Page 141 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

operations with a navy, promptly developed a substan- tial fleet. The Carthaginians, for their part, had diffi- culty finding enough mercenaries to continue the fight. After a long struggle in which both sides lost battles in northern Africa and Sicily, a Roman fleet defeated the Carthaginian navy off Sicily, and the war quickly came to an end. In 241 B.C.E., Carthage gave up all rights to Sicily and had to pay an indemnity.
HANNIBAL AND THE SECOND PUNIC WAR After the war, Carthage made an unexpected recovery and extended its domains in Spain to compensate for the territory lost to Rome. Realizing that defeating Rome on land was essential to victory, the Carthaginians organized a formidable land army in the event of a second war with Rome. When the Romans encouraged one of Carthage’s Spanish allies to revolt against Carthage, Hannibal (HAN-uh-bul), the greatest of the Carthaginian gener- als, struck back, beginning the Second Punic War (218–201 B.C.E.).
This time the Carthaginians decided to bring the war home to the Romans by fighting in their own backyard. Hannibal went into Spain, marched east, and crossed the Alps with an army of 30,000 to 40,000 men and 6,000 horses and elephants. The Alps took a toll on the Carthaginian army, and most of the elephants did not survive the trip. The remaining army, however, posed a real threat. At Cannae (KAN-ny or KAN-nee) in 216 B.C.E., the Romans lost an army of almost 40,000 men. Rome seemed on the brink of disaster but refused to give up, raised yet another army, and gradually recov- ered. Although Hannibal remained free to roam in Italy, he had neither the men nor the equipment to lay siege to Rome or any other major cities. The Romans began to reconquer some of the Italian cities that had rebelled against Roman rule after Hannibal’s successes. More important, the Romans pursued a strategy aimed at undermining the Carthaginian empire in Spain. By 206 B.C.E., the Romans had pushed the Carthaginians out of Spain.
The Romans then took the war directly to Carthage. Late in 204 B.C.E., a Roman army under Publius Corne- lius Scipio, later known as Scipio Africanus (SEE-pee-oh af-ree-KAY-nuss), moved from Sicily into northern Africa and forced the Carthaginians to recall Hannibal from Italy. At the Battle of Zama in 202 B.C.E., the Romans decisively defeated Hannibal’s forces, and the war was essentially over. Eventually, Hannibal left Carthage and went to help Antiochus, the ruler of the Seleucid kingdom, in his struggle with Rome. After Antiochus made peace with the Romans, Hannibal fled
to Bithynia, near the Black Sea. Pursued by the Romans, Hannibal declared, “Let us free Rome of her dread of one old man,” and committed suicide.
By the peace treaty signed with the Romans in 201 B.C.E., Carthage lost Spain, agreed to pay an indemnity, and promised not to go to war without Rome’s permis- sion. Spain, like Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia earlier, was made into a Roman province. Rome had become the dominant power in the western Mediterranean.
THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE But some Romans wanted even more. A number of prominent Romans, especially the conservative politician Cato, advocated the com- plete destruction of Carthage. Cato ended every speech he made to the senate with the words “And I think Carthage must be destroyed.” When the Carthaginians technically broke their peace treaty with Rome by going to war against one of Rome’s North African allies who had been encroaching on Carthage’s home territory, Roman forces undertook their third and last war with Carthage (149–146 B.C.E.). This time Carthage was no match for the Romans, who seized the oppor- tunity to carry out the final destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.E. The territory was made a Roman prov- ince called Africa.
The Eastern Mediterranean
During the Punic Wars, Rome had become acutely aware of the Hellenistic states of the eastern Mediterranean when the king of Macedonia made an alliance with Han- nibal after the Roman defeat at Cannae. But Rome was preoccupied with the Carthaginians, and it was not until after the defeat of Carthage that Rome became involved in the world of Hellenistic politics as an advocate of the freedom of the Greek states. This support of the Greeks brought the Romans into conflict with both Macedonia and the kingdom of the Seleucids. Roman military victo- ries and diplomatic negotiations rearranged the territo- rial boundaries of the Hellenistic kingdoms and brought the Greek states their freedom in 196 B.C.E. For fifty years, the Romans tried to be a power broker in the affairs of the Greeks without directly controlling their lands. When the effort failed, the Romans changed their policy. Macedonia was made a Roman province in 148 B.C.E., and when some of the Greek states rose in revolt against Rome’s restrictive policies, Rome acted deci- sively. The city of Corinth, leader of the revolt, was destroyed in 146 B.C.E. to teach the Greeks a lesson, and Greece was placed under the control of the Roman gov- ernor of Macedonia. Thirteen years later, in 133 B.C.E.,
The Roman Conquest of the Mediterranean (264–133 B.C.E.) 103
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