The Rise of the Roman Republic73(Messina), which controls the strait between Sicily and
the Italian mainland. The Syracusans sent an army to
root them out, whereupon one faction among the
Mamertines appealed to Carthage, the traditional en-
emy of the Sicilian Greeks. When the Carthaginians
gained control of the city, the other faction appealed to
Rome. After long debate, the Senate agreed to help.
The majority apparently felt that, if Carthage con-
quered Sicily, it could threaten the basis of Roman
power in the south. No real evidence existed of
Carthaginian interest in the mainland, however.
The resulting war was a long, drawn-out affair in
which the Romans tried to besiege the Carthaginian
towns in western Sicily. Though the Roman army won
consistently in the field, it could do nothing to prevent
the Carthaginians from bringing in supplies by sea. The
Romans soon realized that only seapower could defeat
Carthage and, for the first time in their history, con-
structed a navy (see illustration 4.5). After some re-
markable victories and one catastrophic defeat, they
destroyed the main Carthaginian fleet in an epic battle
off Drepanum (Trapani) in March 241 B.C. Knowing
that it could no longer hold Sicily, Carthage sued
for peace.
Rome was now a major naval power and the ruler
of Sicily, but peace did not last, for the attitude of
Rome’s political elite was changing. After the First
Punic War, Rome’s intentions became more openly ag-
gressive and expansionist when the possibility of
achieving vast wealth through conquest began to dawn
on even the most honorable of men.
Sicily became the first Roman province. Its people
were granted neither citizenship nor allied status. Ro-
man governors exercised full powers unlimited by local
custom—or by interference from the capital. They
raised taxes to ruinous levels and distributed large tracts
of land to wealthy Romans who worked them with
slaves captured in the war. When Carthage’s army, com-
posed largely of mercenaries, rebelled in 238 B.C., the
Romans took advantage of the situation and annexed
the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The Carthaginians
saw that Roman imperialism had to be stopped.
Fortunately for Carthage, Rome was distracted for
some years by a new war with the Gauls. Hamilcar
Barca, a prominent Carthaginian who had waged guer-
rilla warfare against the Roman army in Sicily, used this
respite to consolidate the Carthaginian hold on Spain.
The Spanish interior was inhabited by a variety of
Celtiberian tribes whose common characteristics in-
cluded an aptitude for war. Hamilcar and his son-in-lawDOCUMENT 4.6
Polybius: Rome Compared
with Carthage
This comparison of the rivals Rome and Carthage is condi-
tioned by the author’s suspicion of democracy, but it remains a
useful measure of their strengths and weaknesses.The constitution of Carthage seems to me to have
been originally well contrived as regards its most
distinctive points. For there were kings [sic] [the
chief officials were annually elected shofetim,or
judges] and the house of elders was an aristocratic
force, and the people were supreme in matters ap-
propriate to them, the entire frame of the state
much resembling that of Rome or Sparta. But at the
time when they entered on the Hannabalic War,
the Carthaginian constitution had degenerated,
and that of Rome was better.... [T]he multitude of
Carthage had already acquired the chief voice in
deliberations; while at Rome the senate still re-
tained this, as in the one case the masses deliber-
ated and in the other the most eminent men, the
Roman decisions on public affairs were superior....
But to pass to differences of detail... the
Carthaginians are naturally superior at sea, both in
efficiency and equipment, because seamanship has
long been their natural craft, and they busy them-
selves with the sea more than any other people; but
as regards infantry services, the Romans are much
more efficient. They indeed devote their whole en-
ergies to this matter, whereas the Carthaginians
wholly neglect their infantry, though they do pay
some slight attention to their cavalry. The reason
for this is that the troops they employ are foreign
and mercenary, whereas those of the Romans are
natives of the soil and citizens. So that in this re-
spect also we must pronounce the political system
of Rome to be superior to that of Carthage, the
Carthaginians continuing to depend for the main-
tenance of their freedom on the courage of a mer-
cenary force but the Romans on their own valor
and that of their allies.
Adapted from Polybius, Histories, books 4: 2–3, trans. W. R. Pa-
ton. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1960–1968.