Download Roman Republic Expansion

Roman Republic Expansion,
396-146 BC
Libertyville HS
Roman Republic Army
• Who were the soldiers who
unified Italy and defeated
the Carthaginians in the
Punic Wars?
– Landowners
– Provided own equipment
– Primarily infantry
– Cavalry played supporting
role
– Citizens were on call for up to
16 (during PW, 20) years of
service
Republic Legion Tactics
• Troops were citizen-soldiers, not
professionals
• Did not use complicated
maneuvers
• Fought in three lines
– velites (poor people) in front to
skirmish
– Hastati in first line (sword and pilum)
– principes (veteran) second line
(armed as hastati)
– triarii (elite spearmen) in third line, as
defensive last line of defense
• Aim was to tire enemy out with
hastati, then use principes to strike
decisive blow, w/ triarii in reserve
Roman soldiers: a hastatus (L front),
a triarius (R front), and a velite (back)
Conquering Central / North Italy
(396-282 BC)
• Romans first expanded
eastward, to Adriatic
Coast
• Romans then expanded
north, conquering
Etruscan city-states
• Genius of Romans
– Rather than enslaving
conquered populations,
Romans turned them into
allies and tributaries
– Their allies gave money,
soldiers to help Rome fight
and conquer more!
• Romans also established
colonies to claim land
Fighting the Greeks (280-275 BC)
• By 310, Rome controlled all
of Italy except the “heel”
which was dominated by
Greek city state colonies
– By 290 BC, most of these city
states had asked for
“protection” from Rome
– This provoked war with
Greece
• Consolidation of Southern
Italy
– Five year war with Pyrrhus, a
Greek king
– Greeks used Macedonian
phalanx, which the Romans
had never seen
– Romans lost battles but won
the war
Punic Wars (264-146 BC)
• By 265 BC, Rome controlled
Italy and central Mediterranean
• Brought them into conflict with
Carthage
– Carthage was a Phoenician colony,
in North Africa
– They dominated the Western Med,
Spain
• Series of wars fought for control
of Mediterranean
• Defined the Romans, like the
Persian Wars defined the
Greeks
– Territories held by Rome, Carthage
Cause of First Punic War (264-241
BC)
• Sicily was divided
between Carthage and
Greeks (Syracuse)
• Carthage invaded
Greek side of island
• Greeks asked Romans
for help
• Inevitable conflict?
First Punic War
Corvus
• Romans won land battles
but had no navy
• Developed navy to fight on
sea, based on
shipwrecked Carthaginian
ship
• Tactics: turn naval battles
into land battles through
corvus
Outcome of First Punic War
• Romans lost 50,000
citizens (1/6) to lost
fleets, military defeats
(mostly drownings)
• Carthage suffered
strategic defeat
– Forced off Sicily
– Forced to pay reparations
(penalties) to Rome
– Forced to free all Roman
prisoners captured in
battles
Cause of Second Punic War (218201 BC)
• Continued power
struggle for supremacy
in Mediterranean
• Rome expanded
through north of Italy
and cleared Adriatic Sea
of pirates
•Carthage expanded
its holdings in Spain
• Alarmed, a Greek city
in Spain allied with
Rome for protection
Second Punic War
• Hannibal, a great Carthaginian
general, defeats Romans in Spain,
then crossed Alps with Army and
invaded Rome
• For ten years, he defeated every
Roman army he fought – but he can’t
take Rome
• Rome barely survived this period
• Finally Hannibal retreated to Carthage,
and was beaten at the Battle of Zama
(202 BC)
Battle of Cannae (216 BC)
Outcome of Second Punic War
• Carthage forced to give
up all of Spain, all
islands in Mediterranean
• Numidia (African
kingdom) became ally of
Rome; Rome invades
and conquers
Macedonia in retaliation
for allying with Carthage
• Carthage to pay tribute
to Rome for 50 years
• Carthage agreed never
to wage war without
consent of Rome
Hannibal takes poison after capture
Cause of Third Punic War (149-146 BC)
• Carthage recovered from war,
trade and commerce
resumes, and Carthage got
rich again
• Roman Senator Cato ended
every speech by saying
“Carthage must be destroyed”
• Rome ordered Carthage to
give up all its weapons
• Rome then orders them to
move out of Carthage as it is
fortified
• Rome provoked war to
destroy Carthage
Third Punic War
• 146 BC – Carthage
besieged
• Citizens fight building by
building, block by block,
defending their city against
Romans
• Romans conquer city
– destroy city brick by brick
– enslave entire population
– Sow salt in ground so nothing
would grow
– Make North Africa a province
Legacy of the Punic Wars
• Rome was supreme power in Mediterranean
• Maintained overseas possessions in Spain,
North Africa, Corsica, Sicily, Balearic Islands