Bade in Rome, it was business as usual.

Even with so dark a cloud hanging over them.

In many villas across the city, children were being chastised by their mothers for bad behavior. Fathers were away, and mothers were often at their wits' end.

If normal scolding failed to work, there was always one sanction to fall back on. They would grab hold of their offspring look them directly in the eye, and mention that phrase of all phrases to strike terror into their young hearts -

"Behave yourself! Hannibal is at the gates!"

But as the months went by, the threat became nothing more than symbolic - symbolic of a time when Rome had faced its worst fears, and scarcely survived.

Hannibal may have lost his driving ambition, but his name would forever remind Rome of bow close their empire had come to oblivion.

This book is a romanticized saga of the life of Hannibal. It is a historical fiction aimed at adults or older children. Available in paperback and eBook.