Treaties between Rome and Carthage
Encyclopedia
The treaties between Rome and Carthage are the four treaties between the two states that were signed between 509 BC and 279 BC
. The treaties influenced the course of history in the Mediterranean, and are important for understanding the relationship between the two most important cities of the region during that era. They reveal changes in how Rome perceived itself and how Carthage perceived Rome, and the differences between the perception of the cities and their actual characteristics.
As city-state
s that became empire
s, Rome
and Carthage
eventually found it necessary to formalise their reciprocal interests and zones of influence. For centuries, the two operated side by side, even as allies. Their economic interests and methods of expansion were different: Rome did not look to the sea, engaged first in defending itself against the neighbouring Samnites
, Etruscans, Gauls
, and Greeks
, and then in conquering them; Carthage, lacking a real civic army and repelled in Sicily
by the Greeks, appeared indecisive regarding its expansion strategy: while the aristocratic party was inclined to extend the power of the city into surrounding lands, the commercial party was more interested in exploiting trade routes and markets. By stipulating and observing four main treaties, the relationship between Rome and Carthage was one of tolerance for centuries.
n colonists
from Tyre, and by the 6th century BC the sailors and merchants of Carthage were known throughout the western Mediterranean. In the 4th century BC, following a series of military conquests, Carthage controlled many territories west of the gulf of Sirte
in present-day Libya
, and much of the coasts of Numidia
and Iberia
. The coasts of Sardinia
and Corsica
were already under Carthaginian control when the city-state attempted, in three wars between 480
and 307 BC
, to conquer Sicily. These attempts were stopped by the Greeks
, who had, by then, heavily colonized the island. Primarily interested in commerce, Carthage had no standing army, and mostly used mercenary forces composed of Numidia
n cavalry, Libyans, and Iberians
.
). With respect to maritime commerce, the Romans simply entrusted themselves to the Etruscan and Greek fleets.
, Adriatic
and Ionian
seas were largely controlled by the maritime cities of the Greeks (in Greece
, Asia Minor
, and, after Alexander the Great, Egypt
), while the western Mediterranean was the commercial zone of the Carthaginians, with the exception of the Tyrrhenian Sea
, which Carthage shared with the Etruscans and the Greek colonies of southern Italy.
after years of war -crystal
The first treaty between the two city-states was signed the year the Roman Republic
was founded, in 509 BC as dated by the Varronian method. The calculations of Polybius
, a Greek historian whose calculations are based on the years of the Persian expedition
against the Greek free cities, produced a slightly different date; he wrote that the events of the treaty took place "twenty-eight years before the passage of Xerxes into Greece". Xerxes
, the king of Persia, crossed the Hellespont with his armies in June, 480 BC.
During the war with Ardea
, following the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud, Rome found that it needed to secure itself and its supplies, which were controlled for the most part by Greek and Etruscan merchants, since the Etrsucan Cerveteri
and its port of Pyrgi supplied Rome. Rome therefore tried to gain the support of the Carthaginians who by that time were already operating in Cerveteri, as evidenced by votive writings found in Etruscan and Phoenician.
At the same time, Carthage was engaged in fighting the Greek colonies that had spread from Greece across the western Mediterranean. The presence of Greek cities along the coasts of southern Italy and the eastern part of Sicily limited Phoenician commerce to the region's interior. In Spain
and Provence
, Carthage fought to compete with Phocaea
n colonies, and in Sardinia and Corsica, Carthage was joined by the Etruscans in their competition with the Phocaeans, resulting, subsequently, in the Phocaeans being driven out, Corsica and the Tyrrhenian becoming Etruscan, and Sardinia and the western half of Sicily becoming Carthaginian (eastern Sicily would remain Greek for centuries). Additionally, in 510 BC, Carthage had to fight to hold off Spartan incursions into western Sicily.
Per the treaty, Carthage did not renounce any military action except against a small territory, Latium, and maintained a free hand for action against the Greeks and Etruscans, both of whom were militarily and economically more powerful and dangerous than Rome.
In the graphic at right, the following areas are highlighted and labeled:
Roman expansion, before the fall of Tarquin the Proud, was directed towards the Tyrrhenian coast to the southwest, and the Roman Republic was proclaimed while Tarquin's army was fighting Ardea. It can be supposed that Rome, with its small size, wanted to formalize the exclusion of competition from Carthage while it began pressuring the Greeks. Otherwise, the contrast of this diplomacy with the war against Ardea would not be so pronounced, nor would it make sense to specifically exclude Carthaginian fortresses.
, and repelled the Gallic
invasion of 390 BC, although it felt threatened by the second Gallic invasion of 360 BC. Rome had been and still was shaken by internal strife, especially between the patricians and the plebeians for access to public office and therefore to political activity and the management of land and spoils of the incessant wars. Rome was also fighting the Ernici
, the Volsci
, the Tiburtini, and the Etruscans, and was preparing for battle with the Samnites, who were coming down from the mountains to raid rich Campania, which Rome also desired.
In Sicily and in southern Italy, where Dionysis the Great
had created the beginnings of a unified state, Dionysius the Younger
, his son, tried to enlarge his inheritance, but met with resistance from other Greek forces. A flurry of alliances, including some with the Carthaginians, led to the disintegration of Dionysius's power, and his deposition in 345 BC. Taranto, which had been left out of the fighting, grew in power, and other forces arrived from Greece. Rome was beginning to assert its influence in these struggles.
Carthage, after having closed the war with the Cyrenaica
, thus stabilizing the eastern boundary of the Phoenician territory, had been always at war with the Greeks and in particular with Syracuse, for control of Sicily. It was also in conflict with the Etruscans, who, blocked by the Gauls from northern Italy, and by the Romans from Latium, applied themselves aggressively to the Tyrrhenian Sea to control traffic there.
, while promising not to attack the coastal cities of Latium that had allied themselves with Rome. Similar to the first treaty, it stated that there "shall be friendship between the Romans and their allies, and the Carthaginians, Tyrians, and [the] township of Utica" on the conditions listed, and that Romans were allowed to trade and do business in the Carthaginian province of Sicily and in Carthage, and Carthaginians were allowed to trade and do business in Rome.
It is therefore to the credit of Carthaginian diplomacy that the revision to the 509 BC treaty imposed additional restrictions on Rome, written at a time when it was heavily engaged in military (and therefore financial) obligations. Additionally, the prohibition against Rome's founding of cities did not appear in the first treaty, and shows that Carthage may have caught on to the method of Roman expansion; commerce did not interest Rome as much as the control and exploitation of its territory. To the Romans, if an area was deserted it would be substantially occupied; if the area was inhabited, it would be conquered and forced to pay in assets and troops, and eventually to accept Roman or Latin colonies. This was probably foreign to the commercial mentality of the Carthaginians in 509 BC, who founded colonies almost exclusively to support warehouses.
There were other incidents causing unrest, in other parts of the region. Alexander the Great died in June, 323 BC
, and the territory he had conquered was being fought over by the Diadochi
, the generals of the Macedonian army; Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Syria were involved in incessant wars that threatened peaceful trade; and Agathocles
ascended the throne of Syracuse
in 316 BC
and began a campaign to rid Sicily of the Carthaginians, and in 311 BC
, having been defeated in Sicily, carried the war to Africa before allying himself with Cyrenaica
the following year.
In 303 BC
, Rome and Taranto
concluded a treaty that fixed the limits of Roman navigation at the Lacine promontory (see Capo Colonna
) and by 306 BC Rome had come to an agreement with Rhodes
, another city undergoing strong commercial expansion.
, recent research suggests that such a treaty did in fact exist. Philinus claimed that the treaty included Rome's agreement not to enter Sicily and Carthage's agreement not to set foot on the peninsula, i.e. the stipulations on Carthage did not change while Rome now found itself shut out of the Sicilian market.
officially ended in 290 BC
, and the subsequent actions of Rome within its territory had reduced the pressure of the Italian populace on the Greek cities in southern Italy, and in particular Taranto
; the Italians themselves were being attacked by the Roman army. Taranto was experiencing a period of wealth and expansion, to the point of securing a treaty that limited Roman navigation (see above). In 282 BC
, ten Roman ships appeared in Tarantine waters, violating the treaty, but they were either destroyed or forced to escape. When a Roman delegation was sent to request restitution for the ships and the captured prisoners, it was insulted, and war between the two states began in 281 BC
. The Tarantines at first tried to form an anti-Roman league with the Italic populace, but it was considered to be insufficient, and thus, in 280 BC
, they requested the assistance of Pyrrhus
to lead the war against the Romans.
Pyrrhus arrived with an army of 25,000 men and 20 elephants in Taranto, when it was succumbing to the Roman army, and presented himself as the champion of Greece against the advance of the Italic barbarians. Pyrrhus' attack on Rome was heralded as a success: the Battle of Heraclea
in Lucania
against the legions under Publius Valerius Levinus was won thanks to the use of elephants( which the Romans had never seen and called them Lucanian bulls ). In 279 BC, a second great battle, the Battle of Asculum, at Ascoli Satriano
, was seen as a victory by Pyrrhus over the forces of the consuls Publius Supilcius and Decius Mus
. This battle, however, exacted heavy losses on the victor, so great that it inspired the term "Pyrrhic victory
". Pyrrhus subsequently returned to Taranto.
Syracuse remained at war with Carthage and, after the death of Agathocles
, was further embroiled in a civil war. The former, trying to change its lot and taking advantage of the fact that Pyrrhus had married Agathocles' daughter, offered him the crown of Sicily in exchange for helping them throw off the Carthaginians. Pyrrhus accepted, partly to leave the peninsula and avoid the Romans. Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, and was successful in pushing the Carthaginians to the Lilybaeum on western coast. These manoeuvres by Syracuse and Pyrrhus prompted Carthage to sign the fourth treaty with Rome.
, and would pay the cost of supplies and cargo. The treaty also implied that Carthage was offering Rome the help of its navy against Pyrrhus, since Roman generals, such as Publius Cornelius Scipio
, commonly used the sailors of its transport ships alongside the soldiers, in battle.
An improvement in Rome's condition followed soon after the treaty, which acknowledged its increased military and economic powers. The treaty, on the other hand, betrayed Carthage's relative weakness in conceding that Rome was an equal, which was probably a result of its difficulties in Sicily. It may also have been this treaty that led the Romans to understand their capacity for development, the importance and the power of the Republic, and the limits of the power of Carthage. Rome would subsequently defeat Pyrrhus, who by then had defeated the Carthaginians, and needed only to extend its reach to conquer rich Sicily, with its grain reserves.
In 275 BC, after the defeat of Maleventum (Beneventum), Pyrrhus returned Epirus and Rome was left master of the entire Italian peninsula south of the Tusco-Emilian Apennines
. Rome was also left in close contact with Greek culture, near-mastery of shipbuilding and management, and aware of the power of its legions and of the possibility of expansion.
The First Punic war
began fifteen years later, in 264 BC
.
279 BC
Year 279 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Saverrius and Mus...
. The treaties influenced the course of history in the Mediterranean, and are important for understanding the relationship between the two most important cities of the region during that era. They reveal changes in how Rome perceived itself and how Carthage perceived Rome, and the differences between the perception of the cities and their actual characteristics.
As city-state
City-state
A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...
s that became empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
s, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
eventually found it necessary to formalise their reciprocal interests and zones of influence. For centuries, the two operated side by side, even as allies. Their economic interests and methods of expansion were different: Rome did not look to the sea, engaged first in defending itself against the neighbouring Samnites
Samnium
Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of south or south and central Italy in Roman times. The name survives in Italian today, but today's territory comprising it is only a small portion of what it once was. The populations of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans...
, Etruscans, Gauls
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
, and Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, and then in conquering them; Carthage, lacking a real civic army and repelled in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
by the Greeks, appeared indecisive regarding its expansion strategy: while the aristocratic party was inclined to extend the power of the city into surrounding lands, the commercial party was more interested in exploiting trade routes and markets. By stipulating and observing four main treaties, the relationship between Rome and Carthage was one of tolerance for centuries.
Carthage
Carthage was founded in 814 BC by PhoeniciaPhoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n colonists
Colonies in antiquity
Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city—its "metropolis"—, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained often close, and took specific forms...
from Tyre, and by the 6th century BC the sailors and merchants of Carthage were known throughout the western Mediterranean. In the 4th century BC, following a series of military conquests, Carthage controlled many territories west of the gulf of Sirte
Sirte
Sirte is a city in LibyaSirte may also refer to:* Sirte Declaration, a 1999 resolution to create the African Union* Sirte Oil Company, a Libyan oil companyIn geography:* Gulf of Sirte, alias for Gulf of Sidra on Libya's coast...
in present-day Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, and much of the coasts of Numidia
Numidia
Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
and Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
. The coasts of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
were already under Carthaginian control when the city-state attempted, in three wars between 480
480 BC
Year 480 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Cincinnatus...
and 307 BC
307 BC
Year 307 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caecus and Violens...
, to conquer Sicily. These attempts were stopped by the Greeks
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, who had, by then, heavily colonized the island. Primarily interested in commerce, Carthage had no standing army, and mostly used mercenary forces composed of Numidia
Numidia
Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
n cavalry, Libyans, and Iberians
Iberians
The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
.
Rome
Rome was founded only seventy years after Carthage (in 753 BC, following Varronian chronology). For the first several centuries of its history, Rome was involved in a lengthy series of wars with its neighbours, which resulted in the Roman army's specialization in land warfare. The Roman economy and social structure began to incorporate the results of these wars: taking loot or tribute, redistributing conquered land, and sometimes using subjugated peoples as military allies (sociiFoederati
Foederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
). With respect to maritime commerce, the Romans simply entrusted themselves to the Etruscan and Greek fleets.
Commercial control
In the 2nd century BC, a great line divided the commerce of the Mediterranean: the AegeanAegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, Adriatic
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
and Ionian
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...
seas were largely controlled by the maritime cities of the Greeks (in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, and, after Alexander the Great, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
), while the western Mediterranean was the commercial zone of the Carthaginians, with the exception of the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
, which Carthage shared with the Etruscans and the Greek colonies of southern Italy.
after years of war -crystal
Background
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
was founded, in 509 BC as dated by the Varronian method. The calculations of Polybius
Polybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
, a Greek historian whose calculations are based on the years of the Persian expedition
Greco-Persian Wars
The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and city-states of the Hellenic world that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus...
against the Greek free cities, produced a slightly different date; he wrote that the events of the treaty took place "twenty-eight years before the passage of Xerxes into Greece". Xerxes
Xerxes I of Persia
Xerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:...
, the king of Persia, crossed the Hellespont with his armies in June, 480 BC.
During the war with Ardea
Ardea (RM)
Ardea is an ancient town and comune in the province of Rome, 35 km south of Rome and about 4 km from today's Mediterranean coast....
, following the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud, Rome found that it needed to secure itself and its supplies, which were controlled for the most part by Greek and Etruscan merchants, since the Etrsucan Cerveteri
Cerveteri
Cerveteri is a town and comune of the northern Lazio, in the province of Rome. Originally known as Caere , it is famous for a number of Etruscan necropolis that include some of the best Etruscan tombs anywhere....
and its port of Pyrgi supplied Rome. Rome therefore tried to gain the support of the Carthaginians who by that time were already operating in Cerveteri, as evidenced by votive writings found in Etruscan and Phoenician.
At the same time, Carthage was engaged in fighting the Greek colonies that had spread from Greece across the western Mediterranean. The presence of Greek cities along the coasts of southern Italy and the eastern part of Sicily limited Phoenician commerce to the region's interior. In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
, Carthage fought to compete with Phocaea
Phocaea
Phocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the northernmost...
n colonies, and in Sardinia and Corsica, Carthage was joined by the Etruscans in their competition with the Phocaeans, resulting, subsequently, in the Phocaeans being driven out, Corsica and the Tyrrhenian becoming Etruscan, and Sardinia and the western half of Sicily becoming Carthaginian (eastern Sicily would remain Greek for centuries). Additionally, in 510 BC, Carthage had to fight to hold off Spartan incursions into western Sicily.
Terms of the treaty
This treaty was signed between Rome and Carthage twenty-eight years before the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, according to Polybius. The treaty stated that there "shall be friendship between the Romans and their allies, and the Carthaginians and their allies" on the conditions listed below.Conditions on Rome and her allies
The conditions imposed by the treaty on Rome and her allies were that- They were not to sail past Cape Bello (i.e. into the gulf of Carthage), unless driven there by storm or enemies;
- If anyone was "driven ashore" he was only to buy or take what was needed for "the repair of his ship and the service of the gods", and had to leave within five days; and
- Merchants could operate in Sardinia and Libya only in the presence of a herald or town-clerk, and the sale would be secured by the state.
Conditions on Carthage and her allies
The conditions imposed by the treaty of Carthage and her allies were that- They were not to attack certain settlements named in the treaty, that were "subject to the Romans";
- They were not to attack even townships not subject to Rome, and if they conquered one they were to "deliver it unharmed to the Romans";
- They were not to build fortresses in Latium;
- They could not stay the night in Latium if they entered the district armed; and
- In Carthaginian Sicily, Romans were to have the same rights as Carthaginians.
Implications
In the graphic at right, the following areas are highlighted and labeled:
- The area was forbidden to Rome by the treaty. By then, Carthage with its navy had already blocked any competition beyond the channel of Sicily or along the African coast.
- The area not under direct Carthaginian control. In fact, Greek and Etruscan mariners sailed there freely; Carthage reserved the right to refuse competition, but "magnanimously" offered the Romans shelter in case of emergencies or bad weather.
- The area under Greek and Etruscan control.
Roman expansion, before the fall of Tarquin the Proud, was directed towards the Tyrrhenian coast to the southwest, and the Roman Republic was proclaimed while Tarquin's army was fighting Ardea. It can be supposed that Rome, with its small size, wanted to formalize the exclusion of competition from Carthage while it began pressuring the Greeks. Otherwise, the contrast of this diplomacy with the war against Ardea would not be so pronounced, nor would it make sense to specifically exclude Carthaginian fortresses.
Background
After 150 years of campaigning, Rome had conquered a good portion of Etruria, destroyed VeiiVeii
Veii was, in ancient times, an important Etrurian city NNW of Rome, Italy; its site lies in Isola Farnese, a village of Municipio XX, an administrative subdivision of the comune of Rome in the Province of Rome...
, and repelled the Gallic
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
invasion of 390 BC, although it felt threatened by the second Gallic invasion of 360 BC. Rome had been and still was shaken by internal strife, especially between the patricians and the plebeians for access to public office and therefore to political activity and the management of land and spoils of the incessant wars. Rome was also fighting the Ernici
Hernici
The Hernici were an ancient people of Italy, whose territory was in Latium between the Lago di Fucino and the Sacco River , bounded by the Volsci on the south, and by the Aequi and the Marsi on the north....
, the Volsci
Volsci
The Volsci were an ancient Italic people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from...
, the Tiburtini, and the Etruscans, and was preparing for battle with the Samnites, who were coming down from the mountains to raid rich Campania, which Rome also desired.
In Sicily and in southern Italy, where Dionysis the Great
Dionysius I of Syracuse
Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse, in what is now Sicily, southern Italy. He conquered several cities in Sicily and southern Italy, opposed Carthage's influence in Sicily and made Syracuse the most powerful of the Western Greek colonies...
had created the beginnings of a unified state, Dionysius the Younger
Dionysius II of Syracuse
Dionysius the Younger or Dionysius II ruled Syracuse, Sicily from 367 BC to 357 BC and again from 346 BC to 344 BC....
, his son, tried to enlarge his inheritance, but met with resistance from other Greek forces. A flurry of alliances, including some with the Carthaginians, led to the disintegration of Dionysius's power, and his deposition in 345 BC. Taranto, which had been left out of the fighting, grew in power, and other forces arrived from Greece. Rome was beginning to assert its influence in these struggles.
Carthage, after having closed the war with the Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...
, thus stabilizing the eastern boundary of the Phoenician territory, had been always at war with the Greeks and in particular with Syracuse, for control of Sicily. It was also in conflict with the Etruscans, who, blocked by the Gauls from northern Italy, and by the Romans from Latium, applied themselves aggressively to the Tyrrhenian Sea to control traffic there.
Terms of the treaty
This second treaty was an attempt to copy the first treaty, with the addition of some cities. The Carthaginians added Tyre and UticaUtica, Tunisia
Utica is an ancient city northwest of Carthage near the outflow of the Medjerda River into the Mediterranean Sea, traditionally considered to be the first colony founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa...
, while promising not to attack the coastal cities of Latium that had allied themselves with Rome. Similar to the first treaty, it stated that there "shall be friendship between the Romans and their allies, and the Carthaginians, Tyrians, and [the] township of Utica" on the conditions listed, and that Romans were allowed to trade and do business in the Carthaginian province of Sicily and in Carthage, and Carthaginians were allowed to trade and do business in Rome.
Conditions on Rome and her allies
- The Romans were not to maraud, traffic or found a city east of "the Fair Promontory, MastiaMastiaMastia is the name of an ancient Iberian ethnicity, belonging to the Tartessian confederation, located in southeastern Spain and has traditionally been associated with the city of Cartagena , mainly from the analysis of classical sources in the early twentieth century made the German Adolf...
, Tarseium." - If the Romans took prisoners, "between whom and Carthage a peace has been made in writing, though they be not subject to them", the Romans were not to bring them to any Carthaginian harbor. Additionally, if such a prisoner were brought ashore, and any Carthaginian lay claim to him, he was to be released.
- If a Roman took water or provisions from any district within the jurisdiction of Carthage, he was not to injure, while so doing, any between whom and Carthage there was peace and friendship. Violation of this rule was to be a public misdemeanor.
- A Romans was not to traffic or found a city in Sardinia and Libya, and could only take provisions and refit his ship. If a storm had driven him to one of those coasts, he was to depart within five days.
Conditions on Carthage, Tyre and Utica
- If the Carthaginians conquered any city in Latium that was not subject to Rome, they may keep the prisoners and the goods but were to deliver the town to Rome.
- If the Carthaginians took prisoners, "between whom and Rome a peace has been made in writing, though they be not subject to them", the Carthaginians were not to bring them to any Roman harbor. Additionally, if such a prisoner were brought ashore, and any Roman lay claim to him, he was to be released. In like manner shall the Romans be bound towards the Carthaginians.
- If a Carthaginian took water or provisions from any district within the jurisdiction of Rome, he was not to injure, while so doing, any between whom and Rome there was peace and friendship. Violation of this rule was to be a public misdemeanor.
Implications
Carthage saw Rome as a possible adversary that had resisted invasion and in war was proving itself potentially dangerous. Rome also controlled a large amount of territory, larger—if not richer—than its perennial rival Syracuse. Moreover, the fact that Carthage allowed Phoenician merchants to operate in Rome shows that the former did not fear commercial competition from Rome and that it could operate it own territories, while treating Rome as an upcoming potential client that should be put under its political control.It is therefore to the credit of Carthaginian diplomacy that the revision to the 509 BC treaty imposed additional restrictions on Rome, written at a time when it was heavily engaged in military (and therefore financial) obligations. Additionally, the prohibition against Rome's founding of cities did not appear in the first treaty, and shows that Carthage may have caught on to the method of Roman expansion; commerce did not interest Rome as much as the control and exploitation of its territory. To the Romans, if an area was deserted it would be substantially occupied; if the area was inhabited, it would be conquered and forced to pay in assets and troops, and eventually to accept Roman or Latin colonies. This was probably foreign to the commercial mentality of the Carthaginians in 509 BC, who founded colonies almost exclusively to support warehouses.
Third treaty 306 BC
Background
During this period, Rome was in control of most of southern Etruria and the territory of Campania, and was in the middle of its wars with the Samnites. Begun in 343 BC, these would not be concluded until 290 BC, and had become a regional revolt, with the populations of Latium and Etruria trying to free themselves from Roman rule.There were other incidents causing unrest, in other parts of the region. Alexander the Great died in June, 323 BC
323 BC
Year 323 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Longus and Cerretanus...
, and the territory he had conquered was being fought over by the Diadochi
Diadochi
The Diadochi were the rival generals, family and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for the control of Alexander's empire after his death in 323 BC...
, the generals of the Macedonian army; Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Syria were involved in incessant wars that threatened peaceful trade; and Agathocles
Agathocles
Agathocles , , was tyrant of Syracuse and king of Sicily .-Biography:...
ascended the throne of Syracuse
Syracuse, Italy
Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in...
in 316 BC
316 BC
Year 316 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rutilus and Laenas...
and began a campaign to rid Sicily of the Carthaginians, and in 311 BC
311 BC
Year 311 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Brutus and Barbula...
, having been defeated in Sicily, carried the war to Africa before allying himself with Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...
the following year.
In 303 BC
303 BC
Year 303 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Aventinensis...
, Rome and Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
concluded a treaty that fixed the limits of Roman navigation at the Lacine promontory (see Capo Colonna
Capo Colonna
Capo Colonna is a cape of Calabria located near Crotone....
) and by 306 BC Rome had come to an agreement with Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, another city undergoing strong commercial expansion.
Existence and terms of the treaty
While Polybius claimed that this treaty never existed but was a forgery of the pro-carthagininan historian PhilinusPhilinus of Agrigentum
Philinus of Agrigentum lived during the First Punic War and wrote its history from a pro-Cathaginian standpoint. His writings were used as a source by Polybius for his description of the First Punic War. Although Polybius uses Philinus' writings he does also accuse him of being biased and...
, recent research suggests that such a treaty did in fact exist. Philinus claimed that the treaty included Rome's agreement not to enter Sicily and Carthage's agreement not to set foot on the peninsula, i.e. the stipulations on Carthage did not change while Rome now found itself shut out of the Sicilian market.
Fourth treaty 279 BC
Background
The Samnite WarsSamnite Wars
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars, between the early Roman Republic and the tribes of Samnium, extended over half a century, involving almost all the states of Italy, and ended in Roman domination of the Samnites...
officially ended in 290 BC
290 BC
Year 290 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufinus and Dentatus...
, and the subsequent actions of Rome within its territory had reduced the pressure of the Italian populace on the Greek cities in southern Italy, and in particular Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
; the Italians themselves were being attacked by the Roman army. Taranto was experiencing a period of wealth and expansion, to the point of securing a treaty that limited Roman navigation (see above). In 282 BC
282 BC
Year 282 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Luscinus and Papus...
, ten Roman ships appeared in Tarantine waters, violating the treaty, but they were either destroyed or forced to escape. When a Roman delegation was sent to request restitution for the ships and the captured prisoners, it was insulted, and war between the two states began in 281 BC
281 BC
Year 281 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Barbula and Philippus...
. The Tarantines at first tried to form an anti-Roman league with the Italic populace, but it was considered to be insufficient, and thus, in 280 BC
280 BC
Year 280 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Laevinus and Coruncanius...
, they requested the assistance of Pyrrhus
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Pyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic era. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became king of Epirus and Macedon . He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome...
to lead the war against the Romans.
Pyrrhus arrived with an army of 25,000 men and 20 elephants in Taranto, when it was succumbing to the Roman army, and presented himself as the champion of Greece against the advance of the Italic barbarians. Pyrrhus' attack on Rome was heralded as a success: the Battle of Heraclea
Battle of Heraclea
The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of Consul Publius Valerius Laevinus and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of King Pyrrhus of Epirus....
in Lucania
Lucania
Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...
against the legions under Publius Valerius Levinus was won thanks to the use of elephants( which the Romans had never seen and called them Lucanian bulls ). In 279 BC, a second great battle, the Battle of Asculum, at Ascoli Satriano
Ascoli Satriano
Ascoli Satriano is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.-History:Ascoli was a city of the Dauni. It was the seat of two early Roman battles . Later Sulla build a military colony here.In the mid-9th century it was set on fire by the Saracens...
, was seen as a victory by Pyrrhus over the forces of the consuls Publius Supilcius and Decius Mus
Decius Mus
Publius Decius Mus is the name of three Romans who sacrificed themselves in battle, in the belief that the infernal gods would then destroy their enemies....
. This battle, however, exacted heavy losses on the victor, so great that it inspired the term "Pyrrhic victory
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with such a devastating cost to the victor that it carries the implication that another such victory will ultimately cause defeat.-Origin:...
". Pyrrhus subsequently returned to Taranto.
Syracuse remained at war with Carthage and, after the death of Agathocles
Agathocles
Agathocles , , was tyrant of Syracuse and king of Sicily .-Biography:...
, was further embroiled in a civil war. The former, trying to change its lot and taking advantage of the fact that Pyrrhus had married Agathocles' daughter, offered him the crown of Sicily in exchange for helping them throw off the Carthaginians. Pyrrhus accepted, partly to leave the peninsula and avoid the Romans. Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, and was successful in pushing the Carthaginians to the Lilybaeum on western coast. These manoeuvres by Syracuse and Pyrrhus prompted Carthage to sign the fourth treaty with Rome.
Terms of the treaty
The treaty contained the same provisions as the two earlier treaty, with the addition of the following.- If Rome or Carthage make a treaty of alliance against Pyrrhus, the two states were to make it on such terms as not to preclude one giving aid to the other, if that one's territory is attacked.
- If either the Romans or the Carthaginians stand in need of help, Carthage was to supply the ships, whether for transport or war, but each state was to pay for its own men employed on the ships.
- The Carthaginians were to give aid by sea to the Romans if need be; but no one was to compel the crews of the ships to disembark against their will.
Implications and aftermath
While each party to the treaty was not obliged to come to the aid of the other, it was an attempt by Carthage, which felt itself less able to carry out land warfare, to drag Rome into a land war in Sicily: the Carthaginians would supply ships for the transport of troopsTroopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
, and would pay the cost of supplies and cargo. The treaty also implied that Carthage was offering Rome the help of its navy against Pyrrhus, since Roman generals, such as Publius Cornelius Scipio
Publius Cornelius Scipio
Publius Cornelius Scipio was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic.A member of the Corneliagens, Scipio served as consul in 218 BC, the first year of the Second Punic War, and sailed with an army from Pisa to Massilia , with the intention of arresting Hannibal's advance on Italy...
, commonly used the sailors of its transport ships alongside the soldiers, in battle.
An improvement in Rome's condition followed soon after the treaty, which acknowledged its increased military and economic powers. The treaty, on the other hand, betrayed Carthage's relative weakness in conceding that Rome was an equal, which was probably a result of its difficulties in Sicily. It may also have been this treaty that led the Romans to understand their capacity for development, the importance and the power of the Republic, and the limits of the power of Carthage. Rome would subsequently defeat Pyrrhus, who by then had defeated the Carthaginians, and needed only to extend its reach to conquer rich Sicily, with its grain reserves.
In 275 BC, after the defeat of Maleventum (Beneventum), Pyrrhus returned Epirus and Rome was left master of the entire Italian peninsula south of the Tusco-Emilian Apennines
Apennine mountains
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains or Greek oros but just as often used alone as a noun. The ancient Greeks and Romans typically but not always used "mountain" in the singular to mean one or a range; thus, "the Apennine mountain" refers to the entire chain and is translated "the Apennine...
. Rome was also left in close contact with Greek culture, near-mastery of shipbuilding and management, and aware of the power of its legions and of the possibility of expansion.
The First Punic war
First Punic War
The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...
began fifteen years later, in 264 BC
264 BC
Year 264 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caudex and Flaccus...
.
See also
- RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
- CarthageCarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
- The Punic WarsPunic WarsThe Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 B.C.E. to 146 B.C.E. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had ever taken place...
, specifically, the First Punic WarFirst Punic WarThe First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in... - Ancient GreeceAncient GreeceAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
- Magna GraeciaMagna GraeciaMagna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...
- Pyrrhus of EpirusPyrrhus of EpirusPyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic era. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became king of Epirus and Macedon . He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome...
- Alexander the Great
- Magna Graecia