Neo-Punic Wars, was Re: [FAQ] FH what? ...

Some days back, John Atkinson wrote:

 >>Or another non.Canon nation: Exiles from Lebanon (Druze, Christian or
some
 >>Muslim sect) who make good in their own corner of space.
 >
 >Hrm. . . the demographics is pushing it, at least to
 >achieve a large-scale commercial empire.

You don't need very many people at all to establish a wide-spanning and 
effective commercial network... and once you're rich, you hire
mercenaries 
from all over the place to keep your neighbours in their place just like

the original Carthaginians did :-) Of course it helps if your neighbours

are low-population, raw-resource colonies without a well-developed
industrial
base, too...

...now that I think of it, there are already at least two or three 
different non-canon (and officially non-state) powers which are
described 
in very similar terms <g> IIRC none of them has Lebanese origins though,
so 
there's obviously room for at least one more trade-based, militaristic 
megacorp founded by Lebanese emigrants ;-)

Later,

Oerjan

oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry