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Punic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts many
years ago between the Romans and the
Carthaginians, a people from the great North
African city of Carthage, descended from the
Phoenicians. For many years the two powers
had enjoyed a good relationship. After all,
although both were very potent, they were
markedly different – the Romans were essentially an agricultural
orientated people, while the Carthaginians were seafarers.
The First Punic War started in 264 BC, and was in some ways
inevitable. Carthage had answered the call for assistance from a city in
Sicily, and as a result taken control of the island. Rome had taken note
of this, and because its territory
stretched to the southern tip of Italy,
thus the great power from North Africa
had become a little too close for comfort.
The city of Messina in Sicily was
unhappy with Carthaginian rule and
called to the Romans for help. Eager for
an excuse to drive their rivals back and
claim Sicily as an important outpost of
their own, the Romans attacked, laying
siege to the Carthaginian held cities on the island. Carthage countered
this move by deploying its navy to break the siege. The first few naval
battles of the First Punic War were disasters for Rome, and it was not
until the invention of the corvus, a grappling engine which made it
easier for Romans to board the Carthaginian vessels, that Rome was
able to win the war. This meant that Rome could use her superior
army in naval combat, and was a significant shift away from the tactics
of all other navies at the time. The Carthaginian navy was destroyed
by these newly built Roman boats that were surprisingly effective. As a
consequence Carthage was forced to retreat from Sicily, handing it to
Rome; as well as paying Rome compensation of almost 90 tons of gold
and silver, emptying its treasury.
Hamilcar Barca, the premier Carthaginian general, was angered over
Rome's peace terms, and looked to rebuild its power base by
controlling Spain and use Spain as an overland launching point for
future action against Rome. Hamilcar would pass his hatred and
obsession with Rome onto his son Hannibal, who would prove to be
one of the greatest generals in history. Hannibal became leader, and
attacked and crushed Saguntum, a Spanish colony of Rome. He had
been warned by Rome not to do so, but hadn’t listened. The Second
Punic War had begun.
Hannibal formulated a highly
ambitious plan to attack Rome from
over land. The Carthaginian leader set
off with a vast but poorly equipped
army across the Pyrenees and then
the Alps. He crushed several Roman
armies and was considered by all to
be a tactical genius when it came to
warfare. The problem was that his
army wasn’t big enough to lay siege
to Rome, and the men were poorly
equipped. The Romans adopted the
tactic of shadowing Hannibal’s army, rather than all out attack. The
Roman people became quite tired of Hannibal rampaging through their
country at will, pillaging the land. They appointed a man, Publius
Cornelius Scipio, whose mission it was to conquer Spain, which he
promptly did. This effectively cut off Hannibal’s supply chain, and he
was marooned on mainland Italy. Sensing a possible victory, the
Romans attacked Carthage itself, which soon fell. Part of the new
treaty drawn up as a consequence of the Roman victory stated that
Hannibal must withdraw from the Italy. He did, returning to Carthage,
where he encouraged the inhabitants to rise up against the Roman
army. However, the Romans subsequently defeated Hannibal’s army,
the first time it had happened, and Carthage came under Roman rule.
The Third Punic War
was in reality a final
crushing of Carthage by
the Romans. Carthage
had never recovered to
anything like its former
power, but the spiteful
Romans still remembered
all the pain and suffering
Hannibal had inflicted on
them. The North African
city was being regularly attacked by its neighbor, Numidia, and
ultimately they retaliated. This was enough of an excuse for the
Romans to once more declare war on Carthage. The Carthaginians
surrendered immediately knowing that resistance would be futile.
However, when the Romans insisted the inhabitants of the city should
leave, and move further inland, they refused. As a consequence, the
Romans destroyed Carthage, killing many women and children. They
then sowed salt into the surrounding land to make it unworkable, and
sold off the many prisoners into slavery.
The Punic Wars