Episode III.15 - The Second Punic War I: A Violent Interlude

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Music.

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O Jupiter Ferretrius, be thou witness that I, a general, have slain a general.

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I, a consul, have slain a king with my own hand.

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Thus spoke Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consul of Rome, after slaying a king of

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the Gauls in hand-to-hand combat.

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Music.

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Hello and welcome to the Western Traditions Podcast. My name is Rob Paxton,

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and this is the 15th episode in the Roman Empire Podcast series.

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In the last episode of this series, I concluded the history of the First Punic

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War, in which the upstart Romans, a regional power at best until that time,

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managed to fight their way through a 20-year conflict and found themselves recognized

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on the international stage at the end of it.

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So, in 241 BC, these Latin speakers from central Italy were now the up-and-coming

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power in the West, vying with ancient Carthage for control over the raw wealth of the West.

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In the east, the great cities and their civilizations continued on as before.

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Many of them under Greek rulers, for at this time Alexander's conquests were less than a century old,

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and his successors warred among themselves for power and glory in the immortal

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lands once ruled by the likes of Gilgamesh, Sargon, Hammurabi,

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Ramses, and Xerxes.

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But peace had come in the west, and the conflict with Carthage abated for a time.

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For a little more than two decades, actually.

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In the meantime, both Rome and Carthage remained busy.

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Rome, as always, engaged in one war or another with their neighbors during each year.

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The consuls were elected, the legions were formed, and they marched away to

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the frontiers to expand their dominion.

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And Carthage, whose interior had erupted with sedition and incursions during

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the war with Rome, now found itself quelling uprisings in Africa.

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This episode will address the violent interlude between the First and Second

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Punic Wars and the rise of the men who would fight to decide whose culture would

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achieve supremacy in the West.

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Now, before we dive into this fragile peace between Rome and Carthage,

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let me remind you to head over to the website at western-traditions.org.

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That's western-traditions.org.

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There you can find all the episodes from every series of the podcast.

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You can also purchase some Western Traditions merchandise, like a t-shirt or a hat.

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You can directly support the podcast through the PayPal or Patreon options found

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at the bottom of the homepage.

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Patreon supporters get access to the Patreon page where I post updates and some

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behind-the-scenes material, as well as the occasional essay,

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resource, link, or personal rant.

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Now that I've plugged the website again, let's return to the Mediterranean in 241 BC.

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As Rome and Carthage retire from overseas warfare to focus on their own local

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issues with neighbors and to plot quietly against one another.

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Music.

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Hemilcar Barca was not your stereotypical Carthaginian.

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The Romans, especially in post-war propaganda, often depicted their Semitic

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opponents as money-grubbing,

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dishonorable merchants, but they would not have been able to characterize Hamilcar

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that way, nor would they ever speak thus of his even more famous son, Hannibal.

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No, while Carthage's armies were mostly made up of foreign mercenaries,

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they were led by loyal men of the city.

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Hamilcar was one of those chosen men. He had led his army, virtually unaided

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by his home city, for six years in the field against Rome,

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Disgusted by the failure of his political leadership, the Chofetes and the city

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council to support his army in Sicily and to counter the Roman threat He had

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refused to sign the peace treaty that concluded the war leaving it to a subordinate

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to do while he sailed home and retired to private life.

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Meanwhile, his masters made arrangements for the mercenaries to come back to

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Carthage, but they had no intention of doling out all those years of back pay.

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They removed the fighting men to a location 100 miles from the capital,

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and there they informed the army that Carthage was in no position to pay them

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their well-earned wages for years of warfare.

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The enraged soldiers rebelled and marched on Tunis, the second city of Carthage,

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and they were only briefly deterred there by an offer of arbitration.

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And thus began the Libyan War, which was not handled well by the man that Carthage

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initially placed as general over their local forces.

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And now it should not be forgotten either that the army called together to defend

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the city and its empire was also simply another army of costly mercenaries.

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So Carthage's military budget increased significantly, even though the bean

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counters in their assembly had hoped to save money by not paying wages justly earned.

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And this at a time when the city was also expected to begin paying the heavy

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yearly indemnities to Rome, to which they had agreed in the treaty.

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And since there were not enough loyal mercenary soldiers available,

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and we can only speculate how reluctant such forces might have been to fight

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for paymasters who had already publicly reneged on a contract,

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but native Carthaginians, completely unused to warfare,

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most likely had to be conscripted in

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order to stand a chance against the war-hardened veterans of the mutiny.

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To make matters worse, the entire countryside of Libya joined the cause of the

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mutinous mercenaries and gave them support.

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To the 20,000 rebel mercenaries were now added perhaps as many as 70,000 combatants

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from all of Carthage's subject lands.

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In 239 BC, the desperate city leaders reluctantly placed Hamilcar Barca in supreme

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command of the forces still loyal to Carthage.

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In two years' time, this master of battlefield strategy completely quelled the

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rebellion, and Carthage was again at peace in Africa.

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Overseas, it was another matter altogether. The Romans honored their treaty

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with the Carthaginians, but in hindsight, it certainly could be argued that

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they honored the letter rather than the spirit of the agreement.

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While the Libyan war raged, Carthage's mercenary force on Sardinia also rebelled

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and took over the island.

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These rebels immediately sent envoys to the Romans, offering them control of

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another island possession of Carthage.

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Rome nobly refused to accept. The senators would not violate the treaty simply

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because Carthage was weakened and distracted.

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As the Libyan War wound down, however, the populace of Sardinia rose up and

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expelled the mercenary army that had taken over the island.

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These mutineers, escaping, sailed to Rome and again suggested that Rome should take over Sardinia.

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Now, the Roman senators pondered the matter from a whole different angle.

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The populace having rebelled, the island of Sardinia seemed to them to be a whole new creature.

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This was no longer a territorial possession of Carthage.

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This was a new and independent power, and it was located just off the coast

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of Rome, at a critical strategic point which left Rome vulnerable to sea attack.

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And there was no time to lose.

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Carthage was, at this point in 237 BC, mopping up the remnants of the insurrection

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in Africa and would soon be able to reach out and reclaim Sardinia.

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So the Roman Senate decided, on the spot, to forego being magnanimous anymore.

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They sent over Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus with a suitable force and assumed control of the island.

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This Gracchus was from another Roman family about whom we will hear much more

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in the coming episodes when the Punic Wars have passed.

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Now Carthage, enraged, prepared an expedition to retake the island.

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Rome considered this an act tantamount to war and immediately sent ambassadors

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to Carthage with their own angry terms.

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They expected Carthage to stand down, to surrender the island of Sardinia formally

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to them, and to pay an additional 1,200 talents in indemnity,

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basically a bribe to keep the Romans from declaring an all-out offensive on Carthage again.

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Carthage accepted. She was in no shape to take Rome on head-to-head again.

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Not everyone on the African side of the matter, though, was willing to accept

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this ignominious result.

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Certainly not Hamilcar Barca, and certainly not his young son, Hannibal.

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Music.

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It is not surprising, though, that Carthage had to back down.

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Monetarily strapped for cash, as we would say today, and morally exhausted by

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more than two decades of mostly disappointing military results,

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she was in no place to produce another full-scale war effort.

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She needed time to recover, to reinvigorate her trade network,

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and to defend herself at home.

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When the Treasury was as exhausted as the populace, sending an army overseas

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seemed like a bad idea all around.

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Now, Rome herself was not inactive. After the conclusion of the First Punic

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War, she was soon back to warring with the Cisalpine Gauls, that is,

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the Gauls who lived on the near side of the Alps in northern Italy.

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And as the years passed, Rome began to exert her newfound strength at sea by

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venturing with her navy into the Adriatic.

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She sent a consular army against the aggressive Illyrians, who lived in the

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northwest of the Greek cultural sphere, essentially where Albania is now.

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Here, Rome assumed a protectorate over the coastline, denying the kingdom of

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Macedon access to the sea, and therefore winning favor with Macedonia's Greek

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enemies, such as Sparta and others.

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Rome was becoming recognized as a civilized power and a valuable potential ally in the East.

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So it was that the interwar years found Rome acclimating herself to a new international stage,

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flexing her diplomatic and her military muscles, while Carthage,

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feeling herself suddenly jilted from her usual place of honor among the nations,

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sought merely to survive, recuperate, and rise again.

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At least some Carthaginians looked at it that way. Most of the ruling merchant

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class had its eye always on income rather than prestige or honor.

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There was a party in the government, though, remembered now as the Barkid party,

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or those that followed Hamilcar Barka, who desired to regain Carthage's public pride.

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Hamilcar, in the interwar years, after he overcame the Libyan rebellion and

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the Numidians and others, was sent away to Spain with his victorious veterans.

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Was this always his plan, or was it a scheme of his superiors to get rid of troublemakers at home?

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This move certainly served two important purposes for Carthage.

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Hamilcar and his blooded army

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could secure and expand Carthaginian control in the Iberian peninsula.

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Here, through the old Phoenician and Greek port cities, they profited from trade

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and, very importantly, acquired silver from the various mines in the Spanish interior.

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Now, militarily as well as financially present, they could ensure control over

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this resource, this silver, which they needed primarily to manage all the payments

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that they now owed to Rome, under the protocols of the treaty.

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But also, without a doubt, Carthaginian powers that be were elated to get Hamilcar

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out of their hair and to remove the aggressive Libyans from their mist.

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Even those that had fought for the city were not entirely to be trusted.

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Thus, dangerous elements were removed from the homeland, and the merchant class

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could get back to making money.

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And the occupying force sent to Spain had to be a mercenary army.

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For many listeners, it might occur to them that Carthage could have utilized

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its native population, like the Romans did, to man its army.

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In emergencies, some native Carthaginians appear to have been conscripted,

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but we're not really sure about that or to what extent this measure may have been taken.

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No, the merchant government of Carthage was an exploiter.

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The same could be said of many or most governments, perhaps,

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but Carthage was an extreme case.

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The ruling class, like a parasite, sucked its nutritious wealth from the blood of trade and commerce.

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It oversaw the operations of a native population which helped it to garner this

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wealth, and only paid from its profits when absolutely necessary for the muscle to protect it.

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During times of peace, unlike Rome, Carthage maintained no standing army.

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They did not want to keep the lower classes trained and drilling because that

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would lead to a greater pride and unity among commoners and increase the power

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of the popular assembly, as we've already seen happen in Rome.

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See, the lower house of the government functioned merely as a way to placate

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the population with the idea that it had representation.

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And to keep and maintain a mercenary army during peacetime would also be very expensive.

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So, truly, the empire of Carthage had entered into a strange period,

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coming off of the First Punic War.

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Never had they had to field an army for so long or spend so much on it.

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And now, after the suppression of internal rebellions and the acquisition of

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much territory in Libya,

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which had previously just been sort of closely associated with Carthage,

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there were many in the government who wanted to focus future efforts and energy

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on maintaining and expanding their African dominions, on continuing the transition

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to become a landed aristocracy, rather than looking across the waves for some ambitious purpose.

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But there were others among the ruling classes of Carthage, like Hamilcar Barca,

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who insisted on pursuing a future for their nation on the ocean,

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as Carthage had done for centuries.

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Hamilcar, you see, was that rare thing among politicians. He was a patriot.

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Naturally, he wanted personal power as well, but he was also oriented toward

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regaining the glory of Carthage.

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And he was not the only one. To Spain, he took with him Hasdrubal,

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his son-in-law and a high-ranking member of the government.

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Hasdrubal would become Hamilcar's admiral. And the warlord also brought his

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son with him, nine-year-old Hannibal.

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Hamilcar had taken his son, young as he was, to the altar of Baal-Hammond,

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god-king of Carthage, and there he had the young boy swear undying vengeance against Rome.

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Hannibal would grow up and be true to his word, and Rome would never forget his terror.

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On the Roman side, there were up-and-comers as well.

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Fabius Maximus, who would become famously known as Fabius the Delayer in the

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war to come with Carthage, and as a controversial savior of Rome,

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probably had his first experiences as a soldier in the First Punic War.

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During the long interlude between the First and Second Punic Wars,

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he would be elected consul for the first time, and the army he led would drive

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the Cisalpine Gauls into the Alps and help secure Rome's control over northern Italy.

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Now, a little younger than Fabius was Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

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From his earliest days as a soldier in the First Punic War, he had been praised for his bravery.

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Like Fabius, he was one of the men about whom Plutarch would come to say the following, quote,

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The chief Romans, who in their youth had war with the Carthaginians in Sicily,

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in their middle age with the Gauls in the defense of Italy itself,

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and at last, when now grown old,

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struggled again with Hannibal and the Carthaginians.

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As stated previously, the Romans had always engaged in conflicts,

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small or large scale, virtually every year since the founding of their city,

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and when the First Punic War came to an end, they did not hesitate to return to this habit.

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They had much work to do in quelling rebellion on their newfound possession,

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the island of Sardinia, whose inhabitants were notoriously unruly and prone to revolt.

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Later, Rome would add the island of Corsica to her dominions as well and face

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the same challenges on that island.

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But the Romans seemingly relished such labor.

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Indeed, nothing seemed to tire them, neither massive and costly overseas expeditions

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nor drawn-out, low-intensity anti-insurgency conflicts.

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While they were keeping this up, they were also mopping up the last bits of

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resistance to Roman rule in central and southern Italy and moving against the

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Gauls in the north of the peninsula.

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And it was with the Gauls that the interwar years find their most critical juncture.

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By 232 BC, the Romans had pushed their way farther into northern Italy and seized much Gallic land.

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They had expelled the former owners and permitted their citizens to colonize

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and farm this newfound land.

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To underline the significance of this conquest, I turn to Polybius,

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who details how incredibly inexpensive the wheat from that land was because

00:18:20.301 --> 00:18:23.841
it was produced in such abundance, as were other grains.

00:18:24.201 --> 00:18:29.461
And furthermore, forests of oak trees dotted the region, and here farmers pastured

00:18:29.461 --> 00:18:36.081
their pigs to eat the fallen acorns and grow fat to later be slaughtered to feed the army.

00:18:36.941 --> 00:18:41.941
Much of Italy was fertile, but the north was truly an agricultural cornucopia.

00:18:42.401 --> 00:18:46.261
Seen in this light, it becomes clear why there was a war between the Romans

00:18:46.261 --> 00:18:48.841
and the Gauls for possession of this territory.

00:18:49.441 --> 00:18:54.741
By 226 BC, therefore, a massive invasion from the north was looming,

00:18:54.901 --> 00:19:00.281
and Rome was gearing up for another major conflict that would absorb all its efforts and focus.

00:19:01.321 --> 00:19:05.421
Naturally, this could be seen as a moment of opportunity for the Carthaginians

00:19:05.421 --> 00:19:10.301
like Hamilcar Barca, but a few things prevented Carthage from acting against

00:19:10.301 --> 00:19:12.521
the Romans while they were distracted by the Gauls.

00:19:12.801 --> 00:19:18.001
For one, Helmucar was dead by then. He had spent the remaining years of his

00:19:18.001 --> 00:19:19.641
life very industriously.

00:19:19.941 --> 00:19:25.281
By the time of his death in 228 BC, he had expanded Carthaginian power in the

00:19:25.281 --> 00:19:27.701
Iberian Peninsula, renewed his

00:19:27.701 --> 00:19:31.881
people's fame, and secured a stream of life-giving wealth for his city.

00:19:32.401 --> 00:19:37.001
Accounts differ as to how he died, but it was likely in some petty engagement

00:19:37.001 --> 00:19:40.221
aimed at seizing another piece of real estate in Spain.

00:19:40.581 --> 00:19:45.101
And in this way, his death reminds me very much of those deaths suffered by

00:19:45.101 --> 00:19:50.961
so many Greek heroes, who fought and won glorious battles only later to die

00:19:50.961 --> 00:19:54.761
in accidents or during minor ignominious scuffles.

00:19:55.201 --> 00:19:59.541
The best-attested stories about the death of Hamilcar say that he fell from

00:19:59.541 --> 00:20:03.201
his horse while crossing a river during a retreat and drowned.

00:20:03.981 --> 00:20:08.641
Hamilcar left behind him a son, Hannibal, still too young to command,

00:20:08.921 --> 00:20:12.621
and his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, who took the reins in Spain.

00:20:13.526 --> 00:20:19.746
Now, Hasdrubal, while thoroughly a follower of Hamilcar, was not as aggressive as his father-in-law.

00:20:19.926 --> 00:20:25.286
He was more of a statesman and eager to solidify Carthaginian power in the Iberian

00:20:25.286 --> 00:20:27.146
Peninsula before thinking beyond that.

00:20:27.446 --> 00:20:32.026
So when Rome approached Hasdrubal, seeking an assurance of neutrality during

00:20:32.026 --> 00:20:36.286
the coming engagement with Gaul, he happily signed an agreement which stated

00:20:36.286 --> 00:20:39.086
that he would not cross the River Ebro in arms.

00:20:39.766 --> 00:20:44.246
This was an easy proclamation to make, since his forces were still nowhere near that river.

00:20:44.666 --> 00:20:49.306
But this diplomatic accord was not the only thing that kept Carthage from acting

00:20:49.306 --> 00:20:54.946
against Rome in 226 BC, when the Gauls seemed poised to invade their mutual enemy.

00:20:55.206 --> 00:20:59.206
There was also the simple deterrent of geographical reality.

00:20:59.566 --> 00:21:04.426
While Carthaginian power had grown in Spain, it was still located mostly in

00:21:04.426 --> 00:21:06.586
the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula.

00:21:06.586 --> 00:21:10.146
An alliance between Carthage and Gaul might have sounded good,

00:21:10.306 --> 00:21:14.446
but there were many miles separating any possible conjunction of their forces,

00:21:14.686 --> 00:21:18.366
and a pretty serious mountain range known today as the Pyrenees.

00:21:18.746 --> 00:21:22.306
After that, there was a march across southern France and another march over

00:21:22.306 --> 00:21:26.806
the Alps before any such army from Carthaginian Spain could threaten Italy.

00:21:27.426 --> 00:21:30.366
As for a seaborne invasion, that was out of the question.

00:21:30.726 --> 00:21:33.886
The rulers of Carthage would not make that venture at this time.

00:21:33.886 --> 00:21:38.366
Rome had proved too capable an enemy at sea, and regardless,

00:21:38.766 --> 00:21:40.326
the expense was just too much.

00:21:40.946 --> 00:21:45.286
Hannibal, when he came of age, would have to find his own way around all these

00:21:45.286 --> 00:21:48.186
obstacles and impediments. And he would.

00:21:48.400 --> 00:22:01.680
Music.

00:22:01.146 --> 00:22:07.306
The Gauls of northern Italy formally declared war on Rome in 225 B.C.

00:22:07.646 --> 00:22:11.926
There had been conflict between these two opponents for many years off and on,

00:22:12.106 --> 00:22:13.646
even before the Punic Wars.

00:22:14.166 --> 00:22:18.986
Recall that the Gauls had invaded and even sacked Rome as far back as 390 BC.

00:22:19.426 --> 00:22:23.446
And at first, they threatened to do just that, sack Rome again.

00:22:23.766 --> 00:22:27.126
The invading army, composed of several different tribes of Gauls,

00:22:27.466 --> 00:22:30.726
quickly came within just a few days' march of the city itself.

00:22:30.946 --> 00:22:35.006
These invaders even pushed aside the Roman army sent to stop them.

00:22:35.206 --> 00:22:39.466
But fortune and Roman fortitude saved the day for Rome.

00:22:40.346 --> 00:22:45.846
Aemilius Paulus, in command of the other Roman army, which was stationed closer to the Adriatic,

00:22:46.066 --> 00:22:50.786
was by then already on the move He arrived on the battlefield without knowledge

00:22:50.786 --> 00:22:54.166
of the whereabouts of the other army, which had already been defeated and pushed

00:22:54.166 --> 00:23:00.306
back once By chance, these two Roman armies came into contact with the Gauls at the same time,

00:23:00.932 --> 00:23:06.172
The invaders were forced to face in two opposite directions to meet the simultaneous

00:23:06.172 --> 00:23:09.992
attacks of the Romans, who only appeared to have coordinated the assault.

00:23:10.652 --> 00:23:16.272
Memory of this battle was burned into Roman memory. One of the tribes of Gauls, the Gassete,

00:23:16.632 --> 00:23:20.112
were so eager to demonstrate their valor against the hated Romans,

00:23:20.312 --> 00:23:24.672
they stripped off all their clothes and went into battle bearing only their

00:23:24.672 --> 00:23:30.192
weapons and their courage, and thus bringing to life one of the great images of ancient warfare,

00:23:30.472 --> 00:23:36.672
the naked, fanatically screaming Gauls throwing themselves against the stolid Roman ranks.

00:23:36.672 --> 00:23:40.972
But the sturdy Romans overcame Gallic ferocity.

00:23:41.572 --> 00:23:45.492
Polybius tells us that some 40,000 Gauls were killed in the battle.

00:23:45.792 --> 00:23:50.072
Another 10,000 were taken prisoner, he says, as well as one of their kings.

00:23:50.732 --> 00:23:54.592
In the next few years, the Gauls would be pushed back farther than ever.

00:23:54.912 --> 00:23:59.612
Roman legions crossed over into the lands of modern-day France for the first time.

00:23:59.792 --> 00:24:05.052
They drove the Gauls into the Alps as well, and there were pleas for peace from

00:24:05.052 --> 00:24:06.492
them, but these were ignored.

00:24:06.672 --> 00:24:11.752
One of the Romans urging continuation of the war was Marcus Claudius Marcellus,

00:24:11.932 --> 00:24:14.512
whom we will see more of in the Second Punic War to come.

00:24:14.652 --> 00:24:19.032
And it was during one of the following engagements that this Marcellus led a

00:24:19.032 --> 00:24:23.292
small force of cavalry and light foot against the Gallic army which happened

00:24:23.292 --> 00:24:25.912
to be led by one of their kings in person.

00:24:26.292 --> 00:24:31.972
During this savage battle, the Gallic king, Viridomarus, spotted Marcellus amid

00:24:31.972 --> 00:24:35.792
the fighting and shouted a challenge to meet him in single combat.

00:24:36.332 --> 00:24:40.652
The challenge was accepted, and Marcellus slayed the king of the Gauls right

00:24:40.652 --> 00:24:42.352
there on the field of battle.

00:24:42.712 --> 00:24:47.892
After this victory, Marcellus became only the third and the last Roman to ever

00:24:47.892 --> 00:24:53.872
be rewarded with the Spolia Opima, the triumph awarded to a Roman general who

00:24:53.872 --> 00:24:56.152
kills an enemy general in single combat.

00:24:56.792 --> 00:25:02.672
The war with the Gauls came to an end not long after this. It was now 221 BC.

00:25:03.352 --> 00:25:08.372
The Romans had survived another cataclysmic confrontation. And all this time,

00:25:08.492 --> 00:25:12.932
the tyrant in Syracuse, Hierro, about whom we heard so much at the beginning

00:25:12.932 --> 00:25:16.972
of the First Punic War, he had remained quietly loyal to Rome.

00:25:17.192 --> 00:25:21.412
He resisted any ideas of treachery as he guarded the backdoor to Italy.

00:25:21.672 --> 00:25:26.472
And for this, Rome was not ungrateful and sent him many of the treasures taken

00:25:26.472 --> 00:25:28.092
in the war against the Gauls.

00:25:28.552 --> 00:25:33.432
Once the Second Punic War started a few years later, Hierro's loyalty to Rome

00:25:33.432 --> 00:25:37.792
would be remembered less than favorably by his political enemies.

00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:49.520
Music.

00:25:49.572 --> 00:25:54.452
Also striking in this segue to the Second Punic War, though perhaps not as dramatic

00:25:54.452 --> 00:26:01.312
as the tales of battle, is the societal transformations underway on both sides of the Mediterranean.

00:26:01.732 --> 00:26:05.552
The Carthaginians, once a Phoenician city of traders and merchants,

00:26:05.912 --> 00:26:10.712
was accelerating its conversion into a realm ruled by a landed aristocracy,

00:26:10.832 --> 00:26:14.452
and they were producing men of war like Hamilcar and his son Hannibal,

00:26:14.452 --> 00:26:18.152
who thought less of finance and more of conquest and glory.

00:26:18.572 --> 00:26:22.952
Roman society was also changing. I mentioned the colonization of northern Italy

00:26:22.952 --> 00:26:24.632
after the expulsion of the Gauls.

00:26:24.912 --> 00:26:29.292
The opening of that land to the common people of Rome was not the idea of the

00:26:29.292 --> 00:26:34.352
aristocracy in Rome, which would have surely rather divided the land up between themselves.

00:26:34.752 --> 00:26:40.472
Instead, this was brought about through the rising class of the Novus Homo, the new man.

00:26:40.772 --> 00:26:45.292
These were men whose closest ancestors had probably been from the middle classes,

00:26:45.512 --> 00:26:50.192
maybe from the knights, the equites, but whom fortune and intelligence had elevated

00:26:50.192 --> 00:26:51.972
to high power in the state.

00:26:52.912 --> 00:26:57.192
Gaius Flaminius was one of these new men. He was the first in his family to

00:26:57.192 --> 00:27:01.872
hold high office in Rome, a newcomer to the sainted ranks of senators who had

00:27:01.872 --> 00:27:03.852
held such offices now for centuries.

00:27:04.212 --> 00:27:09.952
In 232 BC, he had been the tribune who had moved the government to make land

00:27:09.952 --> 00:27:14.432
grants in northern Italy. He would go on to become consul in future years,

00:27:14.572 --> 00:27:16.692
in particular during the Second Punic War.

00:27:17.326 --> 00:27:20.866
Not everyone would appreciate this societal change.

00:27:21.046 --> 00:27:26.186
The historian Polybius, among others, sides with the patricians and labels this

00:27:26.186 --> 00:27:30.446
moment in Roman history, in which men from lower classes were granted access

00:27:30.446 --> 00:27:35.206
to the high offices of Rome, as a demoralization of the body politic.

00:27:35.666 --> 00:27:40.126
Even as their societies transformed, however, the Romans and the Carthaginians

00:27:40.126 --> 00:27:42.286
retained significant distinctions.

00:27:43.066 --> 00:27:46.826
Whether the Romans were forming an army to carry out aristocratic schemes or

00:27:46.826 --> 00:27:50.866
sharing conquered lands with the plebeian class, they were doing these things

00:27:50.866 --> 00:27:54.546
either with or for their own people, their own citizens.

00:27:55.006 --> 00:28:00.466
A Carthaginian hero, like Hamilcar or Hannibal, accomplished what he accomplished

00:28:00.466 --> 00:28:02.806
with mercenaries, with foreigners.

00:28:03.146 --> 00:28:06.626
When Hamilcar began to subdue Spain, he did so with mercenaries,

00:28:06.626 --> 00:28:10.606
and the conquered lands would become sources of trade for the merchant class,

00:28:10.826 --> 00:28:15.306
not locations to which needy Carthaginians would come to settle and farm.

00:28:15.526 --> 00:28:20.386
And it would not really be a Carthaginian army that crossed the Alps with Hannibal

00:28:20.386 --> 00:28:22.366
and invaded Italy in the years to come.

00:28:22.386 --> 00:28:27.426
It would be an army of foreigners, of Greeks and Gauls and Libyans and Iberian

00:28:27.426 --> 00:28:31.546
Celts and many more cultures, all led by a Carthaginian.

00:28:31.906 --> 00:28:37.106
The classes of Roman society, high and low, contentious as they were,

00:28:37.366 --> 00:28:41.846
worked together on the battlefield, the patricians risking their necks just

00:28:41.846 --> 00:28:43.526
as the plebs did, though,

00:28:43.826 --> 00:28:48.346
yes, the potential rewards for victory were certainly greater for those captains of war.

00:28:48.706 --> 00:28:53.226
And though there was division in Roman society regarding the status and opportunities

00:28:53.226 --> 00:28:57.626
for those of the lower classes, there was at least debate and change.

00:28:57.806 --> 00:29:03.226
The new men did rise up, even against the wishes of some dissatisfied patricians.

00:29:04.012 --> 00:29:08.612
I have tried my hardest throughout this Roman series to be fair to the Carthaginians

00:29:08.612 --> 00:29:12.672
to refrain from the name-calling and the slurs that are typically hurled at

00:29:12.672 --> 00:29:14.512
these transplanted Phoenicians.

00:29:14.752 --> 00:29:20.452
But I have also averred that I am a proud Westerner and a proud descendant of Roman culture,

00:29:20.472 --> 00:29:24.952
and I think that this is where I can drop the even-handedness a little bit with

00:29:24.952 --> 00:29:31.232
regard to culture and state again without hesitation that history makes me glad

00:29:31.232 --> 00:29:33.532
that the Romans came out supreme in this conflict.

00:29:33.532 --> 00:29:38.032
Whatever faults ancient Roman society may have had, it was a society in which

00:29:38.032 --> 00:29:42.192
common people had some sort of chance, in which there was a stratification of

00:29:42.192 --> 00:29:46.972
the classes certainly, but not a class divide which required worship or groveling.

00:29:47.272 --> 00:29:51.972
So there is something to admire here, even if I deplore the frequent manipulation

00:29:51.972 --> 00:29:55.412
of the lower classes into wars that were not always to their benefit.

00:29:55.592 --> 00:29:59.292
At least in that far-off age and civilization of Rome,

00:29:59.552 --> 00:30:03.192
the upper classes risked their lives alongside the rest of us,

00:30:03.192 --> 00:30:07.852
and shared many burdens of life with commoners when compared to the upper classes

00:30:07.852 --> 00:30:10.872
of societies like those in Carthage or the Near East.

00:30:11.352 --> 00:30:16.652
Those Roman senators also just don't seem so bad when you compare them to the

00:30:16.652 --> 00:30:18.772
leadership we possess today in the West.

00:30:19.552 --> 00:30:23.752
The next episode will describe the beginning of the Second Punic War and the

00:30:23.752 --> 00:30:27.872
early reversals that shook the very foundations of the Roman Republic.

00:30:28.272 --> 00:30:32.092
Until then, I thank you for listening to the Western Traditions Podcast.

00:30:33.040 --> 00:30:49.031
Music.