Dawn of that August morning in 216 BC found Hannibal, commander of Carthage’s army in Italy, peering down at the plain separating his vantage point from the waters of the Adriatic Sea some three miles away. The Roman enemy was already advancing–an army of more than 85,000 men, aligned in the standard offensive formation of the widely feared legions. Hannibal’s force, some 56,000 in number, faced long, very long, odds.

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The third century BC already had witnessed the growth of Rome and Carthage as the foremost powers of the central Mediterranean. Rome had developed slowly, over the previous five centuries, and was now the dominant military power on the Italian Peninsula. There had been frequent reverses, but Rome was able to build and solidify its holdings through political means, such as extending full or partial Roman citizenship to conquered cities or deserving individuals. A large degree of autonomy was granted to the peoples Rome defeated, in exchange for military help when Rome needed it. In this way, Rome was able to expand its territory and build its pool of available manpower without diluting its strength by creating armies of occupation.

Future rival Carthage was a city located near present-day Tunis, Tunisia, and was founded by colonists from Phoenician Tyre. Instead of gradually conquering and assimilating neighboring cities, Carthage grew through maritime commerce. Its empire was based on overseas trading stations in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands and along the North African coast. The hinterlands near these trading stations provided markets for Carthaginian commerce, manpower for Carthage’s armies and sources of wealth such as silver and gold mines. The income from the mines paid for mercenary armies, and people living in the area immediately surrounding Carthage were not given the freedoms such as those granted by Rome. No strong bond of loyalty was forged between Carthage and the immediate satellite area because of Carthage’s exploitation and the Carthaginian tendency to respond to resistance with great cruelty. The population of the city of Carthage itself was relatively small; the people were devoted to commercial enterprise. When military might was needed, Carthage found it expedient to use its mercenary troops, drawn from its economic spheres of influence.

As the two states grew, they came into conflict in Sicily. The city of Messina, located at the northeastern tip of Sicily, appealed to Rome for protection from nearby Syracuse. Carthage regarded Roman intervention as an intrusion into its domain and the First Punic (Latin for Phoenician) War resulted (264-241 BC). It was a costly conflict, to a large extent due to Roman lives lost while that city attempted to become a sea power. In 255 BC, the Romans lost 180 ships and 95,000 men in a single storm off the Sicilian coast, and in 253 BC another storm cost Rome an additional 150 vessels and their crews. A third Roman fleet later was ground to pieces off the rocky coast of southern Sicily in yet another storm.

Characteristic Roman persistence in the face of adversity finally brought victory–and the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Sicily. By the end of the years-long war, Carthage’s naval supremacy in the western and central Mediterranean had been broken. To be sure, Carthage’s ability to build and man a fleet had not been seriously impaired, but Carthage did not aggressively challenge the Romans at sea in subsequent conflicts. The reasons for this seeming lethargy on the part of the expert seafaring people will never be known, as no Carthaginian history of the Punic Wars has survived. Our information today comes from Roman sources.

Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal’s father, had been one of Carthage’s principal generals in the first war and had held out in Carthage’s last stronghold in western Sicily for a considerable period. Though finally defeated, he did not suffer the fate sometimes meted out to the unsuccessful Carthaginian generals–crucifixion.

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