Unplanned Wars: The Origins of the First and Second Punic Wars

by B. Dexter Hoyos

Overview

No detailed description available for "Unplanned Wars".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110155648
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	10/31/1997
Series:	Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte , #50
Edition description:	Reprint 2012
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

	Abbreviations	xiii
	Maps	xv
	Prologue	1
I.	Before 264	5
1.	The Romans and the Carthaginians	5
2.	Two treaties, and one fake	7
3.	Pyrrhus' war	11
II.	Preparations for War?	17
1.	Post-Pyrrhic consolidations	17
2.	Plans for a war?	19
3.	The Romans and Sicily	28
III.	The Mamertine Appeal	33
1.	Difficulties with dates	33
2.	The ungrateful Mamertines	40
IV.	Debating the Appeal	47
1.	The Mamertines' deditio	47
2.	The Romans' debates	51
3.	The Roman war-aims in 264	53
4.	Course of the debates	57
5.	Time-span of the debates	64
V.	The Punic-Syracusan Alliance	67
1.	Messana vacated	67
2.	Alliance of old foes	73
VI.	An Unwanted War	82
1.	Appius at the straits: discrepant sources	82
2.	Appius' offer of talks	86
3.	The sea-fight and aftermath	88
4.	Crossing to Messana	91
5.	Appius in battle	93
VII.	Escalation	100
1.	Ap. Claudius against Syracuse	100
2.	Valerius and Otacilius against Syracuse	104
3.	Valerius in the west	108
VIII.	From Enmity to Goodwill	116
1.	Wartime talks	116
2.	The peace of Lutatius	118
3.	A season of goodwill	123
4.	Family politics in the 230s and 220s?	127
IX.	The Rape of Sardinia	132
1.	How it was done	132
2.	Why it was done	140
X.	Imaginary Confrontations in the 230s	144
1.	Fictional clashes	144
2.	Envoys to Hamilcar?	147
XI.	Hasdrubal's Accord	150
1.	The Barcid ascendancy	150
2.	The accord with Hasdrubal: date	154
3.	The accord: arguments about content	158
4.	The aim of the accord: competing views	166
XII.	Saguntum	174
1.	Friendship or alliance?	175
2.	The Saguntine connexion: date	178
3.	Saguntines in crisis	184
4.	The Saguntines' neighbours	187
5.	Saguntines request arbitration	191
6.	The Romans arbitrate	193
XIII.	Hannibal and the Ambassadors	196
1.	The embassy of 220: aims	196
2.	Disputed datings	202
3.	The Roman demarche	204
4.	The ambassadors at Carthage	212
XIV.	Saguntum Besieged	219
1.	The Saguntines on their own	219
2.	The Romans in debate	226
XV.	War to Save Face	233
1.	The ultimatum	233
2.	Could the embassy declare war?	240
3.	Roman envoys to Punic senate	244
4.	Punic senate to Roman envoys	248
5.	War declared	254
6.	From diplomacy to warfare, 218 B.C.	255
XVI.	Conclusions	260
1.	A Roman expansionist war?	260
2.	Punic plans and prospects	265
3.	Punic wars and Roman imperialism	270
4.	Avoidable wars?	274
XVII.	The Major Sources	280
1.	Lost accounts	280
2.	Surviving sources	282
3.	Bias and inaccuracies: the problem of Polybius	284
4.	Problems with the later sources	291
	Bibliography	297
Index I.	Names and Topics	315
Index II.	Passages Cited	321

Editorial Reviews

Attempts to reconstruct the reasons why the Romans and the Carthaginians engaged in long and damaging wars with each other despite prosperous periods of alliance. Relying on ancient sources such as the accounts of Polybius, Livy, and Diodorous, the author discusses the period from the antecedents to the First Punic War of 264 B.C.E. to the war-declaration of 218 B.C.E. Arguing that the reasons for the two wars were intertwined, he contends that the outcomes of the wars differ markedly from the original aims of the great powers. Neither side, according to the author, sought war with the other, but war resulted from misunderstandings and miscalculations. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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