TH E ROMAN REPUBLIC Marshall High School Mr. Cline Western Civi lization I: Anci ent Foundations Unit FOUR BA
Rome's Neighbors The Second Samnite War (326-304 BCE) Yet this newfound friendship between Rome and Samnium would not last long. The Romans were eager to spread eastward into the mountains. The Samnites wanted to establish a foothold on the western coast of Italy. As the Romans began establishing colonies in, technically, Samnite land, the Samnites seized control of the city of Neapolis, modern day Naples. The people of Neapolis appealed to Rome for help, and the Second or Great Samnite War began. This war stretched for the better part of two decades with neither side able to pull off a decisive victory.
Rome's Neighbors The Second Samnite War (326-304 BCE) Though Rome suffered some serious setbacks, they quickly learned from their mistakes. To defend their coastal interests, the Romans built their first navy. To move troops around quickly and keep them supplied, the Romans began building an impressive network of roads. To keep up with the constant drain on manpower, Roman conscription reached new levels. To help hold their gains, the Romans established colonies in conquered territory. These decisions not only helped the Romans defeat their rivals, but would also prove instrumental in the future expansion of the empire.
Rome's Neighbors The Second Samnite War (326-304 BCE) By 304 BCE, the Samnites, who had fought so hard to gain access to the western coast, found themselves landlocked. Their coastal territory in eastern Italy fell into Roman hands, and the Samnites were forced to take refuge in their mountain strongholds. The Third Samnite War (298-290 BCE) Frustrated by Rome in central Italy, the Samnites attempted to expand southward, in the vain hope of regaining some sort of coastal territory. They attacked the Lucanians, who, in turn, appealed to Rome for help. Alarmed by this Samnite aggression, Rome once again declared war, beginning the Third (and final) Samnite War.
Rome's Neighbors The Third Samnite War (298-290 BCE) Seeing this as perhaps their last chance to halt the progress of Rome, a wide variety of northern Italians joined forces with the Samnites. Etruscans, Umbrians, even the barbaric Gauls joined forces with Samnium against Rome. Though the Romans were hard pressed to face this unified front, their superior discipline and leadership led them to defeat the combined forces. By 290 BCE, the Samnites had been conquered completely. Rome now controlled central Italy from coast to coast. The Pyrrhic War (280-275 BCE) Having proceeded as far east as they could go, the Romans now turned their eyes south to the lands controlled by Greek colonies.
Rome's Neighbors The Pyrrhic War (280-275 BCE) They found an excuse to start a war when the city of Tarentum sunk some Roman ships off their coast. Rome declared war on Tarentum. Tarentum appealed to the Greek mainland for assistance. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, answered their call. In 280 BCE, Pyrrhus landed in Italy with a significant army. Though King Pyrrhus was nominally victorious, he suffered heavy casualties in his battles with the Romans. The result was a war of attrition. The Romans were simply able to replace soldiers faster than Pyrrhus could.
Rome's Neighbors The Pyrrhic War (280-275 BCE) After less than five years of war, King Pyrrhus was soundly defeated, and the Romans added southern Italy to their territory. A decade later, to the north, the last Etruscan stronghold fell. In two and a half centuries, the Romans had effectively conquered the whole of Italy, from the Arnus river to the tip of the peninsula. Roman Dominance of Italy By the mid third century BCE, the Romans reigned supreme in Italy. They'd squashed the Sabines, vanquished the Volsci, trounced the Etruscans, slaughtered the Samnites, unmanned the Umbrians, messed up the Messapians and even grappled with Greeks. They only stopped fighting because they'd run out of land to conquer. Italy was now entirely under the control of the Roman Republic.
Rome's Neighbors The Pyrrhic War (280-275 BCE) After less than five years of war, King Pyrrhus was soundly defeated, and the Romans added southern Italy to their territory. A decade later, to the north, the last Etruscan stronghold fell. In two and a half centuries, the Romans had effectively conquered the whole of Italy, from the Arnus river to the tip of the peninsula. Roman Dominance of Italy By the mid third century BCE, the Romans reigned supreme in Italy. They'd squashed the Sabines, vanquished the Volsci, trounced the Etruscans, slaughtered the Samnites, unmanned the Umbrians, messed up the Messapians and even grappled with Greeks. They only stopped fighting because they'd run out of land to conquer. Italy was now entirely under the control of the Roman Republic.
Roman Dominance of Italy Yet a threat to Roman supremacy was growing right at their doorstep. Just off the toe of Italy sits the island of Sicily, and that island was being conquered by another ambitious city-state with its own imperial designs. Just across the Mediterranean, on the shores of Africa, stood Carthage. Rome and Carthage: Similarities and Differences Carthage is, in many ways, a mirror of Rome. Carthage was founded as a Phoenecian Colony around 800 BCE; Rome was founded fewer than 50 years later. As a result of this slight delay, the Carthaginians had a small head start on the Romans, and the fact that theirs was a naval empire while Rome was a land empire gave them a still greater advantage.
Rome and Carthage: Similarities and Differences But Carthage's greatest advantage was that it was a Phoenician colony trying to unify other Phoenician colonies, with whom they shared a common language and culture. By contrast, the Romans were invaders forced to fight against dozens of independent peoples who all spoke different languages. Carthage's many advantages meant that Carthage was capital of a prosperous coastal empire that dominated the western Mediterranean. They controlled the northern coast of Africa, the southern coast of Spain and most of the islands of the western Mediterranean, including half of Sicily. By contrast, Rome was the capital of a mere peninsula, albeit a densely populated one. Yet relative size was not the only difference between the Carthaginians and the Romans.
Rome and Carthage: Similarities and Differences Carthage was a city of traders. They were ruled by a council of merchant princes. They were highly civilized, literate and scientifically advanced, though they also may have engaged in human sacrifice. What's important to know now is that the Carthaginians had built their empire through trade and wealth as much as through force. By contrast, Rome was a nation of soldiers and farmers. Their republic was run, in many respects, like an oversized military camp. Roman culture was relatively primitive compared to the advanced Carthaginians. They did not have Carthage's wealth or intercontinental trade routes at their disposal.
Rome and Carthage: Similarities and Differences But what the Romans lacked in money and refinement, they made up for in manpower, strict organization and ferocity. Combining these attributes, the Romans had built their empire through conquest and bloodshed. The First Punic War In 264 BCE the ambitious Roman Republic and the wealthy Carthaginian Empire collided on the island of Sicily in the first Punic War. Pune was the Latin name for the Carthaginians, and is where we get the word puny This war was very similar to Athens' battle with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in that it pitted a powerful army against a large and maneuverable navy. It was a drawn-out, bloody affair, with the Carthaginians trying to keep the battle at sea and the Romans trying to force the battle to land.
The First Punic War After 24 years of continuous warfare that exhausted both cities, Carthage was driven from Sicily and forced to pay Rome a huge war indemnity, or fine. Bankrupted by the war and the indemnity and unable to pay its mercenaries, the Carthaginian Empire was thrown into a mercenary war. Rome took advantage of the chaos to add the islands of Corsica and Sardinia to its growing Mediterranean empire. The Second Punic War: Causes After a while, the Carthaginians got their house in order and sought to expand their empire again. Frustrated at sea by growing Roman dominance, the Carthaginians instead started colonizing the Iberian Peninsula. The native Iberians weren't nearly so viciously organized as the Romans, and the Carthaginians spread easily.
The Second Punic War: Causes The Romans were once again nervous about the growing power of Carthage, or at least that's what the Roman historians say. Personally, I think that Rome was just looking for a new target for their annual warfare since they'd just finished conquering Illyria across the Adriatic in 219 BCE. Whatever the reason, in 218 BCE, Rome declared war and the Second Punic War began. The Roman navy had improved significantly since the beginning of the last Punic War, and they were confident they could hold off any Carthaginian invasion. Yet while the Romans had been beefing up their navy, the Carthaginians had been building up a huge army in Spain.
The Second Punic War: Causes Rome was so fixated on rebuffing the Carthaginian navy that it never occurred to them that someone might be crazy enough to march that big Spanish army over the Alps and invade Italy by land. Yet that is just what the Carthaginian general did. The Second Punic War: Hannibal That general's name was Hannibal, and his military genius made him one of the most fearful figures in Roman history. When Hannibal's army, which included dozens of war elephants, descended from the Alps, he must have felt much like those first Latins had felt looking down on the Italian peninsula a thousand years earlier. Here was a lush land just begging to be conquered. Indeed, had Hannibal not lost his siege engines during his passage through the Alps, he very well might have conquered all of Italy.
* The Man Who Hated Rome A member of Carthage s aristocracy, and a former general in the war who had lost an eye, but had received the cognomen Barca, or thunderbolt, decided to make a military attempt at taking the Iberian peninsula, which the Carthaginians called Hispania and its rich silver mines from the native tribes. Hamilcar Barca led a mercenary force that captured the peninsula in southwestern Spain. His young son begged to be able to go with him and experience military glory, and his father agreed to let young Hannibal accompany him, if he would swear to never be a friend to Rome his entire life, a pledge he later recounted he gladly made.
* The Man Who Hated Rome Hannibal's father went about the conquest of Hispania. When his father drowned in battle, Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal succeeded to his command of the army with Hannibal serving as an officer under him. Hasdrubal pursued a policy of consolidation of Carthage's Iberian interests, even signing a treaty with Rome whereby Carthage would not expand north of the Ebro River, so long as Rome did not expand south of it. Hasdrubal also endeavored to consolidate Carthaginian power through diplomatic relationships with native tribes. As a part of his deals Hasdrubal arranged the marriage between Hannibal and an Iberian princess named Imilce. Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal (221 BC), Hannibal was proclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. Livy gives a depiction of the young Carthaginian: No sooner had he arrived...the old soldiers fancied they saw Hamilcar in his youth given back to them; the same bright look; the same fire in his eye, the same trick of countenance and features. Never was one and the same spirit more skillful to meet opposition, to obey, or to command...
* The Man Who Hated Rome After he assumed command, Hannibal spent two years consolidating his holdings and completing the conquest of Hispania, south of the Ebro. However, Rome, fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, and desiring the riches in silver to be found there, made an alliance with the city of Saguntum, which lay a considerable distance south of the River Ebro and claimed the city as its protectorate. Hannibal perceived this as a breach of the treaty signed with Hasdrubal and so he laid siege to the city, which fell after eight months. Rome reacted to this apparent violation of the treaty and demanded justice from Carthage. In view of Hannibal's great popularity, the Carthaginian government did not repudiate Hannibal's actions, and the war he sought was declared at the end of the year. Hannibal was now determined to carry the war into the heart of Italy by a rapid march through Hispania and southern Gaul.
* The Man Who Hated Rome Hannibal recognized that he needed to cross the Pyrenees, the Alps, and many significant rivers to get to Rome. Additionally, he would have to contend with opposition from the Gauls, whose territory he passed through. Starting in the spring of 218 BC, he crossed the Pyrenees and, by conciliating the Gaulish chiefs along his passage, reached the River Rhône before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance. Arriving at the Rhône in September, Hannibal's army numbered 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants, most of which could not survive the harsh conditions. The task was daunting to say the least. It involved the mobilization of between 60,000 and 100,000 troops and the training of a war-elephant corps, all of which had to be provisioned along the way. The alpine invasion of Italy was a military operation that would shake the Mediterranean World of 218 BC with repercussions for more than two decades. It was a world war in the sense that it involved about three-quarters of the population of the entire Punic-Greco- Roman world and few people living in the Mediterranean were able to escape it. Virtually every family in Rome lost a member or members in the swath of destruction brought down on them by Hannibal and his Carthaginian armies
* The Man Who Hated Rome Hannibal fought several battles, but his three most notable have been studied for centuries, even up to the modern day, by military commanders and strategists. The first battle of note was after he had crossed the Alps at a town named Trebia. He had been reinforced by Gaulish and Ligurian allies, so that his army numbered 40,000 men. The Romans were completely surprised by his crossing of the Alps, and had expected to meet him in Hispania. The commander of these troops, Publius Cornelius Scipio, rushed his men across the sea to meet Hannibal in the Po River valley of northern Italy. Scipio was also reinforced by the army of the other Roman Consul, Sempronius Longus. However, Hannibal outflanked them with his cavalry, and his war elephants, though reduced greatly in number, frightened the Romans, and the Roman Legions were shredded. Publius Cornelius Scipio almost died on the field, and if it had not been for the bravery of his son of the same name, who would later become Hannibal s greatest opponent, Publius would have perished that day on the battlefield.
* The Man Who Hated Rome The second battle of note was on Lake Trasimene. The new Consuls of Rome, Gnaeus Servilius and Gaius Flaminius thought Hannibal may be advancing on Rome, and so they sent Roman legions to block the eastern and western routes to the city, which were the only passable ways in. The only alternate route to central Italy lay at the mouth of the Arno. This area was practically one huge marsh, and happened to be overflowing more than usual during this particular season. Hannibal knew that this route was full of difficulties, but it remained the surest and certainly the quickest way to central Italy. Polybius, a Roman historian who lived at this time, claims Hannibal's men marched for four days and three nights, through a land that was under water, suffering terribly from fatigue and enforced want of sleep. He crossed the Apennines (during which he lost his right eye because of conjunctivitis) and the seemingly impassable Arno without opposition, but in the marshy lowlands of the Arno, he lost a large part of his force. After arriving in Etruria, a city in central Italy, Hannibal decided to draw Flaminius Army, which was nearby, into battle by ravaging the region. However, Flaminius kept his army intact and allowed Hannibal to do this without being baited into a battle set on Hannibal s terms. He assumed that Hannibal would eventually run out of supplies in his destruction, while Flaminius was comfortably supplied by Rome in his rear.
* The Man Who Hated Rome Since Flaminius would not budge, Hannibal marched around his left flank and cut him off from Rome. This left the Roman Consul no choice but to engage Hannibal. This was the first recorded turning movement in military history. Flaminius quickly pursued Hannibal, and coming through a defile was trapped by Hannibal between the pass and the shores of the lake and was destroyed, and himself killed. It was the second greatest defeat in all of Roman history in terms of men lost. The greatest defeat was yet to come in the third, and most important, great battle in Hannibal s career, The Battle of Cannae. The Romans now knew there was nothing between their city and Hannibal, and panicked. They elected Fabius Maximus as their dictator, and he initiated the strategy now named after him as Fabian Warfare, that would allow Hannibal to ravage the countryside while small units of Romans would observe his movements and harass his flanks. In this way Fabian hoped to rebuild his forces and tire Hannibal s forces. Hannibal realized that without siege engines he would not be able to take Rome, and so he had decided to enter central and southern Italy and encourage a general revolt by the Roman allies against their overlord.
* The Man Who Hated Rome The Roman Senate was not impressed with Fabius style of warfare, as they wanted to destroy Hannibal. And, when Hannibal escaped into central Italy when Fabius did not pursue him after falling for his trick of making the Romans think they were escaping into the dense woods of the central plain in order to draw the Romans off of the passes so they could move south and winter in comfortable lands, did not renew his term as dictator. In the spring of 216 BC, Hannibal took the initiative and seized the large supply depot at Cannae in the Apulian plain. By capturing Cannae, Hannibal had placed himself between the Romans and their crucial sources of supply. Once the Roman Senate resumed their consular elections in 216 BC, they appointed Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as consuls. In the meantime, the Romans, hoping to gain success through sheer strength and weight of numbers, raised a new army of unprecedented size, estimated by some to be as large as 100,000 men, but more likely around 50-80,000. This force marched out to meet Hannibal near the town of Cannae. There they met, and while the Romans placed themselves in a classical front of stacked Legionary Infantry Units, with supporting cavalry on the wings, Hannibal devised one of the most classical, and studied, strategies in the world.