Never when the city was in safety was there so great a panic and confusion within the walls of Rome. What the blaze and the riotous mobs did not consume, my compatriots spirit out with them under the cover of the chaos. I shall therefore shrink from this task, and not attempt to relate what in describing I must make less than the reality. The consul and his army having been lost at the Trasimenus the year before, it was not one wound upon another which was announced, but a multiplied disaster, the loss of two consular armies, together with the two consuls: and that now there was neither any Roman camp, nor general nor soldiery: that Apulia and Samnium, and now almost the whole of Italy, were in the possession of Hannibal. And upon all these humiliations, to see the gods themselves bring down their wrath upon his: what nation would not have been overwhelmed by such an accumulation of misfortune?
—P ublius Cornelius Scipio Latinus The last Roman Senator , describing the final days of the Roman Consulate and the Great Fire of Roma as well as his motivations for surrender
I have sworn to carry on a war of extermination against the Romans. I am contending for honour and empire. My ancestors yielded to Roman valour. I am endeavouring that others, in their turn, will be obliged to yield to my valour, and the favour of my gods.
To my father on earth and the heavens, my oath is fulfilled
-Hannibal "The Lightening Bolt" Barcid, following The Battle of the Ruins of Roma
Today, in some minor provincial town where an old king named David once came from, a pregnant woman and her husband who arrived late for the local festival ended up giving birth to their son in the stable out back. In a few decades, perhaps, some fringe elements of the Judeaic tribes would have taken his theological ramblings to heart and start some fringe sect of their fringe belief system, but who really cares about what those deluded monotheists and their quaint tribal mythology from the edges of the civilized world think, right? Every minor cult known to the Republic has at least one so-called "Prophet" who tried to hitch themselves to the new star that appeared in the sky that night as a sign of their "Divine Birth"
Of course, every properly educated individual knew the star was a sign of Ba'al Hammon's favor at a much more important birth. At very beating heart of civilization, the Jewel off the Mediterranean: a city of amythest set in the golden ring of her sandy shelter of her bustling harbor, the latest scion of the great Barcid household came into the world; a daughter of unmatched beauty. For over 250 years, the Barcid name had been constantly on the minds of and celebrated by the citizens of Carthage's dominion: having lead the city's armies during its darkest hours, facing down the one nation who'd ever posed a material threat to Phoenician dominance over the sea at the center of the World: the Roman Consulate. The three Latium Wars had been the longest and most bloodily fought in their long history: struggles in which the very existence of both civilizations seemed to hang constantly in the balance.
Who' knows what bloody horror the world would have come to if the militant and barbaric Romans, dedicated blindly to their war-god Mars who celebrated brute force and violent suppression over the wisdom of tactics and the wealth of commerce, had managed to bring their iron heel down on the neck of the world. Thankfully, 215 years ago thei legendary hero Hannibal, Son of Hamilcar, alongside his brothers brought a final end to their nation in the third of his five "Mircles"; surronding four whole Roman armies on the plains of Cannea (As, obviously, the gods had portended in seeing the land named after the great Phonecian tribe of the Canneanites): the Latins in their foolishness charging like a bull into the great general's trap, making the same mistake they had made at the Trebia and Lake Trassimene. Wheeling his elite Numidian cavalry around the side and emphasizing the weakness of his center to draw the Romans in, Hannibal swallowed a fifth of Rome's male population and both its consoles in a manner of hours: showing the superiority of mobility and tactics over raw strength as he effectively squeezed in from all sides, choking the life out of the Republic.
Unsurprisingly, panic gripped the city's elite. Seeing their allies abandon them on all sides as news of the defeat spread, the streets filled with widows and orphans, and effectively leaderless, it was impossible to expect any nation not to be be brought to its knees by such a massacre. Enraptured by fear, the elite were the first to flee the city: followed quickly by old men and boys who refused to volunteer to be sent into the slaughter under leadership which had proven entirely incompetent. Civil order within the walls effectively collapsed... which ensured that, when a great thunderstorm swept over the city and found a bolt of lightening striking a poor neighborhood, there was no fire brigade to control the blaze.
The anarchy and fire fed into one another: panic and disorder allowing the damage to spread, which only caused more and more people to flee. The stores of food, its towers, the armories: everything that could have allowed the city to withstand a siege or field an army disappeared into smoke, the temples to the defeated Roman deities and their sacrifices gutted and left with nothing more than piles of ashes within. Within the span of a month, the Republic was effectively gone: surviving elements of the Roman army making one last, desperate stand atop still-standing poritions of the wall 213 year ago under the leadership of a self-declared Dictator Cornelius Scipio "The Latin". Rome had been destroyed, and upon its ruins Carthage stood as the sole great power in the Western Sea: the city-states once allied with Rome and independent colonies and tribes bending the knee before Hannibal's legendary prowess and unassailable army.
The Barcas were rewarded for their service to the Senate with near-absolute power over their conquests in Iberia: Hannibal's relatives continuing to grow in influence and wealth from the region's silver and mineral riches while other families were tasked with rebuilding a peninsula ruined by over a decade and a half of warfare and the despoiling, futile efforts of Roman remenants who burned and stole supplies out of spite. Punic colonies were established along the shores, acting as bases from which the refined culture of their civilization and the wealth and technology it brought could be spread to the Gaulic tribes, and formed the basis of the city's power for eventual clashes with the Hellens, Egyptians, Persians, and other peoples of the East: reconnecting Carthage to their ancestor's homeland in the Levant. Now, as a new century dawns, the horizon beckoned to all the civilized world: there are seas to sail, wars to fight, and barbarians to bring into the fold.
Application
NS Name:
Nation/Governorship Name:
Flag/Standard:
Claims:
Capital City:
Other Major Population Centers:
Leading Family/Dynasty:
Imperial Loyaltys (If Governor/Subfaction)
Family Head:
Head Personality:
Notable Members (Political):
Notable Members (Military Leaders):
Primary Dynastic Values:
Dynastic Goals:
Dynasty Culture:
Population:
% of Population of Dynastic Culture:
Culture Group (Mediterranean, Oriental, Hellenic, Barbaric, or Nomadic):
Other major Cultures:
Military Size:
-Melee Infantry (Write as Standing/Mercenaries):
-Missle Infantry (See Above)
-Cavalry (See above):
-Naval (Ships, not Sailors):
-Specialized/Unique Troops (Describe):
Military Philsophy (General Tactics, etc.):
Specialization/Advantages:
Brief Description of Technology (1-3 paragraphs)
Brief Description of Culture/Society (1-3 paragraphs):
Brief Description of Economy (1-3 paragraphs):
Notable History:
RP Sample:
Jezebel (Do not remove, for Tracking)
Reservations List (Good for 48 hours only)
Accepted List
