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The Role of Scipio During the Punic Wars

As consul in 205, Scipio’s task was to prepare for the invasion of North Africa. In the following year he and his army landed outside the city of Utica not far north of Carthage, and with the help of the Numidian ruler Masinissa defeated the Carthaginians in battle. The Carthaginian leaders then summoned Hannibal back to Africa, and he obeyed even though he had to leave his army behind in Italy. The decisive encounter between the Roman and Carthaginian forces occurred in 202 at Zama, where Scipio won another victory. He then returned to Rome for a lavish triumph, and added Africanus to his other names, immortalizing his victory for his descendants. Later, stories circulated claiming that Jupiter Optimus Maximus, chief god of the city, held him in special favor.
Peace was concluded in 201. The terms of the treaty severely restricted Carthaginian power and blocked any prospect of its revival. The Carthaginians surrendered their fleet, were burdened with crippling indemnity payments, lost all their territory outside of the core around Carthage and the other Punic cities in north¬ern Tunisia, and were prohibited from waging war outside this territory without Roman permission. Meantime, Masinissa emerged as a staunch Roman ally with control of an enlarged Numidian kingdom.
Altogether, this prolonged war had imposed grave strains upon the Roman authorities, its citizens, and the citizens of allied states. Much of Italy was devastated by the continuous campaigning there. For the entire duration, the Romans had to maintain armies in Spain, Sardinia, and Sicily, as well as in Italy. The con-sequent need for numerous commands disrupted traditional political arrange-ments, while the many armies and the high casualty rates required an unusually large percentage of the male population to be drafted. To fill the ranks, Rome even drafted criminals and slaves, and some of the allies proved incapable of providing more soldiers. At Cannae, around eighty senators were said to have been killed, in addition to the many thousands of ordinary soldiers who lost their lives there; this depletion of the senate was so substantial that men who had never held office were chosen to make up its numbers. Nonetheless, despite all the setbacks, Rome remained undaunted throughout, and emerged from the war with a dominant position in the central and western Mediterranean that its leaders would exploit in the following decades.

After the Second Punic War, Roman power soon spread through much of the Mediterranean world. At the start of his work the Greek historian Polybius, who witnessed this development personally, described the fifty-three years following the end of the second war with Carthage as a period that was unique in history, since within this short span the Romans succeeded in subjecting “nearly the entire civilized world” to their rule. Once again, no single cause explains all of Rome’s wars at this date. In region after region, the governing elite seems to have had no clear plan for expanding Rome’s power or for establishing its authority. Instead, they just seem to have made arrangements piecemeal as they responded to the unfolding of events.
Moreover, despite the Roman state’s need for funds, there appears to have been no desire at first to promote the systematic exploitation of conquered communities’ economic resources, although awareness of this type of potential would slowly gain ground.

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