Similarities Between Rome And Carthage

Carthage had a lot of similarities to Rome, from their government to their economy and even their military might. What probably brought them so close to becoming equals was likely Carthage's economy, allowing it to compete with Rome in terms of quantity over quality in my opinion. Carthage had established an impressive economy, buying and selling things from the west and east, these things were purple, frankincense, linen, gold, silver, tin and iron. Buying and selling all these things not only gave Carthage access to wealth but a very diverse amount of resources as well. This is what I believed allowed it to compete with Rome on equal ground. While it did have a stronger Navy, it wasn't as much as the strength but the quality of their fleets

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

I do not believe that the Romans viewed the Carthaginians as most similar to themselves. Rome and Carthage differed in many ways including socially, politically, religiously, and militarily, both however were powers to be reckoned with leading up to the Punic Wars. The government of Carthage was nearly identical being composed of a King (Oligarchy), Senate, and power of the people, the one major difference I believe is the fact that Rome was on the rise while Carthage was in some ways an old, or falling apart country. As Polybius stated in a prior reading, the nature of every government goes through three successive periods, one of growth, one of perfection, and one of decay. Carthage was founded nearly 250 years before Rome and had expanded

Carthage was once almost the equal of Rome. What happened? How did it fall? How was it almost the equal in power to Rome? What happened to it? Where did its power come from? I will attempt to answer all these questions.

Roman Empire was growing at a fast pace, they added more subjects to their wing and the growth made it stronger also in terms of the military. After plundering almost the whole of Italy, the Romans ventured outside of Italy, and they came across Carthage. Carthage was a civilized city that was rich and powerful.

The three Punic Wars was a series of battles fought between Carthage and Rome that lasted almost a century from 264 BC to 149 BC. As Carthage had the leading power of Western Mediterranean and Rome’s control over the peninsula of Italy. However, both of the two states had different intensions over the island of Sicily leading to the battles of the Punic Wars that soon later ended in a total defeat for Carthage. With the desire of controlling the island of Sicily, Carthage would still have the dominance power over the Mediterranean and as for Rome, it would strengthen its land defense policy and expand its Republic.

Their control of the sea must have been an important factor in its commercial success and wealth as it developed its trade routes. “She had grown wealthy and strong by buying and selling the products of the East and the West—the purple of Tyre, the frankincense of Arabia, the linen of Egypt, the gold of Spain, the silver of the Balearic Isles, the tin of Britain, and the iron of Elba. She had formed commercial treaties with the chief countries of the world.” (Morey, 1901) In modern day terminology, Carthage was a well diversified conglomerate. It had commercial interest in all parts of its known world, including the Greek cities in Sicily and Italy. Its own interests of expansion were sure to eventually collide with Rome’s own land expansions throughout Italy and across the narrow straight into the large island of

fight Carthage in Spain and Africa. Because of such strategy, Rome found itself surrounded both from

The first things we can look at about Rome and Carthage is Rome’s citizens and Carthage’s wealth. We can draw conclusions from these and begin to compare both. One of the prominent things about Rome was its “hand-to-hand combat” skills of its soldiers. Rome was not originally a navy, but had to become a naval power to take on Carthage. Before Rome ever faced Hannibal in the second Punic war (B.C.218-201) it faced Carthage in the first Punic war (B.C. 264-241) and had fewer losses than it did in the Second Punic war. We can examine what Carthage’s advantages were, and what Rome’s disadvantages were (Morey, 1901).

In ancient history when empires were emerging, it seemed like if a nation wanted to become the world's superpower, they would have to have knowledge of who else was rivalling their strength. Rome had done a good job conquering and colonizing areas that are now known as southern Italy but began to want power outside the country (Morey, 1901). Carthage, which is modern day Tunisia, also started amassing power and expanding and was considered the prominent force on the western Mediterranean (Carthage, n.d.). Carthage and Rome were seen as nearly equal forces but their strengths were very different from one another (Morey, 1901). It was the power struggle between these two nations that led to the development of Rome's navy.

After Carthage “captured Sicily” (Mark, 2011), in the interest of commercial expansion, and in the “recovery” (Morey, 1901) of many coastal cities lost prior to Rome, Rome reacted; though they lacked “navy and knowledge” (Mark, 2011) for nautical campaigns. Rome constructed over three hundred ships with “corvus – ramps and gangways” (Mark, 2011) creating foot-solid land for their Roman army-cum-navy soldiers. Since naval battles involve vessel maneuvering versus hand-to-hand combat, the Romans held the advantage – their soldiers excelled in “hand-to-hand” (Morey, 1901) combat. Consequently, the innovative corvus established Rome as the Mediterranean's new naval

Carthage and Rome were nations that were both well known for the power and strength, as well as impressiveness, of its nations. Carthage was a strong nation whose power was mighty, and start was shrouded in mystery. “The origin of Carthage, like that of Rome, is almost lost in the clouds of tradition. An old story tells us how Queen Dido was driven from Tyre and landed in Africa, as Aeneas did in Italy, with a band of fugitives. It is said that Dido purchased from the African princes as much land as an oxhide would cover; and cunningly cut the hide into thin strips and encircled enough land, upon which to found a city.”

From historical point of view, the government of Rome and Carthage differed in number of ways; before the start of Punic wars that took place in ancient Carthage, Rome had military groups that were trained to fight on land-based. Citizen could volunteer to join the military and fight as a large joined community. On the other hand, Carthage government had a sea force that includes ships and military personnel. Its government had invested a lot in navy than military that were land-based. Carthage unlike Rome, they could obtain mercenaries through recruitment and also being an empire that was highly commercial, it could hire troops from other counties like Liberia, Spain and even from North Africa.

Carthage, like Rome, was concerned with increasing its power in the region by conquering cities

Carthage didn’t start out as Mediterranean power but a trade and merchant civilization that used the protection of the north African coast to safely send its ships to all parts of the known world to trade. Its growth was facilitated by its seafaring citizens with assistance from its centralized proximity to the Mediterranean Ocean. Carthage didn’t have it easy since Greece continuously threatened and pressed upon its border over the centuries with an occasional outbreak of war and a possibility of allying with Persia.