Delenda Est

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"Delenda Est" is a short story written by Poul Anderson, within his Time Patrol (1960) series. The title alludes to the Latin phrase Carthago delenda est ("Carthage must be destroyed") from our world's Third Punic War.

Renegade time travellers meddle in the outcome of the Second Punic War, bringing about the premature deaths of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Ticinus in 218 BC, and thus creating a new timeline in which Hannibal destroys Rome in 210 BC.

At the time of the story, Britain (Brittys), Ireland, France (Gallia) and Spain (Celtan) are under Celtic control, and the Celts also colonised North America, known as Affalon in this timeline. Italy (Cimmeria) is under Germanic domination, Switzerland and Austria exist within Helvetia, Lithuania (Littorn) controls Scandinavia, northern Germany and much of Eastern Europe, while a Carthaginian successor empire (Carthagalann) dominates much of Northern Africa. The Han (Chinese) Empire controls China and Taiwan, as in our world, as well as encompassing Korea, Japan and western Siberia. Punjab comprises western India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

With Imperial Rome obliterated, the major global powers are Hinduraj, centred on India but also encompassing South East Asia, Indonesia and Australasia, and Huy Braseal, which controls much of South America. Technology is at roughly a nineteenth century level, and transport is reliant on the steam engine. Christianity, Judaism and Islam do not exist in this polytheistic world. There is greater gender equality in this world, but slavery has also survived - though it is not connected with any race or ethnicity.

Manse Everard, twentieth-century Time Patrol agent, finds himself in the new timeline, in Catavellaunan (approximately New York), facing a moral dilemma: Should he return to the past before the events that led to Carthaginian victory, and destroy this timeline, thus also obliterating the inhabitants of this timeline?