The Layman's Historian

In early October 218 BC, Hannibal performed his most famous - and controversial - feat: the crossing of the Alps. Fighti... Read more

This episode covers the founding of Carthage as a Tyrian colony in the Central Mediterranean. Carthage was founded by Ty... Read more

When Carthage expanded its reach into the western coast of Sicily, it became neighbors with the powerful Hellenic coloni... Read more

After Dido's founding, Qart-Hadasht, or Carthage, grew exponentially, quickly establishing itself as a commercial powerh... Read more

In the wake of the First Punic War, Carthage soon found the loss of her Sicilian holdings and Rome's harsh indemnity to ... Read more

Following the growth of Carthage into a commercial, political, and technological power, the Carthaginians began to expan... Read more

In the wake of the Truceless War, the Carthaginians struggled to pick up the pieces of their broken country. Financially... Read more

Ever since the disastrous Battle of the Crimissus in 339 BC, Carthage proved reluctant to send her own citizens to war, ... Read more

The day has arrived. After Pyrrhus's retreat from Italy in 275 BC, Carthage and Rome found themselves to be new neighbor... Read more

After the stunning Greek victory at White Tunis, Agathocles began leisurely pillaging the Carthaginian countryside, amas... Read more

In this second of three special episodes, we take an in-depth look at the Roman army which fought the majority of the Pu... Read more

Having explored the peoples of North Africa and Spain, we move north to examine one of the most feared peoples of Antiqu... Read more

Continuing our tour of the Mediterranean circa 300 BC, we now turn to the squabbling Hellenic successor kingdoms in the ... Read more

The murder of Gisco precipitated an escalation of the Truceless War. Both sides invented new ways to torture and slaught... Read more

Continuing our tour of the Mediterranean around 300 BC, we look at the peoples of North Africa, specifically the Libyan ... Read more

In Part II of our overview of the career of Pyrrhus of Epirus, we pick up with Pyrrhus's campaigns in southern Italy. Af... Read more

With the close of the Sicilian Wars, we have a perfect opportunity to pause in our narrative and take a look around at C... Read more

Resuming our narrative of the history of Carthage, we turn to one of the successor realms in the West. Pyrrhus, a second... Read more

Completing our tour of the Mediterranean circa 300 BC, we finish with the history of the upstart city-state of Rome. Bor... Read more

With both Rome and Carthage exhausted by the constant strain of war, the Carthaginians dispatched the young Hamilcar Bar... Read more