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

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. Cassius Dio, Dio's Rome, Epitome of books 1-21 by Zonaras (accessed from Project Gutenburg: www.gutenberg.org/files/18047/18047-h/18047-h.htm). Paulus Orosius, Histories against the Pagans, Book 4 (accessed from attalus.org/: attalus.org/info/orosius.html). Eutropius, Short History since the Foundation of the City, Chapter 2 (accessed from livius.org/: www.livius.org/sources/content/eutropius-short-his….

The next hour of my life is predefined

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.

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.

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

One of those wars where we have a good overall picture of what happened but the details are up for debate. I thought this summarised the historical debates and inconsistencies well.

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.

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..

Even though the 2nd Punic War solidified Rome's position as the major power of the western Mediterranean, it was the 1st Punic War where Rome went from dominating Italy to a sea farring empire in under a generation. The more I learn about the first two Punic Wars the more brutal and desperate they seem. Such a shame Carthage couldn't see the total existential threat that Rome posed. They had the advantage toward the end of the war with Rome losing a few fleets to storms and their indecision during the 240s cost them everything. They could have landed in Italy or retaken Sicily.

Thank you for sharing another of your brilliant history vids👍

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

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

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.

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!

Haha love the Stefan Milo cameo reading Polybius' quote

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

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

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

Thanks for all your work mate

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