DD+War&Weaponry+Battles

In 750 BC, long before the Romans started expanding their empire, the Greeks started to colonize Sicily and southern Italy. By the time the Romans had defeated the Etruscans they already had a strong hold on southern Italy. When the Romans invaded they asked King Pyrrhus of Epirus for help. He sent an army to help the greeks fight back against the Roman invaders.
 * Rome vs. Greece:**

King Pyrrhus advanced on Rome but was unable to take it. He sustained serious losses which drove him and the Greeks back from most of southern Italy.

During the Second Punic War, the city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily revolted against the Romans. The Romans couldn't retake the city at first because of the strong defences, invented by the Greek mathematician and inventor, Archimedes. These possibly included 'mirror towers' which were said to focus the rays of the sun on ships to burn them up. The Romans eventually got around these defences. Unfortunately, Archimedes was killed during the battle that ensued. The punic wars were fought between Rome and Carthage, a city that had colonies all over North Africa and Spain. Carthage was a tough enemy as they used elephants and had a powerful navy
 * Punic Wars:**

The First Punic War (264 - 241 BC) was made up of mainly naval battles. The Romans had to learn to create a navy and used the Carthagnians' designs and techniques. The Romans won the war gaining Sicily, Corsica and Sardina.

During the Second Punic War (218 - 202 BC) the Carthagnians were lead by Hannibal. He invaded Italy by marching his troops through Spain, southern France and the Alps. Many of his elephants died on the trek through the Alps. After losing three major battles to the Carthagnians, at Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae, the Romans refused to confront Hannibal in battle. After the defeat at Cannae, where over 30,000 Roman soldiers were killed, there was a fear that the Carthagnians would march on Rome. This fear was unfounded as Hannibal's army wasn't big enough to take on Rome. To attack Hannibal, the Romans used tactics that would wear down his army, while avoiding his superior cavalry. The Romans eventually took down Hannibal by attacking Carthagnian North Africa and Spain. Hannibal was forced to retreat and use his army to defend the main city of Carthage. Hannibal was defeated at Zama in Northern Africa. Carthage eventually became part of the Roman empire at the end of the Third Punic War.

Julius Caesar was the first Roman 'emperor'. Before he came along, Rome was ruled by two consuls every year. In 46 BC however, Caesar was elected dictator for ten years by the senate. He had shown that he was not only a political genius, but a military one as well.
 * Julius Caesar conquers Gaul:**

One of his famous feats was the conquering of Gaul (France). Before it was conquered by Rome, Gaul was covered by various tribes of what the Romans called 'barbarians'. These tribes also occupied Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

The first tribe Caesar conquered was the Helvetti. They were originally from south-eastern Gaul, but they decided to move west to avoid further battles with the German tribes. Ceasar defences stopped them from taking a route through the Roman empire so they decided to take a different route. Caesar's troops marched after the Helvetti and managed to slaughter around a third of them at the town of Bibractae. As he was running low on supplies, he began to march back to the friendly Aeduan capital. The Helvetti saw this as a retreat and foolishly attacked the Roman soldiers. The Helvetti were easily defeated. The surviving Helvetti were allowed to return to their villages in the east. Before he could conquer the rest of Gaul, Caesar had to defeat Ariovistus (the leader of a German tribe) and the Belgae (from Belgium). Ariovistus was inviting various Gaulish tribes to join him to defeat other Gaulish tribes and gain more land. He won the battle against Ariovistus easily. The Belgae became bored of waiting for Caesar and split up. They were defeated in a short series of battles. Caesar now had to defeat the Nervii tribe. The Nervii launched a surprise attack on Caesar's camp but he quickly retaliated against the Nervii. On the Roman left Nervii were being defeated easily, but on the right side the Romans were having trouble. Caesar's favourite legion, the Xth legion had to rush over to help the soldiers on the Roman Right side. The Nervii were almost wiped out. The Aduatuci had been on their way to help the Nervii, but when they heard of the Nervii's defeat they retreated to their own fortified town. The Romans easily captued it using catapults and other siege weapons.

During 50 BC Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great became enemies. When Caesar brung troops with him to Rome, Pompey and his supporters made a 'tactical retreat' to Greece. With Pompey and his soldiers in two different places, Caesar said "//First I'm going to fight an army without a general, then I'll take on the general without an army//".
 * Civil War (Julius Caesar vs. Pompey):**

Pompey joined his troops, and Caesar and Pompey finally faced off near the city of Pharsalus. It was Pompey's 11 legions (45,000 men) and 6,700 cavalry against Caesar's 8 legions (22,000 men) and 1,000 cavalry. Caesar's plan was to hide 2,000 legionaries behind his cavalry but he was still outnumbered two to one. His plan worked however, and Caesar easily won the battle. Pompey was eventually betrayed and killed by Ptomelemy XIII (a thirteen year-old Egyptian pharaoh). Caesar was disgusted and helped Ptolemy's sister (Cleopatra) come to power. On 15 March 44 BC, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by the senate, who didn't like how powerful he was getting. What followed was a war over who would rule the Roman empire. Caesar's friend Mark Antony, joined forces with the Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra (who was also Caesar's wife), against Octavian, Caesar's adopted son.
 * War over the empire (Octavian vs. Mark Antony & Cleopatra):**

At first, Antony and Octavian shared power, but in 31 BC, Octavian declared war on Cleopatra (Antony's girlfriend since Caesar had died). Octavian managed to ally himself with the people of Greece and Cyrenacia. He defeated Cleopatra and Antony's navy during the battle of Actium, also in 31 BC. Antony and Cleopatra were forced to escape to Egypt with only sixty ships.

During August in 30 BC, Octavian began a land invasion of Egypt. Knowing that there was no way out, both Antony and Cleopatra commited suicide and Octavian gained absolute power over the Roman empire.

Boudicca was a tall, red-haired woman from the Iceni tribe, a tribe of 'barbarians' in eastern Britain. She was queen of her tribe and when Prastagus, king of the tribe, died she would recieve some of the Iceni lands and the Romans would get the rest. When Prasutagus died however, the Romans simply took over his land and had Boudicca whipped. This made her angry, and she rebelled against the Romans.
 * Rebellion of Boudicca:**

She gathered up an army of native Britons to fight the Romans. Some people claimed that there were 'signs' against the Romans:
 * The Roman statue of victory fell face down; as if fleeing the attackers.
 * A phantom town was seen in ruins at the mouth of the Thames river.
 * The sea turned blood red.
 * The sand turned into the shapes of courses as the tide went out.

Boudicca and her army destroyed the towns of Londinium and Verulamium, where they killed around 7,000 people. The Romans finally defeated Boudicca in a battle of 10,000 Romans against around 100,000 Britons. General Paulinus comanded the well-disciplined Roman soldiers against the rowdy mob of Britons. Boudicca was killed during the battle. In 162 AD the Roman empire was split into two empires, east and west. Soon the barbarians started to close in on Rome, pushed west by the fearsome Huns. The barbarians push further and further into the Roman empire (weakend by civil war and disease) and Rome is eventually taken by the Visigoths.
 * The Fall of the Roman empire:**

World War II was fought with more modern weapons than the ones the Romans used. Weapons used in this war include guns tanks and even atomic bombs. The Italians formed an alliance with the Germans and Japanese (called the Axis) that was eventually defeated. Home
 * World War II:**