May 6

That's A Roman legion, clear as day

• 5000 soldiers, not in it for pay (not yet) 
• the Roman army's elite heavy infantry 
• recruited exclusively from Roman citizens 

The Punic War 

• 264-146 BCE
• Rome vs. Carthage 
• three different wars 

 First Punic War 

• fought over who is going to control the sea routs 
• 264-241 BCE 
• naval battles for control of the strategically located island of Sicily 
• Rome wins this one 
• fought on war ships 

Second Punic War 

• 218- 201 BCE 
• 29 year old Carthaginian general Hannibal almost takes over Rome
• attacks Rome from the North after crossing Iberia (Spain) and the Alps
• lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he could never make it into Rome
• Rome won 

Third Punic War 

• 149-146 BCE
• Rome wanted to remove the threat of Carthage 
• Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and other mercilessly attacked the city 
• Carthage was burned for 17 days; the city's walls and buildings were destroyed 
• when war ended, the last 50,000 people became slaves
• rest of territories were annexed, and made into the Roman province of Africa (became part of the Roman Empire)

Economic Change, Social Upheaval

• slaves poured into Italy (50,000 Carthaginians, 150,000 Greeks, ect.)
• by the end of the second century BCE, there were over a million of slaves in Italy
• small farmers lost their land to aristocrats (for little or no money) if they couldn't pay their debts, sometimes because the men of the farm were fighting in battles
• slaves did the work on the farms for the rich
• the big farms became massive estates called latifundia