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THE PUNIC
WARS
THE 1ST PUNIC WAR
• By this time, there are historical
texts being collected and written.
This is different from the
folkloric tales that we have as a
record from before. There are
recorded witnessed accounts.
Livy is still a major source for the
history, but we know he is
drawing from a different kind of
source than before. Another
major source is the Greek
Polybius.
Carthage
• Both Rome and Carthage were very
important cities before any conflict
began. Their control of the Mediterranean
led to economic disputes.
• Both were in central, strategically
important locations to the rest of the
region.
• Carthage had been a major player since
before the Classical Period of Greece and
had had numerous run-ins with the
Greeks (especially those in Sicily).
Carthage and Rome
264 BCE
• The conflict started in Sicily.
• The Carthaginians became involved in a
conflict over Messana.
• The Campanians holding Messana asked the
Romans for help.
The Romans sent
help not so much
in order to help
the Sicilians, but
in order to hinder
the Carthaginians.
• The Carthaginians and the Syracusans had begun a siege of the
city.
• The Romans were able to “drive a wedge” between them and both
retreated.
• War objective complete!
• But it wasn’t enough. Manius Valerius then took a Roman
army and besieged the king of Syracuse.
• Taking Syracuse was impossible, but he did manage to bring
the King Hiero over to the Romans’ side, and left him in
control of Eastern Sicily while the Romans started clearing the
Carthaginians out of the straights.
• The Carthaginians were determined to make good,
so they prepared to land 50,000 troops at
Agrigentum.
• The Romans responded by marching across the
whole island and besieging Agrigentum.
• The Roman war objectives
continued to grow with their
success. What had started as
protecting Messana had become the
conquest of Sicily.
• Success slowed. A complete
conquest of Sicily required more
time and a formidable navy,
especially since the Romans didn’t
actually have a navy when the war
started.
• They began to build with what limited
knowledge they had from cargo ships, but
dramatically improved by copying captured
Carthaginian ships.
• By 260 the Romans finally had a navy capable
of challenging Carthage.
In 260 the Romans defeated the Carthaginians near Mylae. In
259 the Romans attacked the Carthaginians in Corsica and
Sardinia as well as Sicily.
But the Romans failed to gain control any of these. This was
especially pertinent in Sicily at Panormus, Drepana, and
Lilybaeum.
Attacking Carthaginian holdings was not entirely ineffective,
but it was not winning the war which had escalated by this time
to an all out conflict with Carthage.
The Romans were finally ready to invade Africa in 256 (the
war began in 264). This attempt ultimately failed, and the
Romans ended up fighting virtually the rest of the war trying
to defeat the last three Carthaginian strongholds in Sicily. The
Romans finally secured Sicily in 241 at which time the
Carthaginians surrendered.
During the entirety of the war with
Carthage, the Carthaginians had
many generals, a surprising number
of them named Hanno, Hannibal,
and Hasdrubal. But the most
famous from the first war was
Hamilcar Barca. According to
Polybius he was extremely
resourceful and could have won
under different circumstances.
Afterward he conquered Spain for
Carthage where he raised his
famous son, Hannibal Barca.
The Romans received an indemnity and Sicily for their efforts
in the war. But relations did not improve. In 238 the Romans
took advantage of upheaval within the Carthaginian empire
and seized Corsica and Sardinia. These islands provided
minimal benefit and angered the Carthaginians.
The
nd
2
Punic War
In the time
after the first
Punic War the
Romans were
steadily
expanding
their control of
Italy northward
to the Alps.
The Carthaginians were putting down revolts
and pacifying their holding in Africa.
• The
war began in 264
and ended in 242 – 22
years.
• Just 24 years later in
nd
218, the 2 war began.
• It did not end until 201.
st
1
The
Carthaginians
had also been
expanding
their control of
Spain,
founding
Nova
Carthago.
The Carthaginians then used this new wealth and
power to remilitarize themselves.
• While the Carthaginians were expanding their
power the Romans seemed not to notice.
• In 231 the Greek city Massilia in southern Gaul
(France) voiced their concerns over the
advancing Carthaginians. The Romans took
Carthage at its word that it would not threaten
them.
• In 226 The Romans sent another delegation to
ask the that Carthage not continue the expansion
north of the Ebro River. They continued to take
them at their word.
But in 223 the Romans agreed to take Saguntum,
a town far south of the Ebro, into its protection
from Carthage.
• In 221 a man named
Hannibal became the ruler of
Carthage.
• Hannibal’s father had fought
the Romans, and his hatred
had passed down to Hannibal.
• Also in 221, Saguntum had a
conflict with a neighboring
Carthaginian village which the
Romans arbitrated in favor of
Saguntum.
• Hannibal was furious.
• Hannibal sacked Saguntum in 219.
• When the Romans heard this news and
that Hannibal was preparing to cross the
Ebro River they sent an ultimatum of
peace or war.
• In 218 the war began.
Hannibal was in Italy before the Romans could
muster any force to face him. The Romans fought
him in their first major battle at the Trebia River.
The river was swollen due to flooding and
Hannibal used this to his advantage.
Hiding a portion of his
forces, he lured the Roman
generals P. Cornelius
Scipio and Sempronius
Longus into battle. His
hidden troops outflanked
the Romans who could not
retreat on account of the
flooded river.
• The Roman lost three quarters of the force of
40,000 troops.
• In 217 Hannibal made his way south into Etruria
where he lured the Romans into battle at Lake
Trasimene.
Here Hannibal used the
same tactics. He positioned
part of his army near the
lake and hid the rest behind
the neighboring hills. The
Romans were then
outflanked on two sides by
Hannibal, on the others by
hills and a lake.
Hannibal now could march to Rome!
But he could not take Rome. Rome could not be
marched on as it had been by the Gauls.
To conduct a siege
Hannibal needed a local
base for supplies, but he
had not managed to take
any cities in Northern Italy.
Thus he moved to the
South to try and instigate
a revolt securing new
troops and a local base.
The Romans had a new
plan. They elected Q.
Fabius Maximus as
dictator.
Fabius decided to fight
Hannibal by not fighting
Hannibal. As Hannibal
moved around Italy,
Fabius followed but did
not engage.
At the end of 217 Hannibal had still not taken any
cities. In the campaigning season of 216, Fabius
was replaced by L. Aemilius Paullus and C.
Terentius Varro.
Aemilius and Varro
abandoned Fabius’ plan
and engaged Hannibal at
Cannae. Cannae was a
plain which meant that
Hannibal could not win the
battle by hiding his troops,
and the Romans were
matching their 50,000 to
his 40,000.
The Romans should have known better. Hannibal
crushed them.
After Cannae, some of the Southern Italian cities
went over to Hannibal’s side. But central Italy
stood firm, and the Romans readopted Fabian
tactics by the end of 216.
Hannibal was fresh out of
ideas. He managed to
take a the city of Tarentum
in 212, but lost Capua,
and he did not manage to
engage to Romans in any
major battle in Italy
throughout the rest of the
war.
Hannibal did not
receive any help
(reinforcements) until
207.
Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal marched his army
through Spain and Gaul into Northern Italy like his
brother. Unlike his brother the Romans defeated
him at Metaurus where he was killed in battle.
During all this
the Romans
kept up the
battle
elsewhere as
well. Roman
sea superiority
kept Hannibal
from receiving
reinforcements Also The Romans put down an uprising
from his brother in Sardinia in 215, recaptured Syracuse
or allies except in 211, and the Scipiones kept
by land.
Hasdrubal detained in Spain in the early
part of the war.
Scipio’s son
returned to
Spain and took
New Carthage
in 209. He then
defeated
Hasdrubal in
208 (who would
die in Italy the
next year). By
the end of 206,
he had
conquered all of
Spain.
In 205 Scipio was elected
consul and continued the war
in Sicily. In 204 He landed in
Africa.
• On account of Scipio, Hannibal was
recalled to Africa in 203. In 201 Scipio
defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama
as badly as Hannibal had defeated the
Romans at Cannae.
• For this, he was named Scipio Africanus.
• The Romans dismantled all Carthaginian
power and holdings.
• The Romans now controlled Spain and
North Africa in addition to Sicily, Corsica,
Sardinia and Italy.
HANNIBAL’S DEATH
THE 3RD PUNIC WAR
The Rome charged Carthage with an indemnity
which lasted 50 years. In 151 the debt was paid.
At this time Carthage felt independent again. The
Romans were against this independence.
Also in 151, Carthage engaged in border disputes
with neighboring Numidia. Rome was
immediately displeased and sent a delegation to
let the Carthaginians know this.
• In 149 The town of Utica in Numidia defected to
Rome.
• The Romans immediately began a siege led by
Scipio Aemilianus.
• The siege began that same year and ended in
146. Most of the Carthaginians died of starvation.
• Meanwhile, between the 2nd and 3rd Punic Wars
the Romans had continued conflict with Hispania,
Illyria, and Greece.
• In 146 with the war with Carthage over, the
Romans completely destroyed the entire city and
reportedly sowed the fields with salt.
• In the same year Rome made an
example of Corinth by sacking it and
destroyed it as well.
• Rome now controlled, with more or
less success, Spain, North Africa,
Greece, and most of the lands in
between.
• There were now no cities capable of
matching Rome’s power.