The Empire Writes Back: The First Punic War

by Ben Patterson

For the beginning of the next unofficial saga in our story, we’ll be going far, far back, much further back than the Norsemen. Rather than focusing on a chain of events as we did in the Viking story arc, we will instead be focusing on one particular state – the Roman Republic. Most are familiar with the Empire (hopefully through historical research and not the TikTok trend), but the Republic is an often-overlooked and crucial part of the history of the world’s most influential civilisation. In this part, I will go over some background context, but the main point of this is looking over the First Punic War.

The founding of the Eternal City itself, Rome, could denote an entire chapter all by itself, with another for the Kingdom that rose from its walls thereafter. However, they are not the focal point here, so I will provide a very brief summary: there reigned seven Kings of Rome, six of whom were downright lovely blokes by all accounts. Then along comes Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, who was overthrown by his subjects because of his very long and hard-to-spell name, and also because he was a tyrant (but mainly the first part). After this came the Roman Republic, the nation in which Caesar was born. This early period of Roman history (around 753 BC, Rome’s founding, to 509 BC when we know the Republic existed) is very spotty, with much of the material we take as gospel being apocryphal or taken from myth and propaganda. Historians don’t even know when exactly the Republic was founded, just that by 509 BC it was around.

The Republic’s system of governance was a rather interesting one; it operated under a “democratic” diarchy, with two elected consuls acting as heads of state, whilst a Senate acted as an advisory body for magistrates and the people. Each of these magistrates wielded imperium, meaning power or control over an entity – this entity could be a military unit, a plot of land or anything else that one could field authority over. Imperium differed depending on the circumstance, with military-related imperium generally being absolute, whilst civilian imperium was generally limited by republican institutions.

The government, much like imperium, was separated between military and civilian wings. The centuriate assembly exercised the power to vote on whether Rome should go to war or make peace with its enemies, and almost all of its magistrates fielded military imperium. The tribal assembly was then composed of magistrates that either had no imperium or imperium of a civilian nature (anyone else sick of hearing the word imperium yet?) and was more akin to a governing body of our modern democracies, dealing with legislation and criminal offences.

The Republic contended with various other Latin tribes – such as the Etruscans and Samnites – as well as ancient Greek colonials in the south, but by 275 BC they emerged as the dominant force in the Italian Peninsula…

Until Carthage, dun dun DUUUUN!

At the time, Carthage was the predominant force in the Mediterranean, fielding a vast trade empire stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar to modern-day Libya, but (crucially to our focus) they also held colonies in Sicily. The Romans invaded this land in 264, seeking to unite Italy under their banner – thus beginning the first of the three Punic Wars. On land, the Romans absolutely dominated the Carthaginian forces, but they lacked any formal and powerful navy to contend with the might of the Carthaginian fleet, meaning that they could easily be blockaded and troop transport could be sunk. The funny thing about the Romans, though, is that you never beat them twice – they’ll learn from their mistakes the first time around and come at you again with adapted tactics, then kick your ass with them. This is exactly what they did here: reverse-engineering captured Carthaginian ships, improving the design and launching naval offensives in 262. The Roman ships possessed new technology called a corvus; essentially a big old plank with a spike stuck in the top, which could be used to latch onto an enemy ship and prevent it from getting away, thus allowing for boarding.

As good as the Romans were, though, nature was better. In 255, the Roman fleet was decimated in a great storm, killing over 100,000 men… so they rebuilt the entire navy in a year and kept on going. Industrious lot, those Romans. Nevertheless, the war pressed on, and… the Romans lost their fleet in a storm again a year later. As the Roman navy was routinely obliterated by a stiff breeze, their army had continued fighting through Sicily, and in 249 BC they began a lengthy siege of the final two Carthaginian strongholds in the region. This was followed up with a series of naval battles, in which Rome lost most of their fleet. Again. At least it wasn’t from the wind, this time.

In the most amazingly stubborn feat of engineering I have ever seen, the Romans rebuilt their ships a third time in 243, and on this occasion they were able to destroy the Carthaginian fleet instead – third time must really be the charm, huh? With Carthage’s navy nullified, the Romans could blockade Sicily, prevent reinforcements from arriving and starve out the Punic garrisons there. In 241, peace was sued for; Carthage paid hefty war reparations to the Romans and ceded Sicily to the burgeoning Republic. Rome was now the uncontested naval power in the Mediterranean, and their potent defeat led to a great revolt in the Carthaginian Empire. It failed, but this unrest combined with the unresolved Punic-Roman tension would lead to the Empire striking back…

Find out whether Scipio Skywalker will be able to defeat Darth Hannibal and destroy the Death Star in the next instalment!