People want to have fun and entertainment no matter what the circumstances. The Roman atellan farces live on in Hollywood as slapstick comedies, and there is even a movie based on the first Roman comedy writer, Plautus: Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum". Terence and Plautus were sources of Shakespeare's comedies and Moliere's biting wit. 

The devastating war with Hannibal did not interfere with annual elections, with other business of the state and certainly not with the theatre season. The Romans enjoyed their theatre, but strictly comedies. It seems that the Romans had enough tragedies in their lives – comparison of the census of citizens before and after the 2^nd Punic war could be an indication why – that they wanted comedies, mimes, gags and general funny mayhem on the stage.

On the other hand, the theatre seemed always very frivolous to the Romans. Therefore no permanent building for a theatre was built until the 1^st century BC. The theatre was a wooden affair, put up before games and taken down after. That resulted from time to time in a collapse of the theatre, but still no sturdy stone one was built. The public celebrations, games, races were usually part a some festival to honour the gods, and were in the province of the aediles, officers who had also supervision over markets, streets and general well being of the city. The supervision of the markets and streets was very strict, because the fines the aediles collected went into the expenses for games. The more money, the better games, and voters could remember who put up good games and who put up stingy ones.

Already on the books since the Laws of Twelve Tables from 445 BC was a law forbidding slander. Thus, when Titus Maccius Plautus wrote his comedies (254-184 BC), his characters spoke Latin, were recognizable Roman figures, like the anxious fathers of spendthrift sons, merry daughters or smart slaves, but they all had staunchly (and ridiculous) Greek names to escape libel charges.

Plautus was born in Umbria a worked as a stage hand, where he probably gained his love of theatre. Later he came into some money and lost it all in a naval investment. Deprived of money, he became a day labourer and started to write plays. We have today 20 of the 52 he wrote. It is not such a great prize, because all his plays we have are from a palimpsest. Palimpsest is a parchment manuscript, which has been scrubbed of the original text and reused for other writing. Well, the manuscript with Plautus’ plays has been thus treated by some monk, who wanted to record for posterity some comments of Augustine from 4^th century AD. Fortunately, this diligent guy was diligent mostly at the beginning of scrubbing the manuscript and we lack only some beginnings of the comedies, like Pot of Gold, which cannot be recovered even by using modern technology.

Another playwright from that era was Publius Terentius Afer (c. 195-152 BC). Senator Terentius brought a boy to Rome from Africa as a slave, had him educated and freed him. Afer died young in a shipwreck coming home to Rome from Greece. However, all 6 plays which he managed to write survived. He is the author of this interesting line: “I am a human being and nothing human is alien to me”. His first play was “The girl from Andros”, which proved so complicated that it needed a 'deus ex machina’, or rather a stranger to come and unravel all the confusing relationships occurring on the stage. 

Terentius’ plays were popular even in the Middle Ages and his plays started to be played again in the Renaissance in Florence. His Latin is straightforward and elegant and contemporary to his time. Plautus had the unfortunate inclination to use archaisms – probably surviving in that small town where he grew up. 

Both of these writers had to present their plays before they were staged to the aediles or the censors – just to be sure that they did not injure any “Romanness”. By the content of these plays, where ridiculous characters abound, it seems that this characteristic – Romanness (romanitas) – used a very broad brush. Or the censors and aediles were not stuffy and wanted people to have fun.

    

           

           

         

Meanwhile in Rome…

                    The victorious wars, especially the existential one with Carthage, brought wealth and pride to Rome. It seemed that everybody was bent to either erode the mos maiorum, the traditions of ancestors, or to promote it. Some political rifts opened in the society. Similarly, like president Obama promoting European ideals, which are unsustainable, and which are greeted with suspicion by right of centre American public. The battle lines are drawn, as they were in the 2nd century BC Rome.

Roman jewelry

              Within the Roman society there was a transition in progress: from rusticity to Hellenistic civilization and oriental spending habits. The chief offices of the state had become almost hereditary of a few distinguished families, whose wealth corresponded to their noble birth. 

          Popular by acts of graceful but corrupting generosity, by charming manners, and by the appeal of hereditary honours - they collected the material power granted by elections and the intellectual power provided by philosophical education, their taste in the fine arts, and their knowledge of stylish literature. The leading lights were e.g. the Cornelii Scipiones and their circle of intellectual friends and dependents.

   However,  there was a strong reaction to their elitist manners.  Other individuals, eager to ascend the ladder of magistracies, were  jealous of this exclusivity and openly watchful for any decadence and disorder associated with luxury and placed themselves at the head of a party which showed its determination to rely on purer models and that attached much importance to the ancient ways.

A Roman couple. Roman women had a much better
position and freedom in Roman society than
Greek women

  In their eyes, rusticity, austerity, and asceticism were the marks of a proper Roman robustness  and of the old Roman  integrity and love of order.  M. Claudius Marcellus or philhellenic Scipio Africanus and T. Quinctius Flaminius, were an example of the new hellenistically educated class;  Fabius Maximus, Valerius Flaccus and especially Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder led a party of determined rustics, eager to put the Cornelii into undyed tunics woven by their own wives.

Cato the Censor

There was a big clash of both parties in 195 BC. Besides constantly hounding Scipio Africanus with petty charges, there was an opportunity to put upstart females in their place. After the battle of Cannae in 216 BC, many restrictions were placed on any luxuries and one of them was ban on women having and wearing jewelry, because all precious metals had to be lend to the state to pay for the war supplies. 

Roman Matron

 All other austerity measures were gradually repealed, except for women’s finery. Two Tribunes of the Plebs were pushed by their wives to propose repeal of this law in the Assembly. Two tribunes were against the repeal, and this matter caused unusual rift in the College of the Tribunes of the Plebs.

         When the day came to debate this proposal in the Assembly, women were in the streets and on the roofs, and harassed the men going to the Assembly meeting to put them in the right frame of mind. 

Women portraits

        The conservative M. Porcius Cato thundered from the speaker's platform,  rostra, that it is a scandal, that women instead of sitting at home and minding their own household business were interfering in politics. They were supposed to be subservient! Consul Valerius, looking haunted and hounded and harassed by his own womenfolk, held an opposing speech to say that he rather liked to have at home sisters and daughters and a wife, not servants.

 When the issue went to vote, other Roman citizen women from surrounding communities arrived in Rome to help their feisty colleagues. The austerity law was repealed, and no tribune interposed their veto, because those two who would be on Cato’s side were imprisoned at home by the more radical female elements. It is interesting from legal point of view, that there were no measures taken against women, or against the ringleaders of this female mutiny.

The men though were surely swayed not only by the possibility that they might get lousy suppers for the next who knows how long, but by a very reasonable issue brought to the men's attention - namely, the austerity law applied to the Roman citizen women, but not to Roman allies - that meant, that any wife or daughter of a non-Roman citizen could be carried around in a litter, be bedecked by precious metals and fine cloth, but not the wives and daughters of the victorious Romans.

Earrings

 …and now Macedonia

           Becoming a superpower, going from prewar isolationism to being an arbiter in world affairs presented USA after the war with many bewildering problems. On the one hand, they were being asked for support, military or economic,  all over the world, on the other hand, they were being accused of being imperialistic and overbearing. After the 2^nd Punic war, the Romans, basically rustic peoples from central Italy, were asked to adjudicate and help with Mediterranean problems. However, there was one problem, which the Romans felt that cannot be put off any longer…

Roman street

            During the struggle for their very existence with Hannibal, the Romans did not have much time, energy, money and manpower to do something about the treacherous Philip V. of Macedonia. Their strategy was to have a navy in the Adriatic and to protect their mercantile beachhead in Illyria, and to make allies with the Aetolian League, an alliance of Greek city-states, who opposed Philip of Macedon. This way Philip was quite occupied with Greece and his lofty notion to stab the Romans in the back had to take back seat. Philip made peace with the Romans in 205 BC. It was a properly hostile peace, because Philip was well aware that the Romans did not forgive him.

             Philip cast about for other allies, since he felt that he would need them eventually. He found one in Antiochus of Syria, another remnant of Alexander the Great’s empire. Their secret deal was to divide the possessions of Egypt, where inter family strife between the Ptolemies made Egypt an easy target. Philip moved on to Thracia and control of shipping from Black Sea to Mediterranean. This did not sit well with the island of Rhodes, a small republic with a powerful navy, and by 201 BC Philip was so embroiled in war with Pergamum in Asia Minor and Rhodes, that the Greek city-states on the Greek mainland, that were under the Macedonian thumb,  promptly rebelled and sent for help to Rome. A bunch of diplomats from Athens, Pergamum and Rhodes arrived in Rome in the same year to secure Roman help. Mainly dressed as bums, with dishevelled hair as proper supplicants were supposed to look. 

The many layers of Rome, from the late Republican
pavement to the baroque dome from 17th cent.AD

             The Roman Senate preferred inaction, telling to the supplicants that the Senate would give their messages ‘earnest attention’. The Senators stirred themselves into sending an embassy to Philip to raise his awareness about the fact that some of the Greek states, threatened by him, were Roman allies, and Rome took a dim view of his actions. Philip rejected the embassy’s demands and sent an army to Attica, the territory of Athens.

            A declaration of war was sought from the Roman Assembly and rejected by nearly all voting tribes. Livy attributes this to the activities of certain Tribune of the Plebs, but a better explanation could be that the Romans were exhausted by the long war with Hannibal and did not want to go to another war.

            The consul Sulpicius Galba called another Assembly. There he spoke shortly, but forcefully, explaining that they are not asked if they wanted war, but only if they wanted war in Italy again, because Philip is not giving them choice – either they would face him in Greece, or in Italy. To drive his point home, Galba reminded the Assembly about another ally who vainly asked for their help, the Saguntines. He also did not neglect to point out that if they stopped Hannibal then, the whole bloody mess of 2^nd Punic war could have been avoided and the war could have been fought in Spain.

Ruins of Republican Temples in the middle of modern
Rome

            The Assembly was properly shamed and voted for war with Macedon. It is not clear how bright was Philip. The Roman veterans from the Punic war were so experienced and probably could have eaten him for breakfast. If they were led better, that is. Galba was not the right general and there was a stalemate for 2 years until the philhellenic consul T. Quinctius Flaminius arrived on the scene and took over. Flaminius led two veteran legions into Thessaly with allied Aetolian troops. There, at Cynoscephalae he confronted Philip. In the clash between the Macedonian phalanx and Roman legions, the Roman flexibility won the day in 197 BC.

Titus Quinctius Flaminius

            That was probably the only time, when the hardheaded, ruthless and pragmatic Roman senators, Roman people and Roman consul succumbed to idealism. Cowed by Greek culture and history, Flaminius came to Isthmian Games (competition of the Olympic Games) where the Greeks from various cities were discussing the fact that they exchanged one master – Macedon, for another – Rome. There Flaminius had heralds announce the Freedom of Greece.  Macedon had to leave Greece, of course. But the Romans took away their legions and just left for Italy with nary a Roman soldier in sight… the Greek city-states were free, like before the time of Alexander the Great.


           Which fact they used with brilliant ineptitude, because they returned to their time-honoured traditions, that is, fighting among themselves. The Seleucid ruler of Syria, Antiochus,  was extremely disgusted with the defeat of his Macedonian ally. He was under the impression that only post-alexandrian states may fight among themselves.  In this cooperative spirit, he started to send money to Greek city-states disappointed that the Romans did not give them the right and help to annex some of their neighbours. The idea was to give some problems to the Romans around Dyrrhachium (today Durres in Albania). Titus Flaminius traveled to see Antiochus and explained to him, that the Romans did not like his actions at all, and that he should not mix himself into Greek politics, since the Greeks themselves manage to do enough mixing. Antiochus somehow did not believe him and took his army to Greece, where he was promptly defeated at Thermopylae, and later in Asia Minor, at Apamea, by the Romans who had to deploy the legions rapidly back to Greece.

Antiochus

            After the defeat, as a part of the peace agreement, he was supposed to pay indemnity and damages, but had no money and therefore he turned to Egypt to conquer it and to pay the indemnity from the spoils…

"At this time the ten commissioners who were to decide the affairs of Greece arrived from Rome bringing the senatus-consultum about the peace with Philip. Its principal contents were as follows: All the rest of the Greeks in Asia and Europe were to be free and subject to their own laws" wrote the careful Greek historian Polybius in 2nd cent. BC.

2nd Punic War
           After awful defeats, like at Dunkirk, the fall of France and Nazis overrunning most of Europe, the tide of the WWII turned, the Allies got a grip and won the war at the end. The aftermath and dealing with Germany's allies was not ideal, because part of Europe was abandoned to the Russians with the rabid Stalin at the helm. Germany was a pile of rubble. Romans did not turn Carthage into a pile of rubble, merely severely restricted its scope of actions and therefore there was a 3rd Punic war 60 years later.

View of the ruins of the Forum Romanum and the Palatine Hill

Part 2.

          Hannibal had dreams after the Cannae victory, that NOW the Romans will send delegations suing for peace. He had plans how to get back Sicily and Corsica and Sardinia. Dreams, dreams… that did not come true. The main action the Senate undertook was forbidding public mourning.

Model of Carthaginian
war elephant

          It was no doubt a terrible disaster, and the Roman military reputation was in tatters, there was no more money and even the staunchest allies were muttering about high taxes.  The outlook for Hannibal was bright and cheery between 216 and 212 BC.  Not only were the Romans exhausted, their allies were as well. Some of the Greek cities in the Italian south began to look to their own interest and waver in their loyalty to Rome. The city of Syracuse, a staunch Roman ally, had an internal revolution with attendant demagoguery, rousing speeches and killing off of the king’s family and going over to Hannibal, and the city of Capua as well. To top it all, the Macedonian king Philip saw a great and easy opportunity to get some fame and loot and he made a pact with Hannibal that when the going will be toughest for the Romans, the Macedonians will attack them from the east. 

            Well, the Macedonian king eventually regretted this rash alliance. The Romans were warned about it when they caught a messenger with correspondence between Hannibal and Philip. They could not do much about it at the moment, except to foment restlessness and rebellion against Macedon in Greek city-states, to keep the Macedonians much too busy to plot. Meantime, things were tough. The Romans returned to Fabian tactics and suddenly the nickname ‘Cunctator’ sounded positively clever and heroic.

Q.Fabius Cunctator

            Rome continued to prosecute the war in Sicily, in Spain, and had a fleet in the Adriatic to keep an eye on Macedonia. To pay for it all, a law was passed that nobody could keep any large sum of money or precious metals at home, all had to be lent to the state. (This concerned women’s jewelry as well, and after the war led to the first women’s demonstration ever.)

          Hannibal just could not get ahead. He brilliantly defeated Roman armies, but could not use these victories to any lasting effect. Even if Capua went over to him, when he and his army left, the Romans laid siege to it and in 211 BC Capua fell back into Roman control. Which was a year later than Syracuse in Sicily. Archimedes was very inventive in Syracusan defensive strategies and machines, but could not prevent betrayal from within and Syracuse and the whole Sicily was back in Roman hands by 210 BC. 


        In Spain, Publius Scipio, who so famously missed Hannibal on the Rhone, sent his brother Gnaeus to blockade Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal in Spain, and Hasdrubal was unable to send any help to Hannibal in Italy.

         But disaster struck – Hasdrubal managed to defeat and kill both Scipio brothers in 211 BC.  Publius Cornelius Scipio, the son and nephew of the killed men, petitioned the Assembly to get the Spanish command. Even though he was too young and did not even hold the office of a praetor yet, he was unprecedently granted the power to command (imperium) and the rank of proconsul (in place of consul). 

Carthage reconstructed

            Young Scipio possessed courage, resourcefulness, self-confidence and the power to inspire his men. Rumours had it that he possessed also a sense of humour. Scipio has shown his mettle, when he marched boldly to the New New City (New Carthage) and conquered it. In the city were 10 thousand Spaniards, whom the Carthaginians held hostage, so their tribes would not go over to the Romans. Scipio gave them part of the booty and sent them home. This inspired many Spanish tribes to go over to the Romans. Hasdrubal escaped with most of his army and marched to Italy to join Hannibal in 208 BC.  That gave an opportunity to the Carthaginian generals remaining in Spain to show how good they are. Their contribution to the war was a total defeat of the Carthaginian power in Spain.

            If Hasdrubal were to succeed in joining with Hannibal, the Romans might have lost the war. With so many farmers in the army, famine was never far away. Insurance fraud by military contractors did not present a fine example of the best patriotic behaviour. Loyal allies were exhausted. However – two Roman armies converged on Hasdrubal and his men. His army was destroyed and he himself killed. Hannibal withdrew to the heel of Italy’s boot. When it rains, it pours – Carthaginian fleet, bringing troops and supplies from Africa was lost in a storm, and Hannibal’s other brother, Mago, who managed to land in north of Italy, in Genoa, was promptly defeated and mortally wounded.

            The enormously popular Publius Cornelius Scipio returned to Rome in 206 BC as a candidate for consulship and was elected. Whereupon a great quarrel erupted about just how to end the war.  Scipio in Spain made interesting alliances with North African kings Massinissa and Syphax, and his idea was to invade North Africa and bring the war to Carthage. The old Fabius Cunctator wanted to hesitate some more. Finally, Scipio received the command, raised volunteers and gathered two legions from Sicily and with this force ferried to North Africa in 204 BC.

P.Cornelius Scipio Africanus

            After diplomatic maneuvering, mainly to put Roman ally Massinissa on the Numidian throne to get his cavalry, Scipio learned that Hannibal returned to Carthage from Italy to defend Carthage. Battle of Zama in 202 BC ended with the defeat of Hannibal. Carthage sued for peace, and the terms were hard – Carthage had to surrender all territories outside Africa, and to recognize Numidia as Roman ally. Rome wanted also recoup its material losses and the indemnity was set at 10,000 silver talents, (1 Attic silver talent was 26 kg of silver, a price of a trireme) payable in installments for 50 years...  Scipio returned to Rome and celebrated magnificent triumph. He received also the right to call himself Africanus.  The war was over and Rome was suddenly Mediterranean superpower.

2^nd Punic War

           In 1938, democratic Czechoslovakia was assailed by Germany that it treats its German minority badly. When the Prague government tried to give in to the demands, the demands became bigger and less palatable. Hitler in Germany was agitating against Czechoslovakia, and was preparing for war, unless Czechoslovakia cedes Sudetenland with German majority to Germany. Small Czechoslovakia was prepared to defend itself, because it had a pact with France and Great Britain for military help. However, prime ministers of Great Britain, Chamberlain and of France, Daladier, were not eager to fulfill their treaty obligations. Great Britain send a “fact finding” lord Runciman, instead of weapons in August. At the end of September, the Munich pact was signed, and Czechoslovakia was abandoned to Hitler. By this action, or inaction, the peace was not saved, but led to a most devastating war in the history of mankind.

Part of Forum Romanum today

 Part 1.

           The 2^nd Punic war started with something closely resembling the Munich Agreement of WWII.  The city of Saguntum in Spain was a Roman Friend and Ally and was attacked by Hannibal in 219 BC. Saguntum sent envoys to Rome asking for help and for honouring the treaty of friendship. Roman Senate, as mentioned above, was deeply involved in Illyria and keeping an eye on Macedon. Therefore sending legions to the other end of the Mediterranean to help a city, about which most of the Romans knew nothing, did not seem like an expedient move. The Senate sent a fact finding commission of inquiry.

Hannibal Barca

             The envoys in the commission pointed out to Hannibal and Carthaginian council that Saguntum has a treaty with Rome. Hannibal considered it interference in Carthaginian sphere of influence. The commission returned without any visible result, and the siege of Saguntum continued. Rome did nothing, except for  preparing two consular armies for expedition to Illyria. Saguntum fell to Hannibal after 8 months siege with attending burning and enslaving of the population. Just to make the Romans feel really guilty, the leading Saguntine citizens heaped their property in the square, set fire to it and jumped into the flames.

            Public opinion in Rome was stirred. A Roman ally with a treaty was destroyed! What a surprise, that an earnest commission did not chase Hannibal from Saguntum's walls! An embassy of leading Roman senators and both consuls went to Carthage to demand the surrender of Hannibal and compensation for the Saguntines. The Roman historian Livy vividly described the scene in the Carthaginian council.  The Romans gave Carthage the choice between peace and war, between surrendering Hannibal and keeping him. The Carthaginians, still smarting from their losses more than 20 years before, chose war.

Citadel of Saguntum today

              Carthage never regained her naval power, and Roman fleets were roaming the western Mediterranean at will, therefore the logistics how to get to Italy and into an actual war became formidable. Hannibal solved it brilliantly. He went by land, north in Spain and marched through the sunny southern French coast, known in 21st century for the gambling Monte Carlo, film festival in Nice and the generally peaceful area of Provence.

             Hannibal knew that the north Italian Gallic tribes did not reconcile themselves yet to being a province of Rome, and hoped to find allies there. His Carthaginian experience also suggested, that the Roman allies up and down the Italian peninsula will happily throw off their shackles of Roman overlordship and welcome him as their liberator, probably with flowers liberally strewn under the feet of his Spanish mercenaries by pretty maidens.

        Two consular armies, that is 4 legions altogether were prepared for further action in Illyria. They were diverted to prevent Hannibal from reaching Italy. Consul Scipio hurried to southern France, to prevent Hannibal from crossing the river Rhodanus (Rhone). However, not having good intelligence, satellite surveillance and GPS, he missed Hannibal and stood at the river, looking like a fool, while Hannibal continued on to Italy. But… Scipio was Roman and not a fool. He realized that the important thing now would be to cut Hannibal off his supplies of material and men from his base and recruiting ground in Spain. Scipio knew, in difference to Hannibal, that Rome's Italian allies will not desert Rome in hurry. Scipio sent his brother to Spain with an army and he himself returned to Italy with two legions to help with stopping Hannibal.

               Hannibal meantime went with his men and elephants over the Alps into Italy. Some Gallic tribes, as could have been expected, attacked his army for booty, others joined him for booty. Hannibal defeated consul Scipio and the consul retreated behind the Po River and waited for reinforcements, mainly the consul Sempronius with his army. The Roman Senate was very clever and wanted to bring the war to Carthage, and Sempronius with his legions was waiting for transport to Africa. This suggested that the Senate was still not clear about the fact that they are dealing with a brilliant commander and that the Romans would need all the help they could get just to survive, and not to think yet about sending any troops away.

Battle of Lake Trasimene

             To prove it, consul Sempronius let himself to be lured into a trap and lost most of his army in 218 BC. It seemed, that the Roman Republic lost its luck and that the best commanders were retired. Another consul, Flaminius, bit the dust with most of his men in 217 BC at the Lake Trasimene in Etruria, today Tuscany.  Afterwards, Hannibal waited for delegations from Roman allies who would eagerly join him. None were coming. That was unfortunate for him, because without some material and manpower support from the locals, he could not hope to attack Rome itself, like Pyrrhus before him.

Lake Trasimene today

             The Trasimene thrashing instilled enough panic into Romans and the consul named a Dictator, the aging Quintus Fabius Maximus.  Fabius already realized Hannibal’s tactical brilliance and decided that the Romans will lose any direct battle. His tactics could be called guerrilla tactics, shadowing Hannibal’s army from one town to another and preventing him from regrouping and cutting him from supplies, and cutting down all foraging parties or detached units. This was smart, but the Roman SPQR wanted a decisive victory and ridiculed Fabius with a nickname “Cunctator”, the hesitant one.

            In this spirit, the Romans elected new consuls for the year 216 BC, who were definitely decisive. Consuls Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus had together 80 thousand men, whom they led into a REALLY decisive disaster.  At the village of Cannae they lost most of the men, only 15 thousand saved themselves, and consul Paullus died. Among the officers who saved some men and themselves was fortunately young Publius Cornelius Scipio, son and nephew of the two men who commanded the Roman army in Spain.

Battle of Cannae

         This was a real test of the Roman Friends and Allies, because 40 thousand of those men were supplied by the Rome's Italian allies.

Cannae today

BETWEEN THE WARS.

            The 1^st Punic war ended like the WWI in Europe, by total exhaustion of all participants, and was similarly not decisive. The Romans, used to dealing with the defeated Italic tribes and nations, were not really sure how to deal with Carthage.  The Carthaginian empire was defeated, but could it be made into ‘Friend and Ally” like everybody else and reduced to grumbling at election time?

Pont du Garde - part of the 39 km long Roman aqueduct supplying the
city of Nemausus, today Nimes in southern France.

            The Roman Senate vacillated between harsh measures and friendliness. The Romans helped Carthage with their mercenary problem by supplying Carthage, and withholding war supplies from the mercenary army. On the other hand, when the People’s Assembly learnt about the lenient peace treaty, they were not happy and voted for increased indemnity and taking Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage as well.

           

            However – the Carthaginians offset their losses by conquests in Spain, rich in mineral wealth, founded cities like New Carthage (which was a misnomer, because Carthage itself meant unimaginatively ‘New city’ in Punic, therefore New Carthage meant New new city), today’s Cartagena and merrily grew rich. Actually, the whole Spanish enterprise was something like fiefdom of the Barca family, represented by Hamilcar Barca and founding of the city of Barcelona. 

            The Romans viewed this expansion with growing suspicion, fuelled cleverly by Massilian Greeks (today's Marseille), who were afraid of losing their mercantile status. Thus, when the Romans arrived on the international stage, they were presented with a neat array of problems. Like – how to deal with their new overseas provinces? What about the annoyed Roman and Italian farmers, who were the legionnaires in the war and wanted to see some gain? The Gauls did not stop bothering from the north of Italy, and what about the pirates in the Adriatic? How to stop Carthaginian expansion in Spain and thus stop the Massilians sending envoys to Rome every five minutes?

Massilia / Marseille

            The Romans cleverly asked the Sicilians what would they prefer in their new relationship with Rome. They preferred to pay the same tribute to Rome, as they paid before to Carthage or Syracuse, and not to supply soldiers. The system worked this way: every year a census was taken of the farmers. What was sown, what is the expected return, etc.  This record was filed in the governor’s office and one tenth was paid as a tribute to Rome, as was before to Carthage. The Senate then issued an estimate based on 10.4 % of the expected harvest. The 10% went to the State Treasury, the .4 % was for the private contractor, collecting the taxes (Romans did not really believe that the answer to all the ills of the world is bureaucracy).

          The annoyed Roman farmers found their champion in Gaius Flaminius. Tribune of the Plebs Flaminius went over the heads of the Senate and presented a law in the Assembly, to distribute Ager Publicus, or public lands belonging to the state, to poor families. Good show and good intentions – but baaad precedent, and an example for demagogues a century later.

            Gauls in the north of Italy were always studied and watched very carefully, if they keep to the ploughs and not to the swords. They had best intentions to farm and not to draw attention of Rome to themselves, but … There were other Gauls further to the north of them and those Gallic tribes were busy multiplying and expanding, thus pushing the Po Valley Gauls south, and into conflict with Rome. At least, that was the Gallic excuse.

            The Gauls decided that they will have it out with Rome, and united in their righteous yearning for loot. To get it, the united Gallic army moved into Etruria, and as tradition dictated, plundered and pillaged. Etruscans, yelled for help to Rome, their “Friend and Ally”. Two Roman armies converged on the Gauls and annihilated them.


           Senate, in whose care was, according to mos maiorum, the Treasury, found the costs of taming the northern Italian Gauls prohibitive. In the cost/result analysis the Senate decided to civilise the Gauls under the umbrella of Friend and Ally of the Roman People. This task fell to Gaius Flaminius, who was popular thanks to his tribunician actions and managed to reach consulship, and the more conservative senators were happy to stick him with the Gallic problem. 

Senate House still stands. It lost its portico
and its doors (moved to San Giovanni
in Laterano church). Notwithstanding
its uninspiring architecture, it was the
most important place of the Republican
Rome

            And so in 220 BC Rome had a new Italian province, Gallia Cisalpina, or ‘Gaul before the Alps” including the whole Po Valley, and Flaminius was busy issuing tenders for building a consular road, the via Flaminia, starting in Rome (today’s via del Corso), and leading north.  As well, keeping with his revolutionary tendencies, Flaminius reorganised voting ‘tribes’, only they were not tribes, just voting districts where citizens were included upon receiving citizenship, and now did not depend on the address of the citizen. He added some new ones for city dwellers and his most ardent supporters.

Inside Senate House shows that the Senators had to bring
their own chairs, if they wanted to sit. The chairs
had no backs, probably to speed up the debates.

            Then there was the problem of Illyrian pirates. Illyria was a place that was recently called Yugoslavia, and now has number of other names, like Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and on and on.  But the geography is the same – hundreds of little inlets and coves, hundreds of little and bigger islands, all so inviting as a refuge to speedy boats waylaying slow merchant ships. While Romans were busy in the west with the Punic war, and the Greek cities under Roman control were weak on the sea, the pirates became bolder, and started to raid eastern Italian seaboard.  Roman Italian allies sped off to Rome to din into senatorial ears with basic message – “what do you mean, we are Friends and Allies, look what the pirates do, and you do nothing!” Closer investigation showed, that the GDP of the Illyrian kingdom was officially supplemented by piratical actions, with part of the booty going to the state treasury of Queen Teuta, residing away from the sea in a mountain fortress.

         In 229 BC the Romans sent an embassy to Illyria with suggestions to the Queen, mainly consisting of “cease and desist”. The Queen was not up on the latest news about the Italian politics and who is the top dog on the Italian peninsula. Her message was, “Leave me alone, you losers!” After about 2 hours of deliberation, the Roman Senate dispatched 200 ships to the island of Corcyra (today’s Korfu), the southernmost Illyrian fort. The fort surrendered without a fight and the Roman fleet sailed north in support of a land army, which was with deliberation (Roman adage was ‘festina lente”, that is ‘hurry slowly’) taking over cities on the sea, like Apollonia and Dyrrhachium. Teuta did not wait until the slowly hurrying Romans take over her mountain seat, and sued for peace.  That was smart, because she retained her crown this way, she only had to promise that the Illyrian GDP will not be supplemented by piracy anymore, and that her forces will not attack Greek cities.

Queen Teuta

            She was smart and kept the treaty. When she died, her adviser, Demetrius, was now adviser to the Macedonian king, mainly advising him to extend his kingdom into Greece, and send pirates out again. Romans this time did not hurry slowly, they hurried swiftly and defeated Demetrius. Demetrius stayed at the Macedonian court and whispered sweet nothings about revenge into the underage ears of new Macedonian king Philip V.

            That happened in the years 220-219 BC. The Romans could not pursue the slow hurrying in Illyria and Macedon further, because some disquieting news came from the western end of the Mediterranean.  The Carthaginian army in Spain under the leadership of young, bold and popular commander Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar Barca, was marching north and besieging a Roman ally, the city of Saguntum.

          

Punic Wars

                        There was a balance of power in the western Mediterranean around 264 BC like before WWI in Europe. As in Europe in 1914, this balance of power did not stand up to empire building pressures. An assassination in Sarajevo, or restless puny Greek city-state of Messana – both were the cause of a long drawn war, with inconclusive peace and with a determined man in the defeated nation to “right the  wrongs” and to continue the conflict...

View of the remains of the temple of Saturn, otherwise known as the
State Treasury. It has two underground stories.

1st Punic War

                   Carthage in north Africa (today close to the capital of Tunisia) was founded according to tradition around 750 BC by Phoenician settlers. Called ‘Puni’ by the Greeks and later Romans, they were very business minded and built up a mercantile empire in the western Mediterranean, with attending naval expertise. Rome and Carthage had few problems between them because each had its own spheres of interest. While Rome was busy staying above the water under constant attacks from about everybody in Italy, Carthage was exploring naval routes, trolling for business and crucifying pirates to everybody’s applause.

Carthaginian empire before wars with Rome

             Carthaginians founded trading colonies all over western Mediterranean and ruled over northern Africa from Libya to Gibraltar, part of Spain, whole Corsica and Sardinia, and nearly half of Sicily as well. Carthaginians did not like Pyrrhus (he had some notions and adventures in Sicily) and supported Rome in its defense against him. But there was a fundamental weakness in the empire building Carthaginian drive. They forced others – tribes and city-states – to pay taxes to them, but had no interest to integrate them into their system. No ‘Friends and Allies of Carthage’ existed, no graduated citizenship held as carrot for the future, and also no loyalty to Carthage, only subservience.

            The initial cause of Roman – Carthaginian conflict involved convoluted Greek politics in Sicily. Campanian mercenaries took over the city-state of Messana. Syracusan king Hiero wanted to oust them. The mercenaries appealed to a Carthaginian fleet.  Carthaginians helped, however they decided they want to keep Messana for Carthage and stayed. Messanians, or rather the mercenary rulers of Messana appealed for help to the Roman Senate. Roman Senate decided to do nothing. They did not want to tangle with the most powerful navy in the Mediterranean, especially since Rome had no navy. Not to mention they were not at all sympathetic to the Campanian mercenaries.

           The younger and less staid faction in the Roman Senate brought the Messanian request before the Popular Assembly, in the person Appius Claudius Caudex, grandson of the stubborn consul and censor from preceding chapter. Honed in the new art of persuasion, imported from southern Italy, he managed to convince the Assembly that they should help the Messanians. Thus proving, that the people generally, represented by the Assembly, were not bent on peace and brotherly love, as is commonly held by intellectuals today.  The 1^st Punic War could start. Caudex led an army to Sicily, where he handily defeated Carthaginian garrison and the Syracusans, who allied themselves with the Carthaginians.

            Most of Carthaginian ships were in storage; they had to be refitted and crews hired and trained. This did not inspire confidence in the Syracusan king Hiero, because the most powerful navy in his world could not even prevent Romans from ferrying an army over the Strait of Messana to Sicily. He speedily signed a peace treaty with Rome for next 15 years and on top of it he helped the Romans with logistical support and with capturing some Carthaginian forts.

           Of course, the fleet was going to be a problem. Eventually, the Carthaginians would refit their warships and without their own navy, the Romans could not hope to prevent the Carthaginians raiding Italy with impunity. The triremes hired from the Greek city-states were somewhat helpful, but the latest in the naval warfare were quinqueremes, with five (quinque) men to an oar, and it was a heavy ship with proper heft behind the bronze beak just beneath the surface to ram enemy ships.

            Romans had one quinquereme, which they captured or found on the shore and in sixty days had one hundred of them built. This also meant that they had to build some simulators on land to train crews. Realising, after some unfortunate encounters with the Carthaginian navy that they need more advantage than speed in building, Romans invented the corvus (raven) – a large gangplank with a hook at the end to board enemy ship and to allow legionaries to do what they did best – to fight as if on land.

Qunquiereme

            In 260 BC a great naval battle took place not far from Messana, where the Roman navy defeated the Carthaginian navy, and took the beaks of the captured ships to decorate the Speakers platform in the Forum Romanum to prove to the Assembly, that the war was a good idea. In 258 BC the Carthaginian navy went down, that is down to the bottom, off the coast of Sardinia before the Roman fleet. Carthaginian council was so enraged that its commander was crucified. 

Diagram of corvus

            Many historians are puzzled that during that titanic, many years lasting struggle, the Carthaginians with all their naval expertise did not manage to develop a counter measure to the corvus.  Possibly the fact, that only the officer corps consisted of Carthaginians and the rest were mercenaries had something to do with it. They were hired to fight, not to think. Or they were more aware than the nautically reckless Romans that the heavy corvus, fastened to the mast, destabilised ships in stormy weather and they thought they’d  let nature take care of the Roman tactics.

            The Romans became very cocky. They decided to bring the war to northern Africa. M. Atilius Regulus received command for the invasion. This went bad in its entirety. Carthage hired a Spartan mercenary, Xanthippus, as a general, and his tactics defeated the Roman army in 255 BC. Roman fleet saved the remnants of Regulus’ army, but the fleet was partially destroyed by a storm and the captured consul Regulus was executed.

            After that, the main theatre of operations remained Sicily, from where the Carthaginians were previously thrown out. Since they did not believe in allies, only in subjugation, the minute Carthage was in trouble, the subjected peoples in Africa and Spain revolted, and Carthaginians spent a lot of time and energy to bring them back into the fold; or under the fold.

                In 249 BC happened an incident that served as a warning example and oratorical exercise on the dangers of impiety for generations of middle school boys. Publius Claudius Pulcher of the maverick Claudius family was elected to consulship and received the command of the fleet. Before a battle, every commander was supposed to see if the sacred chickens would eat, and thus prophesy success or failure in battle.  Chickens eating eagerly suggested success. If they were off their feed, commanders had to wait for another opportunity for battle. Well, the chickens did not want to eat that time and the consul threw them overboard, yelling “if they won’t eat, let them drink!’ He lost the battle, and the fleet.

             Irreverent people suggested though, that his defeat was caused rather by poor tactics than by wayward chickens. The same irreverent people hauled him to court on charges of incompetence and impiety, a handy charge. He was convicted and heavily fined, because Romans did not believe in killing bad commanders, rather making money off of them to compensate for losses caused by them.

Hamilcar Barca

            From then on, the war went badly for Rome. An excellent Carthaginian officer, Hamilcar Barca in command of 20 thousand mercenaries was dispatched to Sicily, and started to press the Romans back. The Romans had no more navies after the defeats in 249, whoever was to blame, chickens or bad commanders. Carthaginian navy regained its status and was able to supply the mercenaries in Sicily.

            Romans realised that their only chance for victory lay in the recovery of their naval power. However, there was no money for ships. Actually, for anything, the treasury under the temple of Saturn, the ancient god of wealth, was empty.  Rome’s doggedness and sheer pigheadedness (politely called perseverance) showed a way. Senators lined up on the Speakers platform in the Forum, since the 1^st Punic war called the Rostra (ships' beaks), and asked citizens to lend money to the state. The consuls went ahead with all their own silver first as an example. In 242 BC 200 Roman ships arrived to Sicily. On a stormy morning they destroyed the Carthaginian fleet. The Carthaginian army in Sicily could no longer be supplied and the war was over. Carthage did not have another navy.

Carthage in 3rd cent. AD- note the excellent harbour

              Hamilcar Barca negotiated the peace treaty in 241 BC. Romans were well aware that their victory was a very close thing and did not press for severe terms.  However, whatever the terms, Sicily was henceforward Roman, the first Roman province outside of Italy proper. 

           

            Carthage was beset by other problems than mere loss of naval supremacy (never regained) and an indemnity to be paid to Rome.  They could not pay off the mercenaries who returned from Sicily and wanted their paycheck. Carthaginians did not have the money, so the mercenaries did, what they knew best – fought for it. With Carthage.

Carthaginian sacrificial altar. Romans were not fond of
the Carthaginians not only because of the war, but
because the Carthaginians practiced child sacrifices as well.
This fact was confirmed by archaeology.