Scenes From Elsewhere (Carthage III)

For the past year, a Civil War had been in the offing in Carthage. Gisgo had never formally relinquished his title of Malik to the Assembly of Shophets when they demanded he do so. Instead, he took his Army into Numidia to aid the Massylii in defending against attacks from the Masaesyli. The Battle of Cirta had seen the King of the Masaesyli, Madghis, and his son, the Prince Syphax, were both slain. The Masaesyli were effectively routed back into Western Numidia, leaderless. This provided the catalyst for what the Assembly feared. The Massylii, already under the de facto command of Gisgo after the death of their King and Prince at the Battle of Kakyron, declared Gisgo their King, and rallied to him. Civil War in Carthage was now inevitable.

Fortunately for the Assembly of the Shophets, Gisgo went west into the lands of the Masaesyli instead of using his newfound power base to reclaim Carthage. That gave the Assembly the time they required to build an army. The Assembly, knowing they had no hope of resisting Gisgo when he returned without an army, took a radical step. They voted for a proposal put forward by Baalhanno, a descendant of Hanno the Navigator, that Households of Shophet Rank could yield manpower to the Assembly for the Army in lieu of normal taxes this year, with many wealthy Shophets taking the opportunity to do just that.

In such a fashion, an army of fifteen thousand men was eventually raised, bulked out by Massilian Greeks, Sardinians, and other such Mercenaries whose contracts had not yet expired. Unfortunately, such an army would not be enough to stop Gisgo's veterans by itself, green as the majority of it was, and small as it was. The Assembly was forced to turn to Hannibal the Bearded, Patriarch of the Military Barcid Family, for aid. The concessions that the Barcids received from the Assembly for such assistance were quite large. Firstly, the Barcids would be made hereditary governors of the Provinces Carthago Novo, in effect granting them the status of hereditary Primus Inter Pares of Iberia. Secondly, the Barcids would not be interfered with in matters of warfare by the Assembly in perpetuity. Finally, the Assembly would pay the Barcids twenty thousand Shekels, equivalent to fifty thousand Epirote Drachmae or three-hundred-thousand Roman Denarii for the equipping and training of the new Combined Army.

These Concessions of the Barcids, would, in time, ensure that the Assembly largely replaced one Malik for another, though the Barcids would rule through consent, maintaining the Assembly as a polite fiction and something of a fig leaf on their rule. For now, however, it was the Assembly's only way to avoid Gisgo's revenge. They must either agree to the Barcids' terms or watch their meager force be swept aside by Gisgo's Veterans as the ousted Malik returned to Carthage with a Vengeance. None of the Shophets were under any illusions as to what would happen afterward. In their minds, Hannibal the Bearded would not forcibly disband or purge them, while Gisgo most definitely would.

Speaking of Gisgo, by May of Two-Seventy-Nine, he had largely conquered the disorganized and leaderless Masaesyli, unifying all the Numidians under his banner by both force and diplomacy and swelling his force to around seventy-thousand, largely made up of Cavalry with a lesser proportion of both Elephants and Infantry. The overwhelming majority of his forces were veterans, however, and as he sat in his new Capital at Cirte, his eyes wandered east to Carthage and the Throne he had lost to the Shophets' demands while in Numidia. Gisgo began to plan for a Fall Campaign to reclaim his lost Throne.

Both sides took the Summer to prepare, and when the Civil War that had been brewing for a year finally broke out, it would do so with Gisgo Crossing the border with fifty-thousand men advancing toward the Port City of Hippo Regius. Hannibal the Bearded had moved tens of thousands of troops into Carthage via the ports on the Mediterranean Coast and had when combined with the Army of the Assembly, a force of Sixty Thousand troops already in-country. Gisgo knew that if the ports remained open, that number would only swell further, as Hannibal the Bearded brought in more veteran men from Iberia to continue building up the Army. His goal then, had to be to cut access to the Sea for his Enemies and Hippo Regius was the first step in such a plan.

Unfortunately for Gisgo, Hannibal the Bearded also realized that. He had moved his Army west, figuring that Hippo Regius, as the nearest port to Cirte, would be the logical first place that Gisgo would strike. As he had proved correct, both men would be headed for a showdown on the plains outside the Port City of Hippo Regius. It would be the first battle of the Carthaginian Civil War of Two-Seventy-Nine, though it would not be the last. It would, however, prove to be decisive, and would set the tone for the ensuing conflict to come. Hannibal the Bearded would defeat Gisgo in Combat, though it would be largely thanks to the aid of one of his Captains, Adherbal, the Chief of a small tribe of Numidians that made up the former Massylii Confederation and who had a strong personal grudge against Gisgo for abandoning him during the War with Epirus in Sicily.

Adherbal and his Numidian Cavalry had defected to the joint Barcid-Assembly Army at the chance to repay Gisgo for his betrayal. This vengeance sowed confusion amongst Gisgo's own Numidian Cavalry, as their apparent comrades turned on them and began attacking them as they attempted to break Hannibal the Bearded's line with an attack on his Celtiberian Swordsmen. Assaulted from both the Celtiberians in front and their supposed comrades to the flank, a large chunk of Gisgo's Numidian Cavalry was put to flight, opening Gisgo's right flank to attack and forcing Gisgo to call for a retreat. The Battle of Hippo Regius was a victory for Hannibal the Bearded via cunning.

What followed were two other battles at Saldae and Iol, the first of which saw Hannibal the Bearded capture the important Port of Saldae with a naval attack at the same time as his army assaulted the city. The second, however, was a victory for Gisgo, as he had sent a second force into the desert south of Iol to flank around Hannibal's army which forced Hannibal the Bearded to withdraw back to Saldae after taking a loss. As two-seventy-nine drew to a close with Saldae still in Hannibal the Bearded's hands, and reinforcements from Iberia being shipped into the Formerly Numidian Port, it seemed as if the Carthaginian Civil War would be won or lost largely based less on material or numerical superiority, nor on veterancy or discipline of forces, but based on ingenuity of tactics on the part of the Commanders.

Both Gisgo and Hannibal the Bearded were somewhat well-endowed in the guile department, and both men realized that although this first campaign had seemed to go Hannibal the Bearded's way, the war was far from won and the initiative could swing in the other direction at any moment. This was a fact that brought dismay to the Assembly of the Shophets, as it meant the war would drag out, possibly for another year or more. Given how tired the Assembly was becoming of constant conflict, such news was dire. Unfortunately, they were pledged by sacred oath not to interfere with the Barcids in matters of warfare, and with the fighting in Numidian Territory, the Assembly had no cause to break such an oath.

This was without the fact that even if they had such cause, the Assembly had little in the way of power to back up such an attempt. After all, the meager forces they had been able to call upon to fight Gisgo were currently serving under Hannibal the Bearded in Numidia. To many outside observers, it seemed clear that whether Gisgo or Hannibal the Bearded won the Civil War, the Assembly of the Shophets would wind up the losers. At least politically, economically was a different story, as the various Shophets were all still immensely wealthy. That would have to be the lever they pulled to claw back some measure of power in the aftermath of the Civil War.

For now, however, the fighting would continue, and as Two-Seventy-Eight dawned, Hannibal the Bearded would begin planning for a second attempt to seize control of the Port of Iol, while Gisgo would seek to defend the only other Major Port in Numidia. If Hannibal the Bearded won, he would advance south along the Chelif River and cut Numidia in half. If Gisgo won, he would march east to retake Saldae. Should either plan be successful, it would prove decisive and likely herald the beginning of the end phase of the Civil War. Everyone knew that the next campaign would be decisive, and everyone had hope that by the end of Two-Seventy-Eight, the War would be over.

It would remain to be seen whether such would be the case or not. . .

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AN: All right, so here we see what's been going on with Carthage while Pyrrhus has been campaigning in Athens. I'd already alluded to Civil War but didn't delve much into it. Here it should be clear that the Civil War is effectively one to decide who the next Malik will be since turning to the Barcids for aid has meant the Assembly had to give the Barcids so many concessions that even keeping the Assembly around to rubber stamp things means that Hannibal the Bearded will just be Malik in all but name.

A note on the differences between Epirote Drachmae, Carthaginian Shekels, and Roman Denarii. The reason Carthaginian Shekels are so valuable is that they were frequently minted of electrum, while Drachmae and Denarii were minted of silver. Of course, Pyrrhus' Drachmae are bigger than most, but there are still roughly two and a half Epirote Drachmae to a Carthaginian Shekel. When people say Carthage was rich, this was the sort of thing they're talking about.

At any rate, the next chapter will take a look at the War in Istria, then we'll see what Rome's been doing.

Stay tuned. . .