Unbiased History: Rome V - The Punic Wars - YouTube

Hey, plebs, today we'll discuss one of the worst barbarian races ever to plague the earth

a group of merchants who migrated from the Levant many years ago

deceitfully manipulating others to further their greedy interests, you know who I'm talking about

Punics

They were led by a thalassocracy in Carthage, coming to dominate the seas with barbarian mercenaries.

Where we left off Rome had recently liberated Italy from its own barbarians

No one saw this contrast better than the gods, who sought to give Rome a proper challenge

It all started in Italy, where a group of Italians went to civilize the local Greeks

Encountering huge resistance, the Italians accepted help from Carthage, a mistake they quickly realized

Calling for Rome for help

The Punics were led by Hanno and Gisco whose strategy to blockade

Sicily was quickly foiled as the Romans reached the island

scaring the Greeks into submission and laying siege to Agrigentum

The Punics cowardly fled to the sea before the city fell

Lucky for them, the Romans didn't have a navy

knowing well that seafaring was for pussies

But to win the war

The Romans analyzed the shipwrecked punic ship using it as an example how not to build a ship

And then made 120 of their own in under two months

The fleet was commanded by the consul Scipio Asina, the son of Barbatus

But he didn't last long though as he went to meet with possible allies near Sicily

Being betrayed and imprisoned in an ambush by Gisco

To avenge him, the consul Caius Dullius assumed leadership of the fleet

Seeing the implementation of the corvus, a brilliant ship boarding mechanism that transformed

pussy sea conflicts into true battles

Dullius went to confront Gisco's fleet in Mylae

avoiding all the ramming attempt, boarding tens of ships and scattering their forces

Followed by Dullius getting a triumph and Gisco getting killed by his men

Following it the Romans pushed further and further into Sicily

Now having taken the initiative, the two Roman consuls Vulso and Regulus built 330 ships to invade Africa

On their way they met with a Carthaginian ship of 350 ships at Cape Ecnomus led by Hamilcar Barca

His strategy was to make the center weak and the flank strong

making it to retreat and lure the Romans away as it flank to the rear

But then there broke through it and then returned back and crushed the Punic flankers

With this victory the Romans launched their invasion of Africa

Freaking out, the Punics hired a Spartan general who possessed

ancient Trojan strategies with him

defeating and imprisoning Regulus

Rome then sent a rescue mission for the army

But the gods denied their efforts launching a storm and killing them all

With this Carthage was able to retake Agrigentum

burning it to the ground to quench their bloodlust

But the Romans refused to give up building another 220 ships

only for the gods to also destroy it

After many attempts the Romans tried sieging Lilybaeum again

all while getting harassed by Hannibal [the Rhodian]

And another fleet was been destroyed in a storm, fucking hell

But then Hanno II took power in Carthage

who was so frightened by the Roman perserverance that he demobilized the Punic fleet

With the storms having drained all of the treasury

the patriotic patrician families of Rome donated all their money to build yet another fleet

Going on to destroy the punic fleet at Aegates and winning the war

The peace treaty involved the roman annexation of Sicily along with heavy reparations

Throwing Carthage into a civil war against its own mercenaries

Rome agreed to help in exchange for Corsica and Sardinia

Later on focusing on the northern Gauls who had allied with Carthage in the war

But the gods were very unimpressed with Carthage after all those storms, they still lost

They saw another chance after Hamilcar won the Civil War of Carthage

After his sail for Hispania, he had one of his sons, Hannibal

swear to one day destroy Roman civilization

At this very moment, the gods buffed all of Hannibal stats

including his intelligence and his lust for blood

Years later, Hamilcar would be killed by the Iberians

succeeded by his son-in-law, who signed a treaty with Rome

Promising not to cross the Ebro river

And he was killed by a slave, leaving his position to Hannibal

who would expand the dominions through Iberia

In his way lied Saguntum, a Greek city under Roman protection

It was beyond the Ebro river, but he attacked it anyway

All while the Romans were busy fighting the Illyrians

Starting the second war he so wanted

To start the war Hannibal assambled 100,000 men including some numidian cavalry

Marching through Gaul by either bribing or killing the Gauls who stood in his path

Landing on Massalia to stop him was the Consul Publius Cornelius Scipio

The son [actually nephew] of Asina, who failed to catch Hannibal in time

When blocked by the Alps, Hannibal literally marched through it with his war elephants on winter

The absolute madman

When he got to the other side, he had lost 3/4 of his army, most of his elephants and all his siege weapons

Truly a madman.

Soon after, he had a skirmish with Publius Scipio

who almost died, were it not for his soon to be relevant son

As they returned to their camps, Scipio met with his co-consul Longus

a reckless pleb, who Publius advised not to attack Hannibal

He did just that, getting flanked and killed by Numidians at the Trebia river

Meanwhile, Gnaeus Scipio (Publius Scipio's brother)

was busy tying up the punic forces at Hispana, led by Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal

Back in Italy, Hannibal was almost encircled by the new consuls Flaminius and Geminus

But the madman crossed the swamps to evade them

carving his eye out and marching his army between a cliff and the lake Trasimene

Which Flavius, another pleb, despite being advised against it, attacked head-on

getting ambushed and killed

Due to yet another plebeian consul fucking things up

the Romans agreed to elect Fabius Maximus as dictator, the grandson of Rullianus himself

The core of his strategy is known to us today as Fabian tactics or 4d chess

Where one transcends the need to fight any battles at all

instead Fabian would patiently wait until Hannibal brought his own doom upon himself

Hannibal tried to convert to the Italians to try his side but most of Italy had already been civilized

save for the north and south, that is, where he found most of his support

However, unable to think four dimensionally, the plebs elected Minicius as co-dictator

He attacked Hannibal head-on, got absolutely fucked and returned to Rome renouncing his co-dictatorship

But the plebs refused to learn their lesson for just after Fabius' term as dictator ended

They elected Gaius Varro as consul, another war mongering pleb

He raised 16 legions to fight Hannibal head-on

At where you ask?

At Cannae

Just saying this name gets me so depressed

Once they arrived Paullus, that is Varro's patrician co-consul

advised against attacking but Varro ignored him, charging at Hannibal

Place your bets, everybody

He started the battle by charging in pushing the punic center away

only to be flanked by the numidians and completely surrounded

getting slaughtered for the whole day

86.000 Romans died that day

The greatest defeat in Roman history, so far

Among the dead being Minicius, Geminus and Paullus

And no, Varro didn't die

Instead, he fled a battle like a bitch

With Rome's armies and leadership destroyed the punic demon spread the chaotic terror through Italy

flipping many treacherous cities to their side, among them Syracuse

To punish them, the Senate sent calls for Marcellus to lay siege to Syracuse

A man famous for killing a gallic chieftain with his bare hands

At this time, Syracuse was home to Archimedes, a greek thief who had stolen many trojan manuscripts

using them to build many weapons

Despite these hurdles, Marcellus eventually breached the city

and when a Roman soldier found Archimedes home

he accidentally stepped over the circles he was drawing like the autist he was

Forcing the soldier to stab him until he shut the fuck up

Can you believe the modern mathematicians actually worship this Greekoid?

Now, back to the bad news

Both Scipio brothers Publius and Gnaeus have been killed by Hasdrubal in Iberia

But remember we still Publius Scipio's son

Yeah, he actually managed to survive Cannae

returning to Rome and getting elected as consul for his promise to conquer Iberia for Rome

He head straight for Cartagena, taking it with just 500 men in a brilliant a night attack

Not only that, but proceeded to obliterate Hasdrubal in battle

forcing him to flee to Italy

and then crushing the remaining Punic forces by pulling the same trick Hannibal did in Cannae

Now, back in Italy, the situation was still dire

as both consuls Marcellus and Crispinus were ambushed and killed by the Numidian cavalry

followed by the arrival of Hasdrubal in the north

To prevent the Punic brothers from joining up

the Romans sent their southern legions to march 300 miles north in just a week

They came with the northern legions and attacked Hasdrubal by surprise

destroying him and all his forces

Hearing of the victory in Italy, Scipio focused on taking the fight to Africa

But instead of requesting the Senate for legions, he sailed to Italy

using nothing but his charisma to gather 30 warships and 7000 volunteered legionnaires

Then simply asking and getting permission from the Senate to invade

When Scipio landed in Africa, he found the Numidians in a civil war

He took the pretender's side and helped set fire to the local punic army camp

Scaring their forces out and then slaughtering them all in the field

winning the civil war and making Numidia a roman ally

Now scared shitless of Scipio, Carthage recalled Hannibal to defend Africa

And thus, finally freeing Italy from his reign of terror

It would all be decided in the fields of Zama

as Hannibal and Scipio face against each other

At the day of the battle, both sides deployed their armies in three lines

But instead of the Maniple formation

Scipio had them directly aligned with Velites skirmishes in the gaps

Hannibal started a battle with an elephant charge

They either crashed into his own troops are were easily killed by the Romans

The Numidians took this chance to route to the punic cavalry

While both armies advanced with the Hastati clashing with the mercenaries

winning the upper hand until the Punic recruits got through them

The principes came to the rescue, but the punic veterans were still intact

To finish the battle, Scipio had his hastati and principes form at the center and the triarii at the wings

The armies met enough furious brawl

indecisive for either side to the Numidian cavalry returned

Flanking the Punics until Hannibal fled the field

And the Romans claimed victory

After so many sacrifices and hundreds of thousands of dead Romans

they had emerged victorious once more

Scipio was gracious in victory

demanding only the annexation of Iberia, the independence of Numidia, some more reparations

and the agreement Carthage would never again conduct foreign policy without roman wise counsel

After that, Scipio went to Rome had a glorious triumph

and gained the epithet Africanus

restoring peace at last...

Who am I kidding, here comes the best part

So after the Second Punic War was won, Rome was embroiled in a series of wars against the Greeks

Spoiler warning: Rome wins and the Greeks are blown the fuck out

Huge surprise, I know, but stick with me.

During all this time Cato the Elder was in the Senate

who held indescribable hatred towards Punics

Every single time he talked about anything, he would end it with "Carthago delenda est"

That is "Carthage must be destroyed"

Since he was a young senator, since he was a child

Hell, since he was an unborn fetus

All he wished for was to have Carthage destroyed

His chance would come fifty years later after the Battle of Zama

when Carthage illegally feuded an army to fight the Numidians over a border dispute

Now utterly convinced by Cato, Rome sent an ultimatum ordering it to destroy their city

move it several miles further inland

and provide five hundred children to Rome

to see if Punics had any capacity whatsoever to be civilized from a young enough age

They refused those terms and called for war

In response, Rome sent 80,000 men to siege the city

stalled for around two years and then got Scipio Amilianus (that is Scipio Africanus' son)

to lead the siege and finally breach the city

The legions rounded up to 50,000 survivors to serve as slaves

letting the city burn for 17 days and let's not forget

Feels fucking good

After Carthage's complete destruction the Romans anexed their now salty lands as the new masters of the western Mediterranean

and at the peak of the Republican era a glorious sight indeed

Join me next time when the plebs continue to deteriorate the Republic

Shall be in two weeks or so. I'll see you then. Ciao. Ciao