Download Aftermath of the First Punic War

Causes:
Carthage was a port city in North Africa that had been founded by the Phoenicians. The
Phoenicians were from what is known today as Israel, but they were not Jewish. The
Phoenicians- far before the Greek Athenians had controlled the trade in the Mediterranean Seabut were conquered by the Persians and Alexander the Great. While Israel changed hands,
Carthage was able to become more and more powerful- because it was so far west. While the
Athenian Empire fell after the Peloponnesian War, and then Alexander the Great’s Empire began
to fall apart in the 200’s BC, Carthage took control of the Mediterranean. Like the Athenians,
the Carthaginians were a city state that focused on navy power and controlling port cities. This
made them so rich that they did not have to have an army. Whenever they needed an army to
conquer places, they paid mercenaries from other places. Mercenaries are soldiers that will fight
for places they are not from for money.
While Carthage grew powerful and rich from controlling trade and having a navy, the
city-state of Rome had quickly become powerful because of its army. The Roman Legions had
conquered all of Italy and were quickly able take much of western Europe. Many historians
believed that the reason Rome was so successful was because they had a Republic. A Republic
is a type of government where anyone who is a citizen may vote for the people who will lead the
government. In every place that Rome took over, no matter who the people were (Italian,
French, Spanish, etc.) they became citizens and had a say in the government. This was a very
powerful tool because whenever the Romans needed more soldiers for the Roman Legions, many
many citizens from all over would join to defend the Republic. But also, whenever anyone
became a citizen they had to pay taxes and work for the government; sooooo- Bigger Rome
equals Mo’ money fo’ the Roman government!!
First Punic War 264 BC- 241 BC:
The island of Sicily is just to the west of the Italian Peninsula (It looks like the rock that
the boot is kicking). Some cities in Sicily did not like being controlled by the Carthaginians, so
they asked Rome for help. These cities thought that if the Romans showed up and kicked out the
Carthaginians, that they would be able to kick out Rome and rule themselves… The Romans
took this opportunity to invade Sicily, even though their navy was not very good. The
Carthaginians then sent their navy to defend it.
For a while the Romans held the Island with their army while the Carthaginians
surrounded it. The Romans took this opportunity to build a bigger navy. The Roman boast and
sailors were not as good as the Carthaginians – so the Romans invented a way to use their army
(Roman Legions) at sea. This invention was called the corvus. It was a bridge put onto Roman
ships that would allow soldiers to run onto Carthaginian ships.
Corvus
The only way for the corvus to work was to get up close to a Carthaginian ship, and since
the Carthaginians had such a good navy, many of these ships were sunk. The war went on and
on. The Carthaginians thought that they would win because their navy was so good, but the
Romans just kept sending out more and more ships--- the Romans controlled so much land and
so many soldiers that they would never run out! Eventually they defeated the Carthaginian navy
and began marching towards the city-state of Carthage.
The Carthaginians knew that they did not have a good enough army to hold off the
Romans so they paid mercenaries to fight for them. They promised the mercenaries tons of
money if they could hold off the Romans. Even though the mercenaries were not Carthaginian,
their leader was, his name was Hamilcar Barca. Hamilcar was able to defeat the Romans- but he
knew that Carthage could not hold the Romans off for much longer . The Romans did not want
to fight anymore either. In the end, the Carthaginians had to pay the Romans a lot of money and
give up much of their territory to the Romans.
Hamilcar Barca
Aftermath of the First Punic War:
When the mercenaries that held off the Roman Legions asked for their money, the
Carthaginians did not have it. Some of the mercenaries tried to conquer Carthage but Hamilcar
Barca was able build an army to defeat them. Hamilcar Barca then became the most powerful
man in Carthage. He had several sons, one was named Hannibal. Once Hannibal was old
enough to talk, Hamilcar Barca would wake him up every morning, and take him to a blazing
fire and make him say, “I swear to you father and to the people of Carthage, that when I am old
enough, I will do anything to destroy Rome.”
1.) In the paragraphs subheaded “Causes”, what made Rome so powerful?
2.) The Roman city-state had a great army and the Carthaginian city-state had a great navy- what
allowed Rome to win?
3.) After reading the paragraph subtitled “Aftermath of the First Punic War”, what do you think
is going to happen?