Steele Brand

starts to build out, whether you're a Syracusan trying to build a Hellenistic empire, you do this by starting with those wealthy Greek city-states, which provide wealth, they provide a base for logistics, they're a cultural place to go after.

You typically don't go into territory where you have

No logistical chain where you cut off your supply lines.

Also, there are going to be perils if you go into the Tyrrhenian Sea, and I'll talk about this when we get to Allies, which is somewhere where Rome has a distinctive advantage.

You're going to have the Etruscans and, more importantly, the Carthaginians you're going to have to deal with.

And the Syracusans, none of the Hellenistic adventurers, they cannot crack that Carthaginian nut.

The Carthaginians are just too tough.

They've got a huge navy as well.

So yeah, you've got to go from your base of support in Illyria or Epirus and then move over to either the heel of the boot or somewhere else, probably Tarentum.

Tarentum is always eager to take in someone to go fight against the Italics.

Well, in 320, the first people that he's going to have to deal with are going to be the Samnites, because it's from 326 to 304 that Rome is fighting its war with the Samnites, almost certainly after they've begun a series of major reforms that had transformed their army from simply phalanx-type heavy infantry to a hybrid heavy infantry that emphasizes javelins, which I think it's a

Maybe a javelin that kills Alexander.

It's a javelin that kills one of those Hellenistic adventurers.

The Molossian, yes, it is, yes.

That tells you something, because that's one of their primary weapons that they're fighting with.

So I think if we're going to imagine a scenario, it almost may even be better to think of it as the...

The Samnites have already been conquered by Rome, or the Samnites have to make a choice.

Do they ally with Rome, or do they ally with Alexander?

And that, I think, that's a really tough question to answer.

The Lucanians, the Oscans, they don't like the Italians, and they're going to see a Hellenistic adventurer as some Greek empire builder who's going to interfere with their independence.