The Second Punic War is over, and Carthage is victorious. Hannibal's gambit had succeeded, and now Rome is burning. The once proud martial republic has been utterly crushed by its southern rival, and Carthage now stands triumphant in the Western Mediterranean. A new era is dawning.
Yet Carthage itself is far from stable. The war has taken a heavy toll on the mercantile state, and there is a new conflict brewing already. Despite his victories, Hannibal has plenty of opponents in the capital, and he will have to return from his campaign eventually to face them.
All the while, in the eastern Mediterranean, the situation is not calm either. Philip V of Macedon continues to fight the continuously rebelling Greek states in the south, and Antiochus III, having restored order to the Seleucid realm, now eyes Egypt and its increasingly unpopular pharaoh Ptolemy IV. One war may be coming to an end, but peace is far from assured...
The Crumbling Republics is the first novel of Heirs of the Mediterranean, an alternate history novel series where the Second Punic War results in a Carthaginian victory, quickly rippling through most of the classical world. It is clear that Rome will not have a hegemony over the Mediterranean. But who will?
