About I-Claudius
• I-Claudius is a TV series about the JulioClaudian dynasty of Roman emperors based
on the novel I-Claudius by Robert Graves.
The series focuses actual events
documented by the Roman historian
Suetonius. Events in the plot unveil the
vices, lives, and rule of the first Roman
emperors through the prospective of the 4th
Roman emperor, Claudius.
Let’s Get up to Speed!
• In order to fill in some of the historical gaps
up to I-Claudius, we will focus on three
aspects up Roman history:
– The Punic Wars
– The tenure of the Tribunes of Gaius and Marius
Gracchus and the Roman political system
– Conflict of Pompey/Caesar and the end of the
Roman Republic
The Punic Wars
• Roman Historian Sallust
claimed that the decline of
all Roman morality began
after the Punic Wars.
– What are Roman morals
compared to modern
(Judeo/Christian morals)?
Punicus= “Phoenician”
(Latin adjective). Carthage
was the most powerful of
Phoenician colonies.
Rome vs. Carthage
The First Punic War
264-241 B.C.
Carthage at its height
Why Punic War?
Carthage had
been colonized
by the
Phoenicians,
whom the
Romans called
Punici.
First Punic War (264-241 BCE)
• Struggle between Rome, Carthage, and
Syracuse over the city of Messana.
• Rome aids Messana and Carthage aides
Syracuse. This island of Sicily is at stake.
• In 262, Romans conquered the Greek city
state of Agrigentum in Sicily.
The Punic Wars – Rome vs. Carthage
Wars and
Dates
1st Punic
War
Causes
-Carthage expansion/
control of Sicily
264 - 241 B.C.
-Growing power of
Rome
2nd Punic
War
218 – 201
B.C.
3rd Punic
War
149 – 146
B.C.
-Revenge for 1st Punic
War
-Hannibal (Carthaginian
general) invades Spain
and conquers Roman ally
of Saguntum.
Actions
-Carthage = strong navy, Rome = strong army
-Carthage able to blockade Roman troops in
Sicily, until Rome strengthens navy.
-Rome adds a corvus (bridge) to its ships
-This turns sea battles into land battles –
Rome’s advantage
-The Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca
invades Spain with 50,000 infantry, 9,000
cavalry, & 60 elephants.
-He crosses the Alps & invades italy from the
north.
-Hannibal defeats Roman armies on the Italian
Peninsula for 15 years.
-Hannibal’s greatest victory was at Cannae
– he destroyed the Roman legions.
-He could not take city of Rome.
-Roman general Scipio attacks Carthage –
forces Hannibal to return home.
-Scipio defeats Hannibal at Zama.
-Increasing prosperity of -Carthage is destroyed and burned
Carthage
-People are killed or sold into slavery
-Roman hatred and
-Salt is sowed into the soil
mistrust of Carthage
Results
-Rome wins & gains
control of Sicily
-Carthage must pay
huge indemnity
(payment for damages)
-Rome wins
-Carthage gives up all
territories including
Spain
-Pays another
indemnity
-Signs treaty not to
expand, rebuild
military, or declare war
-Rome controls all of
the western Med.
Rome
Sicily
Carthage
The First
Punic War was
fought for
control of
Sicily and the
western
Mediterranean.
Carthage had a powerful navy.
Rome did not.
quinquereme
quadreme
bireme
After capturing a Carthaginian ship,
the Romans quickly built a strong
Navy. During sea battles, Roman
sailors shocked the Carthaginians
when they dropped gangways with
sharp metal points on one end, called
corvi, (crows or ravens) onto the
decks of the Carthaginian ships. These
bridges held the ships together while
the Romans boarded the enemy
vessels with their superior soldiers.
Roman strategy – Corvus
Sea battle = land battle
The Corvus
Hamilcar Barca was a famous
leader of the Carthaginian
navy/army.
Important battles of the First Punic War
Mylae---260 B.C. Gaius Duilius led the
roman navy to its first great victory.
Drepana---249 B.C. Publius Claudius
ignored the omen of the sacred chickens
and lost 93 of 123 ships.
Aegates Islands---241 B.C. Lutatius
Catulus was the victorious general at this
final battle of the first conflict.
Battle of Mylae
Marcus Atilius Regulus
Regulus, a famous Roman general,
defeated the Carthaginians at the battle of
Ecnomus.
Battle of Ecnomus
His conditions for surrender were
extremely severe and harsh. In
subsequent fighting, Regulus was
captured by Carthage. Later, he was
sent to Rome to negotiate a prisoner
exchange on the condition that if he
completed the mission unsuccessfully,
he would return to Carthage for
execution.
Regulus, a man of honor, leaves Rome and
returns to Carthage to be put to death.
Hamilcar Barca had three sons:
Hannibal
Mago
Hasdrubal
Fall of Hamilcar Barca
-In 241, the Carthaginians gave their
commander in Sicily, Hamilcar Barca,
the authority to negotiate peace.
-The Carthaginians agreed to leave
Sicily and pay Rome a large indemnity.
However, Carthage still owed a lot of
money to its mercenaries.
-Mercenaries revolted against the
Carthaginians. Hamilcar and his
mercenaries revolt. Seeing that
Carthage was weak, Rome forced
Carthage to leave the island of
Sardinia.
-The Romans occupied land outside of
Italy for the first time. (1st foreign
Roman province = Sicily)
Hamilcar so hated the Romans that he made his nine
year old son Hannibal stand before the altar of Baal
and swear eternal hatred for the Romans.
Hamilcar was slain in battle in
Spain. Hannibal later gathered his
father’s loyal troops and set out
for Italy to begin another conflict
with the Romans.
The
Second
Punic War
Hannibal
nd
2
Punic War (218-201)
• Romans take the small islands of Corsica and
Sardinia
• War over Spain
• In 237, Hamilcar lands in Spain and extended
the Carthaginian power until his death in 228.
(drowned retreating across a river)
– Succeeded by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal.
• Died in 221 (assassinated by the slave of a Celtic King)
– Hannibal Barca, Hamilcar’s own son, becomes
chief Carthaginian commander in Spain.
218-201 B.C.
The Carthaginians attacked and took over the Spanish city of
Saguntum. This was the pretext Rome used for a second
war against Carthage.
Hispania
Saguntum
The fall of Saguntum
The Roman Senate sent Fabius to
Carthage to give the
Carthaginians a chance to avert a
full scale war.
“I carry here
peace and
war; choose,
men of
Carthage,
which ye
will.”
Q. Fabius Maximus
After conquering Saguntum
Hannibal outmaneuvered the
Romans at the Rhone River and
prepared to cross the Alps.
Hannibal’s army crossing the Rhone River.
In order to surprise the Romans,
Hannibal decided to attempt to cross the
Alps in the middle of winter. He took
with him 37 elephants, including his
favorite, Surus.
When the path was blocked by a
landslide, Hannibal ordered his
troops to set fires under the huge
boulders and poured wine on
them to make them split in half.
Fending off the
attacks of mountain
tribesmen, Hannibal
proclaimed to his
troops when they
reached a promontory
high in the Alps:
“Now you are crossing not only the walls of Italy, but those of Rome.”
Several crushing defeats were
administered by Hannibal’s
soldiers as they poured down into
Italy.
Early Punic victories included a
skirmish at the Ticinus River
(Scipio, the Greater, saved his
father’s life in this battle) and a
full-scale battle at the Trebbia
river.
The most shocking and unexpected
Roman defeat, however, was at
Lake Trasimene, where the
Roman army was pinned between
the lake and a mountain range.
The mist rising from the water
prevented the Romans from
realizing that they were heading
into an ambush.
Hannibal’s troops massacre the Roman legionnaires
217 B.C.
News of the Roman defeat at
Lake Trasimene and the death
of the consul Flaminius caused
panic in the Forum.
216 B.C.
A year later at Cannae Hannibal administered
one of the most crushing defeats ever suffered
by a Roman army. The consular generals were
Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gaius Terentius
Varro. Paulus was killed during the fighting
and over 50,000 legionnaires were massacred.
For the next few years after
Cannae the Romans adopted
“Fabian tactics” in dealing with
the enemy. Q. Fabius Maximus,
the “shield of Rome” successfully
pursued his unique style of
guerrilla warfare.
Fabius was even awarded the
agnomen Cunctator, the delayer.
In 207 the Romans defeated Hasdrubal,
Hannibal’s brother, at the Battle of the
Metaurus River. Hasdrubal was
decapitated and his head was rolled into
the camp of Hannibal where it stopped at
Hannibal’s feet.
Hannibal stands stupefied when the bodiless head
of Hasdrubal is thrown into his camp.
Finally P. Cornelius Scipio convinced the
Senate to send a Roman force to Carthage
and besiege the city in an effort to force
Hannibal to return to rescue his
homeland.
Scipio
The siege of
Carthage
On the plain of Zama, in 202 B.C., Scipio claimed
the final and decisive battle of the the conflict.
Roman
legionnaires
entering the
gates of
Carthage.
Hannibal was forced
to flee to the east to
escape death. He
survived there for
several years,
directing the navy of
King Perseus.
Cornered in Bithynia
in 183, Hannibal
poisoned himself.
Scipio was given
the agnomen
Africanus to
honor his great
victory over
Hannibal.
Magna Mater
In 205, The Romans bring in the Great
Mother deity from Asia Minor in order
to bring fortune to the Romans.
Later, the senate banned the Magna
Mater from Roman religion because of
the extreme cult like behaviors
associated with her such as selfcastrated priests, ecstatic rites, and wild
singing and dancing.
The Third Punic War
149 B.C---146 B.C.
Carthage returned to prosperity at such an
alarming rate that many Romans feared the city
would once again challenge Rome.
Cato the Elder
threw figs on
the floor of the
Curia, saying
that they were
picked in
Carthage only
three days
before.
Cato ended all
his speeches
with the same
warning:
Delenda est
Carthago.
Finally Rome marched on Carthage in 149
B.C. and within three years the city was
completely destroyed.
The winning Roman general was
Publius Cornelius Scipio
Aemilianus Africanus Minor
Pater Hannibalis
erat__________________.
Hamilcar Barca
Carthago erat in
___________________
Africā.
Ubi Hannibal erat puer
_______
novem annorum, patri dixit,
“Pater, Pater, duc me tecum ad
_______________
Hispaniam.