I would argue that while Rome was ultimately the greater military power, Cárthage from a geopolitical and commercial viewpoint was equally, if not more successful than Rome in the same period of time leading up to the start of, Rome was growing and it was becoming incredibly wealthy after the Punic wars, but the republic was facing serious problems during this time. [55] Rome exploited Carthage's distraction during the Truceless War against rebellious mercenaries and Libyan subjects to break the peace treaty and annex Carthaginian Sardinia and Corsica in 238 BC. The Second Punic War was fought between 218 and 201 BC. The warrior is armed with a, 2nd century BC marble bust, identified as the younger Scipio, now in the. [166] In 149 BC, fifty years after the end of the Second Punic War, Carthage sent an army, under Hasdrubal, against Masinissa, the treaty notwithstanding. The government of Carthage was divided over their support for Hannibal in Spain and they were not really in favor of another war with Rome. [159] The decisive Battle of Zama followed in October 202 BC. the cities to escape war. [112] It was the only time during the war that Carthage reinforced Hannibal. [147], In the spring of 208 BC, Hasdrubal moved to engage Scipio at the Battle of Baecula. [89] Hannibal then cut off the Roman army from Rome, which provoked Flaminius into a hasty pursuit without proper reconnaissance. [30][40] More formal battles were usually preceded by the two armies camping one to seven miles (2–12 km) apart for days or weeks; sometimes forming up in battle order each day. Wars of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Punic_War&oldid=992384973, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 5 December 2020, at 00:13. The Romans established a lodgement in north-east Iberia and the Carthaginians repeatedly attempted and failed to reduce it. [92][93] Hannibal hoped some of these allies could be persuaded to defect. A cavalry force of 4,000 from the other Roman army was also engaged and wiped out. [133], In 210 the Carthaginians caught the Romans off guard during their siege of Herdonia and lifted the siege after a pitched battle in which the Romans lost 13,000 men from their army of 20,000. The third Punic war started. [112][114], Meanwhile the Romans took drastic steps to raise new legions: enrolling slaves, criminals and those who did not meet the usual property qualification. [53] In 264 BC Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War. Carthage began to rise to power after Alexander the Great, The Punic Wars were made of three major wars. It even sparked many historians’ interests around the world and tempted them to find out more. Alarmed by this, the armies surrounding Capua go to Rome, where they are slaughtered by Hannibal. Both battles ended in complete defeat for the Romans, as Hasdrubal had bribed the Romans' mercenaries to desert. After the first Punic war where. [157] The Roman Senate ratified a draft treaty, but due to mistrust and a surge in confidence when Hannibal arrived from Italy Carthage repudiated it. The Second Punic War (aka The Hannibalic War) was fought between Carthage and Rome between 218 and 201 BCE. In 209 BC the new Roman commander Publius Scipio captured Carthago Nova, the main Carthaginian base in the peninsula. Between 215 and 210 BC the Carthaginians attempted to capture Roman-held Sicily and Sardinia, but were unsuccessful. The Carthaginians could not let this go. Quintus Fabius Maximus was elected dictator by the Roman Assembly and adopted the "Fabian strategy" of avoiding pitched battles, relying instead on low-level harassment to wear the invader down, until Rome could rebuild its military strength. 10,000 talents was approximately 269,000 kg (265 long tons) of silver. In 205 BC this war ended with a negotiated peace. It was located on the coast, which allowed for it to become a great naval power. [108] Such Italian forces as were raised resisted operating away from their home cities and performed badly when they did. Hannibal established alliances with the tribes in the eastern Iberian Peninsula thanks to his diplomatic skills. [143] In 206 BC the Carthaginians ended this drain on their resources by dividing several Numidian kingdoms with him. As Syracuse and Macedonia joined the Carthaginian side after Cannae, the conflict spread. But the Romans were still after Hannibal. Hannibal arrived with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and an unknown number of elephants—the survivors of the 37 with which he left Iberia[79][80]—in Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). [124], A large Carthaginian army led by Himilco was sent to relieve the city in 213 BC. [141], The Roman fleet continued on from Massala in the autumn of 218 BC, landing the army it was transporting in north-east Iberia, where it won support among the local tribes. [101] Hasdrubal led the Carthaginian cavalry on the left wing and routed the Roman cavalry opposite, then swept around the rear of the Romans to attack their cavalry on the other wing. An indemnity of 10,000 silver talents[note 7] was to be paid over 50 years. The peace treaty imposed on the Carthaginians stripped them of all of their overseas territories, and some of their African ones. The Second Punic War or the Hannibalic War lasted sixteen years from 218 BC to 202 BC and was fought between the two major powers of Rome and Carthage. The solution was a military expedition to obtain the riches of the Iberian Peninsula. 242/1 BC The First Punic War ends, with Carthage defeated after a major Roman naval victory. This new Carthaginian invasion was defeated at the Battle of the Metaurus. The final engagement of the war took place between armies under Scipio and Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 and resulted in Hannibal's defeat and in Carthage suing for peace. For the next decade the war in southern Italy continued, with Roman armies slowly recapturing most of the Italian cities that had joined Carthage. In response, Roman advisers were sent to train his soldiers and he waged war against the Carthaginian ally Gala. These included the large city of Capua and the major port city of Tarentum (modern Taranto). [100], Paullus and Varro marched southward to confront Hannibal, and encamped 10 km (6 mi) away. [90] Hannibal set an ambush[90] and in the Battle of Lake Trasimene completely defeated the Roman army, killing 15,000 Romans,[91] including Flaminius,[90] and taking 10,000 prisoner. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Italy and Iberia, but also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and, towards the end of the war, in North Africa. [128], Fabius was able to overrun the Carthaginian ally Arpi in 213 BC. The First Punic War started around 264 BC and ended at 241 BC, The Punic Wars were clashes between titans and were arguably the largest wars of the time period as the two participants were some of the most powerful nations of the time. Introduction In the wake of these victories, he moved south plundering the countryside and working to make Rome's allies … The last war was kind of a punishment for Carthage from Rome. [14] However, the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy considers Livy's "reliability is often suspect";[15] the historian Phillip Sabin refers to Livy's "military ignorance";[16] and he is generally considered untrustworthy by modern historians. [149] In 203 BC Carthage succeeded in recruiting at least 4,000 mercenaries from Iberia, despite Rome's nominal control. [170] In the spring of 146 BC the Romans launched their final assault, systematically destroying the city and killing its inhabitants;[171] 50,000 survivors were sold into slavery. Many senior Carthaginians wanted to reject it, but Hannibal spoke strongly in its favour and it was accepted in spring 201 BC. [61][62] Hamilcar ruled as a viceroy and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, in the early 220s BC and then his son, Hannibal, in 221 BC. (Chris Scarre, 24-25) The word Punic comes from the Latin derivation of the word Punicus which translates to "Carthaginian", referring to the Carthaginian’s Phoenician ancestors. The remaining Carthaginian-controlled towns then surrendered or were taken through force or treachery[126][127] and the Sicilian grain supply to Rome and its armies was resumed. At the Battle of Ilipa in 206 Scipio permanently ended the Carthaginian presence in Iberia. [161] The Roman and allied Numidian cavalry drove the Carthaginian cavalry from the field. In 208 BC Scipio defeated Hasdrubal, although Hasdrubal was able to withdraw most of his troops into Gaul and then northern Italy in spring 207 BC. [18] Modern historians usually take into account the writings of various Roman annalists, some contemporary; the Greek Diodorus Siculus; and the later Roman historians, Plutarch, Appian and Dio Cassius. [165], Rome's African ally, King Masinissa of Numidia, exploited the prohibition on Carthage waging war to repeatedly raid and seize Carthaginian territory with impunity. This could be increased to 5,000 in some circumstances. [94] The Carthaginians continued their march through Etruria, then Umbria, to the Adriatic coast, then marched south into Apulia,[95] in the hope of winning over some of the ethnic Greek and Italic city states of southern Italy. Mago left Iberia for northern Italy with his remaining forces. [104][105] However, the majority of Rome's allies remained loyal, including many in southern Italy. The Second Punic War was fought between 218-201 BCE. Both Rome and Carthage were prestigious empires with economic and political growth mainly through trade and the conquest of land, but during the Punic Wars, they were both tested against each other that lead to 100’s of years of war to determine which empire was the supreme power of the Mediterranean. The Punic Wars have major historical content that involve both leaders on opposite side as well as the battles among the two city-states. By 212 BC the full complement of the legions deployed would have been in excess of 100,000 men, plus, as always, a similar number of allied troops. The campaign ended in disaster at the Battle of Oroscopa[167] and anti-Carthaginian factions in Rome used the illicit military action as a pretext to prepare a punitive expedition. Rome After the Punic Wars; Rome After the Punic Wars. [130] Later that same year, Hannibal defeated another Roman army at the Battle of Herdonia, with 16,000 men lost from a force of 18,000. After the start of the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal boldly crossed the Alps and invaded Italy. [142], Hasdrubal received orders from Carthage to move into Italy and join up with Hannibal in order to put pressure on the Romans in their homeland. It crippled Carthaginian power in the region, and although Carthage would experience a resurgence fifty years after the Second Punic War, it would never again challenge Rome like it did when Hannibal was parading through Italy, striking fear … The Roman legions forced their way through Hannibal's deliberately weak centre, but Libyan heavy infantry on the wings swung around their advance, menacing their flanks. This paper compares the rise and influence of Carthagínian to Roman power in the Mediterránean region between the ninth and second BCE centuries, and identifies some of the reasons that led to Rome becoming the dominating force over Cárthage. [73] An army had previously been created by the Romans to campaign in Iberia, but the Roman Senate detached one Roman and one allied legion from it to send to north Italy. [83], When news of the defeat reached Rome it initially caused panic. Carthage needed a solution to improve its weakened economy, after receiving a heavy blow with the loss of Sicily. Reinforced by Gallic allies, he obtained crushing victories over the Romans at the battles of Trebia (218) and Lake Trasimene (217). [121], Sicily remained firmly in Roman hands, blocking the ready seaborne reinforcement and resupply of Hannibal from Carthage. Winning battles at Trebia (218 BC) and Lake Trasimene (217 BC), Hannibal defeated armies led by Tiberius Sempronius Longus and Gaius Flaminius Nepos. A fresh Roman army attacked the main Carthaginian stronghold on the island, Agrigentum, in 210 BC and the city was betrayed to the Romans by a discontented Carthaginian officer. Without the expected reinforcement the Carthaginians were compelled to evacuate allied towns in Italy and withdraw to Bruttium. The combined Roman force attacked Hasdrubal at the Battle of the Metaurus and destroyed his army, killing Hasdrubal. During the Punic War era, the extent of Roman Imperialism was founded on the basis of making the world as one. [172] The formerly Carthaginian territories became the Roman province of Africa. The Romans' lodgement between the Ebro and Pyrenees was now secure and it blocked the route from Iberia to Italy, preventing the despatch of reinforcements from Iberia to Hannibal. That year, Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia, through Gaul and over the Alps to Cisalpine Gaul (modern northern Italy). [83] The Senate had ordered the consul Sempronius Longus to bring his army back from Sicily, where it had been preparing for the invasion of Africa, to join the Roman army already facing Hannibal. Outcomes from the Second Punic War The second Púnic war (herein after referred to as, “the War”) came to a close in 201 BCE, following Scípio’s victory over Hánnibal at the battle of Záma. 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