Download Part 11

AFTER THE FIRST PUNIC WAR
1.
THE FOLLOWING DECADES
a) Having lost Sicily and Sardinia and Corsica and with a
large war indemnity to pay to Rome for the next ten
years, CARTHAGE focused its attention fully on the
IBERIAN PENINSULA and expanded its control not
just along the coasts but much further inland –
especially in order to exploit the rich silver and gold
mines of the interior.
b) As part of this expansion modern Cartagena was
refounded in 228 BC as QART HADASHT (“New City”)
Carthage’s empire at the beginning of the ‘First Punic War’ in 264 BC
DARK BLUE
What Carthage
lost by 238 BC
BRIGHT
GREEN
Carthaginian
expansion
238 - 219 BC
2. a) In the years during which Carthage was expanding its
control in the Iberian Peninsula, the Roman state’s
interest in what Hamilcar Barca (acting very much on his own
authority with little reference to the government in Carthage) had been
doing seems to have been limited - as long as Carthage
continued to pay the war indemnity annually.
b) But, because of demands elsewhere on its attention and
resources, Rome did, in 226 BC, seek to limit Carthage’s
advance northwards by signing with HASDRUBAL ‘the
FAIR’ “the EBRO TREATY” by which the River Ebro
(Iberus) would be a point beyond which the
Carthaginians would not go under arms.
3. In fact, the Roman state was very occupied elsewhere
during this time:
i) in ILLYRIA (on the other side of the Adriatic), and
ii) in the PO VALLEY against GALLIC tribes.
ILLYRIA
1. In 229 BC the Roman state became involved along the
Illyrian coast against persistent piracy – especially after
the autocratic Queen Teuta had one of the two Roman
envoys (who had been sent to seek an explanation from
her) killed.
2. It was never Rome’s intention to subjugate Illyria - only
to end Illyrian control over the coastlines where piracy
was being tolerated.
3. Rome reached agreements of “friendship” with various
coastal communities and inland tribes before clearing the
coastlines.
4. Clashes saw the Illyrians suing for peace in 228 –
although there was a subsequent flare-up in 220 BC.
ILLYRIA
The approximate
territory of
Queen Teuta,
queen of the
Ardiaei, is the
area marked in
reddish hashing.
THE PO VALLEY
1. Between 226 and 220 BC the Roman state was heavily
involved militarily against the GALLIC TRIBES of the
far north of Italy.
Although frequently warring against one another, the
Gallic tribes of the Po Valley united in 226 BC against
increasing Roman encroachments into their territory.
2. a) An army of Gauls, perhaps 70,000 strong
(50,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and war chariots),
headed in the direction of Rome through Etruria,
plundering and looting.
b) Although they inflicted quite heavy losses on a Roman
army, they then headed home out of concern that they
might lose their plunder.
PO VALLEY
(Roman
‘Cisalpine
Gaul’)
4. a) On their way back, they became trapped between two
Roman armies - one of which had returned unexpectedly
from Sardinia.
b) Some 40,000 Gauls were killed and 10,000 taken
prisoner.
5. The Romans were now able to carry the war forward into
the home territory of the Gauls.
6. Fighting during 221 and 220 BC led to ‘Cisalpine Gaul’ (“Gaul
this side of the Alps”) – the Po Valley – falling totally into Roman
hands.
7. By this time, HANNIBAL (who had succeeded HASDRUBAL
in Iberia) was becoming embroiled with SAGUNTUM
(modern Sagunto) about
half way between CARTHAGO
NOVA (Cartagena) and the RIVER EBRO.
1.
THE SECOND PUNIC WAR: THE WAR WITH
HANNIBAL (218-201 BC)
a) After the Carthaginian state had brought to an end its
war against rebel mercenaries and disaffected “allies”
in North Africa (over by 237 BC), and
b) with a large war indemnity to pay to Rome annually for
ten years after the end of the First Punic War in 241 BC,
CARTHAGE [as we have seen] did not prevent
HAMILCAR BARCA from pursuing what was
virtually an independent policy expanding
Carthaginian control in IBERIA where, in particular,
its rich deposits of silver (and gold) could be exploited.
BRIGHT
GREEN
Carthaginian
expansion in
Iberia after
237 BC
2. Hamilcar Barca’s command in Iberia passed to
HASDRUBAL the FAIR (his son-in-law) after his death in
battle in 228 BC.
3. HASDRUBAL the FAIR continued Carthaginian expansion,
especially through diplomacy (reaching agreements with
Celto-Iberian tribes) and re-founded CARTHAGO NOVA
(modern Cartagena) as the region’s capital before being
assassinated in 221 BC.
4. The command then passed to HANNIBAL.
[Note: Hamilcar had three prominent sons – Hannibal, Hasdrubal,
and Mago, and a prominent son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair]
Bust reputedly of
HANNIBAL from
CAPUA
5. Earlier, in 226 BC, Rome and Hasdrubal the Fair had signed
a new treaty – “the Ebro Treaty” – in some way making the
River Iberus (modern Ebro) a boundary in Spain.
6. It is with “the Ebro Treaty” that the “problem” over legality
and international agreement lies:
a) The pro-Roman but generally objective POLYBIUS (mid100s BC) says [Book 2. 13. 7] that Roman envoys made a treaty
with Hasdrubal the Fair “in which no mention was made
of the rest of Spain but the Carthaginians agreed not to
cross the River Ebro under arms.”
b) i) Later writers like LIVY (end of 1st c BC) and APPIAN (fl. AD
140) believed that the state of SAGUNTUM either was
already an “ally” of Rome in 226 BC or became an
“ally” within a few years of the signing of the Ebro
Treaty.
ii) Livy, for example, writes [Book 21. 2] that the agreement
was that “the River Ebro should be the boundary
between the two empires and that Saguntum, which lies
between the territory of the two states, should have its
liberty preserved.”
7. i) Polybius will have known that what Livy later wrote
was the general Roman view even in his own day but
he clearly knew of no evidence to back up this claim.
ii) Even Livy’s acccount implies that the Carthaginians
had not yet expanded their control even as far as
Saguntum when “the Ebro Treaty” was agreed.
RIVER EBRO
SAGUNTUM
CARTHAGO NOVA
THE EVENTS THAT SPARKED A WAR
In 220 BC Saguntum, concerned that HANNIBAL (in
command since 221 BC) would attack the city, sent envoys to
Rome to ask for help, the Senate (allegedly) having
ignored several previous appeals.
2. The Roman state was slow to react but sent an embassy
to Hannibal urging him
a) to refrain from attacking Saguntum; and
b) to refrain from crossing the River Ebro.
3. a) There is no way to know Hannibal’s reaction.
b) If he did not have plans to attack Saguntum or to cross
the Ebro, he could well have reacted adversely to this
approach.
1.
4. An argument has been made that Hannibal’s view may have
been:
a) Rome had ‘interfered’ in SICILY and had forced
Carthage in the end to surrender its interests there.
b) Rome had forced Carthage to surrender its
interests in SARDINIA and CORSICA while it was
weak because it was confronted by its rebel
mercenaries (in North Africa).
c) Rome was now starting to interfere with
Carthaginian interests in Spain.
d) Perhaps he had to take a stand before Rome tried
to deprive Carthage of more territory.
5. Be this as it may, Hannibal laid siege to SAGUNTUM in
219 BC on the grounds that an anti-Carthaginian faction
there had led to some of Carthage’s allies in the area being
attacked.
6. Hannibal took Saguntum after an eight month siege, during
which Rome sent no help.
7. When Carthage, despite Roman demands, refused to take
any action against Hannibal (who seems to have acted very
much on his own authority), Rome declared war formally
in 218 BC.