Concs And Romes Advantages And Disadvantages

After the Punic Wars, Rome controlled all of Italy, Sicily, much of Spain and part of Africa, as well as Greece and the eastern Mediterranean world. As you can see, at that time Rome and Carthage had very

Carthage gained her power through the wealth of trade and commere, bringing the northern African colonies and cities of Sicily under control, solidified her dominance in the Mediterranean. Through wealth comes strength and the ability to obtain more wealth by expanding one’s territory, which brought Carthage to desire the Greek cities of Italy also (Morey, 1901). The very cities bordering Rome, leading to the beginning of hostilities between Carthage and Rome.

The Second Punic War started with a treaty between Carthage and Rome, stating that the border between the two was the Ebro River. A Greek city under Roman protection was on the Carthaginian side of the river. Hamilcar’s son, Hannibal, attacked the city and rebuked the Roman embassies. The citizens of the city pleaded for Rome’s help, but none ever arrived. The Romans sent an emissary to Rome to tell the Carthaginians, “Surrender Hannibal to Rome or face war.” The Carthaginian leader replied, “Choose what you will.” The emissary chose war, and the Second Punic War had begun.

After the Punic wars with Carthage, Rome acquired many new lands that it did not have before. During peace times it was easy to govern these areas but during war times it proved difficult.

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

This exhausting conflict was, according to Caven, a ‘contest in three rounds’ in which the Romans fought first for control of Sicily, then for the leadership of the western Mediterranean and finally to determine the survival or extinction of Carthage.

Both cities, Rome and Carthage, wanted the island of Sicily for commercial purposes. "In 264 B.C. Cartlidge threaten to seize the Strait of Messina, A narrow

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.

In 264 BC, Rome decided to intervene in a dispute on the western coast of Sicily. The dispute involved an attack by soldiers

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

the strongest of the two in this field. This superiority was met by a large scale Roman construction of the navel fleet after their land forces captured one of the Carthaginian ships. Soon this was reflected in the fightings, and in 256 Carthage was besieged, but the Romans were defeated. Then for some years Carthage was the most successful who was commanded by Hamilcar. However, at the battle at the Aegates Islands in 241, the Carthaginians were beaten so badly that they requested peace. This agreement involved leaving

Carthaginians were wealthy and from the North Africans city that was founded by Phoenician’s they had more power, military, and naval experience than the Romans (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.184). Because Carthaginians were trying to expand into Sicily which held just one of Rome’s greatest grain producing cities this unsettled the Romans, who feared being cut off from a great food source (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.184). Though they tried a workable solution of sharing control of the Mediterranean this was not to be. This inability to work together was one of the reasons for the start of the Punic wars, a series of three different wars (Jones, Rome, Podcast 1). In the bloody 3rd war of the Punic wars Rome defeated the Carthaginians (Jones, Rome, Podcast 1). After the Punic wars the Romans had found they had accumulated vast amounts of wealth and land. This put them in an awkward position, because they had no plan in place for this and did not know what to do with it (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.187). This huge wealth also created a problem for Rome, one of greed and corruption which began to take control over Rome (Backman, Cultures of the West, p.187). Senators who amassed wealth begun to become lazy and accustomed to a life of leisure, also the more wealth they got the more they wanted (Jones, Rome, Podcast 1). The next problem for Rome was these greedy senators not only wanted the wealth they wanted power too

Carthage’s navy was devastated after the end of the First Punic War. Also, the mercenaries Carthage hired in the first war revolted against them. While Carthage was victorious, their military and economy were further crippled. Rome saw this vulnerability, and took the opportunity to seize the island of Sardinia knowing that the Carthaginian navy would be too weak to mount any sort of resistance. When Carthage protested this action, Rome threatened the recently defeated state with war. Knowing that they were too weak after the results of the first war, Carthage was forced to submit. This affront only continued to fuel the rage of the Carthaginian people and, more importantly, Hamilcar Barca. Revenge was the life goal of Hamilcar, but he knew that Carthage needed more power in order to once again wage war against Rome (Goldsworth).

Part of the success of Rome was due to its network of alliances. Therefore, when Saguntum asked for help, Romans were compelled to come to their aid as part of their “Amicitia” (although possibly it was just to contest Carthaginian power in the Mediterranean). This was the beginning of the Second Punic War (218 – 201 BCE). Hannibal, who commanded an impressive army, decided to cross the Alps and invade Italy. Meanwhile, the Romans took advantage of an abandoned Hispania to take the cities of Cartago Nova in 209 and Gadir in 206. With this last victory, Romans had expulsed Carthage from Hispania, and later, in 201, they finished Carthage off.

Greece defeated the strong empire of Persia in the first century B.C. and Rome defeated Carthage