Rome staggers to Empire

Strength through Compromise | More Concessions and Written Law – the Twelve Tables | Strength after Defeat by the Gauls | Rome Wins Domination of Italy and Defends itself against the Hellenistic East | the First Punic War and a New Spirit for Empire | Punic War II (Hannibal's War) | The Punic Wars change Rome |Rome's Hegemonic Arrogance | Rome Destroys Carthage and Conquers from Hispania to Greece,,,

In the mid-700s BCE, Latin speaking Indo-Europeans are believed to have migrated southward across the Alps to the warmer climate and rich lands on the Italian peninsula. By then an Etruscan civilization dominated the penisula's northwest, and an in the 500s an Estruscan king was ruling Rome, a city populated by Latins who farmed and raised animals, a city divided between aristocrats (people wealthy in land, the major source of wealth production) and commoners. In 509 BCE a group of Roman nobles drove the Etruscan king, Tarquin, from power. Without a king, Rome had become a republic. Power passed to a council of aristocrats called the senate.

In separating themselves from Etruscan rule, Romans lost trade with the Etruscans and with Greek colonies in southern Italy. What little there had been in imports ended. Rome's merchants and craftsmen suffered, and Rome experienced economic depression and grain shortages.

Rome was challenged also by their fellow Latin neighbors. While under Etruscan rule, Rome had been the greatest power among the Latins, and Rome had been resented by the other Latins. In the year 496 these Latins warred against Rome over disputed lands and to free themselves from Rome's hegemony. Rome won the Battle of Lake Regillusis, and with victory Rome's leaders put vanity aside and abandoned their claim of hegemony in Latium. They saw advantage in peace and cooperation with their fellow Latins, one advantage being trade and another being an strength through an alliance. In 493, Rome joined an alliance with its Latin neighbors as an equal.

The alliance treaty held that business contracts between people from different states within the alliance were to be bound by law. And the treaty held that in wars against outsiders, alliance members were to share in commanding armies and in the spoils of war. The alliance strengthened Rome in the wars that soon followed. The Etruscans began an attempt to impose again their rule on the Romans and other Latins. And there were periodic wars across decades against mountain people in central Italy who were increasing in population and attempting to expand.

Rome's aristocrats were horsemen, and cavalry was their basic fighting unit. Wars gave them prestige and helped them to maintain their claim of leadership over the other Romans. But a development in the art of war was denying the aristocrats their exclusive right to prestige. The Greeks, Etruscans and now the Romans were using heavily armed infantrymen – men who were commoners. The increased importance of the common man in combat had encouraged democracy in Athens, and now it was increasing the self-confidence of Rome's commoner-soldiers, who were also small farmers.

Economic distress exacerbated conflict between aristocrats (patricians) and commoners (plebeians). Involved in this conflict was the rise of debt slavery. When a small farmer was seized for non-payment of his debts, other commoners, mainly farmer-soldiers, might attempt to rescue him by force.

Rome's farmer-soldiers and farmer-veterans demanded a bigger share in the distribution of lands, and they demanded the abolition of veterans' debts. They advocated the creation of an assembly that spoke for their interests and the interests of all common people. They wanted common people to be able to elect men to preside over this assembly and to keep watch on the Senate and to have the power to veto Senate proposals. And they wanted a commoner elected as one of the Senate's two chief executives – its two consuls. The consuls served as commanders-in-chief of the military, and this included the power to have soldiers executed for lack of discipline. The consuls also decided who would be promoted to positions of authority within the Senate and who could declare an emergency, giving themselves rule for six months. There were two consuls so as not to give too much power to one man, as with the kind of monarch they had recently overthrown. Each consul was able to veto a decision by the other.

A strike by plebeians was followed by patricians acknowledging that it was no longer as it had been in the days when aristocrats alone were the warriors. The patricians were willing to compromise. Although the Senate did not give the plebeians exactly what they wanted, it did create military tribunes, commoners or aristocrats to be elected by both small farmers and by aristocrats. The farmer-soldiers were encouraged by this increase in their participation in government. It gave them more of a sense that in war they were fighting for their own interests. This enhanced their morale and strengthened Rome as a military power.

Having won concessions from the aristocrats, commoners wanted more. They went on strike again, this time demanding freedom from arbitrary punishment and other abuses. The strike stopped work on farms and in shops, and to appease the commoners the Senate gave tribunes the power to veto any laws passed by the Senate.

Although officially limited to vetoing laws, the tribunes began initiating legislation. A law in 471 created an assembly of commoners, theComitia Plebis, presided over by tribunes, creating a greater connection between commoners and tribunes. And tribunes were to share authority with the consuls on the field of battle.

By 450, commoner tribunes were serving as military commanders in place of a consul – the Senate wanting perhaps to take advantage of men with extraordinary military talent. Also by 450, the number of tribunes had been increased to ten.

A military assembly (Comitia Centuriata) was created, consisting of both commoners and aristocrats. This assembly was presided over by the consuls. It met to consider the names of aristocrats who would be candidates for the positions of consul, to elect the consuls, to enact legislation, to listen to appeals of those convicted of capital crimes, and to decide whether Rome should go to war.

Bureaucracy was extended. To relieve the consuls of the duty of taking the census, the office of censor was created. There were to be two censors. The census was needed for the collection of taxes and in organizing military duties. The censors learned of the extent of a man's property so that men who could afford it would be obliged to equip themselves with the better and more complete armor of the hoplite warrior. Or, if the census determined that someone could afford the required horse and equipment, he was liable for service as a cavalryman. And commoner cavalrymen were recognized by the Senate as a new class, called the Equites.

To the executive branch of government (the consuls) and the legislative branch (the Senate) a third branch of government was created: the judiciary. This had been urged by the commoners, who wanted laws to apply to them and aristocrats equally. An officer of the law, called thePraetor, was put in charge of the judiciary. He was to be elected annually by the military assembly, and it was hoped that he would exercise judgments independent from politics. But jury duty was to remain exclusively for aristocrats. Only aristocrats had sufficient leisure time for such service, and it was believed that as jurors they would strive to maintain their reputations as men of honor by judging on the evidence presented them.

To avoid arbitrary decisions concerning the law, plebeians demanded that laws be put into writing, and this resulted in the creation of what became known as the Twelve Tables, laws written on twelve bronze tablets. These laws were to be open to legislative change, to embody both precedence and experience. Up to this time Roman laws had been unwritten and connected with religious lore, with aristocrats believing that only they had sufficent understanding of the mysteries of religious lore.

Punishments for breaking the laws expressed in the Twelve Tables were harsh, conforming to strong commitments to virtue. Anyone convicted of slander was to be clubbed to death; a thief was to be flogged, unless he was a slave, in which case he was to be executed by being thrown off Tarpeian Rock on that small rise called Capitoline Hill; someone convicted of defrauding a client was to be executed; perjury was a capital crime; death was the punishment for a judge who accepted a bribe or for anybody who connived with the enemy or delivered a Roman citizen to an enemy. The death sentence, however, may have been rarely carried out. In place of executing someone, the Romans might demolish his house and allow him to go into permanent exile. But for an offense against the gods, the Romans, an intensely religious people, showed little mercy. Vestal Virgins, whose job it was to maintain the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta, were usually buried alive if convicted of being unchaste.

Roman law recognized the supreme authority of the father within his family. A father could sell his son or daughter into slavery. He could have a rebellious son put to death or, as the Romans put it, sacrificed to the gods. A daughter was her father's property, sold in marriage to whomever he pleased. He could also tell his son whom to marry and when to divorce. Roman law also reflected a Roman harshness toward physical weakness: the dreadfully deformed were quickly put to death shortly after birth, and parents could kill their infant if at least five neighbors consented.

One of the earliest adjustments to the new written laws came in 442 when a tribune introduced legislation against what had been a standing prohibition against marriage between commoners and aristocrats. Aristocrats had been concerned about the purity of their blood – a superstition as old as Egypt's pharaohs 2,000 or so years before, who married their sons and daughters to each other to prevent blood contamination. Speaking before the Senate against this legislation a consul described it as a rebellion against the laws of heaven. He accused the tribune of scheming to obscure or confuse family rank, leaving nothing "pure and uncontaminated." The tribune spoke of the humble origins of the aristocracy's ancestors and claimed that their nobility was not a right of birth or blood but a co-optation. How much this argument convinced the senators is difficult to determine. But in one respect the law against marriage between commoners and aristocrats was impacted by a practical matter: commoner families headed by vigorous entrepreneurs had accumulated wealth, and aristocrats from poorer families had an interest in marrying into these more wealthy families. After much arguing the law was repealed.

Strength after Defeat by the Gauls

By the end of the 400s BCE, the city of Rome occupied an area about 32 by 48 kilometers. Around this time, several tribes of Celts – whom the Romans called Gauls – ventured southward from their homeland to the Po River Valley in northern Italy. They threatened the Etruscan city of Clusium, about a hundred miles north of Rome. Clusium requested help from Rome, and Rome sent three commissioners to investigate. One commissioner asked the Gauls why they thought they could take lands that belonged to others. The Gauls replied that the people of Clusium had more land than they needed and that "all things belong to the brave.

The Roman commissioners joined the Etruscans in a skirmish to defend Clusium, and one of the commissioners killed a Gallic chieftain. In 390 BCE, the Gauls headed for Rome to seek revenge. The Gauls outnumbered Rome's defenders two to one, and the Gauls shattered Rome's spear carrying phalanx formations. Many of Rome's defenders fled across the Tiber River to the nearby city of Veii, and some fled to the countryside. Other soldiers rushed into the city to its citadel, as non-combatants were fleeing the city through the same gates. These gates remained open, and the Gauls poured into the city, where they slaughtered old men, women and children and looted and burned. They attempted an uphill attack on the citadel but failed to dislodge the soldiers there.

For seven months the Gauls remained and fought around Rome. Then they gave up and returned north, leaving Rome in ruins. The Romans rebuilt and gathered lessons from their military defeat. They adopted new weaponry, dropping the spear in favor of a two-foot long sword. They adopted helmets, breastplates and a shield with iron edges. They reorganized their army, putting in the front rank of their battle line not the wealthy soldiers as before but the youngest and strongest.

From the year 367 through the following eighty years, the Senate approved a variety of reforms, including laws that allowed commoners to become consuls, praetors, or quaestors – the latter being money managers connected to various aspects of government or military campaigns. Bills were passed that, for the sake of greater equality, limited the size of lands that were distributed by the state. Debt payment was reformed. And in 326 a law was passed that protected the personal freedom of commoners by outlawing the practice of debtors being made serfs to their creditors.

War in Italy erupted again on the plains of Campania, near Neapolis (Naples). Samnite warrior-herdsmen from nearby hills had begun using grasslands for their animals – lands that people of Campania had fenced. The people of Campania sought help from Rome. Roman envoys went to leaders among the hill people for discussions and were rudely treated. War between Rome and the Samnites followed – the First Samnite War. The war lasted two years, ending in 345 with Rome triumphant and the Samnites willing to make peace.

Rome's Latin allies began making forays against the Samnites. The Samnites asked Rome to control its allies, and Rome called upon the Latins to leave the Samnites alone. Seeing itself as the responsible power in the region, Rome went to war against its Latin neighbors and some non-Latin cities. Rome won these wars. It disbanded the Latin League, and it took land from the defeated and distributed it among its commoners. There was not the slaughter or dispersals that accompanied military defeat elsewhere in ancient times. This leniency, rather than weakening Rome, strengthened it by winning respect and gratitude from its former adversaries.

Rome now dominated all the Latins, and it controlled an area from just north of Rome southward almost to Neapolis. This was a heavily populated area relative to ancient times, and the area would be the the base from which Rome would spread its power and influence over the whole of Italy.

Rome Wins Domination of Italy and Defends itself against the Hellenistic East

Rome used its prestige to regulate relations among various Italian cities. It made alliances. It created colonies, giving land in these colonies to common Romans and other Latins. The grant of land was accepted with the obligation of military service, each colony serving as Rome's keeper of peace in its area. As in Macedonia, the power of a nation was being created. Rome was growing in population. And it was growing in manpower by extending citizenship to people in its colonies and to cities it trusted – to cities with people who wished to identify with Rome's greatness and were willing to go to war as Romans.

Romans fought a series of battles with the Samnites from 327 to 311, when Etruscan cities joined in a showdown against Roman power. The Romans and their allies won a series of victories against both the Etruscans and the Samnites. There was on-again, off-again warfare. At the turn of the century the Samnites decided that they had had enough of peace. They organized a coalition that included Etruscans and Gauls. The Romans had taken advantage of the lack of coordination among its enemies but now faced them all at once.

The Romans benefited from their self-discipline and military leadership. They won a crucial battle in 295 at Sentinum, a town in Italy's northeast where more troops were engaged than any previous battle in Italy. After the victory at Sentinum the war slowly wound down, coming to an end in 282. Rome emerged dominating all of the Italian peninsula except for the Greek cities in Italy's extreme south and in the north along the Po River Valley, which was still Gaul country.

As the war was winding down, the Greek city of Tarentum, on Italy's southern coast, became disturbed by a colony that Rome had established just eighty miles to its north. Tarentum had its own sphere of influence in the south. It had a democratic constitution, the largest naval fleet in Italy, an army of 15,000 and enough wealth to buy a good number of mercenaries. Tarentum had ignored an opportunity to join the Etruscans, Gauls and Samnites in the war against Rome, but belatedly it decided to fight Rome. It gained the backing of the Pyrrhus, King ofEpirus, just west of Macedonia, on the Adriatic a short distance from Tarentum. Pyrrhus agreed to command the combined troops of Tarentum and other Greek cities in Italy, together with troops of his own. Pyrrhus was a former kinsman of Alexander the Great. He saw war against Rome as an opportunity to extend Hellenistic authority over Italy as Alexander had planned, and he saw an opportunity to win for himself some of the glory that Alexander had won. Like many other Hellenistic people, Pyrrhus underestimated Rome.

In 280, Pyrrhus landed 25,000 troops in Italy, including some 3,000 horsemen, 2,000 archers and the first elephants brought to Italy. He engaged the Romans in the Battle at Heraclea, using the elephants to drive through Roman lines, creating panic among the Roman soldiers. Pyrrhus won this and more battles against the Romans, but he found Rome's armies more ferocious than those he had faced in the East. His victories against the Romans came with enormous casualties, giving rise to the expression "Pyrrhic victory."

Pyrrhus tried to win over to his side some of Rome's allies, but without success. Rome's manpower was too much for Pyrrhus, and by the year 275 Pyrrhus felt defeated. Pyrrhus returned to Greece, where he would be killed in another of the many wars that had been fought among those who had followed Alexander as kings.

In 272, Tarentum surrendered to Rome. Rome allowed Tarentum the same local self-rule it allowed other cities. Tarentum in turn recognized Rome's hegemony in Italy and became another of Rome's allies, while a Roman garrison remained in Tarentum to insure its loyalty (trust but verify). Rome was now undisputed master of the bottom three quarters of the Italian peninsula.

But as happened with Sparta following its winning the Peloponnesian War, Rome's success would be followed by vain foolishness.

The First Punic War and a New Spirit for Empire

The greatest power near Rome was Carthage, 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest from Sicily, on the coast of North Africa, a city founded around 815 BCE by Phoenicians from the city of Tyre. It was a commercial power surrounded by rich farmland and ruled by an oligarchy of men of wealth. It dominated the coast of North Africa as far as Egypt, the southern coast of Spain and the western half ofSicily. And it dominated the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.

While Rome had been expanding on the Italian mainland, it had made an agreement with Carthage, acknowledging that Carthage was the dominant power in Sicily. Carthage, in turn, promised Rome that it would stay off the Italian mainland. Rome abided by its treaty during its wars for the domination of Italy.

On the island of Sicily just across the channel from the toe of the Italian peninsula, the city of Messana felt threatened by another city on the island: Syracuse. One faction in Messana requested help from Carthage. Another faction, apparently distrusting or disliking Carthage, requested help from Rome. Respecting its treaty with Carthage, Rome's Senate chose not to send help to Messana. But one of Rome's two consuls was eager for action that would give him distinction. He spoke of reluctance to send help to Messana as weakness. He aroused the people of Rome, many of whom were filled with pride over Rome's power. The Senate gave in to the aroused emotions of the public, and it sent a force to Messana, violating ithe spirit of its treaty with Carthage. The world was turning – as it would in the twentieth century – on demagoguery and the passions of common people.

At Messana the force from Rome came face to face with a force from Carthage. Carthage saw Rome's move as a threat to its interests in Sicily but it attempted conciliation. Carthage asked that Rome withdraw its troops. But proud Romans called on their city to stand up to Carthage. Some claimed that Carthage's control over the strait between Italy and Sicily was a danger to Rome's security. And, as with the Athenians at the outbreak of the Great Peloponnesian War, there was little reluctance and caution about going to war, including among the civilian farmer-soldiers who would fight the war. With this swagger and willingness to war, a new era was beginning.

Rome chose war, and it brought a number of Italian allies into the war on its side. And, shortly into the war, Rome extended its war goals beyond securing the strait between Italy and Sicily – the "mission creep" that would be common in history. The contest against Carthage became a war for plunder. Then it became a war for driving Carthage out of Sicily, and then a war for all of Sicily. And Rome's enlarged goals would create a war that was to last twenty-three years.

Many of those who fought for Carthage were Greek mercenaries, and the unreliability of these men led Carthage to wage war with minimum risks and half measures. Rome was more aggressive. During the war it built its first great navy, which won spectacular victories, first in 260 and then in 241. With Rome as master of the Mediterranean, Carthage decided that the price it had to pay for ending the war was better than the cost of continuing it. Carthage agreed to pay Rome a huge sum of money and to give Rome the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia.

Despite Rome's heavy losses in treasure and life, its citizens fantasized that they had won a great victory. Many were pleased by the additional prestige their city had gained, and for many Romans victory confirmed that their city had been called on by the gods for a special destiny.

Romans emerged from this first Punic War also with an enhanced concern for national security, and some saw added security in their city having won control over Corsica and Sardinia. It was an early step in creation of the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers were sent to Corsica and Sardinia, and people there resisted. Some of the islanders retreated inland, but Roman soldiers with trained dogs hunted them down and carted great numbers of them to Italy for sale as slaves.

Romans were also concerned about the security of their northern border. They had heard a prophecy that the Gauls would come south again and overrun their city. City authorities allayed the fears of the public by reviving an old religious ritual. In the city's Forum they publicly buried alive a Gallic man and woman. Rome sent forces north to secure a barrier against the Gauls, and these forces extended Roman authority across Cisalpine Gaul as far as the Alps.

Next, Rome addressed its concern for security eastward. Italian traders had been calling on Rome to do something about pirates along the coast of Illyricum on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea. Rome launched a drive against these pirates, and as a part of this campaign they established friendly relations with numerous small, coastal powers. One of these powers, the island of Pharos, was attempting to expand against its neighbors. Rome made itself the protector of the neighbors of Pharos, and it conquered Pharos – the beginning of Roman intervention eastward across the Adriatic

Punic War II – Hannibal's War

As in the twentieth century, one big war was followed by a second big war. The settlement of the first big war had not been thoroughly settled in the minds of some of the defeated, and revenge was sought.

Carthage had expanded its enterprises in Iberia (Spain) in compensation for its losses of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia, and Carthage's success in trade and mining operations in Iberia prompted Rome to establish an embassy there. Around the year 220 a prosperous Greek colony on the Mediterranean coast in Iberia, Saguntum, was quarreling with neighboring towns. Lacking friendship with Carthage and desperate for an ally, Saguntum sought help from Rome – a repetition of sorts of what had happened in the 260s. Seeing Rome as becoming involved in the dispute, the leader of Carthage, Hannibal, welcomed the opportunity to launch a war of revenge against Rome. More than twenty years had passed since the end of the first war between Rome and Carthage, and Hannibal felt that Carthage could now challenge Rome and that he could succeed where others before him had failed.

Hannibal was as aggressive as Hitler would be in opening the Second World War in Europe. While Rome was negotiating with Carthage, Hannibal sent an army against Saguntum, with orders to spare no male of military age. Saguntum fell, leaving Rome's Senate and the public enraged and regretting that they had not responded in time to help Saguntum. The Romans saw Carthage's attack on Saguntum as a challenge to their prestige, and they matched Hannibal's willingness for war.

The war against Hannibal would be a new kind of war for Rome. Previously, Romans fought only summer campaigns. Against Hannibal, the number of Romans fighting would increase ten fold and they would fight through the entire year. This was to be Rome's most intense war.

Hannibal sent armies to Sicily and Italy by sea. He and a force with cavalry and elephants moved north from Saguntum, across the coast of France, through the Alps and in October 218 down into the Po River valley in northern Italy.

Hannibal won Gauls to his side away from the Romans. He rallied his forces describing the Romans as "a pernicious and rapacious race intent on enslaving the world." Hannibal won at Trebbia in late December 218, his 30,000 men and 37 elephants against Rome's 42,000 and a incompetent general.

Hannibal and his army pushed south, living off the land as they went. Rather than try to win allies among the Italians, he burned and destroyed as he went, and not one Italian city joined him against Rome. He tried to keep himself informed about the Roman leaders sent against him, and occasionally he found weaknesses in these Romans. He took advantage of the untalented consul, Flaminius, who wanted to prove himself to his fellow Romans. Flaminius allowed Hannibal to choose where the battle between them would be fought, and in June 217 Flaminius marched his army into a trap at Lake Trasimenus (see map), where all but the few who were captured were cut down. In the wake of this disaster, in the depressing month of December, Rome introduced a festival called Saturnalia associated with the god Saturn, to spread cheer and lift the morale of its citizens. There were feasts, an exchanging of presents, gambling, games that involved role-switching between masters and slaves, and sacrifices were performed at the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum.

Hannibal had another great success in August, 216, at Cannae (see map). There, Rome lost five out of every six soldiers it sent into battle. It seemed that Rome was on the verge of defeat, and now some Italian cities, wishing to be on the winning side, opened their gates to Hannibal. In Sicily, Syracuse went over to the side of Carthage. Macedonia's king, Philip V, offered Carthage an alliance.

Hannibal was trying to wear Rome down – a war of attrition. He continued to destroy Italian lands and to destroy villages that his forces could not hold. To starve Hannibal's forces the Romans scorched the earth in front of his advancing army, and they moved people from the countryside to towns. The Romans plundered towns they believed had befriended Hannibal and beheaded men they believed had fought on the side of Carthage.

Avoiding a direct clash with Hannibal in Italy, Rome moved a force to Sicily. There the Roman general Marcellus beheaded 2,000 of his troops whom he claimed had been deserters. Other soldiers under his command pillaged Syracuse, destroying and plundering treasures that had accumulated there for centuries. A soldier in Syracuse came upon the philosopher Archimedes and ran a sword through him.

In 211, Hannibal was thirty miles from Rome, and Roman women appealed to the gods by sweeping the floors of their temples with their hair. But rather than attack Rome and confront the two armies that Rome had placed before him, Hannibal decided to burn the nearby countryside and withdraw to fight elsewhere. He moved southward, back to Capua. In 209 he had his second battle at Terantum, his 19,000 men against a Roman force of 17,000, has casualities and losses at 9,000, the Romans at 2,300.

Hannibal's war of attrition was a losing strategy. Rome benefited from fighting closer to home and having access to more manpower. Rome also benefited from the egocentricity and shortsightedness of Carthage's oligarchs. For a while at least, the oligarchs feared that Hannibal as a victor and hero would jeopardize their positions of power. They were reluctant to send him reinforcements. But Hannibal was recruiting Gauls into his army, which offended the Italians, who remembered that Rome had been a bulwark against the Gauls.

Rome managed to reconquer Sicily, and it was defeating Carthage in Iberia, at the Battle of Baeti in 211 and at Baecula in 2008. At Baecula the Romans had 30,000 men under a brilliant general: Scipio. Carthage had 25,000 men, most of them were Gauls, led by Hannibal's younger brother by two years: Hasdrubal. After the battle, Hasdrubal led his depleted force over the Pyrenees into Gaul and then into Italy, looking to join forces with his brother. He was defeated on the Italian peninsula's northeast coast, at Metaurus, his 30,000 men losing 10,000 killed and 10,000 wounded according to the historian Polybius. Hasdrubal was beheaded and his head rolled into Hannibal's encampment in the south of the penninsula.

Carthage sent a force to Iberia and another battle was fought there ten miles north of what today is the city of Seville. In 204 Roman transport ships carried no more than 35,000 soldiers to about 35 kilometers from Carthage, alarming that city, while Scipio captured towns and plunder the countryside.

It was the summer of that year that Hannibal was fighting in the far south of Italy around Croton (see map). All of Hannibal's forces were in the far south, hoping to establish a Cartheginian base there that it could trade for a peace treaty. The fighting around Croton continued into 203. Hannibal was ordered to return to Carthage to defend home territory. Ships arrived and he was able to depart safely.

In 203, Scipio, won at Battle of Utica in North Africa, and again in 202 near Carthage he defeated Hannibal. He lost something like 2,500 killed out of 35,100 men, outmaneuvering and slaughtering Hannibal's army of 40,000, plus elephants.

Hannibal escaped to Carthage where he counseled immediate surrender. Carthage sued for peace. A council of twenty Roman priests – which governed treaties with foreigners – went to Carthage to present Rome's demands. The priests called on the god Jupiter to witness that the demands were just. This time, Rome wanted to weaken Carthage substantially. And Carthage agreed to reduce its territory to an area that approximates what today is Tunisia. It agreed to withdraw from participation in the affairs of Iberia, to pay Rome a huge indemnity and to surrender to Rome all but twenty of its warships.

Hannibal's attempt at revenge had failed. Rome wanted Hannibal's head, and he found refuge with the Seleucid king in Syria, Antiochus III.