Punic Wars
WarWikipedia
69
MENTIONS
40
EPISODES
39
PODCASTS
Search complete. 69 mentions across 40 episodes found for "Punic Wars".
Sep 11, 2026
Simon ElliottGUEST
The Roman world is a Mediterranean empire.
Simon ElliottGUEST
Um, and you have three phases of Roman domination of the Mediterranean, and the First and Second Punic Wars are part of the end of the first ... and the beginning of the second.
Simon ElliottGUEST
So the first one is the Roman conquest of Italy itself.
Fergus McPheeHOST
Yeah.
6 MINS LATER
Simon ElliottGUEST
But these are Berber warriors.
Simon ElliottGUEST
Later, you get the Carthaginians arriving, who come from the Levant, the Phoenician settlers.
Simon ElliottGUEST
So this is where we get the name Punic for the Punic Wars.
Chris ParryGUEST
Mm-hmm.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
Now, this ramp that you can see here, and many others would have been all the way round the island, led all the way down to the water's edge, and ships which needed to be rearmed and restocked would have been dragged up into the center of the island.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
So when was this marvel of maritime engineering actually built? Well, the pottery that the archeologists found on this site and underneath the structure itself dated it to the end of the Second Punic Wars, when Carthage had solemnly promised to only maintain a fleet of just 10 warships.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
So somebody wasn't playing by the rules.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
There was only this narrow channel, which is now blocked by this modern road, connecting the military harbors over there with the legitimate commercial harbors and the open sea.
8 MINS LATER
Dan SnowNARRATOR
We have ingots from the lead mines of Spain.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
And these amphora would have been filled to the brim with wine, olives, oil, and wheat.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
These were the real spoils of the Punic Wars.
Dan SnowNARRATOR
The Roman soldiers who had annihilated Carthage returned home for their victory procession through the heart of Rome.
Mike DHOST
Dramatic incursions cut across the northern European mining regions.
Mike DHOST
Grading disrupted production in Iberia, which is Spain, and it had been Rome's silver engine since the Punic Wars, and the Rio Tinto and Cartagena districts were the beating heart of the coinage.
Mike DHOST
So the contraction of Rome's bullion supply happened precisely when Rome needed it most to pay its armies.
Mike DHOST
That's not bad luck.
Benjamin BosterHOST
No emperor could hope to survive without the allegiance of the Praetorian Guard and the legions.
Benjamin BosterHOST
After the Punic Wars, the Roman army comprised professional soldiers who volunteered for twenty years of active duty and five as reserves.
Benjamin BosterHOST
The transition to a professional military began during the late Republic and was one of the many profound shifts away from republicanism, under which an army of conscript citizens defended the homeland against a specific threat.
Benjamin BosterHOST
By imperial times, military service was a full-time career.
Laszlo MontgomeryHOST
King Zhao Xiang of Qin, as I mentioned, he reigned a good 55 years, 306 to 251 BC.
Laszlo MontgomeryHOST
Over on the other side of the world, This was the start of the Punic Wars.
Laszlo MontgomeryHOST
I know I said this last time, but as far as the Qin Dynasty and all the systems of government and national administration that got passed down through the ages, don't give all the credit to Qin Shi Huang.
Laszlo MontgomeryHOST
It was this king, Zhao Xiang, and also Duk Xiao, Duk Mu, Shang Yang, Fan Ju, Bai Qi, and a whole other cast of lesser-known characters who put the Qin on a solid foundation.
Trevor DannGUEST
And I don't want to sound all kind of faux academic here, but it is quite good hearing...
Trevor DannGUEST
Dominic and Tom talking about the Punic Wars and hearing two different views about it.
Trevor DannGUEST
Because I've got so used to the standard radio thing, which is, hello, I'm an expert and I'm going to tell you everything that you need to know.
David HepworthHOST
Right.
Patrick WymanHOST
That people in 200 AD are not speaking the way that they were around during the reign of Augustus.
Patrick WymanHOST
People during the reign of Augustus were not speaking the way they were during the Punic War 200 years before that.
Patrick WymanHOST
People in the 5th century AD were not speaking the way they were 200 years before that.
Patrick WymanHOST
It is a language that is constantly evolving.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
My name is Kevin O'Keefe.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
So today, OK, let's learn all about the Punic Wars.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
Rome against Carthage, the beginning of the dominance of Rome on the world stage.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
It's interesting, it's fascinating, and yeah, there's this guy by the name of Hannibal.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
Not Hannibal Lecter, but Hannibal Barca.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
So, okay, let's learn about the Punic Wars.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
So what is this about? This was about who was going to dominate the world stage, who was going to become a world power.
Kevin O'KeefeHOST
These were two rising regional powers here in the Mediterranean Sea, in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea.
Will ReitzHOST
The dictator could make necessary political decisions faster than the Senate and the Republican system.
Will ReitzHOST
The system was last used during the Punic Wars against Hannibal.
Will ReitzHOST
But in the last days of the Republic, Sulla brings it back.
Will ReitzHOST
Julius Caesar watches Sulla.
speaker_3HOST
No, they don't.
speaker_3HOST
This led to the Punic Wars.
speaker_3HOST
And in 146 BCE, after a brutal siege, Rome didn't just conquer Carthage.
speaker_3HOST
They systematically dismantled it.
30 more episodes mention Punic Wars.
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