Masinissa: Ally of Carthage is the first part of the story of the
experiences of the Numidian Prince and later King Masinissa during the
Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. Masinissa's involvement in
the war was substantial, even pivotal, and he is still revered today
across North Africa as the founding father of the Amazigh/Berber people.
The story begins in 2013 BC in Carthage, which has been Masinissa's home
for several years. He has fallen in love with Sophonisba, the beautiful
daughter of one of the most senior Carthaginian generals. The two make
promises to one another before Masinissa embarks west to enter the war
as the commander of a substantial cavalry division.
In terms of the wider world, Rome and Carthage - the most powerful
nations of the time - have been at war for five years, ever since
Hannibal crossed the Alpine passes and inflicted catastrophic and
crippling defeats on the Roman armies at the battles of Trebia, Lake
Trasimene and, most devastatingly, at Cannae, where an army of nearly
90,000 Romans was completely destroyed.
The main theatres of war at this moment are the Roman siege of the Greek
city of Syracuse in Sicily - which is being innovatively and
belligerently defended, not least by the philosopher and scientist
Archimedes - and the war in Iberia, which Masinissa is about to join
with his Numidian forces.
