So
Carthage wanted Sicily back so they could regain the territory they lost in the
First Punic War. Syracuse was initially
in the Roman camp but then Hiero died. His grandson Hieronymous took the
tyrantship and was heavily influenced by pro-Carthaginian advisors. Unfortunately for Carthage, Hieronymous was
dramatically assassinated before a pro-Carthage coup could start[1]. However two men that
Hieronymous sent to establish relations with Carthage came back and were
elected to the council of Syracuse. They slowly poisoned the city against the
Romans. The Roman general Marcellus
invaded the Syracusan territory. He demanded the city return to a pro Roman
stance and to give him the two brothers that turned the city against Rome.
Syracuse rejected the offer so Marcellus laid siege to the city[2]. However Syracuse had a secret weapon,
Archimedes. The masterful engineer of the ancient world built several ingenious
inventions to fight off the Roman
siege. He built catapults that fired at a
variety of ranges, cranes that could lift ships, claw that could poke the
bellies of ships and sink them, and most legendarily of all, a series of
mirrors that focused light and set Roman ships ablaze. Furthermore 30,000 troops from Carthage were
sent to Sicily to help with the Roman
attack.
This is so cool but so fictional. Or should I say hot.... get it?
For
Hannibal, help came from an unexpected source. King Phillip of Macedon had come
to meet Hannibal and establish a treaty with him against their common enemy the
Romans. Although Hannibal didn’t want
Phillip interfering within the Italian Peninsula he agreed [3]. However if they won
Macedonia would get all the Roman possession within Illyria (modern Balkans).
Elsewhere in the world Sardinia attempted a revolt against the Romans. However
that was quickly suppressed. So that’s all
that happen to Sardinia in this war.
Meanwhile
back in the Italian Peninsula. Hannibal was now in southern Italy hoping to
bring more cities to his side to support his war effort. So Hannibal was in
reach of a city called Tarentine which Hannibal needed. Eventually, he met a few young men that left
the city named Philemenus and Nicon[4]. They wanted to hand the city over to the
Carthaginian army, so together they hatched an elaborate plan to capture the
city. Now Philemenus was a rather renowned
hunter. He left most nights to go hunting so the sentries of the city had
gotten used to a whistle that he made to tell them that he was ready to come
back into the city. So an elite force of 10,000 Carthaginians left their camp
to go to Tarentine. Hannibal sent a
squadron of Numidian cavalry nearby to make it look like it was scouting
party. The Roman garrison commander was
at a party and the conspirators got him and his comrades intoxicated and made
the party go well into the night. At one
of the gates Hannibal lit a signal fire and the conspirators rushed the gate
and killed the guards. They let Hannibal in with some of his forces. Philemenus
gave his whistle and the gate opened. While the guards were admiring the large
boar he had hunted the Carthaginian strike force charged and killed the guards[5]. When the Romans attempted to organize their
defenses, but conspirators blew horns of conflicting orders to confuse the
troops and they were overwhelmed. In the end, Hannibal got another city that he
wanted. He was not bringing Rome to its knees but he was still winning.
530
Sorry Professor Burns this one glitched up when transferring over
No comments:
Post a Comment