The First Punic War

The Ancients

This episode explores the First Punic War (264–241 BC), a pivotal conflict between Rome and Carthage for control of Sicily, which reshaped M

Key takeaways

• The First Punic War was a defining struggle for dominance in the central Mediterranean, with Sicily as the key battleground.
• Carthage's power relied on a network of allied cities rather than direct imperial control, challenging traditional notions of empire.

Main topics

• The strategic importance of Sicily in the Mediterranean
• Naval warfare and technological innovation during the First Punic War

Notable quotes

"What a battlefield we are leaving for the Romans and Carthaginians to fight over." – King Pyrrhus of Epirus

Conclusion

The First Punic War marked Rome's emergence as a naval power and the b

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Teutoburg Forest? What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? Or what made Alexander truly great? With a subscription to History Hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. Speaker 2 (0:29) What a battlefield we are leaving for the Romans Speaker 3 (0:32) and Carthaginians to fight over. That is what a famous ancient Greek warlord supposedly said as he left the island of Sicily behind him in the early 3rd century BC. His name was Pyrrhus, King Pyrrhus of Epirus, and those words proved prophetic. Within two decades of Pyrrhus sailing away, Sicily would be the central battleground for the first great war between Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War. Lasting more than 20 years, this war would witness brutal city sieges and titanic naval battles as the two major powers of the western Mediterranean came to blows again and again. War elephants, warship drawbridges, sacred chickens, this story has it all. Welcome to the Ancients, I'm Tristan Hughes your host and this is the story of the bloody and brutal First Punic War. The Struggle for Sicily with ancient historian and the ancients fan favourite, Dr. Eve MacDonald. Eve, great to have you back on the show. Speaker 1 (1:52) Thank you, Tristan. Pleasure to be here. Speaker 3 (1:54) And this time we're talking about the First Great War between Rome and Carthage, sometimes overshadowed by Hannibal Barca in the Second Punic War. But this is the big one that kicks it all off. Speaker 1 (2:06) Absolutely. The First Punic War or... Maybe the first Romano-Carthaginian war is how we would prefer to call it if we were Carthaginian. But yes, definitely, it is such a big battle and it's such a long war and it's a bit epic in every way. And it's interesting that we don't talk about it as much as we do because it does set up everything that follows on as well. And Speaker 3 (2:33) is the central battleground for this war, is it Sicily? Is this just the big struggle for Sicily? Speaker 1 (2:39) It is. And of course, the big struggle for Sicily means so many things more than just an island. It means struggle for control over the central Mediterranean, because if you control Sicily, you control the central Mediterranean. And I also think it's a three-way struggle to begin with, for the first year anyway, between Rome, Carthage, and Syracuse, or Syracuse, depending on your accent. Because really it is these three cities, three very important cities in the central Mediterranean that start off being key to the first Punic War. Speaker 3 (3:16) Carthage, Rome, Syracuse. Yes. Speaker 1 (3:19) Okay, interesting. Speaker 3 (3:20) And so let's set the scene first of all with a background. So we're talking the early third century BC. Carthage, first of all, how powerful is Carthage and how large is Carthage at that time? Speaker 1 (3:33) Carthage is an important city. It is a big city on the north coast of Africa. It's jutting out into the center of the Mediterranean, so it's a city that controls a lot of the seaways back and forth, east and west, and north and south. It's been allied to... the west part of Sicily for since the beginning of its existence and also to you have to think geographically the southern bit of Sardinia so all of these places were Carthaginian allied territories even the Aeolian islands which are just north of Sicily itself between Italy mainland and between Speaker 1 (4:14) And Sicily too is part of Carthaginian allied territory. So that's Carthage's sort of central Mediterranean link. And it's so close from Carthage up to the west part of Sicily. It's very, very, it's, you know, it's not a long sail, but it's also, and on a clear day, you can see, well, you know, North Africa from Sicily, from higher parts, you know. So it's actually a really easily and important, territory for Carthage. But Carthage is also controlling, we think, through allies rather than direct territorial control, quite a bit of space along North Africa as well. So it's a power. It's an important power. Its allies are often Phoenician-speaking peoples from the Western Mediterranean, but also many Greek-speaking peoples on Sicily. are also allied to the Carthaginians. It's not super clear cut that just because you're Greek speaking, you're allied to the bigger Greek cities. And just because you're Phoenician speaking, you're allied to Carthage. That really simplifies things. Sicily is a big mix of indigenous people called the Limnians, also Sikkels. So Carthage has allies who are both Phoenician speaking in cities like Palermo and Trapani and Lilibeum, which is modern Marsala. and also allies who are indigenous Sicilians, really. Speaker 3 (5:42) Carthaginian-aligned cities in Sicily, hopefully we'll have a map up. I mean, you mentioned some of them there, like Lilibeum. Ponomus is the ancient name for Palermo, correct? Speaker 1 (5:52) And Speaker 3 (5:52) the other one I think of is Motia from many centuries before. The Carthaginians have been there for a long time. Speaker 1 (5:59) For a long time, the Carthaginians and the Phoenicians who founded a lot of these sites have been there for a long time. Motio was a foundation of the Phoenicians, probably in the 8th century BC, that becomes allied to the Carthaginians, but then gets destroyed in the late 4th, early 3rd century in a rather epic siege between a Greek Syracusan tyrant and the Carthaginians sort of battling over the control of this. island off of the island and it's classic Phoenician island port city just off of a larger island so it's in a bay it's protected so you can pull your ships into the bay and it's an amazing place. It was walled, highly developed urban infrastructure, temples, absolutely spectacular city, but it is destroyed in a long siege by the Greek tyrant Dionysius. And the interesting thing is that it's never completely abandoned because there seems to be a sacred temple there to the god Baal. But the Carthaginians... move their center of operations to a new city. And that's when Lilibeum, which is modern Marsala, is founded. And so they're intricately connected. So although Mochia is still occupied at some level, main center for that southwestern part of Sicily moves to Lilibeum. Speaker 3 (7:26) Lilibeum. And I think the most important point to highlight, isn't it, when setting the scene for the First Punic War, is that Carthage has had a presence in Sicily, particularly in the western part of Sicily. for centuries before we get to the third century BC, fighting against Greeks and the Sicilians, but the Carthaginians have been there. Speaker 1 (7:43) They've been there. And not only have they been there, it's that from our very, very first treaty that we know of between the Carthaginians and the Romans that dates. Yes, which Speaker 3 (7:50) we'll get to, yeah. Speaker 1 (7:51) Yes, to right to the sixth century, to the very beginning of the Roman Republic, Sicily is mentioned as Carthaginian allied territory automatically. So, yeah. Speaker 3 (8:00) And interesting, you've said you've never used the word Carthaginian empire. You said anything outside of Carthage, the city proper, whether it's in southern Sardinia or Sicily, Carthaginian allied territory. So should we say Carthage has an empire in the early third century BC? Oh, Speaker 1 (8:16) it's a very tricky subject. And I would hate to, you know, sort of leap too far one way or the other. I would say it's fair to say for me that you wouldn't actually speak about a Carthaginian empire per se probably until after the First Punic War. I really think when we get to the Barcids and we get to Iberia and we get much more direct control that you really can say they have an empire of some sort Speaker 3 (8:40) with Speaker 1 (8:40) Hannibal, with Hannibal's father. It's a little bit tricky to know exactly what's going on in the relationship between the cities in the west of Sicily, Sardinia, other places in Carthage. We know they're allied and we know they're a sort of functional commonwealth. So, you know, if there's trouble in Sicily, everybody calls on the Carthaginians, calls them in to defend. Speaker 1 (9:03) there's key ports that are allied to Carthage and Carthage collects fees. They obviously are, I mean, I don't want to say they're running a racket, but in a way there's this idea of how their income functions is around sort of state support for ports. So is that an empire? I always don't know if we can. I mean, I wouldn't even know if we could call the Romans. We wouldn't call the Romans an empire at this point either, would we? So I wouldn't say. Speaker 3 (9:27) No, interesting. Let's move on to the Romans now briefly. So the Romans have been growing over the past century or so, by the beginning of the third century, to become a very powerful force in central Italy. And now they're looking further north and further south into the territory of the Greek cities, in particular Magna Graecia, so Tarentum. And then, of course, you've got Syracuse on Sicily, too. So the Romans are growing at this point as we get to the third century B.C. And so naturally, their sphere of influence is creeping ever nearer that of the Carthaginians. Speaker 1 (10:03) It is. And it's really I always think it's the Samnites. It's the Samnite wars at the end of the fourth and into the beginning of the third century that really solidifies Rome's. Speaker 1 (10:20) expansive ideology into the south of Italy, which is what really concerns us here. And it is absolutely the defeat of the Samnites in very hard-fought wars. I mean, to be fair, the Samnite wars were quite intense for the Romans. And I think that sort of, all of a sudden, the Greek city-states of Magna Graecia, it's called, around the arch of the hill. are to the foot of Italy are facing Roman power now instead of the buffer of the Samnites, which they have had for a long time. And so the Romans are expanding. And Rome is a big, important city at this period. Rome was a big, important city back in the 6th century. I mean, it was a substantial city with big public monuments, big temples. And so Rome is a big, powerful place as well. Speaker 3 (11:10) And then you get emerging onto the scene, this fascinating figure who we can't sadly spend much time on at the moment. This warlord who comes across from Greece, Pyrrhus of Epirus, to go and help the Greek cities and maybe the Samnites and Lucanians and the like against the Romans. And, you know, you get the Pyrrhic war where he fights against the Romans with his elephants. And then he also fights against the Carthaginians as well. It's a fascinating story where he is almost... this last chance saloon buffer against the expanding Romans, but then also has a go against the Carthaginians as well in Sicily. This is an interesting chapter and it's important to highlight because this is the last great event. Where the Romans and Carthaginians are fighting against someone else. Speaker 1 (11:51) Exactly. So the Romans and the Carthaginians have been allied since the 6th century BC. I love that. Speaker 3 (11:56) They are allied for so long before they actually become these great enemies. Speaker 1 (12:00) Yes. And it is Pyrrhus of Epirus who really is the trigger to launch hostilities. But it's Pyrrhus' invasion of Italy at the Tarantines. The city of Tarantum calls Pyrrhus in. and asks for help against Rome. And of course, before that, the Epirots had come into Italy to help one Greek city-state fight against another Greek city-state and that sort of thing. But this is this big sort of invasion of Pyrrhus and the Romans fight these big battles and Pyrrhic victories, of course, happen. So Pyrrhus wins, but he doesn't really win because he's lost so many soldiers. And the Romans come back. Speaker 3 (12:41) They always come back. Exactly. Speaker 1 (12:43) And for the Romans, And for the Carthaginians, and perhaps for Pyrrhus himself, this is a really pivotal moment in the way in which Roman power is defined. And there's certainly all this echoes of Pyrrhus' lessons of fighting the Romans that the Carthaginians take on later when they fight successfully against the Romans. So it's quite an important moment in terms of the construction of the two powers as enemies, the Romans and the Carthaginians. When Pyrrhus defeats the Romans in Italy, the Syracusans, who are, again, as I always say, it's more of a threesome really in this war. They're always the Syracusans. And they call the, they're like, hey, Pyrrhus is in town. He's in the neighborhood. Let's call him in and see if we can get him to help us against our old enemy, the Carthaginians. And it's really this Pyrrhus coming to Sicily. And Pyrrhus fighting the Carthaginians. And the Carthaginians not showing up at all, doing abysmally against Pyrrhus. So they're literally beaten all the way back to Lilibeum, their base on the southwest coast of Sicily. And he leaves. So Pyrrhus just leaves. He's beaten the Romans, but the Romans have come back really strong. He's beaten the Carthaginians. And then he leaves Sicily. And the Carthaginians sort of bounce back from their defeat. And they really, you know, push themselves out across Sicily and we have the Romans right at the tip of Italy and the Carthaginians just at the northeast corner of Sicily and they really are facing each other across the Straits of Messina as we call them or the Straits of Messana. And Speaker 3 (14:30) this is why it's so important to cover Pyrrhus quickly because he's that last kind of that last dividing line between the Romans and the Carthaginians. And there's that famous quote, supposedly, that he says when he leaves Sicily. And of course, it's said in hindsight, knowing what will happen next. But he says, I mean, oh, what a battlefield we are leaving, remarking on Sicily itself for the Carthaginians and the Romans to fight over. But you're quite right. By 270 BC, Pyrrhus goes back to Greece. The Romans come in. They take control of the Greek cities in southern Italy, Taranto, all the way down to Reggio. ancient Regium. And as you say, so they're at the Strait of Messina, they're on the right-hand side and then Messina on the left-hand side. So you've got two Greek cities, Messina and Regium, with the Carthaginians on one side and the Romans on the other. And this is a pivotal moment in what will happen next. I mean, no longer are they separate from each other. They are right on each other's doorstep. They're spheres of influence. Speaker 1 (15:32) Absolutely. And they're facing each other. And rumor has it, our sources, of course, are a little bit confused or, you know, fragmentary for this period. But there is in Polybius a mention of a treaty of Rome and Carthage actually allying, overfighting Pyrrhus. And, you know,