5. THE RISE OF ROME AND ITS REPUBLIC, 753

Wars with Carthage and in the East, 264–121 B.C.E.

The Roman Republic fought its three most famous foreign wars against the wealthy city of Carthage in North Africa, which Phoenicians had founded around 800 B.C.E. Carthage, governed as a republic like Rome, controlled a powerful empire rich from farming in Africa and seaborne trade in the Mediterranean. Carthage seemed both a dangerous rival and a fine prize. Horror at the Carthaginians’ reported tradition of incinerating infants to placate their gods in times of trouble also fed Romans’ hostility against people they saw as barbarians.

Rome’s wars with Carthage are called the Punic Wars (from the Latin word for “Phoenician”). The first one (264–241 B.C.E.) erupted over Sicily, where Carthage wanted to preserve its trading settlements, while Rome wanted to block Carthaginian power close to Italy. This long conflict revealed why the Romans won wars: the large Italian population provided deep manpower reserves, and the government was prepared to sacrifice as many troops, spend as much money, and fight as long as it took to defeat the enemy. Previously unskilled at naval warfare, the Romans expended vast sums to build warships to combat Carthage’s experienced navy; they lost more than five hundred ships and 250,000 men while learning how to win at sea. (See “Taking Measure: Census Records during the First and Second Punic Wars.”)

The Romans’ victory in the First Punic War made them masters of Sicily, where they set up their first province (a foreign territory ruled and taxed by Roman officials). This innovation proved so profitable that they soon seized the islands of Sardinia and Corsica from the Carthaginians to create another province. These first successful foreign conquests increased the Romans’ appetite for expansion outside Italy (Map 5.3). Fearing a renewal of Carthage’s power, the Romans cemented alliances with local peoples in Spain, where the Carthaginians were expanding from their southern trading posts.

Figure 5.3: MAP 5.3 Roman Expansion, 500–44 B.C.E.

Figure 5.3: During its first two centuries, the Roman republic used war and diplomacy to extend its power north and south in the Italian peninsula. In the third and second centuries B.C.E., conflict with Carthage in the south and west and the Hellenistic kingdoms in the east extended Roman power outside Italy and led to the creation of provinces from Spain to Greece. The first century B.C.E. saw the conquest of Syria by Pompey and of Gaul by Julius Caesar.

The Carthaginians decided to strike back. In the Second Punic War (218–201 B.C.E.), their general Hannibal terrified the Romans by marching troops and war elephants over the Alps into Italy. Slaughtering thirty thousand Romans at Cannae in 216 B.C.E., Hannibal tried to convince Rome’s Italian allies to desert, but most refused to rebel. Hannibal’s alliance in 215 B.C.E. with the king of Macedonia forced the Romans to fight on a second front in Greece. Still, they refused to crack despite Hannibal’s ravaging of Italy from 218 to 203 B.C.E. Invading the Carthaginians’ homeland, the Roman army won the battle of Zama in 202 B.C.E. The Senate forced Carthage to scuttle its navy, pay huge war indemnities, and hand over its Spanish territory, rich with silver mines.

The Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.E.) began when the Carthaginians retaliated against the aggression of the king of Numidia, a Roman ally. After winning the war, the Romans heeded the senator Cato’s demand, “Carthage must be destroyed!” They obliterated the city and converted its territory into a province. This disaster did not destroy Carthaginian culture, however, and under the Roman Empire this part of North Africa flourished economically and intellectually, creating a synthesis of Roman and Carthaginian traditions.

The aftermath of the Punic Wars extended Roman power to Spain, North Africa, Macedonia, Greece, and western Asia Minor. Hannibal’s alliance with the king of Macedonia had brought Roman troops east of Italy for the first time. After defeating the Macedonian king for revenge and to prevent any threat of his invading Italy, the Roman commander proclaimed the “freedom of the Greeks” in 196 B.C.E. to show respect for Greece’s glorious past. The Greek cities and federal leagues understood the proclamation to mean that they, as “friends” of Rome, could behave as they liked. They were mistaken. The Romans expected them to behave as clients and follow their new patrons’ advice.

The Romans repeatedly intervened to make the kingdom of Macedonia and the Greeks observe their obligations as clients. The Senate in 146 B.C.E. ordered Corinth destroyed for asserting its independence and converted Macedonia and Greece into a province. In 133 B.C.E., a Hellenistic king increased Roman power with a stupendous gift: in his will he bequeathed to Rome his kingdom in western Asia Minor. In 121 B.C.E., the Romans made the lower part of Gaul across the Alps (modern southern France) into a province. By the late first century B.C.E., then, Rome governed and profited from two-thirds of the Mediterranean region; only the easternmost Mediterranean lay outside its control (see Map 5.3, page 159).