Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 38

The early Roman army was conscripted for each campaign. The backbone of the army was the infantry, drawn from the small farmers. The wealthy citizens provided the cavalry, while the poor served as light armed infantry troops. The “citizen soldiers” soon proved themselves to be the best army the world had yet seen. In c. 396 BC, the Romans crossed the Tiber River and destroyed the Etruscan stronghold of Veii. Victorious over the Etruscans, the Romans soon suffered a major defeat at the hands of the invading Gauls (Celts) from the north. The Gauls captured and sacked the city of Rome in 390 BC. No enemy army penetrated the walls of Rome for the next 800 years.

During the fourth and early third centuries BC, Roman armies defeated the Etruscans, the Gauls, and another neighboring tribe, the Samites. By 265 BC, Rome controlled all of Italy south of the Po River. Even the Greek city‐states in Sicily acknowledged Roman authority. Roman presence in Sicily set the stage for the decisive showdown between Rome and Carthage on the northern coast of Africa. Carthage originated as a Phoenician colony on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. By the beginning of the third century BC, it dominated the western Mediterranean Sea, including the western side of Sicily. At first the Carthaginians, whose navy controlled the seas, appeared to be the more formidable foe. But after a series of three wars known as the Punic Wars, between 264 and 146 BC, Carthage was utterly destroyed and Rome was master of the western Mediterranean world.

Rome entered the First Punic War (264–241 BC) against Carthage, a naval power, without a navy. The Romans built a navy and in 241 BC won a decisive victory in a naval battle off the coast of Sicily. In addition to paying a huge indemnity in silver, Carthage surrendered the island of Sicily. Rome added the islands of Corsica and Sardinia to its emerging empire in 238 BC. With the annexation of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, Rome became a major power in the western Mediterranean Sea.

Figure 3.1 Map of the Roman Empire, AD 117.

The Second Punic War (218–202 BC) broke out when Carthage attacked the city of Saguntum, a Roman ally in Spain. The Carthaginian general, Hannibal (247–183 BC), invaded Italy by taking a largely mercenary army across the Alps into the Po valley. Though he won a number of impressive victories against the Romans in Italy, he was never strong enough to attack Rome itself. The Romans took the war to North Africa in 204 BC with an army under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio (236–183 BC), later know as Scipio Africanus. Hannibal returned home to defend Carthage, only to suffer defeat by Scipio at the battle of Zama in 202 BC. Carthage was defeated and forced to surrender Spain, pay a huge indemnity, and disarm.

The Third Punic War (149–146 BC) was more a massacre than a war. Roman hatred of Carthage was fueled by Carthage's growing commercial prosperity. In 150 BC, the Romans seized upon a minor incident to demand that the Carthaginians abandon Carthage and move 10 miles inland. When they refused, the Romans declared war and laid siege to the city. Carthage finally fell in 146 BC after a three‐year siege. The Romans sacked and burned the city. Those citizens who survived were sold into slavery. Scipio ordered the city totally destroyed, leaving not one stone on top of another, and decreed that no city should ever exist, or crop ever grow again on the site of Carthage.² Rome was now the foremost military power in the western Mediterranean. Soon its attention turned to the Hellenistic east.