Civilization #14: Hannibal Barca, Lucius Brutus, and the Triumph of Rome

Rome was traditionally founded in the year 753 BC, but we don't know for sure; that's just what tradition and the Romans themselves believed. Around this time, Rome was a small, insignificant kingdom in the middle of Italy. It was started on the Tiber River in an area of Italy called Latium, and its people were known as the Latins.

For the next several centuries, Rome would be a small, poor kingdom at war with its neighbors, primarily the Sabines and other tribes. During this period, the dominant civilization in Italy was the Etruscans. The Etruscans were the most advanced civilization in Italy, very similar to Greece in that they were organized into different city-states that traded with each other. Because they were by the sea, they were able to access cultures, ideas, and goods from all around the world.

Across the Mediterranean, you have a place called Carthage. Sicily is important because it's the main island of the Mediterranean; if you want to control the Mediterranean Sea and its trade, you have to control Sicily. Across the sea from Sicily is Carthage, a colony of Phoenicia in the Levant. Over the next few hundred years, Carthage would become the dominant economic power of the Mediterranean because they were very good at trade and sailing. They traveled all around the world, founded new colonies, and slowly built up their own empire across the Mediterranean. For the longest time, they were the wealthiest city in Europe.

And of course, over here are the Greeks. Around 500 BC, if you were to look at these major civilizations—the Etruscans, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and the Romans—no one could have predicted that the Romans would become the great empire that they did.

How Did Rome Become So Powerful?

The first question we will look at is: how did Rome become so powerful? The easy answer is that it was good at war—really good at war. The next question, then, is why was it so good at war? Why was it better than the Greeks or the Carthaginians?

The answer is that the Romans were not afraid to die and had a different conception of citizenship than the Greeks. Remember, the Greeks were extremely jealous of their citizenship. It was very hard to become an Athenian or a Spartan; you basically had to be born into the polis. The same was true for the Carthaginians. While not as strict as the Greeks, they were also pretty inflexible and very proud of their citizenship.

Rome, because it was the poorest and smallest, had no choice. If you wanted to immigrate to Rome, they welcomed you as a citizen. As such, throughout its history, Rome could draw on the vast manpower pool in the surrounding areas. With their almost unlimited manpower resources, they could eventually overwhelm the Greeks and the Carthaginians, becoming the dominant power in the Mediterranean by about 200 BC.

That's the easy answer, and that's what most historians and scholars believe. But I want to be more precise. I want to show you that ultimately, it was the value system, or what is known as the character of these different civilizations, that determined their fate and future.

Around 500 BC, Rome became a republic. At this time, Etruscan culture was dominating Rome; in fact, three out of Rome's seven previous kings were Etruscan. Culturally and traditionally, the Etruscans had a huge impact on Rome. But because Rome was very good at war, it was slowly able to expand, conquer the Etruscans, and control all of Italy.

Because the Romans are expansionist by nature—they are a warlike people, a war machine—they next wanted to control Sicily and the coast. This brought them into conflict with the Greeks. Remember, when the Greeks built colonies, they built them either on islands or near the coast, which allowed them to trade and connect with the Greek diaspora.

In about 280 BC, the Greeks in southern Italy called for help. At this time, the Greek world was dominant. Alexander the Great had conquered most of the known world, and his generals now controlled most of the territory. One of the successors to Alexander, a man named Pyrrhus, decided this was an opportunity for him to build his own empire. He responded to the Greeks who called for help against Rome.

Pyrrhus came with an army to help his compatriots. Remember, at this time, the Greeks had the best military in the world because of the hoplite phalanx. Pyrrhus was destroying the Romans, battle after battle. Eventually, Pyrrhus said, "Wow, I'm winning so many battles, but if I continue to win, I will be completely out of men. I will have no more soldiers left." This is where the phrase Pyrrhic victory comes from: you can win, but the costs of victory are so high you might as well have lost.

Even though the Romans were militarily inferior to the Greeks, they weren't afraid to die and inflicted so many casualties on the Greeks that they eventually had to withdraw. This would start many centuries of war between the Romans and the Greeks. In the beginning, the Greeks were wealthier, more numerous, and more militarily dominant, but eventually, because of the Roman way of war, Rome would conquer the Greeks.

The Punic Wars and the Genius of Hannibal

Eventually, the Romans won Sicily, which brought them into direct conflict with Carthage and started what is called the First Punic War. There was a problem: Carthage was a naval power, while Rome was a land power with no navy. So, what Rome did was slowly build its own navy. At first, their navy was terrible; they lost a lot of ships. The Romans built more ships and were slaughtered by the Carthaginians at sea. So they built more ships, and more ships, and more ships. Eventually, they overwhelmed the Carthaginians. After 20 years of war, Rome became the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean, and Carthage became second.

Then, something strange happened. Carthage was a trading, maritime power. While it was able to dominate its neighbors and establish an empire in Northern Africa and Spain, it lost a lot of wars against the Greeks and the Romans, who were just better warriors. But then, the Carthaginians produced a man named Hannibal Barca. Hannibal Barca is considered by many military historians to be the greatest general who ever lived. As a military strategist, Hannibal had no competitor.

Hannibal Barca hated Rome with a passion. He understood that Rome was a fundamentally expansionist military power that would not stop until it had conquered the world. So, even though Carthage and Rome were technically at peace, he knew that eventually, Rome would conquer Carthage. It was better to take the fight to Rome first than to wait for Rome to come to you.

At this time, Carthage was basically a republic like Rome, run by a Council of Elders. These were the wealthiest citizens in Carthage—merchants and wealthy people for whom war is bad for business. They were not supportive of Hannibal in his desire for war against Rome.

So, Hannibal did two things. First, he was in charge of silver mines in Spain. He conquered a lot more Spanish territory for Carthage and amassed more wealth. He took this wealth and used it to bribe the Council of Elders to leave him alone and support his military adventures in Spain. Since they were business people, if it was profitable, they would support you.

Then, Hannibal did something that was thought unimaginable before: he took his army and crossed the Alps into Italy. He was now at Rome's doorstep. Before Hannibal did this, it was thought impossible to cross the Alps with an army, especially in winter. But Hannibal did it. He lost a lot of men and war elephants in his crossing, but he was able to make it. When he crossed, he was able to summon a lot of allies to his side because Rome was at war with everyone in Italy and with the Gauls to the north. Rome had a lot of enemies, and Hannibal, a charismatic speaker and great general, was able to replenish his forces once he landed in Italy.

Rome heard about this and at first, they were shocked, but they weren't scared. Rome is a war machine. They decided to send an army against Hannibal, and army after army fell. Hannibal was able to defeat Roman soldiers and armies using superior military tactics and strategies.

The Battle of Cannae

Then the Romans decided on a new plan. They would take two years off and build the world's largest army: 80,000 men. At this time, Hannibal had about 40,000 men. The Romans planned to take these 80,000 soldiers, throw them at Hannibal, crush him, and the war would be over. That was the strategy—the Roman way. The Romans are not creative; they are just brutal, bold, and direct.

Hannibal met this 80,000-soldier army at a place called Cannae, where they fought the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. This is the most famous battle in human history. The Romans outnumbered Hannibal two to one. Hannibal chose the place to face the Romans: a small valley. Even though the Romans were numerically superior, the small valley forced them to march in a long, straight line as opposed to a wide one.

Hannibal was uphill with his army, and he did something strange. He organized his army not in a straight line, but in a concave line. The Romans looked at this and laughed because they had never seen anything like it before. They thought it was a sign of weakness, that the military under Hannibal was undisciplined and amateurish. They thought the battle would be over in an hour.

So the Romans marched confidently against Hannibal. On the wings of both armies were the horsemen, the cavalry. As the Romans marched, Hannibal sent his cavalry against the Roman cavalry and overwhelmed them. Now, Hannibal's cavalry was turning back to attack the flank, or the back, of the Roman army.

Meanwhile, the Roman attack was so powerful that the concave line of Hannibal's army turned upside down. When it did so, it trapped the Roman army in a circle. Now they were inside a circle, with the Carthaginian army coming around to attack them from the back. Militarily, we call this the double envelopment strategy.

The Romans were completely encircled. What followed was the greatest massacre in military history until World War I. The army of 80,000 that the Romans sent lost almost 70,000 men. 70,000 men died that day. No military would lose so many men until World War I, when they had much larger armies and machine guns. This was the greatest military disaster in human history up to this point.

The disaster was so great that Rome had now lost 20% of its adult male population. To put that in context, in World War I, the Germans lost between 10 to 15% of their adult male population before they were forced to surrender. Rome had lost 20% of its men and a third of the Senate, its highest governing body. At the same time, Hannibal was able to convince the Greeks to start a second front against the Romans.

At this point, the war was basically over. Hannibal sent envoys to Rome and said, "The war is over. I'm willing to negotiate a peace settlement."

And then something strange happened, something unique in human history. The Roman Senate came together and discussed the situation. It was bleak, hopeless. But they were Romans.

Romans do not surrender.

The Senate told Hannibal, "We will continue the war. We will raise another army. If you want to come attack us, come. We will be ready for you."

This was completely unexpected. Hannibal did not know what to do. This war continued for another 15 years. And 15 years later, the Romans had won. They destroyed the Carthaginian presence in Spain, landed in Africa, and forced Carthage to surrender.

This is a mystery. Why did the Romans not surrender? And how were they able to defeat not just the Carthaginians, but also the Greeks and everyone else? Because at that time, Hannibal had basically united the entire world against Rome. And Rome, in the end, though it was very costly, did win.

The Three Pillars of Military Strength

Traditional military doctrine about who wins wars is basically wrong. Traditionally, we understand military strength through three things: manpower (how many soldiers you have), technology (how good your weapons are), and resources (how wealthy you are). If you analyze it this way, then Rome should have been no match for Carthage. Carthage was a lot wealthier, had more technology, and had the greatest general in Hannibal.

By this same logic, the Athenians should not have been able to defeat the Persians, and Alexander and the Macedonians should not have been able to defeat the Persians. In fact, throughout human history, we have many cases where smaller armies have defeated much larger ones. Think of Genghis Khan or Muhammad. Clearly, this traditional understanding is wrong.

So what is a better way to understand military strength? I would argue that how strong a military is is based on three criteria:

1. Cohesion: Do the soldiers like and identify with each other? Are they united?
2. Discipline: How well-trained and experienced are they?
3. Devotion: How committed are they to winning?

If you want to see how powerful a nation is militarily, you have to ask yourself these three questions. I would also argue that each nation has a certain culture, a certain value system, which gives it a certain character. This character will tell you if they are likely to win a war or not.

Let's examine the characteristics of Rome as opposed to the Greeks and the Carthaginians.

The Greek Character

For the Greeks, what makes a good person is areté, which means excellence. You could be a jerk, but if you have talent, you're a good person. The areté they were most concerned about was the ability to speak well and fight well. The most valuable thing in life was freedom, which for them meant the ability to speak your mind in front of your peers—freedom of speech. The purpose of life was eudaimonia, or flourishing. You can only be happy if you are achieving your true potential. This explains why the Greeks were the most creative civilization in human history, but also very selfish. They were never able to come together except in times of national emergency, and even then, only a few city-states united.

The Carthaginian Character

Unfortunately, we don't know as much about the Carthaginians because Rome wiped Carthage out of history. They destroyed the city, killed everyone, and erased Carthage from the history books. But we do know they were a mercantile empire focused on trade, and their political system gave the most power to the wealthiest citizens. They were a merchant culture.

From that, we can make certain guesses about their value system. What is good for the Carthaginians? Being lucky. That's how business people think, which is why they are very superstitious. The Carthaginians were notorious for being extremely religious and superstitious. One example of this is that they were known for practicing human sacrifice, even child sacrifice in times of war, to gain divine favor. They cared about their own interests—what was profitable. Their purpose in life was accumulating wealth. This is why for most of their history, they were extremely wealthy and known for being clever business people.

The Roman Character

For the Romans, a good person was defined by pietas, which means duty to the gods, to the city of Rome, and to your father. They believed heavily in filial piety. The most valuable thing in their lives was liberty, but this was a different conception than for the Greeks. The Romans believed liberty was about respecting the law, the institutions, and the history of Rome. Only by respecting the law could you be free; otherwise, we would all just be savages.

Finally, the purpose of life for the Romans was Res Publica, which translates to "public virtue" or "for the public good." This is where we get the term "republic." For Romans, the highest honor, the purpose of life, was to serve Rome and make it stronger and better. Serving in political office and being head of the military was the highest honor Rome could bestow on you.

If we do a comparative contrast, we can easily see that it's the Roman ethical system that would allow them the most cohesion, discipline, and devotion in their military. Therefore, over time, in a war, the Romans should be able to defeat both the Carthaginians and the Greeks.

The Founding Myths of the Republic

What the Romans did well was create history as mythology. The Greeks separated mythology from history; mythology is what the gods did, and history is what humans did. The Romans elevated their history into mythology; their history became their religion.

There are legends that surround the founding of Rome. Rome was supposedly founded in 753 BC by Romulus. According to legend, a king was overthrown by his brother. The brother banished the king's daughter to a temple to be a virgin, but she got pregnant. She claimed she was visited by Mars, the god of war, who impregnated her. The king's brother didn't believe her, so he banished her and ordered the twins she bore to be killed. The person charged with killing the twins took pity on them and left them to die in the woods. A she-wolf came and nursed them before a shepherd adopted them. Eventually, they realized who they were, helped the king overthrow his brother, and took back the throne.

The brothers, Romulus and Remus, were asked to found their own city. They went to the future site of Rome, with its hills and the Tiber River providing good defense. The problem was, there were two of them, and only one could be king. They got into a battle, and Romulus killed Remus. This is the founding legend of Rome. From this, we can understand the Roman psychology: they believed that violence is at the core of human existence. Sometimes you have to kill your own brother, and that's the right thing to do because it is ordained by the gods.

The second legend is this: Romulus had to build Rome, and he became a very open person, welcoming immigrants and granting them citizenship and status right away. Rome became a nation of immigrants. Eventually, their rise startled their neighbors, the Sabines, who went to war with them. The Romans were so good at war that they fought them back. The Sabines decided they couldn't beat them in war, but since Rome only had males, they would just isolate Rome. Their daughters would not marry into Rome, and in 20 years, Rome would have no population.

Romulus heard of this plan and devised a strategy. He organized a huge festival and invited all his neighbors. Fathers brought their daughters. At this festival, the women were kidnapped and raped. That night, Romulus visited every one of these women, apologized for what had happened, and promised they would be safe in Rome, that they were now citizens and would be protected by him personally.

The fathers and brothers were obviously very upset, so they organized a huge army and marched against Rome. The Roman citizens came out to face them in battle. Just as they were about to clash, the women ran between them and begged their new husbands and their fathers and brothers not to fight. At this point, Romulus appeared and said he would make everyone a citizen of Rome. By doing that, he doubled the population of Rome. Again, from this legend, we can understand the Roman psychology: everything can be sacrificed in the pursuit of Roman glory and to ensure that Rome survives. What matters is Rome. It's a cult of Rome. All that matters is its survival.

The Birth of the Republic

After this, Rome started to grow slowly during a period known as the Seven Kings. Most of them were very good kings, except the last one, Tarquinius Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud. As his name suggests, he was a very arrogant king. His hubris made him refuse to listen to the nobility; those who challenged his authority often got killed.

He had a son who was a jerk and liked to abuse his power, especially by raping the women of Rome. There was one woman famous for her virtue named Lucretia. The prince thought raping her would be the most fun because she would be the most insulted. So he raped her. She then went and confronted her husband, who had a friend named Lucius Junius Brutus, the nephew of the king. Brutus was very much opposed to the tyranny of the king.

Lucretia said to her husband and to Brutus, "I've been raped. Will you promise me to avenge my honor?" They saw she was distraught, so they soothed her and promised they would do everything they could in the morning. Lucretia didn't really believe them. She took a knife out from her dress, stabbed herself in the heart, and died before them. Now, they were honor-bound to avenge her death.

Lucius Brutus called a meeting of the nobility, and they decided to overthrow the king, who was out campaigning at war. They locked the gates of Rome. The king was furious and decided to go back to Etruria, where he was from, to rally other kings to his side. He argued that if the Romans could overthrow him, other people could overthrow their kings, setting a bad precedent.

Meanwhile, Lucius Brutus was instituting the Republic. The king's powers—military, judicial, legislative, administrative, and religious—were all invested in him. What Brutus and the Romans did was separate these powers, not into individuals, but into institutions that were now elected by the people. This is the heart of republicanism.

• Military power went to the Consul, the head of state.
• Judicial power went to the Praetor.
• Legislative power went to the Senate.
• Administrative power went to the Aedile.
• Religious power went to the Pontifex Maximus.

They were all elected by the people. It's important to understand that usually, the nobility held these offices, but back then, there was not much separation between the nobility (patricians) and ordinary people (plebeians). The patricians just came from the oldest families in Rome. They were wealthy, but not that much wealthier than ordinary Romans. The people could visit each other's homes without any ceremony. You could be the Consul, but an ordinary person could just come to your house and have dinner with you. There were no guards, no separation.

This system, unbelievably, would not change for about 500 years. It was pretty stable.

The Ultimate Test of Devotion

The problem with the Republic is that everyone is equal, and if you come from a privileged background, you find this very annoying. A conspiracy arose to bring back the king. This conspiracy was discovered, and everyone was caught and imprisoned. It turned out that Lucius Brutus had two sons, and they were both part of this conspiracy. They were tried by the Senate and sentenced to death.

The problem was that the Consul had to oversee the execution of the prisoners. And the Consul was Lucius Junius Brutus. He had to oversee the execution of his two sons. If Brutus had decided to resign his office or claim he was sick, everyone would have understood.

Instead, Lucius Brutus showed up for work and oversaw the execution of his two sons. All of Rome came to watch. Everyone was watching the face of Lucius Brutus. They knew the two sons were going to die, but they wanted to see his reaction. He was crying throughout the execution. These were his two sons; he had no more. This was his legacy, and they were about to be killed. In fact, he was the one charged with killing his own sons. He had no choice.

Everyone was watching him, and throughout this process, he was crying, tears flowing down his face. He couldn't help himself, but he stood still and slowly ordered the execution of his two sons. The Romans were just shocked by this public display. This is the idea of devotion: you are so devoted to Rome that you are willing to sacrifice your own children to ensure its survival and glory.

Tarquin the Proud heard about this and got really angry. He allied himself with other kings and they marched against Rome. Lucius Brutus, as Consul, was in charge of the military, so he marched his army against Tarquin. One of Tarquin's sons saw Brutus and charged ahead, wanting to kill the man who insulted his family. Brutus saw the king's son galloping towards him, got angry, and charged ahead as well. Brutus threw his spear; the prince threw his spear. They speared each other to death, and they both died.

At this point, Lucius Junius Brutus was considered the greatest Roman who ever lived. For most of Roman history, he would be considered the greatest Roman until Julius Caesar. It was in the memory and honor of Lucius Brutus that they would later assassinate Julius Caesar.

Heroes of the Republic

The king's army was overwhelming the Romans, who had to flee back into the city. There was a drawbridge that connected Rome to the mainland. The garrison supposed to be protecting the bridge saw the enemy army marching towards them, got scared, and ran into Rome.

One guy, Horatius Cocles, decided he couldn't run away, because if he did, the army would just march into Rome and kill everyone. He decided to make a last stand. It was just one guy. He started shouting insults at the enemy army: "You guys are slaves! We're Romans! We will always be free!" The enemy army, thousands of them, had absolutely no idea what was going on. This one guy on a bridge was shouting insults at them. They froze.

Eventually, they realized he was just distracting them because his friends were trying to cut down the bridge. They ran toward him. At this point, two other Romans, two officers, ran beside Cocles, and together the three of them held off the invading army. They fought for their lives. Eventually, the bridge was about to be cut down. The two officers ran away, and Cocles made the last stand. As the bridge fell, he jumped into the Tiber and survived. This tells us that anyone can be a hero of Rome. Lucius Brutus was nobility, but Cocles was just an ordinary Roman who had the courage and devotion to fight for Rome.

Rome was now surrounded by this huge army. One young man, Gaius Mucius Scaevola, a Roman nobleman, went to the Senate. He said, "Listen, we're being surrounded by a huge enemy army, and we're starving to death. I have a plan. I'm going to swim across the Tiber, sneak into the enemy camp, and kill the enemy king." The Senate gave him his approval.

Mucius snuck into the enemy camp. It was payday, and soldiers were getting their wages. He saw on the podium two individuals giving out wages. They both looked like the king—one was the king, and one was his secretary. Mucius didn't know which was which. An ordinary person would have come back later, but Mucius thought, "It's 50/50." He took his knife, rushed forward, and stabbed one of the men, who happened to be the secretary.

He was arrested, and the king interrogated him, wanting to know if there were other spies. The king said to Mucius, "Tell me the truth, or I will burn you alive," and he showed Mucius the pyre with a huge fire.

Mucius said, "I am one of a hundred young Romans who have pledged their lives to kill you to free Rome." He was lying. "You kill me, there will be 99 more. We are not afraid of you. You say you will burn me if I do not tell you the truth." Then, he put his hand into the fire. His hand was burning, but he held it together. What made him hold it together was the image he saw in his mind: the face of Lucius Brutus as he ordered the execution of his two sons. Ordering the execution of your sons is a lot harder than burning your hand.

The king looked at this and thought, "The Romans are the craziest bastards I have ever met. Screw this, I'm going home." He let Mucius go, and the war was over. That's how the Roman Republic survived.

How do we know these stories?

For most of this time, this was oral history, passed from generation to generation. This oral history was eventually written down, but because Rome was at war so much, it was conquered once and burnt down, so we lost a lot of the written history. The problem with oral history is that there are different versions of the stories.

Later, a man named Livy, during the time the Roman Empire was first founded, sat down to write the official History of Rome, and this is where we get all these stories from. We don't believe these stories to be entirely true. Lucius Brutus was probably a real person, but whether he did these things, we don't know. It's debatable. But what matters is that this is what Romans believed. What matters is what they believed, as opposed to what really happened, because this is what created the Roman identity.

The Essence of Roman Greatness

This history is something that can be taught to anyone who becomes a citizen. Believing in this history, knowing this history, is what makes you a Roman.

1. Pietas: Loyalty to Rome.
2. Liberty: What Cocles, Mucius, and Brutus did was preserve the liberty of Rome. Remember, liberty means respecting and following the laws, institutions, and history of Rome, because that's what allows you to have freedom. That's why in 216 BC, even though Hannibal had defeated them, the Romans refused to surrender. Surrendering would mean surrendering their liberty, because Hannibal would impose peace terms that would make Rome a client state of Carthage. If you don't have liberty, your life isn't worth living.
3. Res Publica: Every nobleman, if you had the ability, wanted to serve Rome. They turned Roman politics into a competition to produce the best men. It was basically a meritocracy. Once you had the financial means, you stood for election. You first stood to become an Aedile, then a Praetor, and then a Consul. Once you were a Consul, you had the opportunity to win the highest glory. You could become a governor of a faraway province, and if you could win more territory for Rome, you would be given a Triumph—a big parade where you are celebrated by all the Roman people. That's what every Roman soldier aspired to: to become a great general who would receive his own Triumph.

That's why even though a third of the Roman Senate was wiped out by Hannibal, they didn't give up. The other people were like, "Okay, now here's my opportunity to prove myself." One of these young people, a man named Scipio, would go on to lead an army into Spain, conquer it, and then lead an army against Hannibal in North Africa and destroy him. The point of life was to receive the Triumph. If you received the Triumph, you would be remembered by Rome in their history, which is what gives your life meaning.

These concepts—Pietas, Liberty, and Res Publica—are the essence of the Roman identity, and they are what made Rome great. They are what allowed them to come back from the defeats that Hannibal inflicted on them to eventually win the war.

Why did Hannibal ultimately fail in Italy?

When Hannibal invaded Italy, he did so with many Gauls, who were traditional enemies of the Italians. So, Rome's neighbors rallied to Rome's support because they saw the Gauls and Hannibal as invaders who threatened their culture.

Second, Hannibal had an invading army, but he had no organizational and logistical support. He had no food supply because he was doing this on his own initiative. Carthage was too far away, and Rome had the best navy in the Mediterranean, so there was no way Carthage could resupply Hannibal. He was forced to spend a lot of his time foraging for food. That's ultimately why he lost the war. It's possible to win all the battles because you're a military genius, but you still have to feed your soldiers.

After the Battle of Cannae, Rome recognized this fact. They recognized that Hannibal's main problem was logistics. They decided they would never fight Hannibal in a battle again; instead, they would cut off his food supply. So Hannibal had to spend most of his time foraging for food, while Rome could rebuild itself by freeing its slaves and recruiting more neighbors to join their cause.

Armies don't win wars. Nations win wars.

While Hannibal was winning glory in Italy, the Council of Elders in Carthage was not happy. It was costing a lot of money to continue the war, and Italy was poor, so there was no profit to be made from conquering Rome. Furthermore, if Hannibal were to win, he could come back and make himself king of Carthage. So Hannibal was being undermined by Carthage itself, even though he was trying to save it. This is what makes Rome unique. Rome was united for most of its history, whereas places like Greece and Carthage were divided into different political factions.

The Final Destruction of Carthage

Fifty years after the war, a Roman Senator named Cato the Elder visited Carthage because he was curious about what had happened to it. To his dismay and shock, Carthage had become wealthier than ever before. Fifty years of peace meant Carthage was able to accumulate more wealth than ever, so much that it was able to pay off the indemnity that Rome had imposed on it.

Cato was traumatized by this. He went back to Rome and said, "We have to destroy Carthage." There was a huge debate in the Senate. He argued that if they let Carthage survive, it would always be a threat. Other senators countered, "I know you want to destroy Carthage, but remember, Carthage threatens us. If we destroy Carthage, Rome will no longer have an enemy. We will no longer have a threat. We will change as a people."

But Cato the Elder insisted. Eventually, an army was dispatched. The Romans have a habit of always blaming their enemies for starting a war, so they made dumb excuses, saying Carthage was violating the peace treaty. The Romans said to Carthage, "If you surrender all your weapons, we will go away." The Carthaginians believed them and surrendered all their weapons. The Romans got the weapons and said, "You know what, we also need you to move your city 10 kilometers inland from the coast."

At this point, the Carthaginians knew Rome was going to destroy them. There was a three-year siege, and at the end of it, Rome conquered Carthage, killed everyone inside, enslaved others, burned all the books, and wiped Carthage from history.

That's the Roman mentality. Devotion means all or nothing. You don't surrender, but you also don't show mercy to your enemies. Hannibal was right: Rome was a threat to Carthage. But because Carthage had a merchant culture run by business people, they could never recognize the threat.