Roman Republic · 264-241 BC

The First Punic War: Rome takes to the sea

Rome had almost no navy when it went to war with Carthage, the great sea power of the west, over Sicily. Students find out how Rome built a fleet, survived disasters at sea and won its first province.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 300 BC to 200 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Rome had almost no navy when it went to war with Carthage, the great sea power of the west, over Sicily. Students find out how Rome built a fleet, survived disasters at sea and won its first province.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why Rome and Carthage went to war over Sicily in 264 BC.
  • Describe how Rome built a navy and used the corvus boarding bridge.
  • Locate Carthage, Messana and the Aegates Islands, and state what Rome won in 241 BC.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

300 BC

Two powers

Open the map in 300 BC. Find Carthage and its lands around the western Mediterranean, and the Roman Republic in Italy. Where do their worlds meet?

Open this view on the map
b

264 BC

The island between

Zoom in on Sicily and turn on the Cities layer. Find Carthage across the sea. Judge by eye: how far is western Sicily from Africa?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why was Sicily, an island between Italy and Africa, so important to both powers?
  2. Rome had to learn naval warfare almost from scratch. How do you think it trained thousands of rowers?
  3. The corvus turned a sea battle into a land battle. Why was that a clever idea for Rome?
  4. Storms destroyed more Roman ships than Carthage did. Why did Rome keep building new fleets?
  5. After 23 years of war, Carthage lost Sicily and had to pay a huge sum. Did the peace make a new war more likely?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hannibal Barca. His father Hamilcar fought the Romans in Sicily in this war and never accepted the defeat. Discuss: how might a lost war shape the next generation?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.