Hasdrubal I Of Carthage Puns

Hello,

In this series of posts I will be exploring why exactly the faction of Carthage sucks elephant howdah. The purpose is not simply to complain, but rather to open a directed discussion about what exactly are the problems and what can/will be done about it, as well as provide information for newer players that may be considering playing Carthage.

DISCLAIMER: I've played a lot of Carthage. While I will try to be as objective as I can in my discussion, do not hesitate to call me out if I am misrepresenting information, making unfounded predictions, or showing unfair bias toward the faction I play.

All ability links show fully upgraded tier 10 values.

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Hasdrubal Barca is a generalist, semi-support commander for everybody's favorite cannon fodder faction, Carthage. He combines a fast, darting charge with the ability to distribute buffs and debuffs across the battlefield. The single-target nature of his abilities means that he excels at supporting small engagements, whereas Caesar and Sulla find greater effect in large-scale conflict where their radial buffs/debuffs shine.

It is sometimes difficult to disentangle the problems of Carthage's units from the problems of Carthage's commanders. I've played more than 1000 games as Hasdrubal with every Carthaginian unit type, and my conclusions are that he could use a bit of help, but I think that overall he is currently in a better place than his brother, Hannibal.

My single biggest complaint about Hasdrubal is the limited variety of stats affected by his support abilities. Aside from the morale component of Deep Pockets (and the charge impact on Bribe that we will talk about later), they affect only melee combat, meaning that his effectiveness as a support does nothing to influence ranged, artillery, charge mechanics, or mobility. Commanders such as Caesar and Sulla acquire additional useful effects on their abilities at higher tiers, such as mild movement speed debuffs, ground effect modifiers, impact damage debuffs, etc., but Hasdrubal remains frustratingly narrow in the scope of stats affected.

**Hasdrubal is an interesting commander, but struggles to stand out on the battlefield. It is difficult to identify scenarios for which he is the best candidate to handle the situation, and in which someone else would not just be straight better. Opening up the utility of his kit

Once upon a time the Great Zulaban summoned all the Generals of his realm to his home on mount Jeartmon. which actually was more of a hill than a mountain, covered in beautiful cherry trees. One of the gererals summoned was the younger brother of Zulaban`s favorite general, called Hasdrubal the Eager, a young man of twenty years, with crooked ears being the only thing that stood out from his very well kept appearance. Now this young man Hasdrubal noticed a young woman, blonde hair cascading onto pale skin, freckles marking her face in a very bonny fashion, sunbathing under one of the cherry trees. Hasdrubal started to go over to the young woman, trying to think of words that seemed worthy of such beauty. But before he could reach her, his brother grabbed him from behind and stared into his eyes. "That`s Zulabans`s daughter you knobhead!".

When they reached Zulabans mansion, Zulabans grey face looked out from an ornate window, a very stern expression on his face. Hasdrubal was worried that he had been looking out of the window when he foolishly approached the Great Lord`s daughter. When they entered the great hall Zulaban greetet them with a warm smile. Hasdrubal was relieved, he was sure that he hadn`t been watched. After the political matters were sorted out, everyone gathered in the great Hall. Hasdrubal enjoyed the music and the food, but in this moment of joy he failed to realise that his wine was cursed. When they came back out he looked for the beautiful woman, but all he could find was an old hag collecting fruit from a tree. He was disappointed, but thought to himself that his wife was waiting for him back home. When he arrived at his house he was shocked to find his wife absent, but an ugly maid sullying his bed, in a rage, he slayed her. After removing the corpse, he thought that he wanted to visit a brothel to bridge the time until his wife came home. When he arrived at the brothel, he found it filled with old hags....

Hannibal (the famous Carthaginian general, not the serial killer) achieved what the Romans thought to be impossible. With a vast army of 30,000 troops, 15,000 horses and 37 war elephants, he crossed the mighty Alps in only 16 days to launch an attack on Rome from the north.

Nobody has been able to prove which of the four possible routes Hannibal took across the Alps…until now. In Secrets of the Dead: Hannibal in the Alps, a team of experts discovers where Hannibal’s army made it across the Alps – and exactly how and where he did it.

Watch the full episode and come back with your questions about Hannibal for historian and expert on ancient Carthage Eve MacDonald (u/gevemacd)

Proof: https://i.redd.it/w9h26bfbxas01.jpg

EDIT: We're officially signing off. Thanks, everyone, for your great questions, and a special thank you to Dr. MacDonald (u/gevemacd) for giving us her time and expertise!

For more information about Hannibal, visit the Secrets of the Dead website, and follow us on Facebook & Twitter for updates on our upcoming films!

there's a moment where Capelianus is riding through the streets of Carthage, looking for Gordian the elder, he sees a group of soldiers gang raping a woman in the arch way of a temple. She calls to him for help but he just smiles and shouts "health and great joy to you" at the soldiers to egg them on

Hiya folks! So, I've been discussing with my dumb Italian Egyptologist friend the issue of the Latin and Greek forms of the word "Carthage", their route of transmission, the Punic/Phoenician form they were borrowed from, and the implications for the phonology of the languages in question.

So, to sum up what we've discussed:

The relevant attested forms are:

Phoenician: 𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 /qrtħdʃt/ (vocalism unclear, with a bazillion proposals scattered around the internet). One proposal that seems particularly popular is qart-ḥadašt, which as it turns out would have been pronounced (I think?) /qart ħadoːʃ(t)/ due to a stressed a -> ō shift that occurred.

Aramaic: ܩܪܬܐ ܚܕܬܐ‎ /qarta ħdata/

Attic Greek: Καρχηδών /karkʰɛːdɔ̌ːn/

Hebrew: קרת חדשה /qeret ħadaʃah/ ?

Etruscan: *𐌂𐌀𐌓𐌈𐌀𐌆𐌀 (is this not actually attested? If so what is the reconstruction from?): /kɑrtʰɑt͡sɑ/

Latin: Carthāgō/Kartāgō /karˈt(ʰ)aːgɔː/, Carchēdōn (clearly a direct borrowing from Attic), Carthada /ˈkart(ʰ)ada/ (3rd century CE, possibly from the Aramaic?)

Now, here's the thing: we are confused about the situation with the Latin, Etruscan and Attic forms, especially when it comes to the consonants. According to Wiktionary, the borrowing went Phoenician -> Greek -> Etruscan -> Latin. However, this is problematic for a number of reasons, to the point that Egyptologist friend thinks that the Latin is directly borrowed from Phoenician.

The first issue is the notion that Latin borrowed from Etruscan - if the suggested Etruscan form is legit, the expected form in Latin should be carthassa. Why on earth is /t͡s/, which regularly becomes /ss/ in latin, becoming a g? Also, this doesn't explain the vowels at all - why is the penultimate syllable's ā long, and why is the word ending in -ō instead of -a?

The second issue is that of the consonants. Greek has done something weird by turning /tħa/ into /kʰɛː/, and yet this isn't reflected in the Latin or the Etruscan, which both have orthographic <TH> (and phonemic /tʰ/ in the case of the Etruscan). My friend suggests that Biblical Hebrew ħ was regularly rendered as χ in Koine, and so maybe it was borrowed as tkʰ with the /t/ later being lost. However I find this unconvincing, as Koine had lost /h/ as a phoneme and was in the process of turning χ into an affricate or fricative - it had no better way of representing ħ. Attic and preclassical greek on the other hand had an /h/ phoneme, so IMO they either should have borrowe

In 'I Claudius' I get the impression that the Romans by and large regretted the destruction of Carthage some even believing they were cursed for it (The Punic Curse). How accurate is this? Was the destruction of Carthage regarded with guilt by the Romans after it occurred. How do later writers refer to it?

Perhaps this is personal bias, but over the course of my public education, the focus was Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, then Rome. The Persian Empire (Parthians, Sassanids, etc) is either mentioned briefly as an adversary to Rome, or never at all. Even though, to my - admittedly limited - knowledge the various Persian Empires were as powerful as Rome, if not more so.

From what I understand:

• The Romans founded their republic in 510 when overthrowing the king

• The Athenians transitioned from a monarchy to democracy over thee 6th century via Solon and other politicians

• Carthage transitioned to a Republic around 480 BC because they lost a battle badly in Sicily

They are all within close proximity to each other. I am sure that the Carthaginians had contact with the Greeks and learned their ideologies because they were at war with them. But did the Romans have contact with the Greeks or Carthaginians around 510 BC? Or was it just pure coincidence that the Romans also started a Republic around the same time as Carthage and Athens.

Forgive me if I am connecting dots that aren't there, but I just found it interesting that 3 of the main examples of democracy/republic before the modern era all occurred in the same time frame.