Polybius on the Roman constitution

• Monarchy: consuls
• Aristocracy: Senate
• Democracy: assemblies of the people

Polybius' themes

• Training for political life
• Tolerate with dignity the vicissitudes of Fortuna
• Rome dominant in Mediterranean by 167 BCE
• Rome succeeded where the Persian, Spartan and Macedonian empires did not
• War with Carthage will envelop the entire Mediterranean
• Essential step to universal empire
• Educate his Greek readership
• Compose a general history, not episodic, but comprehensive

Polybius' summary

• Rome takes Messana (Messene)
• 264-241: First Punic War
• 240-237: Libyan War
• 241-218: Carthage solidifies Spain
• 229-228: Rome invades Illyria
• 225-221: Rome wages war with the Gauls (Celts) in Italy)
• 220-202: Second Punic War

Polybius' predecessors

• Philinus, secretary of Hannibal
• Fabius Pictor, first Roman historian

Rome in the 3rd century BCE

• Leadership by the nobiles
• Novi homines = "new men"
• Cursus honorum

• Role of the Senate: auctoritas ("influence")
• Values: gloria ("glory"), laus ("fame"), virtus ("manly courage"), dignitas ("esteem")
• triumphales ("triumphal processions"), ludi ("games": chariot races, theatrical performances)
• addition of cognomina ("cognomens" or additional names)
• funerals: imagines; laudatio

Carthage:

Map of Mediterranean ca. 240 BCE
Map of Mediterranean and southern Italy

Legislative Responsibilities:
Council of 30 Nobles
Senate
Religious and Financial Responsibilities: 
Two Annually Elected "Shofetim" or "Suffetes" ("judges")
Judicial Responsibilities:
104 Judges from Ruling Families
Military Responsibilities:
Elected Generals
Oversight:
Citizen Assembly (with property requirements for membership) (Polyb. Histories 6.51-52: "the people were supreme in matters appropriate to them")

• Rome, after Samnite War, extends presence in s. Italy
• Campanian mercenaries (the Mamertini or "sons of Mars," the soldiers of the dead king Agathocles of Syracuse) attack Italian Greeks
• Greeks appeal to Pyrrhus of Epirus
• Pyrrhus defeats Carthage and Mamertini but expelled by Greeks

• Take Messana, threaten Syracuse (King Hiero)
• Hiero besieges the Mamertini in Messana
• Appeal to Carthage, Carthage seizes Messana
• Appeal to Rome
• Comitia Centuriata, guided by consul Appius Claudius Caudex ("the tree trunk")

• Where: Sicily and N. Africa
• Naval technology: Punic quinquereme (50 oars) captured; invention of corvus
• Epic battles: 50,000 infantry, 70,000 sailors on each side
• Details:
  • 263: cos. Manius Valerius invades Syracuse; Rome strikes alliance with Hiero
  • 262: Rome besieges Agrigentum and defeats Carthage
  • 261: Rome captures a Carthaginian quinquereme (Olympias trireme; rowers); corvus ("Raven")
  • 260: cos. Gaius Duilius defeats Carthage off n. coast of Sicily
  • 256: coss. Marcus Atilius Regulus, Manlius Vulso defeat Carthage off s. coast of Sicily at battle of Ecnomus near Syracuse
  • 255: Spartan mercenary, Xanthippus, assists Carthage in defeat of Regulus
  • 254: Rome seizes Panormus
  • 240s: rise of Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal
  • 241: Carthage sues for peace
• Terms: Carthage loses Sicily, pays indemnity of 160 Talents (10,000 pounds) of silver/year for 20 years
  • 241-238: African revolt: Libyans, Phoenicians, Hamilcar's troops revolt against Carthage, and Rome provides assistance
  • Carthage cedes Corsica, Sardinia, fine of 1200 Talents
• Losses for Rome: thousands of men, 500 ships
• Carthage's goals in 1st Punic War: attrition
• Rome's goals in 1st Punic War: expansion
• Success: manpower, bold action, initiative, inventiveness