Carthage
“Dido Building Carthage, or the Rise of the Carthaginian Empire,”
J.M.W. Turner (1815)
Carthage: Political Structure
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aristocratic society
council of 30 nobles (~Roman magistrates)
senate (~Roman senate)
2 suffetes (~Roman consuls, but civilian only)
board of generals (~Roman consuls, but military
only)
• 104 judges from ruling families (~Roman
praetors)
• citizen assembly with property requirements for
membership (~Roman Comitia Centuriata)
265: Eve of First Punic War
•Mamertini: take Messana, threaten Syracuse
under King Hiero, who blockades Messana
•Mamertini: appeal to Carthage
•Carthage: seizes Messana,
breaking Hiero’s blockade
•Mamertini: appeal to Rome
•Rome: Comitia Centuriata,
guided by consul Appius
Claudius Caudex ("the tree
trunk"), declares war
264: First Punic War begins
• Carthage: fearful of Roman interests,
allies with King Hiero!
• Rome: sides with the Mamertini
& declares war on Carthage and
Syracuse
• 264-241: war on land and sea, from Sicily
to North Africa
• Greatest assets:
– Carthage: superior technology and tactics
– Rome: superior manpower and discipline
First Punic War: basics
• Where: Sicily and N. Africa
• Naval technological change: Rome captures a
Punic quinquereme (50 oars) in 261; adoption of
the “raven” (corvus). Builds 100+ ships.
• Epic battles: 50,000 infantry, 70,000 sailors each
State-of-the-art technology:
“raven” (corvus)
As [the Romans’] ships were ill-built and slow in their
movements, someone suggested to them as a help in
fighting the engines which afterwards came to be called
"ravens” (sg. corvus, pl. corvi). They were constructed as
follows: On the prow stood a round pole … with a
pulley at the summit and round it was put a gangway
made of cross planks attached by nails ….
At [the pole’s] extremity was fastened an iron object like a pestle pointed at one end
and with a ring at the other end … [and] a rope with which, when the ship charged
an enemy, they raised the ravens by means of the pulley on the pole and let them
down on the enemy's deck, sometimes from the prow and sometimes bringing them
round when the ships collided broadsides. Once the ravens were fixed in the planks
of the enemy's deck and grappled the ships together, if they were broadside on,
they boarded from all directions but if they charged with the prow, they attacked by
passing over the gangway of the raven itself two abreast.
[At the battle of Mylae in 260,] when the ships that came into collision were in every
case held fast by the machines, and the Roman crews boarded by means of the
ravens and attacked them hand to hand on deck … some of the Carthaginians were
cut down and others surrendered from dismay at what was happening, the battle
having become just like a fight on land (Polybius 1.22-23).
260
254
249
]
-241
262
256
263
First Punic War: key moments
•263: Rome invades Syracuse; allies with Hiero
•262: Rome defeats Carthage at Agrigentum
•261: Rome captures a Carthaginian quinquereme
•260: Rome defeats Carthage at Mylae, capturing 44 ships & 10,000 men
•256: Rome defeats Carthage at Ecnomus (abandons corvus due to
excessive prow-weight and/or instability)
•255: Carthage defeats Roman expeditionary force under Marcus Atilius
Regulus at Tunis; Spartan mercenary Xanthippus teaches tactics to
Carthage
•255: Rome loses ships in storm
•254: Rome seizes Panormus
•249: Carthage defeats Publius Clodius Pulcher at
Drepana & Pulcher exiled for sacrilege;
Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, defeats
Rome which loses fleet in storm
•242: Rome builds 200 ships at expense of wealthy
•241: Rome defeats Carthage at Aegates Islands, captures
Lilybaeum, isolates Hamilcar
•241: Carthage sues for peace
First Punic War: resolution
• Terms: Carthage loses Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia
and pays indemnity of 4400 Talents (= 275,000
pounds) of silver, most to be paid over 20 years
• Losses for Rome: thousands of men, 700 ships
• Losses for Carthage: mineral resources of
Sardinia, fertile lands of Sicily, strategic value of
all three islands
• Carthage's goals in 1st Punic War: attrition
• Rome's goals in 1st Punic War: expansion
First Punic War: analysis
• Why Rome won: abundant manpower, bold
action, a willingness to learn the enemy’s game
• Why Carthage lost: economy of effort, lack of
trustworthy manpower, half-hearted measures
• Results for Rome: wider field of Mediterranean
politics, reaping the benefits & profits of empire
and a navy to dominate the west
• Results for Carthage: diminished naval power
and a hunger for vengeance