Roman Legion-5,000 soldiers, not in it for pay (not yet) -The Roman army’s elite heavy infantry -Recruited exclusively from Roman citizens -Group of eighty – century -On horseback – cavalry -Shield, sword, dagger and tunic
Punic Wars in Carthage-The Punic Wars (264 – 146 BCE)-Rome vs. Carthage-Three wars
Two Empires fighting for control
First Punic War – (264 – 241 BCE)-Naval battle for control of the strategically located of Sicily-Rome wins this oneThe (Carthaginian) Empire Strikes Back
Second Punic War (218 – 201 BCE)-29 year old Carthage general Hannibal almost does the impossible taking Rome-Attacks Rome from the North after crossing Iberia and the Alps-Lays siege too much of the peninsula for 15 years, but could never get back to Rome
Third and Final Punic War (149 – 146 BCE)-Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage-Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and others mercilessly attached the city-Carthage was burned for 17 days, the city’s walls and buildings were utterly destroyed-When the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city was sold into slavery-The rest of Carthage’s territories were annexed, and made into the Roman province of Africa
Total Destruction; end of an empire-Marcus Portius Cato the Elder was a politician who ended every speech by saying, “Delenda Carthage est.” which means Carthage must be destroyed-He got his wish
Economic Change; Social Upheavels-Slaves poured into Italy (50,000 Carthaginians, 150,000 Greek POWs, etc.)-By the end of the Second Century BCE there was over a million slaves in Italy-Small farmers lost their land to aristocrats (for little or no money) if they couldn’t pay their debts, sometimes because the men of the farm were fighting battles-Slaves did the work on the farms for the rich-The big farms became massive estates called latifundia
