Tom Holland

And that's basically the relationship between Carthage and Syracuse for, you know, for centuries and centuries.

But then in the third century BC, a new kid arrives on the block and this is

the Roman Republic.

I mean, to pursue the football analogy, I guess it's as though, I don't know, Aberdeen were to be taken over by the Saudis and pumped full of money, and then suddenly they start winning.

Because in 264 BC,

The Romans get embroiled in a kind of minor squabble over treaty rights, and they massively escalate it into a full-blown war with Carthage.

And this is the war that the Romans call the Punic War, because Punicus is the Latin for Carthaginian.

Carthaginians originally came from Phoenicia in what is now Lebanon, and so it's a kind of derivation from Phoenician.

Well, the Romans have immense reserves of manpower.

So they are now the dominant power in Italy.

And they have essentially constructed this framework of alliances.

Defeated cities are offered various degrees of citizenship or associated status.

And essentially, loyalty on the part of defeated cities to Rome is very amply rewarded.

They get given chunks of spoil or whatever.

Also, the Romans have an incredibly dogged system.

in fact, implacable resolve never to accept defeat, never even to accept disrespect.

It's almost a kind of mafia attitude.

The classic example of how far they are prepared to go in the search of victory is the fact that even though they are the elephant to Carthage's wail, over the course of the First Punic War, as it comes to be called,

They transform themselves into a naval power.

I mean, they do it in a slightly makeshift way.