Rome And Carthage In The Second Punic War

There were three Punic or Carthaginian Wars is Roman history. These were between 264 and 146 BC. These wars were the first great wars of Roman expansion outside Italy. The enemy of Rome had a large empire that stretched along the coast of North America and southern Spain and some parts of Sicily. This empire was known as Carthage. The purpose of these wars was to decide which power would become the dominant force around the Mediterranean Sea.

Carthage was the first real foreign power Rome would come across outside of Italy, its origins from a Tyre colony to the capital of the great commercial empire in northern Africa (Morey, 1901) are lost to the ravages of time. The journey discussed below will be the similarities with Rome in its rise to power, and how Rome was able to become a force of the Sea as well as on land.

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.

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.

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

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

Rome was governed by leading figures in a “constantly changing network of mutually dependent relationships” (Cultures of the West, p. 176). The Romans valued simplicity, and placed a high value on families, or “Familia”, where the men were mostly dominant. They arranged their government so that one group of people could not monopolize over power, and that each senate/assembly could be governed by another, which laid groundwork for the way a lot of governments run today. Republican Rome also gave birth to something much bigger in the scheme of territories during this time, being that the Roman Empire saw that they could simply not make peace with any of their neighbors until they had complete control of the Mediterranean sea. This lead to the Punic wars, which were fought over about 80 years between the Romans and the Carthaginians who lived in North Africa. These wars were fought over three main battles, one in 264 BCE over Sicily, one in 218 over Spain, and the last big battle fought in 149 BCE, which ultimately ended in the complete destruction of Carthage and every Carthaginian, besides some who were sold into slavery (Cultures of the West, p. 182). After the victory of the Carthaginians, Rome recognized the power they had now that they controlled the Mediterranean entirely to themselves. The openness and calmness of the waters lead to easy trade of

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

The Roman Empire was said to be one of the most powerful and largest empires in all of history. The Roman Empire had a monstrous army and was always on the hunt for new land. Also, the Romans built a strong wall around the border to prevent Barbarian invasions. In order to defend and preserve the empire, the Romans were very militaristic. They used a variety of procedures to preserve the empire. The Romans fought in numerous wars to defend their empire, and they were very successful. An example of the Romans fighting to defend their empire was the Punic Wars. The Punic Wars were fought between Rome and Carthage. The Romans felt that the Carthaginians were an imminent danger to their empire, so they thought quickly to destroy them. Throughout the Punic Wars, the Roman army faced very tough military forces, including

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.

Rome conquered and benefitted from numerous, widespread interactions. They interacted in both peaceful and violent ways. Rome had to revitalize after every Punic War. The Punic Wars consisted of three different wars between Rome and Carthage. Although Rome conquered Carthage in all three wars, they suffered many losses in each war and never crushed Carthage until the third Punic War. Through the conquering of Carthage, Rome was able to expand their borders and become the uncontested leaders of the Mediterranean world. During Pax Romana(31 B.C.- AD 180), Rome increased their trade with other nations. This allowed for a blending of cultures in the Roman empire that would’ve been inaccessible otherwise. They rid the Mediterranean of piracy which

From Rome's perspective the outcome of the Second Punic war can only be described as bittersweet. On the one hand Rome became master of the Mediterranean, with secure lands encircling the entire sea and new resource rich territory in Hispania (Morey, 1901). On the other hand, much of the fertile areas of the Italian homeland were destroyed completely (Morey, 1901). From the perspective of Carthage the outcome of the Second Punic war was less uncertain.

The first large conflict between the two began over control of the island Sicily. Both empires already had colonies on the island along with two other nations (the Kingdom of Syracuse and the Campanians). The struggle for authority and control over the island sparked the First Punic War. Not only were battles fought on the Sicilian island itself, but on Carthaginian soil along the African coast. After the first few losses, Rome was able to even the odds by taking one of Carthage’s Warships and reproducing their own versions. Within 60 days, it is said that Rome built 100 of their own quinquiremes. (Morey, Chapter 14) Now with naval equality and a superior army, Rome should have been

Rome fought three wars with Carthage called the Punic wars, these wars were fought between 264B.C. and 146B.C. (First 264-241B.C., Second 218-202B.C., Third 149-146B.C.) The first two Punic wars were essentially defensive wars for Rome especially the second where Hannibal in command of the Carthaginian forces crossed the Alps and attacked mainland Italy, the Romans were able to repel Hannibal and his army, Hannibal was eventually defeated by the famous General Publius Cornelius Scipio and pushed back to North Africa and Carthage. The second war reduced Carthage to nothing but a city state, but Rome still feared that Carthage could rise once again to its former military might and with the third Punic war; Rome razed Carthage to the ground, slaughtering or enslaving its inhabitants. “At the sight of the city utterly perishing amidst the flames Scipio burst into tears, and stood long reflecting on the inevitable change which awaits cities, nations, and dynasties.”