people of Carthage were a trading people at heart, when the objects of trade disappear, so shall them.”

Nevertheless, Carthage suffered enormously from the war, its fleet was devastated and its riches accumulated for centuries used up. In an effort to stem its financial loses, Hanno ordered all mercenaries to accept a reduced amount of pay. This kindled another mercenary rebellion, so called the Second Mercenary War. Hamilcar, led the Punic forces against the rebels, and quickly put the rebellion down. But he was not content to see his homeland weak; he led his remaining loyal mercenaries to Iberia, where the Carthaginian settlements were relatively untouched by war, and begun an aggressive war against the local tribes. In time, Carthage would again become a superpower, and would attack Rome for the last time, under a general few had rivalled in skill.