The First Punic War - OverSimplified (Part 1) - Historian Reacts

so i was uploading my video yesterday and my comments section blew up it seems something may have happened everybody had to let me know that oversimplified uploaded a new video thank you guys so much i appreciate that times a thousand because i think that's about how many comments i got plus the messages i got on instagram and even some emails about it and some things on patreon yes oversimplified has a new video out two new videos actually the punic wars so we're going to take a look at part one of the first punic war today i'll confess up front not a subject i know a lot about if you guys are familiar with the channel you know that i tend to focus heavily on probably the last 500 years of history and if you get back further than the middle ages i don't know a lot so i'm excited to learn today and i'll offer my commentary where i can we'll try to unsimplify this a little bit maybe do some research if we need to here and there but i'm excited to go on this journey with you as always the link is in the description to the original content which you've probably already seen by now and if you like what you see please consider subscribing not only to this channel but check out some of my other channels in the links below some original content on those as well as here on this channel and the podcast let's dive into the punic wars oh marcellus you sure have a lot of dignitas kiss me okay um hi son just reading the newspaper what can i do for you well you know how you always say rome is the greatest civilization in the world it bloody well is well i was just wondering what makes us so great how did we come to be wow nice we're gonna get a history of wrong boy let me take you on a journey to this side of the room the story of rome begins with these beautiful baby boys going to town on some streets and remus that's gross you're gross sorry son you're not gross i love you they're called romulus and remus and when they grew up in 753 bc they founded rome but there was just one problem they couldn't agree on which of them should be the king but they worked it out peacefully right oh heavens now romulus caved remus's skullen with a shovel here's a picture our first king committed fratricide i know look at his face and this is gonna be setting a bit of a standard right i mean rome's history especially the roman empire part of history is filled with this family members killing family members and friends killing friends and that's not unique to rome obviously that's part of history throughout uh power you know uh they say uh absolute power corrupts absolutely and that's what we're gonna see here but um we're getting ahead of us when's the part where we become the greatest civilization dad well not there yet at first room was full of men i'm talking like a real sausage party you know what i mean yes sir so we invited some neighboring cities over for a big feast and then we literally kidnapped all of their women here's a picture ah look at that one she's like wow this is messed up you're messed up sorry sorry i'll be a better father i promise so then finally after centuries of monarchy those tyrannical kings started getting a little too big for their britches so we overthrew the kings and established rome as a republic is that when all the killings stopped no heavens no that's when the killings surged baby we went wild and conquered the latin league the samnites the etruscans what a rush dad rome seems pretty barbaric you're barbaric oh i forgot to tell you about the time a prophet told saturn his son would one day overthrow him so so saturn literally ate his own son seconds after he was born [Music] i don't want to see a picture here's a picture dad look at that that's messed up man are we really this uncivilized hey hey if we were so uncivilized would we use communal toilets where we all fart and poo together in one big stinky steamy dirty toilet room yeah dad we would clean your butt with a sponge timulus but all these guys just used it what's wrong with your son bro i don't want to be roman i've always wondered about that and you know we have a very different idea of um privacy today than they did then yeah i mean they would all sit in that room i can't even be in a room when there are other people in the room behind closed doors right and do that um different world completely different world but still you have to say that just the fact that they have such a setup is advanced compared to a lot of places uh fascinating stuff this is so weird you're weird oh sorry you're not weird i'm sure you're probably fine all that to intro the punic war the roman republic a nation that since its foundation had been stabbing necks all the way down the italian peninsula but this isn't the famous roman empire that ruled the known world not yet anyway this is a relatively juvenile room still just a regional power in 264 bc the big daddy of the western mediterranean was carthage so let's set the stage here a little bit this is less than a century after alexander the great conquers a lot of what's happening in the east but he doesn't really push to the west at all yeah rome is basically a good chunk of what is modern italy at this point and you've got carthage and so you can see obviously what's going to be the important part of this naval power and this is going to be largely about naval power this war uh and so if you're looking at this it's pretty easy to see where the fighting's gonna take place right it's corsica it's sicily it's these islands right in here i mean that's where the action is gonna take place and that is what they're gonna be basically fighting over think about this 2 000 plus years later world war ii what do we get to we get to an allied power that deals with africa and then is going to invade italy through where through sicily sicily is going to be the key to going up the italian boot it's happening that same way but kind of in reverse you've got italy going after carthage through sicily let's rewind a bit carthage was founded in 814 bc when some phoenicians entire had a mega surplus of goods and decided to export those goods across the mediterranean they became the dominant trading power in the region and to support their growing trade network the phoenicians established a number of colonies one of which was carthage trade is the driving force behind colonization and exploration for most of human history it's about resources it's about trade it's about expanding those things and carthage is born out of that therefore carthage began its life as a phoenician trade colony and the carthaginians were actually phoenicians or if you're a latin speaking roman they were punic hence the name of the video over the centuries carthage gradually expanded and became the region's base of power just like rome carthage was a semi-democratic republic with its own senate and judiciary but there were also some pretty hefty differences between the two while rome was big into farming and stabbing people in the neck the carthaginians on the other hand just like their phoenician forefathers had built their power through trade and navigating the waves they went here and there selling ivory tusks gold and slaves and as a result they were rolling in it whenever they weren't busy swimming around in their copious hordes of money in their spare time they also possibly enjoyed sacrificing their children to bow the god of let me just check my notes ah yes plant fertility so baal or baal as he's often referred to as referred to all throughout the old testament of the bible that's a god that they've brought with them from uh their time being phoenicians i mean uh this was the god that the philistines worshipped which philistine is where we get the modern name palestine uh so this is a god that has been brought with them from the east uh nothing unusual there so yeah a big difference but right now we're at that one of those crossroads moments in history right we've got two regional powers who are coming up against each other and if this war or these series of wars there's three punic wars go a different way we're not talking about a roman empire maybe we're talking about a carthaginian empire and i think one of the main differences besides the fact that one's kind of grown on trade and one's grown on military power which obviously is going to set the military power up better for a war is that rome's the nature of how they saw their military i think was different um because i think the militaries were largely they largely operated the same as far as fighting on the battlefield but rome's military was set up to be an offensive force whereas carthage's military is much more set up to be a defensive force they were more about defending their homeland they didn't really use their military in an offensive capacity oh boy these figs aren't looking too hot maybe if i throw my son into a burning pit of fire they'll grow have you tried watering them dad hmm no we'll try that second as a result of all their trading carthage had emerged as one of the mediterranean superpowers but wait they said rome what the heck is that well i know it's a pretty obscure little country that you've probably never heard of but this spunky young nation was about to upset the entire region's balance of power initially the two sites enjoyed relatively friendly relations and it even signed a couple treaties but it was a relationship that was practically destined to turn sour so it says the greeks smell so obviously you know if we're talking about a time in history where the greeks have gotten to the height of their power further east you've got two regional powers one with you know that grows kind of on conquest one that grows on trade there's a lot of reasons why they would want to kind of basically not focus on fighting each other but focus on kind of mutually defending themselves against greece again seeing the parallels things like the build-up to world war one you've got a huge power in germany in the center of europe and so you have nations like france and russia who are on either side who say you know what on our own we have no chance against a power like germany but together maybe if germany knows taking on one of us means taking on both of us maybe that's enough of a deterrent to keep them from coming after us and so the same kind of thing happening here see rome had a thing where they like to aggressively expand their boundaries often viewing such expansion as a defensive act kind of like when you kill your neighbor because you knew eventually they would have tried to kill you first meanwhile carthage was extremely protective of its wealthy trade network so if you put a very strategically important island between them well two plus two equals war tensions rose and the two sides began viewing each other with increasing disdain yeah so i mean if if by nature your nation is about expanding eventually going to run into someone else who by nature is about expanding and conflict is going to erupt it's again another reason why the 20th century was as bloody as it was is because you have all of these growing world powers who are competing for a limited amount of land and resources eventually they're going to run up into each other and they're going to both fight over the same stuff the hard-working romans looked across the water at the money hungry carthaginians and said look at those dishonest crooks bet they've never done an honest day's work in their lives and the carthaginians looked back and said look at those simple-minded brutes but they've never sacrificed a baby in their lives yeah while war between the two superpowers seemed inevitable the event that finally triggered it was a little unexpected the whole thing began with a few simple mad lads on a wild night out and this is the city that later on is going to be known as messina which is world war ii this is where the allies are trying to get to because messina is right across the uh the water from mainland italy these mad lads are called the mamma teams they were italian mercenaries employed by the tyrant of syracuse here but when he died his successor said sorry fellas we don't need any big burly men with sharp sticks anymore you can all go home the mamma teens as it turned out didn't want to go home so instead they went to the nearby town of mesana and said hey man we are but poor little buff boys without a home may we come in oh poor fellas sure thing just so long as you promise not to massacre all of us we promise the mamma teens then massacred all of them well not all of them just the men and they stole their homes and families this is my house now this is my best dad ever mug now and you guys are my new family son wanna go play catch with your old papa you're not my he's playing among us on the computer real dad ugh teenagers am i right dear you're not my real husband ugh i'm so trapped in this marriage then get out [Music] no missanna was now controlled by the mamma teens and they began raiding up and down the syracuse coastline when the new ruler of syracuse saw this he wasn't happy the syracusans began fighting back and in response the mamma teen said oh crap they're fighting back what do we do quick we'll convince the carthaginians to come and save us oh no we're in trouble and we need a big strong empire to come and rub our bellies why are you saying it like that if i was a big strong empire i think i'd like to be seduced see it's working the carthaginians had long dreamed of controlling all of sicily they had been fighting syracuse and their greek influence on the island for centuries and now here was a great opportunity to get one over on them so carthage promptly answered the mama teen's cry for help and sent the force to garrison missanna as it turned out however some within the ranks of the mammoth teens weren't too happy with the occupying carthaginians and they sent out a second cry for help to rome again boy i see the parallels here think about it if you are a small power surrounded by big ones you're going to kind of get to pick right i mean you're going to try to get one of them on your side or the other and you're going to kind of become the proxy through which these world powers are going to go at each other i think vietnam korea afghanistan places that we've seen in the 20th century where proxy wars have happened uh it's happened on the african continent it's happened in central america when it reached the roman senate they were a little more hesitant going to help the mamma teens ran the risk of triggering an all-out war with carthage and they had only just finished conquering the italian peninsula so they were kind of tired plus the mamma teens were all the way across the water they had never made a leap like that before so you would assume that to avoid any kind of carthage the exhausted romans would probably sit this one out but you would assume wrong rome just couldn't resist a good chance for war why well there's something you gotta understand about rome see as a republic they were hellbent on preventing any one man from ever gaining too much power and so rather than having one leader rome had two cold consuls whose shared power these consoles could also only serve for one year at a time before new consoles were elected these measures to limit the powers of the consoles were noble but had an interesting side effect the consoles knew they had just one year to try and gain as much glory and prestige as possible something that was very important in roman society and the best way of gaining glory and prestige military victory of course the roman political system basically ended up encouraging these consuls to go out and be as aggressive as your italian so yeah i mean everything he just explained explains a lot about why rome is so aggressively constantly expanding throughout its history until you get to the time of the emperors and of course then they're still expanding but it's for a different reason and there's different motivations for it at that point but and a lot of the same things that are happening at this point in history two three hundred years down the road when we get to people like julius caesar and marc anthony and octavian uh it's gonna be the same stuff that's going on then with the same roles that are involved and grandmother when you don't eat all this spaghett and so the glory-seeking consuls convinced the people to vote in favor of going to messana and in they went upon the arrival of the romans the carthaginians in the city amongst the confusion were forced to leave now in contrast to roman aggression the carthaginian military had a slightly different philosophy all right kids listen up if you want to grow up to be carthaginian military leaders there's a few things you have to understand if you fail to succeed on the battlefield that's a crucifixion showing cowardice that's a crucifixion hello sir what what are you doing here aren't you meant to be in mesana yeah but the romans showed up so you just left sure did oh you better believe that's a crucifixion the roman consuls were awarded for victory and therefore tended to be aggressive go-getters by contrast the carthaginian generals were brutally punished for failure and so they tended to be more cautious and restrained so here we have the difference in how you motivate people right one is about rewarding success and the others about punishing failure rewarding success is gonna breed a different kind of leadership than uh acting out of fear i think acting out of fear leads you to be more cautious it leads you to take less chances whereas the the possibility of success if i just take a chance uh it allows for those kinds of things to be different so there's a motivation here and like i said earlier there's also a difference in how they operate whereas rome is prepared much more to be an offensive force with the way they they build their legions uh the only requirement i think as far as carthaginian soldiers was that you had to serve to defend your homeland there was no obligation for military service to be an aggressive fighting force this dynamic is helpful for understanding some of the crazy things that happened during the punic wars so the romans have crossed over to missana and now there was some red on the island hit that panic button this turn of events was unacceptable to both carthage and syracuse so the traditional enemies teamed up to kick the romans off their island they surrounded the city and said hey you jerks this isn't your island come out of there at once okay we're coming see phil you just gotta speak with authority that's what being an alpha male's all about hey man [Music] you brought your weapons in armor no i i didn't mean oh crap out the roman legions came to engage the carthaginians in battle and they sent them packing with the battle of messana whether intended or not by going to help them amartins the two sides had just slipped into an all-out war and this is my understanding one of the longest wars of the ancient time period it goes on for a couple of decades heavily naval influenced going to see a lot of greek triremes things like that with the initial roman victory towns across sicily including syracuse began switching allegiance because being a winner is more fun but the carthaginians weren't about to just give up that easily in 262 bc they began building up their forces at aggregatum so the romans being aggressive go-getters aggressively go caught them the romans immediately laid siege hoping to starve out the carthaginian garrison however because this was the first time rome had been fighting outside the italian peninsula across the water they struggled to supply their forces and before long the romans were as starving as the carthaginians they were besieging an army can only fight as far as you can take it with supplies uh supply determines so many wars there's so many times that the ability to supply your army means more than how good you fight it means more than how well equipped you are means more than the size of your army if you can't feed them if you can't supply them it doesn't much matter what else you're good at they had to forage for food leaving them open to ambush and when carthaginian reinforcements arrived creating a double siege things got really bad everybody starved each other for months until nobody could take it anymore and they all finally came out for battle which rome won here's the report from the recent c-jet aggregate sir we killed 30 000 while only suffering 7 000 losses that's amazing who are the best yes sir whoops those are the wrong way around what we lost 30 thousand the worst i want to see what the the numbers were as far as how many soldiers were actually involved in this fight so i've been looking at a couple of different sources here and uh this this one is kind of a website that deals with roman history it's got a lot of detail about the nature of this conflict and what all happened and how many men were involved but basically there's a lot of different numbers as is always the case with ancient roman history but the estimates are that the romans had anywhere from forty to a hundred thousand uh that were involved here uh and carthage has similar numbers thirty to fifty thousand infantry fifteen hundred to six thousand cavalry and the estimates could be as low as 15 000 for the casualties as far as the dead go for the romans and about half that to maybe a fourth of that for the carthaginians so definitely no matter how you look at it it was bad for the romans but we won right yes sir but we also got our asses kicked yes sir so are we the best or the worst yes sir the romans wanted aggregantum because they were aggressive go-getters and they now began eyeing up the possibility of conquering the entire island but they also suffered very heavy losses and it was clear they couldn't sustain a campaign if they couldn't supply their troops here's the issue sicily was an island islands are surrounded by water a storm navy would be vital for supplying troops and winning the war here was carthage's navy and here was rome's i think you can see the problem historians debate just how much naval experience rome had at this point presumably they must have had something to defend their shoreline but whatever it was it would have paled in comparison to the carthaginian juggernaut and that makes total sense compare carthage to a power like the british empire how the british empire sustained a massive empire all over the world where they had resources and they were dealing with a lot of trade a navy if you're trading power on the mediterranean you need a navy not only to be able to carry the goods but you also have to be able to protect the ships carrying those goods so by nature carthage has to be a strong naval power and so rome had to figure out exactly what to do about all this water come on men we're not gonna let some pansy candy-ass water get in the way of our glorious victory against carthage george tell my kids i love we're gonna need a bigger boat a little jaws reference there but also an important reference to the fact that most roman infantry wore pretty heavy armor and so yeah you're gonna sink in the water it's a boat i don't know if the romans wanted to win this war and obtain sicily there was only one thing for them to do i guess we're just gonna have to go ahead and build ourselves a war fleet aren't we from scratch from scratch well we don't even know how never mind how to fight with one don't worry hank we're up to the challenge come on guys we're romans there's a world romans aren't afraid of anything and so the romans worked long and hard trying to figure out how on earth you actually build the latest style of warship in the end they had a bit of luck on their side a carthaginian queen queering ended up accidentally grounding on italian the romans found it and copied the design this is cool because uh basically what you have is you have an a ship falling into enemy hands and they steal the technology you know i think of times in history where stuff like this happened where um you know or even in fictional history where you've got things like the hunt for red october where the americans get their hands on the latest soviet technology and they're gonna be able to tear it apart and learn everything about it uh you don't want the enemy to get your technology if it's technology they don't have because you don't want them to learn and be able to do the same thing while the new fleet was being built the romans trained rowers on land and would you believe it the romans put together a full fighting fleet of and twenty warships in just two months wow that's staggering feat now there's no real thinking but oversimplified if the romans can build a war fleet from scratch in two months then why does it take you half a year to make a video my valued subscriber i think you should shut up what the heck on earth did the romans learn how to build a war fleet this shouldn't be happening from what i hear they copied the design from us sir well how on earth did they get the blueprint carl i i don't know sir but i'll tell you what if you're worried about people stealing your data no in order to protect yourself from outside threats don't you dare then you my friend if you mention nordvpn i'll scream should use nordvpn so yeah oversimplified is already making the money off of this video as it is so i don't feel any obligation to watch their ad thank you now where were we oh yeah the siege at aggregate of supply issues and building a war fleet so now the romans have a navy and it's time to put it to the test but how does one wage ancient naval warfare easy all of the ships had giant bronze rams on the front so all you had to do was outmaneuver the enemy and give him the jimmies easy as pie and so the aggressive romans set out for some good old-fashioned jimmy giving the consul nia's cornelius scipio set out for the town of lipara believing the garrison there wanted to join the romans as he entered the harbor however he found himself trapped by a carthaginian fleet and now here's your problem it's one thing to build a navy it's another to know how to use it you can't steal the plans or get your hands on tactics this is this comes with experience and leadership and this is something i would think that they're going to have an edge on but again leadership and experience and tactics are one part of it but aggressiveness and fighting spirit is also a part of this and if one side's much braver and willing to take chances and the other side's not that that counts for a lot and in the following skirmish he was completely the romans may have had a brand new fleet but when it came to engaging in actual combat their inexperience showed there was just something better about the carthaginian ships the carthaginian rowers had nicer abs the entire carthaginian empire had been built on expert seamanship so when it came to water the carthaginians were better and the romans were wetter in their initial skirmish the romans were beaten so badly that the consul scipio was given a nickname asena and if you're wondering what that means just drop the ena so what were the romans to do how could they possibly stand up to this carthaginian superpower well there's something you gotta understand about the romans back when they found that carthaginian ship and copied its design that wasn't a one-off thing copying their enemies was as roman as punishing murderers into a leather pouch with a monkey snake and rooster and then throwing them into a river which is a thing they did wait what was i talking about oh yeah copying their enemies many of the most famous roman inventions were actually borrowed aqueducts chariot racing their gods even in warfare the romans would get pierced by a sabine javelin and they'd be like wow they'd get hacked to bits by an iberian sword and they'd be like wow and they'd copy the designs for themselves and and this is this shows intelligence this shows uh this is actually something to credit the romans you know sometimes some cultures have this idea we are better anything we do is better anything you do is bad and stupid and we're not gonna ever adopt that the romans were always willing to recognize when other people did something better and assimilate that into their culture it's one of the reasons they grew it's one of the reasons they could be as successful as they were is that they were willing to learn from other people's strengths so this is going to be another example of that i guess however they wouldn't just copy it they would advance it finding ways to adapt better as perfectly as possible and in the case of naval warfare the romans realized if they wanted to beat the carthaginians at their own game they would have to adapt the romans excelled at combat on land not on water but what if they said we could somehow turn a sea battle into a land battle sounds crazy right well they made a couple of tweaks to their worship and look here they come again they must love getting their asses kicked uh sir what's that toll thing sticking out of their ships i'm gonna board you they really are idiots look at that thing that'll make them blow over i mean look at pop pop okay get your camera out take a picture of it [Music] i mean how stupid can you be let's just add a big wooden tower to our ship that'll wear us down and blow us over in the wind [Music] i mean what does that thing even do yep brilliance had built a big swinging spiked gangway called the corvus so when the carthaginian ships approached to ram them the romans would just slam them the carthaginians tried going around no problem the corvus could swivel try going behind the romans would huddle to the coastline so this is what happens in warfare whether it's ancient warfare it's modern warfare is that during wartime there's huge advances in technology because you're adapting you're learning what happens during world war one well trench warfare is not working we're losing all these men artillery's not doing the job let's invent a tank let's start using that what happens in world war ii well it starts out with battleships well battleships aren't the thing anymore because now we've got planes so so aircraft carriers are going to be what matters radar is going to matter you know building bigger and stronger bombs that can penetrate armor and can penetrate fortified positions are going to matter developing things like flame throwers to get at the guys that are in uh bunkers and things like that technology is gonna grow and tactics are gonna grow based on what your enemy does okay he did that now we've got to adjust for that we've gotta try and come up with a new plan to neutralize what they've come up with it was foolproof those big sexy carthaginian rowing muscles could flex all they want but they were no match for the roman mind so ladies you see what really matters is what's on the inside please go out with me and with that the romans who had only just recently began dabbling in the art of naval combat thanks to their ingenious corvus had just managed to outclass the mediterranean seafaring superpower the carthaginians were stunned and the general in charge of the defeated carthaginian fleet well you better believe that's a crucifixion [Music] with their newfound control of the seas the romans could now more easily blockade coastal cities and supply their legions on land surely the romans were now free to unleash their aggression all over the island hey carthaginians what are you gonna do now that we're free to rampage across the island we're gonna go inside these walls and close this gate oh come on guys stop messing around come out so we can kill you no oh come on no now no to counter the new roman supremacy the carthaginians decided to engage in a defensive war of attrition forcing the romans to engage in siege after lengthy siege the war in sicily became a long hard back and forth slug one by one cities slowly fell as the romans gained ground occasionally the carthaginians countered and even pushed them back only for the romans to rebound again and whenever a city did finally fall the romans could delight in slaughtering the entire population and selling any survivors into slavery which was pretty standard procedure at the time in general the campaign on land was progressing much slower than the romans had hoped and quite frankly they were getting sick of it so in 256 bc they decided that something had to change hey everyone my name's marcus attilius regulus and i'll be one of your consuls for this year look as i'm sure you all know sicily's being a bit of a drag sure i could go and spend my entire year as console besieging one single city but they'll never make a naked statue of me for that so here's the new plan i'm gonna skip sicily entirely take my army and go right for the heart of carthage itself well again taking chances you got one year as consul you got to do something big like he said i'm not gonna waste it besieging one city i'm going for glory and so they're willing to take chances because of the the possibility of reward and that's just not a motivation that carthage has i'll slaughter the men enslave all the women and children and when i return you'll all build a thousand naked statues of me marcus that woman in children's stuff that seems pretty evil and barbaric no jim it's perfectly normal in the ancient world sometimes we even chop their pets in half [Music] okay guys looks like the romans are coming straight for us this time and what will they do when they get here they'll kill us all they'll massacre each and every last one of us they may even chop our pets in half that's barbaric no roberts actually pretty normal for the time we'd do that same to them who'll protect us funny you should ask mary that's kind of why i called this meeting who will protect us protect our families our homes our children you guys ha don't make me laugh why you're just a bunch of stupid and weak farmers simple-minded buffoons cowards so inspiring rob here thinks enslaving women and children is barbaric you're a snowflake rob yes you are the fact is if the romans managed to land on african soil we're all gonna die the terrifying hideous unspeakably painful death is that the end of that speech yes panic the carthaginians had to stop the romans from ever landing in africa because they believed that would be the end so as the romans were building an invasion fleet the size of which the world had never seen before the carthaginians were preparing an even bigger one to stop them and in 256 bc as the roman invasion fleet made its way south the stage was set for a humongous battle that saw 680 warships around 300 000 men fighting to decide the course of the war think about those numbers in terms of i mean what was the population of the world at that time let's look it up okay so obviously we there's no way we can possibly know for sure what the world population was but around 200 bc the estimates are anywhere from 150 to 230 million people so these are massive numbers in terms of world population to put this in perspective a little bit uh let's do a little bit of calculations so that's the equivalent of something like 15 million people being involved in a naval battle today this is a massive massive battle for 256 bc to this day the battle of cape egnomas remains possibly the largest naval battle in human history all the way back in ancient times in terms of the number of people involved obviously in terms of you know there's a lot of different ways you calculate something like the largest battle you know is it based on tonnage of ships is it based on number of ships involved is it based on the number of people involved so the next time your granddad tells you about the time he sent a japanese aircraft carrier kick him in the nuts the romans had a lot riding on this battle they weren't just don't do their warships but transports as well full of supplies and horses for their invasion of africa they therefore formed a protective wedge-like formation to punch through the long thin carthaginian line again let's just recognize how amazing it is that we have this kind of detail as far as the information goes about what happened now most of our sources on this stuff are going to come from roman writers who obviously are going to put a roman spin on this and make their side look good make the other side look bad probably inflate the numbers for the carthaginians and deflate the numbers for the romans as far as strength involved to make it look like it was a bigger deal so as with anything that we study in history we have to consider our sources what's their motivation who are they biased toward or against how close to these events are they writing uh and i'm kind of curious to know who it is that that we have this information from the carthaginian generals however desperate to prevent the romans from reaching africa had a plan of their own as the roman fleet approached the carthaginian center feigned a retreat luring the romans in so their outstretched flanks could envelop them and get around the roman corvus a clever plan but with such a huge battle and so many ships crowded together the carthaginians struggled to maneuver as hoped and in the chaos three separate battles emerged across the huge battle space with the number of ships limiting their ability to maneuver the carthaginians became sitting ducks and all the romans had to do was start swinging the roman center came out on top and were then able to turn around and rescue their pinned down flanks the battle of cape ignomas was a roman victory amazing stuff i'm learning a lot i hope you guys are too i hope you've enjoyed this i'm going to throw up some links some other videos you can check out once i record part two that link will be up as well and you can check that out thank you guys so much for watching again thank you oversimplified for great content that entertains but also educates in the process so i hope you enjoyed that we'll see you again soon

Channel: Vlogging Through History

Views: 497,873

Keywords: oversimplified reaction, history teacher reacts, history reaction, punic wars, first punic war, historian reacts, roman republic, roman history, the first punic war

Id: smGaQPpj4Ko

Length: 42min 45sec (2565 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2022