Barbarians Rising

The decline of the Roman Empire begins at 15,000 feet,

on some of the world's most unforgiving terrain.

Fifty-thousand barbarian warriors from across the ancient world

have united against a single enemy.

Leading them is a general, bound by blood,

to avenge his family honor,

and destroy Rome

before it consumes everything in its path.

History may regard the Roman Empire as inevitable,

but its rise was neither swift, nor guaranteed.

To achieve its goals,

Rome blankets the continent in blood and tyranny. ets the t

Pillaging resources from the land and the people who live there,

dividing the ancient world in two,

Roman and barbarian.

From the hordes, emerge the unlikely leaders

who will challenge Rome's domination.

Bandits,

slaves,

warriors, rebels.

This is the story of their rise.

In the 3rd century B.C.,

Carthage is the most powerful state in the Western world.

It builds its wealth through trade,

and uses its advanced naval force to dominate the Mediterranean.

Carthage really was Rome's only competitor as an empire

in the central and western Mediterranean.

There were no other great states that could compete with it.

Rome is a small but growing republic with outsized ambition.

It knows that to defeat Carthage is to control the ancient world.

The conflict between Rome and Carthage

escalated into a life-and-death struggle

between the two principle powers in the western Mediterranean.

When the two sides clash over Sicily,

Rome is the rising power.

And it's also adaptable, building a navy from the ground up

that deals Carthage a shocking defeat.

Rome forces Carthage to sign a crippling peace treaty

in an attempt to break its enemy.

It's implications for Carthage are pretty stark.

Uh, among other things, Carthage is effectively de-militarized

or de-navalized.

Uh, it is also subject to paying a substantial indemnity.

The defeat is a personal humiliation

for the Carthaginian General in Command, Hamilcar Barca.

His oldest son, Hannibal, is only nine years old.

Hamilcar forced his young son, essentially,

to dedicate his entire life to one purpose,

the destruction of Rome.

The oath, Hannibal.

I swear by the deathless Gods

that I shall not rest until the heart of Rome

bleeds dry on the sword of Carthage.

Again!

I swear by the deathless Gods

that I shall not rest until the heart of Rome bleeds...

Again!

I swear by the deathless Gods

that I shall not rest until the heart of Rome bleeds dry

on the sword of Carthage!

Hannibal waits nearly two decades for a chance at revenge.

In 219 B.C., Rome makes an alliance with Saguntum,

a fortified city on Carthage's northern border.

Hannibal sees the move as an act of war.

Our neighbor has been turned.

Saguntum is on our side of the border.

Forget borders. They're for politicians.

Rome's alliance with Saguntum was designed as a deliberate insult.

And if we don't respond?

Who are we? Cowards?

You know the answer to that.

Then we fight!

And avenge the vow we made to our father.

We take the city.

Rome will have no choice

but to fight for its new ally.

We call her out.

Draw her here, to Hispania.

Hannibal besieges Saguntum for eight months.

When the city falls, he launches his master plan,

to unite the barbarians of the ancient world against Rome.

Outside of the great empires,

the people of Europe are organized into small tribal groups, essentially.

They don't really have an overarching national or ethnic identity.

They are tribal societies,

and often spend a lot of time fighting amongst each other.

Hannibal faced an enormously difficult challenge.

How to build an alliance with disparate groups of barbarian tribes,

who spoke different languages.

And they really saw no distinction between Rome or Carthage.

It's safe to say they hated both of them equally.

He had to give them a good reason

why they should fight with him.

And the good reason was,

if we win, then you will be free.

If we lose, then you will be slaves.

Hannibal g calls to arms tribes

from Iberia, to Gaul, to North Africa,

and the Lusitanians of western Hispania.

The Lusitanians were great warriors.

They were fantastic fighters.

And, um, they were used to independence

for centuries and centuries, so they would never give up.

The Lusitanians will complete our army.

It is said they have no word for truce.

They've never needed one.

Well, they'll either listen to us or kill us.

The last time your people were foolish enough to come here,

they tried to conquer us.

They failed.

So, why have you come back now?

We face the same great enemy.

Rome.

And it will not rest until it's consumed us all.

Rome is your enemy, not ours.

And even if it were, we fear no one.

A good warrior never underestimates the might of its enemy.

Or himself.

Carthage cannot defeat Rome by itself.

So if we fall to her legions, you will be next.

It already has eyes on Hispania and Lusitania.

But Rome can be stopped if we fight together.

Then perhaps we should fight with Rome against you and Carthage.

Go ahead.

And see what happens, when it uses you to destroy us,

and then turns on you and Lusitania.

And you?

And Carthage?

Would reward you.

With, uh...

The riches of a republic

whose wealth is beyond imagining.

When you pay tribute to our honor,

understand this,

you are not buying it.

Then it is settled?

You are their creature now.

And soon, they will be ours.

Let us hope.

They will join us.

If they do not,

they'll all be dead.

As Hannibal waits for allies to respond,

Rome gathers an army of its own.

The senate calls on the most feared military family in the republic.

Wealthy, powerful and ruthless,

Publius Cornelius Scipio commands a vast army of highly-disciplined soldiers.

Scipio is the greatest general of the Romans,

and has the full support of the Roman Senate

to take on and destroy the army of Hannibal.

The Roman fighting machine was, um,

an incredibly disciplined and organized body.

People were trained systematically,

they were formed up in cohorts.

Um, they knew how to fight by system.

They practiced their weapons. These were professionals.

Within seven months,

Hannibal's barbarian army grows to 30,000 men.

But still, he waits on the Lusitanians.

Without them, Hannibal's favorite kind of war is mobile war.

He's not much given to static warfare.

And the Lusitanian's epitomize mobile warfare.

They're fast, they have light cavalry,

they're good at ambushes.

So Hannibal and the Lusitanians are made for each other.

If you're right,

and Rome is the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen...

I am right.

Then you'd better have something they don't.

I do.

And his name is Cumelios.

The empire that will one day rule the ancient world

begins as a small but ambitious republic,

with designs on absolute power.

Power can either be good or bad.

Uh, what really matters is who is wielding that power,

what motivates them and how they use it.

But as Rome spreads its culture by force,

some rise up to fight back.

Among them is Hannibal Barca of Carthage.

To challenge the Republic,

he unites an army of disparate barbarian tribes under one banner.

And gambles on a bold strategy that has never been attempted before.

Military leaders who have become great captains in history,

have done so because they had the ability

to visualize several moves ahead

and plan for them.

Each move is like a separate game of chess.

Rome will cower

when they dock at Saguntum

and see thousands of us waiting.

They won't.

They won't come ashore at Saguntum?

They won't see thousands.

We're not fighting in Saguntum?

We're going to destroy them on their own soil.

I don't understand.

We're going to march on Rome.

Impossible.

You only say that because it's never been done.