Help! Need an original source from the Punic Wars.

I also need the following: one scholarly journal article, two magazines or other articles. I found some articles at my library using the EBSCO database search. Does anyone know of any scholarly journals and magazines that can be found online that pertain to (ancient) history, that have had an issue to do with the Punic Wars?

Thank you so much, James.

There were three Punic wars. There aren't really any good sources for the first one. A Roman historian named Polybius wrote accounts of the second and third. He does write briefly of the first but only as a prologue to the second. There was a Carthaginian historian named Philinus that wrote during the time of the first but his works have been lost.

Welcome to A2K, I hope that helps some.

Polybius was Greek, but he is for that very reason one of the best sources. When you read Titus Livius, who was writing for a Roman audience, there is much of Rome you must know to undertand of what he writes. Polybius, however, was concerned to make the Greeks of the Amphyctionic League and of the Achaean League (of which latter Polybius and his father were high ranking officials) understand their new masters, the Romans. The Romans subjugated the Macedonians at the same time as the third Punic War saw the destruction of Carthage. Greece had almost lapsed back into barbarism, and Polybius and his father recommended that the Greeks save themselves by allying themselves with Rome in the final struggle with Macedon, knowing full well it would mean Roman hegemony and eventual Roman rule. Both the provinces of Africa (portions of modern Tunisia and Lybia) and of Macedonia (much larger than the current Macedonian state) were added to the empire in 146 B.C.

Polybius explains many things for the Greeks which a Roman author would not think of mentioning. If you have the time, it is well worth the entire History of Polybius, because of the in-depth description of the organization of Roman society. Polybius was born c. 200 BCE, and was therefore contemporary with the invasion of Italy by Hannibal Barca during the second Punic War. He died about a generation after the conclusion of the third Punic war, and is therefore the most complete contemporary account you will easily be able to find. Any reputable, large library should have or be able to quickly acquire a copy of Polybius.

Xenophon ---The March Up Country.

It reads well if you can get past the names.

The Anabasis of Xenophon took place about two centuries before the Punic Wars. Good book, though.

<forehead slap>

I knew that too...

<mutter mutter>

But, but...

Back to book.... grumble... I thought it was part of the Punic Wars. How quickly one can forget...

Anyway, going to check dates...

<grimace>


<broil>


<squinches sphincter>

Thanks alot for all the replies! This forum is very helpful.

Xenophon and his Greek companions found themselves unemployed after the end of the second Peloponnesian War. The expedition of mercenaries left for Asia Minor in 401 BCE. The first Punic war began c. 260 BCE. Xenophon was very interesting though. He was a contemporary of Socrates, and therefore a refreshing source other than the pedantic and manipulative Plato. He wrote a great many books, almost all of which have come down to us.

By the way, the Anabasis of Xenophon (as you correctly identify it, "the march up country") should not be mistaken for the Anabasis of Arrian, who was writing a history of the campaigns of Alexander III of Macedon.

It is tragic. I have switched the Peloponnesian War for the Punic...

<goes to sit in unscholarly corner>

<bristles at dunce hat>

Your hair looks fine the way it is, and anyway, i'm opposed to hats on principle.

<whew>

In an unrelated matter, appreciative for Setanta and his mammoth brain.

Owwww . . . it hurts, it hurts . . .

You must have to wheel that epic cranium around in a wheelbarrow.

What am i doing in this hand car, and why is it so hot in here . . . just where in the . . .

Yep, good to see that big brain of yours back in the forum boss.

Thank you for your kind remark, Boss, i appreciate the courtesy . . .

Finished and handed in my work, thank you.

I hope that you will have done well. Let us know.