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Anonymous Coward · 3y

If you choose another civ to replace Rome's hegemony as an alternate history scenario, would you choose Carthage or Etruscan civ, and why?

I love Alternate History, but this question isn't a simple one to answer to, namely because Etruscans were a civilization in the same the Polis of Ancient Greece were - so they were never an unitary state, as much as they had a shared culture and a common council that reunited some of them, so I don't think they would've ever aimed for what Rome did. Carthage on the other hand was a civilization that valued mercantilism (although this term is anachronistic and my economical history professor would hate me for saying it), so they were mostly interested in conquering areas interesting for trade reasons rather than full on land conquest, even in the context of the Punics War they didn't occupy roman land as much as they tried to get the local people to revolt against Rome, indicating that their concept of Empire Building was probably different from the one we expect. Still! Carthage is cool, so I'd go with it.

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