Carthage Atlantica: An Alternate History
In the wake of the Second Punic War, the ancient Carthaginians establish a new colony on the shores of North America.
Chapter One: Landing
200 BC, in an alternate timelineThe deckhouse door slammed open as the navigator barged in, his russet-colored face soaked with ...
Chapter Two: The Forest
It was not the first time Phameas had ventured into a forest. He, Isceradin, and most of the men who now made up their troop had ...
Chapter Three: Ambitions
Absalon cackled with triumph as he let the mancala beans he had won pour through his fingers, pattering back onto his side of th ...
Chapter Four: The Inu'naabe
These Carthaginians, as they called themselves, could not be any more different from any other people Sukamek had seen in his li ...
Chapter Five: Sundown
The sun had already disappeared behind the treetops on the far side of the beach, yet some dark red remained in the heavens that ...
Chapter Six: The Elephants
As Isceradin led Sukamek through the camp, the Inu’naabe kept stopping to marvel at the sights along the way, like he was ...
Chapter Seven: The Shaawanaki
Smoke from the central hearth hung thick within the council house, mingling with the odor of burnt tobacco on its way to flowing ...
Chapter Eight: Autumn
From the window of her new apartment, Arishat could see that the forest beyond the outer palisade was now ablaze with red, orang ...
Chapter Nine: Protectorate
Compared to its counterpart back in Carthage, the Sophet’s new villa was a humble single-story affair, perhaps half the si ...
Chapter Ten: Return to the Village
With a hiss like a great angry serpent, thick steam rose from the sizzling water. A while after it dissipated, Sukamek pulled ou ...
Chapter Eleven: Gold
Fallen leaves blown by a late evening breeze scratched the street of trampled earth in front of the three-story townhouse where ...
Chapter Twelve: Brothers in Law
When the dried leaves crunched under Phameas’s sandal, he winced.It was not that they hurt him at all, but they did make t ...
Chapter Thirteen: After the Raid
The closer Isceradin and Phameas got to the Inu’naabe village, the stronger the scent of smoke.Isceradin’s heart wei ...
Chapter Fourteen: The Senate
The flames of braziers standing between thick whitewashed columns brought golden light and warmth to the hallway, a sharp contra ...
Chapter Fifteen: War is Coming
Hokolesqua, High Sachem of the Shaawanaki, carried a clay tray in his hands as he walked into the shrine atop his uncle’s ...
Chapter Sixteen: Sickness
Outside the apartment window, the world had become white as the peaks of the Alps.What the Carthaginians would refer to as the f ...
Chapter Seventeen: Medicine
When Isceradin approached the rear side of the wooden gateway in the palisade’s western side, a guard from atop whistled t ...
Chapter Eighteen: Cartography and Strategy
After another dip of his pen into the bottle of black ink, Malchus drew an uneven line of dashes across the papyrus sheet. It wo ...
Chapter Nineteen: Recovery
Like most of her fellow Carthaginians, when the first of the frozen white crystals had fallen on their colony, Arishat had thoug ...
Chapter Twenty: Bedchamber Talk
Lying in his bed, Himilco took a sip of chilled wine and hummed with satisfaction. The wine was not necessarily the freshest in ...
Chapter Twenty-One: Springtime
It was after the second month of winter had passed when Arishat noticed her womb had not bled on time. Nor did it bleed after th ...
Chapter Twenty-Two: Loyalty
The coming of spring had done more than make the forest green again. It had painted the undergrowth with an even greater variety ...
Chapter Twenty-Three: Test Ride
Malchus gripped onto the parapeted edge of the wooden turret he rode in to keep himself steady. Like a galley over the waves, th ...
Chapter Twenty-Four: The March Begins
It was the first daybreak of summer when Phameas had to give his beloved Bodashtart a farewell kiss and depart for the great mar ...
Chapter Twenty-Five: Campfire
One afternoon in the mountains, they chanced upon a tall column of white water that roared from the lip of a cliff into a pool b ...
Chapter Twenty-Six: Skirmish in the Woods
The inside of the tent was still dark when Sukamek awoke, with the only light being a dim blue slit between the opening flaps. I ...
Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Shaawanaki Captive
Isceradin had climbed out of his tent to meet the newly ascendant sun when he saw Sukamek drag a Shaawanaki by the hair into the ...
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Betrayal
The day afterward, Malchus had the march through the mountains resume. As he had since the campaign’s beginning, he led fr ...
Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Chance at Redemption
The flickering orange glow of the fire Isceradin had made for himself was all that allowed him to see anything beneath the cover ...
Chapter Thirty: Rescue
It was on the cusp of evening twilight when they found the city of the Shaawanaki.Summer was fading away by then, with flecks of ...
Chapter Thirty-One: Home
The forest beside the colony had turned pure gold by the time Isceradin and company arrived early in the morning. Unlike the aut ...
