One of the problems we have when dealing with Carthage is that we can only see it through the eyes of others. No Carthaginian account is available to us. Carthaginians remain an enigma. We do know that they fought three wars against Rome. The one that still attracts interest was Hannibal’s war and of course there were elephants.
I’m putting together a Carthaginian army, to fight the Romans of course.
Where better to begin than with the regular Libyan infantry who fought so well. Perhaps these lads were conscripts or life long levies. Maybe some of them were the contribution of subordinate allied towns. Certainly, they were not volunteers. No one believes that Carthaginian rule was gentle or benign.
On the other hand, perhaps a soldier’s life was better than the endless drudgery of labouring in the fields for someone else’s benefit.
Almost immediately we run into a lack of certainty. How did these fellows look after campaigning in Italy? Clothes needed to be replaced and Hannibal traveled light. Did local tailors and seamstresses run up tunics in the Libyan style? The colour red has Libyan associations did they stick with that? Victorious armies tend to get what they want.
We do know that Hannibal re-equipped his Libyans with Roman gear. This is normally taken to be mail, or other, armour and shields. Some also think that the Libyans also took to pila throwing and swordsmanship, I don’t share that view.
By now our Libyans are looking quite Roman. Maybe too Roman. I think it likely that they decorated their shields to prevent confusion in combat. I found a photo of a Punic stele covered in symbols, the simple symbols at the top of the page. Just the sort of thing any soldier could paint on his shield.
According to Adrian Goldsworthy, Hannibal had the equivalent of two legions worth of Libyan spear men with him at Cannae. That’s four units on my rough and ready reckoner. These are they.
The Numidians also featured prominently in the Carthaginian war effort. Then they mostly changed sides.
Subsequently they fought the Romans on their own behalf. These ones are from Essex. I've more on order from Forged in Battle. Some folks like to paint their Numidians as sub Saharan Africans. It can look quite nice but it is inaccurate. Have a look at some modern Berbers and take it from there.
