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.