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Page 4 of 9 Article Outline Introduction; Early History; Life in Early Rome; The Roman Republic ; The Legacy of the Roman Republic
Roman writers like Livy took patriotic pride in recounting Rome’s rise to domination of the entire Mediterranean world, which they portrayed as part of a divine plan. Rome’s conquests began with the defeat of the Etruscans and Rome’s other Latin neighbors, whose lands were placed under Roman rule. Eventually Rome conquered the communities in the central mountains, the Greek cities of the south, and the Gauls of the Po River valley. And since the winners write history, little is known of how the defeated peoples viewed these wars.
Early Rome was a small city, but it had inherited a tradition of expansion from the Etruscans. The drive for expansion and acquisition of new territory was fueled by a growing population, the need for land grants for the plebeians, a competitive ethic among the leading families, and their need for property to give to their sons. Rome was able to expand in part because it was more politically stable than its enemies. Despite the social turmoil of the early republic, the Romans usually settled conflict by compromise as increasingly empowered plebs provided the manpower for Rome’s armies. The Romans adopted an aggressive military policy, but they were not strong enough to become masters of the Italian peninsula immediately. They fought for nearly a century just to ensure their safety from the Etruscans. They also faced invasion by the Gauls, a people of the Celtic language group who inhabited most of modern-day France and northern Italy. The disastrous sack of Rome by the raiders from Gaul in 390 bc could well have ended the city’s history, even though patriotic fiction has since minimized the event. At that time some Romans argued that they should emigrate; instead, citizens made the momentous decision to rebuild Rome. During the next century the Romans capitalized on their advantageous geographical position in the center of the peninsula, as the Etruscan cities to the north and Greek cities to the south fought amongst themselves. The Romans made their army more flexible by adopting javelins, using cavalry, and organizing the infantry in small groups (called maniples) which were superior in mountain fighting. These new military methods eventually allowed Rome to conquer all of Italy and achieve the first political unification of the peninsula. Immediately to the south of Rome was the Latin League, composed of 30 cities that shared their language and religious festivals. During the 5th and 4th centuries bc, Rome increasingly dominated these cities and eventually dissolved the league and made subjects of both the Latins and the Etruscans. About the same time, Rome expanded further southward and annexed the rich farmland of Campania, a region bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea. Expansion brought Rome into conflict with the mountain peoples of central Italy, the Samnites, who conducted frequent raids against the cities of Campania. The Campanians formed a league centered on the town of Capua and invited Rome to defend them against the Samnites. The Romans fought three bitter campaigns against the Samnites between 343 and 290 bc. Despite some serious losses, Rome ultimately prevailed. Once the Romans secured dominance over the Etruscans in northern Italy and the Samnites in central Italy, they then began to challenge the Greek cities that still controlled the peninsula south of the Bay of Naples. These cities sought aid against the Romans from King Pyrrhus of Epirus in northern Greece. Pyrrhus had gained a reputation as a brilliant adventurer who had won many battles, although with huge loss of life (thus the term Pyrrhic victories). He invaded Italy, but despite early victories against Roman armies, he was eventually defeated. By 266 bc Rome controlled Italy from the plains of the Po River valley in the northern part of the peninsula to its southernmost tip. The city on the Tiber River had vanquished all enemies within Italy. The next step was to cross a narrow waterway, the Strait of Messina, to the fertile island of Sicily. The Romans referred to the defeated Latin, Italian, and Greek cities as allies, but they were, in fact, Roman subjects. Rome gave full citizenship to the people of only a few of these cities; most others received more limited privileges such as intermarriage and trading rights. Rome required these cities, known as municipia, to pay taxes and to supply detachments for the Roman army, but otherwise allowed self-government in internal affairs. Rome also established military colonies throughout the peninsula to ensure loyalty and protect the coast from pirates and invaders. The Romans, in comparison to other ancient peoples, were generous in granting citizenship to freed slaves. They were slower in extending citizenship to newly conquered peoples, although in time they did grant citizenship to their loyal subjects throughout Italy and eventually, after 212 bc, throughout the entire Mediterranean world. That generosity and Rome’s adaptability to new circumstances were, perhaps, the chief reasons for the success of this small city in conquering, and ultimately transforming, so many neighbors.
After its conquest of Italy, Rome next came into conflict with the most dangerous enemy it had ever encountered, Carthage. Merchants from the coast of Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) had established the city of Carthage on North Africa’s Gulf of Tunis about 800 bc. Carthage grew into the greatest military power of the western Mediterranean. Its armies were composed of hired soldiers known as mercenaries and led by generals from hereditary military families. Carthage founded its own colonies, subjugated nearby Africans to gain access to their rich agricultural lands, and controlled trade across the western Mediterranean. Carthage’s historical importance was based on its confrontations with Rome rather than its culture. The Romans used the adjective Punic to describe the people of Carthage, who were known as Poeni because of their Phoenician descent. Very little Punic writing survives, so knowledge of ancient Carthage comes primarily from descriptions by its Greek and Roman enemies. The cultural or intellectual life in Carthage was limited; the only known book was a manual on agriculture that was later translated for Roman settlers. Rome’s eventual victory in its struggles against Carthage ensured that Greco–Roman rather than Near Eastern civilization would dominate in the western Mediterranean region. The Carthaginians, like their Phoenician ancestors, were seafarers and traders, and the earliest treaties between Rome and Carthage concerned commercial rights. The city of Carthage controlled the coast of Spain as well as the islands of Malta, Sardinia, and much of Sicily. Rome’s spectacular growth during the 3rd century bc caused concern for its rival, even though Rome’s empire was land-based, while Carthage relied on naval supremacy for dominance.
Warfare between Rome and Carthage began in the Sicilian city of Messina. The mercenary soldiers who controlled that city initially invited Carthage to provide military support against King Hiero II of Syracuse, but they then appealed to Rome for aid against the Carthaginians. At the time fighting broke out in 264 bc, Carthage was wealthier than Rome. It also had the greatest navy in the Mediterranean, while the Romans had never fought on the sea. Rome built a navy, but the city’s generals, lacking any experience in the strategy of naval warfare, decided to model sea battles after land battles. The Romans used grappling hooks to hold enemy ships while infantry soldiers boarded them for hand-to-hand combat. This clumsy but practical technique allowed the Romans to defeat the Punic fleet. The Romans suffered many setbacks, but their tenacity carried them through the war. In 242 bc, a Roman commander boldly attacked a Punic fleet in stormy seas. A triumph resulted, as Roman forces sank 50 Carthaginian ships and captured 70 more. Carthage surrendered, and Rome received Carthaginian possessions in Sicily as well as a payment of 3,200 talents—the equivalent of a year’s pay for 200,000 Roman soldiers. With these naval victories, Rome became the leading power in the western Mediterranean. See also Punic Wars
Carthage, a city of fewer than 500,000 people, struggled to pay the enormous sum owed to Rome after the First Punic War. Officials dispatched Carthage’s leading general, Hamilcar Barca, to Spain, where he attempted to develop colonies that would help pay the war reparations. He successfully conquered much of Spain and developed rich mines there. In 221 bc Hamilcar’s son Hannibal became commander of Carthaginian forces in Spain, and over the next 20 years this young general became the most successful commander ever to face the Romans in battle. When Rome made an alliance with the Spanish city of Saguntum, Hannibal regarded this action as interference in Carthaginian affairs and laid siege to Saguntum. In 218 bc Rome declared war on Carthage for the second time. The Romans expected to fight the war in Spain, but Hannibal surprised them and invaded Italy first. In one of the great marches of military history, he brought his army with its African war elephants across southern France and through the Alps mountains into northern Italy—all in only five months. He lost one-third of his own troops during the icy crossing, but the Gauls of northern Italy quickly defected to his side, giving him 50,000 men under arms in the spring of 217 bc. This number was still far fewer than the half a million soldiers Rome could theoretically recruit in Italy, but Hannibal’s personal resourcefulness and his military genius sustained the Carthaginian army in Italy for almost 15 years. After Hannibal demolished a Roman army in a battle at Lake Trasimene (Lago Trasimeno) in 217 bc, the impatient Roman Assembly wanted dramatic action and a quick solution. The consuls were authorized to attack, but Hannibal outsmarted his adversaries, and his cavalry overwhelmed the Roman legions at the Battle of Cannae in 216 bc. According to the Greek historian Polybius, Rome lost nearly 70,000 citizens and allied troops with another 10,000 captured, while fewer than 6,000 Carthaginians fell. It was the greatest defeat ever inflicted on Roman troops and remains a textbook case of the destruction of a larger army by a smaller one. The terrible losses at Cannae provoked a brief panic in Rome, but the battle proved to be a turning point in the Roman military effort. The rich contributed to the war through voluntary contributions and allowed their slaves to serve as rowers for the fleet. Enlistments rose and even slaves were drafted, so that there were about 240,000 men under arms by 212 bc. Finally, the Assembly allowed the more cautious Senate to control the conduct of the war. Between 214 and 210 bc, Rome regained the great cities of southern Italy (Capua and Tarentum) and Sicily (Syracuse and Agrigentum). Rome carried its offensive to Spain in 209 bc, when troops led by the young general Publius Cornelius Scipio, cut the Carthaginian supply lines. The following year Scipio defeated Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal, and the Romans drove the Carthaginians out of Spain once and for all. The Carthaginian army under Hannibal was also having trouble in Italy because Carthage had refused to send additional reinforcements and weapons. In 207 bc Hasdrubal crossed over the Pyrenees Mountains from Spain to assist him, but was killed by the Romans in a battle at the Metaurus River in northern Italy. Roman troops next invaded Africa, and Hannibal was recalled from Italy to defend Carthaginian territory. In 202 bc at the Battle of Zama, Scipio defeated Hannibal and thereafter gained the honorary title Africanus—the conqueror of Africa. He later became known as Scipio Africanus the Elder when his adopted grandson also became a military hero. Rome assessed Carthage with an enormous fine to be paid over 50 years and, more devastatingly, forced Carthage to relinquish all possessions outside Africa, to restore territory to Rome’s ally King Masinissa of Numidia (present-day Algeria), and to retain only ten ships. Carthage would never again threaten Rome.
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