Words for Board: Duilius, Punic Wars, Hannibal, Scipio, Cato

The Romans were expanding up and down the peninsula of Italy. By going south, pretty soon they ran into Greek city-states. See the syllabus for lots of little war stuff. There was a civil war going on in Syracuse (the old colony of Corinth) in 264-260 BC. Half of the people appealed for help from Carthage while other side asked for help from Rome. Carthage was an old colony in North Africa of Tyre who were originally Phoenicians. They had a super-duper navy and controlled the sea. The other half had to find a big power to help them so they asked Rome. Rome and Carthage hadn't quarreled yet. Rome was a big power on land and Carthage had the sea and they just hadn't run into each other. The winner of the civil war would get Syracuse and the island of Sicily. How are they to fight if they never meet? Rome decided it needed a navy. They got lucky and found an old Carthaginian warship that had been beached in their territory. Ships had improved since the old days. Now, they're called quinquiremes. The Romans tore apart the old ship to see how they're put together. They built 100 of them in 3 months. But nobody knew how to make them run. They dumped the problem onto Duilius (a consul and general). He put the ships on sawhorses to practice rowing in the sand and stuff. What a mess! Roman "sailors" weren't doing so well, but Rome didn't realize that they couldn't just hatch a navy so they had an advantage. Seeing his navy, Duilius realized they needed help (to put it mildly). The techniques of warfare are still ramming and shearing. To do that, you have to be able to maneuver those big ships around. So Duilius hinged a plank with an iron spike on the end of it and attached it onto the deck and tied it to the mast. He put Roman soldiers on the ships as well as the navy. The Romans would be rowing along in the water and, when Carthage saw them, they laughed themselves silly. The Romans rowed up right beside the Carthage ships. Carthage wasn't worried–it's only dangerous to have a ship heading straight for you cuz then they'll ram you. But the Romans dropped the plank, the spike stuck in the Carthage ships and joined the two. Then, the Roman soldiers walked across the plan and captured the ship. They got 50 ships in the 1st war. This was the 1st of the series of 3 Punic Wars (the Romans called the Carthaginians "Punaei"–Stockmyer thinks it's probably an insult of some kind, somehow associated with Phoenicians). When the rest of the world heard what happened to the Carthage navy by the Romans, they cracked up. But, from then on, all ships had soldiers aboard. Rome only won by a fluke and it would never happen again. Rome got control of the sea in the 1st war. But they lost their navy soon afterward in a storm cuz they're so dumb they don't know enough to put the ships in harbor during storms. Rome needed a new navy and borrowed money from the Citizens of Rome (which is going to cause trouble later on).

Carthage was building up for the next war. They were expanding around the world and ran into Spain with its silver mines and made the people into soldiers. They also hatched up a new general–Hannibal (means "Beloved of Baal"). Carthage decided to fight a land battle for the 2nd war but how to attack? Hannibal needed to move his large Spanish army to Italy but it's too much trouble to go around by sea. So he moved his soldiers through the Gauls (barbarians in the area of modern-day France) and through the Alps and down into northern Italy as a surprise. But he made a mistake by starting too late in the year. He had to waste time fighting the Gauls who thought he wanted to conquer them instead of just going through. He ended up trying to get over the Alps in early winter. The mountain passes are much trickier in bad weather. He had started with 50,000 men and got through in December with 26,000 (about 218 BC). But, boy, was Rome surprised to find an army on their northern border. Rome scraped together a fast army to try and beat Hannibal while he was still weak but they lost. Nobody fights in winter so this was weird for them all. Everybody was gearing up for the battle come spring. Hannibal hired the Gauls for his army. He didn't speak Gallic but he's a very charismatic person and could get people to follow him even though they didn't understand him. By spring, Rome had a 1st rate army of 100,000 men. They were led by someone you don't have to know (obviously bad news–his name was Finemis, I think). The general allowed himself to be decoyed into a mountain pass. Hannibal sealed off both ends and threw down boulders from above. So much for Army #1. Rome raised another army of 70,000 men (Rome just has incredible manpower–something the Greeks never had). The second army was led by Fabius who used guerilla tactics to wear Hannibal down. But Rome was tired of hit and run and wanted all-out war. So, they fired Fabius and replaced him with 2 generals. Everybody was ready for the next big battle. The troops were lined up something like this: Both sides had their cavalry on the flanks to prevent their side from being surrounded and hurt from the back. Next to them, Hannibal put his good African and Carthaginian troops. He put the Gauls in the center, which was very risky. Barbarians don't fight well all the time (Stockmyer says Mondays, Wednesdays and alternate Fridays). They're just flaky and can't be counted on for very much. To make things worse, Hannibal had a plan he put to them through an interpret. He wanted the Gauls to pull a fake retreat and then stop and turn and fight. Usually, when people are retreating they keep on running. But he wanted his flaky Gauls to turn and fight!! They did it too cuz he's a great leader type. The Romans followed them in and then were surrounded and lost.

This was the battle of Cannae (in Italy). Hannibal had his men go over the bodies of the dead Romans and pick off their gold rings. (Only Patricians were allowed to wear gold rings.) Hannibal sent them back home to Carthage as a small token of his winnings. Then he asked for his back pay. His troops had been fighting for a long time without pay. Carthage told him it was in committee–keep trucking! In the meantime, Syracuse deserted to Carthage. And Macedonia declared war on Rome (it's called piled on in football). Rome sent and army and fought Macedonia to a draw in northern barbarian territory. Rome decided to stop fighting Hannibal and hid behind walled towns. Hannibal didn't have siege equipment to bust down the walls. All he could do was wait for the Romans to come out and play. Not one Roman city, including those all along the peninsula who had been conquered by Rome, deserted to Hannibal. Hannibal spent the next couple of years running up and down southern Italy burning everything he could get his hands on. Southern Italy used to be good stuff but, ever since Hannibal destroyed it, it has never come back, even up to today.

Meanwhile, Rome found a general–Scipio. He took an army north over the Alps and captured Spain away from Carthage. Then he got ships and went to North African to threaten Carthage. Rome can win as long as they don't fight Hannibal which is why they wandered around elsewhere. Carthage sent for Hannibal to come home. He mentioned it would be nice to have his 14 years back pay! Carthage discovered they didn't have the money (must have built too many handball courts!) Hannibal said he could come but the Gauls wouldn't come with him and fight for nothing cuz it's not even their home. He got home and was beaten by Scipio in 201 BC. Rome won the 2nd Punic War. Hannibal escaped to Macedonia. Carthage never got it together again.

If you'll remember, 200 BC is around the time we left off with Greece. Let's go see what's happening to them (oh goody). There were 3 main power blocks in the East: Macedonia, which had lost a lot of manpower fighting Rome (they never had lots in the first place). Macedonia included Greece, too. Then there was the Seleucid Empire which had been down but was coming back. And there were the Ptolemies in Egypt. Egypt was having trouble cuz they had a child pharaoh with regents muddying up the waters. People in the east didn't know much about the Romans in the west. There were lots of little powers that didn't want to see the Seleucid Empire expand cuz it would gobble them up (like Rhodes and other Greek city-states on the border). They went to Rome for help. Rome said it was not interested in the East cuz it was a Western power. But Rome sure was impressed with the ambassadors who had the new Sophistic education with all the new speech tricks. The ambassadors mentioned that maybe Rome would need to get their honor back from fighting with Macedonia in the 2nd Punic War. (Rome didn't realize they'd lost their honor cuz they'd won the war.) Why did the ambassadors care about Macedonia when they wanted help against the Seleucids? They knew that the east was in such a mess that if they got Rome in somehow, they'd eventually be stuck fighting everywhere. So Rome started a war against Macedonia. 26,000 Romans vs. 25,000 Macedonians. In the battle, both right flanks broke through the other side's left flank. Normally that would mean pursuing the men running away. But the Romans fight differently. They just let the left flank of the Macedonians run. Their left flank was standing and fighting instead of running. The Roman right flank turned and started fighting the Macedonian right flank which was now surrounded. Rome won and now has Macedonia and Greece. It was time for the Olympic Games in Greece and the Greeks didn't know what the Romans were going to do to them. So, they invited the Roman general down to the Games to give a little speech. The Roman general didn't speak Greek very well. He said Rome was not interested in Greece. What the Greeks thought he said next was that the Greeks were free to live in peace and independence so Rome could go home. He actually said that Rome wanted an orderly and peaceful world and Rome would maintain that peace and not let the Greek city-states attack each other anymore. Boy, were the Greeks mad when they found out they couldn't whip up on each other anymore. The Greeks appealed to the Seleucids to get rid of the Romans. Rome, in the meantime, started looking at the maps and discovered that they had Greek city-states in Asia Minor which were in the way of Seleucid expansion. Rome said they would protect all Greeks and that included them. Rome told the Seleucids to keep their hands off the Greeks, they were protecting them, and the Seleucids told them to try and defend them. So, now there was war with the Seleucids. War started in 191 BC and it took til 189 to get Romans over to the Empire. There were 30,000 Romans vs. 75,000 Greeks and Seleucids. The battle happened the same way as before with both right flanks breaking through. Rome won and went home with the world "safe for peace." In 188 BC, Rome pulled all their troops from Asia and Greece and left some in Macedonia, Spain, and Africa. Rome didn't want to conquer people. It just wanted peace on its borders–don't rock the boat.

In 149-146 BC, Rome fought the 3rd Punic War against Carthage. There was no excuse for the 3rd war cuz Carthage was never coming back really. But the Roman senators whipped some war emotion up and sent off the troops. There was an old conservative senator named Cato who wanted to get Carthage really badly. He ended every speech (no matter what the topic–sewers, etc.) with "and, furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed." Rome provoked the 3rd war. They demanded that Carthage was making them nervous and had to surrender all its weapons. Carthage couldn't take Rome and sent them their weapons. Then Rome demanded that they were still nervous and that Carthage had to move their city back from the harbor. Carthage couldn't do that cuz Carthage was a shipping power and had to be near the harbor. Carthage made some second-hand weapons to get Rome. Rome rolled over them. It put all people of Carthage into slavery, totally flattened the city (not one brick on top of another) and, to make sure the people in the area never come back as a power, Rome planted salt in the soil so nothing would grow. There was no reason outside of fear and paranoia of the Romans for so totally destroying the Carthaginians. Rome remembered when Hannibal had been on Roman territory for 15 years destroying Southern Italy. Getting even was the worst thing that Rome every did–they were never that brutal again. But Rome never quite recovered from the Punic Wars. They weren't as patient with people, including their own citizens. They were a lot harsher from now on. A long, hard war will sometimes do that to civilizations.