The First Punic War - OverSimplified (Part 2)

0:00 (explosion sound)- [Narrator] After the gigantic

0:05 battle at Cape Ecnomus the Romans

0:07 were now free to land on African soil, and so they did.

0:11 The Carthaginians chose to focus on defending the city of Carthage itself.

0:15 So the Romans immediately took the city of Aspis

0:18 and were then free to raid and plunder the countryside.

0:21 They took over 20,000 slaves and a ton

0:24 of booty but then some orders arrived from the Senate.

0:28 Send home the booty.

0:30 D'oh!

0:31 But I want to stay.

0:33 No, Steve not you.

0:34 They mean the treasure.

0:36 Well, we are not watching anymore this filth.

0:40 [Kids] Aww.

0:41 [Narrator] So the other consul left with the booty,

0:43 leaving Regulus and his forces on their own,

0:46 and they began advancing towards Carthage.

0:48 Along the way, according to the ancient writer,

0:51 Livy, they encountered a literal dragon.

0:54 Now Livy was a Roman historian, so his account may be slightly exaggerated.

0:59 But this, I believe.

1:01 As the Romans continued to plunder,

1:03 the Carthaginian people flooded into the city.

1:07 Now, not only was it in a major panic,

1:09 but it was so crowded, the people began to starve.

1:14 Don't panic, everyone.

1:16 Look, I know you're all starving but I still have food for me.

1:23 So, you know, it's not all bad.

1:26 (crowd boos) Whoa, you're wasting your tomatoes

1:30 and you idiots wonder why you're starving?

1:33 Oh, well it's just more food for me.

1:36 (emperor makes chewing sounds) Things weren't looking good for Carthage.

1:41 They had to do something to stop the Romans rampaging throughout their land.

1:45 So they decided, finally, it was time to put an end to it.

1:50 They headed out and set up on rough,

1:52 hilly terrain overlooking the Roman camp and they prepared for battle.

1:57 Now, while the Carthaginians were the traditional masters of the sea,

2:01 on land, they weren't always the brightest.

2:04 Case in point, setting up in this position overlooking the Roman

2:08 camp was just about the stupidest thing they could have done.

2:12 Why?

2:13 Well, there's something you gotta understand about Carthage.

2:17 The Carthaginian land forces actually suffered

2:19 from a multitude of different issues.

2:22 First of all, since the Carthaginians were rich, rich, rich,

2:25 they could afford to pay a huge number of foreign mercenaries to fight for them.

2:29 These mercenaries actually made up the vast majority of Carthage's forces

2:34 and therefore Carthage's land armies were

2:36 a melting pot of many different cultures.

2:39 This, however, meant that if a battle wasn't going their way,

2:42 there could be loyalty issues.

2:45 Man, I ain't getting paid enough for this.

2:47 You Balearic slingers better not be thinking of running away.

2:51 What did he say?

2:52 I don't know, man.

2:52 I don't speak Venetian.

2:54 Let's get outta here.

2:56 Clearly, there were also language issues.

2:58 The military generals tended to be Carthaginian

3:01 but they made a lot of strange decisions.

3:03 For example, one of the most feared assets

3:05 of the Carthaginian army were the war elephants.

3:08 To a Roman soldier who had never even seen an elephant before,

3:11 this was like fist fighting a literal monster.

3:15 Yet the Carthaginians continually kept placing the elephants

3:18 in the rear where they were no use.

3:20 In a similar fashion, the neighboring region of Numidia provided Carthage

3:23 with the most skilled cavalry men in the world.

3:26 But the Carthaginians often chose to fight on rough,

3:29 uneven terrain where horses and elephants were less effective.

3:34 And so in this case,

3:36 when the Carthaginians again chose the rough terrain near the Roman camp,

3:40 the Romans easily sent them packing.

3:43 Wow, Regulus.

3:44 We're mere miles from Carthage.

3:46 You sure are amazing.

3:49 Yes, Steve.

3:50 I know.

3:51 (Steve sighs) Steve, what's the matter?

3:54 We've almost won.

3:55 I just wish I could be as great as you Regulus.

3:58 Steve, you're amazing.

4:01 I mean, look at this thing.

4:03 It's unbelievable.

4:05 I know, but I mean like at war stuff.

4:08 I'm such a noob, my tanks always get blown up.

4:11 I can't even fly an aircraft straight.

4:14 Tanks, aircraft?

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5:42 Mow, where were we?

5:44 Oh yeah, invading Africa,

5:46 getting some booty and sending the Carthaginians packing.

5:50 Everything was looking up for Regulus.

5:53 A Roman victory seemed like it was only a matter of time,

5:56 but then Regulus realized something.

6:00 He had been consul for almost a year and his term was coming to an end.

6:05 He knew that if his successor took over and he finished the job,

6:09 then he would get the naked statues, not Regulus,

6:13 and there was no way Regulus was going to allow that.

6:16 So he jumped the gun.

6:19 You there, Carthaginian boy.

6:21 I want you to deliver a message to your elders.

6:24 I Marcus Atilius Regulus,

6:27 demand the total and unconditional surrender of Carthage.

6:32 Unconditional surrender?

6:34 Geez, at least lay siege and starve us all to death first.

6:37 Just deliver the message, punk.

6:40 He demands your total surrender.

6:41 What?

6:42 Geez at least lay siege and starve us all to death first.

6:45 Hey, that's what I said.

6:47 Well, boys, this Roman thinks we're out, but we're not out, are we boys?

6:52 No.

6:53 We'll do what we always do in times like this.

6:57 Hire somebody else to solve our problems for us.

6:59 Darren, bring in the Spartan.

7:03 (dramatic musical trill) Regulus' overly harsh demands had

7:07 had the unintended effect of reinvigorating Carthaginian resolve.

7:12 They brought in a mercenary from the famed land of Sparta

7:15 named Xanthippus to help dig them out of this situation.

7:19 And we all know what Spartans are like.

7:22 (crowd cheers) Xanthippus showed up and immediately took charge.

7:27 He had a look around and said, you idiots.

7:30 Put the elephants in front of the army so they can

7:33 smash into the Romans and stop fighting on rough, uneven terrain.

7:37 Find a big, flat field so your superior cavalry can do their job.

7:41 And what's this I hear about you giving a speech,

7:43 telling everyone they're gonna die?

7:45 Hey, I was just telling the people the truth.

7:48 You're a politician.

7:50 Lie to the people.

7:51 (crowd gasps in agreement) And so Xanthippus led out the newly reformed

7:55 Carthaginian army to meet Regulus in the battle of the Bagradas River.

8:00 The elephants, now in the front, smashed into the Roman lines, causing disarray.

8:05 The cavalry, with total freedom of movement, out flanked the Roman infantry.

8:10 Thanks to this impressive Spartan, the battle was a total Carthaginian victory.

8:17 And Xanthippus, for his stunning victory,

8:20 was forced to flee Carthage because the leadership got jealous.

8:24 Regulus, the Roman consul was captured during the battle.

8:28 Legend has it, he was brought before

8:30 the Carthaginian council and they made a proposition.

8:34 Well, Reggie, not looking so good anymore is it?

8:37 Looks like we beat you pretty bad, huh?

8:40 (spitting noise) Up yours, your Punic pansies.

8:43 Now, now Regulus, nobody likes a sore loser, do they?

8:47 No.

8:48 How about this?

8:49 We're gonna send you back to Rome and you

8:51 convince the Roman Senate to surrender to us.

8:54 If you fail though, you gotta come back so we can torture you to death, okay?

8:59 Okay.

9:00 You promise?

9:02 I promise.

9:04 Hey guys.

9:05 Whoa, Regulus.

9:06 We thought you got captured.

9:08 I did.

9:09 But they sent me back to convince you to surrender.

9:11 Well, should we surrender?

9:13 No, never surrender.

9:15 Give them hell, boys.

9:17 They're at the end of their rope.

9:18 Anyway, I gotta go be tortured to death now.

9:21 What?

9:22 Yep.

9:22 Part of a deal I made.

9:23 It's a long story.

9:25 Oh, Hey wait, Regulus.

9:26 No, no, it's cool guys, I promised.

9:29 Regulus, this is ancient times.

9:33 We massacre entire populations.

9:35 We chop pets in half.

9:37 You can break a promise.

9:38 No, Tim!

9:40 You never break a promise.

9:42 That's too far.

9:45 And so Regulus went back to Carthage and was tortured to death.

9:49 And for keeping his promise,

9:51 he was immortalized as the leading symbol of Roman virtue.

9:56 Meanwhile, after their defeat in Africa, the remaining Roman survivors,

10:00 still in Africa, were still in Africa and they needed to be rescued.

10:05 So the Romans sent their fleet to pick 'em up and bring 'em home.

10:09 They successfully fended off a Carthaginian fleet,

10:11 grabbed the survivors and made their way to Sicily.

10:15 A great success.

10:16 But then things took a turn for the worse.

10:20 Sir, that cloud looks kind of angry.

10:23 Fear not, coward.

10:25 If we Romans can build a war fleet from scratch

10:28 and defeat the Carthaginian empire at their own game,

10:32 why then, even mother nature herself will crumble before us.

10:37 I laugh in the face of mother nature.

10:39 Haha.

10:40 See?

10:41 Come on guys, laugh at mother nature with me.

10:44 Ha ha!

10:45 (all laugh) (thunder crashes) (soldiers screaming) 284 ships,

10:55 nearly 80% of the Roman fleet, was destroyed.

11:00 As many as a hundred thousand men drowned in a terrifying act of nature.

11:06 Never before had Rome lost so many men in a single incident.

11:11 A hundred thousand casualties for any other nation would be crippling.

11:15 Any other nation would hastily sue for peace.

11:18 Any other nation would spend decades trying to recover.

11:22 But Rome was not just any other nation.

11:26 Infamous for its unrelenting determination in the face of overwhelming odds,

11:31 Rome said, well, I guess we'll just have to build another fleet.

11:35 And they did.

11:36 In just three months, they built 220 more ships, an astonishing feat.

11:42 The Romans sent out their brand spanking new

11:44 war fleet and they got caught in another storm.

11:51 This time a whole 'nother fleet was lost and still the Romans did not give up.

11:58 The Carthaginians couldn't believe it.

12:00 Their enemy had just lost hundreds of thousands of men,

12:04 had two fleets almost entirely destroyed and they still wouldn't surrender.

12:10 As one Roman poet put it,

12:12 the victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so.

12:18 In typical Roman fashion, after a short break,

12:21 they were once again building another fleet.

12:24 However, for now, after all the disasters at sea,

12:28 the focus began shifting back to the land campaign in Sicily.

12:32 The Carthaginians, overconfident from recent successes,

12:36 attempted to retake Panormus,

12:38 but the Romans countered the terrifying war elephants

12:41 by throwing stuff at them and scaring them away.

12:44 Having stopped the Carthaginian advance, the road was now open to the final

12:48 Carthaginian stronghold on the island, Lilybaeum.

12:52 Lilybaeum was an extremely well fortified city.

12:56 In 250 BC, the Romans laid siege.

12:59 The Carthaginian defense however,

13:02 was fierce and skilled blockade runners kept the city supplied.

13:05 Progress was so slow that the siege would last another nine years.

13:10 To make matters worse,

13:12 the Carthaginians later sent possibly the greatest military general of the time,

13:16 a man named Hamilcar Barca, to the island.

13:19 He engaged in a skillful campaign of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines

13:23 and for the remainder of the war he was a major thorn in the Roman's side.

13:27 For now, with the deadlocked siege at Lilybaeum and the new Roman fleet at sea,

13:32 things seem to be at a standstill and the Romans

13:36 had to do something to break the deadlock.

13:38 Thankfully, the Roman consul, Clodius Pulcher, had an idea.

13:43 He tried to get things moving by attacking the Carthaginian fleet at Drepana.

13:47 Now before a battle, to predict if they would win,

13:50 it was common for the Romans to look for signs from the gods.

13:54 This could mean observing the weather or inspecting some cow livers,

13:58 you know, typical religion stuff.

14:00 In this case, Pulcher reportedly tried to feed some sacred chickens,

14:04 but unfortunately for him they wouldn't eat a crumb.

14:07 A very bad sign.

14:09 Well, he said if they won't eat, then let them drink.

14:14 Stupid chickens.

14:15 We'll observe the weather instead.

14:17 Gods, give me a sign.

14:19 (thunder crashes) Ignore that.

14:22 Okay, how about this?

14:23 If I can get this piece of paper into that trash basket, we'll win.

14:28 Okay, if I can stand here silently for five seconds and do nothing, we'll win.

14:36 (Pulcher farts) Ah, dagnammit.

14:38 Pulcher chose to ignore the signs from the gods and in the following battle,

14:43 the superior Carthaginians tore them to shreds.

14:45 It also didn't help that by now the Romans had removed

14:48 the Corvus to stabilize their ships and without their secret weapon,

14:52 it was a disaster and Pulcher was disgraced.

14:56 To make matters worse,

14:58 the victorious Carthaginian fleet then went on to intercept

15:01 a Roman supply fleet on its way to Lilybaeum.

15:04 As they approached, however,

15:05 they saw the signs of an incoming storm, so they took shelter.

15:09 The Romans on the other hand said, onward men, set sail.

15:13 We've gotta deliver these supplies stat.

15:15 But sir, those clouds.

15:17 Don't you think we ought to have learned our lesson by now?

15:20 Yes, Brian, we ought to have, but we haven't.

15:25 Another fleet and 50,000 men lost in another storm.

15:31 Disaster.

15:32 Now at this point there still really isn't a clear winner.

15:36 Sure, the Romans have captured most of Sicily

15:39 and cornered the Carthaginian land forces at Lilybaeum.

15:42 But the continued disasters at sea were critically depleting their resources.

15:46 And without a strong fleet, Rome could not win.

15:49 Meanwhile, Hamilcar Barca was still knocking

15:52 about and creating even more problems.

15:54 So where do we go from here?

15:56 How does this war finally end?

15:59 By now, the two sides had been fighting for 23 years.

16:03 They were exhausted.

16:05 Their money, their resources, their strength were all utterly spent.

16:11 The Carthaginians, in particular, were eager to see the war end so

16:14 they could get back to trading and making money.

16:17 So after the latest Roman disaster at sea, they said, look,

16:21 there ain't no way in heck the Romans can come back again.

16:26 They can't possibly afford to build another fleet.

16:29 They're done.

16:30 That's it.

16:32 Recall the Navy, repurpose them as merchant ships

16:35 and let's get back to making some money.

16:38 (crowd cheers) Assuming the Romans would soon make peace,

16:42 an anti-war faction within the government recalled a large portion of the Navy,

16:46 leaving Hamilcar on his own.

16:48 The victors appeared to be declaring themselves victorious.

16:51 Meanwhile, the vanquished we're getting ready for round five.

16:55 The Romans built another fleet.

16:57 This time heavily relying on patriotic donations

17:00 from the upper classes to afford it.

17:02 And once again they put to sea.

17:06 Sir, the Romans have built another fleet.

17:08 Oh, for goodness sake, Clarence.

17:10 Can't you see I'm busy rolling around in this pile of money?

17:12 But sir.

17:13 I don't care anymore, Clarence.

17:15 I just don't care.

17:17 The Carthaginian politicians made a fairly lackluster final effort

17:21 with a poorly built fleet to supply their forces in Sicily.

17:25 But when the brand new Roman fleet caught them at the battle of the Aegates,

17:29 even without their signature Corvus, they dealt them the final blow.

17:33 And that was that.

17:36 23 years of war.

17:38 Neither side could afford to keep fighting.

17:40 But the Romans showed that they intended to anyway.

17:43 The Carthaginians had no choice, but to throw in the towel.

17:47 The war had been long and hard for both sides

17:51 but in the end it was Roman determination that won the fight.

17:56 The Romans had spent the entire war trying

17:58 to find a way to deliver the knockout blow.

18:01 They learned how to build a fleet and engage in Naval combat.

18:04 They developed ingenious, new ways of waging war.

18:08 They attempted an invasion of the Carthaginian

18:11 heartland and whenever disasters struck them,

18:13 they always came back again, and again.

18:16 The Carthaginians, on the other hand,

18:18 spent the entire war watching whatever Rome

18:20 did and then figuring out how to respond.

18:23 They were much more passive.

18:26 And so it's no wonder then, that when both sides were close to collapse Rome was

18:31 the one who figured out how to go that little bit further.

18:34 In 241 BC, the Carthaginian politicians sent word to Hamilcar Barca that he was

18:40 on his own and could choose to make peace with the Romans if he wished.

18:44 Hamilcar was stunned.

18:46 He felt betrayed by the politicians.

18:49 Some sources say he refused to even negotiate.

18:52 Nevertheless terms had to be drawn up.

18:56 Well Hammy, I'm glad you Carthaginians have finally come

18:59 to your senses and recognized who the true winner is.

19:03 How many fleets did you lose?

19:04 Blah, blah, blah.

19:05 Okay, here are our terms.

19:06 You leave Sicily to us and return all of our prisoners.

19:09 You're not allowed to make war against Syracuse or her allies and you

19:12 have to pay us 2200 talents of silver over the next 20 years.

19:17 What's a talent of silver?

19:19 Well, to put it in perspective, in the year 2022,

19:22 that'll be worth around, let's say 40 million U.S.

19:25 dollars.

19:25 Ay caramba!

19:27 That will cripple us.

19:28 Wow, we got a real smart guy over here.

19:30 Yeah, that's kind of the point, you dingus.

19:32 Ugh.

19:33 I guess I have no choice.

19:35 I accept.

19:36 Great.

19:37 Oh, by the way, we changed our minds.

19:38 You actually have to pay us 3,200 talents of silver over 10 years.

19:42 Thanks for accepting.

19:43 Dude!

19:44 See you later.

19:45 Hey, you didn't let me say uncool.

19:48 He didn't let me say uncool.

19:49 The treaty was extremely punishing,

19:51 and by switching up the terms at the last minute they enraged the Carthaginians,

19:56 but still one of the longest and deadliest wars at the time was finally over.

20:03 The Romans had won.

20:05 They achieved their aim of gaining Sicily.

20:07 And even though it wasn't part of the peace deal they took

20:10 advantage of a weakened Carthage and grabbed Corsica and Sardinia as well.

20:14 Roman expansion beyond the Italian peninsula had just begun.

20:19 The Romans hoped that now the Carthaginians would forever be under their thumb.

20:23 Unfortunately, the harsh terms they placed on the Carthaginians

20:27 at the end of the war left a growing anger.

20:30 One that would come back to haunt them.

20:33 One day, Carthage will have its revenge.

20:36 That's nice dear.

20:38 I'm serious woman.

20:39 Maybe not in my lifetime, but perhaps in his.

20:43 My beautiful son, you are born into a momentous destiny.

20:50 You shall be Rome's greatest enemy.

20:53 You'll tear Rome limb from limb.

20:56 You'll burn their pathetic city into the ground.

20:59 You'll slaughter their people, men, women and children.

21:04 My child, you are vengeance.

21:09 Stop telling our baby he's vengeance.

21:11 But he is Barbara, he's vengeance.

21:14 That may be so someday,

21:16 but for now our son has a name and you should call him that instead.

21:21 His name is...

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21:48 (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues)