a brief respite from the crap in my life

Ok, so I thought I'd take a break from all my recent troubles (which I've been badly blogging about- I really need to start proof-reading). I went over to Ben and Nadia's last night, and between cooing over the baby and drinking coffee, I spent a good few hours catching up. Before long, Ben and I got into a long drawn out discussion about ancient history and civilization. I use the word "discussion" loosely, because I talked way too much. Ben is an excellent listener. and all too accomadating of my compulsion to fill the room with hot air. But I enjoyed it, if only because the Bennadia is the single loveliest entity i know of, and now they're parents.

Talking about history got me invigorated, because it's my big passion. So I decided to fill today with learning about the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. I'm reading through some reference material on the web, and I'm gonna use this post today to summarise it in my own words. Okay?

Right so in 264 BC Rome was a republic. It was a growing power, and had mostly secured the Italian penninsula. Their enemies were the Latin League, the Samnites and Pyrrhus of Epirus.

In North Africa, Carthage was the great commercial and naval power. They weren't really much of a military force. They were involved in trade, and they were on decent terms with Rome. The feeling might have been "They do their thing, we do ours, no overlap, let's do business".

So there were no real points of disagreement between the two powers. But 24 years prior, a group of mercenaries called the Mamertines started making trouble in Sicily, which lies halfway between Italy and North Africa.

The Mamertines were Italians, and were no more brutal than other mercenary tribes, which is to say they were pretty brutal. They had been hired by Syracuse a while back to attack Carthage in a low-grade dispute, but turned on the Syracusans (who were pretty nutso themselves). The Syracusans, under Hiero II, ravaged the Mamertines, who turned back to Carthage for help. i guess the Carthaginians weren't keen to help the group that had just attacked them, but they were less keen to see Syracuse advance into areas they controlled. So the Mamertines were assisted by Carthage, who pushed Hiero II back.

All good, right? So far, nothing unusual. But then Hiero II made another push in 264. The Mamertines weren't too impressed with the Carthaginians, and decided to petition rome for assistance this time. Who knows why? well, the Romans were getting pretty rich, and maybe the Mamertines wanted to ingratiate themselves to a potential future employer.

The Roman Republic was not fond of mercenary kingdoms. They had spent most of the last few decades repelling such threats. But they also didn't want to see Carthage expanding it's influence in Sicily, which was a potential problem. Most likely Rome entered in with the Mamertines reluctantly, as a show of strength against the Carthaginians. They didn't necessarily like the Mamertines, or hate Carthage, they just needed to flex some nuts.

This was a miscalculation. Carthage, by now sick of dealing with problems in Sicily, engaged in a naval battle, allied with Heiro II. The romans landed unperturbed however, and started land operations. They marched over Sicilian ciities, and eventually took Syracuse. So now it was everyone versus the Carthaginians, who couldn't back out now, because they had to show they couldn't be dominated by Rome.

The Carthaginians jumped into the land war, and started to win some territory. The land war came face to face at Thermae. The Carthaginians, under Hamilcar, beat back the Romans. So began the war in earnest, which was now a Roman-Carthaginian battle, when it had started as a battle between local Sicilian powers.

Back and forth it went, with Hamilcar taking his momentum North, and Rome counterattacking. Meanwhile, from Rome, forces were sent to North Africa to cut off suplly lines to the Carthaginian army in Sicily. On top of that, rome captured the Sicilian port of Agrigentum.

Marcus Attilius Regulus ravaged the Carthaginian countryside, and imposed heavy terms for peace. Negotiations failed, and the Carthaginian government brought in a Spartan mercenary named Xanthippus to reorganize the army.

Xanthippus ordered a naval attack to re-establish dominance at sea, which cut off support to Regulus' army in Carthage. They were routed, and the few survicors were killed by a storm at sea. As an added bonus, the navy took control of Agrigentum, but didn't have the manpower to hold it. They burnt it down.

Further efforts were made by the Romans to capture Carthaginian cities in Sicily, and to further attack in North Africa. These efforts failed.