For centuries, Carthage has ruled a sprawling maritime empire. Now, a Roman armada sails from Sicily, landing four legions onto Africa. The legionaries are hard-bitten veterans, men of middle height, with powerful chests and shoulders and bronzed faces. They carry javelins, short keen swords and heavy shields. Consul Regulus leads them. His goal is more than victory, but the end of an ancient empire… n 256 B.C., the Carthaginian Empire is a seething, buckling realm of barbaric warriors, unstable generals and baffled seamen. At this pivotal moment, a young Hamilcar Barca thrusts himself forward. He befriends a canny Spartan mercenary and learns the intricacies of elephant warfare. Now, in a last, desperate battle, he faces the man who slew his brother, the conquering Roman who fights like a raving wolf. HE SWORD OF CARTHAGE is the recreation of a historical campaign of bitter savagery, filled with the dust, sweat and roar of battle. It is 123,000 words in length by Vaughn Heppner.
Author
You can visit Vaughn at www.vaughnheppner.com I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine. I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.
