下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
Every dog has his day .
A tennis or track champion wins over the one who was champion before and then has a few years during which he or she is unbeaten. Sooner or later, however, some younger and better athlete wins and in turn takes the championship.
It seems almost the same way with countries as with people. One country wins the championship from another, holds it for a few years, and then, when older, finally loses it to some newcomer.
We have seen that
Nineveh was champion for a while; then
Babylon had a turn; then
Persia had a turn; then
Greece; and, lastly,
Macedonia.
You may wonder who was to be the next champion after Alexander’s empire went to pieces—who was to have the next turn.
When Alexander was conquering the world, he went east toward the rising sun, and south. He paid little attention to the country to the west toward the setting sun. Rome, which we have not heard of for some time, was then only a small town with narrow streets and frame houses. It was not nearly important enough for Alexander to think much about. Rome itself was not thinking of anything then except keeping the neighboring soldiers out.
In the course of time, however, Rome began to grow up and was not only able to take care of itself but could put up a very stiff fight. Rome fought and won battles with most of the other towns in Italy, until at last Rome became champion of the whole of the boot . Then the Romans began to look around to see what other countries there were outside of Italy that they might conquer.
Map of Mediterranean showing Carthage, Spain, etc.
Perhaps you have noticed that Italy, the boot , seems about to kick a little island as if it were a football. This island is Sicily, and just opposite Sicily across the Mediterranean in North Africa was a city called Carthage.
Carthage had been founded by the Phoenicians many years before and had become a very rich and powerful city. Over the years, Phoenicians mixed with the local North Africans called Berbers and formed a unique culture.
They planted big farms with fruit trees and olive trees. They owned herds of cattle and sheep and horses. Wealthy families owned large country estates.
As Carthage was by the sea, it had built many ships and traded with all the other seaports along the Mediterranean, just as the old Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon had done. By now, Carthage controlled the whole western end of the Mediterranean Sea.
Carthage did not like to see Rome getting so strong and growing so big and becoming so powerful. In other words, Carthage felt challenged by Rome.
Rome, on her side, was jealous of the wealth and trade of Carthage. So Romans anxiously looked around for some excuse to get into a fight with their rival across the sea.
Now, you know how easy it is to pick a quarrel and start a fight when you are looking for trouble. One boy sticks out his tongue, the other gives him a kick, and the fight is on.
Well, two countries are at times just like little boys; they start a fight with just as little excuse, and though they call the fight war it is nothing but a scrap . Only there are no parents to come along and make them both go home.
It didn’t take long for Rome and Carthage to find an excuse, and a war was started between them. The Romans called this fight a Punic War, for Punic was their name for Phoenician, and the Carthaginians originally were Phoenicians.
As Carthage was across the water, the Romans could not get there except in boats. But Rome had no boats. Rome was not on the seashore and knew nothing about making boats, nor about sailing them.
The Carthaginians, on the other hand, had many, many boats, and were old and experienced sailors.
Romans happened to find the wreck of a Carthaginian ship that had been cast ashore, and they at once set to work to make a copy of it. In a remarkably short time they had built one ship, then another and another, until they had a great many ships. Then, though the Romans were new at the game, they attacked the Carthaginian fleet.
It would seem that the Carthaginians could easily have won, for the Romans knew so little about boats. In sea battles, before this, the fighting had been done by running into the enemy and ramming and sinking their ships.
The Romans knew they were no match for the Carthaginians in this sort of fighting. So they thought up a way in which they could fight them as on land.
To do this they invented a kind of big hook which they called a crow. The idea was for a ship to run close alongside a Carthaginian ship and, instead of trying to sink her, to throw out this big hook or crow , catch hold of the other ship, and pull both boats close together. The Roman soldiers would then scramble over the sides into the enemy’s boat and fight them the same way they would on land.
The scheme worked.
This new kind of fighting took the Carthaginians by surprise, and they were no match for the Romans at first.
Rome did not have things all her own way by any means. The Carthaginians soon learned how to fight in this fashion, too. So Rome lost, as well as won, battles both on land and on sea. At last Rome did win, and the Carthaginians were beaten. Thus ended the first Punic War.