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[Assistant] The only thing missing was a catalyst. That minor event in that insignificant place that has been starting great power wars for millennia from the revolt in Epidominus to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo.


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[Assistant] is that a group of mercenaries from Campania, called the Mamertines, had been hired by Agathocles, the king of Syracuse, to fight his war with the Carthaginians for control of Sicily between 315 and 305 BC.


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[Assistant] The mercenaries took a shine to Masana and decided to seize control of the city for themselves and see if anyone would stop them.


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[Assistant] Massana lay on the east coast of the island, and the Carthaginian garrison was not large or easily supplied. So when the Mamertines overran the city, the Carthaginians could only watch helplessly.


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[Assistant] The Mamertines held the city for a decade or so, living fat off the land.


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[Assistant] But knowing they were in a precarious situation, joined in the call for purists to come to the island and drive the Carthaginians out once and for all in 278 BC.


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[Assistant] When the Greek king's rule began to reek of tyranny, the Mamertines then joined in the subsequent call for Pyrrhus to please go back where he came from.


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[Assistant] Over the course of the next decade, the major shift in Sicilian power politics was the rise of Hiro in Syracuse and his ambition to control the whole island.


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[Assistant] In the Department of Strange Bedfellows, the rise of Hyro threatened both the Mamertines and the Carthaginians. So, in 265 BC, the Mamertines formally requested a Carthaginian garrison for their city to help them fight off Hero, and the request was granted.


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[Assistant] But the Mamertines, apparently the most fickle ruling class in history, immediately regretted inviting the Carthaginians in, and cast about for someone to help them drive out their new allies.


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[Assistant] There were moral as well as practical reasons to deny the request.


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[Assistant] And arguments against the idea coming from supporters of the Fabii family who argued Rome should expand north where they, again coincidentally, held the majority of the land in power.


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[Assistant] This did not detract from the arguments themselves. It is just interesting to note who embraced what argument and why.


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[Assistant] Morally, they reminded the Senate of the recent seizure of regium by legionaries just a few years before.


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[Assistant] In the aftermath of the Pyrrhic Wars, a group of Roman soldiers had taken control of the Greek city which lay in the extreme toe of Italy and declared themselves autonomous oligarchs.


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[Assistant] The Romans had taken a dim view of this at the time and in 270 BC retook Regium, marching the rebels back to Rome and beheading them in full view of the public.


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[Assistant] The Fabii argued that for Rome to now come to the aid of a group who so closely mirrored the group from Regium would show the Romans to be abject hypocrites.


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[Assistant] Helping the Mamertines meant fighting the Carthaginians, and fighting the Carthaginians was a really, really bad idea.


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[Assistant] The Claudii, however, argued that the Carthaginians were already pressing at Rome's doorstep, having taken up positions in Sicily and Sardinia and Corsica, the large islands laying off the Italian coast.


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[Assistant] If Rome did not do something soon to head off the Carthaginians, Rome would find itself and its Italian empire surrounded by the more powerful Carthaginians.


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[Assistant] The time to act was now, before Carthage solidified its position.


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[Assistant] The immediate strategic importance of controlling Massana and thus the straits between Italy and Sicily was obvious, but the larger strategic imperative of checking Carthaginian encroachment was just as important.


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[Assistant] Plus they said the Carthaginians were so bogged down trying to pacify Spain that they probably would not even react to a Roman foray into Sicily.


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[Assistant] On this last count, they were completely mistaken. But in the end, the Claudii, filling the Senate with visions of an easy victory and irresistible Roman expansion, carried the day.


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[Assistant] The Senate ordered one of the consuls for the year, Appius Claudius, yes, another Appius Claudius, to raise two legions and sail for Sicily. But Claudius, recognizing that time was of the essence, dispatched one of his cousins to immediately secure passage for a smaller force on Greek ships chartered from Tarentum.


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[Assistant] This smaller force could set out at once from Asana and, with a little luck, secure the city before the Carthaginians knew what had occurred.


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[Assistant] Once Massana was in Roman hands, the Consul Claudius would follow with the two full legions and relieve the expeditionary force.


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[Assistant] This advanced Roman brigade landed in Sicily without a hitch and marched to the Mamertines' aid.


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[Assistant] Upon hearing the news that the Roman army was at the gates, the commander of the Carthaginian garrison immediately began to make preparations for a fight, but seeing the Mamertines welcome the Romans with open arms, realized he was in it in a bad way and withdrew from the city.


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[Assistant] The conquest of Masana had thus been a bloodless affair.


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[Assistant] But the ease of victory for the Romans was almost certainly a result of Carthaginian restraint rather than any weakness of arms.


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[Assistant] The east coast of Sicily was the last outpost of Carthaginian control, and there was no standing orders in place to cover a sudden Roman invasion.


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[Assistant] The prudent naval commander, seeing the Romans cross the strait, likely decided it was best to leave the small Roman force alone and wait for instructions from home rather than spark a full-scale war by immediately attacking.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian Senate was apoplectic when they heard the news of the Roman invasion and recalled the leader of the Masonic garrison and crucified him, literally, for his failure to defend the city.


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[Assistant] Carthage reacted with far more vigor than the Romans had estimated, and the Carthaginians immediately directed their armies to Massona with orders to nip this Roman menace in the bud.


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[Assistant] Just as Appius Claudius arrived in Sicily with his two legions, the Carthaginian armies reached Massana, and, just like that, the First Punic War was on, whether either side really wanted it or not.


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[Assistant] Next week, we will get into the guts of the First Punic War, or as it might just as easily be called, the War for Sicily, as all the action takes place on and around the island.


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[Assistant] There would be triumphs for both sides, but as much as the Second Punic War was defined by great generalship, the First Punic War is actually defined by bumbling, incompetence, and missed opportunities by the leadership of both armies.


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[Assistant] The Romans would eventually win this sloppily played game, but their victory would do nothing more than guarantee that another, far bloodier conflict would be fought as soon as the two, now moral enemies, caught their breath.


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[Assistant] As a way to set up today's episode and recap last week's topic, I would like to start with an extended quote from Sir Nigel Bagnall's The Punic Wars, which sums up the events that led to the First Punic War with perfect brevity.


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[Assistant] A gang of ex-mercenaries turned brigands seize Masana to exploit its people and its natural resources for their own enrichment.


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[Assistant] Faced with the threat of falling under the domination of Hiro of Syracuse and losing their privileged status, the Mamertines turned to the Carthaginians for help. Soon finding their arrangement unsatisfactory, they invited the Romans to help them instead.


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[Assistant] The Romans had recently recovered one of their own cities, Regium, from a similar band of adventurers whom they considered so reprehensible that they had taken them to Rome for public execution.


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[Assistant] But in spite of this, they accepted the Mamertines' invitation and occupied Massana. The temptation to acquire a foothold in Sicily and secure the Straits in the face of Carthaginian unpreparedness clearly overcame all moral considerations. It was an example of blatant opportunism.


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[Assistant] In 264 BC, Rome had dispatched one of its consuls for the year, Appius Claudius, along with two legions to Sicily, with the understanding that they were to quickly secure the city of Massana in the northeast corner of the island, and then take what further territory they could.


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[Assistant] Claudius had been a vocal supporter of invading Sicily and was positively licking his lips at the thought of the riches and glory he was about to win for himself.


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[Assistant] He managed to slip by the Carthaginian fleet stationed in the straits between Italy and Sicily and marched two legions to Massona where he joined the small expeditionary force led by his cousin that was already holding the city for Rome.


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[Assistant] Upon his arrival, Claudius immediately set about fortifying his position, knowing that despite his claims of easy victory to the Senate, the Syracusans who controlled the southeast quadrant of the island, and the Carthaginians who controlled the western half, were not going to simply let Rome waltz onto their turf without a fight.


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[Assistant] He did not have to wait long for a reaction from the two major established powers on the island.


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[Assistant] Upon hearing the news that the Romans had arrived in Sicily, Carthage immediately concluded a treaty with Hiero, the king of Syracuse, and they launched a joint effort to dislodge the interlopers.


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[Assistant] Hiro marched his army north from Syracuse, and the Carthaginians marched east from their strongholds on the western edge of the island.


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[Assistant] They met at Masana and made preparations to lay siege to the city.


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[Assistant] Claudius was outnumbered by the two armies, but as he watched his opponent set up their camps, it was obvious they had not yet coordinated their armies. Seizing the initiative, Claudius marched out and attacked Hiro's force first, driving them off with little difficulty.


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[Assistant] Hyrule had no incentive to put up stiff resistance to the Romans. The treaty with his long-time nemesis Carthage was nominal at best. Sort of a, well, if you're going to fight the Romans, go ahead, I've got your back.


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[Assistant] But he had no intention of actually leading the attack. And so, facing the brunt of the Roman offensive with the Carthaginians standing by watching, Hiero prudently withdrew.


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[Assistant] Better to let the Romans and Carthaginians duke it out than overcommit and risk losing his kingdom if the Romans emerged victorious and came looking for revenge.


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[Assistant] The quickness of Hiro's defeat allowed Claudius to wheel his army around and attack the Carthaginians immediately.


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[Assistant] In the first major engagement between the two powers, Rome got the upper hand, and the Carthaginians were forced back. But it was an orderly, tactical retreat, not the mad chaotic dash of outright defeat.


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[Assistant] The victorious Romans followed up their victory by marching south on Syracuse.


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[Assistant] Claudius knew it was essential to neutralize the powerful Greek city-state, and after Hiero's poor showing outside Massona, Claudius was confident he could spook the king into a treaty, at the very least ensuring his neutrality in the fight that was sure to come against the Carthaginians.


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[Assistant] Claudius began setting up for a siege of Hyrule City, but it is likely that the entire operation was pure theater.


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[Assistant] Two legions with no naval support was not nearly enough manpower to take a city as strong as Syracuse. But Claudius was hoping that Hyrule would deal anyway.


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[Assistant] Though he had no real desire to fight the Romans and every reason to align himself with them against the Carthaginians, the King of Syracuse was not about to capitulate to a few thousand soldiers who may be gone by winter never to return.


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[Assistant] So Hyrule remained secure in his city, refused to negotiate, and waited for the Romans to withdraw.


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[Assistant] Knowing that the legions were vulnerable out in the open to a Carthaginian attack, Claudius sat aside himself that Hiero would not bargain and marched his two legions back to Massona where they would remain for the winter.


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[Assistant] The operation of the previous year had essentially been a private campaign waged by Appius Claudius. He had raised the two legions himself and conducted the campaign without any input from the Senate. But now, what had been a personal adventure authorized by the Senate was about to become state policy.


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[Assistant] Recognizing that the quick and easy road to victory in Sicily had been a mirage all along, the Senate now made their plans with a broad, long-term strategy in mind. The first step was to eliminate Hiro as a threat.


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[Assistant] If Syracuse could not be made into an ally, then at the very least he had to agree to stay out of the fight.


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[Assistant] With this in mind, both consoles for the year, each in command of two legions, were sent to Sicily with instructions to march on Syracuse and force Hiro to the table.


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[Assistant] As the four legions move south from Massana, for now the Roman home base on the island, they attack towns allied with Syracuse.


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[Assistant] None of these cities were a match for Rome, and after forcing a few to capitulate under arms, the rest quickly announced their surrender without a fight.


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[Assistant] When the Romans arrived at the gates of Syracuse this time, they brought with them a much better hand than the inside straight Claudius had bluffed the year before.


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[Assistant] He was to keep his existing kingdom intact and even be granted control of a few additional cities in exchange for aiding Rome in their impending showdown with Carthage. Hyrule jumped at the deal.


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[Assistant] He had long wanted the North Africans expelled from his island, and the Romans did a very good chance of doing just that.


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[Assistant] Plus, if he helped the Romans now, he would secure the territorial integrity of his kingdom, which even neutrality might cost him if Rome won without his help.


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[Assistant] There was always the possibility the Romans may renege down the road, but that was for another day.


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[Assistant] For now, he pledged himself fully and completely to Rome.


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[Assistant] In the end, the Romans did not renege on their deal, and Hyrule was allowed to keep his Sicilian kingdom intact.


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[Assistant] The alliance between Cairo and Rome would last for 50 years until the Old King's death in 215 BC and proved to be decisive as the Romans transitioned from an Italian to a Mediterranean power.


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[Assistant] Hiro essentially midwife the birth of the wider Roman Empire, forever standing by Rome's side as it fought its decades-long war against Carthage, and forever there with aid and comfort after every Roman setback.


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[Assistant] Without the support of Hiro, the Romans would never have been able to accomplish what they did.


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[Assistant] And the king was rewarded with the gift of unchallenged sovereignty over his kingdom.


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[Assistant] There was a lesson implicit in the pact with Hiro that the Romans followed to great success and ignored at their peril. Which is neatly captured by the aphorism, you can attract more bees with honey than vinegar.


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[Assistant] The Roman road to global empire was always smoothest when they affected a generous and honorable stance, and rocky is when they acted with deceit and cruelty.


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[Assistant] However, in their attempt to win the rest of Sicily, they displayed far less wisdom and protracted the conflict longer than necessary by driving cities to the Carthaginian side with acts of unnecessary brutality, as was with the case of the Sack of Aggregantum.


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[Assistant] By 262 BC, the year after securing the alliance with Hyrule, the Romans were now free to prosecute their greater war with Carthage.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians were assembling a mercenary army at Aggregentum, a Greek city on the southern coast of Sicily, which was both geographically and culturally disposed to an alliance with Carthage.


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[Assistant] The Romans were intent on preventing this force from spreading out onto the island beyond their port of entry and raised an army 40,000 strong to bottle up the city.


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[Assistant] Despite persistent skirmishes, the Romans were able to build a double wall around the city, one facing in, pinning the Carthaginian army down, and one facing out to prevent any relieving force from coming to Aggregantum's aid.


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[Assistant] This was a risky strategy in that the Romans themselves were now open to a siege.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians, well aware of this vulnerability, rerouted their incoming troops to a nearby port and decided to exploit the situation and besiege the besiegers.


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[Assistant] The Siege of Aggregantum was the first opportunity for the new Roman friendship with Hiero to bear fruit. As the King of Syracuse spared no expense to keep the Roman army, trapped now between their two walls, well supplied.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian commander of the relieving force had every intention of simply starving the Romans out, as his own troops were raw and undisciplined, but after failing to cut the Romans' supply lines and recognizing that the situation inside Aggregantum was becoming desperate, decided to risk an open confrontation.


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[Assistant] He challenged the Romans to come out and fight, and the challenge was accepted.


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[Assistant] The resulting battle lasted all day, but in the end, just as the Carthaginian commander had feared, the experience and discipline of the Roman soldiers proved decisive and the Carthaginians were beaten.


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[Assistant] In the aftermath of the fighting though, that discipline broke down as the Roman soldiers got caught up scavenging for spoils.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian army trapped inside Aggregentum was able to slip out of the city and it wasn't until the last Carthaginian company was leaving that the escape was finally noticed.


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[Assistant] The legions briefly mustered to give chase, but then realized that with the Carthaginian army gone, Aggregantum was ripe for the taking. The soldiers wheeled around and charged headlong into the city they had spent months sitting outside of. In their lust for plunder, all hell broke loose, and no distinction was made between civilian and combatant.


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[Assistant] Women and children were slaughtered along with the men, and the city was stripped of its wealth.


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[Assistant] The commanders, whether they approved of the horror or not, justified it after the fact by singing the familiar refrain that they needed to make an example of aggregantum to teach other Carthage allied cities a lesson about resisting Rome.


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[Assistant] The only lesson the Carthage allied cities learned, however, was that the Romans were sadistic barbarians who had to be resisted at all cost.


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[Assistant] The Sack of Aggregantum did nothing to dissuade future resistance and in fact did everything to promote it.


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[Assistant] A more humane victory lap may have convinced the rest of Sicily that they had nothing to fear from the ascendant Romans. But in the end, the dose of Roman vinegar at Aggregantum attracted nobis.


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[Assistant] After taking aggregantum, the Romans now effectively control two-thirds of Sicily.


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[Assistant] But the Carthaginian strongholds on the west coast were impregnable.


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[Assistant] Their walls were almost impossible to breach and no prolonged siege would work as long as the cities could be supplied from the sea.


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[Assistant] Neither side risked total defeat by challenging the other on their home field.


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[Assistant] But after essentially talking past each other for 30 years, the Spartans finally decided to force the issue and built a navy to compete.


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[Assistant] A decisive Spartan victory at sea finally put an end to the long war.


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[Assistant] In the first Punic War, the Romans were dominant on land, but the Carthaginians controlled the sea.


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[Assistant] And so, with typical Roman confidence and audacity, they decided to follow Sparta's example and take the fight on to the other guy's turf.


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[Assistant] While Appius Claudius was initially crossing over to Massana.


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[Assistant] A Carthaginian ship had charged too aggressively and run aground on the Italian mainland.


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[Assistant] Roman engineers studied the ship, and in 261 BC, the Senate, deciding to take the plunge into a world they knew nothing about, ordered a fleet built based on the Carthaginian design.


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[Assistant] The Romans knew nothing about shipbuilding or seamanship, but in two months they built 120 ships and raised the 30,000 troops necessary to man them, training them on rowing techniques on the beach while the ships were completed.


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[Assistant] The first Scipio to appear in our narrative, but I can assure you, he won't be the last.


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[Assistant] The forebearer of two of the greatest generals in Roman history, however, did not get the famous name off to a good start.


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[Assistant] Scipio led a squadron of 17 ships to Massona to make sure there was no Carthaginian presence in the area.


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[Assistant] The main fleet was to follow a few days later under the capable hands of Scipio's consular colleague, Gaius Julius.


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[Assistant] But Scipio got greedy and decided to attack a small coastal city while he waited for the rest of the fleet.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians got wind that the Romans were trying to launch a navy and decided to come have a look for themselves, knowing it would be good for a few laughs, if nothing else.


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[Assistant] They watched with amusement as Scipio foolishly led all 17 of his ships into a harbor the Carthaginians could easily trap him in.


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[Assistant] Night fell and the Carthaginians did just that. And when the morning came, Scipio's little fleet was bottled up by a much larger Carthaginian force.


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[Assistant] As the Carthaginians advanced, the newly minted Roman sailors lost their nerve and abandoned ship.


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[Assistant] The 17 ships were all lost, and Scipio himself was taken prisoner.


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[Assistant] The blunder earns Scipio the famous moniker Acina, which roughly translates as The Ass.


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[Assistant] Scipio Acina, as history now remembers him, would eventually be handed over in a prisoner exchange and resume his career.


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[Assistant] But he never shook the memory of presiding over Rome's first naval battle and consequently Rome's first naval disaster.


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[Assistant] Scipio Asina's colleague, however, fared much better.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian naval commander, confident that every victory would be so easy, headed off to find the rest of the Roman fleet.


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[Assistant] Rounding the northeast corner of Sicily, the 50 Carthaginian ships plundered into the 100 Roman ships, and this time the Romans held their own.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian fleet was soon driven back and was lucky to escape without greater losses than they did.


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[Assistant] After these two skirmishes, the stage was set for the first real, full on naval battle of the war.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians sent 145 ships to meet the Romans, who by now had a fleet of 130 anchored off the north coast of the island near Mile.


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[Assistant] Carthage was intent on using their superior seamanship to devastate the Romans and put them back where they belonged, which is to say, the land. The Romans however had a secret weapon.


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[Assistant] They knew they were no match for the Carthaginians in terms of nautical skill, so they devised a way of leveling the playing field and turning the battle into nothing more than an infantry fight at sea.


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[Assistant] The standard tactic of ancient naval battles was the subtle and refined art of ramming.


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[Assistant] One ship would try and swing around and head full speed at the broad side of an enemy vessel and crash into it with their armored prow, sinking the ship or at least taking it out of the fight.


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[Assistant] The Romans lacked the skill set necessary to compete on this level, so they developed a device called the corvus, which functioned like a narrow drawbridge.


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[Assistant] Each Roman ship had a wooden column outfitted with a pulley mounted on its prow.


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[Assistant] Attached to the pulley was a narrow plank with a large metal spike protruding from its bottom.


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[Assistant] When the Romans got near enough to an enemy vessel, they dropped the corvus, which crashed into the enemy deck and held the ship in place. The Roman soldiers then used the corvus as a bridge, running onto the other ship and fighting the Carthaginian sailors hand to hand, the kind of fighting the Romans excelled at.


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[Assistant] At Mile, the Corvus was used to great effect. An initial foray of 30 Carthaginian ships were all caught up and their crews slaughtered.


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[Assistant] The rest of the Carthaginian fleet, charging on their heels, saw what was happening to the lead group and tried to peel off, but another 20 were caught up anyway.


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[Assistant] Just like that, the Carthaginians had lost a third of their fleet.


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[Assistant] Having taken the Carthaginians completely by surprise with their new toy, Rome won its first major naval battle handily.


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[Assistant] The Corvus, however, was never again so effective, the Carthaginians learning quickly to avoid the trap. Once the secret weapon was no longer secret, its effectiveness disappeared.


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[Assistant] For the next four years, the first Punic War bogged down into a series of intermittent and indecisive battles on land and at sea.


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[Assistant] The Romans diverted forces from Sicily in an attempt to dislodge the Carthaginians from Sardinia and Corsica, which they were using as bases to harass the Italian coast.


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[Assistant] No major push was made by Rome on the Carthaginian strongholds on the west coast of Sicily and the Carthaginians were content for now to hold what possessions they could, unable to raise a large enough force to end the now permanent Roman presence on the island.


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[Assistant] In 255 BC, however, the Senate decided that its muddle and incoherent strategy of having forces spread across multiple islands would leave them at war forever and initiated a much bolder strategy that would change the whole dynamic of the war. They would invade North Africa.


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[Assistant] Once there, the infantry would disembark, march on Carthage itself, and put an end to this war once and for all. That was the plan anyway.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian Senate was alarmed at what the Romans were obviously up to and ordered a massive fleet of their own to intercept the invasion force before it could be launched from Sicily.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian fleet waited for the Romans to load up their 80 transport vessels, which had to be towed behind road ships of war. The Carthaginians knew they didn't necessarily have to win the battle to end the threat of invasion. They simply had to sink the helpless transport vessels. No invasion force, no invasion.


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[Assistant] If the ancient sources are to be believed, then the Battle of Ecnomus was one of the largest naval battles in the history of the world, with something like 600 ships and 200,000 sailors and soldiers taking part. The Romans set off in a well planned triangle formation, placing the troop transport at the base of the triangle for maximum protection.


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[Assistant] But the Carthaginians managed to bait the lead ships out of formation by feigning a retreat. The lead ships of the wedge headed off in pursuit of the Carthaginians, and the back Roman line was unable to keep up.


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[Assistant] The feint successful, the Carthaginians then whipped around and locked up the advancing Romans, leaving the transport sitting ducks for another squadron of Carthaginian ships.


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[Assistant] However, despite thoroughly outmaneuvering the Romans, the Carthaginians were unable to seal the deal and the Roman line towing the transports were able to fend off the attack.


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[Assistant] The lead Roman ships then got the better of their opponents and were able to swing back around to relieve the beleaguered back line.


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[Assistant] At the end of the day, the Roman fleet was still essentially intact. The Carthaginians had done nothing more than delay the invasion and after the Romans repaired their damaged vessels, they set out again, this time without meeting any resistance at all.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians pulled back to their home city, where they made preparations to fend off the Roman invasion.


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[Assistant] The dynamic of the war was indeed about to change as the Romans landed troops in Africa for the first, but certainly not the last time.


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[Assistant] Next week, the Romans will encounter a Carthaginian army revitalized under the brilliant command of a hired Spartan general named Xanthippus.


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[Assistant] Despite his brilliant generalship, though, Rome will come a hair's breadth away from ending the war, but an overinflated ego will blow the opportunity, forcing the war back to Sicily, where Carthage will wage a decade-long guerrilla war against the inevitable tide of Roman domination.


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[Assistant] In the final years of the war, a young Carthaginian boy will swear eternal hatred for Rome, starting him on the path to becoming nightmare boogeyman A number one in the Roman psyche, Hannibal.


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[Assistant] After years of inconclusive fighting on and around Sicily, the Romans decided the time had finally come to stop fighting the tentacles of the Carthaginian Empire and stab right at its heart.


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[Assistant] Though they were stalled by one of the largest naval battles in history, the Romans were able to regroup and set out once again no worse for the wear.


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[Assistant] They had been set back a few months, which threw a small monkey wrench into their plans, but the Romans remained focused and confident that they were on their way to sack Carthage and end the war.


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[Assistant] In charge of the operation was the senior consul for the year, Marcus Attilius Regulus.


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[Assistant] Originally, the plan in place had been to land about 50 miles southeast of Carthage, disembark the legions, set up a defensive perimeter, and begin the march on the enemy city.


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[Assistant] The logic behind landing down the road from Carthage and not right on their doorstep was two-fold. First, the waters immediately surrounding Carthage were patrolled by the weakened but still powerful Carthaginian navy. The Romans concluded that any resistance they faced at sea would be far stiffer than any they met on land.


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[Assistant] Second, the Romans had no illusions about the ease of taking a great city like Carthage. So just as they had done with Syracuse, they knew they needed to isolate Carthage and cut off its supply lines.


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[Assistant] So, as the legions made their way to Carthage, they were supposed to convince locals along the way that Carthage was doomed and it was time to join the Roman side.


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[Assistant] Once the infantry reached Carthage, the bulk of the fleet would set up a blockade of the city outside the reach of the Carthaginian navy, but still standing between Carthage and its maritime supply routes.


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[Assistant] It was a good plan, but the Battle of Aeknomus had set it all back a few months, and by the time the Romans finally landed in Africa, winter was fast approaching.


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[Assistant] There was no way to provision the entire force, which included something like 75,000 rowers. So just like that, the carefully laid plan was tossed out and improvisation commenced.


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[Assistant] Most of the fleet was ordered back to Sicily, leaving Regulus in Africa with 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry.


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[Assistant] His instructions were to hold the Roman position for the winner and do his level best to begin the process of turning Carthage's allies against them.


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[Assistant] Regulus, though, had in mind for himself the glory of ending the war and decided to march for Carthage anyway, with or without naval support.


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[Assistant] He still understood the wisdom of isolating the Carthaginians, though, and attacked Carthage's North African allies along the way.


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[Assistant] It was at one of these stops, about 40 miles from Carthage at the city of Aedes, that the Romans met their first real resistance from the Carthaginian army.


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[Assistant] However, afraid of meeting the Romans out on the plains, the Carthaginians took to the hills, where they figured the strength of the legions would be diminished.


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[Assistant] First, the Romans had just spent 60 years locked in a mortal death struggle with the Samnites, and had learned every trick in the book when it came to hill fighting. And second, the one true superiority of the Carthaginian ground forces was their cavalry, which, in the hills, were effectively taken out of the fight altogether.


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[Assistant] So after the Carthaginian generals carefully set themselves up to fail, all that was left to do was take the field and do just that.


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[Assistant] The Romans marched up into the hills and dislodged the Carthaginians with ease, driving them out of the area.


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[Assistant] The city of Edis then surrendered without further resistance.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian Senate was now beside itself. Its army had been dispatched with ease, and the Romans were on the move.


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[Assistant] Adding to their despair, reports began to arrive that the fragile Carthaginian domination of the Libyans and Numidians was breaking down and revolts were flaring up.


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[Assistant] The defection of the numidians was particularly distressing.


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[Assistant] In the whole of the Mediterranean, the Numidians were by far the best horsemen.


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[Assistant] Without the Numidian cavalry riding with them, the one advantage that Carthaginians did have would go out the window.


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[Assistant] Cut off from their allies and without an army strong enough to oppose the legions, the only option left to Carthage seemed to be negotiation.


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[Assistant] The writing was on the wall, and when the Romans finally did arrive at Carthage, envoys, not an army, were sent to greet them.


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[Assistant] Regulus agreed to meet with them and by all accounts was about to receive significant concessions from the Carthaginians and bring an end to the long war when fate, or rather ego, stepped in.


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[Assistant] Intemperate in his demands, Regulus laid terms of surrender so preposterous that the Carthaginians were forced to refuse.


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[Assistant] He demanded the Carthaginians leave Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia forever, that they completely dismantle their navy, pay a huge punitive fine to Rome, and as a final humiliation, sign a treaty that would place Carthage under the sovereignty of the Roman Senate. The Carthaginian envoys were shocked.


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[Assistant] Regulus was essentially acting as if he had defeated the Carthaginians in battle and was imposing terms rather than bargaining with a weak but still unconquered city.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians were better off rejecting the terms and praying for a miracle than just giving away the farm without making the Romans even work for it.


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[Assistant] So the envoys returned to Carthage and announced that they had failed to give up. Which is pretty hard to do when you think about it.


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[Assistant] They had sent out feelers across the Mediterranean looking for aid and had hit upon a good lead in Greece, specifically in the legendarily martial city of Sparta.


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[Assistant] At the same time the negotiations were underway with Regulus, word came that a Spartan general with a small but lethal force of Greek mercenaries were on their way. The Carthaginian Senate hoped that this army from the east would turn out to be the miracle they had prayed for.


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[Assistant] So as Regulus settled in for the winter and dreamed of the triumph he would receive when the Carthaginians finally came to their senses, the Greek army arrived and though Regulus did not realize it yet, kicked glory out of his reach.


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[Assistant] Spartan general, Xanthippus, set to work immediately by interviewing Carthaginian soldiers present at the Battle of Aedas.


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[Assistant] He was shocked to hear how badly the Carthaginian generals had mucked things up, and concluded quickly that there was nothing wrong with the Carthaginian army itself, just its leadership.


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[Assistant] He was further convinced when he was tasked by the Carthaginian Senate with drilling their army into shape.


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[Assistant] As he watched them, he realized there was nothing wrong with the infantry, the cavalry was magnificent, and the war elephants practically indestructible.


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[Assistant] He reported to the Senate that they had nothing to fear from the Romans, and, as soon as spring came, advised them to immediately challenge the legions in the open plains. The Senate was skeptical, but Xanthippus eventually moved them to order the attack.


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[Assistant] When the Roman fleet returned to North Africa, they were sure to bring the new consoles for the year with them.


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[Assistant] Regulus had won the Battle of Aknamas, landed in North Africa, and marched to the gates of Carthage. Now, with victory in his grasp, he was about to have to hand the baton off in the final 50 yards of the marathon and let some newbie cross the finish line and get all the glory.


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[Assistant] The clock was ticking, not on Rome's chances in North Africa, but on Regulus's chance to be the center of attention at the victory party.


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[Assistant] When the newly confident Carthaginian army marched out into the plains beside Carthage, with Xanthippus at its head, Regulus would have been wise to stall for time and wait for reinforcements from Rome to guarantee victory. His army was not large and had just spent the winter in enemy territory, but blinded by vanity, he jumped at the chance to fight.


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[Assistant] Conventional wisdom was that the Carthaginians were no match for the legions out in the open, and when Regulus saw them march out, his head was filled with visions of dining in Carthage that very night. Which, of course, he did, just not in the way he imagined.


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[Assistant] Zanthippus saw clearly the advantage his superior cavalry afforded him, and Regulus's infantry deployment all but guaranteed Carthaginian victory before the battle even began.


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[Assistant] Santhippus placed the war elephant at the head of his army and the cavalry on the wings. Regulus responded by deepening his line so the elephants could not break through them completely. But in order to do so, he had to sacrifice the width of his front.


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[Assistant] He essentially flipped the rectangle that was his army, so that the short end, rather than the broad side, were facing the Carthaginians.


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[Assistant] When Xanthippus saw Regulus order the new deployment, he knew victory was in his grasp.


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[Assistant] With the short in front, the Romans would be easily outflanked by the Carthaginian cavalry. Regulus couldn't have played into Xanthippus' hands more if he had tried.


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[Assistant] While the Romans were focused on the giant beasts, he ordered out the cavalry, which rooted their Roman counterparts easily.


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[Assistant] And just as the Romans were getting a handle on the elephant, they were hit from both sides by the Carthaginian cavalry.


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[Assistant] The Romans, now besieged from all fronts, fought for their lives, surging forward in an attempt to break out of the cavalry pincher.


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[Assistant] Waiting for them was the fresh and so far unused Carthaginian infantry.


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[Assistant] The exhausted Romans didn't stand a chance. Of the 15,000 or so who entered the battle, only 2,000 made it out alive. Of these, around 500 were taken prisoner, including Regulus himself, who, as I said, did indeed dine in Carthage that very evening, his hands hobbled by chains.


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[Assistant] When the Roman fleet finally arrived, it was not to preside over a final victory for Rome, but rather to pick up the pitiful survivors of a devastated army.


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[Assistant] The Roman adventure in North Africa was over, and it would be fifty years before they would attempt anything so audacious again.


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[Assistant] At that time though, young Scipio Africanus would lead the invasion and secure a much better result.


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[Assistant] To add insult to injury, when the Roman ships were returning from North Africa, a storm kicked up and sank the entire fleet.


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[Assistant] It was one of the worst maritime disasters in history. 100,000 men drowned just like that.


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[Assistant] After news of the disaster reached Rome, the Senate took stock of the situation and realized that after 10 years of fighting, they were right back at square one.


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[Assistant] Xanthippus, clearly the best thing to ever happen to Carthage, was rewarded for his victory with public acclaim and private threats. The Carthaginian nobility was threatened by the brilliant Greek tactician, and it was not long before Xanthippus, fearing he would be assassinated by the jealous nobility if he remained in Carthage, left the city for good.


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[Assistant] The loss of so great a commander did nothing to help the Carthaginian war effort.


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[Assistant] It was one of the great blunders of the war that the nobility let their own paranoia take precedence over actually winning the fight.


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[Assistant] The Romans, with their seemingly bottomless reserves of men and money, enlisted tens of thousands of new soldiers and sent them off to continue the fight.


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[Assistant] Just as it happened before though, years of inconclusive fighting followed. And it led the Romans to conclude that they had to do something drastic to bring this interminable conflict to an end.


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[Assistant] The decision was made to attack the Carthaginian stronghold of Lillebom on the northwest coast of the island.


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[Assistant] A victory there would mean the end of a Carthaginian presence on Sicily and the Romans prepared for the attack with all the energy and skill they could muster. They built a fleet of about 80 ships to blockade Lillebom's harbor and ordered the bulk of their land forces to the city with instructions to bring it to its knees.


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[Assistant] But despite the massive investment of time and money into siege equipment and provisions, the Carthaginians simply would not be moved. They had little trouble running the blockade, which the inexperienced Romans did a poor job of maintaining, and they kept themselves well supplied.


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[Assistant] In 249 BC, after about a year of getting nowhere, new consoles arrived at Lillebombe, and one of them, Publius Claudius Pulcher, brought with him a bold plan.


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[Assistant] He gathered the military tribunes together and made his pitch. The Carthaginian fleet, which was anchored not far down the coast at a city called Drapana, believed the Romans were set on maintaining the blockade and posed no real threat.


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[Assistant] If the Romans sailed their 120 odd ships down the coast at night, they could surprise the Carthaginians and destroy their navy before they knew what hit them.


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[Assistant] Their ability to run the blockade crippled. It would only be a matter of time before Lola bomb fell. With the eloquent certainty of a true Claudia, Poulter won over the troops and preparations for the raid began immediately.


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[Assistant] However, Poultry made one huge mistake at the outside of the operation that sealed his fate and secured his place in Roman history not as a great hero, but one of its greatest goats.


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[Assistant] Setting out for Drapana, he ordered that the auspices be taken and the sacred chickens consulted. In the great litany of Roman superstition, consulting with the sacred chickens has always been my personal favorite.


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[Assistant] A flock of chickens were always carried around with the army and just before a battle an auger would scatter feed in front of them.


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[Assistant] If the sacred chickens ate, it meant victory was assured.


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[Assistant] Pulcher, however, had no time for such ridiculous piety, and when the sacred chickens refused to eat, he ordered them thrown overboard, saying famously, if they're not hungry, maybe they're thirsty.


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[Assistant] He sailed off into battle, though how he expected to win without the approval of the Sacred Chickens is a mystery.


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[Assistant] The debacle that followed left the Carthaginians stronger than ever. Poulter's fleet got started late and was noticed by Carthaginian lookouts before they were within striking distance.


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[Assistant] They immediately responded by outmaneuvering and trapping vultures fleet against the coast where they were smashed against the rocks.


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[Assistant] The dream of taking Lillibom had now passed into complete fantasy.


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[Assistant] The other consul for the year attempted to re-provision the Roman troops left at Lilibom by sailing around the south end of the island, but lost all his ships in yet another storm.


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[Assistant] He himself managed to survive and make his way to Loloam, where he declared an end to the siege and withdrew.


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[Assistant] They withdrew their troops to Mount Eriks, a mountain in the west center of the island.


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[Assistant] By taking this strategic high ground, they were able to bottle up the Carthaginian land forces in their two garrisons, Lolo Bon and Drapana.


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[Assistant] The war had now come full circle. The Romans controlled the land and the Carthaginians the sea.


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[Assistant] Neither was strong enough to beat the other in their respective sphere of dominance and a new stalemate commenced.


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[Assistant] By this time though, both sides were broke and short of manpower and facing problems elsewhere. The Gauls were stirring on Rome's northern frontier and North Africa was in revolt against Carthaginian rule.


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[Assistant] The enemies of Rome and Carthage seem to have finally noticed that the two combatants were beating each other into a state of exhaustion in Sicily and set about trying to exploit the situation.


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[Assistant] So for the next seven years, Sicily became a neglected backwater war zone.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians under the command of a new general, Hamilcar Barocca.


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[Assistant] was reduced to running a guerilla war and hoping that the Romans would just quit the island out of frustration.


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[Assistant] The center of the action was at Mount Erex, where the strongest Roman garrison was stationed, and where Hamilcar directed the majority of his attacks.


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[Assistant] In 244 BC, Hamilcar finally managed to drive the Romans out and hold the high ground for himself.


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[Assistant] For the next three years, he would use the mountain as a base while he prosecuted his asymmetrical war against the Romans, under man and under supplied by the Carthaginian Senate, who, after a political party shift, had lost all interest in the war against Rome.


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[Assistant] Seeing Carthaginian interest at an all-time low, the Romans decided to make their final, final push to win the war.


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[Assistant] After failing first in North Africa and then at Lillibon, the Romans, eternal optimists that they were, decided that the time for victory had finally come.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian fleet had been removed from Sicily after the disappearance of Rome from the seas a few years earlier. There was nothing standing in the way of the Romans as they once again blockaded Lillebombe and Drapana, the last two Carthaginian outposts on the island.


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[Assistant] This time the blockades worked and the garrisons were slowly starved out.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians suddenly became interested in Sicily again and launched their entire fleet to drive the Romans off. But the hastily mustered crews were this time less experienced than the Romans who had been at sea for some time.


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[Assistant] Around the northwest coast of Sicily, the last battle of the war was fought. The rums decisively routing the Carthaginian navy.


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[Assistant] The garrison's about to fall and with no way of keeping himself provisioned, Hamilcar reluctantly opened negotiations with the Romans.


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[Assistant] The final treaty, hammered out by Hamilcar and his Roman counterpart, read, there shall be peace between the Carthaginians and the Romans subject to the approval by the Roman people upon these conditions.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians shall relinquish every part of Sicily. They are not to make war against Hiero, nor do anything to disturb the Syracusans or their allies.


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[Assistant] All the Roman prisoners will be returned without ransom and a tribute of 200 talents of silver paid within 20 years.


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[Assistant] When returning to Carthage, Hamilcar immediately began to look elsewhere for an opportunity to make up for Carthage's loss of Sicily and set his sights on Spain.


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[Assistant] He did not forget the humiliation of having to abandon Mount Erex, however, and as he sailed north with his eldest son Hannibal in tow, he made the nine-year-old boy swear an oath of eternal hatred for the Romans, which the boy did.


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[Assistant] It was an oath Hannibal never forgot, and he would dedicate his entire life to the destruction of the Romans, the mortal enemy of his family.


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[Assistant] The First Punic War was now over, and Rome was the clear victor.


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[Assistant] However, the peace settlement did not address the larger issues still facing the two strongest empires in the western Mediterranean.


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[Assistant] The first Punic War settled the issue of who controlled the island of Sicily, but did nothing to settle the larger issues of who controlled the greater Mediterranean. In that larger game, the Carthaginians still obviously felt confident that they could win.


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[Assistant] The First Punic War, as I said last week, was marked by poor judgement on both sides, and ironically, it was the victorious Romans who seemed to make more boneheaded moves than the defeated Carthaginians.


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[Assistant] Regulus blew an opportunity to end the war, and because he let his ego get in the way, the conflict dragged on ten years longer than it should have. The neophyte Roman sailors managed to lose two entire fleets to storms, storms they were warned about in advance, by the way, and another to Claudius Poulcher's botched midnight raid.


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[Assistant] If it had been anyone else, each of these disasters by themselves would have been enough to shut down the war.


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[Assistant] But the Romans were able to absorb the losses, and it was their deep pockets more than battlefield skill, which they rode to victory.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians, for their part, found themselves succumbing as much to the reputation of the Romans as anything else.


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[Assistant] Despite the fact that Xanthippus clearly demonstrated that the Romans could be beaten on land, the Carthaginians were reluctant to invest in their land forces.


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[Assistant] After the last of their fleet was dashed on the rocks in 248 BC, the Romans essentially ceded the water to Carthage.


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[Assistant] But with one theater of the war now shut down, the Carthaginians failed to capitalize on it and divert resources to the other theater and left Hamilcar to run a guerrilla war on a shoestring budget rather than give him men and money to prosecute a real ground attack.


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[Assistant] The winner of the first Punic War was always going to be the side that succeeded on the other team's field.


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[Assistant] So it went to the Romans, who finally raised one last navy.


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[Assistant] If the Carthaginians had sucked it up and done the same thing, only building an army rather than a navy, they may have succeeded in pushing the war-weary Romans off the island.


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[Assistant] It would have been an interesting historical turn had that occurred.


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[Assistant] The war marked the first time Rome fought outside of Italy, and had they lost, overseas fighting may have left a bad enough taste in their mouth that they would have contented themselves with merely an Italian empire.


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[Assistant] As it stood now, however, Rome's first overseas adventure had left them with a rich new province and it merely whetted their appetite for more.


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[Assistant] Next week, we will cover the years between the First and Second Punic Wars. Rome would face a Gallic army pressing down from the north, and also make their first foray east, landing an army on the far side of the Adriatic.


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[Assistant] All the while, Carthage was consolidating its holdings in Spain. Both sides knew the peace between them could not last forever. It was only a matter of time before hostilities between the two great powers resumed.


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[Assistant] In 218 BC, the peace would finally break, and Hannibal Baraka would make good on his oath, descend into Italy, and wreak havoc not just in the Roman countryside, but in the Roman mind.


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[Assistant] For both the Romans and the Carthaginians, the first Punic War had been an exhausting experience.


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[Assistant] Rome emerged in a better position geopolitically speaking, but both sides had been drained of money and manpower, and were significantly weaker for the great effort they had expended over Sicily.


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[Assistant] As a consequence, both sides were vulnerable to attack from opportunistic enemies.


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[Assistant] I will only briefly review the challenges faced by the North Africans during the interwar period before moving on to a detailed look at the Roman confrontations with Gallic armies to the north and Illyrian pirates across the Adriatic. This is, after all, the history of Rome, not the history of Carthage.


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[Assistant] So to quickly sum up Carthage's major post-war problem, let me just say that the Carthaginians ignored one of life's basic rules. Do not stiff mercenaries.


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[Assistant] Essentially, the new party that had taken control of Carthage in the last years of the war saw the conflict with Rome as a diversion from their main objective, making money.


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[Assistant] When the war ended, the mercenaries arrived in North Africa from Sicily and patiently waited for their due payment. But the new Carthaginian government was strapped for cash and decided a good way to save money and reduce the final bill for the war would be to drastically cut payments to their soon to be ex-employees.


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[Assistant] How they thought this would not blow up in their face is still a mystery.


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[Assistant] When the Carthaginian paymasters arrived at the mercenary camp, the troops, who were beginning to lose their cool because they had not yet been paid, began to settle down.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there had been a delay, but the Carthaginians were good for their word, and here at last was the riches they had just spent years earning with their blood and sweat.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian envoys, however, launched into a speech that I can only imagine sounds eerily familiar to employees who have listened to a layoff announcement.


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[Assistant] We want to thank everybody for their hard work. The future looks bright for Carthage. We just need to streamline our liquidity outflow to maximize our revenue streams going forward. So anyway, you're all fired, and oh by the way, your severance packages have been cancelled.


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[Assistant] To say the least, the mercenaries did not take this lying down. They did not write letters to the editor, railing against the injustice of the new global economy as they touched up their resumes. They grabbed their swords and said, trying to screw us eh? We'll see about that.


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[Assistant] For the next three years, Carthage was locked in a war with its ex-army. A very dicey proposition, when the whole reason you hired the mercenaries in the first place was that you didn't have a homegrown army of your own to speak of.


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[Assistant] But Carthage found some change in the couch cushions and hired different mercenaries to fight the aggrieved mercenaries. Carthage eventually won the fight but the whole thing wound up costing more than if the Carthaginians had just paid up in the first place.


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[Assistant] There's a lesson in there somewhere. Something about how easy life is when you simply live up to your obligations and how difficult it becomes when you renege on promises.


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[Assistant] Romans, on the other hand, were not dealing with internal divisions, but rather external pressures.


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[Assistant] To put it broadly, there were two competing visions for the way the Roman Empire ought to grow, and two families who embodied those competing visions.


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[Assistant] On the one hand were the Claudii, who, as we have already seen, pushed for southern expansion and pressed for the invasion of Sicily.


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[Assistant] On the other hand were the Fabii, who looked north and pressed for Roman settlement of the Po Valley.


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[Assistant] At one point, the Etruscans had held this land, but by the time VA was captured by Rome, the Po Valley had been lost to migrating Gallic tribes. So, for Rome, expansion north meant poking with a stick one of their most feared enemies, the Gauls.


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[Assistant] It had been 150 years since the sack of Rome, but the memory of barbarian hordes pouring through the gates was still fresh. And indeed, fear of the Gauls was a psychological demon the Romans would never fully overcome.


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[Assistant] But for the Fabii, this was immaterial. Rome's destiny was the conquest of the entire world, and they weren't going to let childish fears halt the inexorable advance of the Empire.


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[Assistant] Rome did not explicitly pick a fight with the Gauls, but the permanent settlements they were building in Gallic territory were obviously going to spark some sort of response.


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[Assistant] In 241 BC, a single Gallic tribe rose up against the Romans but were put down with ease.


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[Assistant] A few years later in 236 BC, a piecemeal coalition of tribes and factions began to march south. But when they actually stood on the brink of engaging the legions, internal squabbles broke up the coalition and the threat dematerialized before the Romans' grateful eyes.


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[Assistant] These minor uprisings were warning shots and the Romans did not dismiss them.


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[Assistant] Rome was in the process of annexing the Gallic tribes right out of existence. Eventually the barbarians would have to fight or die.


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[Assistant] The Romans knew this and so made their preparations accordingly.


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[Assistant] But before the final showdown came, Roman attention was diverted from the Gallic threat in a direction it had never looked before. East.


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[Assistant] The Adriatic had stood as the unofficial dividing line between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean for hundreds, if not thousands of years. But the division was about to break down completely.


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[Assistant] The process of integration begun by Pyrrhus as he tried to impose the east on the west would be completed by Rome when they ultimately imposed the west on the east. Rome's first official contact with the Greek world as an equal power came around 230 BC after Illyrian piracy finally grew to be intolerable.


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[Assistant] Ancient Illyria, what we know of today as the Balkans, represented the far west reaches of the Greek world.


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[Assistant] Greeks in Athens or Corinth viewed the Illyrians as barbarians living on the fringe of the civilized world and hardly worthy even of contempt. But then again, the Greeks of Athens and Corinth viewed the Macedonians the same way, so we can fairly take their snobbery with a grain of salt.


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[Assistant] The new kingdom of Illyria had formed around 240 BC, and at its height controlled the entire eastern seaboard of the Adriatic, including the once independent kingdom of Epirus.


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[Assistant] The kingdom did not extend far inland, however, and as a result, the Illyrians looked to the sea as their major source of wealth and power.


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[Assistant] But the economy of this new power was not run by an association of scrupulous merchants and traders, but rather by a gang of pirates and privateers.


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[Assistant] Much like the Barbary states of the 18th century, Illyria was a recognized sovereign funded entirely by criminal activity.


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[Assistant] They were tolerated by the Greeks because the targets of the piracy were non-Greeks, and the goods from the West still made their way to Eastern markets, often at a reduced price, what with a low overhead outright theft provides.


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[Assistant] The Romans however, who were the targets of the piracy, took a very different view. It was a menace that had to be dealt with.


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[Assistant] Little was done at first, but when the Illyrians began to boldly attack Rome and port cities, the dam of restraint was broken, and in 228 BC, Rome launched itself against the Illyrians with brutal precision.


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[Assistant] At the same time as the military campaign was launched against the Illyrian cities along the Adriatic.


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[Assistant] Rome also launched a diplomatic mission to Greece to explain what they were about to do.


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[Assistant] The Romans wanted to make sure the Greeks understood that the war with Illyria was limited in scope and would be over when the pirate menace was crushed. Yes, Roman troops were about to set foot in Greek territory, but there were no plans for them to remain longer than necessary and no further invasions east were planned.


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[Assistant] The Greeks took this to heart and the Romans were well received, marking the official beginning of diplomatic relations between Rome and the great cities of Greece.


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[Assistant] The Greeks still viewed the Romans as backward barbarians, but the power of Rome was at least acknowledged. The Corinthians even going so far as to invite Rome to take part in the Ithmanian Games, which finalized the acceptance of Rome into the Greek political world as a full equal.


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[Assistant] There was also another element to the diplomatic mission, which was secondary to the mission at hand, but would far outstrip the Illyrian pirate question in ultimate importance.


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[Assistant] The Macedonians have been consolidating their empire again, much to the dismay of Greece proper.


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[Assistant] The Romans too looked at the successors of Alexander with concern.


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[Assistant] They had their hands full with Carthage in the west and had no desire to have their back door kicked down by a newly resurgent Macedonian Empire.


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[Assistant] The Romans needed allies in Greece who could tie the hands of Macedon and protect the Roman eastern flank, and the Greeks needed money and equipment to pull off any sustained engagement.


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[Assistant] These mutual overtures would come to fruition during the Second Punic War when Philip V of Macedon signed a treaty with Hannibal to join in the war against Rome.


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[Assistant] Philip may have been able to tilt the scales decisively against Rome, but he never made it out of Greece as Roman allies there opened up front after front and kept Philip plugging leaks in his empire rather than marching his armies across the Italian peninsula and joining with Hannibal to form an invincible anti-Roman army.


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[Assistant] Rome was saved then by the diplomatic groundwork laid at the beginning of the Illyrian expedition.


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[Assistant] Free to take out the pirates with Greek blessing. The Romans then proceeded with deliberate strategic and tactical skill that completely outclassed the Illyrians.


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[Assistant] In less than a year, the major cities of Illyria were under Roman control and the Illyrian queen was sending envoys to Rome asking for peace.


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[Assistant] The terms were harsh. Illyrian ships were banished from the Adriatic and southern Illyria, opposite the heel of Italy, was annexed and established as a Roman protectorate. The Romans had achieved a dual victory.


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[Assistant] Not only had they eradicated the threat of piracy, but they also had set up now a permanent base on the far side of the Adriatic where they could keep an eye on the growing Macedonian threat.


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[Assistant] The quick end to the Illyrian campaign turned out to be a major blessing, not just for its own sake, but because the Galax storm was brewing again, and this time it would not simply break up and leave a pleasant afternoon in its wake. This time, the Gauls were united and driven.


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[Assistant] To face the invasion, Rome mustered an unprecedented number of men. They turned out the full fighting capacity of the Italian peninsula, with every Italian community committing themselves fully to what could only be considered a fight for civilization itself.


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[Assistant] Accounts have as many as 700,000 infantry and 70,000 cavalry being raised. Not all of these were first rate legionnaires, and many were employed merely for local defense. But still, it gives you an idea of how seriously the Romans took the threat.


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[Assistant] Armies were divided up and sent to cover key strategic points, but the Gauls were able to more or less march all the way to Clusium in southern Atruria before they met any resistance.


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[Assistant] The first battle went poorly for the Romans and their armies were trapped by the Gauls. But the invaders took the opportunity to pillage the countryside rather than maintain their vigil over the Romans and the trapped legions were able to escape.


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[Assistant] This greed wound up being the undoing of the Gallic army.


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[Assistant] When the Gauls settled into camp that night, the decision was made by the chieftains to put the sack of Rome on hold for the moment.


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[Assistant] The chiefs recognized that their men were too laden with booty to fight effectively, and unwilling to give up their spoils, decided to march back north and deposit their gains before returning to finish the job.


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[Assistant] They chose a route up the Etruscan coastline that offered the easiest passage for their overloaded pack animals, but this proved to be a horrendous mistake. The passage lay between the sea to the west and steep hills to the east and only permitted movement north or south.


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[Assistant] A Roman army picked up the Gallic movement and came down from the north, plugging up the passage.


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[Assistant] The Gauls decided to turn around and try a different route, but it was too late. The Roman army they had led escape came up from the south, trapping the Gauls in the pass.


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[Assistant] The Romans were delighted at their strategic coup, but immediately were filled with unease as they watched 50,000 trapped in desperate Gauls ready themselves for a fight to the death.


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[Assistant] It was a hard and bloody battle but the Gauls eventually could not maintain both fronts and were crushed between the two Roman lines.


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[Assistant] With the main force of the Gauls now destroyed, the Romans turn to the other, subsidiary Gallic army still roaming the countryside, defeating them one by one.


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[Assistant] The Italian land just south of the Alps, which had long been considered a part of Gaul, was now firmly Roman territory and would remain so for the 750 years left to the empire.


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[Assistant] The years between the two Punic Wars were eventful and successful for Rome. They had opened up relations with Greece and established a cadre of allies who would play an important role in the Great War against Hannibal.


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[Assistant] They had secured the safety of their trade and communication routes to the east, which would be more important than ever as the west erupted into all-out war.


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[Assistant] After the fight with the Gauls, Italy had never been more united, and it was this unity more than anything else that would wind up stymieing Hannibal in his attempt to break Rome.


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[Assistant] His plan was to beat the Romans on the battlefield and then convince Rome's Italian allies to turn on the great city. But to his chagrin, they refused to abandon Rome, even after Hannibal demonstrated how much better he was than the Romans time and time again.


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[Assistant] The frightening invasion of the Gauls and the Romans' ability to beat it back endeared them to their Italian allies who were in no mood to turn on the great protector of Italian civilization when Hannibal came knocking.


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[Assistant] Next week, we will cover the events leading up to the Second Punic War.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian conquest of Spain and the Roman response.


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[Assistant] It is impossible to argue that the Romans were not knowingly breaking the treaty with Carthage when they agreed to come to the aid of Saguntum. But as in the case of Massana in Sicily, they saw an opportunity to establish a foothold in Spain and took it. Damn the consequences. And the consequences, needless to say, were vast.


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[Assistant] Roman Carthage had spent the years after the first Punic War dealing with their own problems and paying little official attention to one another. But the focus of the two great powers would soon turn to each other once again and lead to a confrontation, this time over Spain.


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[Assistant] This confrontation would be the spark for what is arguably the most important period in Roman history, the Second Punic War.


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[Assistant] Entering the war, Rome was a regional power on the rise, but still recognizably the same political entity that had emerged from the devastation of the Gallic Sack 170 years before.


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[Assistant] However, at the end of the war with Hannibal, a twenty year trial of immense physical and psychological endurance, Rome transformed into the invincible juggernaut that would conquer the Mediterranean.


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[Assistant] Hannibal would prove to be Rome's most impressive enemy, and after surviving the bold Carthaginian invasion of Italy, the Romans simply turned and steamrolled the rest of the known world.


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[Assistant] The importance of the Second Punic War is also measured by the fact that after Scipio's final victory at Zama in 202 BC, Roman elites almost immediately began to lament the loss of Roman virtue and nobility.


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[Assistant] The total domination Rome had achieved after defeating Carthage allowed steadfast frugality to be usurped by excessive debauchery.


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[Assistant] Never again would the literati look at their contemporaries with anything but contempt and the idea that Rome had fallen from grace was, from that point on, simply taken for granted.


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[Assistant] It speaks volumes then of the impact the Second Punic War had on the Romans that it would essentially mark the close of an alleged golden age where all men were clones of Cincinnati and usher in a new modern era where all men were corrupt, hedonistic, and unworthy of their great ancestors. But for now, Rome was still a paradigm of virtue.


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[Assistant] While the Romans were focused elsewhere, dealing with the Gallic invasion and Illyrian piracy, the Carthaginians began to quietly build an empire in Spain. Well, not the Carthaginians as a whole necessarily, just Hamilcarbaraca.


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[Assistant] After being driven from Sicily, Hamilcar returned to Carthage and briefly stewed in his juices before hatching a plan to revenge himself upon the Romans.


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[Assistant] He knew that a direct assault on Rome would be a suicidal fool's errand, so he looked instead to Spain for an opportunity to build up the wealth and power necessary to re-engage the hated Romans.


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[Assistant] He pitched the Carthaginian Senate on the idea of a Spanish invasion, couching the benefits of such an adventure in economic terms. The opportunity for traders to make up for the loss of Sicily, and the possibility of drawing from Spanish resources to pay the war indemnity owed to the Romans.


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[Assistant] The Senate was quick to approve Hamilcar's plan, as much to get the disgruntled soldier out of Carthage as much as anything else. It had been the Carthaginian Senate, after all, who had been the ones who had left Hannibal twisting in the wind for so many years in Sicily, and they were understandably anxious to get rid of the charismatic general.


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[Assistant] So in 337 BC, without a navy to speak of, Hamilcar marched his army west across North Africa and crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain.


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[Assistant] The Iberian peninsula was at that time populated with tribes whose prowess on the battlefield was matched only by their lack of political sophistication.


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[Assistant] There were three broad tribal groups, the Iberians, the Celts, and the Celtabarians, who were a co-mingled mix of the two races. But to say that Spain was decentralized would be an understatement. Not only were the tribes constantly at each other's throats, but within tribes, individual settlements formed intense rivalries with their neighbors.


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[Assistant] When Hamilcar embarked on his conquest, his task was made immeasurably easier by the total lack of cooperation amongst the natives and the willingness of the locals to join the Carthaginians if it meant getting the better of their neighbors.


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[Assistant] Hamilcar set up a base just over the strait from Africa in southern Spain and began to steadily grow Carthaginian influence over the peninsula.


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[Assistant] Hamilcar, though, was not interested in simply conquering Spain for the greater glory of Carthage. He was intent on setting up an autonomous empire for himself.


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[Assistant] Sure, his dispatches home did not reflect this ambition, but he clearly took steps to make the Baraka family the preeminent rulers of the peninsula, not the Carthaginian government per se.


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[Assistant] Hamilcar began to mint coins that associated himself and his son Hannibal with the local patron god of the Iberian Peninsula and asked the army to swear allegiance to his family rather than the Carthaginian Empire.


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[Assistant] Hamilcar was laying the groundwork for a quasi-divine dynasty in Spain that he hoped to pass on to his sons.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginian Senate, for their part, left Hamilcar to his own devices. They were happy to be rid of the ambitious general. And as long as the cash kept rolling in, they didn't care who a bunch of backwards tribesmen were worshipping.


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[Assistant] Spain was an incredibly resource-rich territory and produced massive quantities of high-grade silver. There's no doubt that the silver mines were the prime attraction for both Hamilcar and later the Romans.


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[Assistant] It is an interesting historical parallel to note the similarity between the Carthaginian and Roman exploitation of Spain and Spain's own exploitation of the New World 1700 years later.


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[Assistant] Both have the effect of flooding the markets of the world with vast amounts of new wealth and one wonders at the effect of having their own resources violently stripped years before had on the Spanish decision to seize South American gold mines with such vicious abandon. Maybe there is no connection at all.


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[Assistant] But as I said, it is at least an interesting coincidence that Spain, of all places, was the new world of the old world.


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[Assistant] Hamilcar marched his armies out north and east, taking possession of whatever territory he entered, and soon commanded a large portion of southwest Spain.


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[Assistant] In general, Hamilcar treated the native armies who resisted with a combination of ruthlessness and leniency.


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[Assistant] The leadership would be executed, but the troops themselves would be sent home.


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[Assistant] Hamilcar was not looking to exterminate the Spanish, but to rule them.


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[Assistant] His long-term plans centered around drawing from the vast pool of Spanish infantry, if they could be called that, to fill his army when he finally launched himself once again at the Romans.


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[Assistant] There was no point in engendering the hatred of men he hoped to someday lead. So soldiers were sent back to their families.


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[Assistant] Rival centers of power, however, could not be tolerated and the chieftains were executed without a second thought.


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[Assistant] The Romans were caught up fighting the Gauls and the Illyrians and had no real desire to invest themselves in Spain as well. So they were satisfied by the slick and plausible message Hamilcar sent back to Rome.


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[Assistant] I am merely trying to pay back our debt to you as quickly as possible. Surely there is nothing wrong with that. Slick. Very slick.


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[Assistant] The Romans thus hoodwinked, Hamilcar went back to gathering the strength he needed to destroy them.


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[Assistant] The great Carthaginian general, however, would not get the chance to set Rome ablaze.


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[Assistant] During the winter of 228 BC, after being surprised and driven off by a tribal army, Hamilcar drowned while crossing a treacherous river.


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[Assistant] He was succeeded by his son-in-law Hasdrubal, who immediately raised a force of 50,000 and exterminated the tribe, who he blamed for Hamilcar's death.


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[Assistant] After this initial show of force, Hazard will settle back into the role more of governor than conqueror.


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[Assistant] He did not try and build on the territory Hamilcard won. Rather, he consolidated Carthaginian holdings and attempted to sink the new imperial dynasty into the Spanish psyche.


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[Assistant] He made the tribal chiefs acclaim him their supreme ruler and murdered any who were even suspected of opposing him. He founded a capital on the southern coast of the peninsula called New Carthage, a virtually impregnable fortress from which he ruled. Clearly the Carthaginians were here to stay.


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[Assistant] In 226 BC, the Romans began to worry again about the Carthaginian presence in Spain.


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[Assistant] They had allies on the peninsula themselves and worried about North African encroachment.


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[Assistant] A treaty was concluded with Hasdrubal through the effect that the Carthaginians would not cross the river Abro, which lies midway up the Mediterranean coast of Spain.


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[Assistant] This demarcation is important because it left Saguntum, a city that was on friendly terms with Rome, a hundred miles behind enemy lines. But the expediency of preserving the peace with Carthage took precedence and the Romans agreed to stay on their side of the Avro.


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[Assistant] Five years later, Hasdrubal's heavy-handed rule caught up with him, and he was assassinated by a disgruntled tribesman, revenge for the murder of a chieftain.


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[Assistant] Upon Hasdrubal's death, the army immediately called for the ascension of Hannibal, Hamilcar's eldest son.


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[Assistant] Only 25 at the time, Hannibal was elevated to a position of supreme authority and did not waste any time plotting how to make good on the oath he had sworn years before to make himself an enemy of Rome for eternity.


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[Assistant] Hannibal was wildly popular amongst his troops. Not only had he been fully integrated into the semi-divine cult his father had built, but Hannibal had also grown up in the army camps and was considered by the soldiers to be one of them.


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[Assistant] It was the perfect combination to assure complete loyalty.


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[Assistant] Not only did they respect him as a soldier and a man, but they worshiped him as a god.


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[Assistant] This loyalty would be tested over and over again, and it is one of the great testaments to Hannibal's leadership that in all the years he kept his men in Italy fighting an increasingly hopeless war of attrition, that there is not a single mention of a mutiny or an assassination attempt. Not even Alexander can say that.


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[Assistant] The son of Hamilcar picked up where his father left off and began to claim new territory for Carthage, securing the northwest frontier with a surprising efficiency that foreshadowed things to come.


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[Assistant] Hannibal was no passive governor like his brother-in-law. He was a conqueror of the first order.


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[Assistant] The city of Saguntum became increasingly worried by the young Carthaginian leader.


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[Assistant] They had been left alone by Hasdrubal, but Hannibal seemed to be cut from an entirely different cloth.


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[Assistant] They sent pleas for aid over and over again to Rome. But Roman eyes were turned east to Illyria and could not be bothered.


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[Assistant] Finally, Sagutum kicked up enough of a fuss that the Romans sent a mission to Spain to get a look at the new Carthaginian leader themselves and take stock of the situation.


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[Assistant] The Roman envoys did not like what they saw one bit and came away convinced that war with the Carthaginians was imminent, though they believed any campaign would be limited to Spain.


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[Assistant] This allowed for a certain Roman laxness when it came to preparations.


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[Assistant] They would raise some legions and send them to man the abro. Some skirmishes would ensue, but Hannibal would not be so silliest to cross the river. He was just testing the limits of Roman tolerance.


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[Assistant] But then Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum, and the Roman hand was forced even further.


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[Assistant] Conflicts within the Roman Senate created a mixed response that all but ensured a full-scale war.


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[Assistant] Despite the treaty they had signed restricting the legions to the far side of the Abro, Rome appreciated its alliance with Saguntum and did not want to see it fall into the hands of the Carthaginians.


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[Assistant] So rather than following the treaty to its logical conclusion and sacrificing Saguntum for the greater peace, the Romans sent envoys to Carthage demanding an end to the siege.


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[Assistant] The Carthaginians replied that they were well within their rights to act in whatever way they wished in their own territory, and the Romans ought to butt out.


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[Assistant] There were factions in the Carthaginian Senate who did not appreciate the position Hannibal was putting them in. But a treaty was a treaty, and the Romans had no legal claim to Saguntum, so what were they doing making demands and issuing threats?


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[Assistant] The Romans were sent away and the Western Mediterranean stood on the brink of war once again. All that was left was the official declarations.


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[Assistant] Saguntum fell after an eight month siege and Hannibal sacked the city.


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[Assistant] The Romans responded by raising a three-pronged force to deal with the now palpable Carthaginian threat.


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[Assistant] The main force would be sent to Africa to inflict as much damage there as possible.


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[Assistant] Another would be sent to Spain to deal with Hannibal and teach the young upstart a lesson.


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[Assistant] A third was placed in the Po Valley to deal with any possible invasion the opportunistic Gauls might attempt.


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[Assistant] Of the three, the army in the Po Valley was considered merely a rearguard defensive force who would possibly, but not likely, see action.


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[Assistant] The war in Roman eyes was clearly going to be fought in Spain, just as the first Punic war had been fought in Sicily. Hannibal, however, had other plans.


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[Assistant] The army in the Po Valley would soon find themselves not skirmishing with Gallic tribes, but rather engaging head on a Carthaginian invasion force.


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[Assistant] As I said, it is one of the most important and taxing periods in Roman history and proved to be the closest the Romans would come to destruction until the crisis of the third century AD 500 years later.


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[Assistant] So next time, we will begin the long and arduous path to the Battle of Zama by following Hannibal's long and arduous path through the Alps to immortality.


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[Assistant] Well there's, I mean, there's so many tutorials now, like, if you really want to know, yeaah, go online, look up, uhm, After Effects Animation Tutorial.


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[Assistant] I wanna use that character in Mob Squad now if we ever do another season.


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[Assistant] First of all, sorry for last week's, uhm, cliffhanger ending. Somehow the final cut got truncated when I wasn't looking.