I understand what you're saying, but I have to disagree.

I think having a faction like Syracuse (Has that ever been a playable faction in ANY mod for RTW?) would be somewhat exotic, and fail to see why Syrakousai would be so utterly defeated so quickly.

Historically, Syrakousai held out for quite some time against Carthaginian advances, although I'm not 100% on Syracusean history, I know they were a big pain in the ass for them.

Qarthadastim starts out relatively weak in Sicilia, and I fail to see why Syrakousai wouldn't have just as good of a chance of pushing them off of the island, especially if they start out with a decent field army.