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Patricians & Plebeians
The patricians were the noble families of Rome. In 509BC, a group of patricians
expelled the Etruscan king and decreed that Rome
would be a republic. A republic is a form of
government with elected officials. The patricians
elected senators to serve their interests. The senate
selected two people to serve as Consuls in place of the
Etruscan king.
The plebeians were the merchants, farmers, and
artisans of Rome. They were allowed to vote, but only Patricians were allowed in the
senate. In 471BC, the plebeians elected a tribune. Ten men represented the plebeians
against any political oppression by the consuls or the patricians. By 287BC, the laws
passed by the plebeians were binding for all Romans, including the patricians.
The senate met in the Forum, a marketplace in the valley among the hills that surround
Rome. The senators would rule on the military and foreign affairs, but the tribunes
protected the rights of the plebeians. When a tribune objected to a law, he would shout
"veto." Veto means "I forbid" in Latin, the language of the Romans. If enough tribunes
objected, they could stop the law from passing.
A New Power Rises
The earliest empires had been in the east.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Greece
were all home to at least one powerful civilization.
About 387BC, a city on the Italian peninsula
began acquiring land and building an empire. That
city was Rome. For more than one thousand years,
Rome controlled the western world.
Rome grew into an empire in part because of
how it treated the people it conquered. If a city
was defeated by another empire, its citizens were
forced from the land if they were lucky, and
enslaved if they were not. Initially, the Romans
extended the rights of citizenship to the people they conquered. Rome conquered many of
its allies by force, but once the new people became citizens, they often joined the Roman
army. Rome managed to unify most of the modern nation of Italy by 265BC.
Rome is an ideal place for a city. It is located along the banks of the Tiber River. The
river made it easy to travel to and from the sea. The Tiber is very shallow near Rome. A
shallow portion of a river is called a ford. The ford made it easier for people to cross the
river. Seven hills surround Rome. The hills make it harder for invaders to approach the
city and served as lookout areas for the Romans. Rome is also close to excellent farmland
and an abundance of wood and stone. Civilizations have grown and prospered in Rome
for thousands of years, which is why Rome is nicknamed "the Eternal City."
Roman Government
When the Roman Republic was first set up, in 500 BC, the people in charge were two
men called consuls. Women were not allowed to be consuls. The consuls controlled the
army, and they decided whether to start a war and how much taxes to collect and what the
laws were. They both had to agree in order to change anything; if one of them said
“veto”, Latin for “I forbid it”, then nothing would be done.
The consuls got advice from the Senate, which was made up of men from wealthy
families in Rome. Women were not allowed in the Senate, either. Once you got into the
Senate, you stayed in for the rest of your life. Most consuls eventually joined the Senate,
and most senators were from families where their fathers and grandfathers had been in
the Senate. Most of the time, the consuls did what the Senate advised.
Finally, there was also an Assembly of all the men (not women) who were grownup and
free and had Roman citizenship. They voted on some big issues, if the consuls asked
them to – things like whether to go to war. And they elected the consuls and prefects and
the Senators. But the Assembly was set up so that richer people got more votes than
poorer people.
The Roman assemblies possessed ultimate legislative and judicial powers in the Roman
Republic and were also responsible for the election of magistrates. Unlike legislatures in
countries such as the United States, the Roman assemblies were seen to embody the
People of Rome, not merely being an elected body of representatives, and thus possessed
ultimate legislative powers, including the ability to pass ex post facto laws and bills of
attainder. The way the government of Rome was set up in this way – with the legislative
and jucicial powers of the assemblies, and the executive power of the consuls, and the
senate, is the basis of our government in America today.
Punic Wars
Punic Wars, three distinct conflicts between Carthage and
Rome. When they began, Rome had nearly completed the
conquest of Italy, while Carthage controlled NW Africa and
the islands and the commerce of the W Mediterranean. When
they ended, Carthage was ruined, and Rome was the greatest
power W of China. The first war saw Rome fighting to break
Carthage's growing hold on the chain of islands that enable it
to control the W Mediterranean. The second war directly
pitted the ambitions of the two commercial powers; the initial
area of conflict was Sicily. The last war was the final,
desperate attempt of Carthage to preserve Punic (Carthaginian) liberty.
The Punic Wars
264 Start of the First Punic War. (Carthage vs. Rome)
The First Punic War: 264-241 BC
The Romans depended on the plunder of their army. The Roman Senate had to keep
the army busy, or the army might have turned against them. By 265BC, the army was
now big enough to defeat anything it faced. Rome stopped making citizens of the people
it conquered. Newly conquered lands became provinces of the Roman Republic.
The Romans fought three wars against Carthage, a city on the north coast of Africa.
The wars are known as the Punic Wars because Puncia was the Roman name for
Carthage. The first war was fought over Sicily, an island controlled by Carthage in the
Mediterranean Sea off the southwest coast of the Italian peninsula. In 265BC, Sicily was
richer than any other land in the area and a perfect target for the Roman army. The
Romans won the war and forced Carthage to give up Sicily.
A generation after the first war, Rome attacked Carthage a second time, but a young
Carthaginian general named Hannibal nearly captured Rome. The Romans expected
Carthage to attack from the sea, but Hannibal commanded an army from land Carthage
controlled in modern Spain. Hannibal led his army in a daring and difficult journey over
the Alps while riding on elephants. Hannibal's army might have defeated the Romans, but
Hannibal returned home to defend his native land when Roman soldiers invaded Africa in
202BC. The Roman army defeated Hannibal in Africa and won the second Punic War.
Carthage was no longer in a position to hurt Rome after the second Punic War, but in
149BC, Roman leaders decided to destroy Carthage. A Roman senator named Cato ended
every speech with the cry, "Carthage must be destroyed." Rome defeated Carthage after
almost three years of war. After a siege in 146BC, the Romans went from house to house
slaughtering the people of Carthage. They sold the remaining citizens into slavery,
burned Carthage's harbor, and poured salt on the Carthaginian farmland. The salt made it
impossible for crops to grow and ensured that Carthage would never again rival the
Eternal City.
The Second Punic War, fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic from 218-202 BC, was the
final major Carthaginian military opposition to Rome's dominance in the Mediterranean.
After the end of the First Punic War in 241 BC, Carthage decided to concentrate on controlling Spain to
gain direct control over its mineral resources and to mount an army of the inhabitants to go against the
Roman legions. This policy was started by the great leadership of Hamilcar Barca and continued under his
son, Hannibal.
In the Second Punic War, with his masterful war tactics, Hannibal wreaked havoc all over Italy under
harsh conditions. No Roman commander was able to successfully match his army even though they
mounted more numerous and experienced armies. In the end, Roman perseverance was the key, though.
Carthage failed to supply Hannibal with needed reinforcements and Rome began to attack Carthage
forcing Hannibal to return and defend it. With a smaller but experienced army, the Roman commander
Scipio was able to defeat Hannibal and conquer Carthage, ending the war. Carthage was then stripped of
much of its power and was never again a formidable opponent to Rome.
The Second Punic War, fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic.
Hannibal
Crosses the Alps
(218 BC)
Some details of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps have been
preserved. At first danger came from the Allobroges, who attacked
the rear of Hannibal's column (probably along the gorges of the Drac). Along the middle stages of the
route, other Celtic groups attacked the baggage animals and rolled heavy stones down from the heights
on the enfilade below, thus causing both men and animals to panic and lose their footings on the
precipitous paths. (Probably the valley of Durance at the defile at Argentierre-la-Bessee.) Hannibal took
countermeasures, but these involved him in heavy losses in men.)
On the third day he captured a Gallic town and provided the army from its stores with rations for two or
three days. Harassed by the daytime attentions of the Gauls from the heights and mistrusting the loyalty
of his Gallic guides, Hannibal bivouacked on a large bare rock to cover the passage by night of his horses
and pack animals in the gorge below. Snow was falling on the summit of the pass, making the descent even
more treacherous. Upon the hardened ice of the previous year's fall, the soldiers and animals alike slid and
foundered in the fresh snow. A landslide blocked the narrow track, and the army was held up for one day
while it was cleared. Finally on the 15th day, after a journey of five months from Cartagena, with 20,000
infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and only a few of the original 38 elephants, Hannibal descended into Italy, having
surmounted the difficulties of climate and terrain, the guerrilla tactics of inaccessible tribes, and the major
difficulty of commanding a body of men diverse in race and language under conditions to which they were
ill fitted. Hannibal was subsequently able to increase the size of his army to about 30,000 by recruiting
Gauls.
Hannibal
Hannibal, b. 247 B.C., d. 183 or 182 B.C. Carthaginian general, an implacable and
formidable enemy of Rome. Although knowledge of him is based primarily on the reports
of his enemies, Hannibal appears to have been both just and merciful. He is renowned for
his tactical genius.
Invasion of Italy
From his father, Hamilcar Barca, the defender of Sicily in the First Punic War (see Punic
Wars), he learned to hate Rome. He succeeded as general in Spain on the death of his
brother-in-law, Hasdrubal, in 221 B.C. After consolidating his position for two years, he
besieged Rome's ally Saguntum (now Sagunto), which fell eight months later. Carthage
supported him, and Rome declared war (the Second Punic War, 218-201 B.C.).
With a relatively small army of select troops, Hannibal set out to invade Italy by the
little-known overland route. He fought his way over the Pyrenees and reached the Rhône
River before the Romans could block his crossing, moved up the valley to avoid their
army, and crossed the Alps. This crossing of the Alps, with elephants and a full baggage
train, is one of the remarkable feats of military history. Which pass he used is unknown;
some scholars believe it was the Mont Genèvre or the Little St. Bernard.
He descended into Italy and with his superior cavalry overran the Po valley, winning
recruits from the Gallic tribes. A Roman force tried to stop him on the Trebbia, only to be
wiped out. In the spring of 217 he crossed the Apennines and marched toward Rome. At
Lake Trasimeno he destroyed the main Roman army, but he avoided the strong walls of
Rome and moved southward, hoping to stir up a general revolt. In 216 the Romans,
having replaced Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (see under Fabius), attacked the
Carthaginians at Cannae, but by brilliant cavalry tactics Hannibal managed to surround
the entire force and cut it to pieces. Most of S Italy then allied itself with him, including
the important city of Capua. Insufficiently supported from home, Hannibal could not
assail Rome and had to content himself with ravaging and reducing smaller places.
Defeat and Death
Beginning in 212 B.C. the tide gradually turned against Hannibal. In 211 the Romans
retook Capua, despite his rapid march toward Rome to entice them away. In 207 he
fought his way for the last time into a position near Rome, but the defeat and death (207)
of his brother Hasdrubal on the Metaurus (Metauro) River made his position hopeless,
and he withdrew into the mountains of Bruttium. Recalled to Carthage in 203 to check
the advance of Scipio Africanus Major in Africa, he was decisively beaten at Zama (202).
After the conclusion of peace (201), Hannibal became (probably in 196) a suffete, or
chief magistrate, of Carthage. He reformed the government and reorganized the revenues
in order to pay the heavy tribute imposed by Rome. Denounced to the Romans for
allegedly intriguing against Rome, he fled (195) to Antiochus III of Syria. He took a
small part in Antiochus's war with Rome, and after the Syrian defeat he fled again, this
time to Bithynia. About to be delivered to the Romans, he poisoned himself.
THIRD PUNIC WAR (149- 146 BCE)
The third war was entirely provoked by the Romans. After the second defeat,
Carthage managed once again to return to much of its former glory, the economy
prospered, and the fleet increased. But the memory of the former Punic wars was
strong in Rome; many hated the Carthaginians especially because there seemed to
be nothing that could force them on their knees. Many Romans wanted to gain glory,
and no enemy was more attractive than Carthage, even if the city state now longer
aspired to become an empire.
Rome used their ally, Masinissa, who ruled over Numidia to the west of Carthage,
to bring forward a pretext for going to war.
Masinissa deliberately provoked Carthage, and in 149 Carthage attacked him.
Rome came to aid for their ally, through declaring war on Carthage. The difference in
military force was now to Rome's advantage, and few battles were fought to decide
who was the strongest.
At first a peace was agreed upon, but then Rome increased their demands,
decreeing a total abandonment of the city. Facing these claims, the Carthaginians
returned to fighting, and soon Carthage fell under what would become a 3 year long
siege. When the Romans finally breached the walls, one week of fighting inside the
city followed, then the city was burned, and the locals were either executed or sold
into slavery.