History Of Rome During Second Punic War/Hannibalic War

Discussion

Discuss about the History of Rome for Hannibalic War.

The Second Punic War, also known as the Hannibalic War was fought amongst the armies of Rome and Carthage during the period between 218 and 201 BCE. The First Punic War was fought because of the conflict over the control of Sicily. The Second Punic War comprised of the confrontations between Italy, Spain, Sardia, Sicily and North Africa. Hannibal, one of the history’s most able commanders, led the Carthaginians and brought them victories at Cannae and Lake Trasimene. On the other hand, Romans had their own great general, Scipio Africanus, who attacked Carthage on its home soil, defeated Hannibal and delivered the final victory.Carthage later briefly rose again after 50 years for the Third Punic War, but it no more had its position as a great Mediterranean power. The Hannibalic War was a war that filled the hearts of Romans with dread for their lives and for being separated from all they had set up.

The Second Punic War decided the fate of the Romans and Rome, and maybe of Europe. The real and immediate cause of the Second Punic War was the growing rivalry amongst the two great powers who were struggling to gain supremacy in the western Mediterranean part.However, it sped up directly with the rapid rise of Spain’s dominion by the Carthaginians. The first incident that caused the war was the Saguntine affair. The question that arises is that by attacking Saguntum did Hannibal break any treaty with Rome. Hannibal’s actions might have infringed two treaties: Lutatius in 241 and Ebro in 226. Saguntum came into alliance with Rome after the Lutatius treaty, making it not getting included in the list of allies. However, confusion remains with the Ebro agreement. Polybius places the date assigned to theagreement several years before Hannibal, making it virtually annulled with the introduction of the new covenant. Therefore, Rome had not legal grounds in restricting Hannibal from attacking Saguntum, even though his actions were unwise.

Even though Hannibal’s conscience was clear, he could not turn a blind eye to the political aspect. He was attacking a town which was under the articulated security of Rome, and he had been forewarned that its catch would be seen as a casus belli. Be that as it may, he persisted – and from no military need. The wild quarrel between the Saguntines and Torboletae require excluding risks unless Hannibal wished. Hannibal persisted for various reasons; since he judged war with Rome was certain, and because by moving the Romans into a false position he had compelled on them the onus of announcing war, so he could expect the continued with the support of his home government. His catch of Saguntum would not have been the explanation for war, but instead it no ifs ands or buts realized the eruption of war without a second’s pause.

The incite explanation behind the war was in this way the action of Hannibal and his organization; however, Polybius finds three principal causes. To begin with, the disdain of Hamilcar towards Rome; after his compelled surrender in Sicily he lived for retaliation, and his spirit survived him. Also, the seriousness felt at Carthage when Rome seized Sardinia and restored the danger of war. Thirdly, coming to fruition in light of this current, Hamilcar’s development and the Carthaginian accomplishment in Spain.

Causes of the War

In the fall of 202 BC, two compelling military and two so far undefeated commandants squared off for one of history’s most fundamental battles. Being referred to was world region for the Romans and survival as a sovereign power for the once-compelling Carthaginians. Every once in a while in the records of battling have two such wonderful captains combat against each different as the two who clashed at Zama. Since the Second Punic War had begun in 219 BC, Hannibal Barca had claimed three of the gravest thrashings anytime persevered by the Roman republic — at the Trebia River in December 218, at Lake Trasimene in April 217, and at Cannae on August 2, 216. Incredibly, since his surprising crossing point of the Alps in October 218, Hannibal held together a bilingual officer of fortune equipped compel for ideal around 16 years in Italy — in the midst of which time he had pounded one Roman pioneer after another. Romans had come to fear him, yet a humble bundle of specialists regarded his military virtuoso. Among them was the Roman who faced him at Zama. Publius Cornelius Scipio Minor had fought his first campaigns as a lesser officer and tribune at the Trebia and Cannae. In 210 BC Scipio was named head in Spain, where his father and uncle had been squashed and slaughtered the earlier year. In light of lessons picked up from looking at how Hannibal coordinated his battles and fights, Scipio retrained his furnished compel and exhibited new, more versatile procedures. His attempts were repaid with complete triumphs against Hannibal’s extensive more young kin, Hasdrubal Barca, at the engagements of Baecula in 208 and Ilipa in 207, which drove the Carthaginians from Spain by 206. In the midst of the battle, both sides perceived what was being referred to. In case the Carthaginians lost, they had no line of pull back. If the Romans lost, their nation would kick the bucket.

Hannibal had shrewdly supported a crisis in which the Romans were real to fault, yet from which they couldn’t pull back without loss of radiance. He was like this in a split second responsible for a war which neither Rome nor Carthage had deliberately outlined. Be that as it may, it was implausible that the two Republics could have occupied peace uncertainly. A modifying of strengths, for instance, existed in the Hellenistic East, may have been kept up for a period, yet explanations behind rubbing would unavoidably happen now that Rome had been constrained to wind up clearly a politically compelling country. In any case, amid the time between the underlying two Punic wars, Rome had not adopted a deliberately brilliant strategy.

Rome’s second war against Carthage diminished a number of people in the Italian totally open. Men had gone off to war. People had passed on, and people had moved to the urban zones to escape the war. A couple of people had left the farmland to work in the arms business, and some had left for Rome looking for subsistence. The crisp makes a big appearance in Rome had a great time the festivals and other open incitement that were made to keep up open confirmation in the midst of the dull days of the war. Newcomers developed a slant for the city over the life of drudgery they had known wearing down farms. Additionally, after the war completed, several veterans from developing families favoured settling in urban ranges, especially Rome, instead of return to the field. Urban people group in Italy moved toward getting to be plainly stuffed, and Rome transformed into the most jammed city in Europe and West Asia.

Impact of the War on Rome

The Romans won the war mainly due to three main reasons: The military culture of Rome allowed it to create a large number of legions of new and arranged enlists every year, while Carthaginians were liable to fighter of fortune strongholds and two or three accomplices they could persuade. Rome’s adversaries fundamentally couldn’t adjust. Hannibal’s father trusted that Rome can be smothered by turning its different Italic accomplices against it, “freeing” them all the while. As Hannibal found to his disadvantage, Rome’s accomplices were not too on edge to get ‘freed’. Finally no significant scale severance happened, and the few accomplices Hannibal won were pounded or left piecemeal. Carthage, much like Rome, was a religious government controlled by different fair families. Many were not on talking terms with each other and used each and any opportunity to usurp control, even at the cost of betting destruction. This had made the Carthaginian senate significantly less suitable in overseeing emergencies and settling on decisively decisions.

In this way of the war, much farmland in Italy could be bought monetarily. Those with wealth began obtaining this farmland, a couple of landowners broadening their property and a few pros from the public groups scanning for a protected hypothesis and a wellspring of social respectability. With the revived slope toward greater farms came a more important usage of slaves. More territories in the farmland were changed into field, vineyard, and olive estates – more suited to Italian soil and environment than was the creating of grain. The wealthiest grounds were changed over to vineyards and the poorer tracts to olive timberlands while cultivating was the most valuable for industrialist landowners. The wars that began with the minor event at Messana in the mid-260s BCE had brought unintended outcomes – as wars every now and again do. Countless little agriculturists, who had been the establishment of the Roman Republic, had advanced toward getting to be city-tenants living off of free bread and acknowledging circuses.

Conclusion

The Second Punic War was lost, and Hannibal was prosecuted for peace terms. The Romans requested Carthage surrendering its entire naval force, all elephants, and each and every Roman prisoner. The Romans moreover asserted southern Spain. Around the beginning of the war, both sides had been for the most part comparable to doing combating powers aground. Rome had a far pervasive maritime compel, yet Carthage had the best pioneer in Hannibal. Toward the day’s end, nonetheless, Rome’s obviously unlimited resources in men, water crafts, and money, joined with aptitudes on the battle area and summoned of the seas, had ensured Rome could revive incidents more easily than Carthage. It would be a lesson particularly learned and reiterated and again by the Roman furnished drive, now all around practiced at doing combating in various theatres in the meantime. Rome, with its most unmistakable enemy crushed, was by and by, and would remain for an extended time allotment, the unchallenged pro of the Mediterranean.

Appian, The Punic Wars, Book 8, part 1.

Mommsen, Hamilcar and Hannibal, Vol. II., Book. III., Ch. 4.

Arnold, Hist., Hannibal’s Passage of the Alps, p. 478.

Liddell,Battle Of Cannae, pp. 311-315.

Livy, Siege of Saguntum, Book. XXI., Chapters. 7-15.

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Hoyos, B. D. (1983). Hannibal: what kind of genius?. Greece & Rome, 30(2), 171-180.

Hoyos, B. D. (1998). Unplanned Wars: The Origins of the First and Second Punic Wars (Vol. 50). Walter de Gruyter.

Polybius, Histories, Book 11, part19.