Punic Wars

264 – 146 BC

Overview

Rome and Carthage, the Phoenician city in North Africa that dominated western Mediterranean trade, went to war three times. The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was fought over Sicily and was won at sea: Rome, which had no navy to speak of, built fleets from nothing, used the corvus boarding bridge to turn sea fights into infantry battles, and won at Mylae and the Aegates Islands. The Second Punic War (218–201 BC) was Hannibal's war. He marched from Spain over the Alps into Italy and destroyed Roman armies at the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and the Battle of Cannae, where some 50,000 or more Romans died in a single afternoon. Rome refused to make peace, fought Hannibal to a standstill in Italy and carried the war to Spain and Africa, where Scipio Africanus defeated him at Zama in 202 BC. The Third Punic War (149–146 BC) ended with Carthage besieged, taken and destroyed.

Weapons of Rome

The Roman army of the Punic Wars was the manipular legion, with its soldiers in three lines by age and experience. Each man threw the Roman Pilum before closing with the sword, and fought behind the large curved Roman Scutum. The wars changed Roman equipment: the short, stabbing gladius hispaniensis, the Roman Gladius, was adopted from the Iberian peoples Rome met as enemies and allies in Spain.

Weapons of Carthage

Carthage fought with mercenaries and allies rather than a citizen army. Hannibal's forces combined Libyan heavy infantry, who re-equipped themselves with captured Roman arms after Trasimene; Iberian swordsmen with the curved Iberian Falcata; Celtic warriors with long slashing swords such as the Celtic La Tène Sword; Balearic slingers; the superb Numidian light cavalry; and, famously though with limited effect, war elephants. It was a coalition of specialists, and at Cannae Hannibal used each of them exactly where it would count.

Legacy

The Punic Wars made Rome the master of the western Mediterranean and set it on the road to empire. Cannae became the model of the battle of annihilation, studied by generals ever since, and the Roman habit of refusing to accept defeat became part of the legend of the legions.

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