(Yes, it's very long. But who knows, if you read the whole thing you might learn something new)
Summary of the First Punic War
The first Punic war was fought primarily between
Syracuse, Rome, and Carthage; although a group of Italian mercenaries were the
cause of the war, they did not participate for very long. This war was fought
on the island of Sicily which at that time was divided into three. One third of
the island belonged to Carthage, one third to Italian mercenaries and one third
belonged to Syracuse. Also, a large portion of this war was fought by the Naval
units.
In 288 BC a group of Italian mercenaries took over
Messana, which was one of the three parts of Sicily, which at that time was
being ruled by Syracuse. After they had bitterly conquered Messana, without
showing mercy they continued to raid the rest of the island of Sicily. By 265
BC the raiding had gone so far that Heiro II, the leader of Syracuse, decided
to fight against the mercenaries and reclaim his lost land. Heiro II led an
army into Messana and quickly injured the army, making it necessary for the
mercenaries to find help. And so the Mercenaries asked Carthage for an
alliance, and their immediate help. Along with asking Carthage, the Mercenaries
asked Rome for an alliance and help. When Rome first heard that the mercenaries
from Messana needed their help, they refused. Rome knew of the harsh way that
the mercenaries took over Messana, and did not think that it was honorable for
them to help such people. And so, Rome replied that they would not help. Carthage
on the other hand agreed to the request and sent their army to Messana right
away. This, however, worried the Romans. They feared that Carthage would gain
dominance over all of Sicily. And so, Rome took back their first answer, and
sent troops to help Messana. This was the beginning of the first Punic war.
By the time Romans got to the island the Carthaginians
had already taken over Messana completely. Now, instead of doing what they said
they would do, fight Syracuse, the Roman leader insisted on meeting with the
Carthaginian leader. Hanno, the Carthaginian leader, agreed to the meeting
because technically the Romans and Carthaginians were on the same side. At
least, that’s what they thought. Needless to say, the meeting did not go
according to plan and Hanno ended up being threatened with death unless he left
the island. After losing their leader the Carthage army did not want to give
up, instead they went and asked to join the Syracuse army. Because Heiro II
still had such a desire to overtake and regain Messana, he agreed to the
joining of Carthage and his own troops. Because of their new larger size, the
Carthaginians and Syracuse sent one navy and one army into Messana in hopes of
defeating the enemy. Unfortunately they were crushed by the Romans and did not
regain Messana. This small defeat for Rome made the Roman leaders believe that
they were indeed the strongest army in the battle, which led to disaster.
Because
Rome believed they were the strongest they quickly sent two armies out into
Sicily. They were now attempting to gain the entire island of Sicily. In the
beginning they defeated many cities and towns in Carthage. Once they had
conquered almost all the cities and towns of Carthage, they started to put all
of their forces on Syracuse alone. This worried Heiro II, the leader of
Syracuse, tremendously. He decided the best chance for survival of his cities
was to ally himself to Rome. He did so, making Carthage a very weak force. At
this point the Romans had conquered two-thirds of Sicily: The Syracuse third,
and the Italian third. Now their only
goal was to gain Carthage, the last third. And so they attacked Carthage, and
almost defeated them. They took residents and sold them as slaves, and they
conquered several of the towns of Carthage. However, Carthage would not give
up, and insisted that they move the battle to the open sea. Carthage was known
for their incredible seamanship.
Once on
the sea Carthage had the clear advantage of seamanship and superiorly built
ships. During this short comeback of Carthage, they conquered many of the
coastal cities, around the perimeter of Sicily. However, their good fortunes
did not last long. Rome knew at once that in order for them to win this battle
they would need better ships, as theirs were getting easily thrashed by the
Carthaginians. As luck would have it the Romans stumbled upon an intact
Carthaginian ship that had been abandoned. They found this ship on the Italian
coast of Sicily. There is no real evidence in history saying why exactly that
ship had been left there. Rome realized its wonderful luck and began building
ships of her own, using the Carthaginian ship as a model. They built hundreds
of these ships, and took them to sea. Once again at battle, the Romans still
lost a majority of the fights in which they engaged. However, because of this
they were able to realize their errors and fix them. The Romans realized they
needed to train their seamen. They did this. Realizing that they could take
advantage of their land fighting skills if they could board the enemy ships,
they devised a type of plan to budge between the ships. A successful venture,
this resulted in the capture of 130 Carthaginian ships in 260 BC.
Rome’s
success at winning battles continued throughout the next several years, during which
Rome was able to conquer many cities, including some in Africa. The battles continued for so long that ultimately
Rome and Carthage were losing a lot of money. At the end, Carthage was forced
to step back and let the Romans win the long war. As victors Rome made Syracuse
sign a document stating that they would remain firm allies.
As for the toll that this
war took, it was not a light one on anyone. More than 400 ships were lost by
each side. Carthage was believed to have lost more than 100,000 men, whereas
Rome only about 50,000.
The first Punic war was an arrangement of battles between
many cities including Carthage, Rome, Syracuse and Italian mercenaries, and at
the end even Africa was pulled into the fighting. This war was fought both on
land, where Rome had the advantage, and on sea, where Carthage had the
advantage. It was a long, drawn out war that ended finally with Rome as
victorious.
If you've made it this far, congratulations! I really hope you did like it, or at least didn't hate it.
As always,
~Moira
