Punic Wars - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Google Background and First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) Tradition holds that Phoenician settlers from the Mediterranean port of Tyre (in what is now Lebanon) founded the city-state of Carthage on the northern coast of Africa, just north of modern-day Tunis, around 814 B.C. (The word “Punic,” later the name for the series of wars between Carthage and Rome, was derived from the Latin word for Phoenician.) By 265 B.C., Carthage was the wealthiest and most advanced city in the region, as well as its leading naval power. Though Carthage had clashed violently with several other powers in the region, notably Greece, its relations with Rome were historically friendly, and the cities had signed several treaties defining trading rights over the years. Did You Know? The Greek historian Polybius, one of the main sources of information about the Punic Wars, was born around 200 B.C. A friend of and mentor to Scipio Aemilianus, he was an eyewitness to the siege and destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.

In 264 B.C., Rome decided to intervene in a dispute on the western coast of the island of Sicily (then a Carthaginian province) involving an attack by soldiers from the city of Syracuse against the city of Messina. While Carthage supported Syracuse, Rome supported Messina, and the struggle soon exploded into a direct conflict between the two powers, with control of Sicily at stake. Over the course of nearly 20 years, Rome rebuilt its entire fleet in order to confront Carthage’s powerful navy, scoring its first sea victory at Mylae in 260 B.C. and a major victory in the Battle of Ecnomus in 256 B.C. Though its invasion of North Africa that same year ended in defeat, Rome refused to give up, and in 241 B.C. the Roman fleet was able to win a decisive victory against the Carthaginians at sea, breaking their legendary naval superiority. At the end of the First Punic War, Sicily became Rome’s first overseas province.

Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) Over the next decades, Rome took over control of both Corsica and Sardinia as well, but Carthage was able to establish a new base of influence in Spain beginning in 237 B.C., under the leadership of the powerful general Hamilcar Barca and, later, his son-in-law Hasdrubal. According to Polybius and Livy in their histories of Rome, Hamilcar Barca, who died in 229 B.C., made his younger son Hannibal swear a blood oath against Rome when he was just a young boy. Upon Hasdrubal’s death in 221 B.C., Hannibal took command of Carthaginian forces in Spain. Two years later, he marched his army across the Ebro River into Saguntum, an Iberian city under Roman protection, effectively declaring war on Rome.

The Second Punic War saw Hannibal and his troops–including as many as 90,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and a number of elephants–march from Spain across the Alps and into Italy, where they scored a string of victories over Roman troops at Ticinus, Trebia and Trasimene. Hannibal’s daring invasion of Rome reached its height at Cannae in 216 B.C., where he used his superior cavalry to surround a Roman army twice the size of his own and inflict massive casualties. After this disastrous defeat, however, the Romans managed to rebound, and the Carthaginians lost hold in Italy as Rome won victories in Spain and North Africa under the rising young general Publius Cornelius Scipio (later known as Scipio Africanus). In 203 B.C., Hannibal’s forces were forced to abandon the struggle in Italy in order to defend North Africa, and the following year Scipio’s army routed the Carthaginians at Zama.

Hannibal’s losses in the Second Punic War effectively put an end to Carthage’s empire in the western Mediterranean, leaving Rome in control of Spain and allowing Carthage to retain only its territory in North Africa. Carthage was also forced to give up its fleet and pay a large indemnity to Rome in silver. Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.) 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 Rome’s supremacy in the region. In 149 B.C., after Carthage technically broke its treaty with Rome by declaring war against the neighboring state of Numidia, the Romans sent an army to North Africa, beginning the Third Punic War. Carthage withstood the Roman siege for two years before a change of Roman command put the young general Scipio Aemilianus (later known as Scipio the Younger) in charge of the North Africa campaign in 147 B.C.

After tightening the Roman positions around Carthage, Aemilianus launched a forceful attack on its harbor side in the spring of 146 B.C., pushing into the city and destroying house after house while pushing enemy troops towards their citadel. After seven days of horrific bloodshed, the Carthaginians surrendered, obliterating an ancient city that had survived for some 700 years. The surviving 50,000 citizens of Carthage were sold into slavery. Also in 146 B.C., Roman troops moved east to defeat King Philip V of Macedonia in the Macedonian Wars, and by year’s end Rome reigned supreme over an empire stretching from the Atlantic coast of Spain to the border between Greece and Asia Minor (now Turkey). Tags Punic Wars - Ancient History Encyclopedia Punic Wars by Joshua J. Mark published on 20 December 2011 The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the forces of ancient Carthage and Rome between 264 BCE and 146 BCE.

The name Punic comes from the word Phoenician (Phoinix in the Greek , Poenus from Punicus in Latin) as applied to the citizens of Carthage, who were of Phoenician ethnicity. As the history of the conflict was written by Roman authors, they labeled it 'The Punic Wars'. Carthage grew from a small port-of-call to the richest and most powerful city in the Mediterranean region before 260 BCE. She had a powerful navy, a mercenary army and, through tribute, tariffs, and trade, enough wealth to do as she pleased. Through a treaty with the small city of Rome, she barred Roman trade in the Western Mediterranean and, as Rome had no navy, was able to easily enforce the treaty. Roman traders caught in Carthaginian waters were drowned and their ships taken. First Punic War As long as Rome remained the little city of trade by the Tiber River, Carthage reigned supreme; but the island of Sicily would be the flashpoint for growing Roman resentment of the Carthaginians. Sicily lay partly under Carthaginian and partly under Roman control.

When Heiro II of neighboring Syracuse fought against the Mamertines of Messina, the Mamertines asked first Carthage and then Rome for help. The Carthaginians had already agreed to help and felt betrayed by the Mamertines’ appeal to Rome. They changed sides, sending forces to Hiero II. The Romans fought for the Mamertines of Messina and, in 264 BCE, Rome and Carthage declared war on each other for the control of Sicily. Advertisement In 264 BCE, Rome and Carthage declared war on each other for the control of Sicily. Although Rome had no navy and knew nothing of sea battles, they swiftly built and equipped 330 ships. 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. By immobilizing the other ship, and attaching it to their own, the Romans could manipulate a sea engagement through the strategies of a land battle .

Even so, they lacked the expertise at sea of the Carthaginians and, more importantly, were lacking a general with the skill of the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca . Hamilcar was surnamed Barca (meaning `lightning’) because of his speed in attacking anywhere and the suddenness of the action. He struck without warning up and down the coast of Italy destroying Roman outposts and cutting supply lines. Had the Carthaginian government better supplied and reinforced Hamilcar, they most probably would have won the war but, instead, they contented themselves with hoarding their wealth and trusted to Hamilcar and his mercenaries to take care of the war. He defeated the Romans at Drepana in 249 BCE but then was forced to withdraw due to a lack of man power and supplies. According to the historian Durant, “Worn out almost equally, the two nations rested for nine years.

But while in those years Carthage did nothing…a number of Roman citizens voluntarily presented to the state a fleet of 200 men-of-war, carrying 60,000 troops.” The Romans, more experienced at sea battles now and better equipped and led, won a series of decisive victories over Carthage and in 241 BCE the Carthaginians sued for peace. This war was costly to both sides but Carthage suffered more seriously owing to the corruption and incompetence of her government (which embezzled funds which should have gone to the military and consistently refused to send much needed supplies and reinforcements to generals in the field), the mostly mercenary army (who often simply refused to fight), and an over-reliance on the brilliance of Hamilcar Barca. Further, however, they seriously underestimated their enemy. While Carthage would largely ignore the war, leaving the fighting to Hamilcar and his mercenaries, Rome would be building and equipping more ships and training more men. Even though Rome had never had a navy before the First Punic War, they emerged in 241 BCE as masters of the sea and Carthage was a defeated city.

Remove Ads Advertisement During the war, the Carthaginian government had repeatedly failed to pay its mercenary army and, also in 241 BCE, these mercenaries laid siege to the city. Hamilcar Barca was called upon to raise the siege and did so, even though Carthage had refused him the much needed supplies and reinforcements on his campaigns on her behalf and he had led most of these mercenaries in battle himself. The Mercenary War lasted from 241-237 BCE and, while Carthage was engaged in this conflict, Rome occupied the Carthaginian colonies of Sardinia and Corsica. While Carthage was unhappy with this development, there was little they could do about it. They concentrated their efforts on the conquest of Spain rather than trying to drive the Romans out of their former colonies. In 226 BCE the Ebro Treaty was signed between Carthage and Rome agreeing that the Romans would hold Spanish territory north of the Ebro River, Carthage would hold the area they had already conquered south of the river, and neither nation would cross the boundary.

Second Punic War To the south of the border lay the city of Saguntum , a Roman ally, and, in 219 BCE, the great Carthaginian general Hannibal (Hamilcar’s son) lay siege to the city and took it. The Romans objected to this attack and demanded that Carthage deliver Hannibal to Rome. The Carthaginian senate refused to comply and so began the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE). Remove Ads Advertisement Hannibal, a sworn enemy of Rome, received intelligence that Roman armies were moving against him and, in a bold gamble, marched his forces over the Alps and into northern Italy. Hannibal then proceeded to win every single engagement against the Romans, conquering northern Italy and gathering former allies of Rome to his side. Having lost many of his elephants on his march over the mountains, and lacking necessary siege engines and troops, Hannibal was caught in southern Italy in a cat and mouse game with the Roman army under Quintus Fabius Maximus. Fabius refused to engage Hannibal directly relying, instead, on cutting off his supplies and starving his army.

Fabius’ strategy might have worked had not the Romans become impatient with their legions’ inactivity. Further, Hannibal used counter-intelligence to reinforce and spread the rumor that Fabius refused to fight because he was in the pay of the Carthaginians. Fabius was replaced by Caius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paulus who threw off caution and led their troops against Hannibal in the region of Apulia. At the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE, Hannibal placed his Gauls in the center of his lines, expecting they would give way before the Roman forces. When they did exactly that, and the Romans pressed what they saw as an advantage and followed them, Hannibal closed from behind and the sides, enveloping the Roman forces and crushing them. 44,000 Roman soldiers died at Cannae compared with 6000 of Hannibal’s forces. Hannibal won his greatest victory but could not build upon it as Carthage refused to send him the reinforcements and supplies he needed.

Shortly after this, the Roman general, Publius Cornelius Scipio (later known as Scipio Africanus , who had fought against Hannibal at Cannae) was defeating the Carthaginian forces in Spain (under Hannibal’s brother, Hasdrubal). Recognizing that Hannibal’s army would be recalled if Carthage were attacked, Scipio manned a fleet and sailed to North Africa where he took the Carthaginian city of Utica . Carthage recalled Hannibal from Italy to save their city but Scipio was a great admirer of Hannibal and had studied his tactics carefully. At the Battle of Zama in 202, Hannibal sent an elephant charge against the Romans which Scipio, mindful of Hannibal’s strategies, deflected easily. The Romans killed the Carthaginians on the elephants and sent the animals back into the Carthaginian ranks, then followed with a combined cavalry charge and infantry advance which caught the enemy between and crushed them. Hannibal returned to the city and told the senate that Carthage should immediately surrender.

Scipio allowed Carthage to retain her colonies in Africa but she had to surrender her navy and was not allowed to make war under any circumstances without Rome’s approval. Carthage was also to pay Rome a war debt of 200 talents every year for fifty years. Carthage was, again, a defeated city but, retaining its trading ships and ten warships to protect them, was able to struggle on and begin to prosper. The Carthaginian government, however, still as corrupt and selfish as it had always been, taxed the people heavily to help pay the war debt while they, themselves, contributed nothing. Hannibal came out of retirement to try to rectify the situation, was betrayed by the rich Carthaginians to the Romans, and fled. He died by his own hand, drinking poison, in 184, aged sixty-seven.

The Punic Wars (264-241, 218-202, 149-146 B.C.) The Punic Wars (264-241, 218-202, 149-146 B.C.) During the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., three wars were fought between Rome and Carthage. The name Punic, which is used to describe them, is derived from the Latin and Greek words for Phoenician. The city of Carthage, located in what is now Tunisia in North Africa, had been founded in 814 B.C. by the Phoeniciansa people whose home city was Tyre (now part of Lebanon). The first two wars were long23 years and 17 years, separated by an interval of 23 years. The third war lasted nearly three years. It started 52 years after the end of the second war. All three wars were won by Rome, which subsequently emerged as the greatest military power in the Mediterranean Sea.

The enmity of Carthage impelled Rome to build up its large army and to create a strong navy. The great military leaders of the war for Carthage were Hamilcar Barca and his sons Hasdrubal and Hannibal. Rome's outstanding leaders were Scipio Africanus and his adopted grandson, Scipio Aemilianus. First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) By 275 B.C. Rome had brought all of what is now Italy under its control. Its next goal was to prevent any threat from nearby islands, especially Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. The first war was brought on by a clash between Roman and Carthaginian forces over the city of Messina, Sicily. A group of mercenary soldiers had established themselves in the city. When attacked by forces led by Hiero II of Syracuse, they appealed to both Rome and Carthage for help. Both responded and began fighting with each other. By gaining mastery of the sea, Rome was able to defeat Carthage. Final victory came on March 10, 241, in a naval battle off the west coast of Sicily.

Carthage was forced to yield Sicily and other islands to Rome. In the years after the war it became evident to Carthage that Rome was determined to control the Mediterranean. To avoid complete defeat, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca took an army to Spain in 237 to open new markets and to create a new base of operations. His militarization of Spain was continued by his sons Hasdrubal and Hannibal and his son-in-law Hasdrubal. Hannibal's conquest of the Roman town of Sagunto in Spain led to a new declaration of war by Rome. The interval between the First and Second Punic Wars (241-218 B.C.) The loss of naval supremacy not only deprived the Carthaginians of their predominance in the western Mediterranean but exposed their overseas empire to disintegration under renewed attacks by Rome. Even the Greek historian Polybius, an admirer of Rome, considered the subsequent Roman actions against Carthage aggressive and unjustified. A gross breach of the treaty was perpetrated when a Roman force was sent to occupy Sardinia, whose insurgent garrison had offered to surrender the island (238).

To the remonstrances of Carthage the Romans replied with a declaration of war and only withheld their attack upon the cession of Sardinia and Corsica and the payment of a further indemnity. From this episode it became clear that Rome intended to use the victory to the utmost. To avoid further infringement of its hegemony, Carthage had little choice but to respond with force. The recent complications of foreign and internal strife had indeed so weakened the Punic power that the prospect of renewing the war under favourable circumstances seemed remote. Yet Hamilcar Barca sought to rebuild Carthaginian strength by acquiring a dominion in Spain where Carthage might gain new wealth and manpower. Invested with an unrestricted foreign command, he spent the rest of his life founding a Spanish empire (237�228). His work was continued by his son-in-law Hasdrubal and his son Hannibal, who was placed at the head of the army in 221. These conquests aroused the suspicions of Rome, which in a treaty with Hasdrubal confined the Carthaginians to the south of the Ebro River.

At some point Rome also entered into relations with Saguntum (Sagunto), a town on the east coast, south of the Ebro. To the Carthaginians it seemed that once again Rome was expanding its interests into their sphere of hegemony. In 219 Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum and carried the town in spite of stubborn defense. The Romans responded with an ultimatum demanding that the Carthaginians surrender Hannibal or go to war. The Carthaginian council supported Hannibal and accepted the war. Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) The second war between Rome and Carthage was one of the great military conflicts of the ancient world. Hannibal led his forces from Spain through the Alps to Italy, arriving near the Po River in 218. He thoroughly defeated a Roman force of more than 15,000 in 217 but did not follow up his victory. The Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus followed, but did not engage, Hannibalthus preventing him from establishing a permanent base of operations. In 216 Rome sent a large army to meet Hannibal.

The opposing forces met at Cannae, where Hannibal completely routed the Roman armies. His tactic was simple. He allowed the Romans to drive through his center. Then his brother Hasdrubal wheeled his cavalry around to envelop the enemy flank and rear. The Roman force was surrounded and nearly annihilated. Hannibal again did not follow up his victory with a direct attack on Rome. He remained in Italy, trying to bring Rome's allies to his side. By 207 Hasdrubal had gone to Spain and returned to Italy with fresh armies. Rome was soon threatened from the north and south. The two Carthaginian forces, however, did not join together. The combined Roman armies defeated Hasdrubal, and Hannibal was left to roam southern Italy until ordered back to Africa in 203. Apart from Italy there was fighting in Sicily and Spain. By 210 all of Sicily was in Roman hands. That same year Scipio Africanus, then known as Publius Cornelius Scipio, was put in command of Roman forces in Spain.

He failed to prevent Hasdrubal from taking an army to Italy in 208, but he ended Carthaginian power in Spain by a great victory at Ilipa, near modern Seville, in 206. After a visit to Rome in 205, Scipio assembled an army and sailed for North Africa in 204. He won campaigns in 204 and 203 against Carthage and its allies. In 202 Hannibal was put in command of Carthaginian forces. He met Scipio's better-trained and disciplined army near Zama. Scipio won and earned the nickname Africanus by which he has been known ever since. Carthage sued for peace. Under Rome's terms Carthage was forced to give Spain and all Mediterranean islands it controlled to Rome. In addition it was forced to pay a large indemnity and forfeit any independence in foreign policy. This was the effective end of Carthage as a military power. Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.) Although powerless militarily, the commercial fortunes of Carthage revived significantly during the next 50 years.

It was the envy of Rome's merchant class, aided by friends in the Roman Senate, that brought on the last of the Punic wars. The determination of some Roman politiciansled by Cato the Censor and his incessant chanting of �Carthage must be destroyed�produced a seemingly reasonable excuse for war. Carthage resisted aggression by an ally of Rome in 150. A Roman army was sent to Africa. Carthage wanted peace but was forced to fight for survival. A siege of Carthage lasted two years without result. Then in 147 Scipio Aemilianus was put in command of Rome's forces. He attacked the city from the harbor side andin a relentless house-by-house battlefinally overcame all opposition. Carthage was torn down and its site condemned to lie forever desolate. The territory became a Roman province. (Britannica Student Encyclopedia) Punic Wars | Rome Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications.

Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. Punic Wars The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage between 264 and 146 BC[1], and were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world.[2] 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 of the Western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was the rapidly ascending power in Italy. By the end of the third war, after more than a hundred years and 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 King 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 one of the most powerful cities in the classical world. 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 struggle was costly to both powers, but after more than 20 years of war, Rome emerged victorious, at last conquering the island of Sicily and forcing the defeated Carthage to pay a massive tribute. The effect of the long 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 Messana – Agrigentum – Lipari Islands – Mylae – Sulci – Tyndaris – Cape Ecnomus – Adys – Tunis – Panormus – 1st Drepana – Lilybaeum – 2nd Drepana – Mt Ercte – 1st Mt Eryx - 2nd Mt Eryx – Aegates Islands Beginning The war 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.

The war at sea After a vicious defeat at the Battle of Agrigentum in 261 BCE, the Carthaginian leadership resolved to avoid further direct land-based engagements with the powerful Roman legions, and concentrated on the sea, where they believed they had an advantage. Initially, the experienced Carthaginian navy prevailed against the fledgling Roman Navy in the Battle of the Lipari Islands in 260 BC. Rome responded by drastically expanding its navy in a very short time. Within two months the Romans had a fleet of over 100 warships. Because they knew that they could not outmaneuver the Carthaginians in the traditional tactics of ramming and sinking enemy ships, the Romans added an "assault bridge" to Roman ships, known as a corvus. This bridge would latch onto enemy vessels, bringing them to a standstill. Then shipboard Roman legionaries were able to board and capture Carthaginian ships through hand-to-hand fighting, a skill that the Romans were more comfortable with. This innovative Roman tactic reduced the Carthaginian navy's advantage in ship-to-ship engagements, and allowed Rome's superior 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 two naval engagements, the First Punic War was nearly an unbroken string of Roman victories. In 241 BC, Carthage signed a peace treaty ceding to Rome total control of Sicily. Aftermath At war's end, Rome's navies were powerful enough to prevent the amphibious invasion of Italy, control the important and rich sea trade routes, and invade other shores. 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 effectively controlled the Mediterranean, referring to it as "Mare Nostrum" ("our sea"). 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. Interval between the First and Second Punic Wars According to Polybius there had been several trade agreements between Rome and Carthage; even a mutual alliance against king Pyrrhus of Epirus. When Rome and Carthage made peace in 241 BC, Rome secured the release of all 8,000 prisoners of war without ransom and, furthermore, received a considerable amount of silver as a war indemnity. However, Carthage refused to deliver to Rome the Roman deserters serving among their troops. A first issue for dispute was that the initial treaty, agreed upon by Hamilcar Barca and the Roman commander in Sicily, had a clause stipulating that the Roman popular assembly had to accept the treaty in order for it to be valid. The assembly not only rejected the treaty but increased the indemnity Carthage had to pay. Carthage seems to have had a liquidity problem and an attempt to gain financial help from Egypt, a mutual ally of Rome and Carthage, failed.

This resulted in delay of payments owed to the mercenary troops that had served Carthage in Sicily, leading to a climate of mutual mistrust and, finally, a revolt supported by the Lybian natives, known as the Mercenary War (240-238 BCE). During this war Rome and Syracuse both aided Carthage, although traders from Italy seem to have done business with the insurgents. Some of them were caught and punished by Carthage, aggravating the political climate which had started to improve in recognition of the old alliance and treaties. During the uprising in the Punic mainland, the mercenary troops in Corsica and Sardinia toppled Punic rule and briefly established their own, but were expelled by a native uprising. After securing aid from Rome, the exiled mercenaries then regained authority on the island. For several years a brutal campaign was fought to quell the insurgent natives. Like many Sicilians, they would ultimately rise again in support of Carthage during the Second Punic War. Eventually, Rome annexed Corsica and Sardinia by revisiting the terms of the treaty that ended the first Punic War.

As Carthage was under siege and engaged in a difficult civil war, they begrudgingly accepted the loss of these islands and the subsequent Roman conditions for ongoing peace, which also increased the war indemnity levied against Carthage after the first Punic War. This eventually plunged relations between the two powers to a new low point. After Carthage emerged victorious from the Mercenary War there were two opposing factions, the reformist party was led by Hamilcar Barca while the other more conservative faction was represented by Hanno the Great and the old Carthaginian aristocracy. Hamilcar had led the initial Carthaginian peace negotiations and was blamed for the clause that allowed the Roman popular assembly to increase the war indemnity and annex Corsica and Sardinia, but his superlative generalship was instrumental in enabling Carthage to ultimately quell the mercenary uprising, ironically fought against many of the same mercenary troops he had trained. Hamilcar ultimately left Carthage for the Iberian peninsula where he captured rich silver mines and subdued many tribes who fortified his army with levies of native troops. Hanno had lost many elephants and soldiers when he became complacent after a victory in the Mercenary War.

Further, when he and Hamilcar were supreme commanders of Carthage's field armies, the soldiers had supported Hamilcar when his and Hamilcar's personalities clashed. On the other hand he was responsible for the greatest territorial expansion of Carthage's hinterland during his rule as strategus and wanted to continue such expansion. However the Numidian king of the relevant area was now a son-in-law of Hamilcar and had supported Carthage during a crucial moment in the Mercenary War. While Hamilcar was able to obtain the resources for his aim, the Numidians in the Atlas Mountains were not conquered, like Hanno suggested, but became vassals of Carthage. The Iberian conquest was begun by Hamilcar Barca and his other son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair, who ruled relatively independently of Carthage and signed the Ebro treaty with Rome. Hamilcar died in battle in 228 BC. Around this time, Hasdrubal became Carthaginian commander in Iberia (229 BCE). He maintained this post for some eight years until 221 BC.

Soon the Romans became aware of a burgeoning alliance between Carthage and the Celts of the Po river valley in northern Italy. The latter were amassing forces to invade Italy, presumably with Carthaginian backing. Thus, the Romans pre-emptively invaded the Po region in 225 BCE. By 220 BC, the Romans had annexed the area as Gallia Cisalpina [5]. Hasdrubal was assassinated around the same time (221 BC), bringing Hannibal to the fore. It seems that, having apparently dealt with the threat of a Gaulo-Carthaginian invasion of Italy (and perhaps with the original Carthaginian commander killed), the Romans lulled themselves into a false sense of security. Thus, Hannibal took the Romans by surprise a mere two years later (218 BC) by merely reviving and adapting the original Gaulo-Carthaginian invasion plan of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal. After Hasdrubal's assassination, Hamilcar's young sons took over, with Hannibal becoming the strategus of Iberia, although this decision was not undisputed in Carthage.

The output of the Iberian silver mines allowed for the financing of a standing army and the payment of the war indemnity to Rome. The mines also served as a tool for political influence, creating a faction in Carthage's magistrate that was called the Barcino. In 219 BC Hannibal attacked the town of Saguntum, which stood under the special protection of Rome. According to Roman tradition, Hannibal had been made to swear by his father never to be a friend of Rome, and he certainly did not take a conciliatory attitude when the Romans berated him for crossing the river Iberus (Ebro) which Carthage was bound by treaty not to cross. Hannibal did not cross the Ebro River (Saguntum was near modern Valencia - well south of the river) in arms, and the Saguntines provoked his attack by attacking their neighboring tribes who were Carthaginian protectorates and by massacring pro-Punic factions in their city. Rome had no legal protection pact with any tribe south of the Ebro River. Nonetheless, they asked Carthage to hand Hannibal over, and when the Carthaginian oligarchy refused, Rome declared war on Carthage.

The Barcid Empire The 'Barcid Empire' consisted of the Punic territories in Iberia. According to the historian Pedro Barceló, it can be described as a private military-economic hegemony backed by the two independent powers, Carthage and Gades. These shared the profits with the Barcid family and were responsible according to Mediterranean diplomatic customs. Gades played a minor role in this field, but Hannibal visited the local temple to conduct ceremonies before launching his campaign against Rome. The Barcid Empire was strongly influenced by the Hellenic Empires of the Mediterranean and for example, contrary to Carthage, it minted many coins in its short time of existence.[6] 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 resoundingly defeated the Roman army in several battles, but never achieved the ultimate goal of causing a political break between Rome and its allies. While fighting Hannibal in Italy, Hispania and Sicily, Rome also simultaneously fought in Greece against Macedon in the First Macedonian War.

Eventually, the war was taken to Africa, where Carthage was defeated at the Battle of Zama by Scipio Africanus. The end of the war saw Carthage's control reduced to only the city itself. Second Punic War Saguntum – Lilybaeum – Rhone – Ticinus – Trebia – Cissa – Lake Trasimene – Ebro River – Ager Falernus – Geronium – Cannae – 1st Nola – Dertosa – 2nd Nola – Cornus – 3rd Nola – 1st Beneventum – Syracuse – 1st Tarentum – 1st Capua – 2nd Beneventum – Silarus – 1st Herdonia – Upper Baetis – 2nd Capua – 2nd Herdonia – Numistro – Asculum – 2nd Tarentum – Baecula – Grumentum – Metaurus – New Carthage – Ilipa – Crotona – Utica – Great Plains – Cirta – Po Valley – Zama Hannibal's feat in crossing the Alps with war elephants passed into European legend: a fresco detail, ca.

1510, Capitoline Museums, RomeThere were three military theaters in this war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly; Hispania, 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. Hannibal Hannibal was a master tactician who knew that the Roman cavalry was, as a rule, weak and vulnerable. He therefore enlisted superior cavalry into his armies, with devastating effect on the Roman legions. After assaulting Saguntum, Hannibal surprised the Romans in 218 BC by directly invading Italy. He led a large army of mercenaries composed mainly of Hispanics, three dozen African elephants through the Alps. This move had a double edged effect. Although Hannibal surprised the Romans and thoroughly beat them on the battlefields of Italy, he lost his only siege engines and most of his elephants to the cold temperatures and icy mountain paths. In the end it allowed him to defeat the Romans in the field, but not in the strategically crucial city of Rome itself, thus making him unable to win the war.

Hannibal defeated the Roman legions in several major engagements, including 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 manpower to take the city of Rome itself, he had planned to turn the Italian allies against Rome and starve the city out through a siege. 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 impressive ability to draft army after army of conscripts after each crushing defeat by Hannibal, allowing them to recover from the defeats at Cannae and elsewhere and keep Hannibal cut off from aid. More importantly, Hannibal never successfully received any significant reinforcements from Carthage. Despite his many pleas, Carthage only ever sent reinforcements successfully to Hispania. This lack of reinforcements prevented Hannibal from decisively ending the conflict by conquering Rome through force of arms. The Roman army under Quintus Fabius Maximus intentionally deprived Hannibal of open battle, while making it difficult for Hannibal to forage for supplies.

Nevertheless, Rome 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 Hasdrubal in Hispania, but Rome had embroiled itself in yet another foreign war, the first of its Macedonian wars against Carthage's ally Philip V, 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 in Italy inconclusively for sixteen years. Hasdrubal's campaign to reinforce Hannibal Publius Cornelius Scipio AfricanusIn Hispania, 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 moved to bring his mercenary army into Italy to reinforce Hannibal. Hasdrubal again brought a Carthaginian army across the Alps into Italy, as his brother did before him, making his way into the Po valley.

The spectre of another huge Carthaginian army in Italy was terrifying, and the Romans knew they needed to cut off Hasdrubal's reinforcements at all costs. In the Battle of the Metaurus River in 207 BC, the Roman commander Gaius Claudius 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 by the triumphant Romans into Hannibal's camp, whereupon Hannibal and his army retreated into the mountains for a short time. End of the war Meanwhile in Hispania, Scipio captured the local Carthaginian cities and made alliances with local rulers. With Hispania essentially pacified, Scipio then turned to invade Carthage itself. With Carthage now directly threatened, in 203 BC Hannibal returned to Africa to face Scipio. At the final Battle of Zama in 202 BC the Romans at last defeated Hannibal in open battle.

Carthage sued for peace, and Rome agreed, but only after imposing harsh terms, stripping Carthage of its foreign colonies, forcing it to pay a huge indemnity, and forbidding it to own either an impressive army or a significant navy again. Third Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC) Main article: Third Punic War The Third Punic War (149 BC - 146 BC) involved an extended siege of Carthage, ending in the city's thorough 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 in the fifty years since the Second War. With no military, Carthage suffered raids from its neighbour Numidia. Under the terms of the treaty with Rome, such disputes were arbitrated by the Roman Senate. Because Numidia was a favored client state of Rome, Roman rulings were slanted heavily to favor the Numidians. After some fifty years of this condition, Carthage had managed to discharge its war indemnity to Rome, and considered itself no longer bound by the restrictions of the treaty, although Rome believed otherwise.

Carthage mustered an army to repel Numidian forces. It immediately lost the war with Numidia, placing itself in debt yet again, 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". 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 rebuilt away from the coast, deeper into Africa. When the Carthaginians refused this last demand, Rome declared the Third Punic War. Having previously relied on mercenaries to fight their wars for them, the Carthaginians were now 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.

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 in 146 BC. The popular story that the ground was seeded with salt was invented in the nineteenth century as there is no evidence of it in any ancient sources. Second Punic War, Hannibal vs. Rome First Punic War | Second Punic War | Third Punic War At the end of the First Punic War , in 241 B.C., Carthage agreed to pay a steep tribute to Rome, but depleting the coffers wasn't enough to devastate the north African nation of traders and merchants: Rome and Carthage would soon fight again. In the interim between the First and Second Punic Wars (also known as the Hannibalic War), the Phoenician hero and military leader Hamilcar Barca conquered much of Spain, while Rome took Corsica. Hamilcar longed to get revenge against the Romans for the defeat in Punic War I, but realizing that wasn't to be, he taught hatred of Rome to his son, Hannibal .

Hannibal - Second Punic War General The Second Punic War broke out in 218 when Hannibal took control of the Greek city and Roman ally, Saguntum (in Spain). Rome thought it would be easy to defeat Hannibal, but Hannibal was full of surprises, including his manner of entering the Italic peninsula from Spain. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Leaving 20,000 troops with his brother Hasdrubal, Hannibal went further north on the Rhone River than the Romans expected and crossed the river with his elephants on flotation devices. He didn't have as much manpower as the Romans, but he counted on the support and alliance of Italian tribes unhappy with Rome. Hannibal reached the Po Valley with less than half his men. He had also encountered unexpected resistance from local tribes, although he did manage to recruit Gauls. This meant he had 30,000 troops by the time he met the Romans in battle.

Hannibal's Greatest Second Punic War Victory: The Battle of Cannae (216 B.C.) Hannibal won battles in Trebia and at Lake Trasimene, and then continued through the Apennine Mountains that run down through much of Italy like a spine. With troops from Gaul and Spain on his side, Hannibal won another battle, at Cannae, against Lucius Aemilius. At the Battle of Cannae , the Romans lost thousands of troops, including their leader. The historian Polybius describes both sides as gallant. He writes about the substantial losses: "Of the infantry ten thousand were taken prisoners in fair fight, but were not actually engaged in the battle: of those who were actually engaged only about three thousand perhaps escaped to the towns of the surrounding district; all the rest died nobly, to the number of seventy thousand, the Carthaginians being on this occasion, as on previous ones, mainly indebted for their victory to their superiority in cavalry: a lesson to posterity that in actual war it is better to have half the number of infantry, and the superiority in cavalry, than to engage your enemy with an equality in both.

On the side of Hannibal there fell four thousand Celts, fifteen hundred Iberians and Libyans, and about two hundred horse." Polybius - The Battle of Cannae 216 B.C . Besides trashing the countryside (which both sides did in an effort to starve the enemy), Hannibal terrorized the towns of southern Italy in an effort to gain allies. Chronologically, Rome's First Macedonian War fits in around here (215-205). Hannibal allied himself with Philip V of Macedonia. The next general to confront Hannibal was more successful; that is, there was no decisive victory. However, the senate in Carthage refused to send in enough troops to enable Hannibal to win. So Hannibal turned to his brother Hasdrubal for help. Unfortunately for Hannibal, Hasdrubal was killed en route to join him, marking the first decisive Roman victory in the Second Punic War . More than 10,000 Carthaginians died at the Battle of Metaurus in 207 B.C. Scipio - Second Punic War General Meanwhile, Scipio invaded North Africa. The Carthaginian Senate responded by recalling Hannibal.

The Romans under Scipio fought the Phoenicians under Hannibal at Zama . Hannibal, who no longer had an adequate cavalry, was unable to follow his preferred tactics. Instead, Scipio routed the Carthaginians using the same ( strategy Hannibal had used at Cannae. Hannibal put an end to the Second Punic War. Scipio's stringent terms of surrender were to: hand over all warships and elephants not make war without permission of Rome pay Rome 10,000 talents over the next 50 years. The terms included an additional, difficult proviso: should armed Carthaginians cross a border the Romans drew in the dirt, it automatically meant war with Rome. This meant that the Carthaginians could be put in a position where they might not be able to defend their own interests. The Classics Pages: Antony Kamm's 'The Romans': 2.5 The Punic Wars THE PUNIC WARS (264-146 BC) The western Mediterranean. The Ebro is the river which flows in a north-westerly direction from the coast north-west of the main Balearic island.

Saguntum is farther down the coast, due west of the Balearics. Rhodanus is the river Rhône. (Ancient World Mapping Center) The spark which ignited the metamorphosis of Rome from an Italian to a Mediterranean power was a small enough incident. The Greek city of Messana, on the north-eastern tip of Sicily, had in 289 BC been seized and occupied by a notorious gang of retired Campanian mercenaries. They were still there in 264 BC, when the king of Syracuse, the significant Greek stronghold lower down the coast, decided to winkle them out. The mercenaries asked the Carthaginians, who occupied parts of the west coast of Sicily, to send a fleet and raise the siege. The Carthaginians obliged, but their fleet stayed on in the harbour. The mercenaries then appealed to Rome to rid them of the Carthaginians, on the somewhat specious grounds that their Campanian blood entitled them to the same protection as the Campanian allies of Rome on the mainland.

The senate havered and passed the buck to the comitia tributa , which voted if not actually for war, then at least for the dispatch of an expedition against the interfering Carthaginians to restore Messana to its criminal element. The arrival of the expedition so surprised or unnerved the Carthaginian commander at Messana that he embarked and took his ships home. The Carthaginian government, however, humiliated by what they saw as a defeat, resolved to recapture Messana. Thus was started, by accident, the first world war in history to be contested on principles. It was fought to the finish, and to the death. It lasted, in three “bites” totalling 42 years, for well over a century. When it ended, Carthage, which at one time had three hundred cities and seven hundred thousand people in its own capital, was a smoking heap of rubble. Carthage was originally a colony of Phoenicia, the Mediterranean power along the west coast of Syria: hence the Latin name for a Carthaginian, Poenus, from which comes the adjective “Punic”.

The language of the Carthaginians was Semitic, and their gods, too, were those of the Phoenicians. The key strategic position of Carthage in the Mediterranean governed its military tactics and economic policy. Carthage was a sea-going nation, using its fleet, which was manned by its citizens, virtually to close the western Mediterranean to other nations, to wage war, and to trade in goods all round the Mediterranean and down the west coast of Africa as far as Guinea - gold, ivory, bronze, tin, pottery, grain, perfume, dyes, and, of course, slaves. Roman black-and-white mosaic of Carthaginian merchant ships; between the fish is a grain measure. (VRoma: Ostia, Square of the Guilds: Susan Bonvallet) Carthage also founded colonies along the north African coast as far as Cyrenaica, in southern Spain, Corsica, and Sardinia, and on the western tip of Sicily. Carthaginian citizens did not normally fight in the army, which was composed mainly of African conscripts and mercenaries from round the Mediterranean - and Carthage could afford to employ the best.

This multi-racial army, however, still had to be forged into a coherent fighting force, which was the responsibility of its commanders, who were Carthaginians and professional career soldiers. The First Punic War (264-241 BC) was largely fought at sea. The Romans purpose-built a series of fleets to match the Carthaginian numbers and manned them with marine commandos trained in hand-to-hand fighting - in an age of rudimentary artillery, the standard naval tactic was to attach grapples to an enemy ship and then overwhelm its crew by superior numbers. The losses on both sides were enormous, but the Romans were better at unearthing and deploying ever more resources, and finally the Carthaginians sued for peace and agreed to withdraw all claims to Sicily. Shortly after hostilities ceased, however, the Romans took advantage of the temporary preoccupation of the Carthaginians with a revolt of their mercenaries to annex Corsica and Sardinia. Hannibal, one of a line of gallant and spectacular military commanders whose efforts finally ended in failure but whose exploits are remembered better than, or at least as well as, those of the men who finally defeated them.

(Acknowledgment Hannibal Barca and the Punic Wars web site) Carthage retaliated by increasing its empire in another quarter: the whole of southern Spain, with its potential wealth and manpower, was overrun. This Spanish campaign was led successively by a brilliant family trio of generals: Hamilcar (d. 229 BC), his son-in-law Hasdrubal (d. 221 BC), and Hamilcar’s son Hannibal (247-182 BC). It was so successful that in order to prevent Carthage extending its influence still farther north, the Romans were forced into a diplomatic manoeuvre. The river Ebro was to be regarded as the boundary between the interests of the two powers, but the town of Saguntum would remain nominally under Roman protection. When in 221 BC Hasdrubal was murdered by a slave whose master he had put to death, Hannibal succeeded to the command. He started the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) by attacking and capturing Saguntum. It was a deliberate ploy.

The Carthaginians were motivated to set up this new confrontation by a desire for revenge and by their fear of Roman incursions into their newly won territory. The Romans began by assuming that tactically this war would be a continuation of the first, and prepared a fleet in which they could cross to Carthage and this time take the city itself. Hannibal confounded them (and the rest of the world then and since) by doing not just the unexpected, but the impossible. He marched his army - infantry, cavalry, baggage train, and his famous elephants - out of Spain and across the river Rhône on a flotilla of boats and rafts, against continual opposition from native Gallic tribes. Crossing the Alps. (Acknowledgment Hannibal Barca and the Punic Wars web site) He then invaded Italy by a route which took him over, and through, the Alps; at one point he had to blast away a wall of solid rock by heating it with fires and then dashing on to it quantities of raw wine. It is said that he entered Italy with twenty thousand foot and six thousand cavalry, having lost eighteen thousand infantry and two thousand horsemen since crossing the Rhône.

With these and the surviving elephants, he soon gained control of northern Italy, having outflanked one Roman army before the river Trebia, and trapped another by Lake Trasimene. Gold stater, c. 217 BC, from the war against Hannibal: Roman soldiers with captive. (VRoma: British Museum: Barbara McManus) Rome was too tough a nut for Hannibal to crack, so he bypassed the city and went on into the south, where at Cannae he outmanoeuvred a numerically much stronger Roman force under the consuls, Lucius Aemilus Paulus and Gaius Terentius Varro, and virtually annihilated it. For fourteen years after that, Hannibal and his army rampaged around southern Italy before being lured back to Carthage, and to defeat at Zama in 202 BC, by a splendid campaign conducted by Cornelius Scipio, who had already driven the Carthaginians out of Spain. In particular Scipio managed at Zama to neutralize Hannibal’s tactic of opening the battle with a frontal charge of his eighty elephants.

Hannibal survived the battle, only to end his life in exile in Asia, having failed in his attempt to rebuild his country’s fortune by political means. Publius Cornelius Scipio (234-183 BC) was awarded the honorific surname of Africanus after his campaign against Hannibal in Africa. (Acknowledgment Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples) After the Second Punic War, Rome confiscated Spain, leaving Carthage just with its north African colonies, and promptly waded into local Spanish conflicts to keep the tribes there in order, besides being involved in full-scale wars in Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Syria. In spite of the sanctions and conditions of peace which had been imposed, there was the possibility that Carthage might rise again and try to take revenge. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), also known as Cato the Elder , saw this more clearly than anyone else.

Whatever question was being addressed in the senate, the 85-year-old politician incorporated into his speech the words, “In my opinion, Carthage must be destroyed .” Cato (Picture acknowledgment Fenrir DK history web site) The Carthaginians were finally manoeuvred into having to defend themselves against Numidian invasions of their territory. This was technically a breach of the treaty of 201 BC, under which they were forbidden to take up arms without Rome’s permission. The senate, which, egged on by Cato, had made plans for just such an eventuality, voted for war once again. A trained army of eighty thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry was dispatched under the command of the consuls, who had orders not to discontinue the war until Carthage had been razed to the ground. The Third Punic War lasted for three years. That it continued so long was due to a heroic Carthaginian defence of their city, which was duly destroyed. The fifty thousand survivors of the siege were sold into slavery.

Overview of this page [Ref 2.5] A hundred years of intermittent conflict with the north African city of Carthage - there were three Punic Wars - saw Rome's rival for dominance of the western Mediterranean eliminated. And Rome with her first overseas possessions. For a detailed account of the battle and a plan click here. Links to other pages on the site: The Classics Pages - the 'parent' site. Over 1000 pages of news, information, games and controversy about the life, literature, art and archaeology of the ancient world of Greece & Rome. Site Map - the contents of the site as a table of contents. Map of Italy showing places and other geographical features mentioned on this site. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group. NEW! Gallery of illustrations used on the site. Many of the illustrations can be made larger than they are in the text by clicking on the appropriate image in the gallery. NEW! List of maps used on the site. Maps can be enlarged when you see the magnifying glass (in some browsers). Help on using "The Romans" The Romans About the print version (second edition 2008), and how to order it.

Other Books by Antony Kamm Acknowledgements - those who have contributed to the site Email your comments or questions Second Punic War: 218-202 BC Back to Roman Republic Chronology The Second Punic War In 218 BC, Hannibal took control of the Greek city and Roman ally, Saguntum, and set up a strong Carthaginian base there. Immediately after hearing the news of Saguntum's fall, Rome declared war on Carthage. From his new base at Saguntum, Hannibal planned to march across the Pyrenees and the Alps in winter to surprise the Roman army. Along the way, Hannibal recruited reinforcements from the warlike Celtic tribes who hated Rome. To maintain his hold in Spain, Hannibal left about 20,000 men under the control of his brother Hasdrubal. After crossing the Rhone, Hannibal avoided conflict with the Roman commander Scipio by turning northward up the Rhone River valley. He then pressed his army through the wintry climate of the Alps. Hannibal lost over half of his men and most of his elephants due to the cold climate and unexpected resistance from mountain tribes.

He reached the Po River Valley with about 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and a few elephants. However, Hannibal was able to increase the size of his army to about 30,000 by recruiting Gauls. The Roman general Scipio caught up with Hannibal after he reached Italy in April of 217 BC. Scipio encountered Hannibal in a few battles including the first major battle, the Battle of Lake Trebia, in which Hannibal severely routed the Romans. Hannibal then pressed farther into Italy by crossing the snowy Apennine Mountains. During this trek Hannibal suffered an eye infection from which he lost the sight in one of his eyes. Learning of the approach of the headstrong Roman general, Flaminius, Hannibal set up an ambush near Lake Trasimene to head off the ensuing army. The Battle of Lake Trasimene resulted in a slaughter of a Roman army in which approximately 30,000 Romans, including Flaminius, were killed. Hannibal's successes convinced the dictator of the Roman Senate, Quintus Fabius, that he could not defeat Hannibal on the battlefield.

He decided instead to conduct a campaign of delays and harassment. Hannibal enticed the Romans, but few accepted the challenge. Rome began to gather a large army of about 80,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry to attack Hannibal in one large onslaught. Hannibal, who had about 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, fervently accepted the challenge. The two forces met near Cannae on August 2, 216 BC. The Roman general Varro decided to crush his opponent with shear numbers. He doubled the number of Hannibal's men and attacked him head-on. Hannibal, on the other hand, used his superior battle tactics to overwhelm the Romans. The heavy Carthaginian cavalry swiftly crushed the Roman cavalry, but the Roman infantry began to force the Carthaginians back to the river. Then suddenly, amidst Roman cries of victory, Hannibal signaled the commanders of his wings to wheel inward against the Romans while the Carthaginian cavalry attacked the rear. With this tactic Hannibal encircled the entire Roman army.

The Roman cries of victory turned to cries of horror as the Carthaginian army slaughtered the hemmed-in Romans. In the end, over 60,000 Romans, compared to only 6,000 Carthaginians, lay dead. This battle is considered the high point in Hannibal's career. With a considerably smaller army Hannibal was able to defeat the stronger and more skilled Romans. Rome persevered. New hope was found in the Roman commander, Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Marcellus was able to repulse Hannibal's forces in three separate battles at Nola. Hannibal received a few reinforcements from Carthage around this time, but not enough to risk an attack on Rome. Hannibal's lukewarm support in the senate which was controlled by Hanno, his father's old political opponent, combined with Roman naval superiority prevented any reinforcements from arriving in bulk. After a series of inconclusive battles with Marcellus, Hannibal decided to focus on capturing the seaport city of Tarentum. Fighting continued between the two sides with Hannibal continuing to defeat the Romans in the majority of the battles. However, Hannibal could not win a decisive battle against Marcellus.

Short of men, Hannibal waited in Tarentum for the arrival of reinforcements from his brother Hasdrubal. Rome then recaptured Tarentum from Hannibal. However, Hannibal continued to hold off the far more numerous and efficient Roman armies. Hasdrubal responded to Hannibal's orders for reinforcements by marching to Italy from Spain where he had been engaged in battles with the Roman commander Scipio. As he was on his way to reach Hannibal he was ambushed by a Roman army near the Metaurus River. The Romans slaughtered the Carthaginians in their first major victory of the war. Hasdrubal was one of the more than 10,000 Carthaginians that died in the Battle of Metaurus in 207 BC. Meanwhile, Scipio retook control of Spain and prepared for an invasion of North Africa. After Scipio invaded North Africa and defeated the Carthaginians near Utica, the Carthaginian Senate sent for Hannibal in 203 BC. After Hannibal returned, Carthage rallied to form a new army under him.

In 202 BC, with about 45,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, Hannibal marched inland to Zama away from Carthage to draw Scipio away from the capital. Scipio pursued with about 34,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry. Hannibal now had a considerably weaker cavalry upon which he had depended heavily in his major victories. Consequently, he was unable to execute his favorite tactics in the Battle of Zama. In this battle the Roman cavalry quickly routed the Carthaginian cavalry and then attacked the rear of their infantry, similar to Hannibal's strategy in the Battle of Cannae. The result was the slaughter of Hannibal's army. Although Hannibal escaped, 20,000 Carthaginians died and 15,000 became prisoners. The Romans suffered minimal losses numbering around 1,500. With the defeat of Hannibal's army, Carthage was forced to sue for peace and to accept Scipio's terms.

Carthage handed over all warships and elephants, agreed not to make war without permission of Rome, and agreed to pay Rome 10,000 talents over the next 50 years. Carthage was never again a major threat to Rome. Notes: Map of Second Punic War from Khader and Soren, Carthage: A Mosaic of Ancient Tunisia , p. 32 as found at Carthage University Humanities Classics . Bibliography:

Question: What city did Rome defeat in the Punic Wars?
Answer: Carthage