Dr. Eve MacDonald

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1,045 appearances 3 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 13 Sep

Dr. Eve MacDonald’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.

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The Ancients · The First Punic War · 13 Sep 2026 podcast

But Messina or Messana, as it is, is the key point for the trigger because the people who are occupying that city itself, who are called the Mamertines, and who are a group of mercenary soldiers who have occupied Messina and they've taken the city.

And the king of Syracuse, who is a king called Hiero II, he's been trying to dislodge these rather disruptive mercenary soldiers who are really wreaking havoc on the countryside.

But Carthage does control those islands just north.

the Lipuri or Aeol Aeolian Islands today.

And they have a base there.

So they are very much connected to this northeastern part of Sicily, but they don't actually control Messina at the time.

But what happens is the Mamertines are um defeated by Hero of Syracuse, and they're like, oh, we don't really want to give up our city.

And half of the Mamertines, who are a Campanion group of mercenaries, so they're from mainland Italy, southern Naples, exactly.

And they are called the Mamerty because they worship the god Mammers, and Mammers is the Oscan word, which is the language of the people of the

Campania and central Italy is their word for Mars, the god of war, the indigenous god of war.

And so they they're like named after the god of war, they're mercenary soldiers, they're living large in a sort of very fruitful environment that has existed in Sicily for mercenary soldiers.

And they're not really willing to give up their city.

And so some of the Mamertines appeal to Carthage to help.

And another group appealed to the Romans to help them against Syracuse.

So they these two separate, you know, groups within this conglomeration of mercenaries appealed to the Romans and to the Carthaginians separately.

So the Carthaginians come and help their group.

From their base at Lippery, they're really close by.

And they help take the city or secure the city of of Messina for for their supporters, but also for themselves.

And then the Romans show up as well to take Messina.

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