To the Romans this sort of thing was well understood.
If we consider it purely from an economic perspective, there will be no future Roman era at all. Because if one only considers the expectation of economic gains, then even the Punic War cannot be fought.
You know, at that time, the Romans had no ambition to dominate the Mediterranean.
At that time, Carthage was still the overlord of the Western Mediterranean. Instead, Rome has been pursuing a conservative foreign policy to avoid conflict with Carthage.
The reason is also very simple: the trade order and various sea routes at that time were operated by Carthage. The Romans actually lived a very profitable life in this system.
As a land power, Rome was one of the most important exporters of the Western Mediterranean at the time. Because we are in the position of "producer" in this trading system, we have benefited a lot.
Not only was Rome actively involved in Carthage's commercial dealings, it was also Carthage's creditor - because Rome was a large exporting country, although Carthage was wealthy, it actually owed money to Rome. Before the conflict between the two sides broke out, Carthage still owed Rome 1,500 talents of debt.
This was considered a huge sum of money at the time. Later in the First Punic War, Carthage's total compensation was only 3,200 talents, which was repaid in installments.
As it held Carthage's huge debt and continued to profit from trade, Rome needed the commercial order in the Western Mediterranean maintained by Carthage, and hoped to cooperate with Carthage to maintain trade in the Western Mediterranean. Not only does it not want to go to war with Carthage, it also hopes that Carthage can continue to be stable. So when there was unrest in Carthage, the Romans were more anxious than they were.
Carthage's army consisted of a large number of mercenaries, but in order to save money, they always had a throwaway attitude towards these soldiers. Therefore, veteran rebellions often occurred after the war. Carthage could only recruit more troops to suppress it.
This kind of thing happened often in the history of Carthage. Even Hamilcar, Carthage's number one general at the time and Hannibal's father, was famous for his decisive suppression of his old subordinates.
Before the two sides completely fell out, when mercenary riots broke out in Carthage, Rome immediately issued a ban to prevent Italians from providing support to these mercenaries. In addition, in order to prevent Carthage from being unable to defeat because of insufficient troops, Rome also used its own money to redeem all the Carthage slaves in Italy and return them to the country to supplement Carthage's manpower.
Polybius records that the Romans responded generously to all Carthage's demands. Although there may be a part where they brag about their homeland, overall, Rome is very considerate of Carthage.
At this time, Rome was still content to run its own business. I don't see any adventurous or expansionist spirit, they are just content to live under the existing order.
Of course, according to the views of later historians, the Romans' diplomatic measures were indeed sincere, but they were still relatively simple and naive, and could not be called wise.
It was not until the "Sardinia Incident" broke out that Rome's attitude changed. Because the location of this island is very important, it is right at the doorstep of Rome. Controlling this island can control the navigation channels of the entire Tyrrhenian Sea.
Pirates and the Carthaginian navy used this as a base to threaten Rome's shipping routes. Unable to continue to ignore this, Rome began to turn its attention to the ocean. As the Roman army prepared to attack a series of surrounding islands, conflicts with Carthage became increasingly inevitable.
It was not until the victory of the First Punic War that the Romans fully understood that they did not need to care about the debt and trade income: if measured in terms of money, how could this small amount compare to the huge amount brought by the destruction of Carthage? What about the balance of interests?
Therefore, the war with Carthage was so important, because at this time, the Romans completed the change in mentality and laid an important foundation for the glorious and huge empire in later generations.
For this reason, it is actually correct to say that Carthage must be destroyed. Because if it is not destroyed, there will probably be no Rome in future generations.
It can be said that economic trade is the most stable part of the diplomacy between Rome and Carthage. In other words, from an economic perspective, this scale of debt and trade volume means that this war is impossible to fight.
But everyone knows the result.
Take the war factor into account and things look completely different.
The most efficient and profitable method is often very unsafe. Such is the problem with family.
Giving up many responsibilities can indeed make your life, theoretically, more comfortable. But in the face of social changes, human life seems very long:
It was only fifty years from the time when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded the capital to when the Volunteer Army invaded Seoul;
From the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War, Japan began its armed expansion, and it was exactly fifty years until 1945, when it suffered two losses and was forced to surrender;
And the lifespan of the Red Horde Khanate, one of the two poles of the world, is not as long as that of many humans...
For the Central Plains, the numbers are actually more clear: from the beginning of the continuous historical records of republican politics to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, in the 2800-year historical era, a total of 3761 wars occurred, and there was only no record of war for more than 800 years. Peace periods lasting more than 15 years have only occurred three times in history.
Unfortunately, a generation of peace is enough to create illusions.
Therefore, the biggest problem is that if you give up your organizational skills, you may not even wait for the next generation, and you will encounter the situation of "you have money, but the other party is unreasonable".
The destruction of order will not bring about the emptiness of order, but will become the soil for a new order. Just as trade could not save Carthage, these weakened orders could not stop the pretenders.
Of course, for the Romans, there was actually a more realistic problem.
It is not difficult to find that the Central Plains people have a long list of "Gangchang". However, perhaps due to insufficient accumulation of civilization, the Romans' "general life" has always been very simple and plain - they only have a "father and son" pair...
Roman political relations, and even family relations, were all kinds of "father and son" stereotypes. The adopted son system is a typical case, and various dependency relationships are also developed analogously to father and son.
Even the relationship between husband and wife, which Confucianism pays special attention to, can be improved upon by the Romans. For example, in early Rome, the wife's position was equivalent to the daughter of the male master. Like the daughter, she was part of the "father-son" relationship in the family.
This legal positioning can be said to be very strange, but there is no way. The pure Romans only have such a "rule", and they can only feel wronged and everyone is trapped in it...
Although the dynasties of the Central Plains in the past often made analogies between kings and ministers and fathers and sons, requiring everyone to respect the king and father, different orders were still separated from each other.
Even if the legitimacy of some dynasties is really insufficient and can only be supplemented by filial piety, they generally will not be as stupid as the Romans...
(End of chapter)
