The Roman War: The Rape of Sicily

The Epic Third Century (symbol) BC Struggle for Supremacy in the West.


The Mamertines' machinations having plunged the western Mediterranean into war, led by Appius Claudius Caudex - confidently crosses into Sicily. Deserted by its Syracusan ally, King Hieron, the awesome Carthaginian Empire resolves to oppose the pretentious Roman invaders and defend its pre-eminence in the Western World. Victorious on land - in the fearsome battle of Acragas - the Romans are, nevertheless, woefully ill-equipped to counter the overwhelming naval might of the African Colossus. Enmeshed in a web of depravity and corruption; plagued by sedition and treachery; and rent by unfettered ambition and rancorous personal animosities; the archaic system of governance of the Roman Republic struggles to adapt to a distant war.


With the wily Hieron - abetted by his sensuous queen - hovering over the conflicting powers; and with neither of the major antagonists prepared to concede; the Sicilian squabble inexorably escalates into a war of continents, the greatest conflict yet to rock the Western World.


For more than twenty years, by land and sea, the hitherto land-based forces of the Roman Republic will contend with the mighty naval power of the indomitable Punic Empire for dominance of the Western World.