(October 28, 2013 at 2:16 am)Minimalist Wrote: History is written by the winners, yes.
The fact is that when they finally went to war....after having been allies for centuries...Rome and Carthage were fairly similar. Oligarchies masquerading as "republics" but run by a handful of noble families. Both had a "senate."
As far as I can tell, Carthage was worse in that regard. Almoust all it`s policy centered arround trade.
Quote:The major difference seems to be that the Romans came to dominate Italy by assimilating the locals rather than subjugating/slaughtering them. This gave them an enormous manpower advantage over Carthage which hired mercenaries or press-ganged "allied" tribes in Spain to serve under Carthaginian generals. The system worked as long as the money flowed in.
The Cartheginians didn`t even understand the concept of public property.
Go to any ancient Roman city, town or village and you will find a forum, theater, public baths, temples, memorials, magistrates, army barracks, public sanitation, schools and maybe even a circus and/or libary.
Go to an ancient Cartheginian equal and you may find a temple, a market square and if very lucky a libary. As you mentioned, they didnt even have a national army but only a navy. There was nothing there to create the notion that there was somehing like a Cartheginian identity outside of Carthago. The Cartheginians may have been very rich through this focuse on comerce and rejection of public property, but it also meant their downfall since they couldnt keep colonies loyal and most important of all: troops.
