NARRATOR: Carthage,
a land of opportunity founded more than 2000 years
ago, driven by wealth, power, and ambition. These pioneers
built an empire that dominated the Mediterranean
world for over 600 years by developing some of
the ancient world's most groundbreaking
technology, both at home and in the far reaches
of the known world. The centerpiece--
a massive harbor that held hundreds of warships,
the vanguard of antiquity's most formidable Navy. ROSS LECKIE: These ships
are coming up fast. People see them coming. Carthage is here. NARRATOR: But storm clouds
were gathering on the horizon. Carthage finally
had an enemy that could match it blow
for blow, a superpower like the world had
never seen, Rome. JEAN MACINTOSH TURFA: The Romans
saw Carthage as a spear pointed at the very heart of Rome. NARRATOR: In this
to-the-death struggle, only one could
emerge victorious. The other would be
reduced to rubble. [music playing] Blood shed, massacre,
brilliant feats of engineering, and acts of suicidal
bravery will mark the collision between the
ancient world's two greatest superpowers, Rome and Carthage. It will be a fight to the death,
and the outcome will change the course of Western history. Welcome to Tunisia. Hello, I'm Peter Weller. When I was a kid, I
heard the name Carthage. And I knew it was
an ancient city. I didn't know
exactly where it was. I'd heard of Hannibal
and the elephants crossing the Alps and these
famous wars with Rome. And I learned these wars
were called Punic Wars after the Latin
word [latin],, which is what Rome called Carthage. But I had no idea
where Carthage was. Well, it was here, in the
northern tip of Tunisia. Behind me is the modern
capital of Tunis, city about 2 million people sitting
on the Mediterranean Sea. By the fourth century BC,
Carthage was an absolute empire dominating the Mediterranean
with a formidable Navy. But the original
legend of Carthage starts in the eastern
Mediterranean city of Tyre. The Phoenician city of
Tyre and a beautiful woman named Dido, and the
jealousy and greed and lust for power that would absolutely
rip a royal family apart. NARRATOR: Dido was the beautiful
daughter of King Mattan. Her husband was an
ambitious Phoenician who had met an untimely end. He was murdered by her
brother, Pygmalion. Terrified for her life, Dido
fled across the Mediterranean from her homeland of
Tyre to a no man's land at the northern tip of Africa. There, she bargained
with the native people to buy as much land as could be
covered with the hide of an ox. Clever and cunning, Dido cut
the hide into the thinnest of strips, then arranged them
to enclose a large section of fertile land. There under her governing hand,
the fantastic Qart Hadasht, or new city, would
be engineered. PATRICK HUNT: When they came
to Carthage, sized up the bay, looked at the mountains, looked
at the flow of the rivers, looked at a Place,
the bursa, which would be a great
defensible fortress site, they said, this is it. This is where we
will build our city. NARRATOR: Dido's settlement,
Carthage, quickly prospered. According to legend, tales of
its wealth and Dido's beauty spread all the way to
Arabius, King of the Moors. JEAN MACINTOSH TURFA:
Part of Dido's story is this tale of the King of
the Libyan natives, Hiarbas, who wishes to marry her. But she refuses to do so. According to the
storytellers, it's out of love for her assassinated husband. And she climbs onto a
self-built funeral pyre and burns herself up. NARRATOR: It was
here from her ashes that one of the greatest empires
in the known world would rise. Surrounded by bigger powers
and with little land, the Phoenicians of
Carthage turned to the sea. They were pioneers,
pragmatic, open to new ideas, and endlessly innovative. When Dido
established the city, the new city, a lot
of people's eyes obviously opened wide and said,
hey, a new city, a new start. And as these trading routes that
Carthage pioneered expanded, it very rapidly became
as international a city as any anywhere
then in the world. NARRATOR: Over the
next 200 years, Carthage evolves into a
major Mediterranean power, establishing colonies in
Corsica, Ibiza, and North Africa. By around 700s,
maybe 650 BC, Carthage is a force to be reckoned with. Everybody's heard of it. Nobody messes with it. It's a very important city. NARRATOR: Through
expansive trade networks, by the seventh century BC,
Carthage's new territories were generating a
massive treasure chest. And its population
reached 300,000, making it one of the
biggest cities in the world. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS:
To some extent, you could compare
it to a Manhattan. This a huge population living
in a relatively small area. So this is an important
commercial and cultural hub, not only for North Africa, but
also for the entire Western Mediterranean world. NARRATOR: Before
the Carthaginian's grand engineering
feats had been launched in the name of the
gods, Carthage's focus was closer to home. Like America 2,500 years
later, the wealth of Carthage drew legions of people
looking to make their fortune. Soon, the city's
architects and engineers had to find a way to house them
all, a challenge that would lead to the most
remarkable urban building boom in antiquity. There was something very
important to the Carthaginian spirit, to its
psyche, about staying within the walls of Carthage. So the pressure to
design buildings that would accommodate people who
wanted to live within the city was very strong. NARRATOR: The
Carthaginians would be the first on a massive
level to turn the city's sky into private property
by building apartments. ROSS LECKIE: These were
as high as six stories, very densely populated. Why? Because people wanted
to come to Carthage. It was a successful,
happening place. If you wanted to get on in life,
you wanted to come to Carthage. NARRATOR: To build
a city for the ages, first they would need materials
with which to build it. The answer was located at
El Haouaria on Tunis Bay. There in these remote quarries,
was a seemingly endless supply of limestone that
was both easy to work with and quick to put up. Limestone is the perfect
choice for building. And there were limestone
depositions geologically in that area in that
basin very close at hand. NARRATOR:
Archaeologist speculate that like the
Egyptians before them, the Carthaginians cut each block
of stone using the simplest of means, water and wood. PATRICK HUNT: After they've
chiseled a dotted-line channel along the face of a rock,
they'd take a wooden wedge, stick it in there if it's deep
enough, and then wet the wood. And what will happen
naturally is the wood will expand with the
water, and then it'll naturally crack the stone. NARRATOR: The increased pressure
from the expanding wood caused the stone to crack an
almost perfect lines. From there, workers
separated each block using crowbars and other tools. Once the massive blocks of stone
were quarried and transported to the city, the Carthaginians
used pier and panel style construction to quickly
transform Carthage into a dynamic capital. PATRICK HUNT: It's very
clear that by using stone in the first place, they
weren't ready to pick up and go elsewhere. They were looking
down the long term. PETER WELLER: For each
metropolis to survive, it needs a constant
source of running water. Carthage was no different. So the ancient city engineers
turned to cisterns like this. Each cistern was made of a
double layer of eggshell, ash, and clay, made the cistern
absolutely watertight. Every home enjoyed
access to cistern to a series of
pipes and channels. Carthaginians had fully equipped
bathrooms with tubs and sinks and even showers years
before ancient Rome. And we have clear evidence,
way before the foundation of Carthage of
domestic plumbing. But it is Carthage by 600 BC
or thereabouts, and certainly Carthaginian town of
Kerkouane by 450 BC, that we have the first evidence
of a unified system of water usage and critically, sewage. Any fool can put in a bathroom. But the question is what
to do with the waste water. And at Kerkouane, you see very
clearly a unified single system that has piped water to
the rooms that need it, the kitchen and the bathroom. But then piping the wastewater
out to a common sewage system-- this was evolutionary, yes. But it is also typically
Carthaginian, because it's also revolutionary. NARRATOR: By the
sixth century BC, Carthage was growing
into a true city-state, brimming with magnificent
temples, glittering palaces, and high-rise houses. But as Carthage's
flame burned brighter, the flame of their Phoenician
cousins was burning out. The great Phoenician city of
Tyre fell to the Babylonians in 574 BC. Carthage was now on its own. Before long, the
Carthaginians would sail beyond the dusty
shores of North Africa, continuing to expand their
empire by conquering the seas. The Carthaginians saved money
by covering their stone houses with smooth stucco, making
them appear to be constructed of expensive marble. 520 BC, 3,000 oars
propel 60 ships through the pillars of
Hercules, known today as the Straits of Gibraltar. Hanno the navigator, the
great Admiral of Carthage, is sailing to the edges
of the known world. He is preparing to
launch a power play that could lead to total domination
of the Mediterranean. ROSS LECKIE: So
every great explorer, Christopher Columbus, Vasco
da Gama, who sailed off into the unknown, seems to
me a very strong parallel for the original and best of
them, Hanno the Navigator. Hanno set sail to
extend the boundaries of the Carthaginian network
of colonies and exchange, not mere trading activities,
but planting whole cities of new settlers to maintain
control of land and access to its resources. NARRATOR: Carthage's
technical prowess on the seas has brought it power and wealth. By the sixth century BC, the
islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and the Ballaric Islands
are now under its control. The hub of its power flows
from a marvel of engineering, the harbor of Carthage. This is the absolute pinnacle
of Carthaginian engineering. NARRATOR: Although
records are shaky, archaeologists believe it may
have been constructed as early as the days of Hanno. But at the height of her power
in the second century BC, the harbor of Carthage
was transformed, technologically superior
to any Maritime facility in the world and the very
lifeblood of Carthage. It was part of Carthage. It was the heart of Carthage. It was the lungs of Carthage. It was everything to Carthage,
both Naval and commercial. NARRATOR: The harbor
had a common entrance from the sea that
was 70 feet wide, which could be closed
with iron chains. Inside its gates, were two
separate marina's, the first for the traders and
merchant vessels. The mercantile harbor,
the commercial harbor, was organized with
conventional walls to make, as easy as possible the
loading and unloading of goods. So in Carthage, readily, one
can imagine in say, 400 BC, you would see all
the goods there were in the then-known world being
bought, being brought, being sold in Carthage. NARRATOR: The second,
a circular harbor, was designed for military use. A series of 30 docks were
arranged symmetrically. Another 140 additional
berths radiated out on a perimeter of
the circular port, allowing the entire
harbor to hold 220 boats. Today, a lone dry dock
has been excavated, a reminder of the strength
the harbor once commanded. PETER WELLER: This is all
that's left of the cothon, or military harbor
of ancient Carthage. A cothon was an
interior port carved out of the land as opposed to
an exterior port attached to the seaside. Now, with all these
beautiful villas around here, it's kind of hard to imagine
that this harbor was the launch point for the wealth and
power of ancient Carthage. Now, the nerve center
for this maritime hub, was that circular
island out there where there were 40 or 50
slots for boat dry dock. And on top of that island was
a big tower, where trumpeters would blare signals and
heralds would deliver orders and admirals would
oversee operations, like observing what ships
were coming in from sea, be they friend or foe. While at the same time, no
ships couldn't very well observe what was
going on in this port. Nobody has
anything approaching this potency, this
power, let alone this navigational
and seafaring skill. So when the barriers are taken
off the channel and-- whoosh-- within-- you know,
they're scrambled, as they did in World
War II with airplanes. These ships are coming up
fast, down this channel and-- whoosh-- out into the Mediterranean. People see them coming. Carthage is here. NARRATOR: For two
centuries, Carthage dominated the Mediterranean. But a rival across
the sea to the north was steadily evolving
into a military machine of unparalleled potency, Rome. These two superpowers
would soon find themselves in conflict over the jewel
of the Mediterranean, Sicily. Carthage was built
to trade, and Sicily was critical to that trading. Why? Because it's right
bang slap in the middle of the most important
shipping lane in the world. Whoever controls Sicily controls
these vital trade routes. The Romans saw the
enormous riches that Carthage could command. And it started to
just elbow into them. And the Carthaginians nudge
back and say, hang on. We were the first. Please, as it were, get
your tanks off my lawn. NARRATOR: Both Rome and Carthage
now had settlements on Sicily. This tension would trigger
a series of wars that would rock the ancient world. The Romans saw Carthage
as a spear pointed at the very heart of Rome and
at their own burgeoning trade empire. So of course, they felt
they had to eliminate it. NARRATOR: They would come to be
known as the Punic Wars named after the Roman word
for the Phoenicians. The outcome would change
the course of world history. And Carthage would be led
by one of the greatest military geniuses of all time. Some historians believe
the sailors of Carthage were the first to
sail to the Americas nearly 1,500 years before
Christopher Columbus. PETER WELLER: At the beginning
of the third century BC, the Republic of Rome is called
down into southern Italy by a Greek town to help
that town against pirates. Now, it's not long after
that the two Sicilian cities get at it. One of them Massino, originally
asked Carthage for help. But then they go, nah, let's ask
Rome, because they're closer, probably a better deal. Syracuse fights Massino
and Rome one battle, quits, gives up, turns
himself over to Rome. And Rome, in the
span of decades, has all of southern
Italy and eastern Sicily. This really P-Os Carthage, and
thus begins the First Punic War. And the outcome of
this war will not only decide who owns
Sicily, but who's going to be ruler of the entire
southern Mediterranean Sea. NARRATOR: 264 BC, Rome and
Carthage begin the First Punic War. 17 years later, the two
sides are still deadlocked in a bloody slugfest. The stalemate appears
to be broken only when a fierce and charismatic
military commander named Hamilcar Barca, takes control
of the Carthaginian forces. Hamilcar was the first great
general of the Carthaginian empire. He's the man with charisma. He is the man who knows how to
get the job done, how to save their coals from the fire. PETER WELLER: Between
247 and 242 BC, this fiery military
tactician, Hamilcar Barca, sweeps into Sicily. He's dynamic. He's powerful. And he's absolutely ruthless. But what gives Hamilcar is real
confidence is that at his back, he has a new sleek form of
warship called the "Quinn Kareem," Quinn meaning
five, five banks of rowers. The "Quinn Kareem" isn't really
developed by the Carthaginian. It's developed by the Greeks. But what the
Carthaginians does do is make this sea-going
battering ram huge. In that period
of the Punic Wars, well, they were the feat of
shipbuilding and engineering. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS:
"Quinn Kareem" apparently had five banks of oars. Now, there's been some debate
exactly how that worked. But it is believed that there
were three levels with five guys, two on the top two
levels, each with an oar, and then one guy at the bottom. Whatever the case, it was
a bigger, larger version of the "Trireme." However, even though
it's a bigger version, the tactics involved in Naval
warfare are exactly the same. The main purpose of these
ships is to ram the enemy ship. That's what they
were engineered for. NARRATOR: Outfitted with
a bronze-covered ram, they were designed for
speed and maneuverability. ROSS LECKIE: These were
very, very, very quick. Trying to catch a
Carthaginian warship was kind of like trying to
hit Muhammad Ali in his prime as a boxer. NARRATOR: A standard "Quinn
Kareem" was roughly 120 feet long, 9 to 16 feet wide, and
could hold up to 420 sailors. Fully manned and
loaded, a "Quinn Kareem" weighed more than 100 tons. On open water, these mega
ships were killing machines. And this thing is just
coming straight at you at a speed you've never
dreamed of as possible. And bang, the hull
of your boat shakes. Your ship shakes. And you start to sink. Compare that with the "Trireme"
where often the model was probably much more to
engage with the enemy ship and have a land fight at sea. The Carthaginians didn't
mess about like that. They wanted to get
in, they hit you once, and you drown, and they're
gone to hit the next one. Deadly-- PETER WELLER: Now, the
genius of the Carthaginians was in figuring out how to
mass produce these ships. They took sort of
prefabricated parts and put them all together
on an assembly line. So to an enemy, no sooner
would a "Quinn Kareem" be sunk than another one
would appear on the horizon. And this was a distinct
disadvantage for the Roman Navy until they came upon a
wrecked "Quinn Kareem," and they sort of
reverse engineered it. They deconstructed it. Figured out how it
was put together. Put it back together
and made it their own. They captured a grounded
Carthaginian "Quinn Kareem" and made dozens of
copies of these. In fact, the copies weren't
as well made and were made out of green wood. And after one season,
they fell to pieces. But never mind, that's
all the time the Romans needed to turn the tide. NARRATOR: The Roman and
Carthaginian fleets would now square off with the ancient
world's equivalent of weapons of mass destruction to see
who truly owned the seas. March 10, 241 BC, the fleets
met at the Aegates Islands off the Western coast of Sicily
for one of the greatest sea battles of all time. In the hostilities
of the First Punic War, the battle of Aegates Islands
fought off the coast of Sicily was a turning point. NARRATOR: In the
battle between two brilliantly engineered
fleets, Carthage had the advantage in numbers. But their sleek
killing machines were loaded with grain and supplies
for Hamilcar's army camped out on nearby Sicily. Many ships were sunk
or lost or captured. People weren't expecting that. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS:
Now, the Carthaginians try to make a break for it,
but they're unable to do so, because of this extra weight. That gives the
Romans the victory. NARRATOR: It was a
strategic disaster. In the end, the Romans took
nearly 30,000 Carthaginian prisoners. With no way of resupplying
himself and his troops, Hamilcar was forced to surrender
and retreat back to Carthage. It was clear, the pendulum
of power in the Mediterranean was now swinging
ominously toward Rome. In victory, Rome gained
not only Sicily, but also Carthage's holdings
on Corsica, Sardinia, and the islands between
Sicily and Africa. Hoping to cripple
Carthage, Rome forced it to pay a large tribute. But Carthage was not
ready to give up yet. It turned westward to Spain
to generate new wealth. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS:
And the Carthaginians send Hamilcar Barca to Spain. So his goal in 237 is to conquer
as much of Spain as possible. NARRATOR: It took nine hard
fought years for Hamilcar to conquer the
native tribes there. When he finally did, all of the
land south of the Ebro River becomes part of the
Carthaginian empire. But Hamilcar paid for that
conquest with his life. In 228 BC, he was
killed in battle with the rebelling native tribe. Hamilcar's death in Spain
was a great blow to Carthage, but it was by no means
the end of Carthage. In fact, it opened the way
for a whole new initiative. Legend has it that Hamilcar's
nine-year-old son begged to watch his father lead
Carthage into battle with Spain. And the father agreed
on one condition. That the son would
promise eternal hatred of Rome and commitment to
that republic's defeat. And it was thus the
son, named Hannibal, became the instrument
of his father's revenge. And this was the first step
on a path that would transform Hannibal into the
most devastating foe that the Republic in
Rome would ever face. NARRATOR: In 1969,
archaeologists discovered a sunken Punic
warship with cannabis on board. It's thought the herb
was brewed into a tea to calm rowers nerves. 211 BC, a specter is haunting
the Republic of Rome. Outside her walls, with
an army poised to strike, is the man Romans fear
and loathe above all, Hannibal, the great
general of Carthage. Brilliant, brutal,
sophisticated, he is Rome's worst nightmare. As if by magic, Hannibal has
penetrated Rome's defenses. But the magic is actually
Hannibal's strategic genius and the use he makes of
one of the world's greatest engineering corps. There's no doubt in
my mind that Hannibal wasn't one of the greatest
generals in history. I think demonstrably, he
is "the" greatest general in history. NARRATOR: Hannibal's genius is
born of a near religious zeal to destroy Rome, handed
down to him by his father. In 221 BC, he was given
the tools to do it. At the age of 26, he took
command of the Carthaginian army. Hannibal was certainly
Hamilcar's son. He was a crafty politician,
a brilliant strategist and military man. But his real genius
was in knowing when to use all of the great
engineering developments that Carthage had
at its disposal. NARRATOR: As a commander
of ironclad courage, he would launch one of the
most stunning campaigns of aggression the
world had ever seen. Rome had gained control
of the Mediterranean, meaning Hannibal could not
reach his enemy by sea. Driven to fulfill the vow
he had made to his father to destroy Rome, Hannibal
set out to do the impossible. He'd march overland,
across the Alps to the heart of
the Roman Empire. Hannibal knows he's
greatly outnumbered. He knows he has a relatively
small army in comparison to the Romans. But he does come up with a
strategy, which he believes will bring him victory. And what he has to do is
take his army to Italy itself and attack the
Romans on their home field. NARRATOR: Hannibal
set off in 218 BC with an army of 90,000 men,
12,000 horses, and 37 elephants acquired from African
neighbors to the south. STEFAN G.
CHRISSANTHOS: Elephants have been used in battle
for centuries before this. They could be the turning
point in a battle, because the calvary of the enemy
could not withstand elephants, therefore, Hannibal
believes it's worth it trying to get
these elephants to Italy. NARRATOR: By October, they
traveled more than 600 miles and came face to face with
their first major obstacle, the raging Rhone
River in France. Even at its narrowest,
shallowest time of the year, the Rhone River is still going
to be somewhere between 100 to 150 to 200 meters wide. It's going to be daunting to all
of Hannibal's field engineers. NARRATOR: On the other side,
a large number of Gauls were waiting to do battle. But the wall of water was a
potentially deadly obstacle that had to be vanquished first. Hannibal's builders would
have to conquer mother nature. Not only are the
engineering feats daunting, but you also have crowds of
insubordinate and hostile tribes waiting on the
other side of the river. NARRATOR: The solution would
be one of Carthage's most spectacular feats
of engineering, a series of giant rafts large
enough to shuttle animals and supplies across the
river in record time. These rafts were about 200
feet long and 50 feet wide. Now, that means that you can't
just use one single tree trunk. You have to also put
multiple trees together and then latch
those together too. This requires more than a
Boy Scout knowledge of knots. NARRATOR: With speed
and efficiency, Hannibal's soldiers
harvested massive conifers from the surrounding forests
and connected the trees together with rope. One thing his engineers
had to account for was the psyche of the elephants. So once the logs
were bound together, the barges were piled high
with a layer of sticks and a layer of earth so that
the elephants would think they were on solid ground. When all was ready,
Hannibal gave the signal to release the barges. The Gauls, startled
by his boldness, were mystified when they saw
the Carthaginian general leading his troops, cavalry,
and elephants en masse across the turbulent Rhone. When he arrived at the
rivers opposite bank, the Gauls broke in panic and
fled without striking a blow. The entire operation took a
little more than nine days. I think the
crossing of the Rhone in such a short space of time
using rudimentary equipment is one of the great achievements
in military history. And people slightly forget
the small engineering miracles that made all this possible. NARRATOR: Hannibal and his army
continued on and made their way to the foot of the Alps. With winter looming, the troops
were starving and exhausted. As they ascended,
they confronted another seemingly impossible
obstacle, giant boulders. Hannibal's engineers
devise a plan that would allow the troops not
just to go over, but through. The stratagem of
crossing the Alps certainly shocked the people of Italy. No one expected an army with
elephants to make it across. And although the Alps may have
seemed in places impassable, this idea of breaking up
the mountains themselves to create a pathway to
get your pachyderms across was a brilliant idea. Now, how did
Hannibal get his men, not to mention all those
elephants, up, over, around, or through these giant boulders? Well according to the
Roman historian Livy, he came up with an ingenious
plan along with his engineers that would literally
move mountains. They cut big crevices
through these boulders, and then they got wood
from the surrounding force. They'd wrapped these
boulders in the wood, and when the wind was right,
they'd torch the wood. The rocks would heat up. And just when they
were hot enough, they'd pour boiling vinegar
into the crevices, which would shatter or
melt the rocks, such that his men could break them
apart with iron implements. Now, what was Hannibal
doing up in the Alps with all this vinegar? Well, if this is true-- and we'd like to think
it was, otherwise how did he get across the Alps-- It speaks volumes to the genius
of this brilliant general. I'll tell you one thing. After navigating the
snow of the Alps, the sight of the plains
of northern Italy must have been
very, very welcome. NARRATOR: On August 2, 216 BC
near Kenai in southern Italy, Hannibal faced off
against Roman forces under the command
of Terentius Varro in a decisive conflict
that would seal the fate of these two empires. As dawn breaks, Hannibal draws
up a force of 50,000 men, newly strengthened with the
help of hired mercenaries, against the Varro's
nearly 90,000 Romans. Varro decided to try
and crush his opponent, sending a massive force to
attack Hannibal's center. This went proved to
be a fatal mistake. Anticipating Varro's strategy,
Hannibal orders his cavalry to circumvent the Roman
ranks from the rear Hannibal had certainly
done his homework in studying the psychology
of his opponents. And he was able to trick
them into his center. And then his forces
could engulf them. NARRATOR: Completely
surrounded, the Romans were slaughtered
where they stood. Only 3,500 Romans
managed to escape. 10,000 were taken prisoner. And 70,000 were left
dead on the battlefield. At the Battle of Cannae,
the single greatest defeat ever inflicted on a Roman army
throughout its entire history. And of course, we have to
go to World War I to find a scale of slaughter as big. NARRATOR: Cannae
was a masterpiece of military strategy. But Hannibal was
unable to capitalize on his string of victories. He fought on for another
13 years, mounting siege after siege on Rome and
its surrounding cities. But ultimate victory
remained elusive. He could defeat
them in the field, but he lacked the proper weapons
to take on the Roman capital. In 204 BC Rome went
on the offensive and launched an
attack on Carthage. Hannibal finally returned
home to muster its defense. In 204 BC, Scipio
Africanus, who had already beaten the
Carthaginians in Spain, convinced Rome to let him go
around Hannibal altogether and attack Carthage directly. Hannibal was recalled to
his city to defend it. Now, these two
heavyweights met and spoke. We have no idea what
they said to one another. It's lost to history. In 202 BC they met again
at the Battle of Zama. And Hannibal was
defeated, and he was forced to surrender
to an enemy that had spent his entire
life trying to destroy. He would not fulfill
his father's wishes. He was exiled from Carthage. And years later, near
present-day Turkey, he committed suicide. NARRATOR: Carthage's defeat at
the end of the Second Punic War forces the empire to submit
yet again to Roman terms. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS: They are
forced to surrender in 202 BC. The Romans again, impose
very harsh peace terms on the Carthaginian,
meaning first of all, they must again pay
an indemnity, attacks to the Romans. Also, the Carthaginians lose
their overseas territories, meaning their territory is
now confined to areas just around Carthage itself. One last very important
part of this treaty was the Carthage
could not fight a war, any war, even a defensive
war, without Rome's OK. NARRATOR: With Carthage
stripped of its military might, the field was now open
for the Roman army to begin its unstoppable
conquest of the ancient world. And their first major target
would be the wounded city of Carthage. All that stood in the way was
the ancient world's strongest fortifications. Hannibal ad Portas, which
translates to Hannibal is at the gates, was often
used after the Second Punic War to scare children to bed. 150 BC, Marcus Porcuis
Cato, a Roman orator and the great grandfather of
Julius Caesar's famous enemy walks the halls of
the Roman senate. But he is oblivious
to his surroundings. For him, there is only one
thing on his mind, Carthage. Cato was only too well aware
of the strategic position of Carthage. He could see that
as long as Carthage was an independent stronghold,
it was too close to Sicily and Italy to be allowed to
harass shipping or maintain a military presence. He wanted it
completely wiped out. Now with Carthage, Carthage's
one-time ally and neighbor, Numidia, starts to encroach
on southern Carthaginian territory. Carthage feels obliged,
and rightfully so, to defend itself. But there's a caveat. Since the Second Punic War,
Carthage has promised Rome never to take up arms
against anyone whatsoever without the consent of Rome. Rome sends a commission
down to arbitrate this beef between Numidia and Carthage. And one of the deputies on
that commission is Cato. And when Cato sees the
prosperity with which Carthage has bounded back since
the Second Punic War, he goes right back to Rome. He rails against the Senate that
this prosperity means one thing and one thing only. Carthage is going to be at our
doorstep with arms and no time. No matter what speech he
makes, roads, politics, taxes, he always ends with [latin],,
which means, furthermore, I say Carthage should be destroyed. The Carthage, feeling it's
going to be annihilated, no help from Rome,
takes up arms. Rome sends an army
down to Carthage. Rome tells Carthage, you have to
abandon and evacuate your city. Carthage refuses, thus
starts the Third Punic War. But now, Rome has got a
problem, because the strongest fortifications in all of
antiquity at that time are the walls of Carthage. NARRATOR: Today, time
has reduced the fortress to its foundations. But in 149 BC, these
protective walls were the city's last hope. It was a three-part wall
system with massive stone circuit wall. It covered a huge extent and
was thought to be unbeatable. A wonder of the world
those Carthaginian walls. And the Carthaginians
trusted them. NARRATOR: The wall had a
circumference of 23 miles and a series of three
protective layers. First, a ditch, backed by a
low wall packed with excavated soil, which would
have been manned by a frontline of soldiers
who could withdraw quickly in the face of a major
assault. The second wall was constructed of stone and
dominated the outer defenses. Behind this second
wall stood an even more impenetrable third
wall, 45 feet in height and at least 30 feet wide. 15 towers were spaced at 200
yard intervals, where watchman stood guard. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS:
Inside this wall lived part of the
Carthaginian army, including 20,000
men, 300 elephants, prepared for any type of
attack that took place. NARRATOR: The wall
system surrounding Carthage made it the best
fortified city in all of the Mediterranean,
if not the world. And against the Romans, it
would face its ultimate test led by the fabled Carthaginian
general, Hasdrubal. STEFAN G. CHRISSANTHOS:
The Carthaginian commander who would lead the Carthaginians
during the Third Punic War was Hasdrubal. He is the one responsible
for retaliating against the Numidians. And he is the guy who
is going to be leading the main resistance. NARRATOR: As the Roman
legions descended on the city, the Carthaginians
hurriedly scrambled to build a new defensive force. The women gave their hair up. They cut their hair so
that they could make rope to fire the catapults. They emptied the prisons. The old men volunteered. People who hadn't been
blacksmiths for 20 years said I'll try again, and
they rearmed themselves in an explosion of
intent and determination that we really have
to go to the siege by the Germans of
Stalingrad to see again. NARRATOR: In two months
of frenzied work, they produced 6,000 shields,
18,000 swords, 30,000 spears, 120 ships, and 60,000
catapult missiles. Despite the arsenal
Carthage had assembled, Rome had sent an
overwhelming force. The city was alone, facing
its own destruction. There was no area left alone
without Rome or Roman allies with none of the colonies in a
position to stand up to Rome. Carthage was left on her own. NARRATOR: The city hunkered
down behind its immense fortifications, hoping
against all odds that their walls would repel
the impending Roman invasion. Carthage held off the
Roman attack for three years. And even in the last days
after the Romans broke through the walls,
it took seven days before they could get to the
top of the citadel of moving through town like a juggernaut. NARRATOR: The Roman siege
squeezed the life out of the city from the outside. And eventually, although
the immense land wall was never breached, the Romans
managed to scale those at sea. Inside the city, the fighting
continued street by Street. Few Carthaginian
snipers were left, but they were so fierce that
the Roman commanders Scipio Aemilianus ordered the city
to be set on fire and leveled. Thousands of Carthaginian were
burned alive in the blaze. It was a firestorm. It must have been hellish for
the residents, people fleeing. NARRATOR: During its
siege and capture, Carthage had been decimated. The city's population fell
from 500,000 to 50,000. The survivors were sold as
slaves, never to return home. It took just 17 days in
the year 146 BC for Carthage to be completely
destroyed by fire. That same year, Rome
leveled Corinth, put Greece in their pocket, and
overnight, the Mediterranean Sea became their
own private lake. Carthage would rise again,
albeit this time reconstructed by Rome, like this fantastic
amphitheater here at El Djem. By the third century AD, the
Carthage would thrive once more as a commercial port. But although undeniably Roman,
the spirits and the voices of Dido and Hanno the
Navigator and Hasdrubal and Hamilcar and Hannibal would
echo throughout those Roman walls, begging to be remembered
for the remarkable achievements of their civilization. And if you listen
well, you can still hear those voices whispering
among the ruins that are Carthage. For the History Channel,
I'm Peter Weller.
