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Any of the three wars (264–241, 218–201, and 149–146 B.C.) fought between Rome and Carthage, resulting ultimately in the destruction of Carthage and the gain by the Romans of its territory in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Africa, and Spain.
Punic wars (264-241, 218-201, 149-146 bc), three wars between Rome and Carthage, so-called from the Latin for Carthaginian, which effectively decided the struggle for mastery of the Mediterranean world. Before the first war, Rome was still a purely Italian power, not even in control of northern Italy; after the last, her writ effectively ran from the Levant to Spain and from the Alps to Tunisia.
The first war was sparked by an incident involving Messina in Sicily, then held by Campanian mercenaries, calling themselves the ‘Mamertini’ or ‘Men of Mamers’, their equivalent of Mars. Threatened by King Hiero of Syracuse these first asked Carthage for help, but then turned to Rome. After some hesitation, the Romans accepted their appeal, and when the Carthaginians and Hiero joined forces to attack them, the Roman Consul Appius Claudius Caudex first issued an ultimatum and, when this was rejected, daringly crossed the straits and lifted the siege.
Behind this action probably lay Roman fears, however exaggerated, of a Carthaginian presence in eastern Sicily, particularly so soon after their conquest of southern Italy, while neither Carthage nor Hiero were prepared to allow Roman interference in Sicily. The situation was complicated by the fact that Rome and Carthage had hitherto been on friendly terms, whereas Syracuse and Carthage had been enemies for centuries. But there is no reason to doubt that Rome saw Carthage as the principal danger from the first, and neither Hiero nor Carthage can be entirely absolved of blame for what happened.
Bibliography
— John Lazenby
For more information on Punic Wars, visit Britannica.com.
Punic Wars, three wars (264–241 BC; 218–201 BC; and 149–146 BC) in which Rome successfully fought Carthage for dominance in the western Mediterranean. The name comes from the Latin word Poeni (‘Carthaginians’, adj. Punicus, ‘Carthaginian’). Rome, having by 270 BC won control of the Italian peninsula, found herself confronted across the Straits of Messina by a rival power who now ruled not only the north and west of Sicily but also the greater part of North Africa, Sardinia, Corsica, and the cities on the coast of southern Spain. In 264 the Carthaginians occupied Messana (modern Messina) in north-east Sicily, and the Romans felt that trade and security would be threatened if Carthage encroached further. While the senate hesitated, the people decided to accept an alliance with Messana which led directly to war.
The First Punic War was centred on Sicily. The Romans won sea battles at Mylae (260) and Cape Ecnomus (256), overcoming superior Carthaginian seamanship by the innovative use of grappling-irons. Mastery of the sea allowed them to land unopposed in Africa, but after early successes there, they were defeated, and Regulus, who had commanded the force, was captured. However, another Roman sea-victory off the Aegātēs Insulae (242) caused the Carthaginians to sue for peace. They evacuated Sicily (except for the dominion of Hieron II), which then became the first Roman province, and paid a large indemnity.
When the First Punic War ended, Carthage turned to Spain to recoup wealth and man-power, and between 237 and 219 Hamilcar Barca, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal gradually conquered that country. Hannibal's attack on Rome's Spanish ally Saguntum in 219 deliberately precipitated the Second Punic War. This was one of the great struggles of the ancient world, fought in several theatres. Hannibal anticipated the dispatch of Roman expeditions to Spain and Africa and struck first by invading north Italy. There he defeated one great army after another, that of P. Scipio at the river Ticinus in 218, that of Scipio and Tib. Sempronius Longus at the river Trebia in the same year (both rivers tributaries of the Po), and that of C. Flaminius at Lake Trasimene in 217, when Flaminius was himself killed. Hannibal then moved to the south to detach the allies from Rome. At this crisis Rome appointed a dictator, Quintus Fabius Maximus, who acquired the cognomen Cunctator, ‘delayer’, from following the invader and harassing him, while refusing a general engagement. In 216 the new consuls C. Terentius Varro and L. Aemilius Paullus were authorized to risk a decisive battle to protect the territory of Rome's allies, with the result that at Cannae Rome suffered the bloodiest of all her defeats, losing perhaps 50, 000 men, half of them Roman. Hannibal remained in Italy for fifteen years and was undefeated in battle, but Fabius continued to wear down his strength and the tide began to turn against Carthage. M. Claudius Marcellus captured Syracuse in 211, despite the weapons of war devised by Archimedēs, and thus weakened the power of Carthage in Sicily; Hasdrubal, who had gone to aid Hannibal in Italy, was defeated and killed at the river Metaurus (in Umbria, 207); and Scipio Africanus drove the Carthaginians from Spain (206). The scene of war was now transferred to Africa and Hannibal and the Punic army were recalled from Italy. They were beaten by Scipio in a pitched battle at Zama (202) and Carthage accepted harsh peace-terms. It was the end of her position as a great Mediterranean power.
Carthage retained, however, her commercial importance; she continued to compete successfully with Rome in trade, and was a source of uneasiness there. She had undertaken to wage no wars in Africa without the consent of Rome, but in 151 the depredations of Masinissa, the ruler of the adjoining Numidian kingdom and the friend of Rome, goaded her into retaliation (150). In 149 Rome used this pretext to initiate the Third Punic War. Cato (the Censor), from motives of revenge and fear, urged its destruction, and an army under Manilius landed in Africa. Carthage surrendered, handed over hostages and arms, and then heard the terms that the city must be destroyed. Unexpectedly she refused to comply and withstood a siege until 146, when Scipio Aemilianus captured the city and demolished it. With Carthage destroyed her territory was made into the Roman province of Africa.
First Punic War
The First Punic War, 264–241 B.C., grew immediately out of a quarrel between the Sicilian cities of Messana (now Messina) and Syracuse. One faction of the Messanians called on Carthage for help and another faction called on Rome. The Strait of Messana, which separates the Italian Peninsula from Sicily, was of extreme strategic importance, and both powers responded. The Punic army arrived in Sicily first, arranged a peace between Messana and Syracuse, and established a garrison. Upon its arrival, the Roman army ejected the Carthaginians from the garrison, and thus the war began.
Roman legions occupied E Sicily, and the newly created Roman fleet, after victories at Mylae (260) and off Cape Ecnomus (256), landed a force in Africa. This excursion was a failure, and its commander, Regulus, was captured (255) by the Greek mercenary general Xanthippus. In Sicily the Romans took Palermo (254) but were effectively blocked farther west by the brilliant guerrilla warfare of Hamilcar Barca, and they failed to take Lilybaeum, the chief Punic base. The Romans equipped a new fleet that destroyed (241) the Punic fleet off the Aegates (now Aegadian Isles), and Carthage sued for peace. The terms were the payment of an indemnity and the cession of Punic Sicily to Rome. The chief events of the next 20 years were the Roman entry into Sardinia and Corsica—a gross breach of treaty—and the conquests in Spain by Hamilcar.
Second Punic War
When Hamilcar Barca's son Hannibal took (219) the Spanish city of Saguntum (present-day Sagunto), a Roman ally, Rome declared war. This Second Punic, or Hannibalic, War, 218–201 B.C., was one of the titanic struggles of history. Rome owed its success to various factors: its stubborn will and splendid military organization; its superior economic resources; its generals, Fabius and, above all, Scipio; the failure of supply from Carthage to Hannibal's Italian army; and the mountainous character of central Italy, which rendered the Punic superiority in cavalry nearly useless. For the course of the war, see Hannibal and Scipio Africanus Major. At the war's close, Carthage surrendered to Rome its Spanish province and its war fleet.
Third Punic War
The Third Punic War, 149–146 B.C., originated, like the others, in a deliberate Roman aggression, the result of agitation by Cato the Elder for the destruction of Carthage. Charging Carthage with a technical breach of treaty in resisting the encroachment of the Numidian king Masinissa (a Roman ally), Rome declared war and blockaded the city. Carthage never surrendered. The younger Scipio (Scipio Africanus Minor) conquered it, house by house, and sold the surviving inhabitants into slavery. The city was razed and its site plowed up.
Bibliography
The Latin accounts of the wars are biased, and there are no Punic ones; the best source is Polybius. See also Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VIII (2d ed. 1989).
Three wars between ancient Carthage and Rome in the third and second centuries b.c. Hannibal led the forces of Carthage in the second Punic War. Carthage was destroyed after the third Punic War.
| Punic Wars |
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| First – Mercenary – Second – Third |
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage. They are known as the Punic Wars because the Latin term for Carthaginian was Punici (older Poenici, from their Phoenician ancestry).
The main cause of the Punic Wars was the clash of interests between the existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman republic. The Romans were initially interested in expansion via Sicily, part of which lay under Carthaginian control. At the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power on the Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was the rapidly ascending power in Italy. By the end of the third war, after the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome had conquered Carthage's empire and razed the city, becoming the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean. With the end of the Macedonian wars — which ran concurrently with the Punic wars — and the defeat of the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus III the Great in the Roman-Syrian War (Treaty of Apamea, 188 BC) in the eastern sea, Rome emerged as the dominant Mediterranean power and the most powerful city in the classical world. This was a turning point that meant that the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean would pass to the modern world via Europe instead of Africa.
In 264 BC, Carthage was located on the coast of modern Tunisia. It was a powerful city-state with a large commercial empire and with the exception of Rome, the strongest power in the western Mediterranean. While Carthage's navies were uncontested, it did not maintain a strong standing army. Instead, it relied on mercenaries, hired with its considerable wealth, to fight its wars. The Carthaginian people were from an ancient city-state in North Africa, near modern Tunis: founded by the Phoenicians in the middle of the 9th century BC; destroyed in 146 BC in the last of the Punic Wars. [[2]]
As soon as Rome had consolidated its control in Italy, it came into conflict with Carthage as Rome attempted to expand its influence around the Mediterranean. Rome and Carthage would fight a series of three Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BC. The Roman victories over Carthage in these wars made Rome the most powerful nation in Europe and the Mediterranean, a status it would retain until the division of the Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire by Diocletian in 286 AD.
The First Punic War (264 BC - 241 BC) was fought partly on land in Sicily and Africa, but was also a naval war to a large extent. The leader of the Carthaginian force was a man named Hamilcar Barca (270-228 BC.) The struggle was costly to both powers, but Rome was victorious — it conquered the island of Sicily and forced the defeated Carthage to pay a massive tribute. The effect of the war destabilized Carthage so much that Rome was able to seize Sardinia and Corsica a few years later when Carthage was plunged into the Mercenary War.
| First Punic War |
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| Messana – Agrigentum – Lipari Islands – Mylae – Sulci – Tyndaris – Cape Ecnomus – Adys – Tunis – Panormus – 1st Drepana – Lillybaeum – 2nd Drepana – Mt Ercte – 1st Mt Eryx – Tarentum – 2nd Mt Eryx – Aegates Islands |
The First Punic War between Rome and Carthage began as a local conflict in Sicily between Hiero II of Syracuse, and the Mamertines of Messina. The Mamertines had the bad judgment to enlist the aid of the Carthaginian navy, and then betray the Carthaginians by entreating the Roman Senate for aid against Carthage. The Romans sent a garrison to secure Messina, and the outraged Carthaginians then lent aid to Syracuse. With the two powers now embroiled in a local conflict, tensions quickly escalated into a full-scale war between Carthage and Rome for the control of Sicily.
After a sound defeat at the land battle of Agrigentum, the Carthaginian leadership resolved to avoid direct land-based engagements with the Roman legions, and concentrated on the sea.
Initially, an experienced Carthaginian navy prevailed against an amateur Roman Navy (see: Battle of the Lipari Islands). Rome responded by drastically expanding its navy. There is some dispute whether or not it did so by copying storm-beached and captured Carthaginian warships. Within two months the Romans had a fleet of over 100 warships. Because they knew that they could not outsail the Carthaginians, the Romans added an "assault bridge" to Roman ships, known as corvus - the "Crow". This bridge would latch onto enemy vessels, bring them to a standstill, and allow Roman legionaries to board and capture Carthaginian ships. This tactic reduced the Carthaginian navy's advantage in ship-to-ship engagement, and allowed Rome's infantry to be brought to bear in naval conflicts. However, the corvus was also cumbersome and dangerous, and was eventually phased out as the Roman navy became more experienced and tactically proficient.
Save for the disastrous defeat at the battle of Tunis in Africa, and the naval engagements of the Lipari Islands, and the Drepana, the first Punic war was nearly an unbroken string of Roman victories. In 241 BC, Carthage signed a peace treaty giving Rome the total control of Sicily.
In 238 BC the mercenary troops of Carthage revolted (see Mercenary War) and Rome took the opportunity to take the islands of Corsica and Sardinia from Carthage as well. From that point on, the Romans used the term "Mare Nostrum" ("our sea") and effectively controlled the Mediterranean. Rome's navies could prevent amphibious invasion of Italy, control the important and rich sea trade routes, and invade other shores.
Carthage spent the years following the First Punic War improving its finances and expanding its colonial empire in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, modern Spain and Portugal), under the Barcid family. Rome's attention was mostly concentrated on the Illyrian Wars. In 219 BC Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar Barca, attacked Saguntum in Hispania, a city allied to Rome, beginning the Second Punic War.
The Second Punic War (218 BC – 201 BC) is most remembered for the Carthaginian Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. He and his army invaded Italy from the north and defeated the Roman army in several battles, but never achieved the ultimate goal of causing a political break between Rome and its allies. Crossing The Alps cost Hannibal too many of his men and war elephants. (Only about two dozen elephants remained when Hannibal reached Italy[1].) Spain,Sicily and Greece were also key theatres. Rome emerged victorious in all three. Eventually, the war was taken to Africa, and Carthage was defeated at the Battle of Zama by Scipio Africanus. The end of the war saw Carthage's control reduced to the city itself.
| Second Punic War |
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| Saguntum – Lilybaeum – Rhone – Ticinus – Trebia – Cissa – Lake Trasimene – Ebro River – Ager Falernus – Geronium – Cannae – 1st Nola – Dertosa – 2nd Nola – Cornus – 3rd Nola – Beneventum – 1st Tarentum – 1st Capua – Silarus – 1st Herdonia – Syracuse – Upper Baetis – 2nd Capua – 2nd Herdonia – Numistro – Asculum – 2nd Tarentum – Baecula – Grumentum – Metaurus – Ilipa – Crotona – Utica – Great Plains – Cirta – Po Valley – Zama |
Hannibal was a master strategist who knew that the Roman cavalry was, as a rule, weak and vulnerable and therefore enlisted superior Numidian light cavalry along with Gallic and Hispanic heavy cavalry into his armies, with devastating effect on the Roman legions.
There were three military theaters in this war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly; Spain, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success until eventually retreating into Italy; and Sicily where the Romans held military supremacy.
After assaulting Saguntum, Hannibal surprised the Romans, by directly invading Italy, leading a large army of mercenaries composed mainly of Gauls, Hispanics, Numidians, and most famously two dozen African war elephants, through the Alps. This move had a double edged effect. Yes, Hannibal surprised the Romans so he could beat them on the fields of Italy but, he lost his only siege engines, elephants, to the cold temperatures and icy mountain paths. In the end it was an ironic move allowing him to defeat the Romans in the field but not in their strategically crucial city, thus making him unable to draw the war to a decisive close. Hannibal defeated the Roman legions in several major engagements, such as the Battle of the Trebia, the Battle of Lake Trasimene and most famously at the Battle of Cannae, but his long-term strategy failed. Lacking siege engines and sufficient numbers to take the city of Rome itself, he had planned to turn the Italian allies against Rome and starve the city out. However, with the exception of a few of the southern city-states, the majority of the Roman allies remained loyal and continued to fight alongside Rome, despite Hannibal's near-invincible army devastating the Italian countryside. Rome also exhibited an ability to draft army after army of conscripts after each defeat to Hannibal, allowing them to recover from the defeats at Cannae and elsewhere and keep Hannibal cut off from aid.
More importantly, Hannibal never received any significant reinforcements from Carthage. Despite his many pleas, Carthage only ever sent reinforcements succesfully to Spain. This lack of reinforcements prevented Hannibal from decisively ending the conflict by conquering Rome through force of arms. However, one reinforcement attempt was made, thus leading to the battle of Metaurus River or the Battle of the Metaurus (see below).
Rome, on the other hand, was also incapable of bringing the conflict in the Italian theatre to a decisive close. Not only were they contending with Hannibal in Italy, and his brother in Spain, but Rome had embroiled itself in yet another foreign war, and was fighting the first of its Macedonian wars against the Carthaginian's ally Philip, at the same time.
Through Hannibal's inability to take strategically important Italian cities, the general loyalty Italian allies showed to Rome, and Rome's own inability to counter Hannibal as a master general, Hannibal's campaign continued inconclusively for sixteen years.
In Spain, a young Roman commander, Publius Cornelius Scipio (later to be given the agnomen Africanus because of his feats during this war), eventually defeated the Carthaginian forces under Hasdrubal. Abandoning Hispania, Hasdrubal attempted to bring his mercenary army into Italy to reinforce Hannibal, but was utterly defeated and killed at the decisive Battle of the Metaurus before he could do so.
In the Battle of Metaurus River Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal avoided a force led by Rome to cross the Alps, as his brother did before him, and made his way into the Po valley (Northern Italy). Hasdrubal met with a Roman commander by the name of Claudius Nero on the Metaurus River. The idea of another huge Carthaginian army in Italy was terrifying. The Romans knew they needed to cut the reinforcements at even the highest cost. The Roman commander Nero had about 700 of his best soldiers distract Hasdrubal while he himself rounded the river to strike the rear flank of Hasdrubal's army. Hasdrubal, realizing that he was doomed, threw himself headlong into the Roman forces to be killed rather than captured. Hasdrubal's head was thrown into Hannibal's camp a little while later, and Hannibal and his army retreated into the mountains for a short time. Meanwhile in Hispania, Scipio captured the local Carthaginian cities, made several alliances with local rulers, and then invaded Africa itself.
With Carthage now directly threatened, Hannibal returned to Africa to face Scipio, but at the final Battle of Zama in 202 BC the Romans finally defeated Hannibal. Carthage sued for peace, and Rome agreed, first stripping Carthage of its foreign colonies, forcing it to pay a huge indemnity, and forbidding it to own either an army or a significant navy again. Hannibal took a leadership role in rebuilding Carthage, and succeeded so well that his envious rivals in Carthage complained to Rome and forced him to flee to Asia Minor in 195 BC. Carthaginian leaders quickly stole Hannibal's property. In the East Hannibal served several local kings as a military adviser, often against Rome. He served in the court of the Seleucid Empire, fleeing after the Battle of Magnesia after which Antiochus planned to hand him over to Rome. Hannibal committed suicide in 183 BC to avoid his capture by Roman agents.
The Third Punic War (149 BC - 146 BC) involved an extended siege of Carthage, ending in the city's destruction. The resurgence of the struggle can be explained by growing anti-Roman agitations in Hispania and Greece, and the visible improvement of Carthaginian wealth and martial power since the second war.
With no military, Carthage suffered raids from its neighbour Numidia, and under the terms of the Roman treaty, such disputes were arbitrated by the Roman Senate. As Numidia was a favored "client state" of Rome, Roman rulings were slanted heavily in Numidian favor. After some fifty years of this condition, Carthage managed to discharge its war indemnity, and considered itself no longer bound by the restrictions of the treaty, although Rome believed otherwise. It mustered an army to repel Numidian forces, and immediately lost a war with Numidia, placing themselves in further debt, this time to Numidia.
This new-found Punic militarism alarmed many Romans, including Cato the Elder who after a voyage to Carthage, ended all his speeches, no matter what the topic, by saying: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." - "Furthermore, I think that Carthage must be destroyed". Cato (the elder) also disliked the open displays of wealth in Carthage.
In 149 BC, in an attempt to draw Carthage into open conflict, Rome made a series of escalating demands, one being the surrender of three hundred children of the nobility as hostages, and finally ending with the near-impossible demand that the city be demolished and re-built away from the coast, deeper into Africa. The Carthaginians refused this last demand and Rome declared the Third Punic War. Having previously relied on mercenaries to fight their wars for them, the Carthaginians were forced into a more active role in the defense of their city. They made thousands of makeshift weapons in a short amount of time, even using women's hair for catapult strings, and were able to hold off an initial Roman attack. The Carthiginians finally found a fighting vigor that was effective. Citizens fought for their life, rather than mercenaries fighting for money. A second offensive under the command of Scipio Aemilianus resulted in a three-year siege before he breached the walls, sacked the city, and systematically burned Carthage to the ground.
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