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p(-)0ENiX Thanks a lot for taking out the time and posting the videos. I really appreciate that
You are welcome!
If you enjoyed that documentary, then you will like the one on Carthage too. It's essentially the same one that I have seen on YouTube.
Please note that while documentaries are interesting, they tend to focus on the main points of the subject from their own point of view. As such, I would always advise that in order to learn as much as possible, it's best to refer to books & online material too.
Carthage was one of republican Rome's greatest enemy. At this point, Rome isn't an empire, & it won't be an empire till the time of Augustus Caesar; the first Roman emperor. In the past, Phoenicians (generally associated with modern day Lebanon) setup trading colonies throughout North Africa & Carthage happened to be one of them. Later on, when the Phoenicians collapsed, Carthage would be left on her own. They were excellent seafarers & traders, but they weren't that great at warfare. They essentially turned to warfare out of necessity, when the Greeks & Romans were competing for harnessing control over the Mediterranean trade routes. So they managed to adopt the Greek hoplite style of fighting in the phalanx formation. However, Carthaginians continued to rely considerably heavily on mercenaries too, & as far as I am concerned, that's a disadvantage. The problem is that armies containing lots of mercenaries aren't as disciplined as those that Rome turns out, thereby reducing their reliability apart from their other disadvantage of wavering loyalties. The Romans were aware of that. In fact, one of the causes of the downfall in the Western Roman Empire's military prestige was the reliance on Barbarian mercenaries.
An interesting story about the Phoenicians & Greeks is that the continent of Europe is named after a Phoenician woman of noble lineage called "Europa" in Greek mythology. She was eventually seduced by Zeus & brought to the Greek island of Crete. Another fact is that after the collapse of the Indo-European Mycenaean Greek civilization, the region constituting modern Greece went in to its own dark ages. This period was horrific for them because the Greeks lost a lot of their technology & trade routes. As a result of that, they needed a new script to write the Greek language in because the previous one had apparently been lost. That led to the adoption of the Phoenician alphabets from which many modern scripts descend.
Anyway, the founding of Carthage is attributed to Queen Dido who is also known as Elissa. The story presented in this documentary attributes her suicide to her former husband. However, there is an alternative legend to this story, which evolves Aeneas; the hero who fought in the battle of Troy & eventually escaped after its sacking. Aeneas arrives to the North African city of Carthage, meets Queen Dido & recounts to her the fall of Troy. Queen Dido or Elissa falls in love with Aeneas, but he eventually abandons her resulting in her suicide. The interesting point to note here is that Aeneas is the mythological ancestor of Romulus; the legendary founder of Rome.
Aeneas recounting the Trojan War to Dido, a painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. This scene is taken from Virgil's Aeneid, where Dido falls in love with, only to be left by, the Trojan hero Aeneas.
The story the documentary presents of Queen Dido's death is likely to be more accurate because Romulus & Remus are essentially legendary figures the Romans adopted to connect themselves with the royalty presented in Homer's Iliad. I can't comment on Aeneas's historicity, but even if he existed, the story connecting him with the Carthaginian Queen is probably a later modification. Historically, the earliest inhabitants of ancient Rome were members of the Indo-European tribe called Latins.
Anyway, here is the documentary after a lengthy prelude. 
I apologize for the low quality, but that's the best I could find on Dailymotion. However, it's still clear enough to be understood.
This documentary praises the Carthaginian general Hannibal a bit too much in my opinion. As mentioned earlier, the Roman army was more professional, but they too were evolving at this point. The Roman army becomes a truly professional force after Gaius Marius's reforms, which occur a significant time after the Punic Wars. The Marian reforms gave the Romans their true military prestige by creating a standing well trained army instead of a citizen militia. Many of the tactics remained the same, but there were undoubtedly improvements too. Among these improvements was the standardization of training & weaponry alongside the introduction of the Aquila (the legion's eagle standard). Consider the Aquila to be somewhat similar to a flag as it was a source of inspiration for the army due to it being a symbol of Rome & her power.
The defeats the Romans' suffered by Hannibal were not because there were some major flaws in the Roman style of fighting, it was because Hannibal was extremely tricky when on the offensive. There were some flaws of course, but they were later corrected by the Romans. Hannibal made excellent use of his elephants & cavalry alongside tactics that lead to the envelopment of the enemy army when setting up traps for them as demonstrated in the Battle of Cannae. His weakness in a pitched battle did not become apparent until he met the great Roman general Scipio Africanus who essentially humiliated him in the Battle of Zama. In the Battle of Zama the Carthaginian elephants were routed because the Roman cavalry were ordered to blow horns, the sound of which frightened the elephants causing them to run amok back towards their own army. Roman skirmishers also played their role in routing the elephants, & this eventually damaged the Carthaginian lines.
Furthermore, the Roman cavalry chased the Carthaginian cavalry to the back of the Carthaginian lines & Hannibal failed to realize in the chaos that if the Roman cavalry wins, they could attack & surround the Carthaginians from the back just as the Romans were surrounded in the Battle of Cannae. The problem with him was that he could not react to Roman tricks in a timely or efficient manner. He was an expert at his own tricks, but if they were countered, his inability to adapt effectively to changing events caused his defeat. The Roman cavalry returned after heavy fighting between the infantry & attacked & surrounded the Carthaginians from the back, which literally annihilated their army. In any case, Rome learnt some important lessons in the Punic Wars. Firstly, she learnt how to command & raise massive armies in a shorter period of time. Secondly, the people themselves learnt how to conduct themselves in a state of emergency, especially when Rome was in danger. The third lesson was that of resilience. Rome simply never gave up & generally chose to fight to the bitter end unless there wasn't any significant threat from the enemy or if conquering those territories wasn't worth the effort. In any case, I hope you enjoy this documentary too.
@
Marshmallow & @
Alpha1
You two might like this documentary as well.
