Allies

An alternate history short story in the Lions of Hamilcar Alternate History Universe

What would it have taken for Carthage to win the Second Punic War?

This question has fascinated me since I was sucked into Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History series on the titanic clashes between Rome and Carthage. If you’ve never listened to this series (called Punic Nightmares), I highly recommend it.

If you like history even a little, go buy this series. It’s four hours of spectacular history for $8 and you need this in your life.

The story is just incredible, almost larger than life. The scale of the conflict was vast, larger than many modern wars. The naval battle of Cape Ecnomus (256 BC), where Rome crushed Carthage’s dominance of the sea, still holds the record for the largest naval battle in history based on the number of combatants involved. There were possibly as many as 290,000 men in a single sea battle! Just unbelievable.

With battles like that, what would it have taken to defeat Rome?

An awful lot was my answer when I started thinking about how to structure my alternate history version of the Second Punic War. Rome was uniquely equipped to become a superpower in this era. More so than Carthage, Egypt, the Macedonians, or the Selucids. No organized state could really compete with Rome, especially over the long term.

So how do you square this circle? How can Carthage defeat Rome? My partial answer was that if one state couldn’t take on Rome, what about more?

In all three Punic Wars Carthage was crippled by rebellions and unrest in its own territories. During the First Punic War Carthage fought a major rebellion in Numidia and Libya while fighting Rome, and during the Second there were no less than two rebellions in Numidia.

And that brings me to a fascinating person: Masinissa, Prince of the Massylii Numidians.

He is such an interesting person, and unusual in that he’s a figure from antiquity that we know quite a bit about. What he accomplished was incredible. He was the eldest son of a King (maybe kinglet is a more appropriate modern term?) of the Massylii, a Numidian people. There were several major tribes or nations of Numidians, but only two major ones: The Massylii and the Masaesylia. And of course, they didn’t get along, so whenever Carthage wasn’t watching them like a hawk, they went to war.

We know a lot about Masinissa’s activities because the main historical reference we have for the Punic Wars is a Greek historian named Polybius. And Polybius claims that he journeyed to Numidia to meet the elderly Masinissa in person. You can’t get much more primary source than that.

Masinissa, it turned out, was a very talented general. At the tender age of seventeen, he led a combined Numidian-Carthaginian force that defeated the rebellious Numidian king Syphax of the Masaesylia. After his victory, the Carthaginian Senate annulled Masinissa’s engagement to the beautiful Sophonisba, daughter of Hasdrubal Gisgo, a prominent Carthaginian politician, and married her to Syphax instead.

I’m not saying that’s what started Masinissa’s long slide into rebellion against Carthage, but I’d certainly be miffed if I was in his place.

After years of war against Rome, Masinissa reads the writing on the wall and switches sides, making a deal with Publius Cornelius Scipio (the future Africanus) to join Rome if they back his play for the Numidian throne. Scipio agrees, and in one stroke Rome gains access to some of the best light cavalry in the world and deprives Carthage of a skilled general in a time when it’s Numidian ‘allies’ are thrown into chaos by a crisis of succession and renewed conflict between the two major tribes. This is a disaster for Carthage and only speeds their defeat.

So how to keep Masinissa and the Numidians on Carthage’s side?

Well, to answer that question you’re going to have to buy the book! Available on Friday, May 31st on Amazon, pick up Hooves, Sabers, and Tracks, an anthology of alternate history tales. Edited by the immensely talented Dr. James Young, this anthology is a must-have. I’m proud to share the cover with my friend Justin Watson. What’s more, two of my AlphaMercs brethren, Seth Taylor and Matt Ryan (Back Porch Writer) are in this one as well! This promises to be a fantastic addition to any Alternate History fan’s repertoire, so make sure and grab your copy as soon as it comes out on Friday!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!