Carthage was huge.
Resource-rich. Resilient. To survive as long as they did against the might of Rome is honestly extraordinary, said historian Eve MacDonald in the latest Almost History episode.
“Carthage ha[d] enormous_resources… to even be in the fight for_as long_as_they were is extraordinary.”
Still, the uphill climb was real. And likely insurmountable. MacDonald thinks Rome wasn’t going anywhere. “The Romans were probably never going to_go away.” A brutal take, maybe. But it’s history.
Tactics and Turning Points
The Punic Wars ran from 264_to_146_B.C. Chaos everywhere.
Rome eventually built an empire that dwarfed the ancient world. But back then? No one knew that.
Hannibal marched elephants over the Alps.
He crushed Roman armies. Left the Republic on its knees. One more wrong move and Rome collapses. Simple as that.
This episode, hosted by All About History ’s Emily Staniforth with guest Eve MacDonald (who penned the upcoming Carthage: A_New_History_of_an_Ancient_Empire, 2026), digs into those near-misses. They look at political shifts and military errors. They ask: what if Carthage actually won?
What happens to trade? To culture? To the balance of power in Europe and the Med?
MacDonald suggests we’re poorer for Rome’s victory.
“As much as the Greco_Roman_history_of_the_Mediterranean_is_part_of_the_Western_world, so too_is_all_of_Carthage, Phoenicia_and_Numidia” in North Africa.
Those stories are gone. Silenced.
You might ask why we care about alternate timelines when the outcome was set centuries ago?
Curiosity. Maybe a dash of regret.
The show stems from the magazine’s famous What_If features.
Other episodes? D-Day fails. Bolshevik Revolution flops.
Big swings. High stakes.
Listen on Acast. Or wherever podcasts live.
The Romans stayed. The Cartagenians faded.
But the road wasn’t paved in blood right from the start.
It was mud. And sweat. And luck.
Which way does the dice roll now?
Nobody knows.
