History UsefulNotes / PunicWars

Scipio Africanus arguably codified the model for the political general (Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar) since in his campaigns against the Carthaginians and afterwards, he took it upon himself to pay his soldiers, train and equip them and settle them on land, which made the soldiers loyal to the commander rather than SPQR and likewise created a CultOfPersonality around him by investing in art, culture and patronizing Greek ideas in Rome.

* '''The Third Punic War''' (149-146 BCE): More than fifty years after the Second War, by which time, Hannibal Barca had died in exile, spending his retirement as a freelance mercenary and military adviser. Scipio Africanus had likewise also died in retirement outside Rome, hounded away by the corrupt Senate oligarchy who were no fans of the latter's doling out land settlements to his soldiers. Carthage had more or less decided to [[KnowWhenToFoldEm quit the empire game]]. The terms at the end of the Second War, was that Carthage would surrender its foreign policy to Rome, and pay even more reparations and tribute than the first time. Carthage was reduced to [[VestigialEmpire the city-state of Carthage]] and outer-environs, and it lost more and more territory to Numidians and regional rivals who could attack with impunity, since any attempt to defend itself would be seen as an act of war by Rome. Yet, despite this, by 151 BCE, Carthage paid off its reparations and fulfilled its treaty obligations, by which time they could conceivably go back to business as usual. The Romans had become greedy for land and riches in the meantime, and they were no longer the small Italian-City State that had been the underdog. They liked the new status-quo and would have liked Carthage to keep paying them even if they no longer had to. Furthermore, the city-state of Corinth in Greece and other towns were trading with the city when the Romans felt that the Mediterranean was "Mare Nostrum" (Our Sea). As such, the Romans decided to MakeAnExampleOfThem. The casus-belli was an attack by the Numidians, the Carthaginians were defending themselves from, and so the Romans claimed they were there to help their clients and allies. They laid siege to Carthage, which chose to resist rather than surrender (the "surrender" terms offered by the Romans were for the Carthaginians to destroy their own city anyway). The siege saw atrocities on both sides, with the Carthaginians skinning Roman [=POWs=] on the ramparts of the city-gates in front of Roman soldiers' views. As such the Romans responded with extreme prejudice and destroyed the city to its foundations, massacring most of the populace, and making the rest into refugees, slaves or exiles. According to legend, the Romans supposedly "[[SaltTheEarth sowed the fields with salt]]" to keep anything from growing but that's just a legend. Carthage would in fact be earmarked as Roman overseas territory and the question of when to resettle and who to distribute that land with became a political issue that in time led to CivilWar in Rome. The Romans also followed Carthage with the equally brutal sack of the city of Corinth to MakeAnExampleOfThem to other states in the Mediterranean. The destruction of Corinth, according to legend, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_bronze melting much of the steel and iron work in the city]] into Corinthian Bronze, and filled with much destruction of Greek art.

The first two wars were a MirrorMatch in some ways, both Carthage and Rome were powerful Republican[[note]]With broadly similar government structures, with power weighted towards an aristocracy but with common citizens having some power. Several Greek Philosophers piaised both cities for having balanced, stable, effective governments[[/note]] city states, controlling large amounts of territory, who could both raise large amounts of soldiers in numerous armies partly from that territory. However, their method of raising soldiers was different, Rome relied on its own citizens and citizens of Italian cities it controlled, who could spend years serving in its armies in a very militarized culture, with civilian and military officials blended together. Carthage used a mix of mercenaries, diplomatic arrangements, and soldiers from controlled territories, its own citizens crewed naval ships but after a bad defeat some decades before the Punic wars, did not serve in the army unless directly threatened. The wealth of trading city Carthage allowed the hiring of mercenaries. Military commanders were separate from the rest of government. The result was some of the largest wars the Mediterranean saw for hundreds or thousands of years, but number of soldiers involved, one naval battle in the first Punic war might still be the largest naval battle ever fought in the Mediterranean (Tonnage, expense of ships, or other such measures are a different story, modern navies are much more machine intensive, less people intensive). The third Punic war was not so large, since Rome with its large empire was just fighting the city of Carthage.

* '''The First Punic War''' (264-241 BCE): A group of [[HiredGuns mercenaries]] around what is now Messina in UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} called the Mamertines declared themselves an independent pirate kingdom and asked for protection from Syracuse. Their critical strategic position drew in both Rome and Carthage as patrons. Weak diplomacy and paranoia turned a dispute between the two into a war. The Romans were able to quickly conquer much of Sicily, Carthaginians trioed to hold out in fortressed, resupply by sea, and wait the Romans out. Carthage had started the war with a stronger navy, but Rome built up its smaller force, quickly improved its fighting techniques, and fought on even terms through most of the war. This included the use of the Corvus, a big [[BoardingParty boarding bridge]] that could be swung around and dropped on an enemy ship, though as romans got more experienced, they switched to more conventional fighting methods. Rome tried invading core Carthaginian territory directly in 255 BC, but lost a land battle, and on the return ship the transporting fleet was destroyed in a storm. (Romans had some other fleets destroyed in storms as well). Fighting continued with sieges and resupply on Sicily as before. One Cathaginian commander, Hamilcar Barca, proved to be one of the few commanders who won regularly against the Romans, his carrer and family would become more prominent after the war. Fighting drained both cities, Rome had to finance a final fleet by asking rich citizens to pay for ships instead of the government, with promises of repayment from war loot. This fleet won a final battle against Carthage, which was also out of money and down to two final besieged and now cut off cities on the island, so they asked for peace. Rome accepted, annexing Sicily and shortly after Sardinia and Corsica. The latter was seized under the flimsiest of pretexts and this, coupled with other affronts, led Hamilcar Barca to prepare for a rematch.

A series of wars fought between UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic and Carthage.[[note]]We have no idea what it is that the Carthaginians called their state, if they had an "official" name at all. They were, however, also a republic of sorts--a non-monarchical state with nominal popular government actually led by a narrow aristocracy. The difference was that the Carthaginian aristocracy was a merchant aristocracy built on trade and a tradition of diplomacy, while the Roman aristocracy was a warrior-agriculturalist aristocracy built on landholding and a tradition of arms.[[/note]] The Romans called the Carthaginians Poenics (Punic) which is Latin for Phoenicians, of which Carthage seems to have been their latest, most profitable and as it turned out, last offshoot and settlement in what is now UsefulNotes/{{Tunisia}}.[[note]]Historic Carthage is more or less where modern Tunis sits; the archaeological site of Carthage is next to Tunis's main airport.[[/note]] (The word "Carthage" comes from ''Qart-ḥadašt'', "new city"). The wars developed organically as a result of competing foreign policies of two major Mediterranean powers, driven by trading routes, and commercial hegemony. But these economic goals eventually mixed with regional, political, and ''personal'' grudges and rivalries. The simple explanation seems to be that there were only two major powers left, after the decline and splintering of the UsefulNotes/MacedonianSuccessionWars (which overlapped with this conflict) and this led to a potential realignment of the BalanceOfPower, and the Western Mediterranean [[NotBigEnoughForTheTwoOfUs just wasn't big enough for both.]]

* '''The First Punic War''' (264-241 BCE): A group of [[HiredGuns mercenaries]] around what is now Messina in UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} called the Mamertines declared themselves an independent pirate kingdom and asked for protection from Syracuse. Their critical strategic position drew in both Rome and Carthage as patrons. Weak diplomacy and paranoia turned a dispute between the two into a war. The Romans succeeded on land in making themselves the dominant power in UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}}. At sea however the Romans were weak against Carthage's traditionally superior [[BadassArmy naval prowess]]. Still, the Romans were quick learners and developed tactics to counter the Carthaginians' advantage (mostly by getting their own BadassArmy from their ships to those of their enemies via a drawbridge-like device known as the ''corvus''). Hamilcar Barca proved to be one of the few commanders who won regularly against the Romans, but ultimately the war dragged on so long and cost so much money that Carthage ultimately sued for peace. Rome accepted, annexing Sicily and shortly after Sardinia and Corsica. The latter was seized under the flimsiest of pretexts and this, coupled with other affronts, led Hamilcar Barca to prepare for a rematch.

As per Polybius, Rome triumphed because of its Republican institutions which somehow managed to bring all the people together under the cause of defending its institutions. The culture of civic patriotism and the citizen-soldier also gave the Romans advantage over the Carthaginians merchant-oligarchy who more or less depended on mercenaries to fight their wars, and moreover faced many mercenary revolts and defections (over being strapped for cash by Roman reparations according to the oligarchs). The Punic Wars were the GloryDays for the Republic and in the views of Roman writers and historians themselves, the beginning of its end, since by the end of it, the city-state governed a huge swathe of territory and land it had no idea what to do with. Almost every conflict that followed can trace itself to the Punic Wars. The grandsons of Scipio Africanus were the Gracchi who wanted to settle Roman Carthage with the poor and likewise extend citizenship outside of Rome. The Senate's refusal to do so and murder of the Gracchi led to the Social War, taking its name from the Italian allies called the ''Socii'', who as Roman vassals had loyally supported the Republic against Hannibal. Now they revolted against it, but the cause, however strangely, came not from a desire to be free from Rome, but rather Rome's refusal to integrate them further and give them Roman citizenship. They wanted to be vassals no longer, but equals. It was a bloody war which killed people in large numbers (possibly up to 300,000), with some arguing it was only slightly less bloody than Hannibal's onslaught. Rome crushed the rebellion, but wound up granting citizenship to its Italian vassals anyway, first as a reward to those who hadn't rebelled, and shortly afterwards even to those who did.

* '''The Second Punic War''' (218-201 BCE): A generation later, the Barcid Family had more or less become a RenegadeSplinterFaction of the Carthaginian State, and had established a powerful base in Hispania. [[UsefulNotes/HannibalBarca Hannibal]], Hamilcar's son and heir, reigned in Hispania and amassed an army to eventually fight against the Romans. The immediate cause this time was the city-state of Saguntum which, being south of the Ebro River, was meant to fall in Carthage's sphere of influence but tried aligning itself with Rome. Hannibal built a disciplined, multinational army drawn from all over the western Mediterranean, including Gauls and others with reason to hate Rome. Hannibal led them in the greatest military campaign since the death of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, leading to famous incidents such as the surprise march over the Alps, the victories at the Trebia River, Lake Trasimene, and finally Cannae, a battle which is still a catchword among connoisseurs of tactical virtuosity. The Romans literally panicked with "Hannibal at the Gates" but for reasons unknown today he did not march on Rome, leading to a decade of a war of attrition during which Hannibal tried to draw Italian clients to his cause (some accepted, others didn't) while the Romans preserved their numerical and resource advantages, until they launched counter-invasions at Hannibal's bases of support, with Publius Cornelius Scipio invading and attacking Hannibal's base in Hispania, and Marcellus leading a punitive expedition to Sicily. The fall of both led to Hannibal's recall to defend Carthage itself. The Romans then forced a DecisiveBattle at Zama, which the Romans won after pulling their "own Cannae" by attacking Hannibal's rear. This war was the last time Carthage could ever challenge Rome on an equal footing and it was the closest Rome would come to defeat for centuries. After the Second Punic War Rome never faced an equal rival in the Mediterranean for six centuries and soon came to dominate most of the known world.

** The Second Punic War