Hello Alistair. Welcome back to Aspects of History!
Hi Jim. It’s great to have the opportunity to talk about my novels and writing.
What first got you interested in ancient history?
I don’t really remember the exact moment I became most fascinated by ancient history. However, being born and brought up in and around the countryside of Dumfriesshire in southern Scotland I was surrounded by many ancient monuments and villages and hamlets with ancient-sounding names. During school holidays my friends and I would often cycle to places such as Burnswark iron age hillfort, embraced by its Roman siege forts. Or Caelaverock castle, besieged by the army of Edward I of England in 1300. Viking settlers clearly had an influence on the area too. One village a stone throw from my boyhood home was called Torthorwald (Tor-Thor-Wald) and I think I just soaked all this stuff up without even realising it was influencing me greatly, which it surely did.
Sons of Carthage is set in 219BC. Why should we care about something that happened two thousand years ago?
A good question, perhaps if more people were interested in ancient history many of the errors of the past would not be endlessly repeated. Sons Of Carthage takes place during the Second Punic War, between Carthage and Rome. It was a time when Rome was only a fledgling empire, certainly nowhere near the one that came to dominate the Mediterranean and much of Europe and the Middle East. In 219 BC it barely controlling Italy and Sicily. Its great rival was the city state of Carthage – modern day Tunis – that held sway over much of northwest Africa, The Balearics and most importantly the rich lands of southern and eastern Spain.
The period also coincided with the rise of one of Carthage’s, and history’s, great families, the Barca’s. The most renowned, Hannibal, is well known to anyone interested in the period his campaigns over the Alps and crushing all the Roman legions sent against him as he rampaged about the lands of Italy. What is much less well known are the exploits of his brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago, who led the armies of Carthage in the critically important theatre of Iberia – Portugal and Spain. I have aimed to bring their tale to life in what was one of the most consequential conflicts of ancient times that almost ended the Roman empire when it had barely sprung into life. It might have been Carthage and not the city of Rome that came to dominate the western world.
You have said in previous interviews that you need to love the period you write about. What do you love about the history of the Roman Empire?
I find it endlessly fascinating. We know a great deal about Rome, from the establishment of the city state in 753 BC through to the final defeat of the rump of the empire at Constantinople in 1453 AD. However, at the same time there are still many huge gaps in the written record and thus our understanding of it. For example, throughout much of its history Rome found itself the victor and thus the history handed down to us was written by them and we only have their viewpoint of the conquered peoples. Take Carthage, one of the most influential civilisations in the Mediterranean at the time and yet we know almost nothing about its language and writing. Rome made sure of that. But it is in these gaps that the historical fiction writer thrives. Look at what Rosemary Sutcliff did with her tale of the Eagle Of The Ninth, covering the mystery of the Ninth Legion Hispana that mysteriously disappeared from the historical record in the early second century AD. What’s not to love?
It’s a long way from Burnswark Iron Age Fort in Scotland to the banks of the Ebro in 219 BC. Why pick this particular moment in time.
It might seem odd at first glance, but there is a connection. I am like to write stories that have been little touched upon previously or that we might know little about. Take my first series, Edge of Empire, it starts with the siege of Burnswark hillfort that some believe was the starting battle of the war that ended with the building of the Antonine Wall. Believe it or not, there is barely a mention of the war in the ancient written record, most of what we know comes from archaeology it’s a big blank page. It is similar with The Sons Of Carthage, the first book in my series, The Lion and the Eagle, I focus on the lesser-known historical character of Hasdrubal Barca and the Iberian theatre of the war. I also spend half of my time in Andalusia, Spain these days so that, too, influenced my choice of historical period. Many of the main battles took place in the region making onsite research that much easier. Visiting so much of the beautiful landscapes has been a real bonus.
We know very little about the Carthaginians and their daily life. What challenges did you face in bringing this forgotten culture to life?
That was one of the main challenges in the writing. Rome expended a great deal of energy to ensure that the empire of Carthage was all but forgotten, other than the version that their own historians, like Polybius and Livy, let us see. Very little remains of the Carthage itself – much that does is the later Roman settlement – as it was dismantled to its foundations. It wasn’t just the Carthaginian’s themselves that needed to be brought to life, who were the descendants of the Phoenicians, it was also their allied peoples who populated their armies, such as the Numidians and Libyans. It was a case of reading the Roman sources and modern archaeological data combined with walking as many of the sites as possible to come to my own view on events. The excellent Numidian cavalry was used by the Roman Empire for several centuries and more is known about them as a result. I’m sure there will be those who do not agree with my version of events.
You have said that military life is unique: in what way?
If you imagine an office job, a bit old hat I know, you start work at a certain time and leave at a certain time and then may go home to have dinner with your loved ones. A bit simplistic, I know and I realise many people have tough jobs and work long hours. Even so, military life is different. Often, you will live cheek by jowl for weeks or months with a group of men on operations away from your families and in claustrophobic conditions. You must deal with their habits – some of which are disgusting – snoring, as well as their varied personalities and personal strains. However, on a day to day basis you come to rely on these men to do your job and on operations your life might depend on them. It breeds a real comradeship, even with those you might not particularly like, you become as close a family. Like families you develop a kind a shorthand in your language and a banter that no one outside of that family would understand. It is that experience above all else that influences my writing.
In Sons of Carthage we meet high level politics through Hasdrubal on the Carthaginian side and the Scipio brothers Gnaeus and Publius on the Roman side, but would it be true to say that your sympathies lie more with the grunts on the ground?
Definitely. It’s why I created the fictional characters of Rufus and Juba to give the perspective of the ordinary soldier, though both are from very different civilisations, one from the Italian allied cities the other a Numidian. With real historical figures like Hasdrubal and the Scipio’s you are constrained to a degree by actual historical events and known conventions. As I said previously my own life experience is very much down with the grunts, though thank the gods I’ve never had to stand in a wall of shields facing an oncoming Roman legion or march hundreds of miles in a few short weeks under the hot Spanish sun. Day to day life must have been brutal.
They say if spoils many a good story, but what do you think would have been the implications if Hasdrubal had managed to link up with Hannibal?
This is one of the most fascinating questions of ancient times in my opinion. In 215 BC when Hasdrubal marches northwards to face the legions of Rome in the northeast of Iberia, it is only a year since his older brother Hannibal destroyed the largest army Rome had ever put in the field, at Cannae. Between 60,000 and 80,000 men were killed. If Hasdrubal had managed to bring a new reinforcing army across the Alps and into Italy when Rome was still reeling from its many defeats, the senate would surely have had no choice but to seek terms for capitulation.
Alistair Tosh is a novelist and the author of the Edge of Empire series and the new trilogy, The Lion and the Eagle, of which the first in the series The Sons Of Carthage is out now and available to purchase.
Jim Loughran is a writer of historical fiction and the author of Syracuse Will Burn, published by Sharpe Books.
