Pinned post for Q&A :)

I literally fire up Rome: Total War for the first time in years and you suddenly upload this, the stars have aligned 😂

"We lost 200 ships in a storm!

It's okay, we'll build another fleet!" is one of the most 40k things ever said in a historical context.

Yes! The Punic Wars! One of the most epic conflicts of all time.

Over 70 minutes of discussion about a very interesting subject felt like 25. Wow, great work, lads. Time truly is relative.

In my opinion, that was the best collaboration you’ve done yet. Not only a very interesting subject with someone who complemented you in terms of voice and timing and sense of humor. A big thumbs up very well done to you both.

Brett knows his stuff.  I'd very much like to see more ancient naval videos with the two of you.

I have heard the story about the run-aground Carthaginian ships and the amazing Corvus so many times in so many retellings, including back in High School and in so many popular retellings on Youtube (Invicta, Oversimplified, and more).

It is nice to hear an actual historian talk about these things without just parroting everything Polybius said.

It really happened… so glad you are covering classical era naval warfare :0

Nice change of pace.  Good to see some ancient naval history, it's not as well covered as Age of Sail and later on.

There's another school of interpretations for Pyrrhus's semi-random switch of objectives. That he was in need of securing loot for the army he took with him from Greece. Those people were either free Epirote tribesmen or/and veterans of the Diadochi wars embarked on expedition for loot.
Hence some fighting in Italy, then Romans do not pay up so he looks for payoff in Sicily, Carthaginians also do not pay even if when he kicks them back to Lilybaeum, then he loots temple at Sicily (quite sacrilegious by standards of the day but he might be desperate), then he goes back to the peninsular allies again pressed by Rome, then there's quite unresolved fighting at Beneventum and then he gets the opportunity to claim kingship of Macedon (Ptolemaios Keraunos gets himself killed by Celts AND by the blood Pyrrhus was cousin to Alexander the Great and the last surviving person with actual ties to this royal bloodline) so now he rushes back to Greece to counter Antigonos (AND then looks the other way when his mercenaries loot royal tombs at Pella which again indicates money problems).
The he gets himself killed by accident in Argos and the story ends.
Pyrrhus was about fifty-something when he died and was considered the most successful general of his generation. It's unlikely he could win fighting both Western Mediterranean powers at the same time (and he would end having to do so if he was any more successful, especially after his threats of maybe one day visiting Carthaginians in Africa), but quite likely he was far less random than Romans were depicting him.

One of the most interesting things about this is a lot of how history stays the same. The historians having agendas and need to look at sources and how things are happening. The capturing of ships and common use of them against each other if they like the ability to use them. Foundational naval myths along with massive reogranisation of the state to pay for the navy. Consequences for failure being worse then rewards for success leading to often bad leadership options. People getting into big long costly wars without intending to. Peace deals leading to wars 20 ish years down the line. History doesnt repeat it rhymes and so on comes to mind here.

Ah, my introduction to Ancient History, in middle high school, was with the Punic Wars. Great to hear a deeper and more nuanced discussion of the background and events.

Remember not to throw the sacred chickens overboard and anger the Gods, we’re looking at you Claudius Pulcher

Not everyday you hear Rome compared to Goku🤣👍.

Edit:It's interesting that a large power having its ship made by an ally/colony is floated up again with the suggestion for South Korea to make frigates for the US Navy.  Imperial Japan (1500's, I think) also supposedly learned to make ships from a Korean (when they were still a kingdom) ship that was beached in Japan.

As an armchair historian I found this very informative and educational.  Now I have a much better understanding of the Punic Wars.  Thank you!

Great show Drach! Loved  Brett as a guest he paints a great picture of that first Punic war. Far better then my old college history professor ever did. Hope he’s a guest i the future again!

I stopped what I was doing and sat down to listen to this!  I knew only a smattering about the Punic wars and found this FABULOUS!

As a student of classics, I always love when ancient naval warfare comes up on your channel. This was one of my favourite videos so far. It’d be interesting to have someone talk more about the evolution of Roman naval warfare, as it battles against other powers and itself, as well as Rome’s Atlantic operations

regarding the corvus: maybe using grappling hooks turned out to work better. After all, when using plenty of grappling hooks, you're binding the two ships together. With a corvus, you get a linking rod, hence creating a triple pendulum consisting of two ships and a connecting corvus. Hence, I guess grappling turned out to be the better solution to the boarding problem.