Punic Wars: Part 1 - Fighting for Sicily

The Punic Wars were three battles fought between the Roman Republic (but back before they were all-powerful and more than a little frightening, the Roman Republic was the child of the Roman Empire) and Carthage, a city-state with an particularly strong talent for naval warfare. The term "Punic" stems from a latin word related to the Phoenicians, of whom the Carthaginians claim lineage from. It has a better ring to it than "The Carthaginian Wars", but less so than "Carthaginian Crucible of Carnage and Conflict".

Carthage is the greyish blobs, Rome the red. That's
all you need to know.

At the time of the beginning of the Punic Wars, 264 B.C., Carthage controlled much of the coastal land of the Mediterranean. They were seen as the naval power of the time, and didn't have so much in the way of opposition. Rome, on the other hand, was an increasingly threatening power but at this point contained within the Italian Peninsula. The war they were about to fight would last twenty three years, and may have just been the largest wars that have occurred up until that time. Here, I'll be writing about the first of the three wars, readily admitting that I now know only of this one and very little of the following, save for the fact that (spoiler) Rome wins out.

What led up to the war was a group of Italian mercenaries mucking about in Sicily, hired by a Greek in Syracuse. They went by the name of the Mamertines, and they quickly earned a pretty negative reputation by killing a great number of people in the city of Messana, with all the looting and pillaging that is associated with sacking a city. The leader of Syracuse, Hiero II, feared the Mamertines further causing trouble and defeated them in battle - but not entirely. They were left with enough to appeal to both Rome and Carthage for some much needed help, to stem the tide of dying and whatnot. Carthage quickly took the charge, but in a "beggars can be choosers" plot twist they continued to appeal to the love of raiding and pillaging they shared with Rome in order to become allies.

The reaction in Rome was mixed; they thought it would be poor form to join forces with a marauding group of mercenaries that had ever so recently taken a city unjustly, but on the other hand, Carthage was becoming a powerful force and if they joined forces with the Mamertines they would surely take the whole island. Fearing the latter, and likely finding some sort of tenuous moral justification in order to not sound so sleazy, Rome reluctantly agreed to help the mercenaries. Unfortunately, this wasn't just picking some schoolyard chum - a rivalry was growing between Carthage and Rome, and an alliance with both simply wouldn't fly. They picked their side and they were about to live or die by it.

Agrigentum, a rather important dot
on a map.

Rome felt it was time for war, but a war that was in unfamiliar territory and circumstances. The Romans fought with great numbers of infantry, lacking prowess on the seas. The island of Sicily did not lend itself to that variety of warfare, however; hills, difficult to traverse terrain, and the obvious fact that Rome was not connected by land to the place of battle meant that they were about to be taken rather quickly out of their comfort zone. Land battles were to be limited to small battles and raids on supplies, typically centred around hitting ports and blockading pretty much whatever they could - far from the Roman way. What they did have going in their favour was the element of surprise, and by that I mean landing quickly with as many troops as they could and beating the crap out of the Carthaginians attacking the Mamertines in Messana. The crap-beating successful, they turned their eye on Syracuse, besieging that, too, and forcing them to take a critical peace deal that also had the stipulation of supplying the lower quality Roman navy with supplies. Considering both armies were away from home, an immediate source was extremely important in the battles to come.

Carthage, meanwhile, was not ill-prepared. Their rule stretched over the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, including large sections of the northern part of Africa. Seeking assistance, they hired mercenary groups from the territory, composed of fifty thousand infantry, six thousand cavalry, and - get this - sixty elephants. Can you believe that? Elephants! Perhaps they just wanted to match the Romans using trumpets to sound off the start of battle, and they thought it was cheaper.

The first major battle was in Agrigentum. A Roman assault of four legions (typically comprised of 5,400 men in each) attacked the city, but was oh so rudely interrupted by Carthaginians coming to ruin the raiding party. Surrounded and with supplies cut off, the Roman force began to fall to disease, and had to act quickly and effectively - but a Roman battle on land and in the open (open battle was actually something the Carthaginians wanted as well) resulted in a victory for Rome, taking the city. The Carthage army was damaged, but they had yet to fight on their turf - the open sea.

The expert technology used by the Romans on the sea.
1. Add nail to ladder  2. Hit other ship with nail
3. Kill people on ship  4. Repeat

The next major stage for war was the Battle of Mylae, one that Carthage thought was going to be a sure victory. Their navy outnumbered the Romans, although not by much; They had 130 ships to what is likely about 100 for Rome. Inexperienced shipbuilders, the Romans likely could have received help from Syracuse, or from taking ideas from shipwrecked Carthaginian vessels. Or, they could have learned incredibly fast. Or their ships could have completely sucked, but they went out anyways. The point is, it's not too clear. What matters is the manner in which the Romans fought: they placed a bridge-like structure that was used to board the enemy boats, allowing them to fight as if on land, a terrain much more familiar. The invention led them to a victory, forcing Carthage to retreat with a loss of both ships and likely a loss of pride after being schooled by an amateur on what they thought was kind of their thing.

Feeling confident, and in all fairness justly so, Rome ventured south to Africa to muck about in Carthaginian territory. Once again, they were successful - they won out, and began to write up terms for peace with the defeated armies. However, their terms were too heavy - perhaps they wanted too many elephants - and it forced the defenders to hire Xanthippus, a Spartan mercenary to reorganize their army. Since he's a Spartan, he obviously got the job done, likely while dropping one liners, and forced the Romans back. Needing retreat, Rome sent a great number of ships to Africa to save their men, but on the return trip a great storm (perhaps summoned by the sheer will of a single angry Spartan mercenary) killed nearly 90,000 men.

Damaged but not defeated, the Romans continued to rebuild. Carthage, however, was running short on financial abilities to fuel the war effort, whereas Rome found a way to consistently bleed investors enough to continue building ships and finding supplies. It became a slow and steady takeover, leaving the Romans as the victors but both financially in peril. A great number of casualties hit both sides, but Rome emerged as the new hot shot in the Mediterranean. To ensure their new status, they imposed a number of economic demands on Carthage, preventing them from recovering and becoming the power they once were. This also marked the first time Rome decided to expand out of the Italian Peninsula, and if we check the history books, it turns out they were really fond of this whole "expand their borders and gain power" deal. So after twenty three years of war, everything was all gravy. Carthage is safely economically shattered, Rome is the new high school bully of the seas, and they have more elephants than they know what to do with.

What could possibly go wrong?

Famous Historical Battles Give the Darndest Statistics!

1. Once again, it's darn near impossible to find a decent quote for events that long ago, so... have some stats. Part of the peace treaty to cripple Carthage economically included 145,000 pounds of silver to be paid in ten annual instalments. I think even the cost of transporting that much would cost enough to mess things up quite a lot.
2. Almost 300,000 men died in the battle.
3. 150 Roman ships were lost in a single storm. Someone forgot to pray to Neptune!