Introduction
According to Mark, (2011), Carthage was founded by the Phoenician Queen Dido, around 813 B.C.E., and was initially a small trading stop along the Mediterranean coast used by Phoenician traders to repair their ships and replenish their supplies as they continued along the coastline (Mark, 2011). The city of Rome began as a series of shepherd and farmer settlements by the Latin peoples on the Palatine Hills (Morey, n.d.). From these humble beginnings, each city would come to dominate their respective surrounding regions. Rome had a well-organized political system with loyal citizens and a superior army, while Carthage had a monopoly on Mediterranean trade routes and massive wealth. These two cities came to head in a conflict over trade routes and political alliances. The conflicts developed into the Punic Wars, which after many costly battles, would by wars end, expand the Roman Empire from Italy to the entire Mediterranean (Morey, n.d.).
Discussion
The Rise of Carthage
According to legend Carthage was established by Queen Dido, who had bartered the land
…show more content…
Historians believe Rome was threatened by the wealth of Carthage and its stronghold in the Mediterranean Sea. Rome and Carthage came head to head during the First Punic War when Rome was called to aid a group of bandits who had started a war with a Carthage ally in Sicily. During the conflict, Rome realized although their ground soldiers were superior, the navy of Carthage was sure to crush them in defeat. Rome resolved to build a rival navy and eventually conquered most of Sicily and Corsica. They modeled ships using an abandoned Carthage vessel and created an ingenious drawbridge for their soldiers to board the Carthage ships during war skirmishes. Emboldened by victory, Rome pressed on to shore, but they were cast out of Africa, but would return to fight again (Morey,
Yet when Carthage took Sicily, Rome responded by building 330 ships to fight for their land, starting the First Punic War. Carthage was defeated by Rome in 241 BCE, and had to give up Sicily. Carthage went to war with Rome again when the Carthaginian general Hannibal attacked the city of Saguntum, Rome’s ally. This was the start of the Second Punic War. Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama, meaning Carthage lost against Rome once more. The Third Punic War began when Carthage refused Rome’s demands to have Carthage dismantled and rebuilt further inland. The Roman general Scipio Aemilianus surrounded Carthage with armed forces for three years until it fell and the Romans burned it to the ground. Around 122 BCE, Julius Caesar decided to re-build Carthage, and five years after his death, the city rose again. Power and importance shifted back to Carthage, until the fall of the
How did the ancient city of Carthage almost become Rome’s equal? Also, how was this state of the city at this time come about in the ancient world? Carthage being a port city and Rome also being so close to the Mediterranean, gave both cities great business and imperial opportunities. In fact, both cities flourished because of their geographical locations to a certain extent. These opportunities and the desire to obtain them would eventually lead the two cities into war and conflict.
In 753 B.C.E the mythical brothers, Romulus and Remus, founded Rome on the River Tiber. Initially controlled by the Etruscans, this city state would gain independence from monarchist rule in 509 B.C.E. Through continual wars the Romans would gain control of the Italian peninsula and would finally fight a war against the Carthaginians for supremacy of the western Mediterranean. Through the strengths of its legions Rome would eventually dominate the social and political landscape of the Mediterranean by the second century B.C.E. that would ultimately create social upheaval and power struggles. In the first century B.C.E. powerful individuals had wreaked havoc and bloodshed across the extent of the vast area. Controlled by the city of Rome and
Rome was governed by leading figures in a “constantly changing network of mutually dependent relationships” (Cultures of the West, p. 176). The Romans valued simplicity, and placed a high value on families, or “Familia”, where the men were mostly dominant. They arranged their government so that one group of people could not monopolize over power, and that each senate/assembly could be governed by another, which laid groundwork for the way a lot of governments run today. Republican Rome also gave birth to something much bigger in the scheme of territories during this time, being that the Roman Empire saw that they could simply not make peace with any of their neighbors until they had complete control of the Mediterranean sea. This lead to the Punic wars, which were fought over about 80 years between the Romans and the Carthaginians who lived in North Africa. These wars were fought over three main battles, one in 264 BCE over Sicily, one in 218 over Spain, and the last big battle fought in 149 BCE, which ultimately ended in the complete destruction of Carthage and every Carthaginian, besides some who were sold into slavery (Cultures of the West, p. 182). After the victory of the Carthaginians, Rome recognized the power they had now that they controlled the Mediterranean entirely to themselves. The openness and calmness of the waters lead to easy trade of
Importance: This shows company’s ability that how perfectly they can pay off its current liabilities with only cash and cash equivalents
Throughout history artists have explored their own emotions and unique experiences through self portrait painting. Since the renaissance artists have used the self portraits to create a visual diary of their life and their development over time. Rembrandt is one of the most renowned portrait painters from the baroque period and created over 100 self portraits charting a 40 year period of his life. Similarly post impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh used self portraiture to reveal his thoughts and perspective on the world in a unique style of painting.
Rome and Carthage were both similar, yet different, cities that had their commercial influence in the western mediterranean sea. So it is only natural that these two civilizations eventually clashed with one another in the Punic Wars over the supremacy of the mediterranean sea. Both civilizations had similar governments and power, yet the Romans prevailed over the Carthage and in the process became a naval power. Carthage starts out as a Phoenician colony from Tyre. Unlike the Romans, who became powerful by conquering their neighbors, the Carthaginians became a naval power through commerce.
After the Punic Wars, Rome controlled all of Italy, Sicily, much of Spain and part of Africa, as well as Greece and the eastern Mediterranean world. As you can see, at that time Rome and Carthage had very
Rome and Carthage shared many aspects when the two first clash. Carthage had two chief magistrates referred to as Suffetes, which compared to the political power of the Roman consuls, a council of elders named the “hundred,” which was similar to the Roman senate, and there was a Carthaginian assembly, the consistency resembled the Roman comitia (Morey, 1901). This is where the similarities end for Carthaginian, ruled by a few wealthy families, the Carthaginians did not integrate their subjects into the state, and they did not have the great loyalty of its citizens that Rome enjoyed. By placing its army under the command of a single permanent leader, Carthage created an overwhelming advantage to Rome, which had its armies controlled by the ever-changing civil magistrates and consuls (Morey, 1901).
After the first Punic War, the Romans gained Sicily, a strategic island. Additionally, the Romans assembled their first navy in order to combat the strength of the Carthaginian navy. Furthermore, the Romans reached the peak of their power as the Roman Republic from the Punic Wars. With this in mind, the Romans made their first push for power through the gain of Sicily and Corsica.
Carthaginians were wealthy and from the North Africans city that was founded by Phoenician’s they had more power, military, and naval experience than the Romans (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.184). Because Carthaginians were trying to expand into Sicily which held just one of Rome’s greatest grain producing cities this unsettled the Romans, who feared being cut off from a great food source (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.184). Though they tried a workable solution of sharing control of the Mediterranean this was not to be. This inability to work together was one of the reasons for the start of the Punic wars, a series of three different wars (Jones, Rome, Podcast 1). In the bloody 3rd war of the Punic wars Rome defeated the Carthaginians (Jones, Rome, Podcast 1). After the Punic wars the Romans had found they had accumulated vast amounts of wealth and land. This put them in an awkward position, because they had no plan in place for this and did not know what to do with it (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.187). This huge wealth also created a problem for Rome, one of greed and corruption which began to take control over Rome (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.187). Senators who amassed wealth begun to become lazy and accustomed to a life of leisure, also the more wealth they got the more they wanted (Jones, Rome, Podcast 1). The next problem for Rome was these greedy senators not only wanted the wealth they wanted power too
The First Punic War: a Military History by J.F. Lazenby is a book about the war between Rome and Carthage. In the book Lazenby provides all the available information on the war from numerous sources and then shifts through that information in order to come to a conclusion on what likely really happened. To put it in Lazenby’s own words the purpose of the book was to “work out what happened at least in outline, and on this basis arrive at some understanding of why the war broke out, what the basic strategies of the two sides were, and why, in the end, Rome won”(Lazenby pg.19).The book was published in 1996 but remains to be one of the best sources of the history of the Punic War.
The Pharaoh demanded that all the Hebrew baby boys be put to death (thrown in the Nile). I think the person telling this story is possibly Moses's sister because it explains that “his sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him”. This is how she could tell the story because I feel as if she was always keeping an eye on him. In the story, Moses is found by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who decided to find him a nurse and keep him as her own (her son) when she grew up. I feel like the Pharaoh would find out that Moses is not her child and be killed. I think the purpose of this story is to show hope and love even in the worst of times.
With the introduction of the hoplite phalanx to the Roman army, came a multitude of wars and long drawn out campaigns that the Romans were involved in throughout the republic period. One such campaign or campaigns that set the Roman republic as the uncontested superpower in the Mediterranean was the Punic Wars. Rome fought three wars against Carthage between 264 and 146 BCE. These wars constituted major events in the history of Rome and the Mediterranean basin (Marcel Le Glay 2009) p. 73. Though these wars were fought for reasons such as competing economics, revenge (most notably the Carthaginian general Hannibal), and a fear that could be related in today’s terms of opposing forces such as (the United States and Soviet Union feared each other during the Cold War) the fact is in the end Rome defeated the Carthaginians, not only were the Carthaginians defeated, but the city of Carthage was demolished and the people massacred or sold into slavery so as not to threaten the Romans ever again. In the fall of the city, in obedience to the Senate’s orders the inhabitants were reduced to slavery or forced to emigrate, the town was burnt and soil was
Even in the century before the official replacement of the Roman republic by the empire, Rome expanded immensely as a result of the Punic wars. Rome fought the Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BCE against the nearby trade empire Carthage over the nearby island of Sicily, a