Fights in Sicily

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent a few weeks in Sicily. Sicily is full of ancient ruins, and also as mentioned in my previous post, according to some it has the best preserved Greek ruins in the world. However, today I want to talk about Ancient Rome. Specifically, the Punic wars. The Punic wars were a series of wars between Rome and an ancient city called Carthage. Most people reading have probably heard of Hannibal, who was the Carthaginian general in the last of these wars. In this post however, I am going to focus on the first Punic war, which started on Sicily.

The beginning of the 1st Punic War started because of two small city states and a group of Latin mercenaries. Ancient Syracuse was in need of mercenaries, so the king of Syracuse hired the Mamertines, a group of mercenaries from Italy, to come and help him. When the king’s son came to power he dismissed them. Unfortunately for the Mediterranean world however, the Mamertines didn’t want to leave Sicily. They attacked a neighboring city state, Messina, and, having conquered it, attacked Syracuse. The Mamertines though, quickly realized that Syracuse was a whole lot tougher, and sent a cry for help to Carthage, who was the most powerful nation in the Mediterranean at that time. The Carthaginians, seeing a chance to take over the island, quickly started helping. However, some of the Mamertines also requested aid from Rome, who quickly responded by invading the island, eventually resulting in the largest war ever fought at that time, with hundreds of thousands of men eventually dying in the conflict, kicking off a hatred that would result in two more wars and even more deaths.

The 1st Punic war started in Sicily, and as a result many battles happened on the island and on its coast. The biggest battle site we have seen was Agrigentum, the location of the Valley of Temples. The city was the site of a major Roman victory after a prolonged siege, although the Romans lost more than four times the troops that their enemy lost. Syracuse, although not the site of any battles was still an important player in the war, starting on the Carthaginian side, but quickly joining the Romans. Unfortunately this alliance didn’t last and the city was taken by Rome during the last Punic war.

The 1st Punic war had far reaching consequences, both in its time and ours. If the Romans had not won, our world might look quite different. We wouldn’t have any Latin based words in our language for sure! It was also huge, even by todays standards. What is possibly world’s largest ever naval battle, the battle of Cape Ecnomis, happened just off Sicily’s southern coast, involving over 200,000 ships. I loved Sicily. It is full of ancient history blending with modern sites, and the food is also incredible. It was definitely one of my favorite places in Italy, and I hope you have the chance to visit it at some time.