| Hannibal's Children | |
|---|---|
First edition cover of Hannibal's Children |
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| Author(s) | John Maddox Roberts |
| Cover artist | Scott Grimando |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Alternate history, Novel |
| Publisher | Ace Books |
| Publication date | May 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 368 p. (first edition, hardback) & 359 p. (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-441-00933-6 (first edition, hardback) & ISBN 0-441-01038-5 (paperback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 48579406 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 21 |
| LC Classification | PS3568.O23874 H36 2002 |
| Followed by | The Seven Hills |
Hannibal's Children is the 2002 alternate history novel by John Maddox Roberts.
Contents |
The Carthaginians won the Second Punic War against the Romans. The defeated Romans were forced to go into exile north of the Danube River. Years later a Roman expedition heads south to see what has changed in the world and meets the heirs of Hannibal who have become kings, or Shofet, of Carthage.
The novel opens at the alternate close of the Second Punic War. Hannibal offers terms to the Romans: abandon your city and move north of the Alps, or be destroyed. The Romans, under the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus, accept the offer and withdraw into Germania, vowing to return. The Carthaginians declare victory and go home.
One chapter and several generations later, the Romans have long since reestablished their republic. These Romans, largely out of need, have adopted a practice of Cultural Romanization more pronounced than the historical Romans did: large numbers of Germans have been adopted into the Roman society, forming a large proportion of both the legions and the Senate. A series of auspicious omens prompt the Senate to send a delegation south into Latium. The expedition leaders are subtly but immediately at cross purposes: the commander, Marcus Scipio, a scion of the ancient patrician Cornelii Scipiones family, is wholly motivated by a desire to reestablish the Republic in the Mediterranean basin. His deputy, Titus Norbanus, one of the newer, Germanic Romans, seeks personal glory, at least in part to ensure that the Germans (particularly his own family) remain as powerful within the expanded Republic as they do under the current scheme. It quickly becomes clear to the Romans that generations of constant warfare in Germania have strengthened them, whereas the Carthaginians have grown soft in the absence of real opposition. The Republic quickly begins playing the Carthaginians off against the Egyptians (the only other serious power in the Mediterranean), reclaiming Latium in the process. At the close of the novel, the Egyptian army led by Scipio vanquishes the Carthaginian force, in which four Roman legions led by Norbanus are technically serving. The sequel follows Norbanus's trek back to friendly territory and his march towards power.
As with Roberts's other series, Hannibal's Children and its sequel The Seven Hills explore the decline of the Republic in the face of ambition. In the former, the Caesars and in the latter Norbanus aggressively pursue power for its own sake, in the process exposing weaknesses in the Republic.