Tides of History

Cannae was a crushing victory for Hannibal, but it didn't win the war for him. Why? The answer lies in the nature of the Roman political system, which prioritized resilience, manpower, and the diffusi...

The Battle of Cannae was the worst defeat Rome ever suffered, and one of the worst battlefield losses in history. What was it like to be there? We explore the battle from the perspective of a common R...

Ancient DNA has completely reshaped our understanding of prehistory, but what does it offer for periods when we actually have historical texts? Dr. Pontus Skoglund, one of the world's leading aDNA res...

Hannibal accomplished a great deal during his long and illustrious life, but no feat has captured the imagination more than his crossing of the Alps. In the teeth of an Alpine fall, Hannibal took tens...

The disastrous ending of the First Punic War could have destroyed Carthage for good, and it nearly did. But one man had a plan for how to bring Carthage back to prosperity and power: Hamilcar Barca, t...

Dr. Bret Devereaux is one of the world's leading experts on the military history of Rome and on the Punic Wars. We discuss Rome's advantages, what made the Republic so formidable, and why it was able ...

A century of expansion and conquest in Italy transformed Rome from a minor spot on the Tiber to the hegemonic power in the peninsula, but what did that actually mean for the Republic and the city itse...

The First Punic War put Rome on the map as a major power in the Mediterranean. For 23 grueling years, the war between Rome and Carthage dragged on and on, causing immense destruction and tens of thous...

There was no particularly pressing reason for Rome and Carthage to go to war in 264 BC over the small city of Messana, but one small incident nevertheless sparked a conflict that lasted for 23 years a...

The medieval world relied on peasants. They grew the food, maintained the buildings, produced the craft goods, and made up the vast bulk of the population. But they were never particularly happy with ...