Phase 6

The Beginning of the End

  The end of the war did not meet with a universal approval in Rome, for reasons of both politics and fear. Rome on the other hand by this victory, had taken steps towards what ultimately becomes her domination of the Mediterranean world.   The Senate decreed upon a peace treaty with Carthage. Quintus Caecilius Metellus, a former consul, said he did not look upon the termination of the war as a blessing to Rome. Because he feared that the Roman people would now sink back again into its former slumbers, from which it had awoke by the presence of Hannibal (Valerius Maximus vii. 2. §3).  Others, most notably Cato the Elder, feared that if Carthage continued to exist, it would soon regain its power and pose new threats to Rome he pressed for harsher peace-conditions.

Cato the Elder

 Even after the peace, Cato insisted on the destruction of Carthage, ending all his speeches with "Carthage must be destroyed", even if the speech had nothing to do with Carthage (Plutarch, Life of Cato).

  Archeology has discovered that the famous circular military harbour at Carthage, the Cothon, received a significant buildup during or after the Second Punic War. Though shielded from external sight, it could house and quickly deploy about 200 triremes.

Scale Model of the Cothon in Carthage

This appears a surprising development as, after the war, one of the terms of surrender restricted the Carthaginian fleet to only ten triremes. One possible explanation: as has been pointed out for other Phoenician cities, privateers with warships played a significant role besides trade, even after the Roman Empire officially controlled all the coasts. In this case, it is not clear whether the treaty included private warships. The only reference to Punic privateers comes from the First Punic War: one such privateer, Hanno the Rhodian, owned a quinquereme (which was faster than the serial production models that the Romans had copied), manned with about 500 men and then among the heaviest warships in use.

Hanno the Rhodian’s Quinquereme

 Later pirates in Roman waters all used  much smaller vessels, which could outrun naval vessels, but operated with lower personnel costs. Thus, piracy very common in Carthage and the state did not have a monopoly of military forces. Pirates probably played an important role in capturing slaves, one of the most profitable trade-goods, but merchant ships with tradable goods and a crew were also their targets. No surviving source reports the fate of Punic privateers in the periods between and after the Punic Wars.

  Hannibal ended his military career at Carthage.  He became a businessperson for several years and later enjoyed a leadership role in Carthage.   Hannibal was still only 43 and soon showed that he could be a political leader as well as a soldier. Following the conclusion of a peace that left Carthage stripped of its formerly mighty empire, Hannibal prepared to take a back seat for a time. However, the blatant corruption of the oligarchy gave Hannibal a chance to re-emerge after he was elected as suffete or chief magistrate. The office had become rather insignificant, but Hannibal restored its power and authority. The oligarchy, always jealous of him, had even charged him with having betrayed the interests of his country while in Italy, for neglecting to take Rome when he might have done so.

Hannibal Barca

 So effectively did Hannibal reform abuses that the heavy tribute imposed by Rome was paid by installments without additional and extraordinary taxation. He also reformed the Hundred and Four, stipulating that its membership be determined by direct election rather than co-option. He also used citizen support to change the term of office in the Hundred and Four from life to a year, with a term limit of two years.  While in power, Hannibal had promoted agriculture in Carthage.  Carthage developed a highly advanced production in agriculture by using iron ploughs, irrigation, and crop rotation.  Hannibal promoted agriculture because it would help restore Carthage’s economy and pay the war indemnity to Rome (10,000 talents or 800,000 pounds in silver) and he was highly successful.  Circumstantial evidence suggests that Carthage had developed the science of wine making before the 4th Century BCE and even exported wines widely, as indicated by distinct cigar-shaped Carthaginian amphorae found at agricultural sites around the western Mediterranean. 

Carthaginian Amphora

Fruits including figs, pears, pomegranates, as well as nuts, grain, dates and olives where grown in the extensive hinterland.  Carthage also bred fine horses, the ancestors of today’s Barb horses.

A Barb Horse

  A period of peace existed between the two empires for a space of about 50 years (201-149 BCE). During that time, Rome was engaged in the conquest of the Hellenistic empire-of the east, the Macedonian Wars, the Illyrian Wars, and the Roman-Syrian Wars, while ruthlessly suppressing the Hispanic people in the west.

  However, the Carthaginian nobility, upset by Hannibal’s policy of democratization and his struggle against corruption, persuaded the Romans to force him into exile in Asia Minor, where he again led armies against the Romans and their allies on the battlefield. This was their big mistake.  Had they united under Hannibal their empire might have continued for a longer time.  Therefore, seven years after the victory of Zama, the Romans, alarmed by Carthage's renewed prosperity, demanded Hannibal's surrender.  The Carthaginian nobility had arranged all of this.   Hannibal thereupon went into voluntary exile. He journeyed to Tyre, the mother city of Carthage possibly to visit the shrine of their god there, and then to Ephesus, where he was honorably received by Antiochus III of Syria, who was preparing for war with Rome.

Votive Statues of Melqart the god of Tyre and Carthage

  Hannibal soon saw that the king's army was no match for the Romans. He advised equipping a fleet and landing a body of troops in the south of Italy, offering to take command himself. Nevertheless, he could not make much impression on Antiochus, who listened to his courtiers and would not entrust Hannibal with any important office.  According to Cicero, while at the court of Antiochus, Hannibal attended a lecture by Phormio, a philosopher that ranged through many topics. After Phormio finished his discourse on the duties of a general.  When the discourse was over Hannibal was asked for his opinion. He replied, "I have seen during my life many old fools; but this one beats them all." Another story according to Aulus Gellius is that when Antiochus III showed off the gigantic and elaborately equipped army he had created to invade Greece to Hannibal, he asked him if they would be enough for the Roman Republic. To which Hannibal replied, “I think all this will be enough, yes, quite enough, for the Romans, even though they are most avaricious” (Aulus Gellius. "Noctes Atticae". Book V. v. 5.).   In 191 BCE the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio routed Antiochus at Thermopylae and obliged him to withdraw to Asia. The Romans followed up their success by attacking Antiochus in Anatolia, and the Seleucids were decisively defeated at Magnesia and Sipylum in 190 BCE by Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus and his brother.

  In 190 BCE, Hannibal was given command of a Seleucid fleet, but was defeated in a battle off the Eurymedon River. According to Strabo and Plutarch, Hannibal also received hospitality at the Armenian court of Artaxias I. When Antiochus seemed prepared to surrender him to the Romans, Hannibal fled to Crete, but he soon went back to Asia Minor and sought refuge with Prusias I of Bithynia, who was engaged in warfare with Rome's ally, King Eumenes II of Pergamon. Hannibal went on to serve Prusias I in this war. He won at least one naval victory over Eumenes (Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 10 and 11).   Hannibal also went on to defeat Eumenes in two other battles on land until the Romans interfered and threatened Bithynia into giving up Hannibal (Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 12).   Hannibal also visited Tyre again once again to visit the shrine of Carthage‘s god, and the home of his forefathers. However the Romans were determined to hunt him down, and they insisted on his surrender.  In the end, Prusias agreed to give him up, but Hannibal was determined not to fall into his enemies' hands. At Libyssa (modern Gabze, Turkey) on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara (an inland sea in Turkey about 30 miles away), he took poison, which, it was said, he had long carried about with him in a ring (Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 12.5; Juvenal, Satires X).  The precise year of Hannibal's death is unknown, but it was sometime between 183-181 BCE (Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 13.1). 

Location of the Sea Of Marmara

  Cornelius Scipio Africanus was welcomed back to Rome in triumph with the military title of Africanus or Victor of Africa.. He refused the many further honours, which the people would have thrust upon him such as Consul for life and Dictator. In the year 199 BCE, Scipio was elected Censor but only served a short time.  After that and for years afterwards, he lived quietly and took no part in politics.  In 193 BCE, Cornelius Scipio Africanus was one of the commissioners sent to Africa to settle a dispute between Massinissa (the Numidians) and the Carthaginians, which the commission did not achieve. They did this intentionally as if to appear neutral but actually were on Masinissa’s side.  This was probably done because Hannibal, in the service of Antiochus III of Syria, might have come to Carthage to gather support for a new attack on Italy. In 190 BCE, when the Romans declared war against Antiochus III, Publius Cornelius Scipio offered to join his brother Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus if the Senate entrusted the chief command to him. 

Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus

The two brothers concluded the war by a decisive victory at Magnesia in the same year.  Both were the sons of Cornelius Scipio Africanus.  When the Scipio brothers returned to Rome after a successful war in the east, the senate persecuted the two tribunes in 187 BCE.  

  Scipio's political enemies, led by Cato the Elder, had gained ground.  Cato the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson Cato the Younger was from an ancient Plebian family who all served in Rome’s army.  The Consul Lucius Flaccus brought him to Rome where he held successively high offices, Military tribune, Questor, Aedile, Praetor and Consul and finally censor in 184 BCE. He fought in the Second Punic War when Hannibal overran Italy to the time Hasdrubal lost his life in battle.  Afterwards he served on the peace council to Carthage, where he urged the destruction of that city.  They say after visiting the area and seeing the prosperity and revitalization of Carthage that he was convinced that, the security of Rome must rely on its annihilation.  It was from that time on he began to use the phrase “Moreover, I advise Carthage must be destroyed.”  To the Romans themselves there was little in this behavior which seemed worthy of censure, it was respected rather as a traditional example of old Roman manners.  The senator Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, who favored a different course that would not destroy Carthage, and who usually prevailed in the debates, opposed him.

  The chief magistrates of the Roman Republic had almost become a patrimony of a few distinguished families whose wealth was correspondent with the upper-class birth.  Popular acts of graceful but corrupting generosity, by charming manners, and by the appeal of hereditary honors-they collected.  Their material power granted by a multitude of clients and followers.  Nevertheless, reaction to them was strong.  The less fortunate nobles jealous of this exclusive oligarchy placed themselves at the head of a party that showed its determination to rely on purer models to attach importance to ancient ways.  In their eyes rusticity, austerity, and asceticism were the marks of Sabine robustness and religion, and of the old Roman inflexible integrity of love of order.

  In the Senate Lucius Scipio was prosecuted on the grounds of misappropriation of money received from Antiochus and  was about to show his account books. As Lucius was in the act of producing his account-books, his brother wrested them from his hands, tore them in pieces, and flung them on the floor of the Senate house. Cornelius Scipio Africanus then allegedly asked the courts why they were concerned about how 3,000 talents had been spent and apparently unconcerned about how 15,000 Talents were now entering the state coffers (the tribute that Antiochus was paying Rome after his defeat by Lucius).   This high-handed act shamed the prosecution, and it appears that the case against Lucius was dismissed, though Lucius would again be prosecuted, and this time convicted, (but after the death of Scipio Africanus).

  In 185 BCE Cornelius Scipio Africanus, subsequently was accused of being bribed by Antiochus. By reminding the people that it was the anniversary of his victory at Zama, he caused an outburst of enthusiasm in his favor. The people crowded round him and followed him to the Capitol, where they offered thanks to the gods and begged them to give Rome more citizens like Cornelius Scipio Africanus. 

City of Rome in the time of the Republic

Despite the popular support that Scipio commanded, there were renewed attempts to bring him to trial, but these appear to have been deflected by his future son-in-law, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the Elder (Livy, History of Rome, XXXVIII, 53).   It is supposedly in gratitude for this act that Scipio betrothed his youngest daughter Cornelia Africana Minor (then aged about 5) to Gracchus, several decades her senior.  He married her when she was 18 in 172 BCE.  Scipio retired to his country seat at Liternum on the coast of Campania. He lived there for the rest of his life, revealing his great magnanimity by attempting to prevent the ruin of the exiled Hannibal by Rome. He died probably in 183 BCE (the actual year and date of his death is unknown) aged about 53.

  From 184 -149 BCE Cato the Elder held no public office, but he continued to distinguish himself in the senate as the persistent opponent to new ideas.  Although he did get to see the beginning of the Third Punic War before dieing, (he died in the same year it began).

   By the middle of the second century, Carthage was thriving and it was hurting the trade of those Romans who had investments in North Africa.  Meanwhile, African tribes neighboring Carthage, the Numidian tribes who knew that according to the peace treaty between Carthage and Rome that been had concluded after the Second Punic War, if Carthage overstepped the line drawn in the sand to take military action against them, Rome would interpret the move as an act of aggression. This offered these daring African neighbors to raid Carthage with impunity.

Numidian Raiding Party

The Numidians took advantage of this reason to feel secure and made many raids into Carthaginian territory, knowing their victims could not pursue them.  Eventually, Carthage became tired of the Numidian/Roman charade and in 149 BCE Carthage got back into armor and went after the Numidians. The Numidians under Massinissa who had a treaty and was an ally of Rome sent messengers to Rome reporting the actions taken by Carthage.