2011/01/17

History Report: Ancient Roman civilazation-The start of the Ancient Roman civilization to the Second Punic War


 The Start of Roman civilazation
  Rome. The most influential civilization in whole human history.  Roman civilazation starts in a small, boot shaped peninsula later called Italy. A clan named 'Etrurian', from Mesopotamia brought its culture into the small peninsula and started its short history with a 'king'. They traded with Greece and there are still remains of which could be guessed as Greek porcleains and scripts of written letters similar to ancient Greek alphabets. After the Eturians settled in, another clan, called the 'Latins' moved in to what's called today as Rome. The Eturians teached them their own culture so they started to thought-of course-that they were more superior than any other civilazations and chosed to be harsh on the Latins.
    Rome was pressured by the nothern Eturians so the Romans had to give out their city to an Eturian king. The last Eturian king was 'Tarquin the terrible', who once ordered the Roman  harbor to stop without any reasons, causing financial difficulties to the Romans. Retaliatory sprits broke out when Tarquin's son murdered Lucrece, a wanted spouse for many of Roman mankind. They got  into a revolutionary war and this, may I tell you -a good news- is the start of Roman history. 
   The Romans decided to chose a king from one of the wisest Royal branches in Rome. It was clear that everyone wanted to be a king of course. This fight was to a stop when someone proposed about Royalties taking turns, a republic.
    Now, how did this 'Roman republic' put themselves? Firstly they were divided into 3 status: the royalties, commoners, and slaves. Rome republic rulers called themselves consuls, and ordered Roman citizens what to do. The senatus, organized in groups of 300 wise royalties, also consulted important decisions in Rome. But now being the ruler, the royalties were putting themselves harsh on commoners. The commoners wanted to protect their rights and founded 'comitia', an organized group to protect citizens' rights.
  The Romans extended their territory and soon united the whole peninsula. It was a deficient amount of soilders to send patricians into wars so the plebeians had to go out to wars according to their own duty. 
The plebeians were humiliated resulting in a rebellion. To stop the rebellion, the patricians opted to erect the '12 Theses' which soon growed to be a formal Roman rule
Punic Wars
In the Meditarrenian sea, there were three powerful countries: Macedonia, Cartago, and Rome. In 270 B.C. Rome unites the whole peninsula of Italy and emerge as one of the powerful countries. They weren't able to not fight to reign the Meditarrenian sea. Medditarrenian sea was all to Europe at that time. It was the only place where European  countries could trade cultures.
 To reign the Meditarrenian, navies will be indispensable. Unfortuanately, Rome had no navy because of all the fighting that occured in lands, not seas wherease Cartago was a country strengthened by trading. Between Cartago and Rome, there was a small neutral country called Sicily. Its capitol Mesina, lived King Hiero who was smart enough to know that Sicily was going to be ruled by either countries because Sicily, was the pivot of trading in Europe. He brought well-built Mametro men to be trained as soilders and gave out costly wages to those who were royal to protect Sicily. 
  It was a devastating fact that it was them-not anybody but them-who brought a rebellion and took over Mesina. Hiero the humiliated so he brought out the rest of his royal soilders to attack the castle of Mesina. Mametro men who lacked in amount,  seeked for help in both Cartago and Rome. Cartago and Rome were both eager to help but when they both arrived in Mesina, they were in arm of conflicts. So I will have to unfortunately claim the start of the Punic war which took many innocent lives in both countries.
    The First Punic War
Cartago thought that Rome wasn't enough to be a rival against. But when they arrived at Sicily, Rome had already taken Mesina. Cartago and Hiero were naturally made to be rallies and the proclamation of the first Punic war. Romans took care of King Hiero's soilders easily. Though Rome was strong in  militaries, it was very weak in navies so to take care of this problem, they made a ship naming it Corvus. Contrary to Rome, Cartago was weak in militaries, so they hired strong military soilders from other countries.
  At that time, Rome's commanding force officer was Marcus Atilius Regulus. He decided to attack Carthage instead of fighting in Mesina. Roman navies arrived in Carthage and commenced to destroy all enmity. Unfortunately for the Romans, the king of Carthage had send a messanger to buy soilders with fame. While the Roman soilders kept shouting for surrender, a Greek Spartan general  Xanthippus, had arrived and shattered all of the Roman soilders into pieces. The First Punic war's victory was to the Carthages.
   
First Punic War 264 BC.jpg

The Second Punic War
 It had all started when the Romans finally attacked again and took victory away from the Carthages. Carthages had to give out three thousand two hundered talents as compensations. To earn more money, Carthages decided to attack Espana. Romans felt a sudden anxiety in the air when the Carthages came close as Saguntum, a rallied city with Rome. Hannibal, a royal soilder of Cartago, hesitated for a moment but decided to attack Saguntum. This was 219 B.C., when Hannibal declared for the Second Punic War.
  The Romans weren't able to protect Saguntum so they decided to attack Carago's mainland. Hannible, had been looking for this very moment. 218 B.C., Hannibal made an order to advance. This is, one of the famous world record in history. If you see the European world map, you could see that Hannbal have to cross two mountain ranges: Pyreness, and the Alps to reach Rome. Since both ranges are rugged, the Romans thought that they would come to Rome by either flat land or sea routes. Surprisingly, Hannibal and his soilders crossed two ranges without going through sea routes or flat land. When Hannibal finally entered the Italian peninsula, Hannibal's military kept defeating the Romans until Rome appointed Fabius Maximus to be the military officer. Maximus stalled time whilst gathering the strongest soilders in Rome. Hannibal and Maximus' soilders fought in Canae but Maximus' military lost resulting in  Rome's danger without any protection of the city. Everynight there were meetings between the senatus. Finally without hestiation, the Roman senatuses opted for another attack on Cartago. Hannibal, hearing that the Romans had attacked Cartago, had no decision but to return back to Cartago. When he went back, Scipio Afriganus was waiting for him. Hannibal was caught into Scipio's strategy and defeated utterly-almost into an extermination.
Hannibal crossing the Alps

No comments:

Post a Comment