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Date 146 BC. Breaking News
The Romans emerged from the Punic wars with the widespread understanding that ultimate authority over the military lay with the Senate, that it was the Senate's job to know, advise and guide, and the Senate's job to decide the question of war or peace and other foreign policy matters. Rome's second war against Carthage reduced the number of people in the Italian countryside. Men had gone off to war. People had died and people had moved to the cities to escape war. Some people had left the countryside to work in the arms industry, and some had left for Rome looking for subsistence. The new arrivals in Rome enjoyed the festivals and other public entertainment that were created to maintain public morale during the dark days of the war. As a result of the war, much farmland in Italy could be bought cheaply. Those with wealth began buying this farmland, some landowners expanding their holdings and some businessmen from the cities looking for a secure investment and a source of social respectability. With the accelerated trend toward larger farms came a greater use of slaves. More lands in the countryside were transformed into pasture, vineyard, and olive orchards – more suited to Italian soil and climate than was the growing of grain. The richest lands were converted to vineyards and the poorer tracts to olive groves, while ranching was the most profitable for capitalist landowners.
The Third Punic War
After the second Punic war ended a new war started. The Third Punic War began in 146 BC. Massinissa the governor of Numidia was a strong ally of the Romans was able to pick at Carthage until Carthage attacked Numidia in 150 BC, breaking the treaty that ended the Second War. Rome did little to stop Masinissa. Whenever Carthage complained to Rome about his actions, Rome sent a tribunal to them, and then decided in Masinissa favor. Carthage was pushed into fighting again. Rome declared war on Carthage in 149 BC, and an army landed in Africa after a long blockade. Carthage surrendered, as they could not take the Roman might. In 146, Scipio Aemilianus (S. Africanus Minor) stormed and sacked Carthage, and Hannibal, not wanting to give the Romans the pleasure of seeing him as a prisoner in Scipio's procession, committed suicide. The Roman army then turned up stones, plowed the land over, and salted it. By salting it, they guaranteed that no Carthage could rise up from the ruins of the old. The territory was made into the Roman province of Africa. This war proved that you should not mess with the Romans like Corinth did right after the third Punic war Ended.
The Battle of Corinth
The Battle of Corinth has started and the battle is fought between the Roman Republic and the Greek city-state of Corinth and its allies in the Achaean League in 146 BC. The war started at a meeting. At the regular meeting of the league in May 146 BC, in Corinth, the Roman delegates were insulted, threatened and when they complained of the treatment they received, they were virtually chased out of the meeting by the mob assembled for the occasion by the anti-Roman faction. Upon received the news, the Roman Senate ordered Lucius Mummius the consul of 146 BC, to lead a fleet and land-force against Achaeans. The Romans defeated and destroyed their main rival in the Mediterranean, Carthage, and spent the following months in provoking the Greeks. The Achaean general Diaeus prepared to defend Corinth. But popular terror had succeeded to popular passion. Diaeus camped at Corinth with 14,000 infantry and 600 cavalry (plus possibly some survivors of another army that had been defeated earlier). The overbold and partly untrained army of Diaeus met the Romans in open battles in the isthmus at a place called Leucopetra. The result was an overwhelming defeat for the Achaeans. This war ended with Corinth being crushed and the Roman Republic being the victor.