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Against
Rome
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About the Book Chronology
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About the Book Welcome. This site supplements my novel about Hannibal's assault on ancient Rome in 218 - 201 B.C. It's here to help you with those awful, beautiful Roman names, background information, pictures from my travels, and much more. In the book, you'll meet: Hannibal,
the brilliant Carthaginian general who invades Italy to begin the Second Punic
War in 218 B.C. He takes 37 elephants and thousands of soldiers across the Alps
as winter rushes on, then subjects Rome to a series of disastrous battles that
take over 100,000 Roman lives in two years. Scipio
(Skee'-pee-oh),
the bright young Roman nobleman who vows to one day become the greatest Roman,
greater even than his hero—and nemesis—Marcellus. Scipio goes off to war as
his father’s cadet and manages to be in every single battle with Hannibal.
Along the way, he begins to see what Rome must do to beat Hannibal and win the
war. Unfortunately, no one is willing to listen to a very young tribune, even
the great Marcellus. Aemilia Tertia
(Eye-mil'-ee-ah Ter'-tee-ah),
the eleven-year-old daughter of a great Roman, whose terrible abuse at the hands
of her older sister and her father threaten to break her until she decides not
to let it happen. She will one day (in the next book) become Scipio’s wife. Aphrodite,
the young Greek hetaera—a supremely skilled prostitute—with whom
Scipio falls deeply in love as his father’s legions await Hannibal in southern
Gaul. But as deep as his love is the mystery of Aphrodite. Where does Scipio fit
into her world? Scipio’s father, the first Roman to encounter Hannibal, who races back to Italy before Hannibal can cross the Alps. Vendorix (Ven'-dor-ix), a minor chieftain of the Gauls in southern France, through whose village Hannibal must pass on his way to the Alps. Vendorix takes steps to make sure Hannibal’s army doesn’t destroy his people as they pass through. But his sixteen-year-old twin sons, Borix and Dorix, see Hannibal’s war as a great adventure and run off to join it. Vendorix must pursue them across half the world. In
the rest of the book, you’ll also meet: Cornelia,
Scipio’s sister, whose arranged marriage to a man she abhors turns into a love
match. Then her young husband goes off to fight the Gauls. Borix (Bor'-ix),
who with his twin, joins Hannibal’s army and survives two harrowing Gallic
ambushes in the Alps, then climbs a terrible snow-bound pass into Italy, unaware
that his father is pursuing him and his brother. Sempronius
(Sem-proe'-nee-us),
a desperate Roman who’s made it to Rome’s highest office, the consulship,
along with Scipio’s father, but who is nearly out of time to make his
reputation when he meets Hannibal in northern Italy. Flaminius (Fla-min'-ee-us),
a brilliant Roman general who’s always at war with the Senate. Elected consul
for 217 B.C., he tries to intercept Hannibal in north-central Italy and chases
him into a fatal trap at Lake Trasimene. Fabius
(Fay'-bee-us),
an old warrior who comes up with the only way for Rome to survive Hannibal. But
much of Rome jeers at his plan until Hannibal finally inflicts one of the worst
defeats on Roman troops in Roman history at the battle of Cannae, where
Hannibal’s men slaughter some 50,000 Romans in a day. Aemilius
Paullus (Eye-mil'-ee-us Paul'-us),
abusive father of Aemilia Tertia, who becomes consul for 216 B.C. and leads a
movement to “risk all” in a great decisive battle with Hannibal at Cannae.
The result is so calamitous that Rome’s survival is in grave doubt. Marcellus (Mar-kell'-us, not Mar-sell'-us), the great hero who won Rome’s highest honor, the spolia opima, by defeating an enemy general in single combat, something only two other Romans have done before, one of them being Romulus, the founder of Rome. Scipio sees his personal hero Marcellus as the one Roman—besides himself—who might beat Hannibal, but Marcellus bows to Fabius’s strategy of delay and harassment and won’t listen to Scipio’s own ideas about how to beat Hannibal. Nor will anyone else. Back to Top
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