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After Carthage lost the first Punic war and their colonies in Sicily, a defeated Carthage saw Rome also take control of Corsica and Sardinia. (And, incidentally, this foundation story is part of the reason Romans had a love/hate relationship with Greece, Troy having been defeated by the brothers from across the Adriatic.)
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Aeneas, after fleeing Troy, Ilium, having been defeated by mainland Greeks, and after spending a year in Carthage, cavorting with the legendary queen-founder of Carthage, Dido, herself having fled Tyre after her husband had been murdered by her ambitious brother, arrived in Rome to try his luck anew. Romulus was actually the grandson of Aeneas, according to roman myth the founder of Rome. That said, it's still a thoroughly entertaining book.
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The book, rather short, is also much longer than really needed, the author repeating himself, well, repeatedly, while the quality of the maps that are to support his alternate views on where Hannibal crossed the alps are lacking.
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