The Walls of Rome
(The Histories of Sphax Series, Book #1)
By Robert M. Kidd
Publication Date: June, 2020
Publisher: independently published
Pages: 419
Genre: Historical Fiction / Ancient Historical Fiction
‘...not only have we scaled the mighty Alps, I believe
we have climbed the very walls of Rome’
~ Hannibal
~ Hannibal
218 BC.
Sphax is seventeen and haunted by the brutal murder of his parents at the hands of Rome. After ten years of miserable slavery he will make his last bid for freedom and go in search of Hannibal’s army and his birthright. He will have his revenge on the stinking cesspit that is Rome!
Destiny will see him taken under the wing of Maharbal, Hannibal’s brilliant general, and groomed to lead the finest horsemen in the world – the feared
Numidian cavalry that would become the scourge of Rome.
From the crossing of the great Rhodanus River, Sphax’s epic journey takes him through the lands of the Gaul to the highest pass in the Alps. This is the story of the most famous march in history. A march against impossible odds, against savage mountain Gauls, a brutal winter and Sphax’s own demons.
This is more than a struggle for empire. This is the last great war to save the beauty of the old world, the civilized world of Carthage, Greece and Gaul. The world of art and philosophy – before it is ground into dust by the upstart barbarity of Rome.
Excerpt
Hannibal’s 37 elephants crossed the great Rhodanus (Rhone) river on rafts towed by local Gauls in rivercraft. It was far from successful to begin with. Most of the creatures ended up in the river and several mahouts drowned. Sphax is lucky. He manages to cling on to the raft and reach the eastern bank.
‘What’s that?’ The mahout suddenly stiffened and stared into the middle distance. Sphax followed his gaze. There was something; a disturbance in the current; a shifting shape near the surface.
They both shot to their feet at the same moment, wide-eyed, mouths gaping. This could not be, thought Sphax! How was this possible? But there was no mistake now. The swirling current was being disturbed by elephants’ trunks, and the fleeting shapes they’d glimpsed were the ears and rumps of the beasts. It was a sight that Sphax would remember to the end of his days. Slowly, ponderously, the outline of five elephants gradually emerged from the waters of the Rhodanus, like shades passing through the veil of the underworld into the land of the living. Flapping ears and trunks like dogs shaking water from their fur, they marched up the bank to be greeted by the old cow and a jubilant mahout, dancing and splashing around in the mud. Nothing could bring back Fuabal and Mintho, but at least they hadn’t died in vain. Their elephants, and those on the other raft, were the first to make it across the great river.
Sphax imagined them pounding along the riverbed, in that underwater world of flowing grasses he’d glimpsed himself for an awful moment, trunks raised high out of water to fill their lungs with life-giving air, untroubled by the racing currents swirling above their heads. They were truly remarkable creatures. Nevertheless, it was nothing short of miraculous they had made it across.
The mahout, whose name he discovered was Mathos, was now rounding up the six elephants and leading them to a holding area well supplied with low growing trees and shrubs for the animals to browse upon. ‘I’ll need your help, Sphax,’ he said. ‘You’re now a mahout.’
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The Walls of Rome
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Robert M. Kidd
When Cato the Censor demanded that ‘Carthage must be destroyed,’ Rome did just that. In 146 BC, after a three-year siege, Carthage was razed to the ground, its surviving citizens sold into slavery and the fields where this once magnificent city had stood, ploughed by oxen. Carthage was erased from history.
That’s why Robert is a novelist on a mission! He wants to set the historical record straight. Our entire history of Hannibal’s wars with Rome is nothing short of propaganda, written by Greeks and Romans for their Roman clients. It intrigues him that Hannibal took two Greek scholars and historians with him on campaign, yet their histories of Rome’s deadliest war have never seen the light of day.
The hero of The Histories of Sphax series tells a different story!
When Robert is not waging war with his pen, he likes to indulge in his passion for travel and hill walking, and like his hero, he also loves horses.
Robert lives in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
Connect with Robert M. Kidd:
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