We now see Rome engage in the greatest conflict of her history,—that with the powerful maritime state, Carthage,—a struggle which, when it was fully developed, became for Rome a fight for national existence, in which her enemy was at the height of her power and resources, with Spain and Africa at her back, and with the first general of the age to command her armies.
RACES OPPOSED IN THE
PUNIC WARS
The interest of the Punic wars (as they are called from the word Punicus, the Latin equivalent of Phœnician, and, in a limited sense, Carthaginian) is great and enduring. These wars were fought out to determine which of the two races, the Indo-Germanic, or Aryan, or the Semitic, should have the dominion of the [390] world. On the one side—the Aryan—was the genius for war, government, and legislation; on the other—the Semitic—the spirit of industry, navigation and commerce. The skill and valor, the determination and resource, displayed on both sides, have caused these wars of Rome and Carthage to remain most vividly impressed upon the memories of men.
CHARACTER OF THE CARTHAGINIAN
STATE AND PEOPLE
Carthage had become, by the political and commercial energy of her citizens, the leading Phœnician state, ruling over Utica, Hippo, Leptis, and other cities of Phœnician origin in northern Africa. The Carthaginians paid also great attention to agriculture, and the whole of their territory was cultivated like a garden, supplying the population with abundance of food. This fact, taken with the wealth derived from her commerce, explains how it was that a city with no large extent of territory was enabled to hold out so long against the utmost efforts of Rome, and at one period to bring her, as it seemed, to the verge of ruin.
The political constitution of Carthage was that of an oligarchical republic, and her aristocracy is famed for the number of able men that came from its ranks. On the other hand, she was weakened by being dependent on mercenary troops in her wars, subject to revolts at home among the native populations whom she oppressed, and hampered by the factious spirit prevalent among her leading men.
She had a great commercial genius, but no gift for assimilating conquered peoples, or for establishing an empire on a solid and enduring basis, and therefore, in the end, she succumbed to Rome, whose aim it was to bring the nations under one wide, enduring sway. The struggle of Carthage against Rome became, in fact, the contest of a man of the greatest abilities—Hannibal—against a nation of the utmost energy and determination, and the nation, in the long run, won the day.
FIRST PUNIC WAR,
264-241 B. C.
The Carthaginians held Corsica, Sardinia, and various colonies in Spain and possessions in Sicily. It was in Sicily that the cause of quarrel between Rome and Carthage was found, and Rome picked the quarrel by interference in a local matter at Messana. Hiero, king of Syracuse, as we have seen, had come over to the Romans, who, after defeating the Carthaginian army and taking Agrigentum (262 B. C.), determined to make themselves masters of Sicily. For this a fleet was needed, and with Roman energy they soon built one. Twice their squadrons were destroyed, but in 260 B. C. the consul Duilius gained a great naval victory at Mylæ, on the northeast coast of Sicily, and, from this time, Rome became more and more nearly a match for Carthage on her element, the sea. The Romans invaded Africa without success (255 B. C.), but were generally victorious in Sicily.
In 247 B. C. the great Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal and Hasdrubal) was appointed to the Carthaginian command in Sicily, and maintained himself there with great patience and skill against all the Roman efforts. But, in 241 B. C., the Roman commander Lutatius Catulus utterly defeated the Carthaginian fleet off the Ægates Islands, on the west coast of Sicily, and the Carthaginians then gave in. All Sicily, except the territory of Rome’s faithful alley, Hiero of Syracuse, thus became (241 B. C.) the first Roman province.