The Puny Wars

                Today in Western Civilization we continued our PowerPoint on Rome. We went over some past slides, and then moved into some new ones comparing the US government to Rome’s government. In the Executive branch of Rome, Rome had two consuls with a one year term each, they controlled the military and had veto power over the other. There could also be a dictator appointed for a six-month period in times of crisis. In the Roman Legislative branch, there were about three-hundred senators, all aristocrats, who had a life term and were elected through Tribal or Centuriate methods. Although there were 193 to start with, they eventually moved up to 373 senators. In the Judicial branch of Rome, there were Praetors, who were elected for one year and chosen by the Centuriate Assembly. Rome’s legal code was called the Twelve Tables, and gave public rights that stood the same for all, even plebeians. However, these laws only affected free males. Next, we moved on to the Roman legion. At first, most legionnaires were not in it for the pay. There were about 5000 of them, with groups of 80 being a century and there is also cavalry. The legionnaires were equipped with shields, swords, daggers, and armor. Next, the Punic Wars. The Punic Wars ranged from 264-146 BCE, and actually had three wars in it. The First Punic War (264-241 BCE) was basically a naval battle between Carthage and Rome over Sicily. The Second Punic War (218-201 BCE) was when a 29-year-old general Hannibal went to attack Rome from the north, and was successful at laying waste to the northern part of the peninsula. However, he never reached Rome. In the Third Punic War, (149-146 BCE) Rome set out to eliminate Carthage. Mercilessly attacking it, Rome totally destroyed it and the city burned for 17 days. When the war ended, the last 50,000 people of Carthage were sold into slavery, and Carthage and the areas it controlled were annexed into Rome.