A Golden Palm

"Bell, book, and candle, shall not drive me back,
When gold and silver becks me to come on."

William Shakespeare

“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.”

Psalm 91

EB 0.8, Karthadastim, VH/M
No pursuit
No elephant use in sieges
<25% mercenary use
Maximum Roleplay
All numbers multiplied by 10, except Mnai.

Chapter 1: To Lead a Horse to Water

‘Shophet, I come to bring word that the city of Syracuse has been taken.’
‘They are two months later than I had asked. Tell me how this came about.’
‘Sir, I set off as a mercenary with the army led by Xanthippos two years ago…’

In the summer of 272 BC, Xanthippos and Bomilkar ha Hamor had set off from the port of Kart-Hadast with a company of about eighteen thousand men. They were joined at Syracuse four months later by two thousand Iberian caetrati and a further thousand Iberian light cavalry.

‘Thus our army which laid siege to the historic city, having removed lesser surrounding fortifications and towns, was composed as follows:
900 picked cavalry, acting as the bodyguards of ha Hamor and Xanthippos
5,200 Poenic citizens. 2,000 of these were regular soldiers.
2,000 heavy Libyan spearmen
8,000 Iberian light infantry, half of these fought as skirmishers, the rest as spearmen
5,000 Iberian light cavalry

To make a total of 15,200 infantry and 5,900 cavalry’

The Syracusans were possessing a lesser number of men, estimates range from 15,000 to 18,000, but these were inferior in training and skill to the Carthaginians and they possessed under a thousand cavalry, all of which were lightly armed. Thus the Syracusans did not sally out and meet the Carthaginians. The siege lasted for nearly two years before the Syracusans took the field with a force weakened by the famine they were suffering (for a group of mere lordless pirates had blockaded the city from the sea in the hopes of exacting a large payment from the Syracusans). They were led by a man named Hiero and included:

Under 1,000 hippakontistai, lightly armed cavalry
600 Hoplites trained in the Iphikratean style
3,000 Sicels, armed as pantadopoi
4,000 mixed skirmishers and archers
2,000 Peltasts and Thureophoroi

Thus the force which went out to face the Carthaginians was not much more than 10,000 men, and greatly inferior in terms of the number of passable combatants and cavalry.

Xanthippos ordered the Iberian skirmishers to form a screen, and the citizens to form behind it a main line, with cavalry and Iberian auxiliaries on either flank. The Sicels, impetuous and daring, rushed forwards and would have caught the reforming Carthaginians off guard. Only the Iberian skirmishers were in position. However, the lightly armed Sicels were outdone by the sheer ferocity of the caetrati and without the support of peltasts would have been pushed back at once. The Iberian horsemen, seeing their kinsmen outnumbered, came to their assistance and the Greeks and Sicels were defeated easily. The Greek light troops were sheltered by the fire from their walls, so no pursuit could easily be made.

Hiero, together with his cavalry was at this time caught between the victorious Iberian Caetrati and reserve cavalry, as well as the Iberi milites armed with spears. His men were cut down and he was captured. After the battle he was executed. One historian of the day mentions that he was posthumously whipped and tortured.

The Syracusans nonetheless came forth again twice, and having been bested on both occasions, Iberian cavalry pursued them into the town, cut down the gate guards and seized control. The remaining citizens surrendered.

Carthaginian casualties are estimated at two thousand to two and a half thousand men, including about five to eight hundred cavalry. Nine thousand Greeks and Sicilians were slain or captured, a further sixty thousand local Greeks have been sold into slavery.

As soon as a meaningful government had been established in Syracuse, a temple to Aphrodite was erected, in memory of the plague which had struck down Carthaginians who had defiled such a temple in years past and also of the roots to Cypros held by the Poeni.

‘You have done well messenger, I give you ten mnai for your efforts.’

At the meeting, after the assault on Syracuse had been accepted.

‘Sir’, said Hanno, the anti-Barcid, ‘I tire of sitting behind walls, and request that eight thousand mnai be given to me over a year that I may begin a system of watchtowers in the provinces of Africa. I feel deeply that unless we strengthen our African holdings, we may be at risk from incursions.’
Mago nodded, Hamalcar agreed immediately, hoping to cut off funds to the Sicilian expedition. Gisgo agreed immediately, hoping to be able to add further security to his own town of Ippone in the same manner at a later date. This motion was, therefore, also accepted.

‘Any more for any more?’
The men agreed on building mining complexes in the Iberian territory of Mastia, in order to fund these various expeditions and then parted, all set on their goals.

Meanwhile:

In the summer of 271 BC, Numidian tribesmen led by some man named ‘Sarosh’ encircled the town of Ippone and were defeated by Gisgo and the reinforcements which the Spartan had acquired for him. Although the initial forces were roughly equal in size, the Poeni militia proved able to stand the barrages of javelins and then turn back on multiple fronts savage charges. The Numidian allies (of Carthage) and Gisgo’s heavy cavalry worked together to pin down and destroy individual groups of Numidians, while the Numidians who surrounded one group of Poenic infantry were in turn surrounded by reserves, the battle was not bloodless but the Carthaginian records cite their losses as being not much more than two and a half thousand, while nearly the entire force (Sarosh and a few others survived) of the Numidians was killed.

During the Syracusan siege, maps were acquired from both Gallic tribes and also the Romans, the entire interior of Spain was explored by Carthaginian spies and diplomats. The mysteries of Africa, however vast, were also made less by spies, diplomats seeking refuge with individual tribes and small groups of Poeni pioneers, as well as the new watchtower initiative.

A small group of bandits had sprung up near Adumetha, a force had been raised and they had been destroyed by Adherbal, son of Bomilkar ha Hamor.

After the Ordeal:

Carthalo, who had returned from Sardinia, supposedly bored by life on that island, was ‘Just in time’ for the new expedition to be organised. He wasn’t the most energetic of sorts really. Mago had decided that Adherbal, who had been blooded in the battle outside Adumetha a year ago, would be suitable for leading the expedition.

Ha Hamor was pleased, very pleased. He’d heard about the events long before the city of Kart-hadast had. He’d seen from the top of the walls the stragglers floating to shore. Hamalcar was dead, his fleet sunk by pirates as he’d attempted to return to Carthage to gain prestige and hope to weaken the family of ha Hamor.
Adherbal was thus named Prot&#233;g&#233;e of the Shophet, being close to the Shophet and respected as the sort of man who just didn’t have it in him to plot Mago’s downfall. An army was raised over the next year of eight thousand Libyan spearmen, four thousand Liby-Phoenician infantry and a few thousand Iberian and Spanish medium cavalry. This army would be led by Adherbal and the second in command would be Carthalo, so it was decided. It would be met by several thousand allied Numidian cavalry and infantry in Ippone and then launch attacks on the settlements of the Massylians and the Numidians.

In Italy, however, a good situation had turned into another war, ha Hamor had stayed in Syracuse, managing the wealth of it competently, while Xanthippos laid siege to Messana. With him was the young Himilco, one of Bomilkar ha Hamor’s sons. A spy of the Qarthadastim reported to them that the Romans had laid siege to the city of Rhegion. Bomilkar, using his authority, ordered his son to detach from the main army with nine thousand men and “assist” the Romans, by taking the city from the mercenaries holding it and appropriating the mines for the Carthaginians. This was accomplished swiftly, as the Carthaginians launched an attack from one side, the Romans struck from the other, the Carthaginians, using strategy, suffered few casualties and seized the city’s centre, while the Romans were bogged down facing an elite Greek phalanx in one street. The rebels’ leader, Melampos, seeing himself and his few surviving soldiers badly outnumbered, surrendered to the Carthaginians. His life was spared, as were those of his elite band, who, it is said, fled to Ambrakia in the immediate aftermath.

The Roman captain Gneo Haterius feared retribution for his failure to acquire the wealthy mines of the region for the senate and people of Rome. He immediately laid siege to the city, which had a depleted garrison (for many of the soldiers there had returned to assist the capture of Messana). Two seasons later, the Messanans sallied out to face what has been called a masterpiece of tactics. Xanthippos had about two thousand more men, and superiority, but regardless he won more convincingly than expected.

He placed skirmishers hidden in long grass as a screen before his small main phalanx. He then had allied Iberians hidden on the right and Lycanians on the left. His horsemen on the left rode forwards and hurled javelins at the horsemen under the command of the enemy general Ennychos, Ennychos pursued them and was ambushed by the Lycanians. Under the fire of javelins and surrounded, nearly half of his cavalry were incapable of fighting before there was any close combat. The Mamertine cavalry and leader thus met this fate.

The Iberian skirmisher screen then burst into action, attacking the Hellenic pantadopoi. They, having loosed many javelins, were backed up by the Carthaginian phalanx, at which point the skirmishers retreated through the phalanx, leaving the pantadopoi outclassed. The cavalry, having finished with the Mamertine hippeis came to the aid, and the hidden Iberians on the right encircled the Greek light infantry. The entire Greek light infantry force was in this way defeated. Only a few stray phalangites were not fleeing. Carthaginian cavalry followed the Hellenic light infantry into the town, cut down the guards of all the gates and placed their own men at the gates instead.

Meanwhile the Iberians, fighting as light infantry and declining to engage in protracted combats, antagonised the Hellenic hoplitai until the town was firmly under Qarthadastim control. The remaining hoplites surrendered in exchange for a promise that the town’s occupants would not be enslaved. This promise was fulfilled, and these same hoplites fought as mercenaries under Xanthippos in the upcoming campaign for the control of Rhegion.

The Romans, meanwhile, had formed a total alliance with the Epeirotes. Like the traitors they were they consorted with those they had once sought to destroy. It would be a long campaign to hold Rhegion.

Xanthippos then struck out at Gneo Haterius and defeated with few losses the small Roman force; Himilco was able to return to Messana and was extremely grateful, while Haterius was executed for incompetence. Xanthippos was able to finally come closer to his aspirations of political power by becoming governor of Rhegion, a post which no Carthaginian wanted, he now had the support and gratitude of at three members of the council (Bomilkar ha Hamor, Himlico and Gisgo). He would soon make his request to join it, although he knew it would not be easy. He granted his Lycanian mercenaries some land and the materials to build a fort. This happened to be in the way of the Epeirotes marching to attack Rhegion. Ah well, not much to be done about that.

At about the time that Rhegion was laid under siege, the African expedition was halfway to Ippone from Carthage.

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Screenshots will be added later.

Great campaign