Third Punic War

The Third Punic War was the last of the three armed struggles between Carthage and ancient Rome. Compared to the two other conflicts that preceded it, it was brief and easier for the Romans as this time it was fought away from the Italian peninsula, from 149 to 146 BC, in northern Africa. It basically consisted of a siege that lasted for three years. The senator Marcus Porcius Cato, the Elder, played a key role in convincing the Romans why Carthage had to be totally destroyed.

Summary

Despite the great damage done to its wealth and power at the end of the Second Punic War, in 201 BC, Carthage gradually began to recover its economic strength, its merchant fleet, and imperial status. However, it was constantly harassed by the Numidians, who were a neighboring tribe. When the Carthaginians started to raise a big army to defend themselves against these military raids, the Roman Senate decided to declare war on them in 149 BC, as the peace treaty they had signed in 201 BC forbade Carthage to have a large army.

In 149 BC, the Romans sent a large fleet and a powerful army across the Mediterranean Sea and proceeded to lay siege to Carthage. Although the Roman Army was much superior in number and organization, this city port was well defended and difficult to capture. As a result, in 147 BC the Senate sent a new Consult to command their forces; Scipio Aemillianus, who was the grand-son of Scipio Africanus Major, the General who had defeated Hannibal in Zama in 201 BC.

In 146 BC, Scipio the Younger was able to breach the outer wall of the city. Despite the lack of food and being surrounded on all sides, the Carthaginians put up stiff resistance. The struggle was vicious as the hand to hand fighting, with swords and spears, lasted for more than two weeks. Finally, the citadel fell under the ferocious attacks. At the end, the survivors were huddled together in the center of the city. Scipio took them prisoner and proceeded to burn what was left of Carthage to the ground. Its inhabitants were sold as slaves and the city and surrounding territory were romanized, becoming a Roman province.

Below, a 19th century painting depicting Aemillianus Scipio the Younger watching Carthage being burned and destroyed.

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Second Punic War

The Second Punic War was the second of a series of three armed conflicts between Carthage and the Roman Republic. It was fought between 218 and 201 BC in Italy, Spain, and northern Africa. It was one of a few instances in ancient history where Rome was pushed to the brink of total collapse, being in danger of total annihilation as a civilization. Whereas most of the military engagements of the First Punic War were naval battles, the majority of the military encounters of the Second took place on land, on the solid ground of the battlefield.

Although Carthage had been defeated in 241 BC and forced to give up islands off the coast of Italy, they still had total control of large tracts of land in Hispania (Spain). The commander of the Carthaginian forces there was Hamilcar Barca. When he had died in 228 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, succeeded him. The new commander continued the Iberian campaign against the native tribes (Iberians and Celtics). However, he would die in 221 BC and he would be succeeded by Hannibal, Hamilcar Barca’s son, who extremely hated Rome.

Summary

The Second Punic War was triggered when Hannibal captured Saguntum, in Spain, after a long siege. Because this city was allied to Rome, the Roman Senate declared war on Carthage. Since Hamilcar Barca and his son had built a powerful army during their time in Spain, the Carthaginians drove Rome into despair, having to fight for survival. Hannibal led his large army, which included elephant cavalry and thousands of mercenaries from all corners of the Mediterranean, through the Pyrenees, across the plains of Gauls (France), and into Italy as he crossed the Alps.

In 218 BC, Hannibal’s army would obtain two victories at the Battles of Ticinus and Trebia River in northern Italy. In 217 BC, the Carthaginian General made a military maneuver, bypassing the Roman positions and showing up at Lake Trasimene, where he defeated the Roman Army. As a result, the Senate appointed Fabius Maximus as the new Consul, who avoided a decisive battle. In 216 BC, Hannibal dealt a vicious blow to Rome, defeating the successor of Fabius at the Battle of Cannae, where 80,000 Roman legionaries were routed. This victory made several Italian tribes to side with the Carthaginians. Under these adverse circumstances, Rome was forced to resort to tactics to protract the war in a hit-and-run strategy, also depriving the enemy of food supplies.

Meanwhile, Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major organized a powerful army in Spain and defeated the Carthaginian forces there at the Battle of Metaurus River in 207 BC. Then he led his forces directly to North Africa, landing near Carthage and threatened to lay siege and destroy the great city-state. Upon hearing the news, Hannibal abandoned his military campaign to destroy Rome and headed straight back to Carthage. Cornelius Scipio was waiting for him on the plain of Zama. This time the Romans were battle-hardened and well organized and equipped. Hannibal was completely defeated at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. The following year, the Carthaginians were forced to sign a peace treaty, by which they relinquished the whole of Spain to Rome as they were forbidden to conduct wars on northern Africa, while their entire fleet was burned by the Romans.

Below, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the great Roman General that defeated Carthage in the Second Punic War.

 

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First Punic War

The First Punic War was first of three vicious armed struggles between the Roman Republic and Carthage. It lasted for 23 years, taking place from 264 to 241 BC, in the Mediterranean Sea area, especially in Sicily and North Africa. The root cause was the clash of geopolitical influence that these powerful city-states tried to exert over all the other cities and ports in the Mediterranean region.

Since it was a large merchant empire, Carthage was very interested in expanding its hegemony to southern Italy. Therefore, the immediate cause of the First Punic War was a struggle for Sicily as the Carthaginians regarded this island as an important hub of their trading activity and maritime area of influence.

The Sicilian city of Messana held an strategic geographic position on the narrow strait between Sicily and southern Italy. It was attacked and captured by a group of Italian mercenaries called the Mamertines, who turned it into a pirates’ port, from where they carried out raids against Sicilian Greeks. To rid the island of mercenaries and renegades, King Hiero of Syracuse, which was also located on Sicily, carried out a military campaign and besieged Messana in 264 BC. The Mamertines asked both Rome and Carthage for help. The Carthaginian fleet arrived first, succeeding in forcing Hiero to lift the siege and pushing back his forces. However, instead of militarily and politically joining their savior, the Mamertines made an alliance with Rome.

The Roman forced the Carthaginian to withdraw. Nevertheless, Carthage would send a large army to retake Messana. In 263 BC, the Syracusans joined Rome, seeking protection against the Carthaginians and in 262, the Roman Army captured Agrigentum, a city and port on the coast of Sicily. Although Rome lacked warships at the beginning of the war, they managed of build a powerful fleet, defeating the Carthaginians at the Battle of Mylae in 260 BC. The Romans would obtain another naval victory at Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC. After an unsuccessful attempt to take Clypea on the coast of Africa, the Romans captured Panormous.

Although the Carthaginian commander Hamilcar Barca defeated the Roman forces in a series of battles from 247 to 242 BC, the Roman fleet managed to deal a vicious blow to the Carthaginian navy in 241 BC, near the Aegadian islands, west of Sicily. The loss of their navy forced Carthage to sign a peace treaty, in which they relinquished the part of Sicily they had conquered and the islands lying between Sicily and Italy to Rome. The Carthaginians were also forced to pay war reparations to Rome.

Below, the ruins of the ancient city of Agrigentum, in Sicily. It was besieged and plundered by the Romans at the beginning of the war.

 

Below, the naval battle of Mylae in 260 BC. From a 16th century painting.

 

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Carthage

Carthage was an ancient city-state, whose inhabitants established a flourishing civilization. It was located on the northern coast of Africa, on the shore of bay of Tunis. They were traders and had a powerful merchant and military navy; they bought and sold Greek amphorae, olive oil, wine, tapestry, salt fish, and slaves. About 60% of the soldiers that made up their army were paid foreigners; in other words, mercenaries from all corners of the Mediterranean Sea, most of them Greeks from Sparta. Their most famous military and political leaders were Amilcar Barca and Hannibal.

Carthage was founded in 825 BC by the Phoenicians from the city of Tyre. Aside from building ships, they would also develop agriculture, producing olives and wheat, using slaves. Over the  years, the city grew and thrived economically, exerting great geopolitical influence on other free cities on the Mediterranean coasts, especially those on the island of Sicily and southern Italy. Over the years, Phoenician colonies on the coast of North African and Spain, such as Utica, Leptis Magna, and Malaga would become part the Carthaginian wealthy empire . They were colonies that symbolized their imperial expansion. They were polytheist and the only people in the Mediterranean to practice religious sacrifice of humans, children in this case.

Overtime, Carthage would militarily clash with another powerful city-state; Rome. The hegemonic struggle for the control of the Mediterranean Sea would lead to a series of three armed conflicts with Rome, which is known in history as the Punic Wars. At the end of the third war, the great city of Carthage would be destroyed, burned, and razed by the Romans in 146 BC, disappearing as civilization. Their inhabitants were sold as slaves and Rome romanized the region (Roman families settled there).

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Battle of Zama

The Battle of Zama was one of the most famous military engagement that ever took place in ancient times. It was fought between the Roman Army, under Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the Elder, and the Carthaginian Army, which was led by Hannibal. They faced off on a plain near the city of Carthage in 202 BC, at the end of the Second Punic Wars, just when it seemed the Carthaginian hordes were about to totally destroy Rome. With his victory over Hannibal, the Great General, Scipio became a hero and the savior of the Roman civilization.

When Hannibal and his powerful elephant-equipped army were carrying out an intense military campaign in Italy, near Rome, Cornelius, who had been sent as a Consul to Hispania (Spain), had managed to raise and organized a powerful and well-disciplined army. In order to force the Carthaginian General to lift the siege of Rome, he sailed straight to northern Africa and had deployed his legions there at Zama, menacing to attack and destroy Carthage.

This is how the Roman and Hannibal’s Army met at Zama. Scipio’s forces were composed of 35,000 men, infantry and cavalry, and they had been reinforced by about 5,000 Numidians and about 10,000 Iberians from Spain, while the Carthaginian Army consisted of 39,000 men, with about 12,000 of them being Greek mercenaries. This time, the Roman commander did not made the mistakes that other Roman Consuls made in Italy. He concentrated all his military and logistical efforts in the infantry, saving one cavalry unit for a surprise and swift attack from one of the flanks.

Below, Publius Cornelius Scipio, Africanus, the Elder, the only Roman General that could defeat the Great Hannibal.

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Pyrrhic War

The Pyrrhic War was an armed conflict between Rome and King Pyrrhus of Epirus, which was a small mountainous State lying in northwest Greece. It took place from 280 BC to 275 BC in southern Italy and Sicily. Although the Greek king came out victorious in the first two battles, he suffered heavy losses as the Romans put up tenacious resistance. He lost so many men that he is reputed to have said: "one more victory like this and I'll be lost," thus, leaving in history the famous phrase "pyrrhic victory".

The Pyrrhic War began as a hegemonic confrontation over the Greek city of Thurii, which lay in Magna Grecia (Great Greece, Southern Italy). Thurii has been attacked by the Lucanians, a warlike people from the mountainous region. Thus, the Thurians appealed to Rome for military help. When the Romans sent a small naval fleet to the city of Thurii, the Tarentines (from Tarentum, which lay nearby) felt that their geopolitical interests in the area had been infringed; therefore, they asked King Pyrrhus for help.

The first military clashes of the war was the Battle of Heraclea, in 280 BC, and the Battle of Asculum, in 279 BC. Although the Greek army defeated the Romans in both military encounters, they were costly victories, and King Pyrrhus asked for a peace treaty, which the Roman Senate rejected. As a result, the Greek king withdrew his forces from southern Italy and transferred them to Sicily. There, he defeated the Carthaginians, who were the dominant power of the island.

After being absent for three years, Pyrrhus returned to southern Italy to help the Tarentines again as they had been cornered by the Romans. In 275 BC, both armies clashed in the great Battle of Malventum (today's Benevento), with the Romans completely defeating the the Greeks. Rome had beefed up his army and acquired great experienced in the previous battles they had lost to the Greeks. With his army having been crushed, Pyrrhus decided to return to Epirus, in northwest Greece, where he would be killed a few years later when he tried to conquer southern Greece.

Below, a bust of the mercenary King Pyrrhus

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Jugurthine War

The Jugurthine War was the Roman military campaign against Jugurtha, who was king of Numidia from 117 to 104 BC. This African king had been educated in Rome, participating in the Numidian war of 143-133 BC. It was the way in which he got to power that caused the Roman Senate to order the army to overthrow and catch him.

When King Micipsa of Numidia died in 118 BC, Jugurtha murdered one of Micipsa's sons; then he chased the other son, Adherbal, who was the legal heir to the throne. Adherbal asked Rome for help; however, Jugurtha bribed several Roman senators, who allowed Jugurtha the partition of Numidia, sharing it with Adherbal. In 112 BC, he invaded the other half and seized Cirta, the Numidian capital, taking Adherbal prisoner and executing him, along with Roman citizens that lived there. The assassination of Romans by Jugurtha forced the Roman Senate to send an expeditionary army in 109 BC to topple the Numidian King and punish him.

The Consul Caecilius Matellus was appointed commander the army in Africa. He restored order and launched a campaign to defeat and capture Jugurtha, who remained elusive as the Romans were not able to catch him, for he knew the territory very well. In 108 BC, the Senate named Gaius Marius new commander of the Roman Army in Africa. Although he managed to defeat Jugurtha's forces, the Numidian King escaped, leaving Marius frustrated. It was the questor Lucius Cornelius Sulla who would succeed in capturing Jugurtha.

Sulla began a negotiation with Bocchus I, King of Mauretania, who was Jugurtha's father-in-law. Thus, the Jugurthine War ended when King Bocchus betrayed his son-in-law and turned him over to the Romans in 105 BC. Jugurtha would be executed in Rome in 104 BC. During this armed conflict, the Consul Gaius Marius implemented a series of reforms of the Roman Army to professionalize the legionaries. Overtime, Marius and Sulla would become political enemies.

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