Punic Wars from the Carthaginian Perspective | Animated History

the young spearman pulls his cloak tighter trying desperately to ward off the biting wind as their feet crunch through the snow drifts the carthaginian soldiers have little time to marvel at the majestic peaks that surround them they have braved unfamiliar weather hostile natives and precarious terrain to reach their goal italia home of their hated roman enemies for 17 years carthage and rome have vied for supremacy in the mediterranean with the great city of rome spared the horrors of war but with this march the carthaginians plan to change that the spearman's musings are interrupted by a shout with a final roar a war elephant loses its footing and plummets into an alpine crevasse taking a handful of men with it he pulls his cloak tighter hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian the ancient mediterranean was the scene of an epic clash between two empires to determine who would control the area the roman republic and the carthaginian empire carthage initially enjoyed good relations with the romans but as the two powers quickly grew into the lead players of the western mediterranean stage conflict became inevitable in this video we will examine the punic wars from the carthaginian perspective the conflict in which the largely mercantile empire fought for its very survival against the romans and how it ultimately fell beneath the talons of the roman eagle i'm incredibly excited to say that this video is sponsored by total war rome remastered i was given this game a few weeks before release to record a little bit of gameplay footage and accidentally sunk 40 hours into forming an empire and marching on the city of rome the original total war roam was probably one of my favorite games as a kid and though i was hesitant about this remaster at first the people at feral interactive in my opinion did a fantastic job in bringing this classic title to the modern age while still keeping its feel the same rome remastered has got updated 4k visuals extensive gameplay improvements many of which are actually toggleable if you prefer the original systems as well as much needed performance optimization multiplayer is up and working and 16 previously unplayable factions have been added to the grand campaign the barbarian invasion and alexander expansions are also included too making it super replayable and speaking of replayability there is steam workshop for this game and the modding tools are fantastic i genuinely recommend picking up this remaster if you enjoy history and strategy games and you can support our channel in the process by using the link in the description below [Music] by the 3rd century bc carthage had grown into a true power of the mediterranean the carthaginians shunned absolute rulers in favor of a republic placing administrative authority into the hands of a soffit elected annually by a senatorial body consisting of the richest families in the city family lineage played no part in carthaginian politics power came from wealth and wealth flowed in from overseas trade carthage steadily expanded its mercantile influence across northern africa and out into the mediterranean establishing prosperous colonies in iberia sicily sardinia and corsica meanwhile the disparate peoples of the italian peninsula were being steadily united under one batter the roman eagle at first relations between the two powers were amicable allowing the carthaginians to open mutually beneficial trade routes this amenity was shattered when the city-state of messini approached both the romans and carthaginians offering up its fealty in exchange for protection from invasion roman and carthaginian detachments were sent to masini but the punic forces arrived first hastily securing the citadel but when the inhabitants of messini heard that the romans were drawing near they very politely asked the carthaginians to get the hell out the freshly evicted carthaginians could only watch as the romans marched into masini stealing what was briefly their holding outraged the carthaginians turned around and laid siege to the city alongside messini's rival city-state of syracuse the first punic war had begun it wasn't long before the romans took the initiative sallying forth to defeat the besiegers in detail first luring in the syracusan forces then after defeating them dealing with the carthaginians alone after hiring mercenaries to replace their syracusan allies who swiftly made peace with rome the carthaginians moved their regular forces to acrogas to consolidate with their hired help the romans laid siege to acrogas and bottled up the carthaginian regulars the trapped soldiers under a general named hannibal wait no not that one that one sallied forth to break the siege and carthage sent their newly hired mercenaries to assist it did not go well the war in sicily ground to a stalemate with carthage waging a guerrilla war from their remaining strongholds as the romans consolidated control of the island desperate to challenge carthage on all fronts the latin supposedly copied the design of a wrecked punic ship and built an entire fleet to rest control of the seas from their opponents the two fleets met at maile and using their tried and true tactic of closing distance to ram their foes and split their ships to splinters the punic fleet were confident that their numbers would carry the day but the roman ships dropped spiked bridges from their prows the moment their foes were in ramming range locking the carthaginians in place and allowing marines to board using clever engineering the romans turned to naval combat at which they had no experience into land combat at which they were experts the romans followed up miley with a stunning victory at cape egnomos paving the way for an invasion of north africa fearing that the romans would head straight for the capital punic forces frantically prepared their defenses only to find they wouldn't be needed the romans landed elsewhere in tunisia and a hastily assembled force of spartan mercenaries met them in the field but for the romans it did not go well other skirmishes on the african coast and storms in the straits of sicily kept the romans away from carthage and forced the war into a stalemate and so carthage ruled the waves and rome ruled sicily at this point rome and carthage had been at each other's throats for almost 20 years the romans took advantage of the quiet to build a third and final fleet with which they smashed the carthaginians at the battle of agates islands before blockading the surviving carthaginians in sicily cut off from all supply the carthaginians were forced to submit the first punic war was over carthage emerged from the war facing challenges internal and external the war had been extensively financed by the efforts of hano the great an immensely powerful and influential carthaginian senator who had personally conquered large swathes of african territory in 241 bc a full-scale mutiny broke out amongst carthage's mercenaries which grew into a general revolt hanno raised a force to defend the capital a task he barely succeeded at as the situation steadily worsened the senate was forced to beg rome for assistance remarkably rome obliged sending large shipments of grain to feed the populace and even releasing thousands of prisoners from their previous war these men were quickly snapped up by hamilkar barka a popular commander in the guerrilla campaigns in sicily and the father of hannibal yes that one hamilkar set out on his own campaign against the rebels in 240 bc chalking up a string of victories and humiliating hano while the two carthaginian generals were busy fighting in africa the revolt spread to the garrisons of sardinia and corsica and rome took advantage of the mayhem to seize the islands carthage objected but rome insisted so carthage backed down as tension built a second war was inevitable but carthage wanted time to prepare to hamilkar barka this concession was a blatant act of betrayal he had staked both his family fortune and military reputation on the outcome of the first punic war pano however was quick to point out that hamilkar was in large part responsible for the truceless war having sent his mercenaries home to africa after promising them lavish bonuses that the senate and carthage had never actually agreed to hamilkar struck back decrying the senate as nothing more than a collection of rich merchants who had grown fat and lazy while his men suffered and died in the fields and waters around sicily the carthaginian popular assembly rallied behind hamilkar having come to regard him as a savior who stood against the corruption of the senate leveraging the wounded pride of his countrymen to its fullest extent hamilkar declared that he would take his army west and conquer iberia securing the natural riches of the land to both pay off carthaginian war debt and prepare the nation for what he saw as an inevitable second conflict with the treacherous romans faced with civil war if they refused hano and his allies gave their begrudging consent and hamilkar immediately set out on his new expedition he would never return [Music] prior to abandoning his home hamilkar had made lavish sacrifices to the carthaginian gods during these ceremonies his son hannibal swore a binding oath to never be a friend of rome for nearly a decade hamilkar led his private army to war with the tribes of iberia securing access to the large silver and gold mines in the sierra mornea mountain range and linking them directly to the coast via inland waterways hamilkar quickly became one of the richest men in ancient history but although the gods seemed to have blessed his endeavors he would not live long enough to do more than build the foundations for a new war against rome at some point during 228 bc the great general was killed in combat leaving his sons in charge of both the army and the enormous wealth he had accrued fortunately for the late hamilkar the bar sid family he left behind was more capable of living up to his legacy his sons hannibal and hazdrubal were now teenagers and had already demonstrated talent equal to their father hamilkar's army was both loyal and confident consisting of hardened veterans who had fought and bled with the family since the days of the first punic war for the next ten years the bar said brothers worked with their uncle to secure and expand their control over iberia but this was a preamble to greater plans in 218 bc hannibal attacked the roman allied city of seguntum in response to this sudden aggression the romans sent an envoy to the carthaginians demanding that the son of hamilkar be turned over to them for execution but the envoy found himself confronted by a hostile carthaginian senate and a popular assembly that stood united with the mighty barsid family in a dramatic confrontation the envoy declared before the senate that he carried within his toga both war and peace the carthaginians could choose what they preferred the story goes that with one voice the senate roared back their response war having secured the backing of the senate hannibal traveled to the city of new carthage to assemble his army after entrusting his brother has drubal with about 13 000 men to defend iberia hannibal took a vast number of infantrymen and cavalry along with 37 war elephants and marched north in late june he easily crossed the pyrenees into gaul taking an indirect route to avoid rome's allies in the region even so hannibal encountered resistance at the rhone river when a gallic tribe known as the aloproge formed up on the opposite bank to block his advance thinking quickly hannibal sent a division north to ford the river and outflank the entrenched barbarians then rushed across while they were distracted the gauls dispersed leaving the road clear to the alps hannibal arrived at the foot of the mountains as soon as he began his ascent problems began after fighting off an aloe broge ambush in the mountain pass hannibal encountered a local tribe offering to act as guides trusting them nearly proved a fatal mistake as the carthaginians were led to the edge of a deep ravine and a second ambush barely driving off the treacherous gauls hannibal's army was finally able to rest in the shelter provided by a large white rock formation hannibal encouraged his men to go forward and the exhausted carthaginians began their descent after 15 days in the mountains and five months on the march since leaving new carthage 26 000 exhausted bedraggled men stumbled out of the alps and onto the fertile italian plains despite losing nearly half of his army and most of his elephants hannibal had accomplished something previously thought impossible and his enemies were completely ignorant of the danger that had just arrived on their doorstep his first encounter with rome occurred in late november in the poe valley where his numidian horsemen decisively routed the roman equitas hannibal pursued his foes to their camp on the river tribia where he caught them fording the icy river rome's superior numbers were worth little against carthaginian attacks along the roman flank led by hannibal's younger brother mago within hours the 40 000 legionaries were surrounded with thirty thousand killed or captured as hannibal's men plundered their camp for supplies hannibal wasted no time pressing deeper into italy in preparing for an ambush along lake trazamine the punic army detoured through a swamp where hannibal tore his own eye out to avoid dying from an infection it was worth the cost as the pursuing romans marched straight into hannibal's position [Applause] the roman general was killed in the opening minutes of the battle and to be drowned and captured numbered in the tens of thousands following his two great victories hannibal opened negotiations with rome's allies he made a point of releasing many of his captives only keeping the prisoners from the city of rome hannibal defended this policy by stating i did not come to fight against italians but on behalf of italians against rome hannibal bore this mantra out by focusing his pillage exclusively on the estates of wealthy roman nobles hoping to inflict as much damage on the roman economy as possible in mid 216 bc after months of intermittent skirmishes hannibal received word that a gigantic army of over 80 000 roman soldiers was marching straight toward him although outnumbered almost two to one the great general quickly realized that this was his chance and marched his fifty thousand man army to canai the roman army was under the joint command of generals paulus and varro hannibal knew his opponents well paulus was a cautious general while to hannibal vara was a glory hungry idiot and his chosen mark due to their equal rank palus and varro commanded the army on alternating days so hannibal simply waited until it was varro's turn to make his move when the roman formation charged the carthaginians hannibal was there in the middle of his troops mounted on one of his only remaining war elephants however the punic frontline seemed to break before varro's expert application of brute force as the forward most carthaginian units caved into an inverted crescent the tightly packed legionaries pressed on breaking formation as they made contact and gave hannibal his chance elite punic infantry swept in from all sides closing the crescent while the famed numidian cavalry cut off any routes of escape from the field though smaller in number the carthaginians had encircled the mighty romans trapping them like cattle in a slaughterhouse over half of the legionaries were sent to meet mithras having just won a battle that generals and youtube historians alike would analyze for generations hannibal watched with smug satisfaction as rome's allies in southern italy and syracuse defected on mass then dire news arrived while hannibal had been busy in italy a small roman force had arrived in iberia and his brother has drubal was now on the defensive just as the barcids had taken matters into their own hands following the first punic war a roman family known as the scipiones had taken charge of rome's overseas war efforts and their armies were now deep in barcelona territory denying hannibal any chance of easy reinforcement old supporters of hanoi the great had reasserted themselves in the carthaginian senate and were deliberately obstructing any efforts to send hannibal troops and equipment effectively trapped in italy and burdened by the responsibility of defending his new italian allies hannibal rampaged up and down the peninsula for nine years but his enemies had learned the lessons of kanai well and hannibal failed to draw rome into a decisive engagement meanwhile has drubal was pushed back further and further until he opted to abandon these spanish provinces entirely and take a 30 000 man army to join his brother in italia in 207 bc it was at this point when things began to collapse when has drubal was intercepted near the metaroos river where hazrubal was killed and his entire army destroyed then the roman soldiers reconquered sicily granting rome a springboard into north africa and cutting off hannibal's army by land and sea soon hannibal was ordered to pull his forces back to carthage all of his gains evaporated as his ship left the peninsula he still hoped to stall rome long enough for them to sue for peace but by the time he reached carthage the city had already surrendered to the romans the barcid's rivals had negotiated a peace with pablius cornelius scipio commander of the roman force in africa hannibal and scipio had met in battle before at the river taquinos when scipio was only 16 and the teenager had saved his father from capture at the hands of the carthaginian army hannibal was disgusted with the senate's naked submission just like his father hamilkar he had shed blood for carthage his entire adult life only to be betrayed and discarded at the last minute yet with his arrival in africa the old supporters of the bar said family emerged from hiding and wrestled control of the senate away from the psychophantic merchants who were ready to give up with their will to resist rekindled hannibal raised a citizen army and hired fresh mercenaries from all across africa then knowing that this would be his last roll of the dice the grizzled one-eyed 45-year-old carthaginian general marched out to confront his 33 year old roman counterpart in a battle that would decide the fate of his nation two empires would enter but just one would leave the final battle of the second punic war took place in october 202 bc on the open plains of zama scipio knew this was the best terrain for cavalry and secured numidian allies of his own he entered the battle with a third more cavalry than hannibal and was accompanied by a veteran force of legionaries meanwhile the bulk of hannibal's forces were citizen militia and local levees but hannibal had 80 war elephants deployed at the front of his line aimed like living battering rams towards the roman center before hostilities commenced hannibal and scipio met in the field their conversation was brief a chance to size up the opposition perhaps under different circumstances they could have called each other friends hannibal gave a pre-battle speech to his elites congratulating them on the great victories they had shared in the past he reminded his levies of their duties and what was at stake if they lost finally he ordered his elephants to charge unlike his forebears scipio had a counter for hannibal's beasts the romans used trumpets and simples to startle the elephants all while his cohorts were spread in such a way that the elephants had open avenues to charge down and away from the clatter and as they passed through these funnels they were pelted with projectiles and killed scipio's forces then drove hannibal's cavalry from the field depriving him of a crucial component of his army once the architect of so many victories through strength and speed of his cavalry hannibal watched in horror as his own tactics were employed against him once rome's numidian allies wheeled around and charged the carthaginian flanks the battle was over and rome treated hannibal to a re-enactment of cannae from their perspective with no options left and roam at the gates of the capital the senate opted to surrender the romans were not kind to their conquered foes carthage was stripped of all of its overseas territory and saddled with crippling reparations most outrageous of all the peace treaty stipulated that carthage could not go to war without rome's permission humiliated and subdued carthage entered a period of uneasy peace all the while feeling rome's heavy blade hanging over their heads the great hannibal became a political leader enacting many sweeping reforms to help restore carthage's glory but years later the romans possibly afraid of his continued influence accused their old foe of conspiring with rome's enemies and forced him into exile hannibal would die in exile his dreams of carthaginian dominance unrealized over 50 years after their devastating defeat carthage was beginning to rise from the ashes however they were continually plagued by raids from their southern neighbor numidian king massanesa masanesa was an ally of rome and every time carthage requested permission to defend their land the romans refused in the year 151 the carthaginian senate raised an army to stop the numidian raiders treaty be damned unexpectedly the punic army was defeated by the numidians and then the carthaginians were forced to watch from behind their walls as the romans mobilized against them the romans arrived at the nearby city of utica with a massive army and demanded that the carthaginians turn over all of their military equipment immediately the senate complied turning over all of their arms and allowing their fleet to be burned at anchor with carthage stripped of its defenses the romans made their next demand the carthaginians must abandon their city so that the romans could raise it desperate though they were the proud citizens of carthage could not accept this their delegation quickly returned to the city recruiting and arming an army for one last hopeless battle at the nearby town of nepherus there the romans defeated the carthaginians and proceeded to lay siege to their capital the carthaginians endured the siege for three years before the romans breached the walls they roamed the streets for six days killing and burning before the survivors finally surrendered to spare the lives of their families around 50 000 hostages were taken to be sold into slavery and they alone lived to witness the final fate of their city carthage was pulled down brick by brick its territory annexed directly into the roman republic the proud elephant of north africa was feasted on by a swarm of roman eagles [Music] in just over a century the republic of carthage was reduced from a large wealthy nation with near-total dominance over the western mediterranean to a smoldering ruin and a ghost of an empire but even this was not the end of carthage a century after its fall julius caesar ordered the city to be rebuilt the nascent city quickly regrew and by the first century a.d it was the second largest city in the western mediterranean even long after mighty rome had snuffed out their old rival the memory of carthage endured [Music] the device [Music] you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 760,170

Rating: 4.9535241 out of 5

Keywords: Punic wars, first punic war, second punic war, third punic war, hannibal barca, scipio africanus, battle of zama, battle of cannae, battle of trebia, Battle of Mylae, siege of syracuse, siege of messene, hasdrubal, crossing the alps, hannibal cross the alps, roman history, carthaginian history, history of carthage, roman war, north africa, tunisia, ancient warfare, war elephant

Id: xcK_hO2gPuc

Length: 27min 53sec (1673 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/COMPUTER1313]

On a side note, in a Shogun 2, I had a Hojo campaign where all of my battles resulted in decisive victories except for one (which was a close victory). I also got a heroic victory in a bridge battle.

It didn't matter because the Takeda AI threw a full stack at me every 2 turns or so, and worn down my army faster than I could replenish/recruit. After one battle, all of my generals were down to a dozen or less bodyguards because they were my only combat effective cavalry left.

There was at one point where I killed a full stack with their daimyo and then a smaller army, and thought I was safe to go on the offensive. I took a settlement from them, and then the next turn they vomited another full stack to take one of my settlements. I besieged the captured settlement, and then the turn after that, they brought in another full stack to sandwich me. At this point my army was very much ragged and was less than half-health.

Even if I fought my way out of that trap despite being outnumbered by 1 to 4, all it would take is another replacement Takeda full stack to finish me off.

Maybe I should have sent that save file to Legend of Total War for him to get me out of that death spiral of Pyrrhic victories.