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The rise of rome free essay
Modern interpretation of punic wars
Modern interpretation of punic wars
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Introduction
Carthage was on the northern coast of Africa and was the capital of a great commercial city (Morey, 1901). It used to be a colony of Tyre and there is not much information about the origin of the city but the story is that Queen Dido sought refuge in Africa where she bought a lot of land from African Princes from which she founded a city. The city belonged to Phoenicians from Tyre and they managed to conquer native races of Africa, the Lydian’s and the Numidians. This paper will discuss the events that led Rome to become a naval power.
Rome in its quest to expand its territory, Carthage was the first country it came across outside of Italy. These two nations had somewhat similar kind of governments, though they differed in some aspects. The Carthage wealth and power was in the hands of a few,
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They killed the citizens of this city while they also caused trouble in the neighbouring towns. The King of Syracuse went after them, surrounded them and cut off their supplies in order to force them to surrender. They asked Rome for help but the King was a friend of Rome, after a delay, it was agreed to help them sighting fears that Carthage would be asked to intervene and it would have authority over Messana. That is how the first Punic war started.
Under the guidance of Appius Claudis, an army was sent from Rome, but, when the Romans delayed the Mamertines had asked the Carthaginians for Help. To Rome this was a violation of their promise (Morey, 1901). Rome ended up getting the City of Messana, when this happened, the King ganged up with Carthage against Rome but was both defeated. The King left Carthage to form a pact with Rome, to push the Carthaginians out of the Island. In the second year of the war Rome had seized most of the towns including an important city called
As what happens so often, history is written by the side who wins and in the case of the Punic Wars and Carthage itself most of the information available today comes from Roman sources and authors whose knowledge has been passed down through the ages. According to legend Carthage was initially settled as a Phoenician trading colony (the word “Punic” is Latin for Phoenician) in 813 B.C by the Phoenician Queen Elissa (Mark). From Carthage’s prime location as a trade port its power and prestige grew rather quickly and its expansion brought the city into conflict with another growing ambitious city state called Rome.
Hannibal’s campaign against Saguntum, who was an ally of Rome at the time was became a prelude for the beginning of the Second Punic War. Although this conflict was believed to have been instigated by the Romans who instilled hostility towards Carthage in Saguntum’s government. Hannibal marched on the city, lay siege to it and later claimed it after its fall 8 months later. Outraged the Romans declared war on Carthage and thus the Second Punic War ensued. He then
The first Punic War started with a request by the locals in Messana for the Romans to aid them in defeating the Carthaginians. Messana was at the southern tip of Italy and would be a great asset to the already superior naval fleet of Carthage. Rome saw this to be a good opportunity to halt the expansion of the Carthaginian Empire and to stop the possible attack on Italy (which was controlled by Rome). Despite this fact the Roman council debated on whether to attack on these premises or not, but eventually it was decided that they would wage war on the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians were then told that they must halt their invasion or war would be waged. They did not stop and Rome declared war.
So, in 264 B.C. the assembly voted to send a force to expel the Carthage (or Punic)
In 509 B.C. the Romans declared themselves a republic, free from rule of the Etruscan kings. (“The Rise of…”) From that point on, the Roman’s form of government would never include the title of “king”, in fear that a single person would gain absolute power. The republic included a dictator (in emergencies), the senate, two consuls, and several other positions. (Bishop) Although the goal of creating a republic was to have a government that represented the wishes of its people, the Roman senate consisted of men of wealth or power, leaving most of the plebeians, or common people, out of the picture. Many of the emperors’ policies strengthened the power of the government, and therefore weakened the power of the plebeians. By the end of Sulla’s rule in 78 B.C., grain prices had risen substantially and there was large gap between the rich and poor. (“The Rise of…”) When Julius Caesar took power, he initiated several reforms that were much needed at the time. Caesar spent large volumes of money on entertaining the citizens, while expanding citizenship to people of conquered lands and lessening the power of the senate. His policies threatened the method of income of senators and around 60 senators, in the name of saving the republic, murdered Julius Caesar at a senate hearing in 44 B.C. Civil war then erupted in Rome and lasted over a decade. At the end of the blood brawl, it was Octavian who emerged victorious; he would be the first Roman Emperor and would be known as Augustus. (Morey) Although the “Liberators” (Julius Caesar’s assassins), might not have realized it, the day that Julius Caesar died was the same day that the republic died; t...
“He is said to have been tall of stature… except that towards the end.” What was it that really led to the fall of the Roman Republic? There are a lot of different factors to consider when trying to determine what caused the collapse. By examining The Rubicon, The Life of Julius Caesar, and some accompanying handouts from class, this paper will discuss how the Roman Republic did not collapse because of one factor. The collapse of the Roman Republic was like that of a game of Jenga. Factors were pulled out of the Republican system just like a game of Jenga until the Republic could not stand anymore.
The Romans were a well-established civilization of immense power in the Hellenistic era, conquering nearly the whole Italian Peninsula and most of Europe. Unfortunately, a time of continuous difficulty led Rome to its decline in 476 CE. The fall of Rome can be characterized as a series of troubling events that provoked an influx of citizens to Catholicism in the hope of receiving eternal salvation. Most importantly, it allowed the Catholic Church to rise in power from 590 to 1517 CE and become the most dominating and influential community in Europe. For one, Rome was unable to govern its excessively large empire, which set the beginning of a steady economic decline. Moreover, not only did the invasion of the barbarians on Western Rome cause
The Second Punic War, also called the Second Carthaginian War, took place from 218 to 201 B.C between the Roman Republic and Carthaginian Empire. There were three Punic Wars in all, resulting in Roman dominance over the Mediterranean. Rome saw how large Carthage was getting and how much power it was gaining. This, along with the fact that Carthage controlled three islands off the coast of Italy, was an issue for Rome. Rome insisted that Carthage join the Republic, to which Carthage disagreed. The two groups fought for twenty years, ending the wars when Carthage offered Rome the island of Sicily in exchange for peace. Rome took Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. Carthage, lead by Hamilcar Barca, took off to fight Spain. Hamilcar’s son, Hannibal, was nine years old at the time. Before they left Carthage, Hamilcar made his son promise that when he was older he would fight Rome for revenge. Hannibal agreed, thus beginning the legend of Hannibal, military genius. (Second)
The Roman Republic is highly praised for the innovation, influence and expansion that it had on the rest of the world. In a period of expansion there was also a setting of constitutional precedent for the future late Republic and Roman Empire. The Roman Republic can also be viewed from the perspective of internal balances of power. That being said, although the Roman Republic as not a full democracy, as stated by Polybius, it did provide some political power to the people. Constitutionally, the Roman people played a large role in politics, but said power was limited through checks of the Senate and Consul, an most positions of power were very concentrated in the hands of Patricians and aristocrats, who can be seen as upper citizens in Rome.
The Second Punic war, beginning in 218 BC, was the second major war between the Roman Empire and the Carthage. Around the same time, the Roman Empire deployed troops to the Northeastern peninsula of Spain to keep reinforcements, from the Carthaginian South, from getting to Hannibal’s armies in Italy to assist them. In A Histor...
The Roman Republic began in 509 B.C.E. with the overthrow of the Etruscan monarchy. In 27 B.C.E the Roman Empire began with Octavian Caesar becoming the emperor, this ended almost 500 years of republican self-government. There is much debate over why Rome became so powerful so quickly. Many think it had to do with Rome’s military strength. Others think that it was because Rome knew of and controlled most of the trade routes. Still others believed it had to do with the technology that was advanced during the Roman Republic. All of these factors played significant roles, but which one played the most important role?
...s the collision on Carthage from which Rome emerged ruler of the western Mediterranean. Then there is the third the subjection of the Hellenistic states that gravitated Romans in close contact with the Greek civilization.
There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one interweaved with the other. Many even blame the initiation of Christianity in 337 AD by Constantine the Great as the definitive cause while others blame it on increases in unemployment, inflation, military expenditure and slave labour while others blame it on the ethical issues such the decline in morals, the lack of discipline of the armies and the political corruption within the Empire. Three major contributions that led to the collapse of the once great empire were: the heavy military spending in order to expand the Empire, the over-reliance on slave labour which led to an increase in unemployment, and the political corruption and abuse of power by the Praetorian Guard leading to the unfair selection of many disreputable emperors and the assassination of those not favoured by the Guard.
They couldn 't claim to be the super power of all the nations in the world because of that though their government was well-organized with a well structures political system. We can see above that the Carthageans were almost equal to the Romans. They had many allies, slaves, soldiers, warships, and were also very wealth just like the Romans. They had very fertile agricultural lands and they also continued coveting and conquering many other Syrian, and Greek states. At first when the Romans were asked by the Sycilians to come and join them to fight their battles they refused but when they realized that they were giving their rival, Carthage opportunity to help Sicily and have control over it. This was going to threaten them seriously and undermine their imperial ambitions. They then accepted the offer and send many soldiers to Sicily and defeated the Carthageans there. this gave them opportunity to begin a serious war with Carthage which ended and resulted in the defeat of the Carthagean army and the control of Africa and Spain. The Romans were very strategic and creative. This made them the Naval power of those days. The Carthageans were asked now to pay ten thousand talents to the Romans and their army was
Let’s start with the basics of the Punic Wars. What were the Punic Wars? The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between ancient Rome and Carthage. Carthage had a powerful navy, an army of soldiers, and enough wealth to do whatever they pleased, and Rome had NO knowledge of over-sea battles at all, as well as no navy. During this time, Roman traders caught in Carthage’s waters had their ships taken and they were drowned.