“"They say that great general can pick his battlefield, but even greater general can make the battlefield to resemble his liking, so if Leonidas said during his Punic campaign that he was defending a pass then he was doing exactly that, even if less talented leaders or historians can't see where that pass was.".” ~
Olaus Petrus Varus, defeated at Allia, Caudine Forks, Cannae, Arausio, Carrhae, Teoteburg and Adrianople.
Once the Roman legions surrounded Carthago, troubles started. Leonidas began to search for the customary narrow pass to battle, much to Chuckius' changrin, and news came from the Senate. Rome had selected a new consul, Furcius Sonius of Bitchus, much to Secundus's changrin..
Bad name to make a start.
The first act of Furcius was an impressive one. As soon has he turned consul, he just died of extreme age. Full stop. That was almost fatal to poor old sensible Chuckius, because he got nuts due to the extreme attack of mad laughing that he suffered at hearing the news(1).
Then came the unexpected Epirian Inquis... well, then came news from Epirus.
Senator 1: I didn't know we were in war against them.
Senator 2: I thought that Chuckius had killed them all.
Senator 3: It seems that there is a lonely survivor of Epirus lost in the midsts of somewhere else who wants to have peace.
Senator 2: Ah.
Senator 1: Oh.
Homer Simpson: Donuts...
Rome declined the offer, and we never heard about Epirus ever again. It was funny that they offered us a province that we had already sacked, conquered and romanized byu then. Those crazy Epirian lads...
Meanwhile Leonidas had to make a bit of a mess, of course. As Chuckius had asked him to bring some supplies and to foray Africa, he went to do that. Alàs, he got a bit lost and ended foraying Gadira and Turdetana, which was felt as something unpleasant by the natives, incredible as it may sound to you, my reader. Yes, they got fed up because poor old Leonidas just razed their cities, raped his wives, daughters and boys and stole their gold. Of course, they declared war on Rome.
The first reaction of the Senate at hearing that was this one:
And the second one act was this one:
Chuckius, even if he enjoyed Leo's sense of humor a lot, he wasn't quite keen on having to invade another land, so he went on with the siege of Carthage and had Leo killed in a quite calmed and secret way. Then he turned his attention to the Carthaginian ruler, and tried to win the war with the most dangerous weapon of all: dirty tricks.
He wrote a letter to that unfortunate enemy with his undeniable and unmistikable style.
"
Dear whoeveryouare-idon'tgiveadamaboutyourname,
I'm Chuckius, and I don't like you. I've heard that you're a quite disgusting fellow. I've been told that, as well as being batshit insane, you're killed an enormous number of Roman people -two, at least- and f*** your own sister, neither of which is a particularly endearing quality in a leader. To be honest, I've seen your sister, and, even if she's not an ugly girl, she's not that much, man.
All in all, here I am, Chuckius of Rome, with an army of talented Romans which are going to turn your city into a big hole in the desert.
So, my dear mad, murderous sister-f***er, surrender now and you'll avoid having me using your head to play balls.
PS: No offence meant, old boy."
Well, we don't need a PhD to guess that the Carthaginian leader got a bit incensed by such a letter. Historians had not yet guessed which part of the letter caused such a rage -perhaps the "old" of the PS part?- but Chuckius got his wish fullfilled. One shinny morning the whole Carthaginian army formed its ranks outside the walls and, with a huge roar, went on against the Roman legions.
A pity that our good old Chuckius had got Leonidas' men back plus some reinforcements. A pity that Chuckius had a 4-1 superiority and no wish to make prisoners.
That day night came six hours in advance to Carthago. It was caused by the smoke caused by the fire that engulfed the city.
It is said that, while seeing Carthago aflame, Chuckius was visited by a spirit who, after berating him as a "Depraved, demented, debauched, decadent and deadly murderer". Chuckius, chuckling at that, got the spirit killed just by looking at it.
Then, like a great deal of nutters had done before, send a letter to Rome which could be summarized in just one single sentence:
-As I'm not a kind of pinko republican, I demand you to make me Caesar of the Empire, god and Saviour of man/dogkind.
It goes without saying that the Senate did not like this new-found Tom Cruise personality. Then they got a prize from the gods:
Tiberius Nieblus, cousing of Secundus and of Chuckius, a good and talented puppy who was doing a good career at the Senate. Called Scatman Nieblius, he was going to make history for making the longest short speech in the Senate.
"I’m-m-m-m-m q-q-q-q-q-quite s-s-s-s-s-s-sure that m-m-m-m-m-m-my c-c-c-c-c-c-c-cousing Chuk-k-k-k-k-k-k-kius i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-is a n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nasty f-f-f-f-f-f-f-fellow".
By the time he ended his sentence, the Senators had sentenced Chuckius to die and had gone home. Now it was just a cuestion of finding someone mad enough to make battle to Chuckius.
(1) Not only Chuckius went nuts laughing, me too.