H I S T O R I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E

SPQR: The World According to PolybiusBY MARK HERMAN

Gibbon wrote about the fall of the Roman Empire;

Polybius witnessed its rise. The burning question at the

beginning of the third century BC was, "why Rome?"

Who were these Romans, and how did they become the preeminent

Mediterranean power?

SPQR covers many of the critical battles that led to Rome's

ascendency over the ancient Mediterranean. My purpose in this

article is to place the game in relation to the key events that led to the

longest continuous political system in the history of the world, and

like Polybius, come to some conclusions on why it happened.

In 321 BC Rome was defeated by theSamnites in the battle of Caudine Forks,Alexander the Great had been dead for twoyears, and the empire he had conqueredwas in disarray — as his generals fought forthe right to be one of his successors, orDiadocchi. By this year Alexander's empirehad begun to fragment into five major pow-ers; whose attention would remain divertedfrom the developing situation on the Tiber —until it was too late.

Under Seleucus, Alexander's general, theEastern part of the empire formed, centeredon Babylonia (modern Iraq, Iran, Afghani-stan, and Pakistan). Ptolemy became Pha-raoh in Egypt and controlled one of the keygranaries of the Mediterranean. Antigonuscontrolled Asia Minor, and Coele Syria(modern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Is-rael). Lysimachus controlled Thrace, whileCassander controlled Macedonia proper.

Greece continued to consist of independentcity states dominated by Macedonia, al-though the Achean league was forming inthe Peloponnesus. It was from one of thecities in this region that our main source,Polybius, was born a century later in 200BC. Meanwhile, a Phonecian colony,Carthage, continued to consolidate its mili-tary and trading power in both Africa andthroughout the Western Mediterranean. Asthese powers continued to expand, it wasinevitable that they would eventually comeinto conflict. It is unlikely that anyone in the

ancient world would have predicted Rometo be the eventual winner.

Rome had suffered during its early historyunder the yoke of the Etruscans and hadbeen overrun by the Gauls. From these for-mative experiences Rome developed a se-curity complex that led it to clear the field ofall potential aggressors. As a direct result ofthis policy they would, in less than onecentury, become the premier power in theMediterranean. They started with theirimmediate neighbors, the Samnites, whomthey had defeated in 290 BC. (Meanwhile,the Diadocchi continued to wage borderwars on each other, with their heirs continu-ing the struggle in a constantly shifting setof brutal, balance-of-power alliances thatcontinued with few breaks — until Romedefeated Antiochus at Magnesia in 190 BC.)

In 307 BC, one of the greatest and mostoverrated generals in history, Pyrrhus ofEpirus, began his rule as a minor. By 281BC, when the Tarentines invited Pyrrhus tointervene on their behalf, he had beenthrown out of Epirus, conquered Macedonia,and had been thrown out of Macedonia. (Isuspect the Tarentines hadn't thought itthrough.) But, whatever Pyrrhus lacked instrategic insight he made up for in tenacityon the battlefield. His initial invasion ofItaly resulted in two battles, Heraclea andAsculum, which he won, but at a great cost— putting him well on the way to becomingan adjective. Then, on the spur of the mo-

ment, he accepted an invitation to invadeSicily; where he once again failed to makehis mark. In 275 BC, with his reputationintact but no where to hang his hat, he madeanother run on Rome, but was turned backat Beneventum (featured in SPQR). Threeyears later, the man who would be king waskilled in another bid for power in Argos.

SPQR uses Beneventum as an illustrationof a Macedonian style army against thetactics of the Roman legion, including forthe first time its camp. As a result of Rome'svictory over Pyrrhus, at Beneventum, theyextended their control over all of SouthernItaly by 271 BC. This ended Rome's tenureas a back water city state and elevated her tothe status of regional power.

Polybius, from Megalopolis, was a Greekcavalry commander who was taken to Romeafter they defeated Philip V of Macedon atCynoscephalae. He was a political hostagewho chose to use his captivity to narrate andcomment on the rise of Rome from regionalpower to the master of the MediterraneanLittoral. Polybius' work originally coveredthe period from 264 BC, when the Romansfirst left Italy to intervene in Sicily againstCarthage, until 146 BC, when Rome totallydestroyed Carthage. Polybius was an eye-witness to the destruction of Carthage andwas deeply moved by the event.

Polybius began his narrative with Rome'sintervention into Sicily. In 264 BC a violentmercenary group that had conqueredMessana, the Mamertines, were on the ropes,with the Syracusans moving in for the knock-out. In desperation they called on bothCarthage and Rome to aid them in theirhour of need. Both sides saw the strategicvalue of the straits and simultaneously in-tervened to aid the Mamertines against theSyracusans. The result of this help was theFirst Punic War.

During the course of the First Punic War,Rome defeated a succession of Carth-aginian fleets while losing to Neptune over480 ships in storms. (The Romans werefighters, not sailors). During the course ofthe war, a Roman consular army was putashore in North Africa to threaten Carthage.The Carthaginians were having as little suc-

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The Rise of the Roman Empire

cess on land against the Romans as theyhad on the sea. Luckily the Carthaginianshad the good sense to hire a defense con-tractor, Xanthippus, who gave theCarthaginians their one notable land vic-tory at Bagradas (featured in SPQR). Inspite of Bagradas, the Carthaginians lostthe war in Sicily and sued for peace in 241BC. Rome gained Sicily and soon thereaf-ter Corsica and Sardinia in contraventionof the peace treaty. Rome learned Real-politik quickly and never looked back.

While Rome continued to develop herpower, Carthage, under the Barcas(Hamilcar, Hasdrupal, and Hannibal), con-quered critical silver resources in Spain inreplacement for its losses in the CentralMediterranean. A new crisis brewed up in218 BC over Carthage's siege of Saguntum,within their legal sphere of influence. Romepushed the manufactured crisis to the brinkand the Second Punic War was in motion.This time Rome almost bit off more than itcould chew, as Hannibal descended onItaly like an avenging angel, winning vic-tory after victory (Trebbia and LakeTrasimene) in 218 and 217 BC.

In 217 BC, while Hannibal was defeatingthe Romans at Lake Trasimene, thePtolemeic kingdom of ,Egypt was defeat-

ing the Seleucid empire at Raphia (featuredin the War Elephant module). It was thiscontinuing warfare in the Eastern Mediter-ranean that prevented any new contenders,besides Philip V of Macedon, from enteringthe fray against a vulnerable Rome. (If

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timing is everything, then Rome's Timexkept on ticking!)

After Lake Trasimene, Rome changed hertactics and dogged the heels of Hannibal'sarmy while avoiding pitched battles. In 216BC a new group of Consuls changed thatstrategy and Cannae (featured in SPQR)was the result. In this battle Hannibal put itall together and devastated two Roman fieldarmies. We felt that no game on Romewould be complete without this classic ofclassic ancient battles. It is an illustrativeexample of the vulnerabilities inherentwithin the Roman tactical doctrine, whichonly a genius like Hannibal, or Xanthippusfor that matter, was capable of exploiting.

One of the casualties of the battle of Cannaewas the political consul as general. In itsstead arose generals who were appointedbased on ability. One of these, Rome's firstgreat military genius — Scipio Africanus —became a career general who met Hannibalat Zama (featured in SPQR). This was thedecisive battle of the Second Punic War,and it ended in Carthage's total defeat. AsCarthage's star fell, it went from being aregional power to nothing more than animpoverished city-state. As a result of this,Rome, by 201 BC, controlled the WesternMediterranean.

As the Second Punic War wound down toits climatic finale on the plains of Zama,Antiochus III had just returned from hispacification of the Eastern portions of theSeleucid empire; Ptolemy IV had died andhis infant son Ptolemy V became a pawn ina series of bloody domestic coups in Egypt.Antiochus moved against the Egyptians intheir moment of weakness and reconqueredCoele Syria (which he had lost after Raphia).(Meanwhile, far to the East, the Great Wallof China was being built.)

During the Second Punic War, an incidentoccurred that would have long term ramifi-cations for the Eastern Mediterranean.Hannibal, during his sojourn in Italy, hadgotten Philip V to intervene on Carthage'sbehalf. The so-called First Macedonian Warwas a neither-here-nor-there affair that ledto little action and an inconclusive peace.The rematch came in 200 BC and resulted inPhilip's defeat at Cynoschephalae (fea-tured in SPQR) in 197 BC. As a result, thelong shadow of Rome was cast over theEastern Mediterranean.

As the vaunted Macedonian Phalanx suc-cumbed to the Roman Legion on a ridgeshaped like a Dog's Head, Antiochus IIIwas expanding his influence into Asia Mi-nor at the expense of Pergamon, another ofthe Successor states. The next clash camebetween a security conscious Rome and anexpansionist Antiochus at Thermopolye in190 BC, where Antiochus was ousted fromGreece and humiliated at Magnesia a yearlater (featured in War Elephant module).

Philip's successor Perseus made anotherbid for power, but he became another notchin the Roman belt at Pydna in 168 BC. In thesame year, a Jewish revolt against theSeleucids led to the last free Jewish stateprior to 1948, and generated a memorableholiday of lights. (Can you spell Menorah?)

Back in Rome, the expansionists worriedabout the reemergence of Carthaginianpower. Cato, a famous Roman senator,ended every speech with a call forCarthage's destruction.

Rome finally got the incident it needed in150 BC, provoking the Third Punic War,which ended with the most famous sack-ing in Ancient history as Carthage waseradicated from the face of the earth.Polybius saw in the flames flickering overCarthage the new world order; Rome hadcome of age.

How did it happen? Was it inevitable?Polybius thought that it was the fickle fin-ger of fortune. I think he had a point. Thewars of Alexander's successors consumedthe attention of the Diadocchi and pre-vented their resources from being chan-neled into Western expansion. This politi-cal inattention allowed Rome to solve itslocal security problems. With Rome's localsecurity assured, it was enabled to fight aseries of major wars with its chief regionalrival, Carthage. (Who was demographi-cally ill-equipped to defeat an adversarywith superior manpower resources.) Bythe time the successors of Alexander be-came cognizant of Rome, they were ex-

hausted from their internecine wars and ill-equipped to contend with her political acu-men and military strength.

It takes an organized government to mar-shal resources and produce an army of anysize and quality. When Alexander died in323 BC, Rome was a third rate power. TheMediterranean contained numerous pow-ers capable of destroying Rome. Rome'srise to power was due to its political acu-men which was its enduring strength. AsRome conquered its neighbors, its uniquepolitical institutions incorporated their man-power into its military organization. Tradi-tionally, conquered people were exploited,necessitating the conqueror's military towatch the angry population, hence weaken-ing it. Rome's new political theory allowedit to gain strength from its conquests. As itsmanpower resources grew, so did its ambi-tions. Once all the organized governmentson the Mediterranean Littoral were subju-gated, no serious contenders could arise tochallenge Rome's leadership for centuries.In the final analysis, it pays to have fortuneand political insight on your side. That's theway Polybius saw it.

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