The First Punic War
By 270 BC Rome led a confederation of allies which covered all Italy south of the river Po. She now encountered the most formidable foe in her history.
Carthage was at this time the leading maritime power in the western Mediterranean. She was determined to keep this position, so when tensions arose in Sicily which drew the Romans in a clash between the two powers became inevitable. What followed was two conflicts which were the ancient world’s equivalents of world wars.
In the First Punic War (264-241 BC – called Punic because the Romans knew the Carthaginians as Phoenicians) Carthage started by dominating the seas around Italy. Whilst this situation lasted, Rome could do little to get at her enemy. So she built a large fleet and armed her warships with a new device, a bridge with a hook on it to grappling an enemy ship and allow the Roman soldiers to stream across and attack at close quarters. After a series of discouraging defeats the Romans at last began to win victories at sea, and so eventually gained the upper hand.
At length the Carthaginians came to terms. As a result of the war, Carthage ceded some cities in Sicily to Rome; paid a huge indemnity and shortly after the war’s end, a mutiny amongst Carthage’s mercenary troops handed Corsica and Sardinia over to Rome. On the other hand, Carthage built up her power in Spain, making a network of alliances with the local tribes there.
In fact, Carthage’s Spanish dominion was to a great extent the work of one of their leading families, the Barcids. As chance would have it, this family produced a commander whom historians have ever since regarded as one of the greatest generals in history. His name was Hannibal. He built up his family’s authority in Spain into a personal power-base, from which he was able to recruit a large, well-trained army (again with elephants). The inevitable war broke out with Rome again in 218 BC, and Hannibal led his army on one of the most audacious marches in history, over the high Alps (elephants and all – or to begin with, at any rate; there weren’t any left by the end) and down into the broad Po plains of Northern Italy. His strategy was to raise the people of Italy against their Roman masters, and thus destroy Rome’s power.
In North Italy Hannibal was able to recuperate his army and recruit many more troops from the Gauls who lived there at that time. With the approach of Hannibal, these had massacred a couple of Roman colonies established in their territory, so throwing their lot firmly in with the Carthaginians.
The Second Punic War
The Romans were suddenly confronted with the main Carthaginian army in their own backyard. This did not stop them from sending an army to Spain to fight the Barcids on their own territory, and they were well able to raise an army to send against Hannibal. This he destroyed at the battle of Trebia. They raised another one. This he led into an ambush at Lake Trasimene, and destroyed. They raised a third. At the great battle of Cannae (216 BC) this third Roman army was also wiped out. The way was now clear for Hannibal to march on Rome, and to send out a call for her subject to shake themselves free from Rome’s dominion.
Only one city answered this call, Capua. The rest remained firmly loyal to Rome for the next eleven years whilst Hannibal marched up and down central and southern Italy, devastating the land to try and bring the Romans to battle. Under their veteran general, Fabius “the delayer”, the Romans shadowed Hannibals army but avoided battle. A Carthaginian army under Hannibals’ brother Habsdrubal, which repeated Hannibal’s feat by marching over the Alps into northern Italy, was brought to battle and soundly defeated.
Victory
In Spain, meanwhile, the Roman armies had met with total defeat. The Romans then appointed a young general called Scipio to take command (another family affair – it was his father and uncle who had led the Roman armies to defeat), and he gradually retrieved the situation and gained the upper hand. By 205 BC he had established Roman control in Spain.
The Romans then invaded the Carthaginian home territory in North Africa in 205 BC, under the command of Scipio (later nicknamed “Africanus”). Hannibal was recalled from Italy to lead the defence of the city. The manoeuvring between the two sides lasted until 202 BC, when they met each other at the battle of Zama. Here, Hannibal was finally defeated by the Romans. The war was over.
Next:
The History of Ancient Rome, Part 5: Mistress of the Mediterranean
Article © TimeMaps 2007.
Last updated: 13th August 2007
