Chapter 6 LO2

Today in class we had a sub, so we individually outlined LO2 in our textbook. LO2 was about the roman empire expanding and fighting with Carthage for control of Sicily and ultimalty control of the Mediterrean. The Romans won and gained control of almost the whole Mediterranean. These are the notes I took today in class.

Roman Expansion

• The Romans were above all a military people- patriotic farmer- soldiers
• Their first wars were against the neighboring Etruscans, competing Italian tribes,and barbarian invaders
• Allies and Colonies
• The Romans were shrewdly generous in their treatment of defeated enemies
• The Romans also tightened their control over the Italian peninsula by creating a network of colonies of settlers from Rome, generally discharged citizen-soldiers and their families
• Roman forces increased in strength and striking power in step with their conquests
• The Roman colonist enjoyed rights of citizenship that were almost equal to those of citizens who lived in Rome
• In time allies began to demand full integration with Rome, and in the first century B.C some of them took up arms when the demand was denied
• After these wars most non- Romans in Italy gained Roman citizenship, and the status of ally disappeared
• Punic Wars
• By 250 B.C all of Italy south of the River Po was in Roman hands
• This success brought Rome into collision with a rival city state beyond the sea: Carthage, on the north coast of Africa
• Carthage was founded about 700 B.C by Phoenician colonists
• It became an oligarchic and empire building republic similar to Rome and had spread its influence across North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily
• Carthaginians interest in Sicily, between Africa and Italy, is what brought them into conflict with the Romans
• The Punic wars were waged on land and sea in three vicious rounds between 264 and 146 B.C
• In the first phase of struggle after many years of exhausting warfare, ROme was able to force Carthage out of Sicily, but the North African city kept the rest of its empire
• In the second phase the Carthage general Hannibal invaded Italy, defeated several Roman armies and brought Rome to the brink of defeat but the loyalty of the Romans' allies, the perseverance of their own forces, and there greater man power enabled them to at the end of the second Punic war in 202 BC defeat Carthage
• Fearing a Carthaginian revival Rome provoked a thrid war and in 146 BC Carthage was captured after bitter fighting
• The senate ordered  the city to be leveled, its people sold into slavery, and even the ground on which it stood to be cursed
• Conquering an Empire
• The former possessions of Carthage in Sicily, Spain, and Africa became the first Roman providences
• The paid tribute to the Roman state, contributed " auxiliary" units of cavalry and light infantry to Roman forces, and provided opportunities for influential Roman citizens to build up private fortunes
• It was not until the time of Augustus, after 27 B.C that the Providences began to share in the benifts of Roman order.