The Carthaginian Army (Units & History)

A big thanks to my patrons for supporting this channel. Long before Rome had dominated the entire Mediterranean world, the Carthaginians had been the leading power in the western Mediterranean for many centuries. The wars fought between these ancient superpowers determine the course of western history and are known as the Punic Wars. During the climax of their conflict, the Carthaginian general Hannibal These two strategic geniuses are both legendary historical commanders you can get to lead your army in this video's sponsor, Rise of Kingdoms. In Rise of Kingdoms, you could use these two excellent generals to take advantage of the diverse terrain environment, which adds a realistic strategic dimension necessary for winning battles. Use your own strategy to lead Hannibal or Scipio to victory. What strategy would you use to defeat Hannibal in the mountains? Will you create your own Cannae or Zama? You can play as one of 11 kingdoms, like Rome, Byzantium, or the Ottoman Empire, each with its own unique unit, like the Roman legionary, Samurai, and the Teutonic Knights, while progressing through different historical periods, like the Bronze Age and the Feudal Epoch. You can build your kingdom, wage war, and form alliances with other players from around the world and grow into a powerful empire. Over 30 million players have downloaded the game and it has received great reviews. Sponsors like this help me keep improving the channel, allowing me to dedicate more time to make videos like this while keeping the bills paid. So support my channel by downloading the game for free through my link. By clicking the exclusive link below and using the bonus code, you will receive extra resources to help your empire rise. The Romans' first major step on the road to empire occurred in the year 264 BC. In the same year, they completed the unification of Italy and war with Carthage began. During the First Punic War, which lasted 23 years, Carthage enjoyed an advantage at sea, as it maintained what was perhaps the largest and best quality navy in the world at the time, while the Romans had far greater native manpower. Their numbers, combined with the strict discipline and training standards they maintained, gave the Romans an advantage on land. The Carthaginians were descendants of the Phoenicians, who had long been considered the best sailors in the world. They were the only Mediterranean people to sail into the Atlantic Ocean and return on a regular basis. In contrast, the Romans had never been a seafaring people, but they were undaunted from the challenge of becoming one. The Romans had a stroke of luck when they captured a shipwreck of a Carthaginian warship. It was disassembled into its individual components and then mass-produced Ikea-style. After several major defeats at sea, the Romans kept trying again, building more ships and training more sailors, until they defeated the Carthaginians decisively at sea, and the Carthaginians surrendered. In the treaty ending the war, the Carthaginians were forced to pay a major war indemnity to Rome, which meant they were only able to pay their mercenaries a small fraction of their promised wages. The mercenaries and many of Carthage's Libyan vassals revolted. Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca, who was one of the few Carthaginian generals who had some success fighting the Romans on land, defeated the revolting mercenaries after a brutal two-year war. Hamilcar then embarked on the conquest of territory in the Iberian Peninsula. His goal was to capture prolific silver mines there. His son Hannibal continued his father's conquests there. The capture of the pro-Roman Iberian city of Saguntum prompted a Roman declaration of war the following spring, beginning the Second Punic War. Most troops serving in the Carthaginian army were mercenaries or allies from client states. However, there was a nucleus of infantry, cavalry, and officers from the Carthaginian heartland. These formed the backbone of the army, which provided a degree of structure to build around. Most officers were full Carthaginian citizens from the capital city. Additionally, there were high-quality units of Carthaginian cavalry and heavy infantry, which were typically only deployed to protect Carthage. During the First Punic War, an army predominantly comprised of Carthaginian citizens was trained and drilled by a Spartan mercenary commander. They proved their worth when they decisively defeated a Roman invasion of North Africa at the Battle of Tunis. The Carthaginians wore arms and armor heavily influenced by the Greeks. They also fought in a dense phalanx formation, also developed by the Greeks. However, there was intense scholarly debate whether this would have resembled the classical Greek, Theban, or Macedonian phalanx, which the answer may be different for different periods of Carthaginian history, and it largely depends on the length of the spear that they used. The Macedonian phalanx, which was used ubiquitously by the contemporary Hellenistic empires in the east, required the much longer two-handed pike and a smaller shield to deploy. Carthage had the wealth and material resources to equip and train such a formation, but it may have lacked or was reluctant to use its native manpower to field a Macedonian-style phalanx. The unwieldy formation required many thousands more men to field effectively, compared to troops armed with larger shields and shorter spears, which were much more maneuverable. Prior to the Punic Wars, Carthage had somewhat regularly deployed phalanxes of citizen soldiers overseas to bolster their mercenary forces, such as the elite Sacred Band of Carthage. However, after several disastrous battles, where Carthage suffered massive casualties, native Carthaginians were predominantly used only to defend Carthage itself. Carthage was an incredibly industrious and prosperous city, perhaps the wealthiest in the world during its heyday, and at an early date it was realized to be much more profitable and effective to keep the city's male population engaged in commercial activities, rather than deploy them as soldiers, which would significantly slow their economic activity while they were on campaign. Over time, the vast majority of the heavy infantry manpower required for the phalanx was supplied by the North African population surrounding Carthage. This included the native people of the region, who the Greeks called Libyans, and those from the many other Phoenician colonies along the North African coast. These two groups frequently intermarried, and their many descendants have been commonly called the The predominantly Libo-Phoenician towns and cities to the south of Carthage enjoyed near the same rights and privileges as the Carthaginians, with a few major exceptions. Their cities could not have walls, they had to pay taxes, they could not take part in the political process of Carthage, and they could be conscripted into the army. However, they were relatively well-paid, and service in the army likely allowed them significant economic and social opportunities. The Libo-Phoenicians were well-disciplined and among Hannibal's most loyal troops. Consequently, he often used them sparingly and kept their units in reserve. To the Greeks and Romans, the difference between Carthaginian, other colonial Phoenician, Libo-Phoenician, and culturally assimilated Libyans was negligible, and they have been usually lumped together as Libyan-African or Libo-Phoenician when referred to as a military unit, because they all fought in a similar fashion and were mixed in the same units. Unassimilated tribal Libyans are differentiated from those in the Phalanx because they fought in their own regional style as skirmishers. Other allies and mercenaries in Carthaginian service also fought in their own regional styles. Carthage's preferred mercenaries were the Iberians. Mercenaries from the Iberian Peninsula were famed throughout the Mediterranean for their discipline and skill. In addition to Carthage, they were also employed in a far field as Sicily, the Italian Peninsula, Greece, and Egypt. The Romans praised them for their ferocity in battle, toughness, and ability to hold the line. High praise coming from the Romans. Perhaps greater praise yet is that the Romans adopted the use of a short thrusting sword, which they would later make famous. After first encountering the weapon while fighting the Spaniards, the Gladius Hispaniensis, the Romans adopted the Peugeot, a small wide dagger from the Iberians, which they used for many centuries. There were two categories of Iberian infantry whom the Romans named after their shield type. The Scutari, heavy infantry whose shield and fighting style was similar to that of the Roman legionaries, and the Centrari, who used a small round shield and fought as light infantry in a more loose formation. An all-metal javelin with remarkable punching power was another weapon of the Iberians. The mercenary way of life was a prominent aspect of ancient Iberian culture. Rather than individually seeking employment, it was customary for a larger familial band of close friends and family to travel to coastal cities to negotiate their services as a group. When there was no good war going on in the Mediterranean, Iberian cities also employed other Iberians as mercenaries to fight other Iberians. By the time of the Second Punic War, Carthage had been employing large numbers of Iberian mercenaries for more than 250 years. Hannibal spent the greater part of his early life in the Iberian Peninsula. His father employed many of them on his conquests there. He grew up around Iberian soldiers, and he married a woman from the Iberian Peninsula. At the Pyrenees Mountains, he released 11,000 Iberian troops who showed reluctance to leave their homeland. Because only the willing joined him on his expedition, and his significant personal ties to them, the Iberians proved to be a vital part of Hannibal's success. After suffering heavy casualties on the way to Italy, almost half of the surviving army was comprised of Iberian mercenaries upon arrival. Hannibal replenished the ranks of his army with mercenaries from Gaul. They fought in loose order and were noted for the ferocity of their charge. The Gauls were not as dependable as other troops for their staying power, but they were very effective if used as shock infantry at the right moment. The Gauls were skilled metal workers who invented chain mail, which the Romans and others later adopted and made improvements to. Chain mail became standard for many armies, and was used for more than a thousand years in many parts of the world. Hannibal also employed thousands of formidable Gallic cavalry, in addition to some Carthaginian and Spanish cavalry. However, the most famous of his cavalry were the Numidians from what is today Morocco and Algeria. They rode small, agile ponies into battle with no saddle. They excelled at hit-and-run tactics, scouting, and disrupting enemy supply lines. On their nimble, swift little ponies, they could devastate an enemy with a shower of javelins while usually escaping unharmed. The Carthaginians also used archers in limited numbers as support troops, like mercenary archers from the island of Crete. However, the most effective missile troops in their army were the Balearic Slingers. They were greatly feared for the incredible speed and accuracy they could hit their target with a sling bolt. The Balearic Slingers were considered superior to any of the contemporary archers of their day, and wreaked havoc on opposing Roman skirmishers and formations of infantry, giving the Carthaginians an important advantage. Balearic Slingers were considered to be somewhat of a semi-civilized wild men, who spent their salary as soon as they received it. It was said as children they were not allowed to eat unless they could strike their meal with a slingshot before eating it. Greek mercenaries were used throughout Carthaginian history, but to a lesser extent during the Second Punic War. One notable example being 4,000 Macedonians who fought against the Romans at the Battle of Zama. Throughout his many years in Italy, many newly conquered Italian troops who wanted to rid themselves of Roman rule joined Hannibal's cause, and by the time he returned to Africa, the majority of his troops and his army were Italians. And at the Battle of Zama, the Italian troops held firm while the majority of the Carthaginian army broke. The War Elephant is the most famous unit associated with Carthage, stirring romanticized images of Hannibal and his elephants crossing the snow-covered Alps. Most, if not all of these, were the now extinct North African species of elephant, which is estimated to have been approximately 8.5 feet tall at the shoulder, making it smaller than the elephants used by Alexander's successors in the East, which were capable of carrying a tower with a crew of three and a mahout. The Carthaginian's elephant may have been able to carry a smaller one-man tower, but many doubt that was even possible given their smaller stature. I like to think that the larger of the North African elephants would have been able to carry a tower into battle, mainly because I think it looks Most of Hannibal's elephants died while crossing the Alps. Although his supply was later replenished during the Italian campaign, they were used sparingly, primarily to protect the flanks from enemy cavalry as horses were frightened by the strange sight and smell of elephants. They were also used against Rome's Italian allies, who were unfamiliar with them and could be used as shock and awe. At the Battle of Zama, where Hannibal was finally decisively defeated after many years of success, the use of 80 war elephants proved disastrous for the Carthaginians. The elephants had been hastily gathered and trained, and were unaccustomed to battle. Scipio trained his disciplined army to open up gaps in their ranks where the elephants were funneled through, while several of the poorly trained elephants about-faced and rampaged through their own army's ranks. The Battle of Zama effectively won the war for the Romans. The North African elephant met a tragic end. Over the next three centuries, thousands were imported to Rome to fight in the Colosseum and other arenas. Many likely died during reenactments of Hannibal's battles, to the cheer of crowds, which is believed to be the major reason for the species extinction. Hannibal is widely regarded as one of the greatest generals of all time. Not only was he a strategic, tactical, and logistical genius, best known for his calculated risk of crossing hostile territory, including the Alps Mountains, to invade Italy. Hannibal managed to campaign in enemy territory for 15 years, defeating much larger and well-supplied Roman armies, all while leading an army comprised of many different nationalities, speaking different languages, and fighting in different styles. In addition to his personal charisma and innate ability, Hannibal's father, Hamilcar, imparted vital knowledge to his son. Before Hannibal, Hamilcar may have been the world's leading expert on managing mercenaries. His mercenaries battled the Romans with some success during the First Punic War. He was able to successfully defeat the mercenary army in the Mercenary War. Hamilcar also effectively used mercenaries during his campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula, which laid the groundwork for Hannibal's illustrious career that followed. At the core of Hannibal's strategy was to deprive the Romans of their recruiting grounds in Italy. His two greatest miscalculations may have been underestimating Rome's ability to recruit, equip, and train new armies, while at the same time overestimating the number of Rome's subjects on the Italian Peninsula that would come over to join his cause. Although many thousands did, it was not nearly enough to overwhelm the Romans, who had assimilated the population of the peninsula to a far greater degree than Hannibal likely estimated. Following Hannibal's return to Africa and his ultimate defeat there, he was pursued by Roman assassins to the east, where he eventually took his own life to deprive the Romans of the pleasure of doing so. Despite his defeat and tragic end, Hannibal has been immortalized as the man who nearly destroyed Rome before its rise to empire. In Rise of Kingdoms, Hannibal has unique skills that mirror the real-life character, meaning that he excels at leading mixed-unit types on daring expeditions into enemy territory. Try your hand at using Hannibal, or one of the many other historical commanders available in Rise of Kingdoms, to execute daring strategies of your own. The latest update brings loads of interesting content. Register your alliance in the Ark of Osiris, an exciting new Egyptian-themed battleground. By clicking the exclusive link below and using the code, you will receive some extra bonuses to help your kingdoms rise to power. Fun fact, this is the symbol of the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, which was one of the three most popular Carthaginian gods. This is also Tanit, identified by the little horns on her head. Leave a like and a comment. What do you think Hannibal's biggest mistake was? This has been Epimetheus. Thanks so much for watching.