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Transcript
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