The First Punic War - The War At Sea (264 - 256 BC)

In today's video we examine the the opening decade of the First Punic War, which saw it evolve from a conflict over the single city of Messana to a war to decide the ownership of Sicily. Starting as a war on land, it eventually resulted in one of the biggest naval conflicts in human history, including perhaps the largest sea battle in human history, the Battle of Ecnomus.

#Rome #Carthage #history

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I'd also like to thank all of my voice actors for today's episode, whose own work you can find below:

Embrace Historia as Diodorus Siculus

Byron Lewis as Cassius Dio/Zonaras

Stefan Milo as Polybius

[TheHistocrat]

Sources for today's video include...

Modern historians:



Dexter Hoyos (2011) A Companion to the Punic Wars, Chapters 8-11.

Dexter Hoyos (2015) Mastering the West: Rome and Carthage at War (Ancient Warfare and Civilization)

Dexter Hoyos (2019) Carthage's Other Wars: Carthaginian Warfare
Outside the 'Punic Wars' Against Rome



J. F. Lazenby (1996) The First Punic War.



Richard Miles (2010) Carthage Must Be Destroyed.


Adrian Goldsworthy (2006) The Fall of Carthage.


Mary Beard (2016) SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.

H. H. Scullard (1989) Carthage and Rome, in ‘The Cambridge
Ancient History, Volume 7, Part 2’.

Nigel Bagnall (1999) The Punic Wars: Rome, Carthage and the Struggle for the Mediterranean


Ancient historians:

Polybius, The Histories, Oxford World's Classics.

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Loeb Classical Library edition.

[andriy_sushko]

The next hour of my life is predefined

[MrVvulf]

38:00 I've both read and heard in other media that the Carthaginian ship which was captured had each individual part labelled (like an ancient "assemble at home" IKEA product) which would have helped enormously in mass producing copies.

[scribeslendy]

As an amusing addition; the great Pyrrhus of Epirus met his fate while fighting within the Greek city of Argos. As Plutarch recounts, he was fighting on horseback inside the city, when an old woman watching from a rooftop (supposedly the mother of the soldier he was fighting) tossed a tile at him. The tile knocked him from his horse and broke his spine, leaving him paralyzed.

Man, those roof tiles back then were no joke. There are repeated references to their usage during urban combat, typically by civilians, througout the historical record. In fact, this tactic was later mentioned as having been used against Roman Soldiers during the sack of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War.

[VeritasIncrebresco]

Mr. Histocrat thank you for all your hard work to put these videos together! Takes me away from the craziness today!

[vx]

Thank you for sharing another of your brilliant history vids👍

[tannertasman]

Settling in for a good one no doubt. Thanks for all your work. In my humble opinion, you're among a group of YouTube history channels which are doing something very special in bringing accessible history to a huge swath of individuals.

[enessou]

I really liked your first Punic War video -- been hoping you'd continue the series every since. Super happy to finally get to see this!

[ldawg]

So glad I found this channel a few years back, it's provided me with hours of entertainment and I've learned a hell of a lot.. pisses me off, I never realize how massively, massively into history and all that I was in school, because of the crappy forced curriculums and just the way they taught/still teach history and all other things in schools, in America. It really isn't that hard to make learning fun...while the vast majority of young people believe in not to be, it truly, truly is, if done correctly.. if you know the right place to look, you can EASILY learn more in a day via quality YouTube content, then you could an entire year in a history / biology class in the American school system..

[seanzibonanzi]

I love these long format videos, especially on a conflict as pivotal as the Punic wars. The Phoenician and later Carthaginian navy and merchant fleet is the subject of much intrigue. Their zeal for commerce, agriculture and exploration was unmatched in the ancient world. It's a shame we know so little and what we do, is from their adversaries because IMO America was more similar to Carthage than to Rome and it'd be cool to know more

[dennettshane]

Ettore Mazza is responsible for the highest quality thumbnails on Youtube. He actually made a huge impact on this genre of video essays

[bendkok]

Just casually drops the next episode two years later. What a Chad.

[anto]

Excellent work as always! I'm really hoping for a Second Punic War episode!

[TheOriginalCranberyy]

Excellent video. I appreciate the way you portrayed this part of history. I've been wanting to see more content about the Punic Wars and this definitely gave me some neat insights.

[LeTDDswag]

From what I’ve read in the book « Histoire militaire des guerres puniques » by french historian Yann le Bohec, the corvus wasn’t that big decisive factor that made the Romans beat Carthage at sea. It may have played a significant role in the battle of Mylae due to the surprise effect, but it was quickly abandoned due to it unbalancing the ships which would have made them more vulnerable to storms. In addition, the mere fact that dozens of Carthaginian ships were sunk in all these battles suggests that the Romans also largely resorted to the more traditional tactic of ramming.

Finally, when you think about it, the Roman superiority in land warfare mainly came from their battle tactics, and it’s very difficult to imagine the romans using the maniples system while fighting on 20 ft large ships.

[quinn]

was literally just hoping you’d upload soon and here u are

[lv]

Almost 4am damn I guess I have to watch the entire thing.

[Petaljane]

Your Punic Wars series thus far is the best I’ve come across! I appreciate the voice, cadence and visuals. The high quality of your First Punic War research reflects in your consultation of ancient sources beyond Polybius, including Diodorus, Cassius Dio, Orosius and Eutropius — you even credited Philinus! I’ve studied this subject extensively and written about it as “Sardonic Addendum: The Unfought Punic War of 237 BC” (free online via University of British Columbia). In due course, I hope you will dedicate a separate episode to cover Carthage’s Mercenary War & the Interwar period of 240 - 219 BC. I eagerly await your next instalment!
👍👍

[ashleymcgee]

We missed your videos! Thanks for another great one!

[ekszentrik]

Great imagery, great narration, great voice (it's very much a factor)!