Punic Wars Causes

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.

In 262 B.C., multiple sieges and short conflicts ended with the Roman victory at the battle of Agrigentum. This pushed the Carthaginians out of Sicily but they were far from defeat. Carthage had assembled their fleet and waited for the battle to come to them. The Romans countered this by building their own navy and crafting a new way to attack the Carthaginians. The superior ships of Carthage would fight by building speed and ramming the enemy ships. Seeing this, Rome created a small bridge that would allow infantry to board and seize opposing ships. This proved to be extremely effective during the naval engagements. Other than the major loss at the Battle of Tunis, Rome triumphed and ended the first Punic

Both the competence of the Roman senate and Carthaginian government’s failure to support Hannibal in Italy were crucial factors for Rome’s victory in the second punic war. By 216 BC, Rome had lost successive battles at Trebia, Ticinus, Lake Trasimene and had suffered a devastating loss at Cannae. Such events

Ultimately this battle was unsuccessful for Carthage because they lost dominance over Sicily and had to pay an indemnity. The loss of Sicily left the Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca furious. “According to story, he was so mad in fact he made his nine-year old son, Hannibal promise to hate Rome forever”(Spielvogel 122). As Hannibal was growing into adulthood, his father Hamilicar continued to grow Carthage’s army, forming a strong ally with Spain. The great Hannibal Barca was born in 247 B.C. in the city of Carthage, which was located in modern Tunis, or the northern tip of Africa. His father, Hamilcar Barca, was a great Carthaginian general of the army who fought in the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. His father became the man that would shape him to who he was through his words and actions. When Hannibal’s father and older brother died in 229 and 226, Hannibal was elected commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian army. About ten years later, Hannibal, acting on a promise that he made to his father, attacked the city of Sagantum in Spain, which was controlled by the Romans. This attack eventually led to the start of the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome. Even before the war started, Hannibal knew what he was going to

The first Punic war started as the Romans moved over the sea and marched on Sicily to gain lands there. The war began 264 BCE and finished 241 BCE. There were a lot of battles especially with the Battle of Agrigentum being a massive learning curve for the Carthage army as it was routed by the Romans.

Rome’s main military opposition was Carthage, a kingdom located on the northern coast of Africa. Carthage and Rome fought in a series of three wars known as the Punic Wars. The second Punic War, fought from 218-202 BC was led by Hannibal on the Carthaginian side and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus with Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus on the Roman side. The Battle of Lake Trasimene 217 BC was a major battle in the Second Punic War. Under Hannibal, the Carthaginian army defeated the Romans, who were lead by the consul Gaius Flaminius. This battle helped the Carthaginians to bring the Romans close to defeat, Hannibal was able to execute his father Hamilcar’s strategy perfectly in this battle. In the Battle of Cannae, the Carthaginians were just as lucky. Rome’s larger army, under Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, was efficiently and easily defeated by the Carthaginian forces. Though Carthage surprised Rome with many victories, the Punic War ended in 202 BC with the The Battle of Zama. Scipio lead the Roman army and defeated the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal. Though Hannibal's army had more men than Scipio's, and he had eighty elephants, Rome showed their superiority and skill in ending the Second Punic War with this battle. Many years after this, another kingdom of North Africa, Numidia, fostered a connection with Rome. King Jugurtha of this region was able to benefit from the Roman soldiers through bribery and connections with them.

Carthaginians were forced to withdraw. In 256 BC Rome established a base in North Africa under the power of the Roman general, Marcus Atilius. For thirteen years the wars were fought in Sicily. In 255 Carthage rebuilt its Army with cavalry and war elephants and went on to attack Rome. they also used a gladius, pilum and plumbata to fight. A gladius is a sword. a pilum is a javelin. It was 6 foot 7 inches and it had an iron shank about 0.28 inches in diameter and 24 inches long with pyramidal head. The plumbata were mainly throwing weapons. There were also naval battles and the ships of rome were damaged in a storm. The war resumed in 254 to 241 when the Romans had 200 warships and gave them undisputed control of the sea. A year later Carthage surrendered.

Even in the century before the official replacement of the Roman republic by the empire, Rome expanded immensely as a result of the Punic wars. Rome fought the Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BCE against the nearby trade empire Carthage over the nearby island of Sicily, a

They also had a mass of loyal citizens from their previous conquering.” In BC 264, Carthage and Rome entered into their first conflict came to be known as the first Punic War. This war had several battles and was fought over many territories. It became quickly apparent to the Romans that in order to defeat Carthage, it would have to be at both land and sea. “Carthage had a fleet comprised of quinquiremes which is a ship with five banks of oars.”

In 288 B.C. a group of mercenaries known as the Mamertines was hired by the city of Syracuse that was undergoing a revolt. Soon they were defeated by the loyal inhabitants of Syracuse and applied to both Rome and Carthage for assistance. Carthage, acting first, offered a garrison to protect the Mamertines, but they found this offer to be unappealing and turned to Rome to see their offer. However at this point in time the rivalry between Carthage and Rome became so fierce that there would be no feasible way to accept assistance from both powers, Rome acted by sending two legions to occupy Sicily and defeat the

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 Second Punic War (218-201 BC) was an opportunity for the city of Carthage to avenge itself from the loss of the First Punic War (264-241 BC) against Rome over two decades earlier. Similarly, the Second Punic War is comparable to World War II (1939-1945) when Germany attacked Britain and surrounding Europe as an opportunity to avenge itself from the loss of World War I (1914-1918) over two decades earlier. By the First Punic War, Carthage controlled most of North Africa, Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia. Near the time of the Second Punic War, Rome controlled Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and most of Italy. Whoever controlled the land around the Mediterranean regulated trade routes, commerce, politics, religion, and more.

This began the Punic wars. There were three Punic wars. Rome and Carthage were the two strongest contenders of the central Mediterranean Sea of that time. In each of these wars Carthage lost. These wars lasted off and on from 246 BC to 149 BC, with Carthage eventually being destroyed.

The success the Barca family had in the Spanish Peninsula was another huge factor which contributed to the war. It affected both Rome and Carthage. We must first look into what caused the expansion of Carthage into the Spanish Peninsula. When Hamilcar Barca had to give up Sicily and Sardinia he took a huge blow to his pride. And as Livy mentions “he was a proud man” and therefore the taking of Sicily which “had been surrendered too soon” and the fact that he was tricked into giving up Sardinia made Hamilcar determined to something about it. The Punic population also felt the same way as Hamilcar did towards the Romans. They despised the “tyrannical attitude of their conquerors” and therefore there was hardly any dispute when they had to decide whether to go to war or not. After the First Punic War, Hamilcar went to Spain with the purpose of building a power base to use against Rome. Not in order to be able pay their debts back as he told the Romans. Livy states that Carthage expansion in Spain was just a step in Hamilcar

Even with his fast cavalry and strong infantry Hannibal knew that he did not have resources like Rome. In fact, he was always outnumbered in every battle. Yet despite of being outnumbered, his strategies helped the Carthaginians win most of the battles in the second Punic war. For example, in the battle of Lake Trasimene, Hannibal trapped the Romans in an ambush without an escape route. What he did was to draw the Romans in close ranks, then sneak attack them with his infantry, and block the way out with his fast cavalry. This lead to the death of 30,000 Roman soldiers plus a high ranking Roman general named Flaminius. In this battle, the casualties of Hannibal’s forces were only 2,500 soldiers.