Download Passage 1: The First Punic War Overview

Passage 1: The First Punic War Overview
This was was fought on a scale much larger than Rome had before
attempted. The main battles were fought at sea, to support key sieges and
expeditions, for Carthage was a first-rate naval power. But land battles
were fought in Corsica, Sardinia, Africa and Sicily. Both sides regularly kept
fleets of 100 to 200 ships and armies of 50,000 to 70,000 in the field for
Erice, Sicily
The key naval battle of
the First Punic War was
fought near here
year after year.
Rome made many mistakes in this war, and suffered terrible losses for it.
Romans were not sailors, and they lost more ships in the war than did
Carthage--600 ships lost over the course of 20 years. Every time Rome won
a significant victory, the advantage was frittered away by incompetent generals or a timid Senate. One
of the great weaknesses of the Republic was that it elected new generals every year, a system that
served well enough except in times of extended crises.
Rome prevailed at last in 241. Carthage, exhausted more than beaten, sued for peace and accepted
harsh terms. The city itself, however, remained unconquered. And her merchant fleets continued to
generate wealth.
Passage 2: Strategy of the First Punic War
Rome imposed a heavy indemnity on Carthage, to compensate her for her losses. She
also forced Carthage to give up all claims to Sicily. Thus, as the result of this war, Rome
won an easy income and a new province. It was the first
step in the creation of the Roman empire.
Rome also learned some important lessons in this war. For
one thing, Romans learned how to make war at sea. It is
too much to say they learned to be sailors--even at the end
of the Republic, they were still hiring Greeks to captain
their ships--but they learned how to conduct naval warfare
in an eminently Roman fashion.
The Romans were not particularly good sailors, and they found themselves outclassed
by the Carthaginian navy. After suffering heavy losses in sea battles, the Romans made
adjustments, just as they did in land warfare. They hired more Greek captains, for one
thing, but one of the more interesting adjustments was technological: the corvus.
Passage 3: Results of the First Punic War
The corvus (Latin for crow) was a plank that was hinged at one end to the side of a
Roman ship, and that had a heavy spike in the other end. The
plank was held up by ropes. The Roman ship would
maneuver alongside a Carthaginian ship and the rope
would be released. The corvus crashed downward, its
beak driving into the other ship's deck, whereupon Roman
infantry dashed across.
Once the Romans had boarded the enemy, they could
engage in hand-to-hand combat, at which they
excelled. This is typical of the very pragmatic and
ordinary ways in which Romans solved their military
problems. It is typical, too, in that the Romans seemed always to have to lose a few
battles before they would make a change; but, once they decided to change, their
innovations were devastatingly effective.
Rome learned, too, how to conduct war on a massive scale. The Senate learned how to
finance such a war, how to find the men for the armies, how to find the supplies, how to
build fleets (over and over), how to conduct politics on the home front in times of war.
All these were lessons it would apply again in later struggles.
Rome was now a Mediterranean power, though it perhaps did not yet recognize the
fact. She still had no real interest in trade, but her Greek allies in southern Italy certainly
did. She had not looked beyond Sicily when she started the war, but her ambition was
certainly whetted by war's end.
The war was settled, but the conflict was not over. And both sides knew it.