Masinissa: Ally of Carthage is the first part of the story of the experiences of the Numidian Prince and later King Masinissa during the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. Masinissa's involvement in the war was substantial, even pivotal, and he is still revered today across North Africa as the founding father of the Amazigh/Berber people. The story begins in 213 BC in Carthage, which has been Masinissa's home for several years. He has fallen in love with Sophonisba, the beautiful daughter of one of the most senior Carthaginian generals. The two make promises to one another before Masinissa embarks west to enter the war as the commander of a substantial cavalry division. In terms of the wider world, Rome and Carthage - the most powerful nations of the time - have been at war for five years, ever since Hannibal crossed the Alpine passes and inflicted catastrophic and crippling defeats on the Roman armies at the battles of Trebia, Lake Trasimene and, most devastatingly, at Cannae, where an army of nearly 90,000 Romans was completely destroyed. The main theatres of war at this moment are the Roman siege of the Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily - which is being innovatively and belligerently defended, not least by the philosopher and scientist Archimedes - and the war in Iberia, which Masinissa is about to join with his Numidian forces.

Masinissa: Ally of Rome resumes the story of the Numidian Prince at a moment when he is beginning to question his alliance with the Carthaginian Empire during the Second Punic War. He has been fighting as a cavalry commander on the Iberian Peninsula for several years but the fortunes of war and his own clandestine meeting with the Roman consul Scipio Africanus, ostensibly his sworn enemy, has led him to reconsider his loyalties. His love for the Carthaginian aristocrat Sophonisba, which had blossomed during his period of exile in Carthage, has remained strong during his absence from North Africa. He is due a period of leave in that city shortly to formalise his engagement to her. At this moment in the war, the Carthaginian forces are attempting to reform their military strength in North Africa and in the strategically important and historically allied southern Iberian city of Gades (present day Cadiz.) For his part, Masinissa has recently retrieved one of the sacred cups of Melqart (Hercules) which had been hidden in a fortress now occupied by the Roman legions. He is presently taking a small contingent of his most loyal troops to the temple dedicated to Melqart which is located close to the city of Gades to return the cup to its proper religious location. The mood of both he and his men on the journey is mutinous.