THE PUNIC WARS6.4 | Rome and Carthage Fight for the West

264 B.C.

ORIGINS OF CARTHAGE

• Phoenicia and Qart Hadasht

• Aeneas and Dido

• Issue of bias… 1200 v. 814

• Oligarchy

• Carthage’s harbor

• Establishment of colonies

• Carthago Nova (Cartagena)

• Naval and economic superiority

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR (264-241 BC)

• Punicus, not Pyrrhus

• Geography and Sicily

• Economic and strategic

• Carthage

• Navy

• Adapted its army

• SPARTAAA!

• Rome

• Army

• Adapted its navy

• IKEAAA!

THE WAR GRINDS DOWN

• Despite consistent losses, Rome won the war

• Economic Oligarchy in Carthage

• Roman Confederation

• Carthage to pay reparations

• Carthage to give up Sicily

• Roman provincial system

• The Oligarchy in Carthage shifts

• The Barcids (pro-war)

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (218-201 BC)

• Rome seizes C and S

• Province #2

• Hannibal Barca

• Campaigns in Spain

• Rome employs the NSA…

• Saguntum 219 BC

• Rome’s demand

• Decline and war

• Hannibal would take the war to Rome by invading first

HANNIBAL’S STRATEGY

• Move by land

• Avoid naval mess in 1st PW

• Fight on Roman soil

• Make their people suffer

• Break up the Roman Confederation

• The source of their power

• Is it?

ROUND TWO

• Rome’s legions miss Hannibal

• He then crosses the Alps (losses)

• Gauls

• Trebia 218 BC

• Trasumennus 217 BC

• Cannae 216 BC

LIVY

• Never before, while the City itself was still safe, had there been such excitement and panic within its walls. I shall not attempt to describe it, nor will I weaken the reality by going into details. After the loss of the consul and the army at Trasumennus the previous year, it was not wound upon wound but multiplied disaster that was now announced. For according to the reports two consular armies and two consuls were lost; there was no longer any Roman camp, any general, any single soldier in existence; Apulia, Samnium, almost the whole of Italy lay at Hannibal's feet. Certainly there is no other nation that would not have succumbed beneath such a weight of calamity.

HANNIBAL DOESN’T WIN?

• Rome changes strategy (avoid Hannibal)

• Focus on Spain

• Isolates Hannibal

• Hannibal was stuck in Italy

• For 12 years

• Did not besiege Rome…

• Rome blockades Sicily and defeats reinforcements

• Rome conquers Spain

• Rome invades Africa

• Zama 202 BC

ROME’S REVENGE

• Harsh punishment 201 BC

• Carthage cannot conduct diplomacy

• Carthage’s navy was stripped

• Carthage must pay reparations

• Carthage forfeits all provinces

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