This extra-long 50th issue of Ancient Warfare deals with the First Punic War, the 24-year clash between the rising superpower from Italy and the powerful North-African city state of Carthage.

Theme: Clash of the Colossi. The First Punic War

• Cristian Violatti, 'The point of no return: Historical Introduction'
• Tilman Moritz, 'Puzzling history: The fragments of Fabius Pictor'
• Christa Steinby, 'Ship builders wanted: The escalation of war at sea'
• Jean-Luc Féraud, 'Charge! A Carthaginian war elephant'
• Seán Hußmann, 'Behemoths of the battlefield: Elephants in war'
• Sidney E. Dean, 'Besiegers besieged: Agrigentum, 262-261 BC'
• Michael Taylor, 'From the bottom of the sea floor: Archaeology from the Battle of the Aegates islands'
• Robert Holmes, 'Taciturn Romans, Loquacious Carthaginians: Battle speeches of the First Punic War'
• Joseph Hall, 'War on the waves: The Battle of Cape Ecnomus'
• Arnold Blumberg, 'Rome's disastrous North-African interlude: The Battle of Tunis, 255 BC'
• Josho Brouwers, 'The beautiful body: A gilded bronze cuirass from a Punic grave'

Features:

• Marcus Pailing, 'We left our dead at the Polytimetos: Short story contest winner!'
• Wassilis Stephan Linidis, 'Like a bronze statue of Ares: Recreating an extra-heavy Archaic Greek hoplite
• Owen Rees and Jason Crowley, 'PTSD in Ancient Greece: Was there mental trauma in ancient warfare?'
• Graham Sumner, 'Hollywood Romans: Quo Vadis (1951)'