Civilization #14: Hannibal Barca, Lucius Brutus, and the Triumph of Rome

Lucius Brutus, now a leading consul of the young republic, faces a conspiracy that includes his own sons.

Hannibal faces Rome’s massive conscript army in one of antiquity’s most decisive battles.

The lecture focuses on Cato the Elder and the Roman Senate after the Second Punic War.

Roman nobles and aspiring politicians are portrayed as competing for honor through public office and military command.

The lecture compares three Mediterranean civilizations competing for dominance in the fifth to second centuries BCE.

Hannibal Barca, Carthage’s leading general, confronts Rome despite Carthaginian political reluctance for war.

Hannibal leads an invading army in Italy while Carthaginian elites remain reluctant to fund a total war effort.

The lecture highlights Horatius Cocles and Mucius Scaevola as legendary Roman figures who defend the republic against a royalist invasion.

Lucretia, a noble Roman woman, and Lucius Brutus, a patrician opposed to royal tyranny, become catalysts for revolution.

King Pyrrhus of Epirus intervenes in southern Italy after Greek colonies call for help against Rome.

The lecture focuses on early Rome as a small Latin kingdom surrounded by stronger neighbors like the Etruscans, Greeks, and Carthaginians.

The lecture emphasizes Roman storytellers and later historians like Livy as custodians of Rome’s civic identity.

The lecture contrasts Roman armies with Greek and Carthaginian forces to explain why Rome wins despite inferior wealth and technology.

Rome confronts Carthage, the dominant maritime power of the Mediterranean, despite having little naval tradition.

The Roman Senate confronts Hannibal after the disaster at Cannae, when Rome has lost a large share of its adult male population and leadership.

Roman citizens and leaders are portrayed as shaped by a value system that prioritizes duty to the city above personal desire.

The lecture retells the legend of Romulus and Remus as Rome’s divine founders, children of Mars and a royal woman.

The lecture recounts Rome’s early conflict with the Sabines and the role of Roman women in preventing war.