12.3 Europe: 300 to 201 b.c.  (Page 3/3)

NOTE: Insert 25. THE PUNIC WARS 264-146 B.C.

In Sicily it was the time of Archimedes and his great scientific accomplishments. When King Hiero of Syracuse went over to Hannibal's side in the Second Punic War, the Romans sieged Syracuse and Archimedes' invention of the water screw held the Romans at bay for some time. In the final attack on the city in 212 B.C., however, the scientist was killed. He had already established the laws of levers, methods of measurement of a sphere and a cylinder, the value of Pi and various laws of hydrostatics. He had either studied in Alexandria or had been in close contact with scholars from there.

Central europe

The Celtic settlement of Austria was well under way by 279 B.C. and the great salt mines of Salzburg and adjacent areas were in operation. A tribe called "Teutones" had settled close to the Main River and some have interpreted this to mean that Germanic tribes were already in this area, but these were actually simply another Celtic tribe, and the true Teutonic or Germanic tribes had not yet left the northern reaches of Germany.

Western europe

Spain and portugal

In the first half of the century Spain was essentially under the control of Carthage and there were various wars of the local Iberian, Ligurian and Celtic tribes against these overlords. The First Punic War had stimulated the Carthaginians to increase their dominance of Iberia. In 238 B.C. after the first Punic war, Hamilcar Barcal crossed to Spain and recaptured those cities for Carthage whose allegiance had lapsed during the war years. Tradition has it that he founded Barcelona and Cartagena and that in accordance with his recommendations to his troops to intermarry with the natives, his own son, Hannibal, did so. He died during a charge against a Spanish tribe and Hasdrubal

The Roman General Scipio the elder went from his home in Rome to Spain to fight the rear guard of the Carthaginian army which was still under the command of Hasdrubal and by 205 B.C. Spain had become a Roman province although the complete conquest actually took another 200 years with heavy toll in men and money because of constant guerilla warfare. Scipio, however, took his army to Africa to attack Carthage directly. It was his son, Scipio Africanus, however, who fought the final battles in Africa. (Ref. 91 , 196 )

France and netherlands&Belgium

As previously mentioned concerning the Celts in general, the Gauls bleached their hair and wore jewelry but they were also vicious fighters, charging into battle some- times wearing chain mail and sometimes naked or wearing only collars and bracelets and formidable mustaches. Some were very tall, fair-haired and blue-eyed and may have been a ruling class over other shorter and dark-haired people. As did their central European brothers, they cut off their enemies heads and hung them around their horses necks, often later lining the skulls of enemy generals with gold. When not fighting they feasted, drank and hunted. The Gallic women of ten fought beside their men (See Queen Boadicca in 1st century C.E. under BRITISH ISLES). On their southern flanks the Celtic tribes were showing a gradual rising of their cultural level as contact was made with the southern civilizations, particularly Rome. (Ref. 194 )

British isles

The new waves of La Tene Celts were even more warlike than their predecessors and became a warrior aristocracy in Wales and Cornwall. The Welsh and Cornish languages are survivors of these gifted, virile people who were prone to inter-tribal warfare and dynastic feuds. They squandered their force in endless competitiveness. Barry Fell (Ref. 66 ) has allegedly translated an ancient Irish manuscript of the 2nd century B.C. which appears to be a copy of a 3rd century document, because of reference to certain Italian and Sicilian coins of the latter century, and which appears to be a code of laws for Irish Celts, written by a Spanish Gael. This would indicate a much earlier presence of Celts in Ireland then usually stated. The Picts of Scotland were never a united people in these early centuries and the tribes warred with each other constantly.

Scandinavia

Scandinavian tribes continued to expand and this may have been the period when they displaced a Mongolian people akin to or antecedents of the Laplanders and Esquimos, pushing them into the frozen north.

Eastern europe

Southern Russia and the Eurasian steppe was still the breeding ground of various barbarian Aryan tribes which periodically moved toward Europe proper and down into southwestern Asia. The Scythians were gradually being replaced by their racial and linguistic kinsmen, the Samaritans, about whom we have written previously.

Forward to Europe: 200 to 101 B.C.

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