The Roman Empire conducted genocidal warfare in Andalusia as part of the Punic Wars fought against Carthage. The Romans wanted to deal a hard blow to the empire, bringing Hannibal, one of its greatest generals.
In this age, Rome was expanding its borders and finding clues to a civilian population wiped out. Romans created one of the most extensive empires in the ancient past, with relics still left, literature, and science in the ancient past.
Millennia old killing fields discovered in Spain
The Roman Empire began in 625 B.C. that is the most influential in the history of civilization. They made laws and had an organized government. Wars and conquests from Scotland to the Middle East became a cornerstone of our society today, reported the Express U.K.
In its time as ruling 'super power' in ancient eras, their emperors had different viewpoints that affected human history. But, the price was constant warfare in many places, like wars among internal factions and their competitors, like Carthage.
Legions were engaged in wars during 338 B.C. and had gained near dominion in the Italian peninsula.
The definitive conflict that defined Rome
Called the Punic Wars, when the archaic hostilities between Rome and Carthage took a century to end, from 264 and 146 B.C., the intervening years was a see-saw between the two, in three engagements.
Carthage, the ancient bane of Rome, which is found in Tunisia, was linked to the Phoenicians that were close to the empire itself. The Roman Empire conducted genocidal warfare to end the Punic Wars with utmost cruelty later.
One of the best fighters in history, Hannibal the Carthaginian, was the mastermind who hatched a plan in 219 B.C. to launch a raid on Saguntum, an ally of Rome.
The military campaign of Hannibal marched over the Pyrenees and Alps to access the heart of central Italy, which became one of the most research military marches in the history of the world, noted History.
Incredibly his forces beat back the legions of Rome in successive victories to gain control in southern Italy. The defeat of Cannae made him the de facto leader in the region.
Events after Cannae's defeat
The Roman and Carthaginian wars still raged after Cannae's fall, and the world was witness to armies fighting for control on land and sea.
Legions of Rome were engaged in stopping Hannibal from sacking the Empire's capital, and the General was desperate to slow him down by destabilizing the Carthaginian Empire itself.
In 210 B.C., General Scipio Africanus, 25, led a direct attack against Carthage in Spain that turned into a rout without Hannibal to fight them. Many of their cities and armies fell without an able general.
The Smithsonian Channel documentary highlighted the exploits of Scipio and how he changed the way Rome fought with extreme cruelty and annihilating a city and its people.
Researchers like Juan Pedro Belen in 2018 have studied the archaic City Illiturgis in Andalucia, Southern Spain, where the Roman assault in 206 B.C. got it razed to the ground. There is evidence the invaders eviscerated the entire population.
As shown by the evidence, he added that the Roman Empire conducted genocidal warfare in this stage of the Punic Wars.
