All That I Can See, a civilization series fanfic

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I don't remember when I realized that I was immortal. Although perhaps immortal is the wrong word. Better to say that I simply do not live as most men do. I am certain that if my head were severed from my body, I'd die as any other man. Lesser injuries, and I have sustained quite a number over the millennia, eventually regenerate over the course of months, and in once memorable case involving a well aimed cannonball and my left foot, years.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I was born in a time when life was, if I may borrow a phrase, 'nasty, brutish and short'. I was rather adept at the nasty and brutish parts of life but for some reason, 'short' didn't apply. Generations came and went, I did not. With the gift of time to plan and act, through my strength, intelligence, wealth, cunning and awareness, I became paramount chief of a loose confederation of tribes. My goals were simple, I wanted it all. More noble reasons to exist came much later.

I took nearly a century to gather what knowledge I could. Irrigation would keep our crops plentiful. Smelting copper and tin into bronze gave us better weapons to defend ourselves. Well built roads, with good dependable drainage, were planned for construction to extend the reach of the empire I would build. Even then, I thought big.

Once I was ready, I gathered a few trusted advisors who, like me, did not age as most men, and founded the city of Carthage along the shores of a great ocean.

That act marked my true beginning. That act marked the beginning of Civilization.

Things began slowly. There were few of us and many problems. Some solved themselves. Merchants developed an alphabet to track of their goods, we adopted it to keep track of our own needs. Eventually, it would become the written language used today. But before that happened, the priests also adopted it as a method to determine what their flock 'owed' them for interceding with the gods on their behalf.

This has always bothered me. The power of religion ebbs and flows over time. I personally prefer things when it ebbs. In those days, gods were associated with almost every action. From the rise of the sun to the falling of rain, from the planting of crops to the eating of food, from the calamity of a storm to the beauty of a rainbow, the gods had their place in all aspects of the world.

Personally, I thought that if it worked without all the mumbo-jumbo, it was science and not religion. Not to say that I treated the priests as the charlatans I truly thought they were. They were and are quite useful for keeping the masses in line. The concept of an afterlife to make up for suffering in this life was particularly inspired. It made funerals quite an event once the various rites became formalized.

Back to history. I sent forth the first of my armies to see what was out there and began the second of them to protect what was mine. Locating a likely spot with bountiful resources, I directed the founding of a second city. Before that city was built, my legions discovered a village whose wise men had developed a skill my people had not, that of accurate map making. From them, we learned to construct sea vessels of far greater capability than we had ever known. The entire world lay open before us.

The founding of Utica served to draw off the restless from my capital. Amazingly enough, it had been nearly a thousand years since the founding of Carthage. Despite that, I persevered for both myself and my budding empire. From stories told by travelers, I knew there were others out there like me. Those who did not die. Those who wanted to rule the world for their own reasons. I looked forward to the challenge of defeating them.

But until I found more than stories to investigate, life went on. As Carthage had grown to a city of sixty thousand persons, I ordered a temple to be built in celebration with a similar structure built in Utica as an afterthought. Before either project was complete, a matter came to my attention that couldn't be ignored.

Government is an inherently inefficient process. The most one can hope for is a government that does the least damage. Unfortunately, I and my advisors were the government and final decisions were always mine. This eats up an incredible amount of time and while I had plenty, that doesn't mean it is to be wasted settling petty disputes. In response, I and my advisors formulated laws to handle routine problems. It helped only slightly until I created a judiciary. Looking back on those laws, I must admit that I was bit bloodthirsty. Life was so miserable that death was one of the few deterrents available and resources didn't exist for the care and feeding of prisoners. A better form of government was needed.

While my scholars studied that problem, the First Temple of Carthage was completed. A relatively modest structure, but impressive for its day. I could see that it made the people happy and even though the untrustworthy priests profited, the net results were enough for me to realize that temples should be part of every city in my empire. But their cost had to be made up for in some way.

It was my trade advisor who proposed a most interesting scheme, one that appealed to my vanity. We would build something, something tremendous that would capture the attention of every ruler on the planet, of every person who heard stories of it. Something that would show the world that the I and the Carthaginians were a force to be reckoned with. Coincidentally, something that would earn a small fortune by making Carthage a trading center known and envied by all. A true Wonder of the World.

Taking advantage of our skill with bronze, it was decided to build a colossal statue to cover the entrance to our eastern harbor. The difficulty of the project could not be understated, but the rewards would be incalculable when complete. It would take years to design and even longer to build, but one thing I had was time.

While construction was beginning, my advisors came to me with a new model for government. They called it Monarchy. It wasn't that different from what we were already doing, but titles of hereditary nobility served to reward those I favored while also shifting some of the responsibility for government out of my hands which is right where I wanted it. If difficulties arose, I could always reseize power.

The transition went smoothly, even the priests gave their blessings to the new system, publicly stating I had divine rights due to my kingship. I and other cynics knew that wasn't the case, but it played well with the people. Production and income both rose although I had to tweak the tax structure to maximize benefits.

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Time passed, my empire grew slowly and soon I was faced with the fact that I had ruled for twenty five hundred years with little to show for it. I pondered whether or not the struggle and boredom was worth it and reluctantly decided it was. This was right before a major meeting with my advisors.

When my military advisor wanted more soldiers so that he could slay my enemies, another advisor reminded him that we needed to find enemies before we could slay them. Personally, I'd always thought him overly aggressive and happy only during battle. I more or less ignored him as peace is normally much cheaper than war.

My science advisor wanted more funding but would end up disappointed. While extra gold was slowly piling up in the treasury, I knew the man could easily outspend any source of income. Mind you, the money wouldn't be wasted, he was too good for that, but there were more pressing uses for the money.

My trade advisor wanted standardized currency. I promised to have the scholars work on it the first good chance they got. At that time, they were still working on a definitive written language and changing projects in mid-stream was counter productive. He didn't leave happy, but at least he wasn't disappointed.

My foreign minister, the only woman in my circle of close advisors, demanded that I send troops to explore the world with the backing of both my military and science advisors, two men who seldom agreed on anything. I was already doing so, just not at the pace she desired. I hoped to find something soon. As she was a clever woman, having her practice her skills on someone other than myself would be welcome. Not that I would ever doubt her loyalty in public or in private to even my closest confidants.

My domestic advisor was the happiest of the lot with no complaints and no recommendations. With luck, he would stay that way.

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Around the twenty eight hundredth year of my rule, word came that the Egyptians, whomever and wherever they might be, had begun work on their own Wonder of the World. Rumor had it they planned to build pyramids of stone, as tall or taller than the Colossus as tombs for their rulers. Since reliable sources indicated their ruler was as long lived as myself, I doubted this. Of course, there was always the possibility that he knew something I didn't and his plans had purpose. Possibly a purpose other than the one stated. It would bear watching as the implied skill of masonry such a project would require was impressive.

As construction on my Colossus and their Pyramids continued, I received an unwelcome surprise. Barbarians, uncivilized and dangerous, assaulted my horsemen as they explored and surveyed the country side. Through superior discipline, and no small amount of luck, they survived the encounter while taking massive damage in the process. It would take time for them to return to full strength and while doing so, further exploration was out of the question.

As they returned to fighting strength, I put the scholars to the task of standardizing currency. When the Colossus was finished, it would be useful to a monetary system in place that could get the most benefit from it. Once the written language had been standardized, they needed a task to keep them busy. I then ordered the construction of a library in Utica, using money from the treasury to speed things along, to gather knowledge and stories in written form so that they would not be lost or altered over time in tellings and retellings. Even I forgot things occasionally. More than gold or weapons, knowledge was and still is power.

The founding of Malaca, third city of the empire, occurred at roughly this time. I won't bore you with the details, my philosophy of how to build up a city changed only with the introduction of new technology. I just remember this primarily because it marked the first noticeable upshift in the tempo of life. Things still took a long time to accomplish, but things were accelerated none the less. When Carthage was founded, it took five hundred years to triple in size. Malaca managed the same feat in less than two hundred.

Then the French found us. They arrived riding horses and even larger creatures called elephants. They caught me and my generals completely unaware as our attention was focused on sightings of unidentified vessels in the waters near Carthage and barbarians in the forests east of Carthage. Our defenses were inadequate and I will admit that I simply bribed the French to leave us alone as opposed to fighting them. Amazingly enough, they did, apparently concerned with constructing their own pyramids before the Egyptians did.

The dedication of the Colossus served as the introduction point for the new standardized currency. The investments in both began paying off almost immediately. Soon marketplaces were being constructed throughout the empire to spread the new money far and wide.

Slowly, the barbarians made their way toward Carthage in hit and run raids that accomplished little. I had recalled my horsemen, rebuilt them to full strength and had them waiting for a counter-raid if they chose to attack the capital. As no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, they headed toward Utica instead. Their assault failed and their leader fled down the road to Carthage, straight into the arms of the horsemen I'd sent once I realized their plans. I used the money his tribe gave to ransom him to finish construction of the marketplace in Carthage well ahead of schedule. The capital was getting crowded so I planned began recruiting settlers to spread the empire. The money this generated would, one way or another, be spent in building up the nation's defenses in case the French returned.

Word came that the Egyptians had finished their Pyramid and immediately begun another great project; a Great Wall to protect their cities. An understandable development considering they already possessed masonry skills my scholars were still trying to master. The French abandoned their own attempt to build pyramids and began constructing gardens of great size and beauty. All this and I still didn't know for certain where the French and Egyptian empires were let alone any other empires that travelers tales had brought me over the years. Maddening, simply maddening to be 4000 years old and so poorly informed.

I found the French, more or less by accident a few centuries later. They demanded a large sum of money else they would attack. I said no, they declared war. Quite simple really. The tempo of life had increased again. Since I knew roughly were they were coming from, I figured that I would have ample time to build up my defenses. I didn't really have plans to attack them, but wouldn't pass up any easy victories that came my way.

I was of course wrong. An army of elephants destroyed my defending forces at Utica before I could reinforce them. They captured the city I was stuck with the unpleasant task of taking it back from them without razing the place entirely. I succeeded, and in retaking the city, learned the French secret of Construction. Science: a whole new reason to wage war. The French in turn counter attacked, destroying Utica in the process. Money flowed like water as I rushed to construct defenses and field more troops in my remaining territory. The French attacked Carthage, but were easily beaten back. Since they knew exactly my capital was, but I was ignorant of equivalent information about them, I settled in for what I knew would be a protracted battle.

While waiting for the enemy to renew our conflict, things didn't come to a complete halt. We began construction of a Great Wall of our own and a Great Library intending to hold the science of not just our own civilization, but of other civilizations as well. Those nations had knowledge we desperately needed. The first unit of our Navy was launched to explore the oceans and locate the French. The search for possible allies against the French was also part of their mission.

Judicious use of gold allowed my Great Wall to be finished before any of my rivals. Leptis Parva was built on the former site of Utica to serve as the linchpin to the kingdom's defense, its city walls being integrated into the larger structure. Most of them simply abandoned their projects, but the Egyptians tried to build their own Great Library before I could finish mine. The prestige and benefit to finishing first was too great to leave to chance, if more gold was needed to finish that project, it would be spent.

Time past, the empire grew. The navy pinpointed the location of three French cites, one of which I felt too close to my own territory for comfort. I built units of horsemen and sent them to assault the city of Grenoble with orders to take it if they could and raze if the must. A small fleet of triremes, sent from Cartenna, a small city that had voluntarily joined our civilization, would be sent for support.

Then the unexpected happened, a French diplomat approached my troops and offered a cease fire. Warily I accepted it, only to later realize doing so was a mistake. I declined their offer of peace, not trusting the man as far as I could throw him. But for as long as the cease fire held, I could use the resources intended for the battlefield to create a better infrastructure so that when war came again, I could wage it more efficiently.

The Great Library was finished without the need to hurry it along with gold, so I spent part of the considerable sum I had reserved for that purpose on various city improvements. My empire consisted of eight cities and nearly a million people by that time. Spreading my might across the globe took considerable effort, so much so that I once again began considering the need for a more efficient form of government. The cities farthest from the center of my empire were having problems with corruption. Properly funded courts would reduce the problem, but not eliminate it. Courthouses were ordered built.

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Although it took a while to begin, the wisdom in building the Great Library soon paid off. Tomes on sciences unknown to our people, but known to others, began arriving and the knowledge they contained was taught to eager students. In short order we learned how pikemen were better capable of defending a city, how armored knights were more capable of attack then simple horsemen, how to build bridges across almost any river, and most importantly, how banking, through the lending of money to fund business enterprise, could drastically increase economic growth. (Compound interest was nearly a Wonder of the World in and of itself.)

This is not to say that all was right with the world. Barbarians were no threat in the cities, but in the countryside they were still threats to the explorers and settlers I sent forth to expand my empire. Also, while I had located the French, other civilizations remained tantalizingly out of reach, their locations unknown.

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I mentioned earlier that the tempo of life had accelerated twice in my long lifetime. Little did I know that was a mere foretaste of what was to come later. The peace with the French held, a little roughly at times, and that allowed the empire a chance to grow and stabilize. More cities were founded, others planned and the tasks that had taken their ancestors centuries were now being completed in decades. It was an exciting time to live.

Rumors and discoveries came at an accelerated pace, some rumors of discoveries came as well, a situation I found amusing. My navy located an Egyptian city, a fairly large one named Memphis, and other traces of their civilization while roughly at the same time, the Indians stumbled into our territory. Unlike the French, the contact was friendly and much was learned on both sides.

By far the greatest discovery was that of Invention, something a traveling caravan stumbled over by accident while searching for a market for their goods. Abandoning work on Wonders being duplicated elsewhere, money and effort flowed into a new project. One that would create new production techniques and cheaply modernize the entire military structure from top to bottom. Nothing would be allowed to prevent this project from reaching fruition, even if I had to start a few wars to do it.

As the Workshop neared completion, the need for a new government was becoming critical. A monarchy was simply not suited to govern a nation the size mine had become. Too much graft and not enough income was slowly strangling the empire. A drastic solution was called for and finally found: The Republic. Once again, power would shift away from myself. By granting greater latitude to the cities that made up my empire, they would become much more efficiently run and more economically powerful. National defense and overall coordination was still my purview, but almost everything else would be handled at the local level.

Corruption dropped from a major concern to an annoyance, a fairly large one I will admit, but still a vast improvement. Commerce increased significantly and soon gold was flowing into my coffers in amounts I'd never before seen. There was only one drawback: The Senate. Made up of representatives of the various city-states, they required actual power and some say in the running of the empire, not the mere lip service given to the priests and nobles of earlier times. While most of their decrees could be ignored, or at least worked around, the one power they granted themselves and without which the government would fall, was to unilaterally declare peace with my enemies. Controlling the Great Wall meant that I could declare peace pretty much at will when I chose, our defenses were that good. But I could feel on the not distant enough horizon that the Great Wall would become obsolete and the power to declare peace would be left in the hands of those who didn't deserve it.

I warned them that this was a mistake. I told them that an enemy they let off the hook would turn around and backstab them before they could blink twice. In the hubris of their newfound status, they ignored me and my advisors. If the financial rewards hadn't been so great, I swear I would have executed the lot of them. Unfortunately, times had changed and I, somewhere in the sixth millennium of my life, had to change along with them.

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A few years before the completion of Galileo's Workshop, so named after the most brilliant mechanical mind I'd ever met, a contingent from India asked me to cancel the peace treaty I had with the French. Not wanting the distraction of starting a war while not quite ready, I turned down their request. In a move designed to soothe their ire, I offered the secret of the Republic to them. Why shouldn't the ruler of the Indians be as unhappy as I was? This backfired as they accepted the offer with such alacrity that I nearly fell off my throne. Ecstatic, they signed a peace treaty and agreed to exchange maps. This last bit was an afterthought, I had never attempted to obtain geographic information that way before, but it worked. This is how I learned the home location of not only the Indian Empire, but that of the mysterious Japanese which until then had shrouded in mystery.

Finally, I knew the location of all the other immortals that ran the world, either openly or from behind various fronts. This was important because it told me where I could expand my empire with a minimum of conflict. My nation might have been the most advanced economically, but it was the smallest in population. But the money earned under the new form of government would help change that, hopefully sooner as opposed to later.

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From the Great Library, we learned, among other things, the secret of Gunpowder. We quickly upgraded our armies through the recently opened Galileo's Workshop, but the power of the weapons required scrapping the barracks those soldiers occupied. Bullets could easily punch through where blades could not, making it a safety issue. The thought of someone using a pistol to assassinate me crossed my mind and I did start taking a few extra security precautions at that time as well as spending considerable effort to become an expert marksman. Anyone who wanted me dead was going to have to work for it.

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Advances in economic theory and the opening of stock markets boosted the flow of gold to the treasury above rates I had already thought high. Unfortunately, it was clear this money would have to be reinvested into the economy for the long term health of the empire.

An advancement of gunpowder lead to the creation of explosives. These proved very useful in the building of infrastructure and in many other ways. Further development would clearly lead to weapons of war and the obsolescence of the Great Wall. I immediately began plans to minimize the damage that loss would cause by sending out feelers for possible alliances. The Indians seemed friendly as did the Egyptians. Of the two I preferred the Indians, if only because they were already at war with the French, with whom we would certainly be at war the day the Great Wall fell. Last but not least, the Japanese were being very inscrutable. They wanted us to attack the Egyptians, an offer I refused. Regrettably, I had to consider them a potential threat, hoping they wouldn't attack while we were busy with the French.

As predicted, the Great Wall became obsolete, but surprisingly, the French did not immediately attack. As the peace held, the empire expanded and one scientific advance after another found its way to the Great Library and then to general use amongst the Carthaginians. I knew this wouldn't last forever, but I planned to take advantage of the phenomenon for as long as possible. This was, as many things have been, a mistake. Knowledge of an even more profitable form of government reached the Great Library. It was called Democracy and involved giving the masses an actual say in their government. Having already given up some of my power to the Senate, I was quite excited to implement something that would take power from them and give it to someone, anyone, else.

Power went to the people's heads. The switch over from Monarchy to Republic went extremely smoothly. Changing from Republic to Democracy lead to widespread riots. I and my staff hunkered down the best we could and waited for things to settle down. Five years passed before the government stabilized. The proles had been most upset with some Senators, indifferent to others and mostly pleased with me. My approval rating among the newly enfranchised voters was 65, highest among any of the immortals that more or less ran the world. Technology was rolling along to the point I was confident enough to spend less gold in developing it and more toward growing my cities to the point where I could defend myself from any conceivable attack. (I can see you laughing at my naivete. Atomic theory wasn't even a theory yet, let alone atomic bombs.)

Every government on Earth was rushing to complete various Wonders of the World. Not only for the prestige, but for the benefits their construction seemed to bring. The Japanese financed Darwin's Voyage, bringing the theory of evolution into the world and spurring scientific development. We and the Egyptians both built great cathedrals to inspire our people. Truthfully, I felt theirs was even more glorious than ours, an admission I don't make lightly. These things, these great constructs, made the era a glorious time to live.

The discovery of electricity, by the Egyptians I think, heralded a change in the way the world ran. I shouldn't say discovery, more accurate to say the Egyptians popularized electrical devices. But with electricity, there came an aura of secrecy about new discoveries. The Great Library, formerly the gathering point of new science from every corner of the world, became obsolete nearly overnight. No matter, it had served its purpose for far longer than I had ever envisioned. Other manners of gathering 'hidden' knowledge would be developed in time.

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Around this time, the concept of Women's Suffrage was gaining ground throughout the world. This brings to mind a few personal thoughts about women. As near as I can figure, once early man figured out the connection between sex and children, the status of women went from being men's partners to chattel. While I have never subscribed to the idea that 'women are inferior', I've also never thought that 'women are equals'. They are simply different.

Men are stronger physically. Mentally, the question is open. That men historically received far better educations does not change the fact that there are, and have always been, women with superior intellects. Take my Foreign Minister for example. I've taken her counsel, and that of other women, for nearly six millennia and seldom regretted it.

But the greatest difference between men and women is the fact that women can bear children and men cannot. They are the mothers of future generations, not men. To me, this means they should be respected, protected and loved. To many others, it meant they should be treated as virtual or even actual slaves. Mere property.

I have never liked this. But societal pressures, to which even I am subject, prevented me from simply declaring social equality between the sexes by fiat. I had to wait until the time was right. When democracy was established, when the masses began taking part in their own governance, that was my opportunity. The extending of enfranchisement to women seemed a natural consequence, although one painfully slow to develop despite the encouragement I gave the idea. I was immeasurably proud when the Carthaginian city of Panornus was the first to grant women the right to vote. The rest of the world toppled like dominoes. It wasn't the 'equal rights' some sought, but it was a more than adequate start.

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Through a tactical error, I allowed the newly founded city of Akragas to be overrun by barbarians. It would be far simpler to bribe their leader to join our nation than to retake it by force of arms. So this was ordered and I thought about the possibility of bribing cities aligned with other nations into joining our civilization. My Foreign Minister assured me this could be done with a large enough bribe, although to do so efficiently would take time and effort. Time being something I possessed in abundance, I set her to the task. Unfortunately, the Japanese destroyed Akragas as a threat to their own cities before it could be retaken. So instead, we bribed the Japanese city of Shimonoseki to join us. I felt the exchange only fair given the circumstances.

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During a period of quiet expansion, my scientists developed Electronics, which in turn allowed the construction of a mighty dam capable of generating enough power to service my entire empire. Electricity may have been popularized by the Egyptians, but it would be the Carthaginians who proved its true master. Productivity soared, strengthening the empire against any possible threat. Or so I thought.

The Egyptians, having lost out on electrical power, instead went after political power. They opened a 'United Nations', ostensibly an organization devoted to bringing peace to the world. In more moderate hands, that could even have been true. In practice, it allowed the Egyptians to declare peace pretty much at will, or declare war against an enemy with the backing of the international community as a 'peacekeeping' effort against 'unchecked aggressors'. Public pressure forced the empire to join and even to submit to some of its rulings. I only wish I had built it first, such power would have been very useful.

Without warning, the Indians attacked and captured the city of Oea. I poured money into building defenses and equipping the most powerful troops possible. Loyalist guerrillas sprang up, but accomplished little. Still the surprise did not last long and we soon fought back against the attackers. Adding insult to injury, the Japanese also attacked without warning. I knew they were allied with the Egyptians and felt it was only a matter of time before the entire world stood united against us.

Selinus fell and it appeared Cunaxa would be next in line. In a desperate move, hastily trained spies were sent from Cunaxa, back to Selinus to attempt a coup. They succeeded and yet were destroyed in the process. More spies were trained and sent against Oea.

Just as suddenly as they had declared war, the Indians sued for peace. I granted this to reduce the war from two fronts to one. Besides, at the time, the Japanese seemed to be the far more dangerous. This didn't stop me from inciting a revolt in Oea, I take my revenge seriously. It merely made things more costly in order to avoid an international incident that might topple the government. Soon after, I caused a revolt in Dacca, a city that had never been mine. This city I then ordered torn down brick by brick, along with the dispersing its inhabitants. I wanted nothing to remain. Vicious? Most definitely. Necessary? Questionable. Useful? Yes. Due to proximity with Oea, the two cities had fought for resources for ages. By eliminating the weaker of the two, (and coincidentally, the one of foreign origin) uncontested growth in Oea was assured.

Eventually, the Egyptians made their plans clear. They demanded tribute, and when denied, formally declared war. The war was expected, the advanced warning was not. The one city near Egyptian territory had it defenses enhanced, even though it did not appear likely to survive the enemy assault. It held out through the Indians rejoining the war against us. It held out long enough for spies sent from there to discover that bribing Lisht to change sides would cost more than what was in the treasury. Oddly enough, that was the first time such a thing had happened, most cities not under democratic rule were easily bribed. My trade advisor claimed we had riches beyond avarice. Perhaps that was true, but finding the hard limits of our wealth was still surprising.

Wealth, in the form of automobiles, the primary indicator of a nation arriving in the modern era, along with overcrowding in some of the older cities, led to significant pollution problems. If not for Hoover Dam, those problems would have been far worse. Despite the fact that I was under attack by three separate nations, (the French being busy enough with their own problems to leave us alone) money and effort was required to be spent on environmental concerns. After pollution caused a crop blight near Carthage, I could see no other option.

Naples fell to the Egyptians after being softened up by the Japanese. I hoped this would damage their alliance, but was not lucky enough for that to occur.

At yet another meeting of my closest advisors, my military man assured me 'We're doing great!' despite the three front war we were fighting in fits and starts. There were few battles, but much maneuvering. Where possible, I built transportation networks that would allow my forces to be quickly moved between cities under my control. The time simply wasn't right for the building up of my armies to the point that moving them quickly wasn't necessary.

My scientists had invented computers a few years earlier and this turned into, of all things, an organized search for extra-terrestrial life. I backed the program, not because I cared about the existence of such things when I had a planet to conquer, but because of the benefits to my other science programs. The search for mythical aliens fueled imagination and progress to an extent that I found incredibly useful. Yes, yes I am cynical. It is a natural consequence of living so long.

The Indians underwent a change of government, becoming a fundamentalist theocracy. But their leader, apparently tired of war, allowed herself to be bought off with the payment of token 'reparations'. I didn't trust her as far as I could throw her, but since she was at war with the Japanese, felt the arrangement could prove beneficial. The more they fought each other, the better I could prepare my own forces for the inevitable conflict.

Tanks replaced cavalry. Marines replaced riflemen. Airplanes, long regarded as mere curiosities, became useful tools of war. However, my strengthened forces didn't keep Egyptian spies from sabotaging the newly completed Mass Transit system in Russadit as an opening move in an attack. My counterstrike was swift and brutal, completely destroying the small attacking force. However, a more thorough assault against them was prevented by the distance between their territory and my own. I ordered a few transport fleets built, as well as warships to protect those fleets, for future use in long range plans. If the battles I envisioned failed to materialize, I could always use the transport fleets for international freight shipments.

Non-military advances also came. Improved irrigation techniques and specially bred crops increased food production to thoroughly modern levels so that no Carthaginian would ever go hungry again. The economic infrastructure was so good that barring the need for massive bribes to convince vulnerable city-states to join our nation, I simply stopped worrying about finances. This proved a mistake when I bribed the city of Ganges over to our side. Not only did the Indians decide it was grounds to declare war, they retook the city with ease. Overall, a massive waste of money and one of my greatest errors. I would be more cautious in the future.

A lightning raid against the Japanese took their city of Issus, and gained the secret of Mechanized Infantry, to date the most defensively capable troop in existence. Expensive, but had Issus been protected by them, no doubt that my attack would have failed. As it was, they requested a cease fire soon after as opposed to facing my continued attack. I granted this, hoping the outcome would be more favorable than what had happened with Ganges a few years earlier.

While the Indians and the Japanese fought over the distant city of Calcutta, the Egyptians, no doubt spurred on by their Japanese allies, attacked Issus. I held out long enough to send reinforcements and construct defenses against their long range bombers.

Then came words that I'd been fearing for many years. The Japanese were constructing an atomic bomb. The theory behind such devices had been around for years. But there had been an unwritten rule, an unspoken agreement amongst the immortals, that no one would actually construct such devices. But Amaratsu had violated this rule and had enough military force to back her mad schemes.

I immediately began construction of our own bombs and ordered my scientists to begin work on potential defenses. Spurred by a massive influx of research funds, they succeeded on both counts. Ours was the first nuclear test. Also ours was the idea of high powered orbital lasers capable of knocking down nuclear missiles in flight. But such protection would be enormously expensive. The tax structure, which had served for time beyond measure, was altered to provide the funds these constructions required. I cursed the Japanese every night for years because of the necessity they had driven me to.

Even after we developed nuclear weapons, the Japanese attacked the minute the cease fire expired. Issus fell, but not without a fight. Meanwhile, with the knowledge of rocketry learned when we finally retook Turin, we could build atomic devices capable of striking our foes from great range. Once our largest cities were shielded from attack, I planned to order a few of these devices built for defensive purposes. Personally, I, my advisors, and the rest of the Carthaginian government hoped they would never be used. But their force as a deterrent was too great to ignore. (Yes, I know atomic weapons were later used, but at the time, they were meant strictly as a deterrent.)

Unfortunately, I was too slow. The Japanese nearly destroyed the city of Russadit with a nuclear missile. I rushed through construction of laser defenses for the cities closest to Japanese territory, at least those large enough for the efforts to be worthwhile. Our entire economy became focused on building laser defenses to prevent further tragedies while also building weapons with which we could strike back.

It was not a happy time for the empire. The golden era of history was gone and the future looked bleak. Only my will to survive, to strike back at my enemies, prevented me from giving up, from surrendering my authority and leaving the politicians and priests, the powerful and the pretenders, to fend for themselves.

As defenses were built, the wars cooled off considerably. Protected by mechanized infantry, walls, coastal fortresses, surface to air batteries and space based laser grids, the largest Carthaginian cities were nearly invulnerable to attack. I had no doubts that my enemies protected their key cities to the same extent. But nearly invulnerable isn't the same as invulnerable. Improved artillery, howitzers, were capable of bypassing most defenses with ease. What could be done to me could be done to others. If I ever chose to mount a serious invasion against an enemy, howitzers would be part of my assault forces.

When the French demanded money to keep them from attacking, I refused. When they launched their attack in response, I rained nuclear fire down upon Grenoble with a squad of paratroopers for mop up. After Russadit, I took no chances. The French showed up at the peace tables almost immediately afterward, despite their threats of nuclear retaliation. That war quickly became one of diplomacy than of arms despite the official cease fire between us.

Science marched on with the completion of a manned mission to the moon. Then something occurred that almost made me believe in the God that the priests had been pushing for so many thousand years. A scientific paper was published simultaneously in every major capital of the world describing the propulsion method for an interstellar spacecraft capable of moving at up to eight tenths lightspeed. The Daedelus project. While all the technology such a craft required didn't yet exist, it was clearly on the horizon. My age old desire to rule all that I could see, a desire that had been with me for almost six thousand years, was finally in reach.

Could I grasp this opportunity, or would more mundane things take all of my time and effort? Would I be forever remembered by history or become merely a footnote to someone else's glory? As much as I wanted the glory, I was not certain I would get it.

Despite the fact that my empire was the largest on the planet with the best developed economy, would that be enough with every other nation on the planet working toward the same goals while at war with me? I looked forward to the challenge and set my plans in motion.

The French violated the cease fire, retaking Grenoble, but I had expected this and had ready a counter attack. Once I retook Grenoble, the Senate signed a cease fire with them. I cursed them for the fools they were, but unless I toppled the entire government, which would plunge the empire into chaos, I was stuck with the situation. Couldn't they see the French, having violated one cease fire, could not possibly be trusted to uphold another?

To my amazement, they did. But the moment the cease fire expired, they attacked again to absolutely no one's amazement. I hesitated in lobbing another nuke at one of their cities, having figured they would have built defenses against such things by that time. With purely conventional forces, I beat back their attacking armies. My counterstrike would be swift and crushing.

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Historian's Note: Hannibal perished in the stunning sack of Carthage led by the forces of the French immortal Napoleon. In what is still regarded as the greatest blitzkrieg in history, nearly one million troops attacked the Carthaginian capital before shattering its defenses. The assault so weakened the French that the Egyptian/Japanese alliance gobbled up one third the French empire before the Egyptians, with their influence over the United Nations, declared peace.

While his empire quickly recaptured Carthage and carried on without him, the Carthaginians lack of allies allowed the Egyptians, led by the immortal Cleopatra, to found the first interstellar colony, thus cementing her place as the one person with the most lasting impact on the history of Civilization.

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Author's note: I played a game of Civilization II while writing this piece. Except for the ending and the 'in character' observations, it's an accurate adaptation. I probably won't be playing Civ II again any time soon, even though it took longer for me to master than Civilization III: Call to Power. But I've usually found the game enjoyable to play and was happy to use it in a writing experiment. Going over seven thousand words without any dialogue and only one quote was an interesting exercise, even if I'm not sure what I've learned by it.