Punic Wars

  • The Punic Wars (264-146 BCE) were three wars fought between the rising Roman Republic and the Sea Power of Carthage.
  • They resulted in the defeat of Carthage and the creation of the Roman Empire. The main Source for the Punic Wars is ‘The Histories’ by Polybius (200-118 BCE) and the History of Rome by Livy.

Military Tactics

  • Carthage
    • The Carthaginian Army still used the Greek Phalanx System with War Elephants and Numidian Cavalry. Their Army was based on Allied soldiers fighting under Carthaginian officers.
    • The Carthaginian Navy, based at the Punic Port of Carthage, was manned by the citizens of Carthage and was highly experienced in the Art of Naval Warfare. The Tactic used by the Carthaginian Navy was Ramming.
  • Rome
    • The Roman Army used the more flexible Maniple System and during the Second Punic War, adopted the Numidian Cavalry.
    • The Roman Navy was created for the first time in 261 BCE, by the construction of 100 Quinqueremes and 20 Triremes. The Roman Navy was based at Ostia, the port of Rome.
    • The Tactic used by the Romans was to overwhelm an enemy vessel by Boarding it with Infantry.
    • The crews were mostly Greeks from the recently annexed cities of Magna Graecia.

First Punic War (264-241 BCE)

    • The First Punic War (264-241 BCE) was a 23 year Naval and Land War fought for the control of Sicily. Battles were either Naval conflicts or sieges of the coastal cities of Sicily.
    • The Punic Wars (264-146 BCE) were a series of wars fought between the Sea Power of Carthage and the Roman Republic.

    Areas controlled by Carthage

    • At the start of the war, the Carthaginians controlled North Africa in an alliance with the Numidians, southern Iberia, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta and western Sicily.
    • Rome controlled Italy and the former Greek cities in Sicily.

    Carthaginian Navy

    • The Navy consisted of Quinqueremes and Triremes.
    • Throughout the war, as the Roman Army besieged Carthaginian cities in Sicily, the Carthaginian Navy was used very successfully as blockade runners to supply the cities from the sea.

    Roman Navy

    • The Roman Navy was a new concept, created almost overnight in 261 BCE, with the construction of 100 Quinqueremes and 20 Triremes.

    List of Naval Battles

    The Siege of Agrigentum 262 BCE

    • The Roman Army’s first success was in capturing Messina.
    • They then formed an alliance with Syracuse and besieged the main Carthaginian fortress of Agrigentum. The Carthaginians sent a force of 50,000 with cavalry and war elephants to relieve the siege, but were defeated resulting in the first Roman Army victory.

    1. Battle of the Lipari Islands (260 BCE)

    • This was the first Naval Battle of the war.
    • The Romans experienced their first Naval defeat when 17 Roman galleys were easily captured by 20 Carthaginian galleys.

    2. Battle of Mylae (260 BCE)

    • After the previous disaster, the Romans decided on a Tactic of Boarding and invented the Corvus to achieve this. The Corvus was a heavy gangplank with a spike positioned in the ship’s prow in a raised position. When it was dropped on the enemy’s deck, the two galleys were locked together allowing the marines to board and overpower the enemy vessel.
    • The Romans succeeded in overwhelming the Carthaginian Fleet which was forced to withdraw.
    • An inscription on a victory column in honour of the Consul Duilius states that 31 ships were captured and 13 sunk. The inscription is now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

    3. Battle of Sulci (258 BCE)

    • After the success of the Battle of Mylae, the Roman Navy confronted the Carthaginian Fleet off Sardinia where they succeeded in sinking a large number of vessels.
    • Although they failed to capture the island, the Carthaginian garrison was effectively prevented from reinforcing its counterpart in Sicily.

    4. Battle of Tyndaris 257 BCE

    • Tindaris was occupied by a Carthaginian Garrison and was besieged by a Roman Fleet that lay anchored in front of the town.
    • When a Carthaginian Fleet sailed passed, the Roman Commander gave orders to pursue it, but the fleet didn’t wait to assemble. The first ships to make contact were quickly overwhelmed and 9 vessels were sunk.
    • However, the rest of the Roman Fleet succeeded in assembling and forming into a line astern, then attacking the Carthaginians and sinking 8 vessels whilst capturing 10.

    5. Battle of Cape Ecnomus (256 BCE)

    • This was one of the largest Naval Battles in the Ancient World involving 680 warships.
    • In 256 BCE the Romans assembled a Fleet at Ostia of 330 vessels equipped with the Corvus, some towing transports, and embarked 25,000 legionaries before setting sail for Carthage.
    • The Carthaginians, hearing of this, sent a Fleet of 35o warships to intercept it as it passed the southern coast of Sicily.
    • The Fleets met and broke up into three separate battles. Eventually, as each Roman squadron defeated its opposing Carthaginian squadron, it was free to reinforce its fellow Roman squadrons.
    • Finally, the Carthaginian Fleet was defeated with the loss of 30 vessels sunk, 64 captured and 30,000 men lost compared to the Roman loss of 10,000 men.

    The Roman Army invades Africa (256 BCE)

    • The Fleet then landed its army in Africa led by Regulus, which forced Carthage to withdraw Hamilcar and his army of 5,500 men from Sicily.
    • After several successes, the Carthaginians agreed to a Peace, but Regulus’ terms were so harsh, they went back to war, forcing the Roman Fleet to evacuate Regulus and his army.

    6. Battle of Cape Hermaeum (255 BCE)

    • When the Roman Fleet arrived it was met by the Carthaginian Fleet in 255 BCE at the Battle of Cape Hermaeum where it was completely defeated by the Roman Fleet.
    • The Roman Fleet then sailed back to Rome, but all 384 vessels with 100,000 men were lost in a storm.

    The Siege of Lilybaeum and Drepana (250 BCE)

    • By 250 BCE the Roman Army had occupied most of Sicily, except for the two Carthaginian Fortress cities of Lilybaeum and Drepana.
    • These were then attacked but their walls were too strong, so they were besieged for the next 9 years.

    7. Battle of Drepanum (249 BCE)

    • To prevent the Carthaginian Fleet supplying the city of Lilybaeum by sea, a Roman Fleet of 200 vessels maintained a Blockade. However, the Carthaginian Fleet based at Drepana managed to operate as blockade runners and resupplied the city.
    • The Roman Commander, Pulcher, then decided on a surprise attack to catch the Carthaginian Fleet in its harbour at Drepana. During the night voyage, the Roman Fleet broke formation and lost the element of surprise, allowing the Carthaginian Fleet under Adherbal to escape from the harbour and line up for battle.
    • The result was the greatest Naval victory of the war for Carthage, with 93 ships lost and 20,000 men captured or killed.
    • For seven years the Carthaginians ruled the sea until the Romans finally built a new fleet in 243 BCE.

    8. Battle of Aegates Islands (242 BCE)

    • By 243 BCE the war had ruined both Rome and Carthage in terms of manpower and economically.
    • Unable to finance replacement vessels, the Senate asked wealthy aristocrats to fund one warship each. A new fleet was built and all Carthaginian ports on Sicily were blockaded.
    • The Carthaginians had also built a new fleet designed to relieve the Blockade by bringing supplies to the Carthaginian Armies.
    • The two Fleets met at the Battle of the Aegates Islands 242 BCE, and the ill prepared Carthaginian Fleet was defeated. This ended the First Punic War.

    The Result

    • In 241 BCE, the Treaty of Lutatius obliged the Carthaginians to pay War Reparations of 3,200 Talents of silver and secede Sicily, which became a Roman Province.
    • Rome became a major Sea Power in the Western Mediterranean for the first time which led to the Second and Third Punic Wars:

     

Second Punic War (218-201 BCE)

  • The three main theatres of operations were Italy, Spain and Africa.
    • Rome and her Allies controlled Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. They captured Malta in 218 BCE.
    • Carthage and her Allies controlled all of North Africa and most of Iberia.

1. The War in Italy

Hannibal's Crossing of the Alps (218 BCE)

    • In 218 BCE at the start of the War, Hannibal raised an Army at Cartagena in Spain and famously decided to invade Italy by marching through a Pass in the Alps.
    • With his army he took 37 Elephants. The Pass is not known, but it has been suggested that Mont genevre Pass was the most likely route he took.
      The last surviving War Elephant was named ‘Surus’, meaning ‘the Syrian’, as narrated by Plautus (254-184 BCE). Surus may have carried Hannibal on a seat on his back.

Hannibal defeats the Roman Armies (218-217 BCE)

    • Between 218-216 BCE, Hannibal crushed the Roman Armies in a series of defeats.
    • Rome appointed Fabius as Dictator, who resorted to a strategy of avoiding pitched battles against Hannibal.
    • However, in 216 BCE when Varro and Paulus were elected Consuls, they reversed Fabius’ policy, raised the largest army in Roman history and marched to confront Hannibal.

Battle of Cannae (216 BCE)

    • 216 BCE Aug 2nd, the Battle of Cannae, Apulia, where Hannibal defeated the larger army of the Roman Consuls, Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, by using the Tactic of Double Envelopment.
    • Carthaginian Forces: 35,000 troops. 10,000 cavalry.
    • Roman and Allied Forces: 80,000 troops. 6,000 cavalry.
    • Roman Losses: 70,000 Roman troops killed. 10,000 captured. 3,000 escaped. 370 cavalry survived.
    • Hannibal had 200 Roman aristocrats’ gold rings collected from the battlefield and sent to the Punic Senate in Carthage as Tribute.
    • Source: Polybius

First Macedonian War (214-205 BCE)

    • In 216 BCE, Philip V of Macedonia allied himself with Hannibal and in 214 BCE he attempted to invade the Illyrian Coast.
    • The Romans placed a Fleet of 50 warships at Taranto, created the Aetolian League against Philip V and sent a Legion to Illyria to eject Philip V’s army.
    • This prevented the Carthaginians from uniting with Philip V during the Second Punic War.

Sicily

    • In 215 BCE, Syracuse in Sicily was persuaded to join Hannibal in an alliance, where he hoped to retake the whole of Sicily and reopen the sea route to Italy from Carthage.
    • The Roman Army successfully besieged Syracuse which fell in 212 BCE. Archimedes, who had successfully invented various war machines to defeat the Roman siege, was killed by a Roman soldier.
    • In 210 BCE, after the Roman army successfully besieged the city of Agrigentum, Sicily returned to Roman control.

Hannibal remains in Italy until 203 BCE

    • After Cannae, the war in Italy consisted of a series of skirmishes, with cities falling to Hannibal, then being retaken by the Romans as soon as his army had left.
    • At first many of Rome’s Allies changed sides and joined Hannibal, including the port city of Locri in 215 BCE. This allowed Carthage to ship supplies and war elephants by sea to Hannibal for the first time and last time.
    • Rome managed to raise 12 legions by conscripting everyone they could including slaves, but this army could not confront Hannibal in open battle. Instead, they provided a skirmishing force that prevented Hannibal from holding onto territory and any cities that he had won.
    • In 207 BCE, Hasdrubal crossed into Italy with his army of 30,000 men. The Roman Armies prevented him uniting with his brother, by deceiving Hannibal into thinking they had remained in their camp. Instead the army marched in secret and met Hasdrubal at the Battle of Metaurus where he was defeated and killed.
    • In 205 BCE, Mago landed near Genoa with his army from Iberia. He was unable to unite with Hannibal and was met by a large Roman army and defeated at the Battle of Insubria in 203 BCE.
    • Once Scipio Africanus had landed in Africa during 204 BCE and defeated two Carthaginian armies there, Hannibal was recalled to Carthage in 203 BCE.

2. The War in Iberia

    • In 218 BCE, a Roman Fleet landed a Roman Army in northeastern Iberia where they met with success.
    • The Carthaginians were beaten at the Battle of Cissa in late 218 BCE.
    • The Roman Navy won the Battle of the Ebro River in 217 BCE.
    • This blocked Iberian supplies via Gaul into Italy to reinforce Hannibal.
    • In 215 BCE, Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brother and Commander of the Armies in Iberia, was defeated at the Battle of Dertosa.
    • After this success the Celtiberian Tribes defected to the Romans.
    • However, in 211 BCE at the Battle of the Upper Baetis, Hasdrubal defeated the Roman Armies and their allies.
    • In 210 BCE, Scipio Africanus arrived in Iberia and in 209 BCE, he captured Cartagena, the main Carthaginian supply base.
    • In 208 BCE, Scipio defeated Hasdrubal at the Battle of Baecula, after which Hasdrubal retreated across the Pyrenees into Gaul and Italy, intending to join Hannibal.
    • In 206 BCE, at the Battle of Ilipa, Scipio defeated the Carthaginian Army in Iberia and captured Cadiz, ending Carthaginian rule in Iberia.

3. The War in Africa

    • In 213 BCE, the Romans formed an alliance in with the Numidian King, Syphax, but after a brief skirmish, the Carthaginians made him their ally again.
    • However, a Numidian Prince named Masinissa lost his territories and instead became a Roman ally. His Numidian Cavalry would later change the course of the war.
    • In 204 BCE, Scipio Africanus landed his Legions from Iberia and Sicily and joined forces with Masinissa’s Numidian Cavalry.
    • In 203 BCE, two Carthaginian armies were defeated along with King Syphax, and his kingdom was taken over by Masinissa.
    • Although a Peace Treaty was drawn up it was repudiated when Hannibal returned from Italy with his Army.

Battle of Zama (202 BCE)

    • In 202 BCE Hannibal was defeated by Scipio Africanus using Masinissa’s Numidian Cavalry that had formerly been allied to Carthage.
    • This defeat marked the end of the Second Punic War.
    • Carthage had to accept a Peace Treaty with War Reparations, loss of her War Elephants, a Fleet restricted to 10 vessels and the loss of most of her Empire.

Third Punic War (149-146 BCE)

  • The Siege of Carthage

    • In 149 BCE, the Roman Army landed an Army of c.50,000 men near Utica 22 miles (35 km) north of Carthage. To avoid a siege, the Romans demanded the Carthaginians relinquish all their weapons, whereupon a sizeable quantity was handed over.

    Hasdrubal the Boetharch

    • When they then demanded Carthage be razed, the Carthaginians declared war and positioned the Carthaginian Army under General Hasdrubal the Boetharch, in a camp 16 miles (25 km ) to the south of the city.
    • The Romans besieged the city with its army and Fleet, but were unable to breach the walls.
    • Carthaginian Fireships destroyed part of the Roman Fleet off Utica in 148 BCE, forcing it to move away and change its tactics from siege to blockade.
    • The Roman Army was also forced to move its camp away, because it was located in a swamp which was spreading disease.
    • The Carthaginians continued building new warships, but each time they confronted the Roman Fleet they were defeated. Supplies continued to get in past the blockade.
    • The walls of Carthage were extremely well defended and a stalemate ensued between 148-147 BCE.

    Scipio Aemilianus

    • Scipio Aemilianus, the adopted Grandson of Scipio Africanus was elected Consul in 147 BCE.
    • After an unsuccessful breach of the walls by the Romans, Hasdrubal moved the army back into the city where he ruthlessly suppressed any opposition and openly tortured Roman prisoners on the walls. However, with no Carthaginian army to protect them, the surrounding Carthaginian cities allied themselves to the Romans.
    • Scipio built a mole to blockade the city by sea. Eventually the Roman Army made a successfully breach in the walls and after 6 days took the city.
    • Out of the population of Carthage, only 50,000 prisoners were taken and these were sold into slavery.

    The Result

    • Carthage was razed to the ground and Utica became the Capital of the new Roman Province of Africa Proconsularis.
    • In the next century Carthage would be rebuilt and prosper as a Roman city.
    • In 698 CE Roman Carthage finally fell to the Arab Armies. Its ruins lie 15 miles (24km) east of Tunis.

 

Punic port of Carthage, Tunisia

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