Modern and Ancient Wars

People should study the 2nd Punic War between Carthage and Rome. It was the basis, or one of them, for the word “punitive” expedition, punishment, and punctuation. Rome ended Carthage. There’s a punctuation mark for you.

But the reason why you should read about the 2nd Punic War, more than the First and Third, is because of Hannibal Barca and his Barcid faction of the Carthaginian senate. There were two factions in Carthage, more or less. The one Hanno was part of, which prefered to make peace with Rome, take care of their estates in wealthy Africa (yes Africa), and perhaps defend the rich gold/silver pains of Hispania (Spain) which was conquered and colonized by hannibal Barca’s father, Hamilcar. Why is this of interest to Americans such as us? Why simply because Hannibal disagreed, he believed that Carthage will never be safe so long as Rome is unfettered on the Italian peninsula. He swore an oath to his father before he was 10, that as soon as age would permit, he would restrain Roman power.

“I swear that so soon as age will permit . . . I will Use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome.” – Childhood Hanibal Quote

Can’t do that from Africa/Spain, you know. One must attack into the heartlands, the homelands, of an enemy…. like Iraq. But Hanno and the anti-Barcids disagreed. They believed Hannibal Barca’s strategy was… flawed, you may say. So when Hannibal was asking for reinforcements from Carthage after his victories at Cannae and when a Roman city, Capua, defected to the side of Hannibal, Hannibal didn’t get shit. Sure, the Carthaginian Senate agreed to send his brother, Hasdrubal, to Spain to “reinforce” Hannibal, but the two Scipio brothers were already in Hispania waging war. Did Hanno and the anti-Barcids really expect Hasdrubal to defeat the Roman legions in Spain, go over the Alps again like Hannibal (and lost a major portion of their army like Hannibal did too)? Or did they expect simply for Hasdrubal to defend the rich gold mines of Spain, wealth that flowed into the Carthaginian Senate’s hands year after year? (So much so that there was talk of it crashing the economy of the empires of Persia into a Great Depression due to the devaluing of gold/silver)

This left Hannibal’s forces stranded in Italy, only able to loot the country side. He could not even lift the siege of Capua, because his mercenary forces had become so attrited over the years. Years, I say, he was there for more than Ten years fighting. While Carthage’s Senate threw parties in Africa, of course. Remind you of another Senate per chance?

You might also be interested in the Carthage’s Mercenary Wars. The point of my comment here is not to convince you that Carthage was bad/good or Rome bad/good. None of that matters. They are dead empires. We are still alive, we matter, they only matter to the extent of how they can help us understand and kill our enemies.

Why did Carthage have a Mercenary War, you might wonder, if Carthage had enough gold in Spain to keep large mercenary armies up for indefinitely? Because they used mercenaries to fight the war against Rome. The Carthaginian citizens had no interest in fighting foreign wars. It was simply better to pay barbarian mercenaries to do the job. Hamilcar promised greater wages to his mercenary forces when things were going tough for Carthage in the 1st Punic War. Once peace was signed, the Carthaginian Senate repudiated Hamilcar’s promise and refused to pay the mercenaries. So the mercenaries rebelled and Hamilcar was sent to crush them.

Now which other Senate do you know of that refuses to reinforce soldiers fighting for them? Which other Senate do you know of that calls people mercenaries, hires them, and then refuses to honor their promises and debts to those “mercenaries”?

You want to know what happened to end the 2nd Punic War between Carthage and Rome? Scipio Africanus, the son of one of the Scipio family (this scion was at Trasimene and Cannae, presumably), took the war to Carthage itself. Scipio threatened Carthage with the veterans and survivors of Cannae itself (the survivors of those legions were exiled to Sicily for the disgrace of being routed at Cannae). Scipio gave these men, the only men who broke through the Carthaginian envelopment by going through the Carthaginian main battle line, a second chance to regain their honor and pride. Carthage saw an army at their doors. At their doors, for the Battle of Zama, the last battle of the 2nd Punic War, was right next door to Carthage. And guess what Carthage did? Carthage recalled Hannibal to Africa, from Italy. Through the single port that Hannibal was still able to hold, Crotona. (Capua was already taken and punished by the Romans)

Crotona

You might be wondering, if Hannibal held the ports of Capua and Crotona, why the mercantile empire of Carthage didn’t simply send naval relief expeditions, full of elite Sacred Band cavalry, in order to reinforce Hannibal’s army so that he could actually protect his allies, the Capuans, and thus sow more dissension between Rome and her allies. If it was possible to get Hannibal, with a few thousand of his veterans, quickly back to Carthage, then why did they have to send “reinforcements” to Iberia? Why… I suppose it was simply too expensive to send ships to Hannibal. After all, he was winning after Cannae, like Petraeus is now, right? So why should we need to send troops to Italy, the center of gravity for our enemies, when we can send troops to protect the rich gold and silver mines of Spain and to Sicily’s rich grain fields? Saddam didn’t attack us, Osama did. He is what is important, right? The Romans are attacking us in Spain, why should we attack Roman allies that haven’t attacked us?

So let us redeploy Hannibal to where he may be of greater use. Like protecting the Senate’s chances of breathing.

Carthage surrendered (lost Zama) due primarily to Hannibal being unable to bring most of his elite veteran troops from Italy. Short time frames, you know, given Scipio was at the gates. The anti-Barcid faction (the peace party) also kept many of the elite Sacred Band cavalry in Sicily, away from the Battle of Zama. You may think it irrational that when an enemy army is at the gates, the Senate of Carthage was more concerned with preventing the glorious victory of Hannibal than defeating the Romans. By all means, continue to believe so, for humans were never said to be entirely rational, now were they. Especially the rich and decadent ones.

Following the end of the war that established Rome as the supreme power in the western and central Mediterranean and left Carthage without a navy or the ability to wage war, Hannibal remained an influential figure in Carthage and became a Shophet, or chief magistrate between 200 and 196. Hannibal, an honest man who, despite his failures in the field, had only the best in mind for his country, launched a full-scale attack on the privileges and corruption of the ruling aristocrats. As a leader of the people he became so influential and listened to that the rulers of Carthage themselves wanted him gone. They denounced him as part of a plot involving Antiochus III of Syria to attack Rome again. Rome promptly dispatched a team of investigators to Carthage but Hannibal was more or less convinced that they were coming to shoot first and ask questions later.

To destroy Hannibal’s power and his influence, one might even ally with Rome, an enemy of Carthage. Anything is possible. Remind you of another alliance between the enemies of one’s own nation and the Senators of that nation? Ted “I killed me a woman” Kennedy and John “Murdering Marine” Murtha, perhaps? Just a possibility.

“For years past they have been trying to force me back by refusing me reinforcements and money; but now they recall me no longer by indirect means, but in plain words. Hannibal has been conquered not by the Roman people whom he defeated so many times in battle and put to flight, but by the envy and continual disparagement of the Carthaginian senate. At this unlovely and shameful return of mine it will not be Scipio who will be wild with triumph and delight, but rather Hanno, whose only way of ruining me and my house has been by ruining Carthage”-Livy’s reports of Hannibal’s response to Carthage’s recall order

Here’s a reference on the Battle of Zama if you require background reading material.

Inspired by this post of Subsunk‘s at Blackfive. In that vein of victory is with the persistent, not those resistent to fighting, here is something about Rome’s situation in the war.

Rome had about 250,000 citizens in the census around 10 or so years before the 2nd Punic War. By the end of the 2nd Punic War, Rome had suffered a quick estimate of 300,000 fatalities in both citizens and allied Italian city-state members. Citizenship weren’t granted to Italians, so most likely you would see a Roman legion with many Italian allied troops, resulting in the end total tally of perhaps as much as 50% of the gross estimates of Cannae were from allied city-states, not Roman citizen drafts. Even still, Rome lost 80 something thousand at Cannae. Their main field army disintegrated. By any estimate, this was a crushing defeat. And it came after Hannibal was already rampaging through the Capuan countryside looting and burning to try and get Rome to fight him in the field.

Did Rome give up and sue for peace like Carthage did after the Battle of Zama? No. Rome believed in victory and thus made it come true. evem after Cannae. How would history have changed if Carthage had Rome’s will? Can we ask the Carthaginians? Oh right, they don’t exist anymore. How quaint.

There’s a big difference between losing a war and being annihilated. (Japan and Germany are good examples) Carthage lost so many wars, they were annihilated. An Empire of Merchants obviously has no fortitude for long wars. So they will pay the price in the end. And if we don’t want to pay the price along with them, we need to make sure they can’t get in our way.

People have already seen the price America has paid for losing Vietnam. A few more of those and we will end up the way of Carthage. This is why ancient times were ancient, they did not have the advantages of technology, knowledge, or a past to learn from that we have today. We have no excuses people. And even if we did, so what. Nature and God would never accept our excuse that we lost because of badluck. The weak do not get pity from their overlords by complaining of reasons why they can’t pay their jizya, you know.

[UPDATE: Fixed a couple of things and added in the additional comment I made at blackfive.]

The matter of the Sacred Band cavalry is too controversial, so I crossed it out. There are no primary sources after the First Punic War mentioning any cavalry attachment to the Sacred Band, with some theorizing that the Sacred Band, both infantry or cavalry, were used up entirely in the First Punic War. Not exactly convincing, but it could provide one reason why the Sacred Band only existed afterwards as infantry, with no mention of cavalry. Then again, I’m not exactly sure if ancient historians really cared about this little detail once Carthage was destroyed, whether their Sacred Band, a volunteer force of Carthaginian citizens from the upper class, had a cavalry branch or not. The destruction of the library of Alexandria also has a good chance of factoring in relating to why there was no detailed descriptions of the Sacred Band left in recorded history.

Which does not really modify my point and perhaps will reinforce it as well. Whether Hannibal could have won Zama or not with the Sacred Band, is not really that important. What is important is that the decision was made not to give him reinforcements, whatever form those reinforcements took. Carthage tore up a peace treaty with Scipio once they knew for certain that Hannibal could be recalled. Perhaps it was simple arrogance for them to believe that Hannibal didn’t need any more reinforcements at Zama. A rather diastrous assumption in some ways.

Losing too many wars also doesn’t make preserve your memory or traditions, either. We remember the Spartans at Thermopylae in great detail. The same can’t be said for Carthage, precisely because the people who might have written about Carthage and its better qualities, were erased from the historical timeline by their military losses to Rome.

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