fall+essay

= = = What We Can Learn From the Fall of Carthage =

__Mercenary armies are ineffective in comparison to citizen armies__. There is evidence of this throughout Carthaginian history, especially in the punic wars, in which Carthage was defeated 3 times, each time fielding an army of mercenaries. There are 3 main reasons why mercenary armies are ineffective and citizen armies are more effective. They are as follows: Mercenary armies are unreliable and fight only for profit, citizen armies fighting for their homeland will not give up as easily and can be easily drafted from the countryside, and finally when mercenaries are employed, regular citizens gain no combat experience, so if the mercenaries are defeated the citizens become helpless.

At the end of the first punic war, after Carthage's defeat by Rome, Carthage lacked the funds to pay their mercenaries who were owed for many years of service. This was the result of the Roman demands, which included large amounts of silver and territories. Carthage's mercenary army revolted in North Africa, pillaging nearby towns and attacking some of Carthage's allies. ["The Romans" by Mary T. Boatwright, 2004] This revolt was not quelled until 237 BC, when the Carthaginian army finally gained the upper hand. Meanwhile, mercenaries in Sardinia serving under Carthage revolted and killed their general, once again because of lack of pay. Carthage sent another mercenary army to Sardinia to get the previous army under control. This attempt backfired however, as the 3rd army joined the revolt and killed their general. Before Carthage could send a third army, the mercenaries appealed to Rome for help. Rome agreed and told Carthage that if they attacked the mercenaries there would be war. ["The Romans" by Mary T. Boatwright, 2004]This demonstrates how mercenary armies are unreliable and easily corrupt.

In the second punic war Hannibal's mercenary armies defeated Roman citizen armies time and time again, winning major victories and dealing incredible casualties to the Romans. Despite the losses the Romans suffered, they defeated Hannibal's army and won the war, because of their citizen army. The Romans continuously replenished their ranks because of the sheer numbers of Roman citizens. Rome could continually draft new soldiers to fight from the countryside, while Carthage had to hire new mercenaries from Carthage. [“Phoenicians.” History World. 12 February 2009 http://history-world.org/phoenicians.htm]Citizen soldiers defending their homeland also have something to fight for other than financial gain as opposed to mercenaries who stop fighting when the money stops coming. This is another reason why citizen armies are superior to mercenary armies.

In the Third punic war an army of 40,000 citizen soldiers from Rome besieged the city of Carthage and eventually defeated the 90,000 Carthaginian citizen soldiers and 210,000 citizens defending it. 250,000 Carthaginians died, while only 17,000 Romans died.["The Romans" by Karl Christ, 1984] The Carthaginians had the advantage of being protected by Carthage's high walls which had never before been breached. From these statistics it seems like a miracle that Rome captured Carthage, but in reality, it was the fact that Rome's citizen soldiers had experience in combat. The vast Majority of the Carthaginians defending Carthage had never seen combat before, and were only used as Carthage's last line of defence. When Carthage hired mercenaries to defend them, they deprived their citizens of combat experience which proved vitally important. As a result, Carthage was captured and burned, and the Carthaginian empire brought to an end.

Carthage made the mistake of employing mercenary armies against Rome's citizen armies and payed the price. This proves that hiring others to fight for you can be an ineffective strategy when faced with citizen soldiers. We can learn from this so that we do not make this mistake ourselves. As George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Works Cited:
["The Romans" by Karl Christ, 1984]

[“Phoenicians.” History World. 12 February 2009 []]

["The Romans" by Mary T. Boatwright, 2004]

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