|
:: Menu :: |
:: The Corners of History :: |
|
|
Main - Home - Links - Recommendations - Staff - Contacts
Greece Rome China Japan |
Rome's Wars with Carthage and its Impact Upon Rome's Rise
to Empire The wars of Rome against Carthage brought about changes to the Republic. One major change was the establishing of the Empire. The Punic Wars installed many new ideas into the citizens of Rome, but the main idea was expansion. The first Punic War (264 B.C.) was fought over control of Sicily. The Carthaginians were the greatest Naval power at the time, and to fight against them, Rome had to acquire new tactics and a navy. The Romans found a Carthaginian quinquereme along the coast of Sicily. With the help of Greeks, the Romans built one-hundred copies in 60 days of the battleship. The Romans not accustomed to battle on water, the ramming and all, they developed the corvus. The corvus was a large plank with an iron spike on the end. Connected the quinquereme, the plank was dropped on top of the enemy boat and the Roman soldiers ran across it to fight hand-to-hand. In 241 B.C., the Carthaginians signed a treaty with Rome. In the treaty, Carthage gave up Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia to Rome. The Romans now controlled trade of the Western Mediterranean and new territories outside of the Italian Peninsula: their first expansion. Controlling trade brought about the Paradox of Empire and Expansion. Rome now received slaves and imports of grain from its newly acquired territory. Before the war, the grain had come from the Roman farmers, which were the foundation of the Republic. Now with imports, the grain of the new territory became cheaper than how much the farmers sold it for, this put farmers out of work. With so many unemployed, the Senate voted for ghettos to be made. The Second Punic War (218 B.C.) started because Carthage wanted to have dominance again. A Carthaginian general named Hannibal attacked not head on, but from the north. He marched into Western Africa, up through Spain, and along the Pyrenees and Gaul to Italy. He had about 150 elephants with him, but when he came out of the Alps, one elephant and 55,000 men remained. Though he beat many Roman armies in Northern Italy, his main goal was to make the other Italian cities revolt against Rome; but they didn’t. While Hannibal was in Italy, a Roman general names Scipio Africanus went to Spain, and then into Africa. Learning of this, Hannibal sailed back and was defeated in 202 B.C. at the battle of Zama. Again, Carthage signed a treaty, and this time Rome received Spain and North Africa, but they did not destroy Carthage. The Third and final Punic War began in 149 B.C., when Carthage refused to move inland of Africa. This time, Rome attacked the city itself. The people who were not killed were sold into slavery. In 146 B.C., the city of Carthage was destroyed, and the Roman Army salted the city so nothing else could grow. After the battles with Carthage, Rome was revered as a super power. Along with the paradox of grain, slaves coming from the war were too many. Having slaves means you don’t have to pay them, leaving even more Romans unemployed. Also, the treasures from war were a major crisis. With money, the Republic made bad decisions as far as the unemployed goes. Building ghettos: they just threw money at the problem but didn’t address it. Also, the money led to corruption. All these factors led to the Roman Empire, just 175 years after the last Punic War.
Copyright © 2002 Jessica
(Webmasteress) |
|
|
|
