Summary Publius Cornelius Scipio, just 26 years old, is elected proconsul and sent to Spain; The Romans disband the only legion fighting the war in Macedonia and continue the war with just the fleet and marines; The Romans capture the island of Aigina and sell it to Pergamum for thirty…
Summary The consul Marcus Valerius Laevinus and the Senate bicker about the appointment of a dictator; Quintus Fabius Maximus is nominated princeps senatus; Gaius Mamilius Atellus becomes the first plebeian curio maximus; Exhausted by the war, 12 of the 30 Latin colonies in Italy refuse to provide the Romans with…
Summary Gaius Valerius Flaccus is consecrated as flamen Dialis against his will and successfully claims a seat in the Senate; Unrest in Etruria; The consuls, Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Titus Quinctius Crispinus, are ambushed by Hannibal’s Numidian cavalry during a careless reconnaissance mission; Marcellus is killed, Crispinus dies of his…
Summary For the first time during the Second Punic War, the Roman coastal colonies are required to provide soldiers; Hasdrubal Barcas arrives in Cisalpine Gaul, but fails to capture the Latin colony of Placentia; The consul Gaius Claudius Nero confronts Hannibal near Grumentum; The Romans intercept couriers with a message…
Summary The Romans try to restore agricultural production in Latium and other parts of Italy; The consuls Lucius Veturius Philo and Quintus Caecilius Metellus occupy Lucania, containing Hannibal in a corner of Southern Italy; In Spain, Publius Cornelius Scipio wins his finest victory of the war by defeating the Carthaginians…
Summary Publius Cornelius Scipio wins his first consulship and is given the province of Sicily; Scipio suffers a political defeat in the Senate as he is denied the province of Africa; Volunteers from all over Italy flock to Scipio’s army and fleet; Mago Barcas lands in Liguria and sacks Genua;…
Summary Publius Cornelius Scipio is in deep trouble because of the Pleminius affair; An investigatory committee led by the praetor Marcus Pomponius is set up to investigate Scipio’s role in the affair; Quintus Pleminius is arrested and sent to Rome to stand trial; After managing to save his skin, Scipio…
Summary Publius Cornelius Scipio annihilates the armies of Hasdrubal and Syphax in a night attack near Utica; Scipio again defeats Hasdrubal and Syphax at the Battle of Great Plains; The Carthaginians finally decide to recall Hannibal from Southern Italy; Gaius Laelius and Masinissa defeat King Syphax and capture him; Masinissa…
Summary Publius Cornelius Scipio wins a decisive victory over Hannibal at the Battle of Zama; The Romans dictate incredibly harsh peace terms to the Carthaginians, which are nevertheless accepted; End of the Second Punic War; Scipio receives the agnomen ‘Africanus’. It was clear that the Second Punic War was drawing…
Summary The Romans send envoys to Carthage to protest Hannibal Barcas’ actions against Saguntum; Marcus Fabius Buteo lets war fall from his toga; start of the Second Punic War; The Boii and Insubres rebel against the Romans and attack Placentia and Cremona; Hannibal crosses the river Ebro and the Pyrenees,…
Summary Hannibal moves south from Cisalpine Gaul, crosses the Apennines and ravages Etruria; Hannibal destroys a Roman army on the shores of Lake Trasimene; the consul Gaius Flaminius is killed; After his victory, Hannibal marches his army towards the Adriatic Sea to rest and re-equip his men; The Roman popular…
Summary Hannibal destroys a huge Roman army at the Battle of Cannae. The consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus and many other Roman nobles are killed, as are tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers; After his victory, Hannibal decides not to march his exhausted and depleted army to Rome; A young Roman…
Summary Hannibal captures Casilinum; A second dictator, Marcus Fabius Buteo, is nominated to revise the roll of senators; A Roman army is ambushed and annihilated by the Boii in the Litana forest. The consul elect Lucius Postumius Albinus is killed, his head cut off, gilded and used as a drinking cup;…
Summary The new consuls are Quintus Fabius Maximus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, ‘the shield and sword of Rome’; Hannibal fails to capture Puteoli, Nola and Tarentum; The Romans recapture Casilinum and threaten Capua; Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus defeats the Carthaginian commander Hanno at the Battle of the river Calor near Beneventum;…
Summary The Romans recapture Arpi in Apulia; Hannibal fails to achieve anything significant in Italy; The proconsul Marcus Claudius Marcellus attacks Syracuse in a combined land and naval assault; With the aid of the mathematician and engineer Archimedes, the Syracusans repel the attack; The Romans keep Syracuse under siege while…
Summary Young Publius Cornelius Scipio is elected curule aedile; Publius Licinius Crassus becomes the new pontifex maximus; The praetor urbanus suppresses foreign religious cults; Trial of the publicanus Marcus Postumius from Pyrgi for deceiving the State; Tarentum is betrayed to Hannibal, but the Romans cling on to the citadel and…
Summary Ptolemaios IV Philopator sends grain to the Romans; Introduction of the silver denarius; The former praetor Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus is put on trial for his defeat at Herdonea and forced to go into exile; Unable to raise the siege of Capua, Hannibal decides to march on Rome; Since the…
I am currently working on a new series about the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE). This is a lot of work and it is taking up much of my spare time. I will therefore repost a ‘golden oldie’, a post I wrote many years ago for an internet forum. The…
Modern western democracies have a strict separation of military and civil offices, but this was not the case in the Roman Republic (ca. 509-27 BCE). It was not until the third century CE, during the Imperial era, that such a separation was introduced. During the Republican era, politicians were also…