Special Sub-Topic: Antique Battles And Warfare Click Here To Play: Antique Battles And Warfare

Already at the very beginning of the history of Rome there is plundering, pillage and rape by Romulus and his companions. Of which neighbouring tribe did he 'steal' the eligible females?

Sabines. The Volsci are the ones Coriolanus became mixed up with. The Etruscans were the main pre-Roman civilisation in Italy. Some of their towns are Perugia, Volterra etc. The Sabines were invited for a nice get-together, but Romulus used the opportunity to run off with what in popular terms has been called 'the Sabine Virgins'.

One of the great generals of Ancient Rome was undoubtedly Gaius Julius Caesar. To which battle against his ex-ally Pompey did his crossing of the Rubicon (Alea Jacta Est)in 49 BC finally lead up, a few months later?

Pharsali. Pistoria 62 BC is the defeat of Catilina. Carrhae (53 BC) was where Crassus was defeated. At Pharsali, in 48 BC, Pompey is defeated. In 42 BC the murderers of Caesar were defeated at Philippi.

In 52 BC Caesar had been defeated in the battle of Gergovia by an army of Gauls under Vercingetorix. Caesar soon put this right and won the 'replay'. How did he treat his 'noble adversary' Vercingetorix?

Vercingetorix was put on display in the streets of Rome and then executed. Caesar seems to have been rather selective in his demonstrations of generosity towards courageous opponents. Boadicea and Vercingetorix did not live in same century.

Rome's main enemy before Caesar began his wars of conquest, had been the Carthaginians. What is the name given by historians to the wars between Carthage and Rome?

Punic Wars. The term Punic derives from Phoenician. The Phoenicians were the ones who had founded Carthage. The Peloponnesian Wars were of course the wars between Sparta and Athens. The taking of Sagunto by the Carthaginians had alerted the Romans, especially as Carthage had already taken Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica.

The great Roman generals in those wars were Fabius Maximus Cunctator and Scipio Africanus.The great Carthaginian military leaders were Hamilcar Barca, Hasdrubal and Hamilcar's son Hannibal. What animals did Hannibal oppose the Romans with in the battles he fought with them?

elephants. Onagers are wild asses. Onagers, zebras and Przewalski horses had not been domesticated yet. The great series of victories by Hannibal over the Romans had been at Cannae in 216 BC. His defeat at Zama sealed the fate of Carthage.

After destroying Carthage the Romans wanted to discourage any survivor from trying to rebuild the city. What did they, at least according to a long-standing tradition, do for that purpose?

scatter salt over the ruins which they hoped would make it impossible to ever rebuild the town. The salt may have delayed the rebuilding, but where Carthage had been, a new Carthage appeared some time later. It was destroyed again by the Visigoths during the Barbarian invasions. See question ten. Some doubt whether the strewing of salt is more than just legend. Especially as it was a very expensive enterprise. See www.tomorrowlands.org/misc/salt.html There are also suggestions they just symbolically salted one furrow of land. See www.microsoft.com/games/aoeexpansion/features_civilisation_crthaginian.htm

It would be unwise to suppose the Romans were the only ones to get involved in wars. The Greeks, though a nation of poets, artists and thinkers, did a lot of fighting too. Apart from their wars with the Persians, there also were other quarrels. Who defeated the Athenian, Theban and Boeotian armies at Chaeronea in 338 BC?

the Macedonians under Philip II of Macedonia. Whether the Macedonians were non-Greeks or northern Greeks remains a hot topic for historians.Anyway from the times of Philip of Macedonia on they played a major role in Greek history. Alexander the Great succeeded his father and conquered large parts of the known world. After his marriage to Roxana, a Bactrian princess, he invaded India.

All of these are battles between the Greeks and the Persians. Which of them is the only one that was a Persian victory?

Thermopylae, Mid-August 480 BC. Marathon was where the Persian King Darius was defeated. The General in charge: Miltiades. Salamis was the only naval battle. Themistocles won a resounding victory. Plataea was another Greek victory. The General in charge was Pausanias, of Sparta. But Thermopylae was where the Persian King Xerxes defeated Leonidas and his Spartans.

The Battle of Actium (31BC) was a painful defeat for some Ancient celebrities. Which of these committed suicide to escape the consequences of that battle?

Anthony and Cleopatra. Brutus and Cassius committed suicide too as they wanted to avoid falling into the hands of Caesar's supporters who had defeated them at Philippi in 42 BC. Pompey did not commit suicide, but was murdered by order of Queen Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy XIII, who hoped to appease Julius Caesar by doing so. The suicide of the Emperor Nero was in 68 AD, a century later. He was the one who had arranged the suicide of a few others among whom were his wife and also his mom Agrippina .

The final blow that brought down the Roman Empire did not require a major battle any more. Romulus Augustulus was such a diminutive Emperor that he could be deposed without any major battle. Who brought down the last 'ruler' of Rome in 476 AD?

the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. The Visigoths had already sacked Rome in 410. The Vandals had come to Spain in 409 BC , then captured the re-born town of Carthage, annexed Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily and sacked Rome in 455. Some years earlier, in 452, Pope Leo the Great, the Pope, had managed to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal of the Huns, who at that time were morally recovering from their defeat in the Catalaunian Plains, the year before.