THE PUNIC WARS - Part I
Introduction
The Punic Wars were the three conflicts between the
Romans and Carthaginians. All in all, they were what ultimately destroyed
the Carthaginian Empire. But while to Carthage it was devastating, it
caused the Romans to bloom in the aftermath. From the Messana revolt to
Publis Cornelius Scipio, these were the Punic Wars!
The Romans are the ultimate conquerors in world history, but things weren't always like that! The Roman Empire (Power for the people!..Sort of. Power to the rich guys anyway.) Was REALLY founded by farmers in a region of Italy called Latium, not by Romulus(Would a she-wolf REALLY adopt kids? Who knows?..)! But they didn't rule themselves until they got ticked off with Tarquin, the first Roman king, threw him out, and decided kings were no good. The Roman State... hmmm? Why state, you ask? Because they didn't fight and pillage to rule other independent people, of course! Anyway, up to the point of the first Punic War they ruled almost all of Italy and a bit of Sicily. More on that later.
The Carthaginians were a bit more ahead than the Romans, because they were already pillaging and saying "Right, you're ruled by us, got it?"! They also had been around awhile. They were originally a colony of the Phoenician Empire, but, the empire was suddenly captured by Alexander the Great(kind of like your first pet goldfish when you accidentally put that phirhana in the tank, eh?). And you thought kids today were greedy!Carthage found this out and did what anyone else would... Start a NEW empire! Then they expanded and pillaged and did stuff like any land-gulping empire would do! They had come into contact with the Romans before the Punic Wars, but both decided that the other side was just a friendly next-door neighbor whose empire would come crashing down any time now and give them an expansion opportunity(Like the sun-room you want to build next to your living room.)! They were okay when they were friendly, but under bad circumstances, look out! Line these granddaddies up for head-to-head combat, and you are setting up for Godzilla vs. King Kong! And things can get really nasty...
The 1st Punic War
The First Punic War started completely by accident.
(You can also see Accidental Warrior, a (sort of) similar topic
coming soon!) This was started when the people of Sicily, or the Mamertines,
which means 'sons of Mars'. They probably had this name because they
had a history in piracy! They were seized by some Campanian countrymen.
The Romans suppressed the Campanians and told them off good. (Not with
speeches, but physically! Ouch! Busted!) However, the Romans didn't do
it alone. They asked Hiero (a local army commander) to aid them. Hiero
captured the Sicilian cities of Halaesa and Tyndaris, then attacked and
almost captured Messana.. Messana turned to both Carthage and Rome
for protection. BIG mistake. Carthage sent a garrison, but Rome sent Appius
Claudius Caudex, a.k.a. "The Log" (It's true!) who captured
the city and the Carthaginian admiral Hanno. Hanno was executed by the
Carthaginians for his failure. Oh well...
The reason Rome decided to go into conflict rather
than stay safe was because Rome had no ships, they worried about Cathage
taking over Rome, and the Mamertines could turn away from their stealing
ways very easily. However, the main reason was because Sicily could serve
as a 'buffer zone' to protect Italy from an attack from Carthage because
they'd have to go through defenses on Sicily before getting to Rome.
So I guess it's okay to build that barbed wire fence around your front
yard to keep everyone off your flowers. The Romans decided to build a
navy from scratch, although Polybius says they used a Carthaginian ship
as a model. They came up with a new invention, too. It's called the corvus
(see left) which means raven, or crow. It's a spiked boarding
bridge that can be used to stop a ship and load troops into it, turning
naval warfare into a land battle. Anyway, Carthage finally surrendered
to Rome. Rome had won this round in the fist-fight of two nations. And
Carthage had to give up on very harsh terms, because the refused to surrender
when they could. Because they lost, Carthage had a grudge that would
be tough to nurse... And could only be satisfied by revenge...