1.
Geography of Greece
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Greece is a country in Southern Europe, located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The country consists of a mainland and two additional smaller peninsulas projecting from it, the Chalkidice and the Peloponnese, which is separated from the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth. Greece also features a number of islands, of various sizes, both large ones including Crete, Euboea, Rhodes and Corfu, and groups of smaller ones such as the Dodecanese. According to the CIA World Factbook, Greece has 13,676 kilometres of coastline, Greece is largely mountainous, with its latitude ranging from 35°00′N to 42°00′N and in longitude from 19°00′E to 28°30′E. As a result, the country has considerable climatic variation, Greeces climate is divided into three main classes, A Mediterranean climate features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures rarely reach extremes, although snowfalls do occur even in Athens. An alpine climate is primarily in Western Greece. A temperate climate is found in Central and Eastern Macedonia and parts of Thrace, including Komotini, Xanthi and this climate is characterized by cold, damp winters and hot, dry summers. Greeces largest island, Crete, due to its position and vast size. As such, the climate in Crete is primarily temperate, the atmosphere can be quite humid, depending on the proximity to the sea, while winter is fairly mild. Snowfall is common on the mountains between November and May, but rare in low-lying areas, especially near the coast, during the summer, average temperatures may reach the low 30s °C, with maxima touching the mid 40s. The south coast of the island, including the Mesara Plain and Asterousia Mountains, falls in the North African climatic zone, in southern Crete, date palms bear fruit and swallows remain all year round, without migrating to Africa. Greece is located in Southern Europe, bordering the Ionian Sea and it is a peninsular country, possessing an archipelago of about 3,000 islands. It has an area of 131,957 km2, of which land area is 130,647 km2. Land boundaries with Albania, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey measure approximately 1,110 km in total. Of the countrys territory,83. 33% or 110,496 km2 is mainland territory. Greeces coastline measures 13,676 km. 80% of Greece is mountainous, the Pindus mountain range lies across the center of the country in a northwest-to-southeast direction, with a maximum elevation of 2,637 m. Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece and the fourth highest in relative prominence in Europe
2.
Roman Republic
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It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
3.
Ancient Corinth
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Corinth was a city-state on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece, roughly halfway between Athens and Sparta. The modern town of Corinth is located approximately 5 kilometres northeast of the ancient ruins, for Christians, Corinth is well-known from the two letters of Saint Paul in the New Testament, First Corinthians and Second Corinthians. Corinth is also mentioned in the Book of Acts as part of the Apostle Pauls missionary travels, in addition, the second book of Pausanias Description of Greece is devoted to Corinth. Ancient Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities of Greece, the Romans demolished Corinth in 146 BC, built a new city in its place in 44 BC, and later made it the provincial capital of Greece. According to Hellenic myth, the city was founded by Corinthos, however, other myths suggest that it was founded by the goddess Ephyra, a daughter of the Titan Oceanus, thus the ancient name of the city. There is evidence that the city was destroyed around 2000 BC, some ancient names for the place are derived from a pre-Greek Pelasgian language, such as Korinthos. It seems likely that Corinth was also the site of a Bronze Age Mycenaean palace-city, like Mycenae, Tiryns, according to myth, Sisyphus was the founder of a race of ancient kings at Corinth. It was also in Corinth that Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, during the Trojan War, as portrayed in the Iliad, the Corinthians participated under the leadership of Agamemnon. In a Corinthian myth recounted to Pausanias in the 2nd century AD, Briareus and his verdict was that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth belonged to Helios. Thus, Greeks of the Classical age accounted for the cult of the sun-titan in the highest part of the site. The Upper Peirene spring is located within the walls of the acropolis, the spring, which is behind the temple, they say was the gift of Asopus to Sisyphus. The latter knew, so runs the legend, that Zeus had ravished Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, Corinth had been a backwater in 8th-century Greece. The Bacchiadae were a tightly-knit Doric clan and the kinship group of archaic Corinth in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. In 747 BC, an aristocratic revolution ousted the Bacchiad kings and they dispensed with kingship and ruled as a group, governing the city by annually electing a prytanis, probably a council, and a polemarchos to head the army. During Bacchiad rule from 747 to 650 BC, Corinth became a unified state, large scale public buildings and monuments were constructed at this time. In 733 BC, Corinth established colonies at Corcyra and Syracuse, by 730 BC, Corinth emerged as a highly advanced Greek city with at least 5,000 people. Aristotle tells the story of Philolaus of Corinth, a Bacchiad who was a lawgiver at Thebes and he became the lover of Diocles, the winner of the Olympic games. They both lived for the rest of their lives in Thebes and their tombs were built near one another and Philolaus tomb points toward the Corinthian country, while Diocles faces away
4.
Messene
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This new Messene, todays Ancient Messene, was constructed over the ruins of Ithome, an ancient city originally of Achaean Greeks, destroyed previously by the Spartans and abandoned for some time. Currently the substantial ruins are a historical attraction. Much of it has been excavated and partly restored or preserved for study and public viewing. The site was never totally abandoned, the small village of Mavromati occupies what was the upper city around the fountain called klepsydra. Administrative structure and population figures refer primarily to it, archaia Messene is located 25 kilometres north of Kalamata and 60 kilometres east of Pylos. The main ancient source on Messene is the Guide to Greece of Pausanias, excavation of the site began in 1828 in connection with the French Morea Expedition during the Greek War of Independence. The French left in 1833, meanwhile, only exploratory excavation had been performed, since then a number of noted archaeologists have made contributions, not the least the current excavator. A museum of their extensive finds has been constructed within the old city walls and this site was awarded a European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in 2011. During the Bronze Age the palace at Pylos controlled Messenia politically and economically and these groups were members of the coast-watchers, a military or quasi-military unit that presumably were stationed to guard various locations on the coast. Their failure is attested by the burning of Pylos a few months later by assailants unknown from the sea, the watchers include some Olumpiaioi from Orumanthos. John Bennet expressed the opinion that by Mezana is meant Messana and he supposed that the region around Ithome would already have had that name, to be reutilized by Epaminondas a thousand years later. After the defeat of the Spartan army at the Battle of Leuctra in Boeotia,371 BC and this time the victorious general, Epaminondas, entered the Peloponnesus with an international army of Boeotians, Argives and Messenians living abroad. Epaminondas resolved to support an independent Peloponnesus by building three fortified cities, Megalopolis and Mantinea in Arcadia and Messene in Messenia, in 85 days the combined armies and exiles guided by the engineers and artisans had complete the walled city of Messene over the site of the previous Ithome. The city included within its walls Mt. Ithome and enough agricultural land, the policy was justified almost immediately. After the departure of the Theban army the Spartans attempted to retake Messenia and this time the long struggle with Sparta was brought to a final end by the Macedonian conquest of Greece. After the departure of the allies the new city and the fate of Messenian independence were left in the hands of the Messenian exiles, apparently they had maintained a transitory community in exile, or diaspora, for some 300 years. Pausanias reports, even to this day they preserve it in its purity better than anywhere else in the Peloponnese, Messene was surrounded by a circuit wall 9 km long,7 metres —9 metres high. It was fortified by 30 square or horseshoe-shaped guard towers with doors admitting passage to a walkway on top of the wall
5.
Sparta
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Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious. Spartas defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas prominent role in Greece, however, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. It then underwent a period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit of Laconia, Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates, mothakes, perioikoi, Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in the West following the revival of classical learning and this love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000 –35,000 free residents, plus numerous helots, olliers theory of the Spartan mirage has been widely accepted by scholars. The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the location of the Spartans. The first refers primarily to the cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River. The second word was Lacedaemon, this was used sometimes as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the works of Homer. Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne and it could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not. It denoted the terrain on which Sparta was situated, in Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside, wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken. The hollow suggests the Eurotas Valley, Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people epithet. The name of the population was used for the state of Lacedaemon
6.
Third Punic War
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The Third Punic War was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between the former Phoenician colony of Carthage and the Roman Republic. The Punic Wars were named because of the Roman name for Carthaginians, Punici, the Third Punic War ended Carthages independent existence. Carthage, stripped of allies and territory, was suffering under a huge indemnity of 200 silver talents to be paid every year for 50 years, cicero put a similar statement in the mouth of Cato in his dialogue De Senectute. He was opposed by the senator Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, who favoured a different course that would not destroy Carthage, and who usually prevailed in the debates. Moreover, the retirement of the indemnity removed one of the incentives the Romans had to keep the peace with Carthage – there were no further payments that might be interrupted. The Romans had other reasons to conquer Carthage and her remaining territories, by the middle of the 2nd century BC, the population of the city of Rome was about 400,000 and rising. Feeding the growing populace was becoming a major challenge, the farmlands surrounding Carthage represented the most productive, most accessible and perhaps the most easily obtainable agricultural lands not yet under Roman control. In 151 BC Numidia launched another raid on Carthaginian soil, besieging the Punic town of Oroscopa. As a result, Carthage suffered a defeat and was charged with another fifty year debt to Numidia. ”In 149 BC. Even after this was done the allied Punic city of Utica defected to Rome, the consuls then demanded that Carthage hand over all weapons and armour. After those had been handed over, Rome additionally demanded that the Carthaginians move at least 16 kilometres inland, when the Carthaginians learned of this, they abandoned negotiations and the city was immediately besieged, beginning the Third Punic War. Censorius lost more than 500 men when they were surprised by the Carthaginian cavalry while collecting timber around the Lake of Tunis, a worse disaster fell upon the Romans when their fleet was set ablaze by fire ships which the Carthaginians released upwind. Manilius was replaced by consul Calpurnius Piso Caesonius in 149 after a defeat of the Roman army at Nepheris. Scipio Aemilianuss intervention saved four cohorts trapped in a ravine, Nepheris eventually fell to Scipio in the winter of 147-146. In the autumn of 148, Piso was beaten back while attempting to storm the city of Aspis, undeterred, he laid siege to the town of Hippagreta in the north, but his army was unable to defeat the Punics there before winter and had to retreat. When news of these setbacks reached Rome, he was replaced as consul by Scipio Aemilianus, the Carthaginians endured the siege, starting 149 BC to the spring of 146 BC, when Scipio Aemilianus successfully assaulted the city. Though the Punic citizens offered a strong resistance, they were pushed back by the overwhelming Roman military force. Many Carthaginians died from starvation during the part of the siege
7.
Patras
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Patras is Greeces third-largest city and the regional capital of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese,215 km west of Athens. The city is built at the foothills of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras, Patras has a population of 213,984. According to the results of 2011 census, the area has a population of 260,308. Dubbed as Greeces Gate to the West, Patras is a hub, while its busy port is a nodal point for trade and communication with Italy. The Rio-Antirio bridge connects Patras easternmost suburb of Rio to the town of Antirrio, Patras is also famous for supporting an indigenous cultural scene active mainly in the performing arts and modern urban literature. It was European Capital of Culture in 2006, Patras is 215 km west of Athens by road,94 km northeast of Pyrgos,7 kilometres south of Rio,134 km west of Corinth,77 km northwest of Kalavryta, and 144 km northwest of Tripoli. A central feature of the geography of Patras is its division into upper and lower sections. It is built on what was originally a bed of river soils, the older upper section covers the area of the pre-modern settlement, around the Fortress, on what is the last elevation of Mount Panachaikon before the Gulf of Patras. The largest river in the area is the Glafkos, flowing to the south of Patras, the water is also used for the orchards of Eglykas and as drinking water for the city. Other rivers are Haradros, Meilichos and the mountain torrent Diakoniaris and it features the typical mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers, with spring and autumn being pleasant transitional seasons. Autumn in Patras, however, is wetter than spring, of great importance for the biological diversity of the area and the preservation of its climate is the swamp of Agyia, a small and coastal aquatic ecosystem of only 30 ha, north of the city centre. Another geophysical characteristic of the region is its level of seismicity. Small tremors are recorded along the coast of Patras almost constantly, larger earthquakes hit the area every few years with potentially destructive effects. In 1993, a 5. 0-magnitude earthquake caused damage to several buildings throughout Patras due to the proximity of the epicenter to the city. On June 15,1995, a 6. 2-magnitude earthquake hit the town of Aigion. The Ionian Islands are also hit by even more severe earthquakes. In antiquity, the most notable example of destruction caused by an earthquake in the region was the total submergence of the ancient Achaean city of Helike, the first traces of settlement in Patras date to as early as the third millennium BC, in the area of modern Aroe. Patras flourished for the first time in the Post-Helladic or Mycenean period, Ancient Patras was formed by the unification of three Mycenaean villages in modern Aroe, namely Antheia and Mesatis
8.
Campaign history of the Roman military
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These accounts were written by various authors throughout and after the history of the Empire. The Roman army battled first against its neighbours and Etruscan towns within Italy. From the outset, Romes military typified this pattern, and the majority of Romes campaigns were characterised by one of two types, the second is the civil war, which plagued Rome from its foundation to its eventual demise. Roman armies were not invincible, despite their reputation and host of victories. Nevertheless, it was generally the fate of even the greatest of Romes enemies, such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal, to win the battle, the history of Romes campaigning is, if nothing else, a history of obstinate persistence overcoming appalling losses. Knowledge of Roman history stands apart from other civilizations in the ancient world and its chronicles, military and otherwise, document the citys very foundation to its eventual demise. Romes earliest history, from the time of its founding as a tribal village. Although the early Romans were literate to some degree, this void may be due to the lack of will to record their history at that time, or such histories as they did record were lost. Although the Roman historian Livy lists a series of seven kings of early Rome in his work Ab urbe condita, from its establishment through its earliest years, a number of points of view have been proposed. Very little is known of Romes military history from this era, traditionally, Romulus, after founding the city, fortified the Palatine Hill, and shortly thereafter, Rome was equal to any of the surrounding cities in her prowess in war. The first of the campaigns fought by the Romans in this account are the wars with various Latin cities. According to Livy, the Latin village of Caenina responded to the event of the abduction of the Sabine women by invading Roman territory, the Latins of Antemnae and those of Crustumerium were defeated next in a similar fashion. The remaining main body of the Sabines attacked Rome and briefly captured the citadel, there was a further war in the 8th century BC against Fidenae and Veii. In the 7th century BC there was a war with Alba Longa, a war with Fidenae and Veii. Ancus Marcius led Rome to victory against the Latins and, according to the Fasti Triumphales, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus first war was waged against the Latins. Tarquinius took the Latin town of Apiolae by storm and took great booty from there back to Rome, according to the Fasti Triumphales, the war occurred prior to 588 BC. His military ability was tested by an attack from the Sabines, Tarquinius doubled the numbers of equites to help the war effort, and defeat the Sabines. Tarquinius returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph for his victories that, according to the Fasti Triumphales, subsequently, the Latin cities of Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia and Nomentum were subdued and became Roman
9.
Punic Wars
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The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had taken place. The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus, meaning Carthaginian, the main cause of the Punic Wars was the conflicts of interest between the existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman Republic. The Romans were initially interested in expansion via Sicily, part of which lay under Carthaginian control, at the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire. Rome was a rapidly ascending power in Italy, but it lacked the power of Carthage. The Roman victories over Carthage in these wars gave Rome a preeminent status it would retain until the 5th century AD, during the mid-3rd century BC, Carthage was a large city located on the coast of modern Tunisia. Founded by the Phoenicians in the mid-9th century BC, it was a powerful thalassocratic city-state with a vast commercial network, of the great city-states in the western Mediterranean, only Rome rivaled it in power, wealth, and population. While Carthages navy was the largest in the ancient world at the time, it did not maintain a large, permanent, instead, Carthage relied mostly on mercenaries, especially the indigenous Numidians, to fight its wars. However, most of the officers who commanded the armies were Carthaginian citizens, in 200 BC, the Roman Republic had gained control of the Italian peninsula south of the Po river. Unlike Carthage, Rome had large disciplined armed forces, on the other hand, at the start of the First Punic War, the Romans had no navy, and were thus at a disadvantage until they began to construct their own large fleets during the war. The First Punic War was fought partly on land in Sicily and Africa and it began as a local conflict in Sicily between Hiero II of Syracuse and the Mamertines of Messina. The Mamertines enlisted the aid of the Carthaginian navy, and then subsequently betrayed them by entreating the Roman Senate for aid against Carthage, the Romans sent a garrison to secure Messina, so the outraged Carthaginians then lent aid to Syracuse. With the two powers now embroiled in the conflict, tensions escalated into a full-scale war between Carthage and Rome for the control of Sicily. In 260 BC, they defeated the fledgling Roman navy at the Battle of the Lipari Islands, Rome responded by drastically expanding its navy in a very short time. Within two months, the Romans had a fleet of one hundred warships. Because they knew that they could not defeat the Carthaginians in the tactics of ramming and sinking enemy ships, the Romans added the corvus. The hinged bridge would swing onto enemy vessels with a sharp spike, Roman legionaries could then board and capture Carthaginian ships. This innovative Roman tactic reduced the Carthaginian navys advantage in ship-to-ship engagements, however, the corvus was also cumbersome and dangerous, and was eventually phased out as the Roman navy became more experienced and tactically proficient
10.
Achaea (Roman province)
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Achaea or Achaia, sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaïa, was a province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece, and parts of Thessaly. In the north, it bordered on the provinces of Epirus vetus, the region was annexed by the Roman Republic in 146 BC following the sack of Corinth by the Roman general Lucius Mummius, who was awarded the cognomen Achaicus. It became part of the Roman province of Macedonia, which included the whole of mainland Greece. When Augustus became the first Roman emperor in 27 BC he made an agreement whereby some provinces, the provinces, came under the control of the emperor. Other provinces, the provinces, remained under the control of the senate. The province of Achaea was separated from the province of Macedonia as a senatorial province and it comprised the Peloponnese Peninsula in the south and central Greece. Achaea was a province, thus free from military men and legions. Athens was the center of education for the imperial elite, rivaled only by Alexandria. Achaea was among the most prosperous and peaceful parts of the Roman world until Late Antiquity, the province remained prosperous and highly urbanized however, as attested in the 6th-century Synecdemus. The territories of Achaea remaining in Byzantine hands were grouped into the theme of Hellas, in 150-148 BC the Romans fought the Fourth Macedonian War, after which they annexed Macedon, formerly the largest and most powerful state in mainland Greece. In 146 BC the Achaean League rebelled against the Romans and this was a hopeless war as Rome was a far superior military power. The League was quickly defeated and its city, Corinth was destroyed. The Romans decided to annex the whole of mainland Greece and Achaea became part of the Roman Province of Macedonia, some cities, such as Athens and Sparta retained their self-governing status within their own territories. The First Mithridatic War was fought in Attica and Boeotia, two regions which were to part of the province of Achaea. In 89 BC, Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, Mithridates then sent Archelaus to Greece, where he established Aristion as a tyrant in Athens. The Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla landed in Epirus and marched on Athens. He marched through Boeotia on his way to Attica, Sulla besieged Athens and Piraeus in 87-86 BC and then sacked Athens and destroyed Piraeus. He then defeated Archelaus at the Battle of Chaeronea and the Battle of Orchomenus, the commerce of Achaea was no longer a rival to that of Rome. After the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, about 31 BC, in AD15, Emperor Tiberius, responding to complaints of mismanagement by the Senatorial proconsul made Achaea and Macedonia Imperial provinces
11.
First Punic War
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The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For more than 20 years, the two struggled for supremacy, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters. The war signaled the beginning of a transformation in the western Mediterranean. Carthage began the war as the great sea-power of the western Mediterranean, while Rome had, the series of wars between Rome and Carthage took the name Punic from the Latin name for the Carthaginians, Punici. This is derived from Phoenicis, and it refers to the Carthaginian heritage as Phoenician colonists, a Carthaginian name for the conflicts does not survive in any records. Rome had recently emerged as the leading city-state in the Italian Peninsula, over the past one hundred years, Rome had come into conflict, and defeated rivals on the Italian peninsula, then incorporated them into the Roman political world. By the beginning of the First Punic War, the Romans had secured the whole of the Italian peninsula and it originated as a Phoenician colony in Africa, near modern Tunis. At the height of power, just before the First Punic War, North African peoples such as the Berbers in the area around Carthage were loosely associated with Carthage. In the midst of the First Punic War some tribes would rebel against Carthage, the rich, strategically influential, and well-fortified Greek colony of Syracuse was politically independent of Rome and Carthage. Hostilities of the First Punic War began with developments involving the Romans, Carthaginians, at the same time, a group of Roman troops made up of Campanian citizens without the vote also seized control of Rhegium, lying across the Straits of Messina on the mainland of Italy. In 270 BC, the Romans regained control of Rhegium and severely punished the survivors of the revolt, in Sicily, the Mamertines ravaged the countryside and collided with the expanding regional empire of the independent city of Syracuse. Hiero II, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Mamertines near Mylae on the Longanus River, following their defeat, the Mamertines appealed to both Rome and Carthage for assistance. The Carthaginians acted first, approached Hiero to take no further action, however, the rivalry between Rome and Carthage had grown since the war with Pyrrhus and that alliance was simply no longer feasible. According to the historian Polybius, considerable debate took place in Rome on the question as to whether to accept the Mamertines appeal for help, however, many were also unwilling to see Carthaginian power in Sicily expand even further. Leaving them at Messana would give the Carthaginians a free hand to deal with Syracuse, after the Syracusans had been defeated, the Carthaginian takeover of Sicily would essentially be complete. Sicily is a volcanic island, with geographical obstacles and rough terrain making lines of communication difficult to maintain. For this reason, land warfare played a role in the First Punic War. Land operations were confined to small raids and skirmishes, with few pitched battles
12.
Third Servile War
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The concentrated military effort of a single commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus, finally crushed the rebellion, though the war continued to have indirect effects on Roman politics for years to come. The Third Servile War had significance in the history of ancient Rome in its effect on the careers of Pompey. Their actions as Consuls greatly furthered the subversion of Roman political institutions, to varying degrees throughout Roman history, the existence of a pool of inexpensive labor in the form of slaves was an important factor in the economy. Slaves were acquired for the Roman workforce through a variety of means, including purchase from foreign merchants and the enslavement of foreign populations through military conquest. While there was limited use for slaves as servants, craftsmen, for the most part, slaves were treated harshly and oppressively during the Roman republican period. Under Republican law, a slave was not considered a person, owners could abuse, injure or even kill their own slaves without legal consequence. While there were many grades and types of slaves, the lowest—and most numerous—grades who worked in the fields and this high concentration and oppressive treatment of the slave population led to rebellions. While these were considered serious civil disturbances by the Roman Senate, taking years and direct intervention to quell. The Roman heartland had never seen a slave uprising, nor had ever been seen as a potential threat to the city of Rome. This would all change with the Third Servile War, in the Roman Republic of the 1st century, gladiatorial games were one of the more popular forms of entertainment. In order to supply gladiators for the contests, several training schools, in these schools, prisoners of war and condemned criminals—who were considered slaves—were taught the skills required to fight in gladiatorial games. In 73 BC, a group of some 200 gladiators in the Capuan school owned by Lentulus Batiatus plotted an escape. When their plot was betrayed, a force of about 70 men seized kitchen implements, fought their way free from the school, and seized several wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armor. These escaped slaves were able to defeat a force of troops sent after them from Capua. They initially viewed the revolt as more a major crime wave than an armed rebellion, however, later that year, Rome dispatched a military force under praetorian authority to put down the rebellion. Glabers forces besieged the slaves on Mount Vesuvius, blocking the only way down the mountain. With the slaves thus contained, Glaber was content to wait until starvation forced the slaves to surrender and they moved around the base of Vesuvius, outflanked the army, and annihilated Glabers men. A second expedition, under the praetor Publius Varinius, was dispatched against Spartacus
Roman Republic