The First Punic War

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“What about the field we are leaving for the Romans 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 Piris, King Piris of Epiris, and those words proved prophetic. Within two decades of Piris sailing away, Sicily would be the central battleground for

the first great war between Rome and Carthagin, the first Punic War.

Starting more than 20 years, this war would witness brutal city seages and titanic naval battles, as the two major powers of the Western Mediterranean came to blows again and again. War elephants, warship, draw bridges, sacred chickens, this story as it will. 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 fanfavorite, Dr. Eve McDonald. Eve, great to have you back on the show. Thank you Tristan pleasure to be here.

And this time, we're talking about the first great war between Rome and Carthagin, sometimes

overshadowed by Hannibal Barker in the second Punic War, but this is the big one that kicks it all off. Absolutely the first Punic War, or maybe the first Romano or Carthaginian War, as well 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 epic and 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 is the central background for this war, is it Sicily, is this just the big struggle for Sicily? 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, Carthagin, 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. Carthagin, Syracuse. Yes. Okay. Interesting.

And so let's set the scene first of all with the background, so we're talking the early

third century BC, Carthagin, first of all, how powerful is Carthagin, and how large

is Carthagin at that time? Carthagin is an important city, it is a big city on the north coast of Africa, it's jumping out into the center of the Mediterranean, so it's a city that controls a lot of the C-ways, back and forth, east and west, down north and south. It's been a light 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 A-olian islands, which are just north, obviously itself between Italy, mainland, and between Sicily, two is part of Carthaginian allied territory. So that's Carthagin's sort of central Mediterranean link, and it's so close from Carthagin

but it's also an honor clear day, you can see north Africa from Sicily, from higher parts, you know, so it's, it's actually a really easily and important territory for Carthagin, but Carthagin is also controlling, we think, through allies rather than direct to territorial control quite a bit of space along north Africa as well, so it's a power, it's an important power, it's allies are often Phoenicians 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 Carthagin. That really simplifies things, Sicily is a big mix of indigenous people called Olympians, also sick cows, so Carthagin has allies who are both Phoenician speaking, and it cities

like Palermo and Trapani and Lily Bayam, which is modern Marsala, and also allies who are indigenous Sicilian, really. Carthaginian aligned cities in Sicily, I hope you have a map up, I mean, you mentioned some of them there, like Lily Bayam, Panormus is the ancient name for Palermo corrects,

“and the other one I think of is Modia from many centuries before, that the Carthaginians”

have been there for a long time. The Carthaginians and the Phoenicians who founded a lot of these sites have been there for a long time. Modia 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 and

a rather epic siege between a Greek Syracuse and Tyrant, and the Carthaginians sort of battling over a control of this island off of the island and its 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, a 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-Ball, but the Carthaginians move their center of operations to a new city, and that's when Lily Bam, which is modern Marsala, is founded, and so they're intricately connected. Although Mocha is still occupied at some level, main center for that soath-western part of Sicily moves to Lily Bam.

“And I think the most important point highlight isn't it, we're in setting the scene for”

the 1st pinnacle, is that Carthaginians had a presence in Sicily, particularly in the western part of Sicily, for centuries before we get to the 3rd century BC, fighting against Greeks and the Sicilians, but the Carthaginians have been there. They've been there, and not only have they been there, is that from our very very first treaty that we know of between the Carthaginians and the Romans that dates, which will

get to, yes. To write to the 6th century to the very beginning of the Roman Republic, Sicily is mentioned as Carthaginian Allied territory automatically. So, yeah.

An interesting, you've said, you've never used the word Carthaginian Empire, you've said

anything outside of Carthage to the city proper, whether it's in southern Sardinia or Sicily, Carthaginian Allied territory, so should we say Carthag has an empire in the early 3rd century BC? It's a very tricky subject, and I would hate to 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 1st 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, with 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 Carthaginia. 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 into defend, and there's key ports that are Allied to Carthagin, Carthagin, collect 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 they're income functions is around 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 Roman, do we wouldn't call the Romans an empire at this point either, would we?

They're interesting, and 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 century, to become a very powerful force in Central Italy, and now they're looking further north, and further south, and it's the territory of the Greek cities, in particular, Magna, Greikia, so Tarantum, and then, of course, you've got Syrikus on Sicily too.

So the Romans are growing at this point, as we get to the third century BC, and so naturally there's fear of influence is creeping ever nearer that of the Carthaginians.

It is, and it's really, I always think, it's the Sam Night, it's the Sam Night Wars, at

the end of the fourth and into the beginning of the third century that really solidifies Rome's expansive ideology into the south of Italy, which is what really concerns us here, and it is absolutely the defeat of the Sam Night in very hard fought wars, I mean, to

“be fair, the Sam Night Wars were quite intense for the Romans, and I think that sort”

of all the sudden, the Greek cities, of Magna Greikia, it's called around the arch of the heel, arch of the foot of Italy are facing Roman power now, instead of the buffer of the Sam Night's, which they have had for a long time, and so the Romans are expanding, and Rome is a big important city, at this period, and Rome was a big important city back in the sixth century, I mean, it was a substantial city with big public monuments, big temples,

and so the Romans are a big powerful place as well, 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, Paris of Eparus to go and help the Greek cities, and maybe the Sam Night's and Lucanians, and they're like against the Romans, and you know, you get the Pyric 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,

“and Sicily, this is an interesting chapter, and it's important highlight because this is the”

last kind of great event where the Romans and Carthaginians are fighting against someone else. Exactly, so the Romans and the Carthaginians have been allied since the 6th century BC. They are allied for so long before they actually become these great enemies. Yes, and it is Perus of Eparus, who really is the trigger and to launch hostilities, but it's Perus' invasion of Italy at the Tarantines, the city of Tarantum, calls Perus in, and asks for help

against Rome. And of course, before that the Eparus 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 Perus, and the Romans fight these big battles, and they, you know, Pyric victories, of course, happen, so Perus wins, but he doesn't really win because he's lost so many.

And the Romans come back, they always come back, yeah. Exactly. And for the Romans and for the Carthaginians,

and perhaps for Perus himself, this is a really pivotal moment in the way in which Roman powers defined, and there's certainly all this echoes of Perus' 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.”

But when Perus defeats the Romans in Italy, the Syracusians who are, again, as I always say, it's more of a three-some really in this war. They're always the Syracusians. And they call the, they're like, hey, Perus is in town, and 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 Perus coming to Sicily and Perus fighting the Carthaginians, and the Carthaginians, not showing up at all, doing

abizmally against Perus. So they're literally beaten all the way back to Ligly Bayham. They're base on the southwest coast of Sicily. And he leaves. So Perus 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 rated the tip of Italy,

and the Carthaginians just at the north east corner of Sicily, and they really are facing each other across the straits of Messina, as we call them, and the straits of Messana. And this is why it's so

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”

happened 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 you're quite right by 270 BC. Perus goes back to Greece. The Romans come in. They take control of the Greek cities in southern Italy, Toronto, all the way down to Regio, 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

got two Greek cities, Messina and Regio, Regio, 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 in each other's doorstep, their spheres of influence. Absolutely, and they're facing each other. And rumor has this, 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 Carthaginians, actually, allowing overfiting Perus. And, you know, they,

“it's sort of the last time they sign a treaty in friendship against Perus. And that's I think”

important too, because it's, it's this framework changes completely because all of a sudden there

is no buffer. There's nobody in between them. But Messina or Messina, as it is, is the key point

for the trigger, because the people who are occupying that city, itself, who are called the Mammartines, and to our group of mercenary soldiers who have occupied Messina. And they've taken the city. And the king of Syracuse, who is, and King called here the second, he's been trying to dislodge these rather disruptive mercenary soldiers, who are really wreaking havoc in the country. So Carthage doesn't own the city at that time. This is almost like an independent city,

owned by these rogue mercenaries. Interesting. But Carthage does control those islands just north. Leparian. Yeah, the Lippery or Aelian islands today. And they have a base there. So they are very much connected to this north eastern part of Sicily. But they don't actually control Messina at the time. But what happens is the Mammartines are defeated by hero of Syracuse. And they're like, "Oh, we don't really want to give up our city." And half of the Mammartines, who are a campanian

group of mercenaries. So they're from mainland, at least southern, and they're called the Mammartines, because they worship the god Mammers. And Mammers is the Osken word, which is the language of the people of the campanian centrally, is their word for Mars, the god of war, the indigenous god of war. And so they're named after the god of war, their mercenary soldiers, their living large, in a sort of very fruitful environment that is existed in Sicily for mercenary soldiers. And they're not

really willing to give up their city. And so some of the Mammartines appeal to Carthage to help them. And another group appeal to the Romans to help them against Syracuse. So they, these two separate groups within this conglomeration of mercenaries appeal to the Romans and to the Carthage Indians separately. So the Carthage Indians come and help their group. From their base at Lippery, they're really close by. And they help take the city or secure the city of Mammina for

for their supporters, but also for themselves. And then the Romans show up as well to take Mammina. And then that's really what we have is the beginning of conflict. And how does that snowballed into

“something bigger where the Romans and Carthage Indians decide actively fight each other? So I think”

it's really interesting because what happens initially is that Syracuse and Carthage ally. Here

here are the second and the Carthage Indian generals in Sicily decide to ally against the Roman

invasion. And the Romans invade big time. They turn up with big soldiers. They're not just like, "Oh, we're going to just come over and help the Mammartines." They have both consular armies with them. They literally show up with an invasion force. So it seems to me that the story that we get in the Roman sources like, "Oh, the accidental empire that they've created is a little bit tricky because they do show up in force to take the city of Mammina but also to be involved

in Sicilian affairs." And Polybius actually tells us at the very beginning of his history

into Sicily. So the Roman historians see this moment of Rome's crossing the sea into Sicily as the beginning of their imperial. It's a big moment. It's a big moment. As you say the first time they cross into Sicily with military force is a full scale invasion tens of thousands of troops as recorded by our main source is fascinating Greek historian Polybius. So yeah, big moment.

Big moment, huge moment. And I love the reaction of the Syracusians because here are always like

first allied with Carthage. They've been fighting each other often on, allied, know each other really well. And then he looks fairly skeptically at their own or the Carthage Indian ability in the Syracusian ability to deal with this massive Roman army. And he turns around in allies with the Romans.

“He makes a deal. Well, do you've seen how Paris easily beat those Carthage Indians exactly?”

It was so earlier. Exactly. So he makes a deal with the Romans after initial skirmishes. And he makes peace with the Romans. And from that moment on, you have the Romans and the Syracusians. So two significant powers allied in Sicily against the Carthage Indians. To me, it's a miracle that the Carthage Indians were managed to hold on to anything in Sicily for as long as they did. We sometimes forget to think about this because they don't have a strong standing army in

Sicily. That's not the way they're operating. They have some soldiers. They have allies, soldiers. They have Carthage Indian soldiers. But they don't have this kind of massive force. And now, of a sudden, we have Rome allied with Syracus. We have Rome then with the Syracusian army at their disposal. And also Rome has all of Syracus' knowledge of how to fight Carthage

“at their disposal, too. No, they're so interesting and so important to highlight because I think”

I'm guilty of saying it myself, even in the intro. How it can be pitched is this great war between the two major powers of the Western Mediterranean. You've got the Carthage power and you've got Rome. And you've made two clear points there. First of all, they're three major powers. And how major of how you can actually say Carthage is at that time of its military strength. That's very much up for debate. Absolutely. I mean, the Carthage Indians are an important wealthy place. In the

central Mediterranean, we know they are. But we see them perhaps as these great equals to Rome, which they do become, they do rise to that occasion. And there's no question the second, the first unicorn, sorry, you know, helps create them as this force that can fight the Romans. But they probably aren't that force when this war starts. And I think that's super interesting, too,

because we always want to think about the adaptability of the Romans because the Romans

sources tell us this story. But perhaps we also need to think a little bit about that resilience and adaptability of the Carthage Indians to really understand how this could have been such a big epic war for 20 odd years and been fought in the way it was fought. Because both sides, you know, the equality was definitely there. We used to 20 years, so we got a bit to get through. So that's let's keep going. No, but it's very important to highlight all of this first of all.

But I mean, for the Romans, you know, getting control of Messina with the Mematines. And then here are the second and the Syracuse, allowing with the Romans. All of a sudden, the Romans have got friendly territory along that eastern side of Sicily. And I'm guessing probably also because of all the successes that gained over recent decades in their expansion, their thirsty for more,

“can they sense, sense blood? Can they sense that Sicily is there for the taking?”

I think they do. They must. And and I think it's interesting because what happens is the war is as long as we've said, but it's sort of fucking phases. And it's fought around Sicily going clockwise. So if you start from Messina and then you go down towards Syracuse and then you come along the south shore and then you go across and up to the last battle on the northwest. And if we, if we think about it that way, they have they've crossed over, they've got the west,

they've got all these these allied resources now. And they basically want blood, but they also

want well. And Sicily is home to a lot of very prosperous, very sophisticated cities. And that's really where we see the beginnings of some of the the key battles. We have a couple of key land battles that I was focused on prosperous cities. And then we we have the beginnings of big naval battles as well. I heard you would like your mobile room, but not so easily come from there.

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So, the Romans, they started well, and now they march west towards another of those prosperous cities on the mainland of Sicily. And this is a place that people might know the name of today, because it has this valley of beautiful ancient Greek temples, Agregento, or Agregento. Agregento today, Agregento in Latin, Africa, Africa, Africa, and in the Greek. The Crab, similar, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. One of the valley of the temples there is so incredibly

well-preserved, isn't it? So people may have seen that or gone. And it is one of the big moments

“early in the war. For two reasons, I think that it's depicted as such by our key sources.”

One is that it's a big city, big world city. And an old historic rival of Syracuse as well. And an old historic rival of Syracuse, but also occupied at this point by the Carthaginians. So the Carthaginians have agregento at this point, and the Romans laid siege Romans and Syracusians lay siege to it. And the Carthaginians really hire a whole new army in order to deal with this situation in the land. And they encircle the besieging army of the Romans. And so we have early in the

war, this sort of story of a really incredible siege of this very famous, beautiful city decorated

with monumental temples. And in Selon complicated story in which it gets very much into the gory details of the starving people inside. And the attempt spike, Carthaginian generals to break the siege of the Romans. And the eventual sort of Roman garrison, the Carthaginian garrison inside of Agregento busting out to try and beat the Romans losing. And then the city is left open to the Romans. And the Romans were told, although, of course, this must be an exaggeration. In slave,

the whole population, 50,000 people, and sack the city. And it's this idea in the Roman sources of the wealth of Agregento being paraded through Rome and a triumph. That becomes the moment when

“the Roman people support this effort and war in Sicily. So I think that's important to”

talk about is that up until then they were maybe we get the impression the Roman people were a little skeptical about the Roman endeavors in Sicily. But all of a sudden they see all this wealth flooding back into the city. And of course, all these enslaved people and all of this happens.

And so yeah, that's sort of the first big urban city to fall.

Not good for the Carthaginians at the moment. But Carthage is, well, Phoenician heritage, a maritime power. So does it look to the sea to fight back? Well, it does. So the first key battle on the sea. Now, Carthage would really prefer, we think, to fight naval battles. And they're incredibly adaptable maritime power. So they fight using really skilled sailors. And they build ships really quickly and well. And in fact, we're told that the Romans adapt their navy when they

build it in this period to Carthaginian standards. Because the Carthaginians are building the

sort of best standard warships at the time. But interestingly, at this first battle in my lie,

which is the Malatso peninsula. Now that sticks up in the north of the island of Sicily. Off the Malatso peninsula, my lie, the first battle is fought between the Carthaginians in the Roman navies. And it's this new adaptation of the Romans, which is called the Corvus, that our historians focus on. And the Corvus means crow. And it's like a boarding bridge.

which they can grapple onto the enemy ships. And then they can have their marines cross over and

“fight more in, in, in the kind of land. Yes. And then you see Basin to a land, Basin with this”

grapple thing. Yes. This is all part of the narrative of the first punic war that the historians focus on. There are some pretty difficult questions to be answered about this. But

nonetheless, the Corvus is always focused on is one of the key moments where the Carthaginians

don't seem to know what to do. And they don't really adapt very well. And they lose the battle of my lie quite significantly. A number of ships are lost. And, you know, these ships are filled with soldiers. And they're up and tell, you know, the first punic war, ramming was the way in which naval battles were won or lost. So the Carthaginians were excellent at that. They were super skilled with their roars and they could maneuver their boats really well. And so they would

often have the advantage in an naval battle because of this, but this Corvus then allowed the Romans to kind of take the advantage away from the Carthaginians. So they seem surprised by the Roman adaptation and they lose that battle. So it's really not good looking good for Carthagin. They

“been reasoned on land and at sea with this new innovation of the Roman fleet. And I think that”

that first battle, so over 100 ships on either side, as well, these are not small naval battles

that are happening. The Romans are at sea from the beginning with their innovative fleets. And other Romans just emboldened further. Like, this is looking good for us. Well, they are exactly, and, you know, the loss of Agra Gent one, the Soth Coast, gives them access then to a port on the Soth Coast and from there, the Romans decide that, well, what we should really do now is head to Africa. We're going even further. We're ready.

Is that why why stop here? We go after the next time. And we go back to this idea that the Romans have the Syracusians on side because in the, at the end of the fourth century, there had been a Syracusian invasion of Africa under their tyrant agatha clies. And the Romans really follow this exact playbook. So they must have got this idea either from studying what agatha clies did, or from people in Syracus who knew exactly what needed to happen. And Paris slightly also had

the similar idea, similar plan as well. So they were following that same Syracusian playbook. How do you defeat Carthagin? You go to Africa, you take their allies away from them, and Carthagin itself is the city becomes much more vulnerable. And it stops the Carthaginians

“from being able to reinforce their troops in Sicily. So that's what the Romans intend to do.”

And they gather a mass of force. So they hundreds, supposedly, of ships, hundreds, 350 is the number I think on both sides, which again, it's just hard to believe. Now of course, we have to remember this is taking place over 10, 15 years. It's not all happening in the same year. All these battles. And then the recovery from them, the rebuilding of fleets that has to happen for the destroyed ships. All this stuff is taking quite a few years.

But we are in around the 250s, early 250s, when this battle is taking place, off of the south coast of Sicily, near a place called Ekonomus, Cape Ekonomus. And we have the two sides gathering together there. The Romans to invade Africa and the Carthaginians to try and stop them. So the Carthaginians, they know that they're preparing for this invasion, like we have to stop this from happening. Carthaginians are aware as everyone else is,

by this point of what how vulnerable they are in Africa. And this is a theme all the way through these histories, is the Carthaginians want to stop invasions of Africa. They know that it's very difficult for them to defend the countryside there. And so the Romans gather near Agrogento. And the Carthaginian fleet comes over, lands at Lily Bayham, and then makes its way around the south coast from the west. So we have the Romans coming from the east and the Carthaginians coming

from the west along the south coast of Sicily. What happens? They meet in this epic battle. Supposedly? Now, it's only if we were really truly believed the numbers, and of course,

we know that's always a little bit tricky to do. But they supposedly, this is the largest

sea battle ever fought in terms of marine sailors, ships, and everything else. Bigger than anything else that has ever happened since, I don't know if that's actually true or not. But even if we reduce down the numbers to something practical, we're still talking about 100,000, or something of soldiers and sailors and marines, and everything else. But the Romans are

So they don't just have naval vessels for fighting military and naval battles, but they have

“supply ships. So it's huge. It's a massive battle. And it's close fought. It's very close.”

We, the story is quite interesting, because it's quite intricate in Pilebias. So perhaps somebody

was watching from there. Oh, it's amazing if they were, yeah. Yeah, it's like almost an eyewitness,

because the description is of different groups sort of breaking off and battling in different places, eventually, though, supposedly, the Corvus winds and the Carthaginians are defeated, and the Romans regroup and sail across stuff. And once again, the innovation of the Corvus is credited to things. It seems to be a big part of what they win. The Romans are able to board the Carthaginian ships and then fight on the ships. That seems to have made it almost

impossible for the Carthaginians to maneuver properly, which makes sense. If you've grasped on

“and grappled onto an opposing ship, you can hold it in place. So they win that major, major battle.”

And so the route is clear for the Roman invasion force to go ahead and land in Africa. Yeah, and the Carthaginians loose hundreds of ships, so, to tens of thousands of soldiers, and the Romans cross over into Africa, and they land up on the area that we call Capbond today, the beautiful Cape, or the Good Cape, and that sort of across the Bay of Tunis on the east side of the mainland of what is Tunisia today is where they seem to have landed. And that's

also where the previous invasion had landed as well. And this is a really prosperous agricultural area, not too far from Carthage, but outside of the local area of Carthage. So it's an area that's got a small towns and rich agricultural villas and things like that. Many Carthaginians surely

“must have thought by that time that the writing was on the wall for them. Absolutely. The”

mean the Romans were they landed. They are pretty much unstoppable. They take the cities that are on the coast. They looped the country side. They march towards Carthage. They are the Carthaginians sent out another army to meet them and they get defeated. It's looking really bad for the Carthaginians.

It's always incredible to think about how it's possible to raise and continue to raise other soldiers

that we have. I once bigger the emphasis of that because it feels like the Romans are literally knocking on the door of Carthage on the walls on the gates of Carthage. But of course the famous full of Carthage happens more than a century later. So what happens? Well the Carthaginians just keep coming back as well. This time they have been they're very desperate. Things are really desperate. They always talk about died or sickulous tells us about the fact that the Carthaginians

drape their walls of their city and black when they've lost to sea battle. So after economics of course the city of Carthage would have been draped and black. I mean all the families who were involved in sea battles would have been affected and they've done a terrible job defending the country side. We have evidence that this city on the northwest coast of Tunisia called Carthagin Coan. That gets destroyed in this period. So it's a really destructive invasion. But they

regroup and they send an expedition off to the eastern Mediterranean to recruit a new army. From where? Venetia? From all over Greece, Venetia. They recruit soldiers we think from the Iberians, the Legurians, lots of Greeks in all of Asia mines. All over the place. And of course they have allies who are fighting for them in Africa, the new Midians. But the new Midians, they live in this landscape that's being pillaged and destroyed by the Romans. So there's another

discussion that they have to have about what makes sense for them in terms of saving themselves. And so the, yeah, the Carthaginians not only recruit new soldiers, but they recruit a new commander. And this is a Spartan whose name is Antipus. And he sort of steps back and reorganizes the Carthaginian military and restructures the way they're using their elephants, which we have only just briefly

touched on. But it is of course Peris who is the first time that the Carthaginians start to use

elephants as after the Pyric Wars. So that's interesting. Yes, the Carthaginians had not used elephants before, but they see Peris bringing these big Indian beasts across. Carthaginians realizing that they have a smaller African cousin available to them. Exactly. And so by the time

And so this becomes the way in which the Carthaginians fight back. And it goes in what the Spartans have been doing for more than a century by this time. They don't send an army, they send one man.

“And I think they did it with the Syracuse and the Athenian expedition to Sicily. And now they've”

done it with Xanthipus coming to help the Carthaginians and enacting these reforms and does it work. Well, it does. I mean, he's successful and he destroys the Romans and the Roman console regulates is captured by the Carthaginian army that this new Carthaginian army that's then said Thensipus is restructured. It's so interesting. The Spartan stuff I think is fascinating.

Again, in other people who somehow are always playing, somehow just second fiddle to all these narratives.

Yet they do keep turning up all the time and they're such an interesting study about that.

“And we know that the Carthaginians are schooled in Greek tactics, by Greek tacticians. And so,”

yeah, centipuses this example of saving Carthagin by the restructuring really in reusing their forces. And for the first time in this war, Rome has suffered a devastating defeat. Thensipus of thousands of soldiers lost the expedition is lost. The expedition is lost completely. And the console's been captured. And so it's a catastrophic defeat. And lives long in Roman

memory. This is a humiliation that the Romans have rarely suffered and it becomes this incredible

moment where the way in which the story and the relationship between Carthagin Rome is really defined in later years by irregularness, this figure of regulus and what happens in this defeat. And all sorts of bad things happen to the Romans because those who survive, the remaining force, a pleatus sent to pick them up off of the coast of Africa and that fleet is destroyed in a storm on the way back to Sicily. So the Romans lose massive amounts of soldiers at sea.

Their invasion forth is destroyed and the console is captured. , but a storm. Well, look no further than the award-winning after dark myths, misdeeds and the paranormal with me, Maddie Pelling. And me and Nidalini, we are historians and love all things gloomy and macabre. From Tudor Executioners, an ancient Egyptian death ritual to which trials and folklore feel transported back in time on After Dark. Out every Monday and Thursday,

wherever you get your podcasts. And guess what? We're also now on YouTube. After Dark, a podcast from History Hit. Right. So Expedition to Africa, a disaster. Nidia, great success, but ends in total disaster for the Romans.

Total disaster. A great success if you're Roman. An incredible relief if you are a

Carthagian, they have managed to hold the line by extending themselves enormously. And both sides are totally over-extended. The Romans, this was been going on for over a decade. At least, 12 over a decade. And we see, we start to see in Carthage, that the coinage is devalued, the silver content is devalued. We see real economic impact of the war in the city of Carthage. And the Romans, for the first time,

“are starting to feel that. Interesting. So do they now see for peace?”

The Carthagianians. Oh, okay. Send the console. Regular. The captured console. Yes. To negotiate peace with the Romans. And it's just such a great moment of Roman rhetorical, their own, you know, self reverence in a way

don't surrender. These Carthagians are right for the taking. We can't surrender. And of course,

“Regulus is an honorable man. And the agreement has been that if there's going to be no peace,”

then he has to return to his captivity and he goes back. And he ends up dying in horrific ways. We think. But we don't know if this is true or not. But yes, put into like a box with iron, steak, sticking into him and left to die. Or I mean, there's a whole variety of different ways in which Regulus dies. And it's really interesting because our credible sources don't really mention this. So it's difficult to know how much of it is hyperbole, but we do know that he dies in captivity.

He dies in captivity in Carthage. And the peace is rejected and the Romans fight on.

So this is the next phase. Kind of, you know, so you've had the initial Roman success, Alainstreth, Syracuse, Agregantum, Mylay, Ecconomas, Bassalovic trees. Then you've had the disaster of invasion. So it's almost like one of, I would say, maybe I'm being a bit, I'm probably being a big ratio to the Carthage in Inza.

“Possibly. Possibly. Yeah. But now we're going to the, is it 250 or the 240s now at BC?”

And this is the next phase of the war. So what's the big event that happens next? So there's a couple of things. There's a, there's, there's a number of things that happen between the 250s and then 240 once. The last nine years, the last bit of the war. It's focused on the West and Northwest of Sicily. It becomes the city of panoramas falls to the Romans. Palomo today. Yes, which is this huge natural harbor. Big harbour and it falls to the Romans.

And in 247 BC, the Carthaginian select a new commander to take the land battle. Off of, to fight the land battle in Sicily. And that is Hamilkar Barka. And Hamilkar Barka is the father of Hannibal Barka. So he enters the story at this point. And it's actually interesting. It's the same year that Hannibal's born. Well, actually before that, because I cannot have us not cover this story, you know I'm going to ask. What is the story of the sacred chickens of

249 BC? That's true. We hadn't. We have to cover the chickens. The bat, yes. The Romans lose another sea battle off of the city of Trapani today or Dripanam as it's called. And that's on the Northwest Coast. They've lost panoramas. The Carthaginians have lost panoramas. The Romans have taken it. And again, the Carthaginians are not succeeding very well at land or at sea. So the Roman land forces have taken a lot of the territory in the north. And the sea forces muster again to raise

another fleet both sides to fight this battle. The Roman console whose leading the fleet is Tiberius Claudius Polkar. And he's a famous Roman console from an old Roman family. And the way that the story is told it really focuses on this character. It focuses on his arrogance. It focuses

on his dis sort of disdain for the traditions of Roman warfare. And we can always tell in our

Roman sources are doing that. Something bad has happened. The Carthaginians have raised another

“fleet. And this fight is going on. If they lose Dripanam, Dripanam is another important port.”

It would just be really the end of the story. And in 249, this big Roman fleet is brought to fight the Carthaginians off of the West Coast. It supposedly includes slaves being recruited into the Navy because there are so few recruits available to the Romans even. So Romans having manpower problems. Romans having financial problems. Carthagin is having financial problems. So this seems to be, and it's built up to be this last gasp. The console Tiberius Claudius is trying

to do all the correct rituals before the sea battle is fought. And he's honest ship the fleet commanding ship probably a seven. So a big ship with seven banks of wars. And he has chickens. And these chickens are supposed to give him the auspices. So the chickens eating in a certain way will tell the console or the people who are reading the auspices, the omens, whether or not the battle should be fought that day. The chickens have to eat. The chickens have to eat the green

that they're given or you can't fight the battle. It would be bad luck. And that's the story.

And he's absolutely fed up. So he picks up the chickens. He said, if they won't eat,

“maybe they'll drink, and he throws them into the sea. And this is viewed by the Romans as the most”

detrosious thing would happen. And of course, what happens afterwards is the defeat of the Roman fleet off of Darpani and the Rome scutes back to Rome. And they don't turn up again with another fleet

for eight years. So they learn their lesson. It's a disaster for the Romans. And it's an amazing

story. It's a great story because of the chickens. It's a great story because of concealer arrogance. It's an amazing story because it turns up in various sources much, much later like Soutonius is the one who talks about the recruitment issues that he faces, Tiberius Claudius. So it's really fascinating tale about the Romans and their superstitious beliefs and why they lose battles. And it is all about the gods. We forget that sometimes. We're about the gods, we're about the

chickens in that case. But we had to cover the story. Yeah, the chickens in the chicken story. But by continuing on, as you say, so Palermo has fallen, enormous as fallen. On land,

the Romans are doing well. The Romans are doing land. Yes, and see, yes, okay. The defeat of

Darpani has stopped the Romans for a bit of time. We'll come back to the naval sphere in due time, though, of course we will. But you mentioned before we did that chicken's detour that the Carthaginians two, four, eight, two, four, seven. That's a, they bring in a new general with a new strategy. And he is the

“father of Hannibal Barker. This is the legendary figure of Hamelcar Barker. Yes, exactly. And I think it's”

important, too. Of course, Darpani is a key part in this moment because the loss of the Roman Navy at Darpani means that the Carthaginians have free reign of the sea on the west coast. And this is really important because they have been having to negotiate the Roman fleets up until this moment. But Darpani, as a crisis for the Romans and they, they really disappear from the sea for quite a long time. So the Royal, the Carthaginians feel that they've got a bit of free reign here that they can start

to build up forces on land again and perhaps try and take on the Romans. And they sent Hamelcar Barker, the legendary leader, Hannibal's father, this great general, perhaps. Somebody who has come into Carthaginian society more recently, some people think that he is a soldier who's migrated into Carthaginian society in the 4th century BC from recent studies. And he leads a group of soldiers who are called in Polybius mix helines. So there are a group of soldiers who come from North Africa who are

Greek and Phoenician, we think, origin, Greek, Libyan, Phoenician, origin soldiers and Hamelcar brings this group and they start to fight a guerrilla war against the Romans. And they occupy the height above Darpani, but also Palermo as well or Panoramas and they start to fight guerrilla war against

the Romans to quite a great success actually. And so he's very successful. It's the first time

really the land armies of the Carthaginians have done well against the Romans and he builds up quite a relationship with them with this sort of victory, but he also takes the heights of

“Erics as it's called. And again, we always forget about how important religion is in war in this part”

and time, in this time in the world. And the chicken story tells us one thing, but also Erics is this incredibly important temple complex and mountain that's above the city of Darpani on the northwest coast, up Sicily. And it was the home of a sanctuary to the goddess Aphrodite. And that goddess was worshiped by the Carthaginians and the Phoenicians as a start to. And this is a sacred mountain. And Hamelcar takes the temple complex and it's this idea of again calling

the god to your side goddess, taking the power of the deity that really is important to in the in the way in which these battles are remembered. And so there's pretty fierce fighting over Erics between the Hamelcar and also the Roman forces which hold on to part of the mountain. And so they are battling over this sacred ground in this period. And this continues on then for the next few years, really. Hamelcar is very well supplied because the Roman the Carthaginian fleets can come and

supply him. But it's a bit of a stalemate. So the Carthaginians can keep fighting because they have controlled at the sea and Hamelcar's holding ground on then. So surely the Romans must realize right, if we're going to cut off the Carthaginians once and for all, we need to regain supremacy in the sea in the sea. Absolutely. Carthaginian can't hold Sicily if they are defeated in a naval battle. I mean, that's been proven over and over again. This war, Carthagin is struggling.

center victory, they offer peace. And of course, we'll see, we've seen this as the way they the mode is up her end. I had the Romans refuse any kind of peace in which they aren't the victors. And so in 241, the Romans have managed to gather together another massive navy and they are

“ready to launch again in try to defeat the Carthaginians. I think it's really interesting,”

if we think about 249 to 241, eight years, that amount of time it didn't take in them to regroup, the amount of time that we're talking about to raise the kind of forces in which they're raising to build the ships to, we often don't think about time in the same way. So they've taken all this time to regroup and rearm and to rebuild another fleet. And the Carthaginians have their fleet as well ready and prepared. They probably know that the battle was coming as you say if it's been

many, many years to prepare. Well, it's interesting. It seems that they're a little surprised by the Romans. Wow. There's been raiding going on, of course, on the coast of Italy. As well by Carthaginian sort of individual ships, raiding coastal areas. It's not just been in Sicily. And we don't really know exactly how much the Carthaginians are aware of Roman plans.

“But there's no question that when the final battle takes place, which is called the Battle of the”

Agati Islands, which happens in 241, the Carthaginian fleet is surprised by a Roman fleet, which hides itself behind the, one of the Agati Islands and comes out and attacks the Carthaginian fleet, which is loaded down with supplies for a resupply for Hamelka. And these are hundreds of ships. So the Romans have hidden hundreds of, however, hundreds of ships, right? Yeah. And then they all, I'm just trying to reimagine the scene quite a quite a moment when you just see the prowls

of those ships emerge behind the island and surprise the Carthaginian fleets and the havoc and

destruction that quick to follow, right? It's absolutely amazing. And what it would have always

surprised is me, is if you go up to Erick's, you can go up to Erick's today. On a clear day, you can see all of this very, very clearly. You can see the Agati Islands. You could have seen the battles certainly happening. You could have, and as you say, the ships came from over there, the ships there, and the ambush there. And actually, you'd be where Hamelka was. So he was just

“watching from the land. Does he saw this disaster unfold? I think so. I think so. He would have”

seen the ships coming out from behind Maratima, one of the islands, and attacking at Levantzo, the Carthaginian fleet. And the Carthaginian fleet is ambushed attacked and it's pretty disastrous, as far as we know, according to the sources. They lose number of ships and they can't continue. They give up after this battle in 241, they sue for peace. They say, okay, that's it. We can't fight anymore. And I guess we have to mention the other thing with this

battle, we know exactly where it happened, because this is one of those rare amazing cases where

the archaeology of the battle site has survived beneath the waves. It's so cool. That we have found this battle site is absolutely amazing, and it's so interesting, because it answers questions, and it brings up lots of questions. But underwater archaeologists, searching the seabed floor, off of the island of Levantzo, which is one of the Agati Islands, the northernmost, found these big bronze rams. And this has been over the past 20 years. These excavations have

unfolded and they've found all these, these rams that have were attached to ships that were sunk in this battle. And we know this because some of them are stamped with the Roman consoles names, and other ones have punic inscriptions and sculptures on them. And we have helmets, these Monti 14otype helmets, that-- - A bow-one ship for the Romans, yep. - Well, both sides would have been used. Both sides, if you think about it, because Monti 14 is a Celtic kind of helmet, and the

cartogenians used Celtic soldiers too. So it's interesting, we don't know which side they belong to, but they both would have used them. And we have the helmets, and we have the rams, and we have the ceramic vessels, the amphory, that were on some of the ships. And so it's absolutely astounding that

we can see scattered across the sea bed, the detritus of this incredible battle in which many

soldiers' lives were lost, and marines, and ships were sunk. And it was-- again, close thought, could have gone either way, but the cartogenians lose this battle. The more of their ships are sunk, according to our sources, and they sue for peace. - What a story, and the archaeology part of that is just fantastic. But the Romans win, the cartogenians lose, and for the cartogenians,

is the one who creates the peace. Hammercar is left on the Heiterverics at this point,

“and he is not-- he negotiates the peace, and then he goes back to Carthage, we think.”

And the city of Lillibayam, which is the big cartogenian city that is left, is handed over to the Romans as are the rest of the territories. And so there's a general cartogenian general in Lillibayam, whose name is Mago, and he is left to sort of deal with the intricacies of demobilization, because they have a land army, and they have ships still, and soldiers, and population, and all that.

And so the Romans, it's sort of-- we have an insight into this kind of formal process.

A treaty is designed. It's called the Treaty of Lutatius. It's 20 years. It sets out that the

“cartogenians will pay a warranty every year for 20 years to the Romans, and that cartage will lose”

Sicily, and all its possessions on Sicily, and that it retains its territory in Africa, and it also retains the territories in Sardinia at this point. This point is really interesting yet, because for centuries, Carthage has had a presence on Sicily, but now with that treaty, with a defeat against Rome in the 1st Punic War, Carthaginian control, obviously, has ceased completely. It's a big moment. Yeah, hundreds of years, yeah. And we can't cover it now, but of course,

you did hint at that briefly. Sardinia remains in control of the Carthaginians, but not for long, because the Carthaginians, they have problems straight away with the mercenaries. There's the mercenary war, which is another episode in its own right, and in the Romans, take advantage of a delay in one of the payments to kind of trick the Romans into giving them

“control of Sardinia, which I think even the Roman writers think was a bit of a dick move there,”

I think. Absolutely. Exactly what it is. Even the Romans criticized the Romans on this one. You just know where the Romans are really badly behaved when that happens. But yes, it leads into chaos for Carthaginian, it chaos within their home territories with an Africa. It's not just a mercenary war, but it's a rebellion of its allied territories in Africa. But really, the loss of Sicily is devastating for Carthaginian. As its idea and conceptualization of itself, as getting control

of that central Mediterranean zone. But you do all the likes of Hamil Carthaginian, you've got the young Hannibal Barker as well, soon to rise. Carthagin has suffered a very, very bloody nose, but it will rise again. It will indeed. I can that's a story for another day, but if there's been absolutely fantastic, there's only part of Carthagin's amazing story, which you cover the whole tale of Carthaginian, your most recent book, it is cool. Indeed, the Carthaginian new history of

an ancient empire, and that came out last year, and it's in paperback now, and yeah, the whole history of Carthaginian did not just the punig war, so other things too, but yeah.

More punig wars to come. It just goes to me to say, as always, thank you so much for taking

the time to come to the show. Thank you, Tristan, a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us on the ancients today. I hope you enjoyed the episode, and if you are loving the ancients, then why not become a history hit subscriber? As a subscriber, you will have access to hundreds of hours of original documentaries within new release every week, plus early access and add free podcasts. You can sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe. See you in the next episode.