Why did Carthage Lose the Punic Wars?

Why did Carthage Lose the Punic Wars? The greatest naval power of the Mediterranean in the third century B.C. was the North African city of Carthage. From the earliest days of the Republic, Rome had been on friendly terms with Carthage. For centuries, the first had remained a land power and the second was a major naval power whose ships controlled the western Mediterranean; while Rome expanded for political reasons, trade and commerce motivated Carthage's foreign policy. During the centuries of their earliest contact, Rome and Carthage had lived in harmony. Heichelheim and Yeo (1962, p.115) agree that prior to 264 B.C., relations between the two powers, if not friendly, had at least been diplomatically correct. Because they had shared a common enemy in the Greeks for two and a half centuries, neither side felt threatened by the other. However, suspicions and jealousies began to grow on both sides and in 264 B.C. the friendly relations between Carthage and Rome were disrupted by a seemingly unimportant incident in north-east Sicily. For a lack of a common enemy in the Greeks and the fact that Roman power had reached southern Italy, war became inevitable (Grant, 1978, p.83). The determination of Carthage to protect her commercial and imperial interests was matched by the resolution of Rome in fighting for her honour, and so from a small incident their confrontation swelled

  • Word count: 2776
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Assess the significance of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Assess the significance of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Between 19-24 June 1897, Britain and the British Empire celebrated the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. The Queen had broken George 111's record by several months and had reigned for 60 years. Her Diamond Jubilee was therefore duly celebrated. There were great festivities throughout Great Britain and the Empire including the great royal procession to St Paul's for a service of thanksgiving. Also there was held a military tattoo at Windsor, a service at St George's chapel, Windsor and the Countess of Jersey's garden party at Osterley Park. Presents and tributes were paid to Queen Victoria and there included ceremony and display and speechmaking. Among the presents sent to the Queen was a diamond valued at £300,000 from the Nizam of Hyderabad, which was stolen before it reached the Queen. There were many street parties and free food was given to the poor. The Queen's jubilee in 1887 was made the occasion of the first imperial conference, and her Diamond Jubilee ten years later was a great imperial spectacular in its own right and was accompanied by another conference of the Empire's chief ministers. The music halls played 'Soldiers of the Queen' and 'Son's of the sea. In 1899 Rudyard Kipling issued the most famous of his calls to Englishmen to fulfil their destiny: Take up the white

  • Word count: 2337
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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The League of Nations was a great force for peace in the 1920’s. Discuss

This essay is going to explore this statement, "The League of Nations was a great force for peace in the 1920's", and study whether it is justified or not. A failure of the 1920's was the Vilna incident of 1920. Poland and Lithuania were both 2 new states created by the post-war treaties. Vilna was made the capital city of Lithuania, but it's population was mainly Polish and in 1920 a Polish Army took control of it. Lithuania appealed for help. Both countries were members of the League. Poland was clearly the aggressor though some people sympathised with them. The league protested to Poland but they did not withdraw. The league could have sent an army but France did not want to upset Poland as they saw them as a potential ally against Germany and Britain were not prepared to act alone in sending troops to the other side of Europe. In the end the league did nothing and Poland kept Vilna. This was an early test for the league and they failed. It was not a very good start at keeping the peace. One of the major failures of the League of Nations was the Corfu incident in 1923. This incident began when Tellini, an Italian general who was sent to assess the border between Greece and Albania, and his team were ambushed and killed by Greek bandits. Mussolini, the Italian leader, was furious and blamed the Greek government for the murder. On 29 August he demanded compensation

  • Word count: 674
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Discuss the origin and development of Greek cosmology and cosmogony from the 8th Century to the 5th Century BC.

?N??I ?AYTON Cosmology and Cosmogony of the Ancient Greek World Richard Armes Discuss the origin and development of Greek cosmology and cosmogony from the 8th Century to the 5th Century BC. "I think that it's important for scientists to explain their work, particularly in cosmology. This now answers many questions once asked of religion." Prof. Stephen Hawking, Interview with The Guardian (UK) September 27, 2005 Cosmology is the metaphysical study of the structure and nature of the universe as a whole.1 Cosmogony is the branch of ancient philosophy concerned with the origins of the universe.2 Since the beginning of recorded history (and no doubt before) humans have been fascinated by the questions posed by cosmological enquiry and investigations concerning the birth of our universe.3 Often wrong, but never uncertain, humans have believed many incompatible answers, but there have been certain common patterns and rationales in these conclusions.4 The differences in these conclusions possibly reflect differences in the economy, social order, and the environment of the different civilisations.5 This paper shall be primarily concerned with the developments in presocratic thought, specifically that of the Ionian rationalists, for prior to the development of Greek civilisation, although men no doubt speculated on the world beyond their immediate experience, no records of their

  • Word count: 4899
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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How satisfactory is it to see "myth" as a precursor to "history"?

How satisfactory is it to see "myth" as a precursor to "history"? To be able to answer the above, I will first need to set myth apart from history, what is the difference between the two? In order to be able to answer how myth is a precursor to history, if in fact it is at all. The meaning of "Myth" from the Greek "Mythos" is explained as being "traditionally a ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the world view of a person, as by explains aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology , custom or ideas of a society"1. It serves many more purposes than this, and its meaning has changed through time, as peoples attitudes to it have. Myth is now generally applied to fiction, yet in ancient Greece it was used to define many aspects of there life and it can be used to uncover areas of Greek history, culture and experience. History is something different all together, history is not used to explain natural phenomenon's or uncover aspects of daily life. History is fact that typically can not be augured. It has evidence, it is fact. Ken Dowden states "History is what myth isn't .What history tells is true or else it would not be history, only failed history. What myth tells us is in some way false or it would be history"2 Myths can be said to have graduations of credibility, Dowden uses the example

  • Word count: 1388
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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The Age of Chivalry - Europe in the central middle ages - How successful were attempts to reform the Church in the period 1000-1250.

The Age of Chivalry: Europe in the central middle ages Peter Lawn How successful were attempts to reform the Church in the period 1000-1250 The underlying aim of Church reform in the period 1000-1250 at least in terms of its rhetoric was to return the Catholic Church to the princilpes and practices of early Christianity. In practice this meant incresing the level of religious discipline and elimanating the abuses that existed in the Church itself. The reform of the Church in this period has two distinct phases. First of these was what have been called the "Gregorian reforms"1 of the eleventh century. They were centred principly on the papacy and the higher ecalons of the Church. The main aim of these reforms was to free the Church from lay control and put an end to the practice of Simony and Nichantilism. These aims were linked together in a number of ways. Simony was the practice of gainining ecclesiastical office in return for payment or service. This was seen as being the inevitably result of lay control of the church, specifically lay investiture. Removing lay contol of the Church was also important in making other reforms possible. Only a strong and independent Papacy would be capable of imposing changes across the Church in the middle ages. Without it reforms such as the eradication of Nichantilism by enforcing celibacy amoung the clergy would have been

  • Word count: 2639
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Plato’S Life- If Thales Was the First of All the Great Greek Philosophers, Plato Must Remain the Best Known of All the Greeks.

Plato's Life- If Thales was the first of all the great Greek philosophers, Plato must remain the best known of all the Greeks. The original name of this Athenian aristocrat was Aristocles, but in his school days he received the nickname Platon (meaning "broad" ) because of his broad shoulders. (He is not the only great man to be known universally by a nickname. The Roman orator Cicero is another. ) Plato was born in Athens, about 427 B.C., and died there about 347 B.C. In early life Plato saw war service and had political ambitions. However, he was never really sympathetic to the Athenian democracy and he could not join wholeheartedly in its government. He was a devoted follower of Socrates, whose disciple he became in 409 B.C., and the execution of that philosopher by the democrats in 399 B.C. was a crushing blow. He left Athens, believing that until "kings were philosophers or philosophers were kin gs" things would never go well with the world. (He traced his descent from the early kings of Athens and perhaps he had himself in mind.) For several years he visited the Greek cities of Africa and Italy, absorbing Pythagorean notions, and then in 387 B.C. he returned to Athens. (En route, he is supposed to have been captured by pirates and held for ransom.) There, the second half of his long life, he devoted himself to philosophy. In the western suburbs he founded a school

  • Word count: 1142
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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In this essay I am going to be discussing the impact government had on public health during the Roman and medivel perieods

In this essay I am going to be discussing the impact government had on public health during the Roman and medivel perieods. The romans were well organised they had a lot of money and even more power. They spent a lot of money on public health they believed a clean empire was a strong empire. The medivel perieod was totally different there government was waek and they concentrated so much on war that there government had no money left to concentrate on public health. But on the otherhand not all people during the medevel perieod were unhealthy the church was full of educated people who could read what the romans had done to keep healthy continued there traditions. The Romans controlled a vast empire. Rome, the capital, was the largest city in the world at that time, with a population of over 1,000,000 by about 4 BC. Such a city produced huge amounts of waste products, and required vast amounts of fresh water for the survival of its people. To ensure the of the city and the people, the government of Rome developed a highly structured public health system, and this method was followed in other cities and towns established across the Roman Empire. Aqueducts were built to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities The water was filtered before being piped to wells and buildings. Fresh drinking water was provided in drinking fountains around the cities using the water

  • Word count: 722
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Suleyman the Magnificent 1495 - 1566.

Suleyman the Magnificent 1495 - 1566 Suleyman the Magnificent has been known as one of the greatest rulers of the Ottoman Empire. He is mostly remembered as a fierce conqueror of the Islamic religion. In Middle Eastern cultures, however, he is often referred to as a great builder. During his rule as sultan, the Ottoman Empire reached its peak in power and prosperity. Suleyman was born in 1495 to Selim, who soon became sultan. Little is known about the prince's younger life, but by the age of 16 he was governing certain cities in the empire. After Selim's death on September 22, 1520, Suleyman, having no brothers, became the next sultan at the age of 25. At the start of his reign, Suleyman performed many acts of kindness and mercy toward his people including freeing hundreds of slaves, bestowing his officers with gifts, and erecting a school for slaves. In return for his kindness, Suleyman demanded complete loyalty of all his subjects. Suleyman's kindness was a sharp contrast to the acts of his cruel father, who had become known as Selim the terrible. While Selim had only been interested in war, Suleyman filled his palace with music and poetry. Suleyman himself came to write many poems of his own. Within a year of his ascension to the throne, the sultan led a campaign against the Ottoman Empire's Christian enemies, the Hungarians. Within twenty-eight days,

  • Word count: 1064
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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Deterioration- An Essay on J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians

Deterioration Emotions are complex. They are created because of a strong feeling towards someone or something. They also cause empathy among human beings. These emotions are evident in J.M. Coetzee's novel, Waiting for the Barbarians. Coetzee uses the human body to entice the reader through the emotions of sex, pain, survival, and health in order to make the reader empathize with the novel's protagonist, the Magistrate. Coetzee also demonstrates a distinct parallel between the deterioration of the Magistrate and the Empire. The usages of sex during the beginning stages of the novel represent the Empire and the Magistrate during prosperous times. However, these pleasurable feelings slowly diminished and turned into a whirlwind of desperate emotions in order to survive for both the Empire and the Magistrate. As the novel unfolds, so does the physical deterioration of the Magistrate. These emotions and feelings of sex, pain, survival, and health can trigger a past event that the reader has, or a genuine care in which the reader wants to dive into the novel and help out the protagonist in Waiting for the Barbarians. This is shown through Coetzee's utilization of his excellent usage of descriptive imagery in order to reach out to the reader's emotions in order to enhance the overall message of human compassion in the book. One of the first emotions that are used in Waiting for

  • Word count: 2330
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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