“Who did the photo come from?”

“It was taken by the wife of one of the paleopathologists on my server list. Her name is Molly Davidson. She works with Sotheby’s arms, armour, and militaria division in London.”

“Sotheby’s? As in the auction house?” asked Harvath.

“One and the same,” replied Vanessa. “A new client wanted the value of this piece appraised for auction. Apparently, Molly has had a devil of a time placing it in any sort of historical context, and when her husband received my e-mail regarding Azemiops feae, he had Molly e-mail me the photo. They thought there might be a connection and maybe we could help each other out.”

Harvath studied the image more closely. There was definitely a connection here. “Does she have any idea where the piece came from?”

“Originally? She thinks it might be from Carthage, probably around the third century B.C.”

“But the Carthaginians were from North Africa in the area that’s now Tunisia. How would they have known about Azemiops feae? You said it was indigenous only to China, Tibet, Myanmar, and Vietnam.”

“I did say that and it’s true,” replied Vanessa. “Azemiops feae is not a reptile that ever would have been seen anywhere near Carthage.”

“So what’s the connection?”

“Let me answer your first question. Carthage was originally a colony founded by the Phoenicians, who were great seafarers. Tyre and Sidon, Carthage ’s two most renowned ports, are even mentioned in the Bible. In fact, the word Bible comes from the word Byblos, another Carthaginian port from which the majority of Egyptian papyrus was exported. Most early books were made from papyrus, and the word Byblos or Biblos became the ancient Greek word for ‘book.’

“Just like their ancestors, the Carthaginians were incredibly adept merchants, skilled at buying and selling just about anything. Even more important, they were also extremely accomplished mariners and traded throughout the Mediterranean. Most scholars don’t believe they traded any farther east than Greece, but it’s possible. There are stories of Carthage foraying into Asia Minor and beyond via the monsoon trade route. If this is true, it’s conceivable that they could have come across the Arthashastra, as well as Azemiops feae and the knowledge of how to extract its venom. This, of course, is all dependent upon whether or not they did in fact establish some sort of trade relations with ancient India.”

“Even if they did. What does that have to do with this breastplate?”

“What do you know about the Carthaginian general Hannibal?”

An adept student of history, Harvath replied, “He was one of the most brilliant military strategists of the ancient world.”

“Correct,” said Vanessa, “and Hannibal was probably best known for his daring sneak attack on the burgeoning Roman Empire.”

Harvath knew the story well. Hannibal had set out from Spain with approximately forty war elephants and, according to some reports, up-wards of more than a hundred thousand soldiers to launch his attack. All that stood between him and his enemy were the towering peaks of the French-Italian Alps. But, by the time he made it over the top and descended into Italy ’s Po Valley, near present-day Turin, Hannibal had lost many of the elephants and more than half his men. While ambushes and skirmishes with marauding Gaulish tribes in present-day France and Spain accounted for a good amount of his losses, many more soldiers were lost to precipitous mountain paths, as well as numerous Alpine landslides and avalanches.

“Not so well known,” continued Vanessa, “is a rumor that at the forefront of his forces, Hannibal posted members of his most elite guard. They were said to be transporting a weapon of unimaginable destruction-a weapon which would all but assure their victory over the Romans.”

Despite his knowledge of the Carthaginian general, this was something Harvath had never heard before. “Let me guess, you think this weapon was biological or chemical in nature?”

“Since we’re talking about Hannibal,” interjected Jillian, “most definitely biological.”

“Why?”

“ Hannibal was one of history’s earliest and biggest proponents of biological warfare.”

Harvath was stunned. “He was? What kind of weapons are we talking about?”

“The best example I can think of, especially because it demonstrates his penchant for venomous snakes, happened sometime around 190 B.C. Severely outnumbered by the Pergamum navy, Hannibal sent men ashore to gather as many poisonous snakes as they could. They sealed them in clay jars, and when the Pergamum ships were within range, Hannibal ’s men catapulted the jars onto the enemy’s decks. The jars shattered and sent the snakes in every direction, forcing the Pergamum sailors to abandon ship and giving Hannibal a decisive victory over a much larger foe.

“If Carthage had developed contact with India, and from what we know of Hannibal ’s aggressive pursuit of biological weapons, this all might fit together quite logically,” said Vanessa.

“Well, I see a very obvious connection here,” replied Jillian. “Whoever wore this breastplate had to be wielding a weapon of some sort that used Azemiops feae venom.”

“I agree with you about there being a connection,” said Harvath, “but how can you tell that whoever was wearing the breastplate was using a weapon that incorporated our venom?”

Vanessa could see what Jillian was driving at. “Both the depiction of the wolf and the Azemiops feae vipers on the breastplate were meant as scare tactics. The ancients believed very strongly in the power of psychological warfare. Some were even known to carry banners into battle advertising the types of poison they would be using against their enemies.”

“So you think the breastplates were an advertisement?”

“Most definitely,” replied Vanessa, “and let me tell you why. Are you familiar with the Scythians and their archers?”

“Jillian mentioned them.”

Vanessa drew a quick picture on her pad and turned it around so Harvath could see it. “The shafts of the Scythians’ arrows were painstakingly painted to look like the snake from which the venom was taken. Even if one of these arrows simply landed next to you, the psychological effect would be enormous. It’s hard to believe, from a modern perspective, but these techniques absolutely terrorized opposing armies.

“Tactics like these were in widespread use hundreds of years before Hannibal. It’s reasonable to assume he would have employed them as well. He was an extremely cunning warrior. We have to imagine he would have used every advantage to overwhelm his enemies.”

“I agree,” replied Harvath. “Everything you’re suggesting is completely in keeping with Hannibal ’s character. But where I’m getting lost is with this weapon of unimaginable destruction. I’ve read a lot about Carthage, but I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“Not many people have. That’s probably because everything we know about Hannibal comes from his enemies, the Romans. Once the Romans conquered Carthage, they carried out something they called the Carthage solution. They absolutely decimated the country, sold most of its people into slavery, burned all of Carthage’s libraries, and then, as a final assurance that the Carthaginians would never return to threaten Rome again, sowed every inch of soil with salt.

“When it comes to accounts of Hannibal and Carthage, Polybius was regarded as the most reliable of Roman historians, followed by Livy, who was born one hundred fifty years after Hannibal ’s march across the Alps. But what a lot of people don’t know is that there were actually two Greeks, war correspondents if you will, who were embedded with Hannibal during his march on Rome. One was named Sosilos, who wrote Hannibal ’s biography, and another was named Silenus. Sosilos stuck to Hannibal like glue, studying the general’s every move, while Silenus, who was proficient in several languages, spent a lot of time among Hannibal ’s various troops.”