Punic Wars Begin, 264 B.C.
DISCovering World History. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
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Punic Wars Begin, 264 B.C.
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Use of military force
Principal Personages
Hiero, King of Syracuse 265-215 B.C.
Appius Claudius Caudex, consul in 264 B.C. and leader of the prowar faction in Rome, who led the first campaign
into Sicily
Marcus Atilus Regulus, consul in 267 and 256 B.C., another leader of the war party who led the Roman invasion of
Africa
Hamilcar Barca (270- 229), Carthaginian general in Sicily at the end of the war, and father of Hannibal the Great
Summary of Event
The first Punic War was a milestone in Roman history. Entry into this conflict committed Rome to a policy of
expansion on an altogether new scale; prosecution of the war marked the emergence of Rome as a world power;
disposition of conquered territories reshaped its political condition domestically as well as in foreign affairs.
The Mediterranean world in the early third century B.C. consisted in the east of large territorial empires in areas
conquered by Alexander the Great. In the west was Carthage, dominating the coasts of Africa and Spain, while Rome
ruled a network of allied cities in central Italy. In the center was Sicily, the only portion of the Greek world where the
imperial ideal had failed to replace the older system of numerous independent city-states. Sicily was an anachronism,
certain to attract efforts on the part of the Hellenistic monarchies to attach it to one or another of the eastern Empires.
Carthage and Rome were equally certain to resist the establishment of Hellenistic powers in the western
Mediterranean. When Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, led his armies into Italy and Sicily, he first met the resistance of Rome,
then of Carthage. The failure of his Sicilian campaign between 280 and 275 B.C., left a power vacuum little different
from that which existed before, and it was only a matter of time before Rome and Carthage could be expected to
come into conflict there.
The occasion of Roman involvement in Sicily, and the beginning of the First Punic War, may have seemed of
relatively slight importance. The Mamertines, once mercenary soldiers of Syracuse who had seized the city of
Messana and used it as a base of operations in northeast Sicily, found themselves threatened by the growing power
of Hiero, King of Syracuse. They called on the Carthaginians for aid, but then, fearing domination by these traditional
rivals, requested aid from Rome in order to expel the Carthaginian garrison. Rome was a land power with no navy.
The Roman senate, fearing overseas campaigns against a naval power, refused to accept the Mamertines' overtures.
But the Roman people, perhaps foreseeing the prosperity they might gain from involvement in the rich territories of
Sicily, perhaps merely failing to foresee the extent of the military operations they were initiating, voted to aid the
Mamertines. Appius Claudius Caudex, a leader in the prowar faction, was elected consul for the year 264 B.C. and
led an expedition to Sicily.
In the first phase of the war, the Roman forces aided Messana, while Carthage supported Syracuse. But this phase,
and with it the original pretext for the war, was soon over. Hiero of Syracuse had no interest in matching his power
against Rome's, nor in being dominated by his erstwhile allies. In 263 B.C., Hiero made peace with Rome on terms
that left him extensive territories as well as his independence. Messana was saved. But Carthage and Rome now
were in a struggle that neither cared to give up.
Between 262 and 256, Rome pressed hard, driving the Carthaginians into a limited number of military strongholds,
and mounting her first fleet, which met with surprising success against the experienced Carthaginian navy. In 256,
under the consul Marcus Atilius Regulus, Rome transported an army into North Africa; it had initial successes, but the
Carthaginians, directed by the Greek mercenary Xanthippus, succeeded the next year in destroying the forces of
Rome.
Back in Sicily, the fortunes of war took many turns. On land, Rome controlled extensive territories but Carthage held
her strongholds. At sea, the Roman navy was often victorious even though the loss of one fleet in battle and of others
in storms weakened her position. By 247, both powers were fatigued. Peace negotiations stalled, but military efforts
were at a minimum for some years.
In 244, the Roman government, too exhausted to build a new fleet, allowed a number of private individuals to mount
one with the understanding that they should be repaid if the war were brought to a successful conclusion. In 242 this
fleet arrived in Sicily. When a convoy of transports bringing supplies to Carthage's troops was captured, Carthage
came to terms. The Carthaginians agreed to evacuate Sicily and pay an enormous indemnity over a long period of
time.
Sicily, or many of the territories in it, became Rome's first province. Her annexation of it as a subject, tribute-paying
territory marked the start of developments that gained in importance through the remaining history of the Roman
Republic. By annexing a Hellenic territory Rome became, in a sense, a Hellenistic state, a fact that had a profound
effect upon Roman cultural life as well as upon foreign relations. Rome's development of naval capacity made
possible commercial and military involvement with all the Mediterranean world. Its need to govern conquered territory
caused it to modify city-state institutions and begin constitutional developments that would in the end undo the
republican form of government in Rome.
FURTHER READINGS
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Frank, Tenney. "Rome and Carthage: The First Punic War," The Macmillan Company, Cambridge Ancient
History. 7(1928)Ch. 21.
Picard, Gilbert Charles; Collete Picard. The Life and Death of Carthage. Trans. by Dominique Collon.
Sidgwick & Jackson, 1968.
Grant, Michael. The Ancient Mediterranean. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969.
A general history of the Mediterranean world from prehistoric times through the achievement of Roman
domination
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Grimal, Pierre; Hermann Bengtson. Hellenism and the Rise of Rome. Trans. by A. M. Sheridan Smith, Carla
Wartenburg. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968.
A survey of the Mediterranean world in the third century B.C
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Heitland, W. E. The Roman Republic. The University Press, 1923.
A thorough, three-volume study of the political and military history of the Roman Republic
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Toynbee, Arnold J. Hannibal's Legacy. The University Press, 1965.
A two-volume account of the struggles between Rome and Carthage, and their effects on Italy and Rome
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Warmington, Brian Herbert. Carthage. Praeger, 1960.
A description and history of Carthage