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The Imperial Republic HISTORYHISTORY — ROME The Imperial Republic Once a republic reluctant to fight wars except in selfdefense, Rome became an imperial colossus capable of annihilating an entire nation out of sheer spite. by Steve Bonta Romans, who had deployed extra infantry Rome by brute experience that imperial in the center of the formation in hopes of expansion has a high price. This is the third installment in a series of breaking through the Carthaginian lines, Rome had never been a peaceful state. articles on the rise and fall of the Roman found themselves outflanked by elite In the early centuries of the republic, how- Republic. North African cavalry units. Hannibal’s ever, many of Rome’s conflicts were pro- cavalry overwhelmed the Roman cavalry voked by jealous neighbors like the Vols- n all of human history, there have been on both flanks and then swept behind the cians and the Aequans. The early Italian few spectacles to rival the great battles Roman forces to attack from the rear. In peninsula was a tough neighborhood, with I of the ancient world, with their pag- short order, the Romans were completely rival Etruscan and Latin states, including eantry, color — and awful carnage. And hemmed in by the Carthaginians. Han- Rome, jostling for control, and the Gauls, few battles of that age could match the nibal’s numerically inferior forces then who occupied parts of northern Italy, fre- drama that unfolded under the hot Ital- slaughtered the Romans on the field al- quently making incursions southward. ian sun one August morning in 216 B.C. most to a man. Enclaves of southern Italy, called Magna near Cannae during the Second Punic War. When the choking dust of battle subsid- Graeca, or “Greater Greece,” were Greek. On that fateful day, two of the mightiest ed, more than 70,000 Romans lay dead on Though conflict was frequent among all armies ever assembled faced each other for the fields of Cannae, including one con- of these jostling ethnic groups, many of what was to be a cataclysmic showdown. sul and at least two former consuls, not to Rome’s early campaigns against her pen- On one side was arrayed almost the entire mention most of the rest of Rome’s land insular neighbors were defensive, not ex- military force of Rome: eight full legions, forces. Ten thousand more, who had been pansionist. amounting to more than 80,000 men. On left to guard the Roman camp, were taken It was Rome’s dispute with the Greek the other were the forces of Carthage, led prisoner by the victorious Carthaginians, city of Tarentum in southern Italy that by the matchless Hannibal, the greatest foe who themselves had lost only 6,000 men. gave Rome her first taste of conflict with Rome had ever faced. Only 3,000 Romans escaped Cannae alive. an overseas power. The Tarentines request- With dazzling speed, Hannibal had led By all appearances, Rome was doomed. ed the aid of Pyrrhus, who sailed with his his vast army out of Spain, across southern The brilliant and apparently invincible forces across the Adriatic and defeated the Gaul, and over the Alps into Italy before Carthaginian general had virtually wiped Romans in two costly battles, Heraclea Rome even realized he had left the Ibe- out Rome’s military forces in a single and Asculum. In a later campaign, Rome rian peninsula. Hannibal’s army quickly stroke, and the road to Rome itself now finally defeated Pyrrhus at the Battle of inflicted two crushing defeats on Roman lay undefended. Beneventum, but was content to expel him forces, at Trebia and Lake Trasimene. For How could such a tragedy come to from Italy, rather than to seek reprisals on a time, the Romans adopted a policy of pass? In the fairly recent past, Rome had Greek territory. containment, avoiding direct battle with successfully fended off the challenge of Hannibal while harassing his forces and another military genius, Pyrrhus, the king A Fateful Choice attacking his supply lines. But Rome soon of Epirus, a kingdom in southwest Greece. The situation was far different a decade or tired of permitting Hannibal to ravage Rome’s leader at Cannae, Lucius Aemilius so later in 264 B.C., when Rome decided Italy uncontested, and resolved to risk all Paulus, had earned distinction in successful to intervene militarily in a conflict on the in a single battle. Hannibal’s forces, espe- campaigns in Illyricum (in the approximate island of Sicily. The powerful Greek city cially his celebrated elephants, had been area of modern Albania). In the First Punic of Syracuse had besieged the city of Mes- depleted by the arduous trek over the Alps War, the Romans had soundly beaten the sina, which was occupied by an unsavory and the subsequent campaigning. But they Carthaginians, leaving Rome in possession band of Italian mercenaries called the were still formidable: around 50,000 men, of the island of Sicily and with significant Mamertines. The Mamertines frequently including expert cavalrymen from Numid- alliances and interests elsewhere. plundered surrounding territories, as ban- ia in North Africa and slingers from the Now an upstart general with an uncon- dits are wont to do, until Syracuse grew Balearic Islands. ventional, multinational force had invaded weary of their depredations. The Mam- Amidst the din of trumpets and of bat- the Roman heartland and had struck a blow ertines, in turn, called upon both Rome tle cries, the two massive forces charged from which no reasonable observer could and Carthage for help. Initially only Car- across the plain, the respective infantries expect Rome to recover. Hannibal Barca thage jumped into the fray, but then Rome flanked on either side by crack cavalry was tutoring Rome in the costs of empire. — against her better judgment, and rat io- units. As the lines crashed together, the His massive invasion force was showing nalizing that she needed to act as a coun- 34 THE NEW AMERICAN • NOEMBER 1, 2004 terpoise against Carthage’s occupation of solve and the military genius to do Messina — jumped in as well. For the first so. After leading his army across The First Punic War exhausted both time ever, Rome sent a large expedition- the Alps into Italy, he won three ary force overseas, and soon found herself monumental victories against Rome and Carthage for a generation, directly confronting the Carthaginians for the Romans culminating in the but it had kindled in Rome a fatal yen control of Messina and the rest of Sicily. debacle at Cannae, victories that Thus began the first of the three Punic laid the Eternal City itself bare for for conquest. No longer content to Wars between Rome and Carthage. conquest. mind her own affairs in Italy, Rome The First Punic War, one of the costliest Fortunately for Rome, in one of in recorded history up to that time, lasted history’s more enduring myster- began to see herself as the mistress for 23 years. Because it was primarily a ies, Hannibal chose not to follow of the Mediterranean. naval conflict, the Carthaginians, with his crushing victory at Cannae their vast navy and experience with sea warfare, enjoyed a heavy ad- vantage. Nevertheless, the Romans soon built a navy of their own, de- signing their craft after captured Carthaginian vessels, and before long, the tide of the war began to change. Rome enjoyed a substantial constitutional advantage over Car- thage, because the old, oligarchic Carthaginian state could not match the vitality of Rome’s compara- tively open society and competitive marketplace. Rome failed in her at- tempt to conquer Carthage by land, but ultimately won the war at sea, forcing Carthage’s army stranded on Sicily to surrender. The First Punic War exhausted both Rome and Carthage for a gen- eration, but it had kindled in Rome a fatal yen for conquest. No longer content to mind her own affairs in Italy, Rome began to see herself as the mistress of the Mediterra- nean. Besides governing her new Sicilian territory, Rome sought to dictate terms to Carthage at the far western end of the Mediterranean, in Iberia. There, Rome ordered the Carthaginians to keep their forces south of the Ebro River. When the impetuous young Carthaginian general Hannibal flouted Rome’s dictate in 218 B.C., Rome declared war against Carthage for a second time. The Second Punic War was shorter than the first, but its 16 years exacted a far heavier toll on both sides than the first. Hannibal, according to Roman accounts, had Hannibal Crossing the Alps: In one of the most brilliant and unconventional maneuvers in military sworn an oath to fight Rome all his history, the Carthaginian leader Hannibal led his forces, complete with war elephants, across the Alps life and, unlike many of Carthage’s into Italy. Thousands of his men and nearly all of the elephants were lost in transit, but Hannibal still won dissolute nobility, possessed the re- many victories over Rome in the Italian heartland. THE NEW AMERICAN • NOEMBER 1, 2004 35 HISTORYHISTORY — ROME ing tactics kept Hannibal at war to Carthage itself. Only such a bold Rome was soon to learn an awful lesson: bay where direct confronta- move, he argued, would induce Hannibal, tion could not, and Marcus who was still making trouble in Italy, to Imperial republics are inherently unstable. Claudius Marcellus, whose vacate the Roman heartland and return to They must either abandon their designs of forces took Syracuse. But defend his own borders. Rome’s champion, and the Many senators, led by the now-vener- conquest abroad, or modify their domestic central figure of the age, was able Fabius Maximus, opposed Scipio’s policies to better conform to a program of Publius Cornelius Scipio, af- plan.
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