Why the First Punic War?

     Some years ago, I was researching the Second Punic War when I stumbled upon a description of the First. As intrigued as I soon became by this account, you'll note that I was researching the Second Punic War. While you may think you don't know what that is, I'll bet you do. That's the one where Hannibal crosses the Alps with his elephants. Who has never heard of Hannibal and his elephants? Even if people don't recognize the name of the war (and stop snickering - that's Punic), they at least know the story. Not so the First Punic War. Who knew that there even was one? It is at best the Second's ugly cousin.

     So what is it about the First that could have possibly inspired me to write The War God's Men?

     Well, aside from the easy superlatives - it was the longest war of the ancient world (lasting over 20 years), and included the largest naval battle of all time (Ecnomus), and represented Rome's rise from obscurity to world power - it was, in the end, the people who fought the war that intrigued me.
     
     Granted, this war has no Hannibal Barcas or Scipio Africanuses (African-i?). Instead, it has Hannibal Gisgo and Scipio Asina (Latin for She-Ass, no lie). While, admittedly, Gisgo's no Barca, and Scipio Asina is as renowned for his great failure as Africanus is for his triumphs, these men - these men of the war god, indeed - are no less fascinating.

     Hannibal Gisgo started it all for me. At the outset of the war, Hannibal Gisgo was the man for Carthage. His name is everywhere from the get-go. Commanding the Carthaginian fleet stationed in the Lipari Islands (just off the tip of northeastern Sicily), his hands are all over the commencement of hostilities and he was probably involved in attempts to thwart Rome's crossing of the strait into Sicily from the toe of Italy. He then shows up as commander of the garrison inside the besieged city of Acragas (called Agrigentum by the Romans, otherwise known as modern Agrigento), from which he orchestrates a daring escape after seven months of starvation. Finally, he is best known to history as the Carthaginian admiral at the sea battle of Mylae, Rome's first large-scale naval battle. Though historians generally denigrate Hannibal's military leadership (a bit too harshly, I think), no one can fault his energy. The man was everywhere.

     And few commanders had ever been put in such a bad spot as Hannibal. First of all, it is arguable that his diplomatic efforts before the war started might have avoided it altogether. (I won't go into the rather complicated issue that led to war here. Suffice it to say that it involves a group of people called "Mamertines" whose name, broadly interpreted, means "The War God's Men.") Once war began, however, he found himself trapped inside Acragas for seven months while Carthage assembled an army of relief to rescue him -- and none too quickly, it seems to me. That he was able to escape Acragas with his garrison under the noses of a victorious Roman army is nothing short of miraculous. And his failure at Mylae is more attributable to the Roman secret weapon (possibly designed by the famous Archimedes of Syracuse, then a very young man) than any real short-coming on his part. Worst of all for Hannibal, as opposed to any of his predecessors, the poor guy was going up against Romans, for crying out loud! This has to count for something.

     It is important to understand that when the dust cleared the Carthaginian Council sided with Hannibal. While many Carthaginian commanders were crucified for incompetence, Hannibal was reinstated to command after the Mylae debacle. The late historian Brian Caven in his outstanding book The Punic Wars attributes this to his possibly having had some kind of influence in the capital. This intriguing notion may be. But it also may be that the Council did not see the battle of Mylae as all that harmful to their cause, its effect being mainly psychological. (Damn! The landlubber Romans have a fleet!) They also probably did not see incompetence as the primary reason for Hannibal's defeat.

     While The War God's Men is not merely the story of Hannibal Gisgo, it does follow his adventures, from his days inside Acragas to his eventual tragic downfall a couple years later. Much of the story is told from his point of view, but he is only one of the war god's men I examine -- albeit an infinitely worthy and important one.
 
     As are they all.