61. The Second Punic War

Giving up in Sicily

Carthage tried for Iberia

Whose golden and silvery mountains

Could supply her expanding country.

Three kings came to Iberia.

Hamilcar who landed in Spain,

Hasdrupal who continued the campaign,

Hannibal who stepped on the foot of the country called Rome.

Rome declared war in a fit of rage.

But Hannibal surprised her

He crossed her great Alpine ridges

Bringing great and fearful elephants

To sac the fair city.

He was met by Roman forces and driven back.

His transgression was never forgotten.

A Scipio came

To take revenge for his country.

He traveled to Africa

Fighting the Carthage king at home

He won the name Africanus

A statue was erected

Among others

Decorating Rome’s streets

Like homages to gods.

Rome retaliated.

Her great band of legions

Relentlessly pushed outward.

Growing out of Europe.

Branching into new territories.

All of Iberia fell.

They came to Greece

After fighting through Macedonian mountains.

Where the marble men used to live.

They offered freedom and peace.

The Akhians bowed to them

Giving Aeneas his revenge for Illium’s destruction.

Rome made sacrifices

For her survival.

She dressed herself with Mediterranean blue

With hints of roses

In the bloody sacred spring.

60. The First Punic War

“Poor Dido!”

Carthage cried.

Our beautiful queen

Has died.

It was Aeneas

Who rejected her.

His descendants must pay.

Carthage looked up

At the growing Rome

Seeing that she wants the island of Sicily

“We will take it for ourselves,”

Carthage said.

You took our beautiful queen away

We’ll take the island.

Rome sent her men

Securing the island

Just as Carthage did the same.

Mercenaries,

Fleets of ships,

Legions clashed

For the beautiful island

To the south of her land.

Carthage’s navy had Rome cornered

But adapting well

The white republic

Built her ships

Overcoming Carthage in the end.

Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica

All fell to Rome’s might.

56. Aeneas’s Journey

“Arms and the man I sing, the first who came

Compelled by fate an exile out of Troy…” (The Aeneid, Rolfe Humphies translation)

“Remember what they did”

Said the ghosts of Trojan women,

“Remember the fire.”

“The horse.”

“How they cut down our heroes”

“How they murdered us”

“Tearing our children from our comforting arms.”

Those words haunted him

As Aphrodite’s son escaped the mighty cyclopean walls.

His people burned.

They pleaded for help from Athena

But it was all in vain.

Hera’s hatred sent them to their doom.

Hector appeared to injured Aeneas in a dream.

“My brother,”

The fallen prince told him,

“Fate has given you a chance”

“To get even with those that did this.”

“Go west and you shall see.”

“In the land above Sicily.”

Aeneas and his family

Left the dead and ruined city.

To the ships they went

Eager to find this new promised land.

They came to Thrace

Where the black blood of Polydorus

Gave warnings of greed in the land

Sending them off once again.

Apollo’s island welcomed them

With great earthquake

They were off to Crete, the lonely Isle

Where, in a dream, he was told of Italus’ land.

Passed the turning point they traveled

Where flocks of harpies pestered them.

They followed Greek islands

Up to the lands that Alexander saved.

From there they sailed passed the boot

That will house their future home

To the land where Poseidon’s sons live.

They saved a man from the one eyed one.

Left carelessly by the horse maker on his way home.

Then between the treacherous rocky whirlpool and sister monster.

After surviving those two beasts

They met a storm stirred up by Hera

That brought them to rest on Dido’s mighty shores.

As Aeneas told his story

Aphrodite set the queen aflame.

In a cave on hunting trip

Came Dido’s poor undoing.

Aphrodite’s son promised marriage

But left her to fall to her grave

Cursing the Trojan race

And all who spring from them.

After a visit to Hades’ land

They went north to their promised fate.

52. The Peloponnesian War

Athena became powerful in her golden age.

Her reach extended across the Mediterranean.

Ares didn’t appreciate her power.

He started grumbling

Jealous of the goddess’s power.

Suspecting a war she told Pericles.

He gathered his people

Ordered walls to be built.

The fortifications were strong.

Rivaling the Cyclopian walls of Troy.

He ordered ships to be built.

Athena’s powerful trireme navy

Became a force to be reckoned with.

Then Ares made his move.

A spear was thrust right into Athena’s heart.

She protected her people

With Pericles’ impenetrable shield.

For a time Ares was kept at bay.

He only got angrier.

He went to Apollo

Asking for help.

Apollo complied by sending a great plague.

The plague that killed Athena’s lion.

She continued to fight on

Despite the plague and military losses.

Abandoning old strategies

With more aggressive ones

She went on the attack.

The small island of Melos was the first target.

Then she directed her spear toward Sicily.

Trying to capture Syracuse

She was mortally wounded

Ares seized the opportunity

Raiding the countryside.

Athena’s democracy voted themselves out

In favor of oligarchy.

The people restored their freedom and continued the fight.

If Athena was going to die, she’d rather be free.

Ares went east

Talking to the once proud dragon.

“I offer you the cities of Anatolia,”

He said,

“In exchange for a little help.”

The dragon smiled in his coils.

Coughing up gold to fund a navy.

Once the ships were built

Ares squeezed Athena until she gave up.