Certain foreign policy decisions led to continuing enmity between Carthage and the burgeoning power of Rome, and what followed was a series of wars which turned from a battle for Mediterranean hegemony into an all-out struggle for survival. Although the Romans gained the upper hand in the wake of the First Punic War, Hannibal brought the Romans to their knees for over a decade during the Second Punic War. While military historians are still amazed that he was able to maintain his army in Italy near Rome for nearly 15 years, scholars are still puzzled over some of his decisions, including why he never attempted to march on Rome in the first place.

Before the Numidians were conquered by the Romans and Numidia was officially made part of Roman Africa, they developed a culture that was as sophisticated and unique as any in the ancient world. The Numidians were a Berber people who emerged from the edge of the desert in the late 2nd millennium BCE, and despite the harshness of their environment (or perhaps because of it), they eventually became the most powerful people in North Africa. The Numidians found success on the backs of horses, which they rode to countless military victories, and when they could not defeat their enemies with conventional tactics, they were not afraid to resort to asymmetrical warfare.

The end of the Ptolemies also happened to coincide with the most famous period of Roman history. In the latter 1st century BCE, men like Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian participated in two civil wars that would spell the end of the Roman Republic and determine who would become the Roman emperor. In the middle of it all was history’s most famous woman, Cleopatra, who famously seduced both Caesar and Antony and thereby positioned herself as one of the most influential people in a world of powerful men. Indeed, she was a legendary figure even to contemporary Romans and the ancient world.

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Audiobook: 18 maja 2023