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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.