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119-406: The name Līber ('free') stems from Proto-Italic *leuþero , and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰero ('belonging to the people', hence 'free'). Before his official adoption as a Roman deity, Liber was companion to two different goddesses in two separate, archaic Italian fertility cults; Ceres , an agricultural and fertility goddess of Rome's Hellenised neighbours, and Libera , who

238-444: A Greek sent to Rome in 167   BC as a hostage. He is best known for The Histories , written sometime after 146   BC. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral between Carthaginian and Roman points of view. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible interviewed participants, from both sides, in the events he wrote about. Modern historians consider Polybius to have treated

357-690: A Carthaginian army in New Carthage (modern Cartagena ) and led it northwards along the Iberian coast in May or June. It entered Gaul and took an inland route, to avoid the Roman allies to the south. At the battle of Rhone Crossing , Hannibal defeated a force of local Gauls which sought to bar his way. A Roman fleet carrying the Iberian-bound army landed at Rome's ally Massalia (modern Marseille ) at

476-582: A class of hypothetical PIE sounds * h₁ , * h₂ , * h₃ that usually disappeared in late PIE, leaving coloring effects on adjacent vowels. Their disappearance left some distinctive sound combinations in Proto-Italic. In the changes below, the # follows standard practice in denoting a word boundary; that is, # at the beginning denotes word-initial. H denotes any of the three laryngeals. The simpler Italic developments of laryngeals are shared by many other Indo-European branches: More characteristic of Italic are

595-474: A distance and avoided close combat. The latter cavalry were usually Numidians . The close-order Libyan infantry and the citizen-militia would fight in a tightly packed formation known as a phalanx . On occasion some of the infantry would wear captured Roman armour, especially among Hannibal 's troops. Both Iberia and Gaul provided large numbers of experienced infantry and cavalry. These infantry were unarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had

714-434: A distance, a short sword and a 90-centimetre (3 ft) shield. The rest were equipped as heavy infantry , with body armour , a large shield and short thrusting swords . They were divided into three ranks: the front rank also carried two javelins, while the second and third ranks were equipped with a thrusting spear instead. Legionary sub-units and individual legionaries both fought in relatively open order . It

833-469: A divine and natural force. Young men celebrated their coming of age; they cut off and dedicated their first beards to their household Lares and if citizens, wore their first toga virilis , the "manly" toga – which Ovid , perhaps by way of poetic etymology, calls a toga libera (Liber's toga or "toga of freedom"). These new citizens registered their citizenship at the forum and were then free to vote, to leave their father's domus (household), choose

952-619: A fleet of 60 quinqueremes ; and established supply depots at Ariminum and Arretium in preparation for marching north later in the year. Two armies of four legions each, two Roman and two allied but with stronger than usual cavalry contingents, were formed. One was stationed at Arretium and one on the Adriatic coast; they would be able to block Hannibal's possible advance into central Italy and were positioned to move north to operate in Cisalpine Gaul. In early spring 217   BC

1071-621: A force of 18,000. Despite these losses, the Romans besieged Capua , the Carthaginians' key ally in Italy. Hannibal offered battle to the Romans; Livy's account of the subsequent fighting is unclear, but the Romans seem to have suffered heavy casualties while the Carthaginians were unable to lift the siege. Hannibal then assaulted the Romans' siege works, but was again unable to relieve the city. In 211   BC Hannibal again offered battle to

1190-531: A force of Numidian cavalry to Sicily, which was led by the skilled Liby-Phoenician officer Mottones, who inflicted heavy losses on the Roman army through hit-and-run attacks. A fresh Roman army attacked the main Carthaginian stronghold on the island, Agrigentum , in 210   BC and the city was betrayed to the Romans by a discontented Carthaginian officer. The remaining Carthaginian-controlled towns then surrendered or were taken through force or treachery and

1309-623: A joint public temple to a Triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera on Rome's Aventine Hill , c.  496 BC . In 493 the vow was fulfilled: the new Aventine temple was dedicated and ludi scaenici ( religious dramas ) were held in honour of Liber, for the benefit of the Roman people . These early ludi scaenici have been suggested as the earliest of their kind in Rome, and may represent the earliest official festival to Liber, or an early form of his Liberalia festival. The formal, official development of

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1428-478: A lawful religious context. Some aspects of his cults remained potentially un-Roman and offered a focus for civil disobedience. Liber asserted plebeian rights to ecstatic release, self-expression and free speech; he was Liber Pater , the Free Father – a divine personification of liberty, father of plebeian wisdoms and plebeian augury . Liber's associations with wine, inebriation, uninhibited freedom and

1547-742: A loyal servant reveals all to a shocked senate, whose quick thinking, wise actions and piety save Rome from the divine wrath and disaster it would otherwise have suffered. Livy's dramatis personae , stylistic flourishes and tropes probably draw on Roman satyr-plays rather than the Bacchanalia themselves. The Bacchanalia cults may have offered challenge to Rome's traditional, official values and morality but they were practiced in Roman Italy as Dionysiac cults for several decades before their alleged disclosure, and were probably no more secretive than any other mystery cult. Nevertheless, their presence at

1666-505: A marriage partner and, thanks to Liber's endowment of virility, father their own children. Ovid also emphasises the less formal freedoms and rights of Liberalia. From his later place of exile, where he was sent for an unnamed offense against Augustus having to do with free speech, Ovid lamented the lost companionship of his fellow poets, who apparently saw the Liberalia as an opportunity for uninhibited talking. Augustus successfully courted

1785-568: A reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. The Gallic cavalry, and possibly some of the Iberians, wore armour and fought as close-order troops; most or all of the mounted Iberians were light cavalry. Slingers were frequently recruited from the Balearic Islands. The Carthaginians also employed war elephants ; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time. Garrison duty and land blockades were

1904-458: A result, the main source for much of the war is the account written by the Roman historian Livy . This is commonly used by modern historians where Polybius's account is not extant. Livy relied heavily on Polybius, but wrote in a more structured way, with more details about Roman politics; he was also openly pro-Roman. His accounts of military encounters are often demonstrably inaccurate; the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy says Livy's "reliability

2023-454: A variety of consonants. They included root nouns, n-stems, r-stems, s-stems and t-stems among others. It corresponds to the third declension of Latin, which also includes the i-stems, originally a distinct class. Masculine and feminine nouns declined alike, while neuters had different forms in the nominative/accusative/vocative. Nouns in this class often had a somewhat irregular nominative singular form. This created several subtypes, based on

2142-486: A vast booty of gold, silver and siege artillery . He released the captured population and liberated the Iberian hostages held there by the Carthaginians, in an attempt to ensure the loyalty of their tribes. In the spring of 208   BC Hasdrubal moved to engage Scipio at the battle of Baecula . The Carthaginians were defeated, but Hasdrubal was able to withdraw the majority of his army and prevent any Roman pursuit; most of his losses were among his Iberian allies. Scipio

2261-786: Is often suspect", and the historian Phillip Sabin refers to Livy's "military ignorance". Other, later, ancient histories of the war exist, although often in fragmentary or summary form. Modern historians usually take into account the writings of Diodorus Siculus and Cassius Dio , two Greek authors writing during the Roman era ; they are described by John Lazenby as "clearly far inferior" to Livy, but some fragments of Polybius can be recovered from their texts. The Greek moralist Plutarch wrote several biographies of Roman commanders in his Parallel Lives . Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions. Most male Roman citizens were liable for military service and would serve as infantry ,

2380-656: Is taken as an historical event, which left a harmless, naturally peaceful nation "dripping with blood, full of corpses, and polluted with [Liber's] lusts." Pliny the Elder describes the Aventine Triad's temple as designed by Greek architects, and typically Greek in style; no trace remains of it, and the historical and epigraphical record offers only sparse details to suggest its exact location, but Pliny's description may be further evidence of time-honoured and persistent plebeian cultural connections with Magna Graecia, well into

2499-513: Is the ancestor of the Italic languages , most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages . It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method . Proto-Italic descended from the earlier Proto-Indo-European language . Although an equation between archeological and linguistic evidence cannot be established with certainty,

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2618-473: Is the best surviving source for this part of the war. Several of the city states in southern Italy allied with Hannibal, or were captured when pro-Carthaginian factions betrayed their defences. These included the large city of Capua and the major port city of Tarentum (modern Taranto). Two of the major Samnite tribes also joined the Carthaginian cause. By 214   BC the bulk of southern Italy had turned against Rome, although there were many exceptions and

2737-560: Is the cause of the many occurrences of short * -a- in, for example, the endings of the ā-stems or of ā-verbs. Proto-Italic words may have had a fixed stress on the first syllable, a stress pattern which probably existed in most descendants in at least some periods. In Latin, initial stress is posited for the Old Latin period, after which it gave way to the " Classical " stress pattern. However, fixed initial stress may alternatively be an areal feature postdating Proto-Italic, since

2856-499: The Aetolian League , a coalition of Greek city states which was already at war with Macedonia. In 205   BC this war ended with a negotiated peace. A rebellion in support of the Carthaginians broke out on Sardinia in 213   BC, but it was quickly put down by the Romans. Prior to 215 BC Sicily remained firmly in Roman hands, blocking the ready seaborne reinforcement and resupply of Hannibal from Carthage. Hiero II ,

2975-648: The Capitoline Triad of Jupiter , Mars and Quirinus on the Capitoline Hill, within the city's sacred boundary ( pomerium ): and as its "copy and antithesis". The Aventine Triad was apparently installed at the behest of the Sibylline Books but Liber's position within it seems equivocal from the outset. He was a god of the grape and of wine; his early ludi scaenici virtually defined their genre thereafter as satirical, subversive theatre in

3094-547: The First Punic War was the issue of control of the independent Sicilian city state of Messana (modern Messina ). In 264   BC Carthage and Rome went to war. The war was fought primarily on Sicily and its surrounding waters; the Romans also unsuccessfully invaded North Africa in 256   BC. It was the longest continuous conflict and the greatest naval war of antiquity, with immense materiel and human losses on both sides. In 241   BC, after 23 years of war,

3213-480: The battle of Insubria in 203   BC. After a Roman army invaded the Carthaginian homeland in 204   BC, defeating the Carthaginians in two major battles and winning the allegiance of the Numidian kingdoms of North Africa, Hannibal and the remnants of his army were recalled. They sailed from Croton and landed at Carthage with 15,000–20,000 experienced veterans. Mago was also recalled; he died of wounds on

3332-411: The vowel reductions which it is posited to explain are not found before the mid-first millennium BC. Furthermore, the persistence of Proto-Indo-European mobile accent is required in early Proto-Italic for Brent Vine's (2006) reformulation of Thurneysen-Havet's law (where pre-tonic *ou > *au) to work. Nouns could have one of three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. They declined for seven of

3451-401: The "non-identity of Liber and Dionysus" and describe Liber and Libera as children of Ceres. Liber, like his Aventine companions, carried elements of his older cults into official Roman religion. He protected various aspects of agriculture and fertility, including the vine and the "soft seed" of its grapes, wine and wine vessels, and male fertility and virility. As his divine power was incarnate in

3570-578: The 37 with which he left Iberia  – some time in November; the Romans had already gone into their winter quarters. Hannibal's surprise entry into the Italian peninsula led to the cancellation of Rome's planned campaign for the year: an invasion of Africa. Shortly after arriving in Italy the Carthaginians captured the chief city of the hostile Taurini (in the area of modern Turin ) and seized its food stocks. In late November 218   BC

3689-612: The 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Italy and Iberia , but also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and, towards the end of the war, in North Africa. After immense materiel and human losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were once again defeated. Macedonia , Syracuse and several Numidian kingdoms were drawn into the fighting, and Iberian and Gallic forces fought on both sides. There were three main military theatres during

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3808-557: The 4th century AD. It remained in use "apparently for decades after the edicts of Theodosius in 391 and 392 AD outlawing paganism". Its abandonment, or perhaps its destruction "by zealous Christians", was so abrupt that much of its cult paraphernalia survived virtually intact beneath the building's later collapse. Around the end of the 5th century, in Orosius 's Seven Books of History Against the Pagans , Liber Pater's mythic conquest of India

3927-581: The Adriatic coast, then turned south into Apulia , hoping to win over some of the ethnic Greek and Italic cities of southern Italy. News of the defeat again caused a panic in Rome. The head of the embassy that was sent to Carthage right before the war broke out in 218 BC, Quintus Fabius Maximus, was elected dictator by the Roman Assembly and adopted the " Fabian strategy " of avoiding pitched battles, relying instead on low-level harassment to wear

4046-488: The Aventine Triad may have encouraged the assimilation of its individual deities to Greek equivalents: Ceres to Demeter , Liber to Dionysus and Libera to Persephone or Kore. Liber's patronage of Rome's largest, least powerful class of citizens (the plebs, or plebeian commoners ) associates him with particular forms of plebeian disobedience to the civil and religious authority claimed by Rome's Republican patrician elite. The Aventine Triad has been described as parallel to

4165-542: The Aventine provoked an investigation. The consequent legislation against them – the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186 BC – was framed as if in response to a dire and unexpected national and religious emergency, and its execution was unprecedented in thoroughness, breadth and ferocity. Modern scholarship interprets this reaction as the senate's assertion of its own civil and religious authority throughout

4284-526: The Carthaginian cavalry routed the cavalry and light infantry of the Romans at the battle of Ticinus . As a result, most of the Gallic tribes declared for the Carthaginian cause and Hannibal's army grew to more than 40,000 men. The Senate ordered the army in Sicily north to join the force already facing Hannibal, thus abandoning the plan to invade Africa. The combined Roman force under the command of Sempronius

4403-553: The Carthaginian forces in Iberia were divided into three armies which were deployed apart from each other, the Romans split their forces. This strategy resulted in two separate battles in 211, usually referred to jointly as the battle of the Upper Baetis . Both battles ended in complete defeat for the Romans, as Hasdrubal had bribed the Romans' mercenaries to desert. The Roman survivors retreated to their coastal stronghold north of

4522-477: The Carthaginian side after Cannae, the conflict spread. Between 215 and 210 BC the Carthaginians attempted to capture Roman-held Sicily and Sardinia, but were unsuccessful. The Romans took drastic steps to raise new legions: enrolling slaves, criminals and those who did not meet the usual property qualification; this vastly increased the number of men they had under arms. For the next decade the war in southern Italy continued, with Roman armies slowly recapturing most of

4641-475: The Carthaginians caught a Roman army off guard outside Herdonia, heavily defeating it after its commander accepted battle . Livy then has Hannibal fighting the inconclusive battle of Numistro , although modern historians doubt his account. The Romans stayed on Hannibal's heels, fighting another pitched battle at Canusium in 209 BC and again suffering heavy losses. This battle enabled another Roman army to approach Tarentum and capture it by treachery . In

4760-544: The Carthaginians crossed the Apennines unopposed, taking a difficult but unguarded route. Hannibal attempted to draw the main Roman army under Gaius Flaminius into a pitched battle by devastating the area they had been sent to protect provoking Flaminius into a hasty pursuit. Hannibal set an ambush and in the battle of Lake Trasimene completely defeated the Roman army, killing 15,000 Romans, including Flaminius, and taking 10,000 prisoners . A cavalry force of 4,000 from

4879-559: The Carthaginians were defeated. Under the Roman-dictated Treaty of Lutatius Carthage ceded its Sicilian possessions to Rome. Rome exploited Carthage's distraction during the Truceless War against rebellious mercenaries and Libyan subjects to break the peace treaty and annex Carthaginian Sardinia and Corsica in 238 BC. Under the leadership of Hamilcar Barca , Carthage defeated the rebels in 237 BC. With

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4998-451: The Ebro, from which the Carthaginians again failed to expel them. Claudius Nero brought over reinforcements in 210   BC and stabilised the situation. In 210 BC Publius Cornelius Scipio , arrived in Iberia with further Roman reinforcements. In a carefully planned assault in 209   BC he captured the lightly defended centre of Carthaginian power in Iberia, New Carthage, seizing

5117-537: The Greek cities of southern Italy ( Magna Graecia ) submitted. During this period of Roman expansion, Carthage, with its capital in what is now Tunisia , had come to dominate southern Iberia , much of the coastal regions of North Africa, the Balearic Islands , Corsica , Sardinia and the western half of Sicily. By 264   BC Carthage was the dominant external power on Sicily, and Carthage and Rome were

5236-402: The Iberian tribes was too fragile and the Roman forces in the area too strong for him to execute the planned movement. In 215 Hasdrubal eventually acted, besieging a pro-Roman town and offering battle at Dertosa , where he attempted to use his cavalry superiority to clear the flanks of the Roman army while enveloping their centre on both sides with his infantry. However, the Romans broke through

5355-1038: The Imperial era. Vitruvius recommends that Liber's temples follow an Ionic Greek model, as a "just measure between the severe manner of the Doric and the tenderness of the Corinthian," respectful of the deity's part-feminine characteristics. Gods named Liber and Libera play a major role in the science fiction / time-travel novel Household Gods by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr . Proto-Italic language Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Proto-Italic language

5474-404: The Italian cities that had joined Carthage. The Romans established a lodgement in north-east Iberia in 218 BC; the Carthaginians repeatedly attempted and failed to reduce it. In 211 the Romans took the offensive in Iberia and were badly defeated but maintained their hold on the north-east. In 209 BC the new Roman commander Publius Scipio captured Carthago Nova , the main Carthaginian base in

5593-623: The Italian peninsula, following the recent Punic War and subsequent social and political instability. The cult was officially represented as the workings of a secret, illicit state within the Roman state, a conspiracy of priestesses and misfits, capable of anything. Bacchus himself was not the problem; like any deity, he had a right to cult. Rather than risk his divine offense, the Bacchanalia were not banned outright. They were made to submit to official regulation, under threat of ferocious penalties: some 6,000 persons are thought to have been put to death. The reformed Bacchic cults bore little resemblance to

5712-672: The Macedonian king, Philip V , pledged his support to Hannibal, initiating the First Macedonian War against Rome in 215   BC. The Romans were concerned that the Macedonians would attempt to cross the Strait of Otranto and land in Italy. They strongly reinforced their navy in the area and despatched a legion to stand guard, and the threat petered out. In 211   BC Rome contained the Macedonians by allying with

5831-628: The Po and appropriating large areas of the best land. Most of the Gauls resented this intrusion. During 218   BC there was some naval skirmishing in the waters around Sicily; the Romans repulsed a Carthaginian attack and captured the island of Malta . In Cisalpine Gaul (modern northern Italy), the major Gallic tribes attacked the Roman colonies there, causing the settlers to flee to their previously established colony of Mutina (modern Modena ), where they were besieged. A Roman relief force broke through

5950-703: The Proto-Indo-European thematic declension. Most nouns in this class were masculine or neuter, but there may have been some feminine nouns as well (e.g., names of plants such as Latin "papyrus"). This class corresponds to the first declension of Latin. It derives primarily from Proto-Indo-European nouns in *-eh₂- , and contained mostly feminine nouns, and maybe a few masculines, such as names of jobs in Classical Latin, some of them being loanwords from Ancient Greek (e.g., incola, nauta, poeta). beard This class contained nouns with stems ending in

6069-586: The Proto-Italic language is generally associated with the Terramare (1700–1150 BC) and Villanovan cultures (900–700 BC). On the other hand, work in glottochronology has argued that Proto-Italic split off from the western Proto-Indo-European dialects some time before 2500 BC. It was originally spoken by Italic tribes north of the Alps before they moved south into the Italian Peninsula during

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6188-520: The Romanised founding hero-deities of his native town, Leptis Magna (North Africa). He built them a massive temple and arch in Rome. Later still, Liber Pater is of one of many deities served by the erudite, deeply religious senator Vettius Agorius Praetextatus ( c.  AD 315 – 384). A Bacchic community shrine dedicated to Liber Pater was established in Cosa (in modern Tuscany), probably during

6307-483: The Romans at the battles of Trebia (218) and Lake Trasimene (217). Moving to southern Italy in 216 Hannibal defeated the Romans again at the battle of Cannae , where he annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever assembled. After the death or capture of more than 120,000 Roman troops in less than three years, many of Rome's Italian allies , notably Capua , defected to Carthage, giving Hannibal control over much of southern Italy. As Syracuse and Macedonia joined

6426-412: The Romans could still field multiple armies, which in total greatly outnumbered his own forces. The greatest gain was the second largest city of Italy, Capua, when Hannibal's army marched into Campania in 216 BC. The inhabitants of Capua held limited Roman citizenship and the aristocracy was linked to the Romans via marriage and friendship, but the possibility of becoming the supreme city of Italy after

6545-426: The Romans stormed Syracuse in a surprise night assault and captured several districts of the city. Meanwhile, the Carthaginian army was crippled by plague . After the Carthaginians failed to resupply the city, the rest of Syracuse fell in the autumn of 212   BC; Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier. Carthage sent more reinforcements to Sicily in 211   BC and went on the offensive. In 211 BC Hannibal sent

6664-602: The Sicilian grain supply to Rome and its armies was resumed. For 11 years after Cannae the war surged around southern Italy as cities went over to the Carthaginians or were taken by subterfuge and the Romans recaptured them by siege or by suborning factions within to give them entry. Hannibal repeatedly defeated Roman armies, but wherever his main army was not active the Romans threatened Carthaginian-supporting towns or sought battle with Carthaginian or Carthaginian-allied detachments; frequently with success. By 208   BC many of

6783-480: The armies in the battle of Cannae . The Roman legions forced their way through Hannibal's deliberately weak centre, but Libyan heavy infantry on the wings swung around their advance, menacing their flanks. Hasdrubal Gisco led the Carthaginian cavalry on the left wing and routed the Roman cavalry opposite, then swept around the rear of the Romans to attack their cavalry on the other wing. The heavily outnumbered Carthaginian infantry held out until Hasdrubal charged into

6902-434: The besieging Roman forces, this time they declined to leave their fortifications. In desperation Hannibal again assaulted them and again failed to break through. He next marched his army towards Rome, hoping to compel the Romans to abandon the siege to defend it; however, the besieging force stayed in place and Capua fell soon afterwards. The city was stripped of its political autonomy and placed under Roman appointees. In 210

7021-520: The brink of collapse. Within a few weeks of Cannae a Roman army of 25,000 was ambushed by Boii Gauls in Cisalpine Gaul at the battle of Silva Litana and annihilated. Fabius became consul in 215 BC and was re-elected in 214 BC. Little has survived of Polybius's account of Hannibal's army in Italy after Cannae. Livy gives a fuller record, but according to Goldsworthy "his reliability is often suspect", especially with regard to his descriptions of battles; many modern historians agree, but nevertheless his

7140-421: The centre of the Carthaginian line and then defeated each wing separately, inflicting severe losses. It was no longer possible for Hasdrubal to reinforce Hannibal in Italy. The Carthaginians suffered a wave of defections of local Celtiberian tribes to Rome. The Roman commanders captured Saguntum in 212   BC and in 211   BC hired 20,000 Celtiberian mercenaries to reinforce their army. Observing that

7259-530: The cities and territories which had joined the Carthaginian cause had returned to their Roman allegiance. Fabius captured the Carthaginian-allied town Arpi in 213 BC. In 212 BC Hannibal destroyed the Roman army of Centenius Penula at the battle of the Silarus in northwest Lucania. Later the same year, Hannibal defeated another Roman army at the battle of Herdonia , with 16,000 men lost from

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7378-693: The consul Claudius Nero . They reinforced the Romans under the second consul, Marcus Salinator , who were already facing Hasdrubal. This combined Roman force attacked at the battle of the Metaurus and destroyed the Carthaginian army, killing Hasdrubal. This battle confirmed Roman dominance in Italy and marked the end of their Fabian strategy. Without the expected reinforcement Hannibal's forces were compelled to evacuate allied towns and withdraw to Bruttium . In 205   BC Mago Barca, another of Hannibal's younger brothers, landed in Genua in north-west Italy with

7497-416: The crowded, ecstatic and uninhibited Bacchanalia: every cult meeting was restricted to five initiates and each could be held only with a praetor's consent. Similar attrition may have been imposed on Liber's cults; attempts to sever him from perceived or actual associations with the Bacchanalia seems clear from the official transference of the Liberalia ludi of 17 March to Ceres' Cerealia of 12–19 April. Once

7616-497: The eight Proto-Indo-European cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative. The instrumental case had been lost. Nouns also declined for number in singular and plural. The dual number was no longer distinguished, although a few remnants (like Latin duo , ambō ) still preserved some form of the inherited dual inflection. This class corresponds to the second declension of Latin, basically divided into masculine and neuter nouns. It descends from

7735-822: The end of the Second Punic War . Livy, writing 200 years after the event, gives a highly theatrical account of the Bacchanalia 's introduction by a foreign soothsayer, a "Greek of mean condition... a low operator of sacrifices". The cult spreads in secret, "like a plague". The lower classes, plebeians, women, the young, morally weak and effeminate males ("men most like women") are particularly susceptible: all such persons have leuitas animi (fickle or uneducated minds) but even Rome's elite are not immune. The Bacchanalia's priestesses urge their deluded flock to break all social and sexual boundaries, even to visit ritual murder on those who oppose them or betray their secrets: but

7854-462: The evident Roman disasters proved too strong a temptation. The treaty between them and Hannibal can be described as an agreement of friendship, since the Capuans had no obligations. When the port city of Locri defected to Carthage in the summer of 215   BC it was immediately used to reinforce the Carthaginian forces in Italy with soldiers, supplies and war elephants. It was the only time during

7973-492: The ferocity of official clampdown eased off, the Liberalia games were officially restored, though probably in modified form. Illicit Bacchanals persisted covertly for many years, particularly in Southern Italy, their likely place of origin. Liber was closely, often interchangeably identified with Bacchus, Dionysus and their mythology but was not entirely subsumed by them; in the late Republican era, Cicero could insist on

8092-506: The final consonant of the stem. Other notes: This class corresponds to the nouns of the Latin third declension that had the genitive plural ending -ium (rather than -um ). In Latin, the consonant stems gradually merged with this class. This process continued into the historical era; e.g. in Caesar 's time (c. 50 BC) the i-stems still had a distinct accusative plural ending -īs , but this

8211-406: The full complement of the legions deployed would have been in excess of 100,000 men, plus, as always, a similar number of allied troops. The majority were deployed in southern Italy in field armies of approximately 20,000 men each. This was insufficient to challenge Hannibal's army in open battle, but sufficient to force him to concentrate his forces and to hamper his movements. During 215   BC

8330-426: The i-stems, and still showed many similar forms, with j/i being replaced with w/u . However, sound changes had made them somewhat different over time. * port ous ? *pek wos *pek wes * pek owi ? < *pḱ éwi Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome , the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in

8449-528: The interactions of laryngeals with sonorant consonants . Here, R represents a sonorant, and C a consonant. Proto-Italic had the following diphthongs: Osthoff's law remained productive in Proto-Italic. This caused long vowels to shorten when they were followed by a sonorant and another consonant in the same syllable: VːRC > VRC. As the long diphthongs were also VːR sequences, they could only occur word-finally, and were shortened elsewhere. Long vowels were also shortened before word-final * -m . This

8568-399: The invader down, until Rome could rebuild its military strength. Hannibal was left largely free to ravage Apulia for the next year. Fabius was unpopular at this period with parts of the Roman army, public and the senate, for avoiding battle while Italy was being devastated by the enemy: there was awareness that his tactics would not lead to a quick end to the war. Hannibal marched through

8687-445: The late Republic and Imperial era, several notable triumphs feature similar, distinctively "Bacchic" processional elements, recalling the supposedly historic "Triumph of Liber". Very little is known of Liber's official and unofficial cults during the early to middle Republican era. Their Dionysiac or Bacchic elements seem to have been regarded as tolerably ancient, home-grown and manageable by Roman authorities until 186 BC, shortly after

8806-509: The late Republic and early Empire offer various etymological and poetic speculations based on this trope, to explain certain features of Liber's cult. Liber entered Rome's historical tradition soon after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the establishment of the Republic and the first of many threatened or actual plebeian secessions from Rome's patrician authority. According to Livy , the dictator A. Postumius vowed games ( ludi ) and

8925-495: The legions from behind. As a result, the Roman infantry was surrounded with no means of escape. At least 67,500 Romans were killed or captured. Miles describes Cannae as "Rome's greatest military disaster". Toni Ñaco del Hoyo describes the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae as the three "great military calamities" suffered by the Romans in the first three years of the war. Brian Carey writes that these three defeats brought Rome to

9044-399: The local crossroad shrines , then to the local forum for its crowning by an honourable matron. The rites ensured the growth of seeds and repelled any malicious enchantment ( fascinatus ) from fields. Liber's festivals are timed to the springtime awakening and renewal of fertility in the agricultural cycle. In Rome, his annual Liberalia public festival was held on March 17. A portable shrine

9163-674: The majority of Rome's allies in central Italy remained loyal. All except the smallest towns were too well fortified for Hannibal to take by assault, and blockade could be a long-drawn-out affair, or if the target was a port, impossible. Carthage's new allies felt little sense of community with Carthage, or even with each other. They increased the number of places which Hannibal's army was expected to defend from Roman retribution, but provided relatively few fresh troops to assist him in doing so. Such Italian forces as were raised resisted operating away from their home cities and performed poorly when they did. An important part of Hannibal's campaign in Italy

9282-400: The most common operations. When armies were campaigning, surprise attacks, ambushes and stratagems were common. More formal battles were usually preceded by the two armies camping 2–12 kilometres (1–7 mi) apart for days or weeks; sometimes forming up in battle order each day. If either commander felt at a disadvantage, they might march off without engaging. In such circumstances it

9401-528: The mouth of the Rhone, but Hannibal evaded the Romans and continued to Italy. The Carthaginians reached the foot of the Alps by late autumn and crossed them in 15 days, surmounting the difficulties of climate, terrain and the guerrilla warfare tactics of the native Ligurians. Hannibal arrived in Cisalpine Gaul with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and an unknown number of elephants – the survivors of

9520-519: The northern boundary of the Carthaginian sphere of influence . At some time during the next six years Rome made a separate agreement with the city of Saguntum , which was situated well south of the Ebro. In 219   BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged Saguntum , and after eight months captured and sacked it. Rome complained to the Carthaginian government, sending an embassy headed by Quintus Fabius Maximus to its senate with peremptory demands. When these were rejected Rome declared war in

9639-425: The old tyrant of Syracuse of forty-five-years standing and a staunch Roman ally, died in 215   BC and his successor Hieronymus was discontented with his situation. Hannibal negotiated a treaty whereby Syracuse came over to Carthage, at the price of making the whole of Sicily a Syracusan possession. The Syracusan army proved no match for a Roman army led by Claudius Marcellus and by spring 213   BC Syracuse

9758-501: The other Roman army was also defeated at the battle of Umbrian Lake and annihilated. The prisoners were badly treated if they were Romans; captured Latin allies were well treated by the Carthaginians and many were freed and sent back to their cities, in the expectation they would speak well of Carthaginian martial prowess and of their treatment. Hannibal hoped some of these allies could be persuaded to defect . The Carthaginians continued their march through Etruria , then Umbria , to

9877-601: The peninsula. In 208 Scipio defeated Hasdrubal , although Hasdrubal was able to withdraw most of his troops into Gaul and then Cisalpine Gaul in spring 207 BC. This new Carthaginian invasion was defeated at the Battle of the Metaurus . At the battle of Ilipa in 206 Scipio permanently ended the Carthaginian presence in Iberia. Scipio invaded Carthaginian Africa in 204 BC, compelling the Carthaginian Senate to recall Hannibal's army from Italy. The final engagement of

9996-490: The plebs, supported their patron deities and began the restoration of the Aventine Triad's temple; it was re-dedicated by his successor, Tiberius . Liber is found in some of the threefold, complementary deity-groupings of Imperial cult ; a saviour figure, like Hercules and the Emperor himself. The reign and dynasty of the emperor Septimius Severus were inaugurated with games to honour Liber/ Shadrafa and Hercules/ Melqart ,

10115-435: The popular imagination, Liber was gradually assimilated to Bacchus and came to share his Romanised "Dionysian" iconography and myths. Pliny calls him "the first to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession." Roman mosaics and sarcophagi attest to various representations of this exotic triumphal procession. In Roman and Greek literary sources from

10234-454: The preeminent powers in the western Mediterranean. Relationships were good, the two states had several times declared their mutual friendship and there were strong commercial links. According to the classicist Richard Miles Rome's expansionary attitude after southern Italy came under its control combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to Sicily caused the two powers to stumble into war more by accident than design. The immediate cause of

10353-511: The relatives of Scipio Aemilianus , his patron and friend, unduly favourably but the consensus is to accept his account largely at face value. The modern historian Andrew Curry sees Polybius as being "fairly reliable"; Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". Much of Polybius's account of the Second Punic War is missing after 216 BC or only exists in fragmentary form. As

10472-408: The remnants of his Spanish army. It soon received Gallic and Ligurian reinforcements. Mago's arrival in the north of the Italian peninsula was followed by Hannibal's inconclusive battle of Crotona in 204   BC in the far south of the peninsula. Mago marched his reinforced army towards the lands of Carthage's main Gallic allies in Cisalpine Gaul, but was checked by a large Roman army and defeated at

10591-543: The richest and most fertile provinces of Italy, hoping the devastation would draw Fabius into battle, but Fabius refused. The Roman populace derided Fabius as "the Delayer" (in Latin , Cunctator ) and in 216 BC elected new consuls: Gaius Terentius Varro , who advocated pursuing a more aggressive war strategy, and Lucius Aemilius Paullus , who advocated a strategy somewhere between Fabius's and that suggested by Varro. In

10710-554: The second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Linguistic evidence also points to early contacts with Celtic tribes and Proto-Germanic speakers. A list of regular phonetic changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Italic follows. Because Latin is the only well-attested Italic language, it forms the main source for the reconstruction of Proto-Italic. It is therefore not always clear whether certain changes apply to all of Italic (a pre-PI change), or only to Latin (a post-PI change), because of lack of conclusive evidence. The laryngeals are

10829-531: The siege, but was then ambushed and itself besieged. An army had previously been raised by the Romans to campaign in Iberia, but the Roman Senate detached one Roman and one allied legion from it to send to north Italy. Recruiting fresh troops to replace these delayed the army's departure for Iberia until September. At the same time a Roman army in Sicily under the consul Sempronius Longus was preparing for an invasion of Africa. Meanwhile, Hannibal assembled

10948-521: The silver mines, agricultural wealth, manpower , military facilities such as shipyards , and territorial depth to stand up to future Roman demands with confidence. Hamilcar ruled as a viceroy and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal , in 229   BC and then his son, Hannibal, in 221   BC. In 226   BC the Ebro Treaty was agreed with Rome, specifying the Ebro River as

11067-411: The spring of 207   BC Hasdrubal Barca repeated the feat of his elder brother by marching an army across the Alps. He invaded Cisalpine Gaul with an army of 35,000 men, intending to join forces with Hannibal, but Hannibal was unaware of his presence. The Romans facing Hannibal in southern Italy tricked him into believing the whole Roman army was still in camp, while a large portion marched north under

11186-455: The spring of 216 BC Hannibal seized the large supply depot at Cannae on the Apulian plain. The Roman Senate authorised the raising of double-sized armies by Varro and Paullus, a force of 86,000 men, the largest in Roman history up to that point. Paullus and Varro marched southward to confront Hannibal and encamped 10 km (6 mi) away. Hannibal accepted battle on the open plain between

11305-566: The spring of 218   BC. Since the end of the First Punic War Rome had also been expanding, especially in the area of north Italy either side of the River Po known as Cisalpine Gaul . Roman attempts to establish towns and farms in the region from 232 BC led to repeated wars with the local Gallic tribes, who were finally defeated in 222. In 218 the Romans pushed even further north, establishing two new towns, or "colonies", on

11424-457: The subversion of the powerful made him a close equivalent to the Greek god Dionysus , who was Romanised as Bacchus . In Graeco-Roman culture, Dionysus was euhemerised as a historical figure, a heroic saviour, world-traveller and founder of cities; and conqueror of India, whence he had returned in the first ever triumph , drawn in a golden chariot by tigers, accompanied by a retinue of drunken satyrs and maenads . In some cults, and probably in

11543-551: The suppression of the rebellion, Hamilcar understood that Carthage needed to strengthen its economic and military base if it were to confront Rome again; Carthaginian possessions in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) were limited to a handful of prosperous coastal cities in the south and Hamilcar took the army which he had led in the Truceless War to Iberia in 237   BC and carved out a quasi-monarchical, autonomous state in southern and eastern Iberia. This gave Carthage

11662-405: The vine, grape and wine, he was offered the first, sacred pressing of the grape- harvest , known as sacrima . The wine produced under Liber's patronage was his gift to humankind, and therefore fit for profane (non-religious) use: it could be mixed with old wine for the purposes of fermentation, and otherwise adulterated and diluted according to taste and circumstance. For religious purposes, it

11781-562: The voyage and some of his ships were intercepted by the Romans, but 12,000 of his troops reached Carthage. The Roman fleet continued on from Massala in the autumn of 218   BC, landing the army it was transporting in north-east Iberia, where it won support among the local tribes. The Romans' lodgement between the Ebro and the Pyrenees blocked the route from Iberia to Italy, making the despatch of reinforcements from Iberia to Hannibal difficult. A Carthaginian attack in late 218   BC

11900-494: The war Carthage expanded its holdings in Iberia where in 219   BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked the pro-Roman city of Saguntum . In early 218   BC Rome declared war on Carthage, beginning the Second Punic War. Later that year, Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia, through Gaul and over the Alps to Cisalpine Gaul (modern northern Italy). Reinforced by Gallic allies he obtained crushing victories over

12019-483: The war Carthage reinforced Hannibal. A second force, under Hannibal's youngest brother Mago , was meant to land in Italy in 215   BC but was diverted to Iberia after a major Carthaginian defeat there. Meanwhile, the Romans took drastic steps to raise new legions: enrolling slaves, criminals and those who did not meet the usual property qualification. By early 215   BC they were fielding at least 12 legions; by 214   BC 18; and by 213   BC 22. By 212 BC

12138-616: The war took place between armies under Scipio and Hannibal at Zama in 202 and resulted in Hannibal's defeat and in Carthage suing for peace . The peace treaty dictated by Rome stripped Carthage of all of its overseas territories and some of its African ones. An indemnity of 10,000 silver talents was to be paid over 50 years. Carthage was prohibited from waging war outside Africa, and in Africa only with Rome's express permission. Henceforth it

12257-537: The war. The Carthaginian fleet rarely put to sea, and when it did it was usually to escort transport ships; it rarely acted aggressively. This gave the Romans naval superiority for the duration of the war. The Roman Republic had been aggressively expanding in the southern Italian mainland for a century and had conquered peninsular Italy south of the Arno River by 270   BC, after the Pyrrhic War when

12376-455: The war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal , a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success before moving into Italy; and Africa, where Rome finally won the war. The First Punic War had ended in a Roman victory in 241   BC after 23 years and enormous losses on both sides. After

12495-410: The wealthier equites providing a cavalry component. Traditionally, when at war the Romans would raise four legions , each of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. Approximately 1,200 of the infantry, poorer or younger men unable to afford the armour and equipment of a standard legionary , served as javelin -armed skirmishers , known as velites . They carried several javelins, which would be thrown from

12614-419: Was Liber's female equivalent. In ancient Lavinium , he was a phallic deity. Latin liber means "free", or "free one"; when coupled with "pater", it means "The Free Father", who personifies freedom and champions its attendant rights, as opposed to dependent servitude. "Liber" is also understood in terms of "libation", the ritual offering of drink, related to Greek "spondé" and English "to spend". Roman writers of

12733-678: Was a direct threat to the city. When they did, they fought as well-armoured heavy infantry armed with long thrusting spears, although they were notoriously ill-trained and ill-disciplined. In most circumstances Carthage recruited foreigners to make up its army. Many were from North Africa and these were frequently referred to as "Libyans". The region provided several types of fighters, including: close-order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears ; javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers; close-order shock cavalry also known as "heavy cavalry" carrying spears; and light cavalry skirmishers who threw javelins from

12852-400: Was besieged . Both Polybius' and Livy's accounts of the siege focus on Archimedes ' invention of war machines to counteract Roman siege warfare, which was already made difficult by the strong defences of the city. A large Carthaginian army led by Himilco was sent to relieve the city in 213   BC and several further Sicilian cities deserted the Romans. In the spring of 212   BC

12971-400: Was carried through Rome's neighbourhoods ( vici ); Liber's aged, ivy-crowned priestesses ( Sacerdos Liberi ) offered honey cakes for sale, and offered sacrifice on behalf of those who bought them – the discovery of honey was credited to Liber-Bacchus. Embedded within Liberalia, more or less at a ritualistic level, were the various freedoms and rights attached to Roman ideas of virility as

13090-590: Was clear Carthage was politically subordinate to Rome. Rome used Carthaginian military activity against the Numidians as a pretext to declare war again in 149   BC starting the Third Punic War . In 146   BC the Romans stormed the city of Carthage , sacked it, slaughtered most of its population and completely demolished it . The most reliable source for the Second Punic War is the historian Polybius ( c.  200  – c.  118 BC ),

13209-508: Was difficult to force a battle if the other commander was unwilling to fight. Forming up in battle order was a complicated and premeditated affair, which took several hours. Infantry were usually positioned in the centre of the battle line, with light infantry skirmishers to their front and cavalry on each flank. Many battles were decided when one side's infantry force was attacked in the flank or rear and they were partially or wholly enveloped . Both states possessed large fleets throughout

13328-412: Was lured into combat by Hannibal on ground of his choosing at the battle of the Trebia . The Carthaginians encircled the Romans and only 10,000 out of 40,000 were able to fight their way to safety. Having secured his position in Cisalpine Gaul by this victory, Hannibal quartered his troops for the winter among the Gauls. The latter joined his army in large numbers, bringing it up to 50,000 men. There

13447-416: Was repelled at the battle of Cissa . In 217   BC 40 Carthaginian and Iberian warships were beaten by 35 Roman and Massalian vessels at the battle of Ebro River , with the loss of 29 Carthaginian ships. In 216 Hasdrubal received orders from Carthage to move into Italy and join up with Hannibal to put pressure on the Romans in their homeland. Hasdrubal demurred, arguing that Carthaginian authority over

13566-437: Was replaced with the consonant-stem ending -ēs by the time of Augustus (c. AD 1). In Proto-Italic, as in the other Italic languages, i-stems were still very much a distinct type and showed no clear signs of merging. Masculine and feminine nouns declined alike, while neuters had different forms in the nominative/accusative/vocative. This class corresponds to the fourth declension of Latin. They were historically parallel to

13685-433: Was ritually "impure" ( vinum spurcum ). Roman religious law required that the libations offered to the gods in their official cults should be vinum inferum , a strong wine of pure vintage, also known as temetum . It was made from the best of the crop, selected and pressed under the patronage of Rome's sovereign deity Jupiter and ritually purified by his flamen (senior priest). Liber's role in viniculture and wine-making

13804-400: Was shock when news of the defeat reached Rome, but this calmed once Sempronius arrived, to preside over the consular elections in the usual manner. The consuls-elect recruited further legions, both Roman and from Rome's Latin allies; reinforced Sardinia and Sicily against the possibility of Carthaginian raids or invasion; placed garrisons at Tarentum and other places for similar reasons; built

13923-442: Was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year as senior magistrates , known as consuls , who in time of war would each lead an army. An army was usually formed by combining two Roman legions with a similarly sized and equipped pair of legions provided by their Latin allies . These legions usually had a larger attached complement of cavalry than Roman ones. Carthaginian citizens only served in their army if there

14042-467: Was thus both complementary and subservient to Jupiter's. Liber also personified male procreative power, which was ejaculated as the "soft seed" of human and animal semen. His temples held the image of a phallus ; in Lavinium, this was the principal focus for his month-long festival, when according to St. Augustine, the "dishonourable member" was placed "on a little trolley" and taken in procession around

14161-469: Was to attempt to fight the Romans by using local resources; raising recruits from among the local population. His subordinate Hanno was able to raise troops in Samnium in 214 BC, but the Romans intercepted these new levies in the battle of Beneventum and eliminated them before they rendezvoused with Hannibal. Hannibal could win allies, but defending them against the Romans was a new and difficult problem, as

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