The Second Punic War is synonymous with Hannibal, a brave and resourceful Carthaginian general, who won numerous victories but lost the war. In an unexpected move in the year 218 BC, Hannibal moved north through Spain and France and crossed the Alps into Rome (Italy) with an army of about thirty thousand men. The Romans were stunned by the move, but responded promptly. Several battles were fought which were all significant Carthaginian victories. Fabian, elected consul of Rome after these enemy victories, managed to avoid losing to Hannibal by simply refusing battle. Fabian would keep to the hills where Hannibal’s cavalry was ineffective and then attack the Carthaginian troops where they were weak. The Roman Senate quickly tired of this strategy and relieved Fabian after he failed to stop Hannibal from reaching winter quarters; nevertheless, Fabian did keep the vital local tribes loyal to Rome. After Fabian’s dismissal the Senate decided to take the Carthaginian straight on. The legions finally pulled Hannibal into a decisive battle outside the village of Cannae in Southern Italy in 216 BC. As the Roman legions approached it appeared Hannibal was at last going to be overthrown. He was outnumbered, and the Romans were very certain of their legions’ ability to fight.
In the Republic era of Rome two consuls ruled, which allowed one to go to war while the other stayed to rule in the capitol of Rome. Normally, a consul would have two legions with him, however, in the previous battles Hannibal had destroyed the two legions and its consul. This had never happened before; hence, the Romans decided to respond with a maximum effort. At Cannae, the Romans had assembled both consuls and four legions.
Cannae
Cannae was one of the great military encounters of all time. Hannibal’s outnumbered army annihilated a much larger Roman army through arranging his forces in a shallow crescent formation and allowing the center to give way as the Roman legions advanced. Using his superb cavalry and strong flanks that had not given ground, Hannibal then pushed in both the Roman flanks and surrounded the legions. In the densely packed center, the Romans could not fight, retreat, or maneuver. The resulting victory was total. Out of approximately fifty thousand legionaries, thirty-five thousand found their graves, while Hannibal lost about 5,700. (Some reports say seventy thousand legionaries fought, and fifty thousand died).[34]
Figure 11 Hannibal at Cannae
Hannibal now controlled Central Italy, but he could not take the city of Rome because of its stout walls. Hannibal did pillage the countryside for sixteen years, causing widespread economic problems in central and southern Rome, but his main objective, persuading the numerous tribes in Italy allied with Rome to change sides, eluded him. Since Hannibal now controlled Central Italy, he sent for reinforcements from Carthage to replace his losses and put even more pressure on Rome; but reinforcements did not appear. Enemies of Hannibal in Carthage blocked sending high-quality troops to Italy and this effectively eliminated the brilliant general’s chances of beating Rome.
One Roman general decided he could conquer Hannibal by not attacking him, at least, he would not directly attack right away. Scipio Africanus assaulted Hannibal’s base in Spain thus depriving the Carthaginian of reinforcements and other support. Scipio had hit and hurt the army of Carthage in Italy through his conquests in Spain, and Hannibal’s strength faded even as he continued to engage Roman armies in Southern Italy. Scipio then landed in North Africa thereby causing Carthage to recall Hannibal. In this way Scipio at last extracted Hannibal from Italy by not confronting him. This was a brilliant move, forever placing Scipio among the world’s best generals. Hannibal met General Scipio not far from Carthage at the battle of Zama in 202 BC, where Rome won the final battle of the Second Punic War. Reduced to little more than a small city-state on the Southern Mediterranean, Carthage would slowly grow prospers one last time. To his credit, Scipio did not burn Carthage to the ground or otherwise unwisely harm her citizens. His peace treaty did strip Carthage of its lands and its treasury, but considering what the Romans had done to other enemies, this was a peace long on generosity. Scipio thus won both the war and the peace. This has seldom been accomplished. Through his masterful victories and his thoughtful peace Scipio Africanus placed himself among the greatest men in antiquity. Eliminated as a threat, Carthage remained a semi-prosperous city at the edge of the empire, thus benefiting Rome through trade and taxes. Other Roman leaders destroyed the efforts of the gifted Scipio for reasons of pride and little else.
“Carthage must die” was the dull refrain of Cato, a Roman senator, who ended every speech in the Roman Senate with that slogan. Rome got its chance for another war with Carthage in 149 BC by siding with Numidia (an African state) against their old enemy. Carthage was a shadow of its former self and was quickly defeated by 146 BC, succumbing after a short siege. Rome razed the city, sowing salt on the land (thereby preventing crops being grown there) and declaring northern Africa a Roman colony. The inhabitants of Carthage were either murdered or taken away as slaves. Hannibal fled the city, but the emissaries of Rome followed. Discovered by Rome’s agents in the eastern Mediterranean, Hannibal died by his own hand far away from his beloved Carthage.
The Punic wars gave Rome control of the western Mediterranean and set Rome on the road to a massive empire. The key to its growth was its professional army that was rigorously trained, superbly disciplined, well armed, and well led. The Roman legions worked together and fought as a united entity. Often faced with enemies who outnumbered them dramatically, the Roman legions managed to outgeneral and outfight the less-disciplined throngs that defied them.
The Army, the Republic, and the Empire
The Roman Army after 107 BC centered on the legion, consisting of six thousand men divided into ten cohorts of six hundred men. Each cohort then divided into six “centuries” of one hundred men lead by a centurion. Support troops normally accompanied the legions, such as archers, slingers, cavalry, and skirmishers that may have numbered up to an additional six thousand per legion. The legion in formation had remarkable flexibility, and in the hands of generals like Julius Caesar, Marius, and Sulla, it proved to be nearly unbeatable. With these formations Rome conquered Greece, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, Portugal, Gaul (present-day France), part of England and Germany, the Balkans, Turkey, and for a time Mesopotamia.
As Rome expanded, its armies patrolled the empire, protected trade, and enforced Roman law. Whatever else Rome was, it was also an empire of trade. Numerous ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea, many with tons of cargo in their holds bound for the various ports around the empire. For trade the Romans constructed wooden super ships, some over 200 feet long, that could carry up to 2000 tons (that’s right—TONS) of cargo.[35] Obviously, the Romans were serious about trade. Roman conquests around the coast of Turkey, and its access to the Black Sea, permitted Rome’s traders to receive goods from the orient, central Asia, and other faraway places, spreading it about the empire on its fine roads and Mediterranean waterways. Observe that the Mediterranean Sea was at the very center of the Roman Empire; thus, one could travel by boat to almost any important point in the Empire (note the importance of geography . . . again). This successful economy helped made Rome rich, although plunder from its conquests was an important addition. As time went on, Rome ceased to expand and encountered economic troubles beyond its capacity to solve. Splendor has its price.
Rome did not start out as an empire; rather it started as a republic with representatives from the tribes that made up Roman culture having a vote on the management of the state. The elites governed the Roman Republic, and gave the lower classes few rights. Landed nobles (Patricians) ran the Roman Senate, numbering about three hundred men, although it grew larger in the twilight years of the republic (as many as six hundred or more).[36] During the Republic the Romans appointed two men as head of state, both known as consuls. Each man had to agree on any action taken. The Romans wanted to avoid giving too much power to one man; thus, they adopted a system of dual representation at the top post. The Romans rotated the consuls annually. By this m
ethod they were trying to keep the consuls’ popularity low, forestalling a mob installed dictator. This fear of a charismatic personality controlling “the mob” in democratic governments remains today. The framers of the US Constitution were well aware of Rome’s problems. During the Republic the Senate adopted the laws, and the citizens elected the Senate anew each year. Not everyone was a citizen, but it was an electoral process where the citizens decided who made the laws. This grossly oversimplifies Rome’s way of government during the Republic, but the keys were a division of power, so no one could win perpetual rule, the vote by Rome’s citizens to decide their leaders, and an open government where decisions were openly debated and openly made. However, away from the forum trouble was brewing.
The real problem was the army. Landowners serving for part of each year originally made up the Roman army; however, as the years rolled on the army became professional and answered to their commanders rather than the Roman Senate. The change came about after a rather minor event in North Africa, where an ally of Rome, Numidia, had a succession problem. After Numidia’s king died in 118 BC, his nephew Jugurtha seized the crown. The new usurper king turned out to be murdering slime and was soon at war with Rome; however, the Romans did not do well in the long and expensive campaigns. Gaius Marius then appeared on the scene and completely reorganized the Roman Army. The early legions used the “maniple” of 60 men, usually arranged in 4 to 5 rows of 15 columns. Each row carried different weapons. During the wars of the later Republic, the number of rows decreased and weapons improved, but by the time of the war with Numidia fundamental changes were necessary. Long campaigns far from native soil were not possible for a citizen army needing to go home and tend to farms and families; thus, Marius introduced a professional army that could stay at war indefinitely. He allowed non-land owners to join which attracted numerous recruits of homeless farmers to fill the ranks. The weapons standardized, the standard formation was reduced to three rows, and Marius reorganized the keystone unit from the maniple to the cohort which consisted of 3 maniples or 120 men. [37] This army brought Jugurtha to defeat, and won the rest of the Roman Empire; however, it also welded the men to their commander. As a professional army they followed where the commander led, even if that road led to Rome itself.[38]
The Roman and Latin tribes were unrelated, and Roman arrogance finally drove the Latin people into revolt. This was one of intense rivalry, only ending after a Roman compromise proposed by Lucius Caesar (father of one Julius Caesar) was accepted. Under laws proposed by Lucius, the Latins would at last be citizens of Rome. One war ending and another one starting was typical for this age. As the Latin war raged, Mithridates, a king in Asia Minor, revolted. Mithridates’ revolt was defeated, but along the way to victory Marius and one of his former generals, Cornelius Sulla, started a Roman civil war with one another. Sulla won and then marched on Rome. The Roman constitution forbade such a move, but Sulla had an excellent army and simply entered the city and took charge. He murdered his opponents (a common Roman theme), reformed Roman law, and then left again to finish off the rebels in Asia Minor. Sulla established the precedent of a general at the head of his army entering the city of Rome to establish order. Of course, “order” is in the eye of the beholder.
After Sulla left the city, Marius returned to Rome and purged anyone associated with Sulla (that murder thing again). Marius swiftly expanded the purges which spread fear throughout the city of Rome. Sulla, victoriously finished with rebellions in Asia Minor and Greece, then returned to Rome and once more defeated the followers of Marius. As might be expected, he then purged those aligned with his opponent and became dictator. He retired in 80 BC after a successful rule as dictator. Two of Sulla’s most competent officers were Pompey and Crassus, who would play a role in future Roman political and military intrigue. It was Crassus and Pompey who finally crushed the rebellion of the slave and gladiator Spartacus.
In Rome, as the Republic gave way to popular generals such as Caesar and the establishment of an empire, the crowd (or mob as some would say) gained additional influence. The generals who wanted to expand their clout promised the crowds of Rome great benefits for backing them. A bidding war of sorts began with each popular general promising more if the mobs would back him instead of a rival. [39] In Rome itself, a kind of class warfare prevailed with the Plebes clashing with the Patricians for wealth and power. Later Roman emperors simply bribed the crowds with “bread and circuses,” which was free entertainment in the arena and free bread for the public. The mobs in the city of Rome grew so dangerous that a legion was posted there to protect the emperor from his public. This legion, the Praetorian Guard, became ever more powerful because they could kill the emperor as easily as protect him; however, we are not yet at the death of the Republic and the establishment of emperors. Back to history.
Pompey went on to kick Rome’s enemies sideways from Greece to Egypt, while back in Rome Crassus had joined with Julius Caesar[40] in a financial partnership making them both wealthier. Caesar became consul for one year and began to redistribute land to the poor of Rome, making him the champion of the masses. After serving as consul he took over the governorship of Gaul (France today), and demonstrated that he was a man of outstanding military talents by conquering the whole place. He wrote a book on his brilliant conquests thereby showing himself to be a master propaganda artist as well. Crassus felt he needed to prove himself a general as well, so he invaded Parthia. Parthia was a large empire on the eastern edge of Rome. These Parthian’s had repelled Roman incursions before and were skilled warriors. They were especially good with the bow and arrow. Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome but no general, died like a ensnared rat in Mesopotamia near the city of Carrhae, along with 70,000 Roman legionnaires doing porcupine imitations because of all the Parthian arrows sticking out of them. The Parthian army had brought up caravans of arrows for the fight. Ouch! After this encounter Rome stayed away from Parthia . . . of course, no Roman general had wanted to invade in the first place.
Caesar, seeing that the informal triumvirate of himself, Pompey, and Crassus, had been undone by Parthia, wanted to march on Rome from Gaul with his victorious army and establish himself as dictator; however, under Roman law a general had to abandon the position of commander upon re-entry into Italy (at the Rubicon River). Caesar marched up to the Rubicon, the boundary no general could legally pass with his legions. Pompey, who was in Rome, convinced the Senate to remind Caesar he must not enter Rome with his army. The Republic was at the brink. The legions were now loyal to their commanders, whom they had served under for years and enjoyed scores of victories. This made the legions servants of their commanders and not the Republic and its Senate. This divided loyalty doomed the Roman Republic.
Caesar, against the orders of the Senate, crossed the Rubicon (a river in Northern Italy)[41] and entered Rome to the triumphant roar of the greedy citizens. Caesar was loved by the masses of Rome, and by distributing money and land to the plebes he increased his popularity. What followed was a series of civil wars between Caesar and his rivals (Pompey, Crassus, Anthony and their allies) which Caesar won. Caesar returned to Rome triumphant. The mobs of Rome adored him. After his return he was made perpetual dictator; however, not everyone wanted Rome under a dictatorship, no matter how wise the dictator.[42] A few members of the Senate formed a conspiracy to eliminate Caesar, thus regaining the republic. This group murdered Caesar in the Forum on the ides of March (the fifteenth) in 44 BC.
Before going on, we need to discuss a smallish fire. No, not a fire destroying a city, or a fleet, or a forest—just one building. This fire destroyed the Library at Alexandria, the largest library in the ancient world and the depository of all the knowledge of the time. Plutarch said Caesar started the fire accidently while burning enemy boats in 48 BC, but what really caused the conflagration is unclear. The books of the ancient world were scrolls, normally just rolled up and placed in wooden holders like wine racks. The fire easily burned the library and all its contents, dep
riving our world of the knowledge of their world. When the library burned thousands of years of history and learning burned as well. This was a disaster beyond measure. If I could reverse one event in the ancient world the burning of the Library at Alexandria would be it.
Figure 12 Roman Empire at its height under Trajan—115 AD
In spite of the elimination of Caesar, the republic failed to reassert itself and another period of civil war began with Octavian battling the conspirators. Eventually, Gaius Octavian (later Augustus) won the wars against those who plotted the assassination of Caesar, and he took over as Caesar Augustus.[43] Under Augustus, the office of dictator would transmute into Roman Emperor. Augustus was one of Rome’s greatest leaders. Under his rule, the Pax Romana (Roman peace) initiated two hundred years of peace within the empire, the poor were fed, land was given to the soldiers and numerous building projects were undertaken increasing the opulence of the city. Unfortunately, the civil wars had undermined the Roman Legions, and upon those legions the safety of the Empire rested.
While all these earth-shaking events were transpiring, a small event took place in a remote and grimy province on the very fringe of the Roman Empire. It was an event gathering no notice at the time, but it was a world-changing moment. Jesus the Christ was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem in AD 33. Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God (Messiah of the Jews) during his 3 year ministry, but the Jews rejected him and demanded the Romans crucify him as a blasphemer. The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, gave Jesus over for scourging and crucifixion with two criminals that same day. Three days later, his infinitesimal group of followers, who fled and hid on his arrest, began to claim Jesus had risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, and truly was the Son of God. From this insignificant event in an insignificant place the Christian religion was born.[44]
The Super Summary of World History Page 8