Carthage ramblings
Jul. 17th, 2009 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athenaltenaRight now I'm reading a book about Hannibal (the general, not the cannibal) called Pride of Carthage which, while historical fiction, does offer some insight into how Carthage worked.
And after reading about them in comparison to the Romans I can't help but find myself thinking "Screw Rome! I'm rooting for the Carthaginians!" And yeah, I know how it turned out, but overall Carthage seemed less dickish than the Romans. Neither empire was particularly nice since that was how it worked back then, but the Carthaginians didn't rub it in your face as much when they won. I admit I don't particularly like Rome in general, there's even a line in this book about how they took the Greek gods, renamed them and hoped no one would notice, which pretty much sums them up to me.
It does beg an interesting question about what might have happened if the Romans hadn't won and if instead of a great Italian state there'd been a great African state. I think the modern world would look quite a bit different. I'm sort of playing with that idea in something I'm writing since the Africa/Middle East analog never got conquered and pretty much stayed independent. That's one thing I like about history, it gives you ideas.
And after reading about them in comparison to the Romans I can't help but find myself thinking "Screw Rome! I'm rooting for the Carthaginians!" And yeah, I know how it turned out, but overall Carthage seemed less dickish than the Romans. Neither empire was particularly nice since that was how it worked back then, but the Carthaginians didn't rub it in your face as much when they won. I admit I don't particularly like Rome in general, there's even a line in this book about how they took the Greek gods, renamed them and hoped no one would notice, which pretty much sums them up to me.
It does beg an interesting question about what might have happened if the Romans hadn't won and if instead of a great Italian state there'd been a great African state. I think the modern world would look quite a bit different. I'm sort of playing with that idea in something I'm writing since the Africa/Middle East analog never got conquered and pretty much stayed independent. That's one thing I like about history, it gives you ideas.
