Rome: Second Punic War 536 -- 549 AVC
The Second Punic war began in 536 AVC when the Carthaginians broke their treaty with Rome by sacking the city of Saguntum and moving their forces north of the Elbro river. The causes of the war, however, lay buried in the hearts of men and the engines of destiny, which are beyond the scope of this short history, which merely strives to provide the reader with an account of how Rome fought the war.
At the outset, the Romans decided to concentrate on obtaining naval superiority. Their strategy was to:
* place their top commander in charge of their fleet;
* put their entire treasury into building ships;
* defeat the Carthaginian fleet in a decisive battle once they had obtained numerical superiority;
* take the island of Balaeres so that it could support the fleet in the Western Mediterranean;
* blockade the pillars of Hercules so that the Carthage could not transfer troops between Africa and Spain;
* then invade whichever theater Carthage was least able to defend.
In the early stages of the war, all went according to plan. The Romans placed Gaius Catulus in command of their first fleet and commenced a prodigious ship building campaign, producing triremes at a rate of 10 per year. They divided their army into two large legions, placing one in Gallia Cisaplinia to defend against an overland invasion from Spain, and the other in the toe of the Italian peninsula to defend against any invasions from
Africa and, eventually, to serve as an expeditionary force once the seas where under control.
The Roman fleet engaged the Carthaginian fleet in the seas just off Rome when it held a 12 to 10 advantage in ships and an even larger
advantage in leadership. Despite these advantages, the fight was a see-saw affair, and one that the Romans came dangerously close to losing. But once the Carthigian fleet fled for their home port, they were never a
threat to the Romans again. From then on, Carthage avoided large-scale naval encounters and contented itself with sending small blockading parties to harasses Rome's coast. Rome kept its large fleet intact and active
in the waters off Carthage so that it could intercept Carthage's newly built ships as they attempted the passage from Spain and West Africa to Carthage. Simultaneously, Rome continued its ship building campaign and eventually deployed a second fleet to counter Carthage's blockaders and then to impose a blockade on Carthage itself.
To the Roman's surprise, the expected invasion from Spain did not occur. Convincing themselves that Carthage did not have substantial troops in Spain, or that they had become lost in their trek through Gaul, Rome sent
a small expeditionary force to liberate Saguntum and thereby deny Carthage one of their ship-building provinces. However, soon after they arrived, a large Carthaginian army appeared from the interior of Spain, and so the Romans withdrew.
While Rome was building its navies and consolidating its control of the seas, Carthage managed to land a small force in Sardina and to conquer both it and Corsica. These, however, were temporary gains and were soon swept away once Rome decided to go on the offensive. In short order, Rome took back Sardina and Corsica, suppressed a revolt in Malta, and invaded Balaeres.
Up to this point, the Roman's plan had unfolded as they had hoped. But war weariness had begun to sap the morale of the people, causing unrest (perhaps fanned by unkind foreign powers) to spread throughout the land. Furthermore, the senate had taken a Populist turn, and, worse yet, the Roman leader himself had grown weary of body and mind and could no longer make sound judgements. Therefore, in an attempt to bring the war to a quick conclusion, Rome directly invaded Carthage. Initially,
the Rome won all of their battles against the Carthiginian armies, which, unaccountably, were led by commanders so unskilled that assassinating them would have been counter-productive. Repeatedly defeating these week foes, Rome gained control of the Carthage itself and the rich provinces around it. These gains were not without a high cost and Rome was forced to rotate a number of units out of theater so that they could regain their strength. During once such rotation, Hannibal arrived at the head of a large force and completely annihilated one of the Roman armies.
This convinced the senate to end the war, taking Balearues, to provide a base for an invasion of Spain, should a Third Punic War break out; Thaspus, to decrease Carthage's manpower pool; and the eastern provinces of Leptis Magna and Corniclarum, for no good reason whatsoever.
And so end's our account, but not our history.
