That somehow reminds me of my first game on VH/VH as the Scipii senpuu, although for me it was much more of an uphill struggle for the first few turns. My initial family was wiped out and I was relying on a couple of adoptees to maintain my empire. In other words there wasn't a single Scipii left on the family tree.

My main problem was that I spent too much time dealing with Syracuse. Due to the battle map difficulty, I was finding it very hard to win due to the dramatically increased attack they had. This diminished my forces, and left me unready for Carthage's onslaught.

In the end I gave up on Scilly and, after building up my Italian military and economic infrustructure, simply went straight to Africa. Some how they were letting their guard down over there - cities were nearly empty. Presumably this was due to them feeding their war on the neighbouring islands.

In the end I took Carthage and later too the more Southern settlements as well. Strangley enough, they only sent out one force and, after that they never came back to claim them.

In the end I took over Carthaginian Scilly by using my African wealth to deal with their forces. It was difficult due to the battle map difficultly, but, after many failed attempts I managed to wresle control off them. This didn't quite destroy Carthage, but it just left them with some flimsy settlements off the coast and a colony in Spain.