N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;

and

R^* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy

f_p is the fraction of those stars that have planets

n_e is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets

f_ℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point

f_i is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life

f_c is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space

L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.^[2]

Expansions

Additional factors that have been described for the Drake equation include:

n_r or reappearance number: The average number of times a new civilization reappears on the same planet where a previous civilization once has appeared and ended (to use this, do  X (1+nR)

f_m or METI factor (see below): The fraction of communicative civilizations that actually engage in deliberate interstellar transmission.

This section attempts to list best current estimates for the parameters of the Drake equation.

R* = the rate of star creation in our galaxy

Estimated by Drake as 10/year. Latest calculations from NASA and the European Space Agency indicate that the current rate of star formation in our galaxy is about 7 per year.^[4]

f_p = the fraction of those stars that have planets

Estimated by Drake as 0.5. It is now known from modern planet searches that at least 30% of sun-like stars have planets^[5], and the true proportion may be much higher, since only planets considerably larger than Earth can be detected with current technology.^[6] Infra-red surveys of dust discs around young stars imply that 20-60% of sun-like stars may form terrestrial planets.^[7]

n_e = the average number of planets (satellites may perhaps sometimes be just as good candidates) that can potentially support life per star that has planets

Estimated by Drake as 2. Marcy et al.^[6] note that most of the observed planets have very eccentric orbits, or orbit very close to the sun where the temperature is too high for earth-like life. However, several planetary systems that look more solar-system-like are known, such as HD 70642, HD 154345, or Gliese 849. These may well have smaller, as yet unseen, earth-sized planets in their habitable zones. Also, the variety of solar systems that might have habitable zones is not just limited to solar-type stars and earth-sized planets – it is now believed that even tidally locked planets close to red dwarves might have habitable zones, and some of the large planets detected so far could potentially support life – in early 2008, two different research groups concluded that Gliese 581d may possibly be habitable.^[8][9] Since about 200 planetary systems are known, this implies n_e > 0.005. Lineweaver has also determined that about 10% of star systems in the Galaxy are hospitable to life, by having heavy elements, being far from supernovae and being stable themselves for sufficient time.^[10]

NASA’s Kepler mission was launched on March 6, 2009. Unlike previous searches, it is sensitive to planets as small as Earth, and with orbital periods as long as a year. If successful, Kepler should provide a much better estimate of the number of planets per star that are found in the habitable zone.

Even if planets are in the habitable zone, however, the number of planets with the right proportion of elements may be difficult to estimate.^[11] Also, the Rare Earth hypothesis, which posits that conditions for intelligent life are quite rare, has advanced a set of arguments based on the Drake equation that the number of planets or satellites that could support life is small, and quite possibly limited to Earth alone; in this case, the estimate of n_e would be infinitesimal.

f_l = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life

Estimated by Drake as 1.

In 2002, Charles H. Lineweaver and Tamara M. Davis (at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Centre for Astrobiology) estimated f_l as > 0.13 on planets that have existed for at least one billion years using a statistical argument based on the length of time life took to evolve on Earth.^[12]

f_i = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life

Estimated by Drake as 0.01 based on little or no evidence. This value remains particularly controversial. Pessimists point out that of tens of millions of species on Earth, only one has become intelligent^[13] and infer a tiny value for f_i. Optimists note the generally increasing complexity of life and conclude that the eventual appearance of intelligence might be inevitable, meaning f_i=1. Skeptics point out that the large spread of values in this term and others make all estimates unreliable. (See criticism).

f_c = the fraction of the above that are willing and able to communicate

Estimated by Drake as 0.01. There is considerable speculation why a civilization might exist but choose not to communicate, but there is no hard data.

L = the expected lifetime of such a civilization for the period that it can communicate across interstellar space

Estimated by Drake as 10,000 years.

In an article in Scientific American, Michael Shermer estimated L as 420 years, based on compiling the durations of sixty historical civilizations.^[14] Using twenty-eight civilizations more recent than the Roman Empire he calculates a figure of 304 years for “modern” civilizations. It could also be argued from Michael Shermer‘s results that the fall of most of these civilizations was followed by later civilizations that carried on the technologies, so it’s doubtful that they are separate civilizations in the context of the Drake equation. In the expanded version, including reappearance number, this lack of specificity in defining single civilizations doesn’t matter for the end result, since such a civilization turnover could be described as an increase in the reappearance number rather than increase in L, stating that a civilization reappears in the form of the succeeding cultures. Furthermore, since none could communicate over interstellar space, the method of comparing with historical civilizations could be regarded as invalid.

The value of L can be estimated from the lifetime of our current civilization from the advent of radio astronomy in 1938 (dated from Grote Reber‘s parabolic dish radio telescope) to the current date. In 2009, this gives an L of 71 years. However such an assumption would be erroneous. 71 for the value of L would be an artificial minimum based on Earth’s broadcasting history to date and would make unlikely the possibility of other civilizations existing. 10,000 for L is still the most popular estimate.

David Grinspoon has argued that once a civilization has developed it might overcome all threats to its survival. It will then last for an indefinite period of time, making the value for L potentially billions of years. If this is the case, then the galaxy has been steadily accumulating advanced civilizations since it formed.^[15]

Values based on the above estimates,

R* = 7/year, f_p = 0.5, n_e = 2, f_l = 0.33, f_i = 0.01, f_c = 0.01, and L = 10000 years

result in

N = 7 × 0.5 × 2 × 0.33 × 0.01 × 0.01 × 10000 = 2.31.

assuming that the universe is 13.75 billion years old.

speed of light is

299 792 458 m / s

9.460730473 to the E + 15 metres per year.

1.30085044 to the E + 26

1.30085044 to the E + 23 km!!!!

All the detritivores help break down the leaf litter, but as in all food webs there has to be someone to keep there numbers down a bit.

other examples of detritivores 1. Millipede

2. Springtail

Carnivores basically eat anything smaller then itself sometimes even other carnavores and a sammler version of there species.

examples are 1. Centipede

2. Beetle

3. Spider

4. Harvestman(not the same as a a spider.0

Fugi

Fungi are groups of organisations. Fungi are parasitic this means living off other things even doing them bodily harm and they are one of the

main factors that break up dead organisamisms(decomposers this can be called Saprophytic, but you don’t need to worry about that.

Fungii lives off many things mostly dead, but sometimes on living things. There are also many differant types of fungii, but should we see how many we

can count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

8 Short paragraphs on each few here for u.

Puffballs- The spores are inside a ball in this mushroom. The ball is most likely to be at ground level. If you squish them then the resonable

hard desolve to a powdery mush.

Jelly Fungi- These look like small blobs of jelly on the suface they are on. They are soft and can be found on trees or dead twigs.

Bracket Fungi- This can also be called Polypores. They tend to have tough, leathery or slighty woody bodies they are found on rotten wood or bark

they look a bit like a plate sticking out the side of the rooten wood. They can also grow in soil.

Fairy clubs normanlly grow in the leaf litter or soil. They are the most coomen fungi we found with proves that they are very commen.

WRITTEN IN A BLOG!!!

LOL.

Etruscan – friends of carthage – military aid.

had multiple gods

The Settlement Period

(all dates BC)

• 814 Carthage founded by Elissa (Dido), sister of the King of Tyre.
• 800? First Phoenician presence on Sardinia.
• 770 Founding of Gadir, gateway to Spanish silver.
• 700-500 Heavy Greek colonization of Sicily, Southern Italy, Southern Provence, Andalusia and Cyrenaica, encircling Carthaginian territory.
• 654 Carthage founds colony in the Balearic Islands at Ibiza.
• 600 Carthage fails to prevent Phocaean Greek colony at Massilia (Marseilles).
• 580 First attempt by Greeks to drive Phoenicians out of Sicily.
• 574 Tyre falls to Nebuchadnezzar.
• 550 Carthage allies with the Etruscans against the Greeks.
• 550 Carthaginian force led by Malchus defeats Greeks in Sicily, but is vanquished in Sardinia. Malchus banished, marches on Carthage, is caught and executed.
• 550? Carthaginian colonies formed along coast of Africa, Algeria, Hadrumetum, Leptis.
• 539 Asian Phoenicia falls to Cyrus the Great of Persia.
• 535 Carthage, with Etruscans, destroys Phocaean colony in Corsica and closes Sardinia-Corsica off to the Greeks.
• 510 Dorieus, a Spartan prince, is expelled from Tripolitania.
• 510 Rome throws off Etruscan rulers and establishes independent republic.
• 507 First treaty with Rome
• 498 Hippocrates and Theron seize control in Syracuse and attempt to throw Phoenicians off western part of the island.
• 480 Alliance with Persia fails to destroy Greeks, military defeat in Sicily as fleet is cut off by superior Athenian forces (Himera). Revolution overthrows Mago dynasty and establishes Court of 104 Magistrates.

The Early Republic

• 480 Carthaginian force under Hamilcar the Magonid defeated by Sicilian Greeks at Himera cutting off access to the East. Hamilcar commits suicide on the battlefield.
• 479-450 Carthage conquers most of Tunisia. Colonies in North Africa founded or strengthened. Mago’s expedition across the Sahara.
• 410 Phoenicians in Spain join with Celtiberians to secede from Carthage, denying the state important silver and copper revenues. Overland tin trade cut off.
• 410 Himilco’s expeditions in the Atlantic. Hanno’s expeditions to Morocco and Senegal.
• 409 Carthage initiates attempts to conquer Sicily. Hannibal, grandson of Hamilcar, takes the fortified towns of Selinus and Himera by use of siege towers.
• 405 Hannibal Mago and hundreds of troops die in epidemic outside fortified town of Acragas. Himilco, his relative, takes over command, is defeated by force out of Syracuse, and has supply disrupted in naval action. Syracusan forces strengthen garrison.
• 405 Carthaginian squadron breaks through Greek blockade — the besieged escape under cover of night, Punic forces collect spoils.
• 405 Himilco takes town of Gela, defeating Syracusan force, then takes town of Camarina.
• 405 Himilco marches on Syracuse. Army is laid low by epidemic. Himilco seeks peace. Syracuse grants control of most of Sicily and must pay tribute to Carthage. Treaty confirms Dionysius I as dictator (tyrannos) of Syracuse. First Sicilian War concluded.
• 398 Dionysius sacks Motya — Carthaginians permanently relocate main Sicilian base to fortified town of Lilybaeum.
• 397 Himilco drives Dionysius back to Syracuse and resumes siege. In naval action, sinks or boards 100 Syracusan naval vessels and takes 20,000 prisoners.
• 396 Epidemic lays Punic forces low for a third time in Sicily. Dionysius capitalizes and defeats Himilco in pitched battle. He survives, but upon return to Carthage, starves himself to death. Fighting continues.
• 393 Carthaginian force under Mago, nephew of Himilco, defeated trying to re-take Messana.
• 392 Mago defeated a second time. Truce signed.
• 384 Carthage renews war, initiating minor skirmishes.
• 375 Carthage defeated at Cabala — Mago and 10,000 soldiers killed. Mago’s son Himilco defeats Dionysius near Himera — truce favorable to Carthage concluded.
• 367 Dionysius attacks Carthaginian base at Lilybaeum — stopped when fleet defeated by warships under Hanno the Great.
• 366 Dionysius I dies, still at war with Carthage.
• 360 Hanno the Great crucified following unsuccessful attempt to usurp power.
• 350 Carthage leading Western power.
• 348 Second treaty with Rome.
• 343 Mago sails to Syracuse to drive out the usurper. Fails and commits suicide in order to avoid court martial upon his return. Hasdrubal and Hamilcar make a second attempt, losing a battle at Segesta. Hasdrubal executed. Gisco, son of Hanno the Great, authorized to make peace — Sicily divided along Halycus River. 2nd Sicilian War ends.
• 340 Power struggle in Syracuse ends with Timoleon of Corinth victorious.
• 338 Uneasy, yet prosperous peace in Sicily.
• 334 Alexander the Great conquers the Eastern World. Carthage makes peace with the Greek empire and with the Lagos monarchy in Egypt.
• 323 Alexander dies.
• 315 Agathocles of Syracuse takes Messana.
• 311 Agathocles lays siege to Acragas and crosses the Halcyus, violating the peace treaty.
• 310 Carthaginian force under Hamilcar, grandson of Hanno the Great defeats Greek force at Himera. Siege of Syracuse begins.
• 309 Agathocles sails force of 14,000 to Africa. Carthage meets with 40,000 foot, 1000 cavalry and 2000 chariots under Bomilcar and Hanno. Greeks are victorious, Carthage losing 3000 on the battlefield, but city is impregnable. Siege of Syracuse continues.
• 308 Greeks form local allies — Egypt contributes 10,000. Greeks control Tunisian province and fighting continues.
• 308 Bomilcar tries to make himself dictator in Carthage. Is defeated and tortured to death.
• 307 Greek victory outside Syracuse. Hamilcar captured and killed.
• 307 While Agathocles oversees events in Syracuse, Carthage defeats the Greek and allied forces. Despite Syracusan reinforcement, Greek cause in Africa is doomed. Greeks desert to Carthaginian commanders Hanno and Himilco in vast numbers. Treaty favorable to Carthage concluded.
• 306 Third treaty with Rome.
• 300 Pytheas explores the Atlantic, Euthymenes the coasts of Africa.
• 289 Agathocles dies. Pre-war division of Sicily resumes. 3rd Sicilian War ends.
• 279 Pyrrhus of Epirus, relative of Alexander the Great, invades southern Italy and Sicily. Defeats Phoenicians and forces them off the island, leaving Lilybaeum as the only remaining stronghold.
• 279 Agreement with Rome against Pyrrhus.
• 277? Carthage sinks 70 of Pyrrhus’ 110 ships and Pyrrhus gives up the war.
• 272 A woman hurls a tile from a rooftop as Pyrrhus invests Argos, killing him before he can begin his second invasion of Sicily.

The Late Republic

• 263 First War with Rome begins over Sicily.
• 262 Rome victorious at Messana. Syracuse goes over to Romans. Acragas falls to Romans.
• 261 Carthage raids Italian coast. Rome builds its first fleet. Carthaginian defeat at sea off Mylae. Commander Hannibal crucified. Victory at Thermae.
• 257 Another sea defeat and Romans land in Africa, take Tunis. Carthage, under forces led by Hasdrubal and Bostzer, defeats Rome before the gates, largely with Numidian cavalry, led by Greek mercenary leader Xanthippus.
• 256 Hanno the Great II expands territory in North Africa.
• 253 Rome wins a brilliant naval victory off the Aegates Islands, west of Sicily, cutting off African supply bases. Hasdrubal defeated outside Panormus and is executed by his own forces. Truce called.
• 247 Hamilcar Barca re-organizes forces on Sicily, but receives no reinforcement.
• 241 War ends in defeat. Sicily is lost, fleet destroyed and finances ruined due to crippling indemnity.
• 241-237 Mercenaries revolt and stir up poverty-stricken peasants in Libya and Utica. Eventually defeated by Hamilcar. Rome obtains Sardinia-Corsica as price of staying neutral.
• 237 Hamilcar Barca reconquers Spain.
• 229 Hamilcar dies, succeeded by son-in-law Hasdrubal.
• 228 Carthago Nova (Cartagena) founded by Hasdrubal.
• 226 Treaty with Rome defines Ebro River as boundary between spheres.
• 221 Hasdrubal assassinated by an Iberian — succeeded by Hannibal.
• 219 Hannibal and brother Hasdrubal conquer the entire Peninsula up to the Ebro.
• 218 Hannibal takes Roman-supported town of Saguntum.
• 218 Hannibal marches over the Ebro, into the Alps and invades Italy with the help of Gallic allies. Victory over Cornelius Scipio at Ticinus. Victory at Trebia over Sempronius Longus. Rome defeats Hanno in Spain and Rome is victorious at sea near Lilybaeum — Malta lost to Carthage.
• 217 Victory at Lake Trasimene over Flaminius.
• 216 Victory at Cannae over Terentius Varro. Greek sovereigns Philip V of Macedonia and Hiero of Syracuse join Carthage’s cause, though without committing deeply.
• 214 Syracuse falls to Roman forces commanded by Marcellus.
• 210-205 Scipio with aid of Numidian Prince Massinissa conquers Spain for Rome. Scipio invades Africa, takes Tunis.
• 204 Scipio allies with Libyans, Moors and Numidians and Numidian Prince Massinissa to take the war to Africa. Carthage backs rival Numidian Syphax who along with Hasdrubal Gisco is defeated by Scipio in two successive battles. Mago is defeated in northern Italy attempting to reinforce Hannibal. A peace treaty is declared and Hannibal returns to Africa.
• 202 Carthaginan attack on Roman convoy which has run aground re-opens the war. Hannibal defeated at Zama to end Second War with Rome. Fleet reduced to ten triremes, domain limited to eastern Tunisia, Massinissa installed as king of the Numidians at Cirta (Constantine), high indemnities and Carthage denied permission to wage war.
• 202-150 Trade with North Africa and Greece continues. Agriculture improved to bring in new revenues.
• 195 Hannibal becomes Suffete. State reform, new methods of election.
• 194 Hannibal flees to court of Antiochus to escape his Roman enemies.
• 183 Hannibal dies by his own hand to escape Romans in Bithynia.
• 150 Carthage attacks Numidians in response to Massinissa’s land grabs. Numidia victorious and further indemnities exacted.
• 149 Rome declares war in retaliation for treaty violation.
• 146 Carthage falls to Scipio Aemilianus. City burnt to the ground. “Delenda est Carthago.”

iberia = spain?

the gladius swqord. ibearian. was awesome

Eacus – iberian god of weather.

Ataecina = iberain god equivelant to the greek goddess Persephone. – the greek goddes of springtime.

candamius – iberian god equivelant to jupiter.

Cariociecus = god mars – greek god ares.

Main article: Carthaginian Empire

The Carthaginian Empire was one of the longest living and largest empires in the ancient Mediterranean. Reports state several wars with Syracuse and Rome, leading finally to the destruction of Punic Carthage during her third war with Rome.

[edit] Army

Main article: Punic Military Forces

According to Polybius, Carthage relied heavily, though not exclusively, on foreign mercenaries,^[6] especially in overseas warfare. The core of its army was from its own territory in Africa (ethnic Libyans and Numidians, as well as “Liby-Phoenicians” — i.e. Punics proper). These troops were supported by mercenaries from different ethnic groups and geographic locations across the Mediterranean who fought in their own national units; Celtic, Balearic, and Iberian troops were especially common. Later, after the Barcid conquest of Iberia, Iberians came to form an even greater part of the Carthaginian forces. Carthage seems to have fielded a formidable cavalry force, especially in its African homeland; a significant part of it was composed of Numidian contingents of light cavalry. Other mounted troops were African Forest Elephants, trained for war, which were used for frontal assaults or as anti-cavalry protection and were used for many other uses. An army could field up to several hundreds of these animals, but on most reported occasions less than a hundred were deployed. The riders of these elephants were armed with a spike and hammer to kill the elephants in case they charged toward their own army

[edit] Navy

The navy of Carthage was one of the largest in the Mediterranean, using serial production to maintain high numbers at moderate cost. The reputation of her skilled sailors implies that there was in peacetime a training of oarsmen and coxswains, giving their navy a cutting edge in naval matters. The trade of Carthaginian merchantmen was by land across the Sahara and especially by sea throughout the Mediterranean and far into the Atlantic to the tin-rich islands of Britain and to West Africa. There is evidence that at least one Punic expedition under Hanno sailed along the West African coast to regions south of the Equator, describing how the sun was in the north at noon.

Polybius wrote in the sixth book of his History that the Carthaginians were “more exercised in maritime affairs than any other people.”^[7] Their navy included some 300 to 350 warships. The Romans, who had little experience in naval warfare prior to the First Punic War, managed to finally defeat Carthage with a combination of reverse engineering captured Carthaginian ships, recruitment of experienced Greek sailors from the ranks of its conquered cities, the unorthodox corvus device, and their superior numbers in marines and rowers. In the Third Punic War Polybius describes a tactical innovation of the Carthaginians, augmenting their few triremes with small vessels that carried hooks (to attack the oars) and fire (to attack the hulls). With this new combination, they were able to stand their ground against the superior Roman numbers for a whole day.

[edit] Fall of Carthage

The fall of Carthage was at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC.^[8] In spite of the initial devastating Roman naval losses at the beginning of the series of conflicts and Rome’s recovery from the brink of defeat after the terror of a 15-year occupation of much of Italy by Hannibal, the end of the series of wars resulted in the end of Carthaginian power and the complete destruction of the city by Scipio Aemilianus. The Romans pulled the Phoenician warships out into the harbor and burned them before the city, and went from house to house, capturing and enslaving the people. Fifty thousand Carthaginians were sold into slavery.^[9] The city was set ablaze, and in this way was razed with only ruins and rubble to field the aftermath. After the fall of Carthage, Rome annexed the majority of the Carthaginian colonies, including other North African locations such as Volubilis, Lixus, Chellah and Mogador.^[10] Through a series of misunderstandings, a belief that the Carthaginian farmland was salted to ensure that no crops could be grown there developed in the modern period.^[11]

[edit] Roman Carthage

Roman villas, Carthage

When Carthage fell, its nearby rival Utica, a Roman ally, was made capital of the region and replaced Carthage as the leading center of Punic trade and leadership. It had the advantageous position of being situated on the Lake of Tunis and the outlet of the Majardah River, Tunisia’s only river that flowed all year long. However, grain cultivation in the Tunisian mountains caused large amounts of silt to erode into the river. This silt was accumulated in the harbor until it was made useless, and Rome was forced to rebuild Carthage.

By 122 BC, Gaius Gracchus founded a short-lived colonia, called Colonia Iunonia, after the Latin name for the punic goddess Tanit, Iuno caelestis. The purpose was to obtain arable lands for impoverished farmers. The Senate abolished the colony some time later, in order to undermine Gracchus power. After this ill-fated attempt, a new city of Carthage was built on the same land, and by the 1st century it had grown to the second largest city in the western half of the Roman empire, with a peak population of 500,000. It was the center of the Roman province of Africa, which was a major breadbasket of the empire.

Carthage also became a center of early Christianity. In the first of a string of rather poorly reported Councils at Carthage a few years later, no fewer than seventy bishops attended. Tertullian later broke with the mainstream that was represented more and more by the bishop of Rome, but a more serious rift among Christians was the Donatist controversy, which Augustine of Hippo spent much time and parchment arguing against. In 397 at the Council at Carthage, the biblical canon for the western Church was confirmed.

Vandal Empire in 500 AD, centered in Carthage.

The political fallout from the deep disaffection of African Christians is supposedly a crucial factor in the ease with which Carthage and the other centres were captured in the 5th century by Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, who defeated the Roman general Bonifacius and made the city his capital. Gaiseric was considered a heretic too, an Arian, and though Arians commonly despised Catholic Christians, a mere promise of toleration might have caused the city’s population to accept him. After a failed attempt to recapture the city in the 5th century, the Byzantines finally subdued the Vandals in the 6th century.

During the emperor Maurice’s reign, Carthage was made into an Exarchate, as was Ravenna in Italy. These two exarchates were the western bulwarks of Byzantium, all that remained of its power in the west. In the early 7th century, it was the Exarch of Carthage, Heraclius (of Armenian origin), who overthrew Emperor Phocas.

[edit] Arabs

The Byzantine Exarchate was not, however, able to withstand the Muslim conquerors of the 7th century. Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik in 686 AD sent a force led by Zuhayr ibn Qais who won a battle over Byzantines and Berbers led by Kusaila, on the Qairawan plain, but could not follow that up. In 695 AD Hasan ibn al-Nu’man captured Carthage and advanced into the Atlas Mountains. A Byzantine fleet arrived, retook Carthage but in 698 AD Hasan ibn al-Nu’man returned and defeated Tiberios III at the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantines withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta. The Roman Carthage was destroyed, just as the Romans had done in 146 BC. Carthage was replaced by Tunis as the major regional center. The destruction of the Exarchate of Africa marked a permanent end to Roman or Byzantine influence there, as the rising tide of Islam shattered the empire.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Language

Carthaginians spoke Punic, a subset of Phoenician.

[edit] Commerce

Carthaginian commerce was by sea throughout the Mediterranean and far into the Atlantic and by land across the Sahara desert. According the Aristotles the Carthaginians and others had treaties of commerce to regulate their exports and imports.^[12]

The empire of Carthage depended heavily on its trade with Tartessos and other cities of the Iberian peninsula, from which it obtained vast quantities of silver, lead, and, even more importantly, tin ore, which was essential to the manufacture of bronze objects by the civilizations of antiquity. Its trade relations with the Iberians and the naval might that enforced Carthage’s monopoly on trade with tin-rich Britain and the Canary Islands allowed it to be the sole significant broker of tin and maker of bronze. Maintaining this monopoly was one of the major sources of power and prosperity for Carthage, and a Carthaginian merchant would rather crash his ship upon the rocky shores of Britain than reveal to any rival how it could be safely approached. In addition to being the sole significant distributor of tin, its central location in the Mediterranean and control of the waters between Sicily and Tunisia allowed it to control the eastern nations’ supply of tin. Carthage was also the Mediterranean’s largest producer of silver, mined in Iberia and the North African coast, and, after the tin monopoly, this was one of its most profitable trades. One mine in Iberia provided Hannibal with 300 Roman pounds(3,75 talents) of silver a day.^[13]

Carthage’s economy began as an extension of that of its parent city, Tyre. Its massive merchant fleet traversed the trade routes mapped out by Tyre, and Carthage inherited from Tyre the art of making the extremely valuable dye Tyrian Purple. It was one of the most highly-valued commodities in the ancient Mediterranean, being worth fifteen to twenty times its weight in gold. High Roman officials could only afford togas with a small stripe of it. Carthage also produced a less-valuable crimson pigment from the cochineal.

Carthage produced finely embroidered and dyed textiles of cotton, linen, wool, and silk, artistic and functional pottery, faience, incense, and perfumes. It worked with glass, wood, alabaster, ivory, bronze, brass, lead, gold, silver, and precious stones to create a wide array of goods, including mirrors, highly-admired furniture and cabinetry, beds, bedding, and pillows, jewelry, arms, implements, and household items. It traded in salted Atlantic fish and fish sauce, and brokered the manufactured, agricultural, and natural products of almost every Mediterranean people.

Punic pendant in the form of a bearded head, 4th–3rd century BC.

In addition to manufacturing, Carthage practiced highly advanced and productive agriculture, using iron plows, irrigation, and crop rotation. Mago wrote a famous treatise on agriculture which the Romans ordered translated after Carthage was captured. After the Second Punic War, Hannibal promoted agriculture to help restore Carthage’s economy and pay the war indemnity to Rome (10000 talents or 800,000 Roman pounds of silver^[14]), and he was largely successful.

Carthage produced wine, which was highly prized in Rome, Euturia (Etruscans), and Greece. Rome was a major consumer of raisin wine, a Carthaginian specialty. Fruits, nuts, grain, grapes, dates, and olives were grown, and olive oil was exported in competition with Greece. Carthage also raised fine horses, similar to today’s Arabian horses, which were greatly prized and exported.

Carthage’s merchant ships, which surpassed even those of the cities of the Levant, visited every major port of the Mediterranean, Britain, the coast of Africa, and the Canary Islands. These ships were able to carry over 100 tons of goods. The commercial fleet of Carthage was comparable in size and tonnage to the fleets of major European powers in the 18th century.

Merchants at first favored the ports of the east: Egypt, the Levant, Greece, Cyprus, and Asia Minor. But after Carthage’s control of Sicily brought it into conflict with Greek colonists, it established commercial relations in the western Mediterranean, including trade with the Etruscans.

Carthage also sent caravans into the interior of Africa and Persia. It traded its manufactured and agricultural goods to the coastal and interior peoples of Africa for salt, gold, timber, ivory, ebony, apes, peacocks, skins, and hides. Its merchants invented the practice of sale by auction and used it to trade with the African tribes. In other ports, they tried to establish permanent warehouses or sell their goods in open-air markets. They obtained amber from Scandinavia and tin from the Canary Islands. From the Celtiberians, Gauls, and Celts, they obtained amber, tin, silver, and furs. Sardinia and Corsica produced gold and silver for Carthage, and Phoenician settlements on islands such as Malta and the Balearic Islands produced commodities that would be sent back to Carthage for large-scale distribution. Carthage supplied poorer civilizations with simple things, such as pottery, metallic products, and ornamentations, often displacing the local manufacturing, but brought its best works to wealthier ones such as the Greeks and Etruscans. Carthage traded in almost every commodity wanted by the ancient world, including spices from Arabia, Africa, and India and slaves.

These trade ships went all the way down the Atlantic coast of Africa to Senegal and Nigeria. One account has a Carthaginian trading vessel exploring Nigeria, including identification of distinguishing geographic features such as a coastal volcano and an encounter with gorillas (See Hanno the Navigator). Irregular trade exchanges occurred as far west as Madeira and the Canary Islands, and as far south as southern Africa. Carthage also traded with India by traveling through the Red Sea and the perhaps-mythical lands of Ophir (India/Arabia?) and Punt, which may be present-day Somalia.

Archeological finds show evidence of all kinds of exchanges, from the vast quantities of tin needed for a bronze-based metals civilization to all manner of textiles, ceramics and fine metalwork. Before and in between the wars, Carthaginian merchants were in every port in the Mediterranean, buying and selling, establishing warehouses where they could, or just bargaining in open-air markets after getting off their ship.

The Etruscan language has not yet been deciphered, but archaeological excavations of Etruscan cities show that the Etruscan civilization was for several centuries a customer and a vendor to Carthage, long before the rise of Rome. The Etruscan city-states were, at times, both commercial partners of Carthage and military allies.

[edit] Government

The government of Carthage was an oligarchal republic, which relied on a system of checks and balances and ensured a form of public accountability. The Carthaginian heads of state were called Suffets (thus rendered in Latin by Livy 30.7.5, attested in Punic inscriptions as SPΘM /ʃuftˤim/, meaning “judges” and obviously related to the Biblical Hebrew ruler title Shophet “Judge”). Greek and Roman authors more commonly referred to them as “kings”. SPΘ /ʃufitˤ/ might originally have been the title of the city’s governor, installed by the mother city of Tyre. In the historically attested period, the two Suffets were elected annually from among the most wealthy and influential families and ruled collegially, similarly to Roman consuls (and equated with these by Livy). This practice might have descended from the plutocratic oligarchies that limited the Suffet’s power in the first Phoenician cities.^{[citation needed]} The aristocratic families were represented in a supreme council (Roman sources speak of a Carthaginian “Senate“, and Greek ones of a “council of Elders” or a gerousia), which had a wide range of powers; however, it is not known whether the Suffets were elected by this council or by an assembly of the people. Suffets appear to have exercised judicial and executive power, but not military^{[citation needed]}. Although the city’s administration was firmly controlled by oligarchs^{[citation needed]}, democratic elements were to be found as well: Carthage had elected legislators, trade unions and town meetings. Aristotle reported in his Politics that unless the Suffets and the Council reached a unanimous decision, the Carthaginian popular assembly had the decisive vote – unlike the situation in Greek states with similar constitutions such as Sparta and Crete. Polybius, in his History book 6, also stated that at the time of the Punic Wars, the Carthaginian public held more sway over the government than the people of Rome held over theirs (a development he regarded as evidence of decline). Finally, there was a body known as the Hundred and Four, which Aristotle compared to the Spartan ephors. These were judges who oversaw the actions of generals^{[citation needed]}, who could sometimes be sentenced to crucifixion.

Eratosthenes, head of the Library of Alexandria, noted that the Greeks had been wrong to describe all non-Greeks as barbarians, since the Carthaginians as well as the Romans had a constitution. Aristotle also knew and discussed the Carthaginian constitution in his Politics (Book II, Chapter 11).

During the period between the end of the First Punic War and the end of the Second Punic War, members of the Barcid family dominated in Carthaginian politics. They were given control of the Carthaginian military and all the Carthaginian territories outside of Africa.

[edit] Carthaginian ethnicity and citizenship

In Carthaginian society, advancement was largely relegated to those of distinctly Carthaginian descent, and the children of foreign men generally had no opportunities. However, there are several notable exceptions to this rule. The Barcid family after Hamilcar himself was half Iberian through their mother, Hamilcar’s wife — a member of the Iberian nobility, whose children all rose to leading positions in both their native cultures. Adherbal the Red and Hanno the Navigator were also of mixed origin, the former identified from his Celtiberian epithet, and the latter from a coupling much like the later Barcids. Other exceptions to this rule include children of prominent Carthaginians with Celtic nobles, as well as a single half-Sardinian admiral who was elevated simply by virtue of his own ability.

Owing to this social organization, citizenship in Carthage was exclusive only to those of a select ethnic background (with an emphasis on paternal relationships), though those of exceptional ability could escape the stigma of their background. Regardless, acceptance of the local religious practices was requisite of citizenship — and by extension any sort of advancement, which left many prominent and well regarded peoples out of the empire’s administration.

[edit] Religion

Main article: Religion in Carthage

Ruins of Punic houses on the Byrsa Hill

Stelae on the Tophet

Carthaginian religion was based on Phoenician religion, a form of polytheism. Many of the gods the Carthaginians worshiped were localized and are now known only under their local names.

[edit] Pantheon

The supreme divine couple was that of Tanit and Ba’al Hammon. The goddess Astarte seems to have been popular in early times. At the height of its cosmopolitan era, Carthage seems to have hosted a large array of divinities from the neighbouring civilizations of Greece, Egypt and the Etruscan city-states. A pantheon was presided over by the father of the gods, but a goddess was the principal figure in the Phoenician pantheon.

[edit] Caste of priests and acolytes

Surviving Punic texts are detailed enough to give a portrait of a very well organized caste of temple priests and acolytes performing different types of functions, for a variety of prices. Priests were clean shaven, unlike most of the population. In the first centuries of the city ritual celebrations included rhythmic dancing, derived from Phoenician traditions.

[edit] Punic stelae

Cippi and stelae of limestone are characteristic monuments of Punic art and religion, and are found throughout the western Phoenician world in unbroken continuity, both historically and geographically. Most of them were set up over urns containing cremated human remains, placed within open-air sanctuaries. Such sanctuaries constitute striking relics of Punic civilization.

[edit] Child sacrifice

Carthage under the Phoenicians was notorious to its neighbors for child sacrifice. Plutarch (c. 46–120) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius, Philo and Diodorus Siculus.^[15] Livy and Polybius do not. The Hebrew Bible also mentions child sacrifice practiced by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, and by some Israelites.

Modern archaeology in formerly Punic areas has discovered a number of large cemeteries for children and infants. But there is some argument that the reports of child sacrifice were based on a misconception, later used as blood libel by the Romans who destroyed the city. These cemeteries may have been used as graves for stillborn infants or children who died very early.^{[citation needed]} Modern archeological excavations have been interpreted as confirming Plutarch’s reports of Carthaginian child sacrifice.^[16] In a single child cemetery called the Tophet by archaeologists, an estimated 20,000 urns were deposited between 400 BC and 200 BC, with the practice continuing until the early years of the Christian period. The urns contained the charred bones of newborns and in some cases the bones of fetuses and 2-year-olds. These remains have been interpreted to mean that in the cases of stillborn babies, the parents would sacrifice their youngest child. There is a clear correlation between the frequency of cremation and the well-being of the city. In bad times (war, poor harvests) cremations became more frequent, but it is not possible to know why. The correlation could be because bad times inspired the Carthaginians to pray for divine intervention (via child sacrifice), or because bad times increased child mortality, leading to more child burials (via cremation).

Accounts of child sacrifice in Carthage report that beginning at the founding of Carthage in about 814 BC, mothers and fathers buried their children who had been sacrificed to Ba`al Hammon and Tanit there.^{[citation needed]} The practice was apparently distasteful even to Carthaginians, and they began to buy children for the purpose of sacrifice or even to raise servant children instead of offering up their own. However, in times of crisis or calamity, like war, drought or famine, their priests demanded the flower of their youth. Special ceremonies during extreme crisis saw up to 200 children of the most affluent and powerful families slain and tossed into the burning pyre.

It has been argued by some modern scholars that evidence of Carthaginian child sacrifice is incomplete, and that it is far more likely to have been Roman blood libel against the Carthaginians to justify their conquest and destruction^{[citation needed]}. Skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children that died naturally. Sergio Ribichini has argued that the Tophet was “a child necropolis designed to receive the remains of infants who had died prematurely of sickness or other natural causes, and who for this reason were “offered” to specific deities and buried in a place different from the one reserved for the ordinary dead”.^[17] The few Carthaginian texts which have survived make absolutely no mention of child sacrifice, though most of them pertain to matters entirely unrelated to religion, such as the practice of agriculture.

[edit] Extent of Phoenician settlement

In order to provide a resting place for merchant fleets, to maintain a Phoenician monopoly on an area’s natural resource, or to conduct trade on its own, the Phoenicians established numerous colonial cities along the coasts of the Mediterranean. They were stimulated to found their cities by a need for revitalizing trade in order to pay the tribute extracted from Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos by the succession of empires that ruled them and by fear of complete Greek colonization of that part of the Mediterranean suitable for commerce. The Phoenicians lacked the population or necessity to establish self-sustaining cities abroad, and most cities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but Carthage and a few other cities developed into large cities.

Some 300 colonies were established in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Iberia, and to a much lesser extent, on the arid coast of Libya. The Phoenicians controlled Cyprus, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands, as well as minor possessions in Crete and Sicily; the latter settlements were in perpetual conflict with the Greeks. The Phoenicians managed to control all of Sicily for a limited time. The entire area later came under the leadership and protection of Carthage, which in turn dispatched its own colonists to found new cities or to reinforce those that declined with Tyre and Sidon.

The first colonies were made on the two paths to Iberia’s mineral wealth — along the North African coast and on Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. The centre of the Phoenician world was Tyre, serving as an economic and political hub. The power of this city waned following numerous sieges and its eventual destruction by Alexander the Great, and the role as leader passed to Sidon, and eventually to Carthage. Each colony paid tribute to either Tyre or Sidon, but neither had actual control of the colonies. This changed with the rise of Carthage, since the Carthagineans appointed their own magistrates to rule the towns and Carthage retained much direct control over the colonies. This policy resulted in a number of Iberian towns siding with the Romans during the Punic Wars.

[edit] Treaty with Rome

In 509 BC a treaty was signed between Carthage and Rome indicating a division of influence and commercial activities. This is the first known source indicating that Carthage had gained control over Sicily and Sardinia.

By the beginning of the 5th century BC, Carthage had become the commercial center of the West Mediterranean region, a position it retained until overthrown by the Roman Republic. The city had conquered most of the old Phoenician colonies e.g. Hadrumetum, Utica and Kerkouane, subjugated the Libyan tribes (with the Numidian and Mauretanian kingdoms remaining more or less independent), and taken control of the entire North African coast from modern Morocco to the borders of Egypt (not including the Cyrenaica, which was eventually incorporated into Hellenistic Egypt). Its influence had also extended into the Mediterranean, taking control over Sardinia, Malta, the Balearic Islands and the western half of Sicily, where coastal fortresses such as Motya or Lilybaeum secured its possessions. Important colonies had also been established on the Iberian peninsula. Their cultural influence in the Iberian Peninsula is documented, but the degree of their political influence before the conquest by Hamilcar Barca is disputed.^[1]

Antonine baths ruins, from the Roman period

[edit] The Sicilian Wars

Further information: the Sicilian Wars

[edit] First Sicilian war

Carthage’s economic successes, and its dependence on shipping to conduct most of its trade, led to the creation of a powerful Carthaginian navy to discourage both pirates and rival nations. This, coupled with its success and growing hegemony, brought Carthage into increasing conflict with the Greeks, the other major power contending for control of the central Mediterranean.

The island of Sicily, lying at Carthage’s doorstep, became the arena on which this conflict played out. From their earliest days, both the Greeks and Phoenicians had been attracted to the large island, establishing a large number of colonies and trading posts along its coasts. Small battles had been fought between these settlements for centuries.

By 480 BC, Gelo, the tyrant of Greek Syracuse, backed in part by support from other Greek city-states, was attempting to unite the island under his rule. This imminent threat could not be ignored, and Carthage — possibly as part of an alliance with Persia, then engaged in a war with Greece — fielded its largest military force to date, under the leadership of the general Hamilcar. Traditional accounts give Hamilcar’s army a strength of three hundred thousand men; though these are almost certainly exaggerated, it must nonetheless have been of formidable force.

En route to Sicily, however, Hamilcar suffered losses (possibly severe) due to poor weather. Landing at Panormus (modern-day Palermo), he was then decisively defeated by Gelo at the Battle of Himera. Hamilcar was either killed during the battle or committed suicide in shame. As a result the nobility negotiated peace and replaced the old monarchy with a republic.

[edit] Second Sicilian war

By 410 BC, Carthage had recovered after serious defeats. It had conquered much of modern day Tunisia, strengthened and founded new colonies in North Africa, and sponsored Mago Barca‘s journey across the Sahara Desert, Hanno the Navigator‘s journey down the African coast, and Himilco the Navigator‘s exploration of the European Atlantic coast. Although, in that year, the Iberian colonies seceded — cutting off Carthage’s major supply of silver and copper — Hannibal Mago, the grandson of Hamilcar, began preparations to reclaim Sicily, while expeditions were also led into Morocco and Senegal, and also into the Atlantic.

In 409 BC, Hannibal Mago set out for Sicily with his force. He was successful in capturing the smaller cities of Selinus (modern Selinunte) and Himera, before returning triumphantly to Carthage with the spoils of war. But the primary enemy, Syracuse, remained untouched and, in 405 BC, Hannibal Mago led a second Carthaginian expedition to claim the entire island. This time, however, he met with fierce resistance and ill-fortune. During the siege of Agrigentum, the Carthaginian forces were ravaged by plague, Hannibal Mago himself succumbing to it. Although his successor, Himilco, successfully extended the campaign by breaking a Greek siege, capturing the city of Gela and repeatedly defeating the army of Dionysius, the new tyrant of Syracuse, he, too, was weakened by the plague and forced to sue for peace before returning to Carthage.

In 398 BC, Dionysius had regained his strength and broke the peace treaty, striking at the Carthaginian stronghold of Motya. Himilco responded decisively, leading an expedition which not only reclaimed Motya, but also captured Messina. Finally, he laid siege to Syracuse itself. The siege was close to a success throughout 397 BC, but in 396 BC plague again ravaged the Carthaginian forces, and they collapsed.

Sicily by this time had become an obsession for Carthage. Over the next sixty years, Carthaginian and Greek forces engaged in a constant series of skirmishes. By 340 BC, Carthage had been pushed entirely into the southwest corner of the island, and an uneasy peace reigned over the island.

[edit] Third Sicilian war

Mediterranean sea nations in 323 BC

In 315 BC, Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, seized the city of Messene (present-day Messina). In 311 BC he invaded the last Carthaginian holdings on Sicily, breaking the terms of the current peace treaty, and laid siege to Akragas.

Hamilcar, grandson of Hanno the Navigator, led the Carthaginian response and met with tremendous success. By 310 BC, he controlled almost all of Sicily and had laid siege to Syracuse itself. In desperation, Agathocles secretly led an expedition of 14,000 men to the mainland, hoping to save his rule by leading a counterstrike against Carthage itself. In this, he was successful: Carthage was forced to recall Hamilcar and most of his army from Sicily to face the new and unexpected threat. Although Agathocles’ army was eventually defeated in 307 BC, Agathocles himself escaped back to Sicily and was able to negotiate a peace which maintained Syracuse as a stronghold of Greek power in Sicily.

[edit] Pyrrhic War

Main article: Pyrrhic War

Between 280 and 275 BC, Pyrrhus of Epirus waged two major campaigns in the western Mediterranean: one against the emerging power of the Roman Republic in southern Italy, the other against Carthage in Sicily.

Pyrrhus sent an advance guard to Tarentium under the command of Cineaus with 3,000 infantry. Pyrrhus marched the main army across the Greek peninsula and engaged in battles with the Thessalians and the Athenian army. After his early success on the march Pyrrhus entered Tarentium to rejoin with his advance guard.

In the midst of Pyrrhus’s Italian campaigns, he received envoys from the Sicilian cities of Agrigentum, Syracuse, and Leontini, asking for military aid to remove the Carthaginian dominance over that island.^[2] Pyrrhus agreed, and fortified the Sicilian cities with an army of 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry and 20 War Elephants, supported by some 200 ships. Initially, Pyrrhus’ Sicilian campaign against Carthage was a success, pushing back the Carthaginian forces, and capturing the city-fortress of Eryx, even though he was not able to capture Lilybaeum.^[3]

Following these losses, Carthage sued for peace, but Pyrrhus refused unless Carthage was willing to renounce its claims on Sicily entirely. According to Plutarch, Pyrrhus set his sights on conquering Carthage itself, and to this end, began outfitting an expedition. However, his ruthless treatment of the Sicilian cities in his preparations for this expedition, and his execution of two Sicilian rulers whom he claimed were plotting against him led to such a rise in animosity towards the Greeks, that Pyrrhus withdrew from Sicily and returned to deal with events occurring in southern Italy.^[4]

Pyrrhus’s campaigns in Italy were inconclusive, and Pyrrhus eventually withdrew to Epirus. For Carthage, this meant a return to the status quo. For Rome, however, the failure of Pyrrhus to defend the colonies of Magna Graecia meant that Rome absorbed them into its “sphere of influence“, bringing it closer to complete domination of the Italian peninsula. Rome’s domination of Italy, and proof that Rome could pit its military strength successfully against major international powers, would pave the way to the future Rome-Carthage conflicts of the Punic Wars.

[edit] The Punic Wars

Further information: Punic Wars

Carthage electrum coin, ca. 250 BC. British Museum.

Mediterranean nations in 200 BC.

When Agathocles died in 288 BC, a large company of Italian mercenaries who had previously been held in his service found themselves suddenly without employment. Rather than leave Sicily, they seized the city of Messana. Naming themselves Mamertines (or “sons of Mars”), they became a law unto themselves, terrorizing the surrounding countryside.

The Mamertines became a growing threat to Carthage and Syracuse alike. In 265 BC, Hiero II, former general of Pyrrhus and the new tyrant of Syracuse, took action against them. Faced with a vastly superior force, the Mamertines divided into two factions, one advocating surrender to Carthage, the other preferring to seek aid from Rome. While the Roman Senate debated the best course of action, the Carthaginians eagerly agreed to send a garrison to Messana. A Carthaginian garrison was admitted to the city, and a Carthaginian fleet sailed into the Messanan harbor. However, soon afterwards they began negotiating with Hiero; alarmed, the Mamertines sent another embassy to Rome asking them to expel the Carthaginians.

Hiero’s intervention had placed Carthage’s military forces directly across the narrow channel of water that separated Sicily from Italy. Moreover, the presence of the Carthaginian fleet gave them effective control over this channel, the Strait of Messina, and demonstrated a clear and present danger to nearby Rome and her interests.

As a result, the Roman Assembly, although reluctant to ally with a band of mercenaries, sent an expeditionary force to return control of Messana to the Mamertines.

The Roman attack on the Carthaginian forces at Messana triggered the first of the Punic Wars. Over the course of the next century, these three major conflicts between Rome and Carthage would determine the course of Western civilization. The wars included a Carthaginian invasion led by Hannibal, which nearly prevented the rise of the Roman Empire.

Shortly after the First Punic War, Carthage faced a major mercenary revolt which changed the internal political landscape of Carthage (bringing the Barcid family to prominence), and affected Carthage’s international standing, as Rome used the events of the war to base a claim by which it seized Sardinia and Corsica.

The main cause of the Punic Wars was the clash of interests between the existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman Republic. The Romans were initially interested in expansion via Sicily, part of which lay under Carthaginian control. At the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was the rapidly ascending power in Italy. By the end of the third war, after more than a hundred years and the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome had conquered Carthage’s empire and razed the city, becoming the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean. With the end of the Macedonian wars — which ran concurrently with the Punic wars — and the defeat of the Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great in the Roman-Syrian War (Treaty of Apamea, 188 BC) in the eastern sea, Rome emerged as the dominant Mediterranean power and the most powerful city in the classical world.

This was a turning point that meant that the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean would pass to the modern world via Europe instead of Africa. The Roman victories over Carthage in these wars gave Rome a preeminent status it would retain until the division of the Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire by Diocletian in 286 AD

[edit] Background

In 264 BC, Carthage was a large port city located on the coast of modern Tunisia. Founded by the Phoenicians in the middle of the 9th century BC, it was a powerful city-state with a large and lucrative commercial empire. Of the great city-states in the western Mediterranean, only Rome rivaled it in power, wealth, and population. While Carthage’s navy was the largest in the ancient world at the time, it did not maintain a large, permanent, standing army. Instead, it relied on mercenaries, hired with its considerable wealth, to fight its wars.^[2] However, most of the officers who commanded the armies were Carthaginian citizens. The Carthaginians were famed for their abilities as sailors, and unlike their armies, many Carthaginians from the lower classes served in their navy, which provided them with a stable income and career.

In 264 BC the Roman Republic had gained control of the Italian peninsula south of the Po river. Unlike Carthage, Rome had large standing armies made up almost entirely of Roman citizens. The lower class, or plebians, usually served as the foot-soldiers in Roman legions, while the upper class, or patricians, served as the commanding officers. On the other hand, at the start of the First Punic War the Romans had no standing navy, and were thus at a disadvantage until they began to construct their own large fleets during the war.

[edit] First Punic War (264 to 241 BC)

Main article: First Punic War

The First Punic War (264 BC – 241 BC) was fought partly on land in Sicily and Africa, but was also a naval war to a large extent. The struggle was costly to both powers, but after more than 20 years of war, Rome emerged victorious, at last conquering the island of Sicily and forcing the defeated Carthage to pay a massive tribute. The effect of the long war destabilized Carthage so much that Rome was able to seize Sardinia and Corsica a few years later when Carthage was plunged into the Mercenary War.

[edit] Beginning

The war began as a local conflict in Sicily between Hiero II of Syracuse, and the Mamertines of Messina. The Mamertines had the bad judgment to enlist the aid of the Carthaginian navy, and then betray the Carthaginians by entreating the Roman Senate for aid against Carthage. The Romans sent a garrison to secure Messina, and the outraged Carthaginians then lent aid to Syracuse. With the two powers now embroiled in a local conflict, tensions quickly escalated into a full-scale war between Carthage and Rome for the control of Sicily.

[edit] The war at sea

After a vicious defeat at the Battle of Agrigentum in 261 BCE, the Carthaginian leadership resolved to avoid further direct land-based engagements with the powerful Roman legions, and concentrated on the sea, where they believed they had an advantage.

Initially, the experienced Carthaginian navy prevailed against the fledgling Roman Navy in the Battle of the Lipari Islands in 260 BC. Rome responded by drastically expanding its navy in a very short time. Within two months the Romans had a fleet of over 100 warships. Because they knew that they could not outmaneuver the Carthaginians in the traditional tactics of ramming and sinking enemy ships, the Romans added an “assault bridge” to Roman ships, known as a corvus. This bridge would latch onto enemy vessels, bring them to a standstill. Then shipboard Roman legionaries were able to board and capture Carthaginian ships through hand-to-hand fighting, a skill that the Romans were more comfortable with. This innovative Roman tactic reduced the Carthaginian navy’s advantage in ship-to-ship engagements, and allowed Rome’s superior infantry to be brought to bear in naval conflicts. However, the corvus was also cumbersome and dangerous, and was eventually phased out as the Roman navy became more experienced and tactically proficient.

Save for the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Tunis in Africa, and two naval engagements, the First Punic War was nearly an unbroken string of Roman victories. In 241 BC, Carthage signed a peace treaty ceding to Rome total control of Sicily.

[edit] Aftermath

At war’s end, Rome’s navies were powerful enough to prevent the amphibious invasion of Italy, control the important and rich sea trade routes, and invade other shores.

In 238 BC the mercenary troops of Carthage revolted (see Mercenary War) and Rome took the opportunity to take the islands of Corsica and Sardinia from Carthage as well. From that point on, the Romans effectively controlled the Mediterranean, referring to it as “Mare Nostrum” (“our sea”).

Carthage spent the years following the First Punic War improving its finances and expanding its colonial empire in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, modern Spain and Portugal), under the Barcid family. Rome’s attention was mostly concentrated on the Illyrian Wars. In 219 BC Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar Barca, attacked Saguntum in Hispania, a city allied to Rome, beginning the Second Punic War.

[edit] Interval between the First and Second Punic Wars

According to Polybius there had been several trade agreements between Ancient Rome and Carthage; even a mutual alliance against king Pyrrhus of Epirus. When Rome and Carthage made peace in 241 BC, Rome secured the release of all 8,000 prisoners of war without ransom and, furthermore, received a considerable amount of silver as a war indemnity. However, Carthage refused to deliver to Rome the Roman deserters serving among their troops. A first issue for dispute was that the initial treaty, agreed upon by Hamilcar Barca and the Roman commander in Sicily, had a clause stipulating that the Roman popular assembly had to accept the treaty in order for it to be valid. The assembly not only rejected the treaty but increased the indemnity Carthage had to pay.

Carthage seems to have had a liquidity problem and an attempt to gain financial help from Egypt, a mutual ally of Rome and Carthage, failed. This resulted in delay of payments owed to the mercenary troops that had served Carthage in Sicily, leading to a climate of mutual mistrust and, finally, a revolt supported by the Lybian natives, known as the Mercenary War (240-238 BCE). During this war Rome and Syracuse both aided Carthage, although traders from Italy seem to have done business with the insurgents. Some of them were caught and punished by Carthage, aggravating the political climate which had started to improve in recognition of the old alliance and treaties.

During the uprising in the Punic mainland, the mercenary troops in Corsica and Sardinia toppled Punic rule and briefly established their own, but were expelled by a native uprising. After securing aid from Rome, the exiled mercenaries then regained authority on the island. For several years a brutal campaign was fought to quell the insurgent natives. Like many Sicilians, they would ultimately rise again in support of Carthage during the Second Punic War.

Eventually, Rome annexed Corsica and Sardinia by revisiting the terms of the treaty that ended the first Punic War. As Carthage was under siege and engaged in a difficult civil war, they begrudgingly accepted the loss of these islands and the subsequent Roman conditions for ongoing peace, which also increased the war indemnity levied against Carthage after the first Punic War. This eventually plunged relations between the two powers to a new low point.

After Carthage emerged victorious from the Mercenary War there were two opposing factions, the reformist party was led by Hamilcar Barca while the other more conservative faction was represented by Hanno the Great and the old Carthaginian aristocracy. Hamilcar had led the initial Carthaginian peace negotiations and was blamed for the clause that allowed the Roman popular assembly to increase the war indemnity and annex Corsica and Sardinia, but his superlative generalship was instrumental in enabling Carthage to ultimately quell the mercenary uprising, ironically fought against many of the same mercenary troops he had trained. Hamilcar ultimately left Carthage for the Iberian peninsula where he captured rich silver mines and subdued many tribes who fortified his army with levies of native troops.

Hanno had lost many elephants and soldiers when he became complacent after a victory in the Mercenary War. Further, when he and Hamilcar were supreme commanders of Carthage’s field armies, the soldiers had supported Hamilcar when his and Hamilcar’s personalities clashed. On the other hand he was responsible for the greatest territorial expansion of Carthage’s hinterland during his rule as strategus and wanted to continue such expansion. However the Numidian king of the relevant area was now a son-in-law of Hamilcar and had supported Carthage during a crucial moment in the Mercenary War. While Hamilcar was able to obtain the resources for his aim, the Numidians in the Atlas Mountains were not conquered, like Hanno suggested, but became vassals of Carthage.

The Iberian conquest was begun by Hamilcar Barca and his other son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair, who ruled the relatively independent of Carthage and signed the Ebro-treaty with Rome. Hamilcar died in battle in 228 BCE. Around this time, Hasdrubal became Carthaginian commander in Iberia (229 BCE). He maintained this post for some eight years until 221 BCE. Soon the Romans became aware of a burgeoning alliance between Carthage and the Celts of the Po river valley in northern Italy. The latter were amassing forces to invade Italy, presumably with Carthaginian backing. Thus, the Romans pre-emptively invaded the Po region in 225 BCE. By 220 BCE, the Romans had annexed the area as Gallia Cisalpina ^[3]. Hasdrubal was assassinated around the same time (221 BCE), bringing Hannibal to the fore. It seems that, having apparently dealt with the threat of a Gaulo-Carthaginian invasion of Italy (and perhaps with the original Carthaginian commander killed), the Romans lulled themselves into a false sense of security. Thus, Hannibal took the Romans by surprise a scant two years later (218 BCE) by merely reviving and adapting the original Gaulo-Carthaginian invasion plan of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal.

After Hamilcar’s [sic — Hasdrubal's] assassination his young sons took over, with Hannibal becoming the strategus of Iberia, although this decision was not undisputed in Carthage. The output of the Iberian silver mines allowed for the financing of a standing army and the payment of the war indemnity to Rome. The mines also served as a tool for political influence, creating a faction in Carthage’s magistrate that was called the Barcino.

In 219 BC Hannibal attacked the town of Saguntum, which stood under the special protection of Rome. According to Roman tradition, Hannibal had been made to swear by his father never to be a friend of Rome, and he certainly did not take a conciliatory attitude when the Romans berated him for crossing the river Iberus (Ebro) which Carthage was bound by treaty not to cross. Hannibal did not cross the Ebro River (Saguntum was near modern Valencia – well south of the river) in arms, and the Saguntines provoked his attack by attacking their neighboring tribes who were Carthaginian protectorates and by massacring pro-Punic factions in their city. Rome had no legal protection pact with any tribe south of the Ebro River. Nonetheless, they asked Carthage to hand Hannibal over, and when the Carthaginian oligarchy refused, Rome declared war on Carthage. (Map of the constellation of power prior to the Second Punic War. Note that Hannibal expanded the Barcid rule across the Ebro to the Pyrenees, founding what is today Barcelona, shortly before his march.)

[edit] The Barcid Empire

The ‘Barcid Empire’ consisted of the Punic territories in Iberia. According to the historian Pedro Barceló, it can be described as a private military-economic hegemony backed by the two independent powers, Carthage and Gades. These shared the profits with the Barcid family and were responsible according to the Mediterranean diplomatic customs. Gades played a minor role in this field, but Hannibal visited the local temple to conduct ceremonies before launching his campaign against Rome. The Barcid Empire was strongly influenced by the Hellenic Empires of the Mediterranean and for example, contrary to Carthage, it minted many coins in its short time of existence.^[4]

[edit] Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BC)

Main article: Second Punic War

The Second Punic War (218 BC – 201 BC) is most remembered for the Carthaginian Hannibal‘s crossing of the Alps. He and his army invaded Italy from the north and resoundingly defeated the Roman army in several battles, but never achieved the ultimate goal of causing a political break between Rome and its allies.

While fighting Hannibal in Italy, Hispania and Sicily, Rome also simultaneously fought in Greece against Macedon in the First Macedonian War. Eventually, the war was taken to Africa, where Carthage was defeated at the Battle of Zama by Scipio Africanus. The end of the war saw Carthage’s control reduced to only the city itself.

Hannibal’s feat in crossing the Alps with war elephants passed into European legend: a fresco detail, ca. 1510, Capitoline Museums, Rome

There were three military theaters in this war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly; Hispania, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success until eventually retreating into Italy; and Sicily where the Romans held military supremacy.

[edit] Hannibal

Hannibal was a master strategist who knew that the Roman cavalry was, as a rule, weak and vulnerable. He therefore enlisted superior cavalry into his armies, with devastating effect on the Roman legions.

After assaulting Saguntum, Hannibal surprised the Romans in 218 BC by directly invading Italy. He led a large army of mercenaries composed mainly of Gauls, Hispanics, Numidians, and, most famously, three dozen African war elephants, through the Alps. This move had a double edged effect. Although Hannibal surprised the Romans and thoroughly beat them on the battlefields of Italy, he lost his only siege engines and elephants to the cold temperatures and icy mountain paths. In the end it allowed him to defeat the Romans in the field, but not in the strategically crucial city of Rome itself, thus making him unable to draw the war to a decisive close.

Hannibal defeated the Roman legions in several major engagements, including the Battle of the Trebia, the Battle of Lake Trasimene and most famously at the Battle of Cannae, but his long-term strategy failed. Lacking siege engines and sufficient manpower to take the city of Rome itself, he had planned to turn the Italian allies against Rome and starve the city out through a siege. However, with the exception of a few of the southern city-states, the majority of the Roman allies remained loyal and continued to fight alongside Rome, despite Hannibal‘s near-invincible army devastating the Italian countryside. Rome also exhibited an impressive ability to draft army after army of conscripts after each crushing defeat by Hannibal, allowing them to recover from the defeats at Cannae and elsewhere and keep Hannibal cut off from aid.

More importantly, Hannibal never successfully received any significant reinforcements from Carthage. Despite his many pleas, Carthage only ever sent reinforcements successfully to Hispania. This lack of reinforcements prevented Hannibal from decisively ending the conflict by conquering Rome through force of arms.

The Roman army under Quintus Fabius Maximus intentionally deprived Hannibal of open battle, while making it difficult for Hannibal to forage for supplies. Nevertheless, Rome was also incapable of bringing the conflict in the Italian theatre to a decisive close. Not only were they contending with Hannibal in Italy, and his brother Hasdrubal in Hispania, but Rome had embroiled itself in yet another foreign war, the first of its Macedonian wars against Carthage’s ally Philip V, at the same time.

Through Hannibal‘s inability to take strategically important Italian cities, the general loyalty Italian allies showed to Rome, and Rome’s own inability to counter Hannibal as a master general, Hannibal‘s campaign continued in Italy inconclusively for sixteen years.

[edit] Hasdrubal’s campaign to reinforce Hannibal

In Hispania, a young Roman commander, Publius Cornelius Scipio (later to be given the agnomen Africanus because of his feats during this war), eventually defeated the Carthaginian forces under Hasdrubal. Abandoning Hispania, Hasdrubal moved to bring his mercenary army into Italy to reinforce Hannibal.

Hasdrubal again brought a Carthaginian army across the Alps into Italy, as his brother did before him, making his way into the Po valley. The spectre of another huge Carthaginian army in Italy was terrifying, and the Romans knew they needed to cut off Hasdrubal’s reinforcements at any cost. In the Battle of the Metaurus River in 207 BC, the Roman commander Gaius Claudius Nero had about 700 of his best soldiers distract Hasdrubal while he himself rounded the river to strike the rear flank of Hasdrubal’s army. Hasdrubal, realizing that he was doomed, threw himself headlong into the Roman forces to be killed rather than captured. Hasdrubal’s head was thrown by the triumphant Romans into Hannibal’s camp, whereupon Hannibal and his army retreated into the mountains for a short time.

[edit] End of the war

Meanwhile in Hispania, Scipio captured the local Carthaginian cities and made alliances with local rulers. With Hispania essentially pacified, Scipio then turned to invade Carthage itself.

With Carthage now directly threatened, in 203 BC Hannibal returned to Africa to face Scipio. At the final Battle of Zama in 202 BC the Romans at last defeated Hannibal in open battle. Carthage sued for peace, and Rome agreed, but only after imposing harsh terms, stripping Carthage of its foreign colonies, forcing it to pay a huge indemnity, and forbidding it to own either an impressive army or a significant navy again.

[edit] Third Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC)

Main article: Third Punic War

The Third Punic War (149 BC – 146 BC) involved an extended siege of Carthage, ending in the city’s thorough destruction. The resurgence of the struggle can be explained by growing anti-Roman agitations in Hispania and Greece, and the visible improvement of Carthaginian wealth and martial power in the fifty years since the Second War.

With no military, Carthage suffered raids from its neighbour Numidia. Under the terms of the treaty with Rome, such disputes were arbitrated by the Roman Senate. Because Numidia was a favored client state of Rome, Roman rulings were slanted heavily to favor the Numidians. After some fifty years of this condition, Carthage had managed to discharge its war indemnity to Rome, and considered itself no longer bound by the restrictions of the treaty, although Rome believed otherwise. Carthage mustered an army to repel Numidian forces. It immediately lost the war with Numidia, placing itself in debt yet again, this time to Numidia.

This new-found Punic militarism alarmed many Romans, including Cato the Elder who after a voyage to Carthage, ended all his speeches, no matter what the topic, by saying: “Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.” – “Furthermore, I think that Carthage must be destroyed”.

In 149 BC, in an attempt to draw Carthage into open conflict, Rome made a series of escalating demands, one being the surrender of three hundred children of the nobility as hostages, and finally ending with the near-impossible demand that the city be demolished and rebuilt away from the coast, deeper into Africa. When the Carthaginians refused this last demand, Rome declared the Third Punic War. Having previously relied on mercenaries to fight their wars for them, the Carthaginians were now forced into a more active role in the defense of their city. They made thousands of makeshift weapons in a short amount of time, even using women’s hair for catapult strings, and were able to hold off an initial Roman attack. A second offensive under the command of Scipio Aemilianus resulted in a three-year siege before he breached the walls, sacked the city, and systematically burned Carthage to the ground in 146 BC. The popular story that the ground was seeded with salt was invented in the nineteenth century as there are no evidence in any ancient sources.

quite quite interesting no?

Giant squid, once believed to be mythical creatures, are squid of the Architeuthidae family, represented by as many as eight species of the genus Architeuthis. They are deep-ocean dwelling animals that can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 13 metres (43 ft) for females and 10 metres (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles (second only to the colossal squid at an estimated 14 metres (46 ft), one of the largest living organisms). The mantle is about 2 metres (7 ft) long (more for females, less for males), and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles is about 5 metres (16 ft). There have been claims reported of specimens of up to 20 metres (66 ft), but no animals of such size have been scientifically documented.

On September 30, 2004, researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat.^[1] Several of the 556 photographs were released a year later. The same team successfully filmed a live giant squid for the first time on December 4, 2006.^[2]

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Anatomy

See also: squid and cephalopod

Like all squid, a giant squid has a mantle (torso), eight arms and two longer tentacles. The arms and tentacles account for much of the squid’s great length, so giant squid are much lighter than their chief predators, sperm whales. Scientifically documented specimens have weighed hundreds, rather than thousands, of kilograms.

Tentacular club of Architeuthis

The inside surfaces of the arms and tentacles are lined with hundreds of a sub-spherical suction cups, 2 to 5 centimetres (1 to 2 in) in diameter, each mounted on a stalk. The circumference of these suckers is lined with sharp, finely serrated rings of chitin. The perforation of these teeth and the suction of the cups serve to attach the squid to its prey. It is common to find circular scars from the suckers on or close to the head of sperm whales that have attacked giant squid. Each arm and tentacle is divided into three regions — carpus (“wrist”), manus (“hand”) and dactylus (“finger”) [1][2]. The carpus has a dense cluster of cups, in six or seven irregular, transverse rows. The manus is broader, close to the end of the arm, and has enlarged suckers in two medial rows. The dactylus is the tip. The bases of all the arms and tentacles are arranged in a circle surrounding the animal’s single parrot-like beak, as in other cephalopods.

A piece of sperm whale skin with giant squid sucker scars.

Giant squid have small fins at the rear of the mantle used for locomotion. Like other cephalopods, giant squid are propelled by jet — by pushing water through its mantle cavity through the funnel, in gentle, rhythmic pulses. They can also move quickly by expanding the cavity to fill it with water, then contracting muscles to jet water through the funnel. Giant squid breathe using two large gills inside the mantle cavity. The circulatory system is closed, which is a distinct characteristic of cephalopods. Like other squid, they contain dark ink used to deter predators.

Giant squid have a sophisticated nervous system and complex brain, attracting great interest from scientists. They also have the largest eyes of any living creature except perhaps colossal squid — over 30 centimeters (1 ft) in diameter. Large eyes can better detect light (including bioluminescent light) which is scarce in deep water.

Giant squid and some other large squid species maintain neutral buoyancy in seawater thanks to the ammonium chloride solution which flows throughout their body and is lighter than seawater. This differs from the method of flotation used by fish, which involves a gas-filled swim bladder. The solution tastes somewhat like salmiakki and makes giant squid unattractive for general human consumption.

Like all cephalopods, giant squid have organs called statocysts to sense their orientation and motion in water. The age of a giant squid can be determined by “growth rings” in the statocyst’s “statolith”, similar to determining the age of a tree by counting its rings. Much of what is known about giant squid age is based on estimates of the growth rings and from undigested beaks found in the stomachs of sperm whales.

Size

See also: Cephalopod size

Giant squid measuring over 4 metres without its two long feeding tentacles.

The giant squid is the second largest mollusc and the second largest of all extant invertebrates. It is only exceeded in size by the Colossal Squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, which may have a mantle nearly twice as long. Several extinct cephalopods, such as the Cretaceous vampyromorphid Tusoteuthis and the Ordovician nautiloid Cameroceras may have grown even larger.

Yet, giant squid size, particularly total length, has often been misreported and exaggerated. Reports of specimens reaching and even exceeding 18 m (59 ft) in length are widespread, but no animals approaching this size have been scientifically documented. According to giant squid expert Dr. Steve O’Shea, such lengths were likely achieved by greatly stretching the two tentacles like elastic bands.^[3]

Based on the examination of 105 specimens and of beaks found inside sperm whales, giant squid’s mantles are not known to exceed 2.25 m (7.4 ft) in length.^[3] Including the head and arms, but excluding the tentacles, the length very rarely exceeds 5 m (16 ft).^[3] Maximum total length, when measured relaxed post mortem, is estimated at 13 m (43 ft) for females and 10 m (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles.^[3] Giant squid exhibit sexual dimorphism. Maximum weight is estimated at 275 kg (606 lb) for females and 150 kg (331 lb) for males.^[3]

Reproductive cycle

Little is known about the reproductive cycle of giant squid. It is thought that they reach sexual maturity at about 3 years; males reach sexual maturity at a smaller size than females. Females produce large quantities of eggs, sometimes more than 5 kg, that average 0.5-1.4 mm long and 0.3-0.7 mm wide. Females have a single median ovary in the rear end of the mantle cavity and paired convoluted oviducts where mature eggs pass exiting through the oviducal glands, then through the nidamental glands. As in other squid, these glands produce a gelatinous material used to keep the eggs together once they are laid.

In males, as with most other cephalopods, the single, posterior testis produces sperm that move into a complex system of glands that manufacture the spermatophores. These are stored in the elongate sac, or Needham’s sac, that terminates in the penis from which they are expelled during mating. The penis is prehensile, over 90 centimeters long, and extends from inside the mantle.

How the sperm is transferred to the egg mass is much debated, as giant squid lack the hectocotylus used for reproduction in many other cephalopods. It may be transferred in sacs of spermatophores, called spermatangia, which the male injects into the female’s arms. This is suggested by a female specimen recently found in Tasmania, having a small subsidiary tendril attached to the base of each arm.

Post-larval juveniles have been discovered in surface waters off New Zealand, and there are plans to capture more and maintain them in an aquarium to learn more about the creature.

Ecology

Feeding

The fabled underwater encounter between the sperm whale and giant squid, from a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History.

Recent studies show that giant squid feed on deep-sea fish and other squid species. They catch prey using the two tentacles, gripping it with serrated sucker rings on the ends. Then they bring it toward the powerful beak, and shred it with the radula (tongue with small, file-like teeth) before it reaches the esophagus. They are believed to be solitary hunters, as only individual giant squid have been caught in fishing nets. Fish such as the Hoki are among the giant squid’s diet.^[4]

Adult giant squids’ only known predators are sperm whales and possibly Pacific sleeper sharks, found off Antarctica, but it is unknown whether these sharks hunt squid, or just scavenge squid carcasses. Juveniles are preyed on by deep sea sharks and fishes. Because sperm whales are skilled at locating giant squid, scientists have tried to observe them to study the squid.

Range and habitat

Worldwide giant squid distribution based on recovered specimens.

Giant squid are very widespread, occurring in all of the world’s oceans. They are usually found near continental and island slopes from the North Atlantic Ocean, especially Newfoundland, Norway, the northern British Isles, and the oceanic islands of the Azores and Madeira, to the South Atlantic around southern Africa, the North Pacific around Japan, and the southwestern Pacific around New Zealand and Australia. Specimens are rare in tropical and polar latitudes.

Species

The taxonomy of the giant squid, as with many cephalopod genera, has not been resolved. Lumpers and splitters may propose as many as eight species or as few as one. The broadest list is:

• Architeuthis dux, “Atlantic Giant Squid”
• Architeuthis hartingii
• Architeuthis japonica
• Architeuthis kirkii
• Architeuthis martensi, “North Pacific Giant Squid”
• Architeuthis physeteris
• Architeuthis sanctipauli, “Southern Giant Squid”
• Architeuthis stockii

Architeuthis sanctipauli was described in 1877 based on a specimen found washed ashore in Île Saint-Paul three years earlier.

It is probable that not all of these are distinct species. No genetic or physical basis for distinguishing between them has been proposed, as evidenced by the placenames — of location of specimen capture — used to describe several of them. The rarity of observations of specimens and the extreme difficulty of observing them alive, tracking their movements, or studying their mating habits militates against a complete understanding.

In the 1984 FAO Species Catalogue of the Cephalopods of the World, C.F.E. Roper, M.J. Sweeney and C.F. Nauen wrote:

“Many species have been named in the sole genus of the family Architeuthidae, but they are so inadequately described and poorly understood that the systematics of the group is thoroughly confused.”

Kir Nazimovich Nesis (1982, 1987) considered that only three species were likely to be valid.

In 1991, Frederick Aldrich of the Memorial University of Newfoundland wrote:

“I reject the concept of 20 separate species, and until that issue is resolved, I choose to place them all in synonymy with Architeuthis dux Steenstrup.”

In a letter to Richard Ellis dated June 18, 1996, Martina Roeleveld of the South African Museum wrote:

“So far, I have seen nothing to suggest that there might be more than one species of Architeuthis.”

In Cephalopods: A World Guide (2000), Mark Norman writes the following:

“The number of species of giant squid is not known although the general consensus amongst researchers is that there are at least three species, one in the Atlantic Ocean (Architeuthis dux), one in the Southern Ocean (A. sanctipauli) and at least one in the northern Pacific Ocean (A. martensi).”

Timeline

Main article: List of giant squid specimens and sightings

Tales of giant squid have been common among mariners since ancient times, and may have led to the Norwegian legend of the kraken, a tentacled sea monster as large as an island capable of engulfing and sinking any ship. Japetus Steenstrup, the describer of Architeuthis, suggested a giant squid was the species described as a sea monk to the Danish king Christian III c.1550. The Lusca of the Caribbean and Scylla in Greek mythology may also derive from giant squid sightings. Eyewitness accounts of other sea monsters like the sea serpent are also thought to be mistaken interpretations of giant squid.

The Alecton attempts to capture a giant squid in 1861

Steenstrup wrote a number of papers on giant squid in the 1850s. He first used the term “Architeuthus” (this was the spelling he used) in a paper in 1857. A portion of a giant squid was secured by the French gunboat Alecton in 1861 leading to wider recognition of the genus in the scientific community. From 1870 to 1880, many squid were stranded on the shores of Newfoundland. For example, a specimen washed ashore in Thimble Tickle Bay, Newfoundland on November 2, 1878; its mantle was reported to be 6.1 metres (20 ft) long, with one tentacle 10.7 metres (35 ft) long, and it was estimated as weighing 2.2 tonnes. In 1873, a squid “attacked” a minister and a young boy in a dory in Bell Island, Newfoundland. Many strandings also occurred in New Zealand during the late 19th century.

Giant squid from Logy Bay, Newfoundland in Reverend Moses Harvey‘s bathtub, November/December, 1873

Although strandings continue to occur sporadically throughout the world, none have been as frequent as those at Newfoundland and New Zealand in the 19th century. It is not known why giant squid become stranded on shore, but it may be because the distribution of deep, cold water where squid live is temporarily altered. Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe that they are cyclical and predictable. The length of time between strandings is not known, but was proposed to be 90 years by Architeuthis specialist Frederick Aldrich. Aldrich used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1964 and 1966.

The search for a live Architeuthis specimen includes attempts to find live young, including larvae. The larvae closely resemble those of Nototodarus and Moroteuthis, but are distinguished by the shape of the mantle attachment to the head, the tentacle suckers, and the beaks.

The first footage of live larval giant squid ever captured on film was in 2001. The footage was shown on Chasing Giants: On the Trail of the Giant Squid on the Discovery Channel.^[5]

As of 2004, almost 600 giant squid specimens had been reported.^[6]

The first photographs of a live giant squid in its natural habitat were taken on September 30, 2004, by Tsunemi Kubodera (National Science Museum of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori (Ogasawara Whale Watching Association). Their teams had worked together for nearly two years to accomplish this. They used a five-ton fishing boat and only two crew members. The images were created on their third trip to a known sperm whale hunting ground 970 kilometers (600 mi) south of Tokyo, where they had dropped a 900 metre (2953 ft) line baited with squid and shrimp. The line also held a camera and a flash. After over 20 tries that day, an 8 meter (26 ft) giant squid attacked the lure and snagged its tentacle. The camera took over 500 photos before the squid managed to break free after four hours. The squid’s 5.5 metre (18 ft) tentacle remained attached to the lure. Later DNA tests confirmed the animal as a giant squid.

On September 27, 2005, Kubodera and Mori released the photographs to the world. The photo sequence, taken at a depth of 900 meters (2953 ft) off Japan‘s Ogasawara Islands, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in “a ball of tentacles.” The researchers were able to locate the likely general location of giant squid by closely tailing the movements of sperm whales. According to Kubodera, “we knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived, so we used them to lead us to the squid.” Kubodera and Mori reported their observations in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

One of the series of images of a live giant squid taken by Kubodera and Mori in 2004.

Among other things, the observations demonstrate actual hunting behaviors of adult Architeuthis, a subject on which there had been much speculation. The photographs showed an aggressive hunting pattern by the baited squid, leading to it impaling a tentacle on the bait ball’s hooks. This may disprove the theory that the giant squid is a drifter which eats whatever floats by, rarely moving so as to conserve energy. It seems that the species has a much more belligerent feeding technique.

In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia paid AUD$100,000 for the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice, which had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand‘s South Island that year.^[7]

Still image from the first video of a live adult giant squid, filmed on December 4, 2006 by researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan led by Tsunemi Kubodera.

In early 2006, another giant squid, later named “Archie”, was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a trawler. It was 8.62 metres (28 ft) long and was sent to the Natural History Museum in London to be studied and preserved. It was put on display on March 1, 2006 at the Darwin Centre.^[8][9] The find of such a large, complete specimen is very rare, as most specimens are in a poor condition, having washed up dead on beaches or been retrieved from the stomach of dead sperm whales.

Researchers undertook a painstaking process to preserve the body. It was transported to England on ice aboard the trawler; then it was defrosted, which took about four days. The major difficulty was that thawing the thick mantle took much longer than the tentacles. To prevent the tentacles from rotting, scientists covered them in ice packs, and bathed the mantle in water. Then they injected the squid with a formol-saline solution to prevent rotting. The creature is now on show in a 9 metres (30 ft) long glass tank at the at Darwin Centre of the Natural History Museum.

On December 4, 2006, an adult giant squid was finally caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 mi) south of Tokyo. It was a small female about 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) long and weighing 50 kg (110 lb). It was pulled aboard the research vessel but died in the process.^[10]

Cultural depictions

An illustration from the original edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea depicting a giant squid.

Main articles: Giant squid in culture and Kraken in popular culture

The elusive nature of the giant squid and its terrifying appearance have firmly established its place in the human imagination. Representations of the giant squid have been known from early legends of the Kraken through books such as Moby-Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to modern animated television programs.

In particular, the image of a giant squid locked in battle with a sperm whale is a common one, although the squid is, in fact, the whale’s prey and not an equal combatant.

lots of calamari.  yum.