Carthage

Carthage has colonies spread along the coasts of northern Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearics, and western Sicily. All are linked by the city-state's merchant fleets and a common trading ethos. All are protected by a powerful fleet that dominates the Western Mediterranean basin.

The city itself is an oligarchy, a republic run by a council of elder statesmen with two judges as its guiding lights. In fact, the arrangement looks very similar to the Senate and consuls of Republican Rome, except that the judges are not military men. Generals and admirals serve at the council’s pleasure. The citizens of Carthage are a relatively small proportion of the whole population. Rather than draw on the citizenry to be the armed forces, Carthage has come to rely on a well-balanced force of mercenaries under Carthaginian generalship.

It is a system that has served the city well, and left the Carthaginians time to become master traders and entrepreneurs. Their extensive trade connections have also proven useful in gathering intelligence on fresh markets and potential enemies.

The Carthaginians are devout, even fanatical, in their beliefs. They worship Ba’al Hammon and Tanit, as providers of all that is good to them. While tales of them sacrificing children are exaggerated for effect by their enemies, the Carthaginians do take their faith extremely seriously, and will offer genuine sacrifices to their gods. A sacrifice, after all, is no sacrifice unless the giver feels the loss.

After decades of conflict with Greek city-states such as Syracuse, the Carthaginians are well practiced in warfare. They have also not had the best of war, and perhaps now is the time to reclaim some of the greatness that has been lost. Now, perhaps, is the time to make the Mediterranean an entirely Carthaginian sea…