Carthage And The Punic Wars Essay

The first Punic War lasted from 264-241 BC. It was fought mainly at sea, off the coast of Sicily. This was the first time Rome had built a navy. Rome besieged many of the Carthaginian cities on Sicily, and when Carthage attempted to raise the siege with its navy, the Romans utterly destroyed them.

To compare Rome and Carthage, the strength and resources available to both are close enough to make the war last a long time. Carthage was wealthy, yet not as organized as Rome. Carthage ruled the sea with its fearful navy, Rome had the terrifying army. Carthage might have had the superior leaders, but Rome had more loyal citizens ready to jump into the fray. The Carthaginians could be best described as a people that loved to win, where the Romans would be better defined as people that hated to lose. (Kornell, 2012).

The Romans won the Second Punic war for a variety of reasons. These included the role and strategy of the Roman Senate and the failure of the Carthaginian government to support Hannibal. Rome’s strong control of the sea as well as Carthage's failure to rebuild their navy contributed greatly. The actions of Fabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus brought about the decline of Hannibal's momentum in Italy and his final defeat. Thus, there was no single reason as to why Rome were victorious against Carthage.

After these events the Carthaginian Empire decided to use their Navy as one of the strategies to win the war. What they didn’t know is that the Romans had built many ships and armed them with a

Yet when Carthage took Sicily, Rome responded by building 330 ships to fight for their land, starting the First Punic War. Carthage was defeated by Rome in 241 BCE, and had to give up Sicily. Carthage went to war with Rome again when the Carthaginian general Hannibal attacked the city of Saguntum, Rome’s ally. This was the start of the Second Punic War. Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama, meaning Carthage lost against Rome once more. The Third Punic War began when Carthage refused Rome’s demands to have Carthage dismantled and rebuilt further inland. The Roman general Scipio Aemilianus surrounded Carthage with armed forces for three years until it fell and the Romans burned it to the ground. Around 122 BCE, Julius Caesar decided to re-build Carthage, and five years after his death, the city rose again. Power and importance shifted back to Carthage, until the fall of the

The ancient Rome Empire raises their empire by coquetting many lands by fighting and coquetting them. One on the things that made Rome special was their expansion of the territory. What was different of other empires is, when they conquer a foreign land, they let them keep their traditions and their own culture. Instead of teaching them religion and make them be a Roman, they made them swear fealty to Rome. Roma wanted to spread their territory and their trading zone. One example of this was the war of the Roman and the Carthaginians in 264 BC. After many battles of this war better know as the Punic Wars, finally the romans defeated the Carthaginians. It took 100 years to put and end to this war.

Fought between Carthage and Rome, the punic wars may have been the worst wars in Roman history. The first punic war probably would have been lost by Rome but they had an adaptive Navy. The Carthaginian Navy was very dangerous and have strong ships. The Roman navy invented devices to attach their ships to the Carthaginian ships and steal their ships with Rome's strong army. This advantage helped Rome to win the first punic war. The second punic war was fought in the western and eastern mediterranean. Hannibal's army defeated Rome multiple times but the Roman general Scipio finally assinates Hannibal and Rome crushes their most hated enemy. The third punic war was the last of the punic. In the third punic war the Roman army made it inside Carthage City and raided their valuables killed their people and salted their land to prevent agriculture. The Third Punic war ended wars for a while in Rome and made the imperial era possible. After the punic wars Rome's power economy and morals were higher than ever and their amount of conquered land was higher than ever as

This war was costly to both sides but Carthage suffered more seriously owing to the corruption and incompetence of her government (which embezzled funds which should have gone to the military and consistently refused to send much needed supplies and reinforcements to generals in the field), the mostly mercenary army (who often simply refused to fight), and an over-reliance on the brilliance of Hamilcar Barca. Further, however, they seriously underestimated their enemy. While Carthage would largely ignore the war, leaving the fighting to Hamilcar and his mercenaries, Rome would be building and equipping more ships and training more men. Even though Rome had never had a navy before the First Punic War, they emerged in 241 BCE as masters of the

So the war had begun, on both side there is a bit of advantage. The Romans have the advantage of being on the offense giving them a foot hole in Carthage. The Carthaginians also had an advantage. When the Carthaginians realized it was time for war they began preparing for siege. The got an advantage because the Roman army contracted disease during this time so Carthage had enough time to

The three Punic wars between Carthage and Rome took place over nearly a century, beginning in 263 B.C. and ending with the destruction if Carthage in 146 B.C. When the conflict began, Rome was a small city-state. By the end of it, Rome ruled the Mediterranean, with conquered lands stretching from Spain to Greece. However, this conquest came with a price. At the end of the Punic Wars, abuse of power, unemployed men roaming around the city, and corruption started the downfall of the Roman Republic.

Rome’s armies had defeated Carthage in land at Sicily Island; However the Carthaginians would return with their navy to recover Sicily’s coastal towns and to plunder Italy’s coastal towns. The Romans couldn’t do much for they only had a few triremes. Romans figured that to totally defeat the Carthaginians, they had to be attacked by boats. Romans copied and improved Carthage’s Quinquiremes boat design by adding a bridge that would help board the enemy’s boats. The Romans kept fighting and losing battles until a final decisive victory over Carthage at Aegates Islands (241 B.C.). Rome used 200 boats, some Rome citizens pitched in their own money to build the new boats used in the last battle. The Romans defeated Carthage to become a great naval power in the Mediterranean.

The Punic Wars consisted of three major wars. It involved a conflict that was fought between ancient Carthage and Rome. All three Punic Wars that were fought were between the same two forces, which were Carthage and Rome. It took place almost over nearly a century ago. The Punic War began in 264 BC and it ended in 146 BC with some destruction of Carthage. The word Punic came from the word Phoenician, and the reason the Punic War broke out was because Rome interfered in a dispute on the island of Sicily that was controlled by the Carthaginians. Sicily is an island that is located in the Mediterranean.

The Punic Wars lasted 118 years! The war began in 264 BC and it ended in 146 BC. The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between Carthage, which is now modern-day North Africa, and Rome.

With the introduction of the hoplite phalanx to the Roman army, came a multitude of wars and long drawn out campaigns that the Romans were involved in throughout the republic period. One such campaign or campaigns that set the Roman republic as the uncontested superpower in the Mediterranean was the Punic Wars. Rome fought three wars against Carthage between 264 and 146 BCE. These wars constituted major events in the history of Rome and the Mediterranean basin (Marcel Le Glay 2009) p. 73. Though these wars were fought for reasons such as competing economics, revenge (most notably the Carthaginian general Hannibal), and a fear that could be related in today’s terms of opposing forces such as (the United States and Soviet Union feared each other during the Cold War) the fact is in the end Rome defeated the Carthaginians, not only were the Carthaginians defeated, but the city of Carthage was demolished and the people massacred or sold into slavery so as not to threaten the Romans ever again. In the fall of the city, in obedience to the Senate’s orders the inhabitants were reduced to slavery or forced to emigrate, the town was burnt and soil was

In the years after the First Punic War, Rome wrested Corsica and Sardinia from Carthage and forced Carthaginians to pay an even greater indemnity than the payment exacted immediately following the war. Eventually, however, under the leadership of Hamilcar Barca, his son Hannibal, and his son-in-law Hasdrubal, Carthage acquired a new base in Spain, so that they could