They concentrated their efforts on the conquest of Spain rather than trying to drive the Romans out of their former colonies. Pompeii, a flourishing resort city south of ancient Rome, was nestled along the coast of Italy in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano. [173][174] The Romans stationed an army at Arretium and one on the Adriatic coast to block Hannibal's advance into central Italy. First, the amount of casualties in numerous wars, such as the Punic Wars in which 300,000 were estimated to have died, negatively impacted the number of Roman farmers. What led to the Punic Wars, and how did they affect Rome? Gauls now joined Hannibal's army in large numbers. The Carthaginians accordingly opened negotiations and consented to a peace by which they ceded Sicily and the Lipari (Eolie) Islands to Rome and paid an indemnity of 3,200 talents. Rome, which before the war had never fought outside of Italy, now controlled a wealthy overseas territoryits first of many. Two years later, Hannibal marched his army across the Ebro River into Saguntum, an Iberian city under Roman protection, effectively declaring war on Rome. [238], In 205BC Publius Scipio was given command of the legions in Sicily and allowed to enrol volunteers for his plan to end the war by an invasion of Africa. [225] In 206BC the Carthaginians ended this drain on their resources by dividing several Numidian kingdoms with him. Most of the First Punic War was centered around the island of Sicily and . They favored the patrician class and did not like that Caesar was popular with the plebeians. [83], Taking advantage of their naval victories the Romans launched an invasion of North Africa in 256BC,[86] which the Carthaginians intercepted at the battle of Cape Ecnomus off the southern coast of Sicily. The first concerned control of Sicily and of the sea lanes in the western Mediterranean; it ended with Rome victorious but with great loss of ships and men on both sides. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. Hannibal is called back to defend the homeland and he is defeated here at Zama. They were a series of three wars that led to the destruction of Carthage, the enslavement of its people, and Roman hegemony over the western Mediterranean. When an epidemic spreads beyond a countrys borders, thats when the disease officially becomes a pandemic. Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt. In the century prior to the Punic Wars, boarding had become increasingly common and ramming had declined, as the larger and heavier vessels adopted in this period increasingly lacked the speed and manoeuvrability necessary to ram effectively, while their sturdier construction reduced a ram's effect on them even in case of a successful attack. Mago's arrival in the north of the Italian peninsula was followed by Hannibal's inconclusive battle of Crotona in 204BC in the far south of the peninsula. The Romans facing Hannibal in southern Italy tricked him into believing the whole Roman army was still in camp, while a large portion marched north under the consul Claudius Nero and reinforced the Romans facing Hasdrubal, who were commanded by the other consul, Marcus Salinator. How did Julius Caesar's death affect the leadership of Rome? What was the cause of the First Punic War? ), or Marcus Antonius, was an ally of Julius Caesar and the main rival of his successor Octavian (later Augustus). Roman families prayed around shrines at home each day. [209][213] It captured several Roman-garrisoned towns on Sicily; many Roman garrisons were either expelled or massacred by Carthaginian partisans. Rome was able to gain its empire in large part by extending some form of citizenship to many of the people it conquered. Omissions? . [46][47] The Carthaginians also employed war elephants; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time. Hannibal kept his oath and devoted his life to defeating Rome. Mark, Joshua J.. "Punic Wars." Rome's population fell after a famine and a plague. Do native English speakers have accents in other languages? 2 Yet, in . [163] A rushed Carthaginian attack in late 218BC was beaten back at the battle of Cissa. They substitute for the limited written records that describe the founding of Rome. [94] The Roman fleet, in turn, was devastated by a storm while returning to Italy, losing most of its ships and more than 100,000 men. [note 8][89][90][91] The invasion initially went well and in 255BC the Carthaginians sued for peace; the proposed terms were so harsh they decided to fight on. In 205BC this war ended with a negotiated peace. How was Rome's economy affected by Rome's conquest of new lands? These conquests aroused the suspicions of Rome, which in a treaty with Hasdrubal confined the Carthaginians to the south of the Ebro. How did Julius Caesar influence the Roman leaders who came after him? However, the Romans did the . The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts between Carthage and Rome between 264-146 BCE. While this was the Romans only naval defeat in the war, their fleet had suffered a series of grievous losses by storm, and now it was so reduced that the attack upon Sicily had to be suspended. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. [72], The war began with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina) in 264BC. Land operations were largely confined to raids, sieges and interdiction; in 23 years of war on Sicily there were only two full-scale pitched battles. The Latin Library. [193] Brian Carey writes that these three defeats brought Rome to the brink of collapse. The Mamertini, a band of Campanian mercenaries, had forcibly established themselves within the town and were being hard pressed in 264 by Hieron II of Syracuse. Which statement best describes the physical geography of the Italian Peninsula? The Romans fought against the city of Carthage which then ended in their destruction. Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.) [20], The Roman Republic had been aggressively expanding in the southern Italian mainland for a century before the First Punic War. The Second Punic War occurred between 218-201 BC. How did taxes change over time for citizens who lived in Rome? [30], Most male Roman citizens were eligible for military service and would serve as infantry, with a better-off minority providing a cavalry component. [10] The details of the war in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. The pressures that Rome faced during the Second Punic War resulted in significant changes to the Roman political system. [63][87] The Carthaginians were again beaten;[88] this was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved. - In the First Punic War, Rome gained control of Sicily. The Third Punic War, by far the most controversial of the three conflicts between Rome and Carthage, was the result of efforts by Cato the Elder and other hawkish members of the Roman Senate to convince their colleagues that Carthage (even in its weakened state) was a continuing threat to Romes supremacy. Books The Roman commander, nevertheless, persisted in throwing troops into the city, and, by seizing the Carthaginian admiral during a parley, induced him to withdraw. This was not popular with parts of the Roman army, public and senate, since he avoided battle while Italy was being devastated by the enemy. The three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome took place over nearly a century, beginning in 264 B.C. First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) As they were far more used to fighting land battles, they devised the clever device of the corvus, a moveable gangplank, which could be attached to an enemy's ship and held in place with hooks. Carthage Under SiegeThe Creative Assembly (Copyright). [151], In 219BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked Saguntum[note 12][140][152] and in spring 218BC Rome declared war on Carthage. In 207BC, after recruiting heavily in Gaul, Hasdrubal crossed the Alps into Italy in an attempt to join his brother, Hannibal, but was defeated before he could. New territories increased Rome's wealth, as Rome gained access to new resources. |revered|"Obedience is revered. This aggression provoked war with Carthage and Syracuse. Rome won the first Punic War when Carthage agreed to terms in 241 BC, in doing so, Rome became the dominant navy in the Mediterranean Sea, Carthage had to pay for war damages, and Rome took control of all of the Carthaginian lands on the island of Sicily. [100] The Carthaginians attacked and recaptured Akragas in 255BC, but not believing they could hold the city they razed and abandoned it. General Sulla was declared leader after a long civil war. [153] There were three main military theatres in the war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success until moving into Italy; and Africa, where the war was decided. In the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC, Rome, after consolidating its hold on the Italian peninsula would soon come up against the power of the Mediterranean, Carthage. [73] They then pressed Syracuse, the only significant independent power on the island, into allying with them[74] and laid siege to Carthage's main base at Akragas on the south coast. She took the babies to her cave and fed them. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Punic_Wars/. The Carthaginians hastily collected a relief force, but in a battle fought off the Aegates Insulae (Egadi Islands), west of Drepana, their fleet was caught at a disadvantage and mostly sunk or captured (March 10, 241). [109][110] They launched a surprise attack on the Carthaginian fleet, but were defeated at the battle of Drepana; Carthage's greatest naval victory of the war. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Carthage and Rome came into conflict as they sought to expand. Carthage expanded into Spain because of its loss of Sicily. Carthage's new allies felt little sense of community with Carthage, or even with each other. How did the Roman Republic become a dictatorship? As a result of these three wars, Carthage was destroyed, its people were sold into slavery, and Rome gained control of the western Mediterranean. [68][69][70], Much of the First Punic War was fought on, or in the waters near, Sicily. [127][128] War-weary Carthage fared poorly in the initial engagements, especially under the generalship of Hanno. After an initial Carthaginian victory, Fabius Maximus Cunctator harassed Hannibal wherever he went without offering battle. Rome received the training, the navy, and the wealth it needed from the Punic Wars to grow from a small city to an empire that would rule the known world. [111] Carthage turned to the maritime offensive, inflicting another heavy naval defeat at the battle of Phintias and all but swept the Romans from the sea. Seeing the crying babies, she took pity on them. They went from paying a small amount of taxes to paying no taxes. [104] On Sicily the Romans avoided battle in 252 and 251BC, according to Polybius because they feared the war elephants which the Carthaginians had shipped to the island. The First Punic War was fought to establish control over the strategic islands of Corsica and Sicily. [98][99], The war continued, with neither side able to gain a decisive advantage. [275] There is a tradition that Roman forces then sowed the city with salt, but this has been shown to have been a 19th-century invention. How did the Servian Wall contribute to the development of Rome? The Punic Wars and Expansion. Eryx (modern Erice) (244242) in western Sicily, by which he effectually screened Lilybaeum from any attempt on it by the Roman land army. and ending in Roman victory with the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. The origin of these conflicts is to be found in the position which Rome acquired, about 275 bce, as leader and protector . 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