An outline, era by era

Roman Republic; Punic Wars vs. Carthage

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

The Roman Republic was the system of government under which Rome was ruled from the traditional expulsion of its last king in 509 BCE until the rise of Augustus in 27 BCE. Power was shared among annually elected magistrates called consuls, the Senate, and popular assemblies. From a city-state in central Italy, Rome gradually became master of the whole Italian peninsula and then of much of the Mediterranean.

The decisive conflict of that rise was the series of Punic Wars against Carthage, a wealthy trading city on the coast of modern Tunisia. They were fought in three stages between 264 and 146 BCE, on land and sea in Sicily, Spain, Italy and North Africa. Rome's victory ended Carthaginian power, gave Rome its first overseas provinces, and set the stage for the internal strains that later undid the Republic.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Rome conquers Italy

    Event

    What happened

    In the fifth and fourth centuries BCE Rome fights its neighbours, including the Latins, Etruscans and Samnites. After the Latin War ends in 338 BCE, Rome binds defeated cities to itself through alliances and, in some cases, citizenship. By 272 BCE, after defeating King Pyrrhus of Epirus and taking Tarentum, Rome controls almost all of Italy south of the Po valley.

    The rest is history

    This alliance system gave Rome a huge reserve of manpower, which it could call on in later wars. Italian allies supplied soldiers in proportion to their size, and Rome's willingness to extend citizenship made many of them loyal. When Carthage and Rome clashed in Sicily from 264 BCE, Rome could therefore replace enormous losses. Even after Hannibal's victories in Italy, most allies stayed with Rome.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, book 2 and book 6. Greek history, c. 150 BCE. Loeb Classical Library edition.
    2. BookCornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). London: Routledge, 1995.

  2. The First Punic War and Rome's navy

    Event

    What happened

    In 264 BCE Rome sends troops to Messana in Sicily, which brings it into conflict with Carthage. Rome builds a large fleet for the first time and wins a major sea battle at Mylae in 260 BCE. After more than twenty years of war, a Roman fleet defeats the Carthaginians off the Aegates Islands in 241 BCE.

    The rest is history

    Carthage agreed to leave Sicily and pay a large indemnity. Sicily became Rome's first overseas province. Rome then took Sardinia and Corsica in 238 BCE while Carthage was weakened by a revolt of its unpaid mercenaries. Many Carthaginians felt this seizure was unjust, and Polybius counted it among the causes of the next war.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, book 1. Greek history, c. 150 BCE. Loeb Classical Library edition.
    2. BookGoldsworthy, Adrian. The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146 BC. London: Cassell, 2003.

  3. Hannibal's invasion of Italy and Cannae

    Event

    What happened

    In 218 BCE, after Hannibal attacks the Spanish city of Saguntum, Rome declares war. Hannibal leads an army from Spain across the Alps into Italy and defeats the Romans at the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and, in 216 BCE, Cannae. Rome loses a very large army at Cannae, and some southern Italian cities, including Capua, go over to Hannibal.

    The rest is history

    Rome refused to make peace and kept raising new armies, avoiding open battle with Hannibal while attacking Carthaginian forces elsewhere. Publius Cornelius Scipio drove Carthage out of Spain by 206 BCE. Hannibal stayed in Italy for over a decade without gaining a decisive result, before being recalled to Africa.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab urbe condita, books 21 to 30. Latin history, late first century BCE. Penguin Classics translation: The War with Hannibal.
    2. BookLazenby, J. F. Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1978.

  4. Zama and the end of the Second Punic War

    Event

    What happened

    In 204 BCE Scipio lands an army in Africa, and Carthage recalls Hannibal from Italy. In 202 BCE the two commanders meet at the battle of Zama, where Scipio's army, helped by Numidian cavalry under Masinissa, defeats Hannibal. The peace of 201 BCE strips Carthage of its overseas territory and most of its fleet.

    The rest is history

    Carthage was left with only its African lands and had to pay a heavy indemnity over fifty years. Rome now dominated the western Mediterranean and soon turned east, fighting Macedon and the Seleucid king Antiochus III. Scipio received the name Africanus. Masinissa, Rome's ally, later pressed Carthage along its borders, which fed Roman suspicion.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, book 15. Greek history, c. 150 BCE. Loeb Classical Library edition.
    2. BookScullard, H. H. Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician. London: Thames and Hudson, 1970.

  5. The destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE

    Event

    What happened

    In 149 BCE Rome declares war again after Carthage fights Masinissa's Numidia without Roman permission. A Roman army under Scipio Aemilianus besieges the city and takes it in the spring of 146 BCE after a hard struggle. The city is burned and its surviving population enslaved. In the same year Rome destroys Corinth in Greece.

    The rest is history

    Carthaginian territory became the Roman province of Africa. Rome now ruled provinces in Sicily, Spain, Africa and, through Macedonia, in Greece, and had to govern them with a system built for a city-state. The wealth and slaves flowing into Italy helped provoke the land crisis that the Gracchi addressed a generation later. Roman colonists were settled at Carthage only after Caesar and Augustus.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryAppian. Roman History, Libyke (Punic Wars). Greek history, 2nd century CE. Loeb Classical Library edition.
    2. BookMiles, Richard. Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. London: Allen Lane, 2010.

  6. Romulus, Remus and the founding of Rome

    Origin story

    The legend

    The twin sons of the god Mars and the priestess Rhea Silvia are left to die on the Tiber and are suckled by a she-wolf. Grown up, they found a city, but Romulus kills Remus in a quarrel over who should rule. Romulus names the city Rome after himself in 753 BCE.

    The rest is history

    The story took its familiar form in the third century BCE, and the date of 753 BCE was fixed later by Roman writers such as Varro. Archaeology shows settlement on the Palatine Hill from around the eighth century BCE and a growing town in the following centuries. No evidence supports Romulus as a historical person. The tale explained Rome's character and its martial origins, and the wolf became Rome's emblem. Livy tells it in the first book of his history.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab urbe condita, book 1. Latin history, late first century BCE.
    2. BookWiseman, T. P. Remus: A Roman Myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

  7. Lucretia and the fall of the kings

    Origin story

    The legend

    Sextus Tarquinius, son of the last king Tarquinius Superbus, assaults the noblewoman Lucretia. She tells her family and kills herself. Lucius Junius Brutus and others swear to drive out the Tarquins, and in 509 BCE Rome becomes a republic ruled by two consuls.

    The rest is history

    Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote the story centuries after the event, and its details are probably literary. Archaeology does show Etruscan influence in sixth-century Rome and major building under the kings. The traditional date of 509 BCE is generally accepted as approximate, and scholars debate how quickly the consulship took its later form. The consular lists, the Fasti, were compiled later, and the early ones are uncertain.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab urbe condita, book 1, chapters 57 to 60. Latin history, late first century BCE.
    2. BookForsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

  8. Horatius holds the bridge

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    When the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna marches on Rome, Horatius Cocles holds the Sublician Bridge with two companions while the Romans cut it down behind him. At the last moment he sends his companions back, and after the bridge falls he leaps in his armour into the Tiber and swims to safety.

    The rest is history

    The tale is told by Livy and Polybius, and may preserve a memory of early wars with Etruscan cities. Some ancient writers claimed Porsenna actually captured Rome, which suggests the Roman version was polished. The story was used to teach civic courage, and was retold in Macaulay's popular poem Lays of Ancient Rome in 1842. Its details cannot be confirmed.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab urbe condita, book 2, chapter 10. Latin history, late first century BCE.
    2. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, book 6, chapter 55. Greek history, c. 150 BCE.

  9. Cincinnatus leaves his plough

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    In 458 BCE, when an army is trapped by the Aequi, the Senate summons the retired nobleman Cincinnatus from his farm and makes him dictator. He defeats the enemy in about two weeks, and then gives up his power and goes back to his plough.

    The rest is history

    Livy tells the story, and the details may have been shaped by later moral ideals. A man named Cincinnatus did hold office in the fifth century, but the account is of uncertain accuracy. The dictatorship was a real Roman office, held for a limited time in emergencies, and surrendering it was held up as a model of republican virtue. Washington was later compared to Cincinnatus when he gave up command after the American Revolution.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab urbe condita, book 3, chapters 26 to 29. Latin history, late first century BCE.
    2. BookCornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). London: Routledge, 1995.

  10. Hannibal's elephants and the vinegar story

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Hannibal crosses the Alps with elephants and, to clear a rockfall on the way, heats the rocks with fire and pours vinegar over them so they crack. Popular accounts also say he swore a boyhood oath of hatred against Rome.

    The rest is history

    Livy reports the vinegar story, but Polybius, who is closer to the events, does not mention it, and scholars doubt it. Polybius does say Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants in autumn 218 BCE, and that he lost many men on the way. The exact pass is still disputed. The oath is told by Polybius and Livy, who say Hannibal swore it to his father Hamilcar as a boy, though it was probably a later story to explain his hostility. The elephants were mostly lost in the first winter.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryLivy. Ab urbe condita, book 21, chapters 37 to 38. Latin history, late first century BCE.
    2. PrimaryPolybius. Histories, book 3, chapters 47 to 56. Greek history, c. 150 BCE.
    3. BookLancel, Serge. Hannibal. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

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