Remembering Carthage

History lesson, because I find the story interesting.

The Carthaginian Empire (in the North of the continent now called Africa) is weak after warring with the Romans. Carthage had been made to sign a peace treaty, forbidding them from attacking Rome or Rome's friends. Rome becomes convinced that as long as Carthage exists it will be a threat to the Empire. 

Masinissa, the King of Numidia (now part of Algeria) wants the walled city of Carthage for his people; he is a friend of Rome, and goes around conquering Carthaginian land, confident that Rome will not interfere against him, and that Carthage will not want to break the treaty with Rome. Carthage does decide to fight back; conveniently for Masinissa, a Roman consul is with his army when this occurs. The consul sends word to the senate, who declare war on Carthage.
Carthage panics; they couldn't beat Rome at war. When the Romans arrive, they send ambassadors calling for peace, saying that they've already killed those responsible for declaring war, and provide the Roman soldiers with provisions, hoping for goodwill. I imagine the conversations going something like this:

Carthage Ambassador: We want peace! What do we have to do?
Roman Consul: Yeah, ummm, first can we, like, have 300 children? Not just any children either, children of senators. Politician's children, yeah. That OK?

Carthage delivers them to the Roman camp, and the children are sent away on galleys.

Carthage Ambassador: Anyfin else?
Roman Consul: Err, yeah. We want your entire city disarmed. All weapons brought here.

The ambassadors return to the city, have the populace gather up all weapons and deliver them to the Roman camp.

Roman Consul: Sick.
C. Ambassador: Is we at peace now, yeah?
R. Consul: Nah m8, there's one more thing.
(Here I imagine there is the noise of other Romans trying to suppress giggles and thinking 'Is he actually going to ask them?' 'Will they actually do it?')
C. Ambassador: What is it?
R. Consul: Yeah, hehe, you gotta burn ur entire city to the ground. Chillout! You can build a new one! Just move inland so you aren't a powerful trading post and make sure ur new city ain't got any fortifications or city walls or anyfin defensive like dat.

The Ambassadors return to Carthage, and inform the people of Rome's command. The people decide to defend Carthage to the last man. All slaves were freed to fight. Weapons were made however possible: buildings were torn down for metal and wood; hair was woven into ropes for catapults. A message was sent to the Roman camp, asking for more time to make the decision. After a few days, the Romans got impatient and went up to the city gates, enquiring why the city hadn't been burnt down yet.

[Masinissa was really pissed off with Rome at this stage; he had wanted Carthage for himself. He went home sulking.]

The siege lasted more than three years. Eventually, Rome managed to prevent traders from entering Carthage. The inhabitants began dying of starvation and disease and went mad trying to deal with all the corpses, and fighting over the remaining food. Word spread that Carthage was going to fall, and the Romans were joined by people who wanted a bit of the looting-Carthage action. The army entered via Carthage's harbor, ransacked the city in a week. The city was set on fire, and it took 17 days to burn down. The site of the city was ploughed, turning it into cattle grazing ground.

The land that had belonged to Carthage became the Roman province of Africa, named so because the Latin name for Carthaginian people was 'Afri'.

As more land was conquered by the Romans and the Greeks (who inherited the province after the fall of Rome), the name spread; more land came to be called 'Africa'. The name was spread even further by later European explorers. Eventually, the whole continent came to be called Africa, after the people of that city that was burned down that time.

'Arslan' by M.J. Engh

I originally wrote this review for Amazon UK, and have decided to make it my first blog post. I think it's the first book review I've written since high school...

Summary 

Arslan is one of the better written titles in the SF Masterworks series; it is one of the hardest to read and possibly the least escapist of the lot. I found it rewarding and would recommend it to others, despite its difficulty and occasional unpleasantness. It will not be enjoyed by everyone: it's serious, dark and its flaws many annoy you more than they did me.

Arslan, the titular character, takes over the world and establishes his base in the rural town of Kraftsville, Illinois. He celebrates world conquest by having a nice meal and raping two 13 year-olds. He then sets about changing the world. The story is told alternately by two narrators: Franklin Bond and Hunt Morgan. Franklin narrates simply, pragmatically and his sections focus on advancing the story. Hunt narrates completely differently: his narration focuses on himself and his emotions; he writes more lyrically than Franklin and often describes events achronologically; he also describes events already covered by Franklin, but from his perspective. His writing, while considerably more interesting than Franklin's, is more hard going and can get a little irritating.

Arslan, the novel, focuses on the changing relations between the titular character and the two narrators. It's a story about power, the abuse of power, humiliation, rejection, love, forgiveness, etc. I am glad it has been brought back as an SF Masterwork, it is certainly deserving of its place in the series. While writing this review I was torn between rating 4 or 5 stars, because of the flaws listed below, but ultimately decided on 5 stars. A powerful read that leaves a lasting impression.

Possible Flaws

Below I list some possible flaws with the novel and, where appropriate, my explanation for them as a deliberate device by Engh.

If you're after more reviews before making up your mind, and don't mind an awful lot of spoilers, there's a VERY good and VERY detailed analysis of Arslan by Abigail Nussbaum on her blog 'Asking the Wrong Questions' (she both likes and dislikes the novel); Adam Roberts, who wrote the introduction to this edition, is very praising of Arslan on his blog 'Punkadiddle'; there's a positive review on 'Of blog'; and Jo Walton is very praising in her review on Tor.com; there are two negative reviews on the SFF Mistressworks site; another negative on 'Everything is nice'.

Because I'm the sort of person that intensely dislikes spoilers, to the point where I've started reading Adam Robert's introductions after reading the actual novel, I've limited the spoilers as much as possible. Stop reading now if you REALLY hate spoilers.

(WARNING: VAGUE SPOILERS) There are a number of possible flaws with the novel:

1) How Arslan takes over the world is left largely unexplained, so do not expect a `how-to' guide to world domination. The explanation briefly given is wishy-washy and might as well be `by magic'. It's there to show that the takeover is not what Engh is interested in; the flimsy explanation prevents the reader expecting a big reveal. What's more, the novel has aged considerably because of the internet and whatnot, making the scenario presented more implausible. Simple solution: remember when it was written and imagine it set then, instead of in the present day.

2) The female characters are completely neglected, which is surprising for a novel written by a woman. In fact, there is very little character development outside of the Arslan-Franklin-Hunt trinity. I saw the decision to ignore/throwaway the female characters as an artistic decision on Engh's part. She explores the ramifications of rape through Hunt Morgan, the only male rape victim. I thought this was done to better enable the predominantly male 70s SF readership relate to the victim while constantly having at the back of their minds 'BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER VICTIMS?' The throwaway status of the female characters is absurd; it is an exaggeration of society's tendency to treat crimes towards males as more serious than crimes towards women (that's how I saw it anyhow). This may, however, alienate female readers by giving them less to relate to.

3) When Arslan returns to Kraftsville, the reason why he isn't tried and imprisoned, executed, etc is very flimsy. Quite pathetic, actually. This was biggest flaw in my opinion, and I can't think of a vaguely legitimate sounding artistic reason for it.

4) It is focussed on Kraftsville. What happens to the rest of the world is only touched briefly. This may be a disappointment to some readers. Also worth noting is that the reason why Arslan chooses Kraftsville as his base is pretty flimsy. I took this as a `history can happen anywhere, you aren't safe in the countryside' sort of thing.

5) There are more flaws pointed out in other reviews mentioned above, but none of these particularly detracted from the book for me. Or I didn't notice them. Or I don't think of them as flaws.