The First Punic War

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.

Hannibal was very successful in the numerous battles but he knew he would not take Rome. Hannibal turned to politics to gain the support of Rome's allies, but he did not receive enough. While Hannibal was moving through Italy Rome was preoccupied on another front. They had enter their Macedonian wars and were spread thin. For several years the two empire engaged in open battles, raids, and skirmishes. By 202 B.C., Hannibal's resources were depleted and he had no choice but to return and hold a defensive position against Rome. Rome regained a large amount of land through the peace treaty and Carthage lost the advantages they once

Carthage was founded around 813 BCE by the Phoenician Queen Elissa also known as Dido. Originally the city was called Kart-hadasht, but the Greeks called it Karchedon and then the Romans changed it to Carthago. The city started off as only a small port on the coast used for short stops, however over time Carthage became the most powerful city in the Mediterranean before the progression of Rome. After the fall of the Phoenician city of Tyre in 332 BCE, Carthage became the new center of Phoenician trade with a harbor made up of 220 docks in a semi-circle. The Carthaginians enslaved and demanded money from native africans in the area and grew the city in size. They also became very successful in trading. In less then one hundred years Carthage became the richest city in the Mediterranean.

How did the ancient city of Carthage almost become Rome’s equal? Also, how was this state of the city at this time come about in the ancient world? Carthage being a port city and Rome also being so close to the Mediterranean, gave both cities great business and imperial opportunities. In fact, both cities flourished because of their geographical locations to a certain extent. These opportunities and the desire to obtain them would eventually lead the two cities into war and conflict.

The Romans and the Carthaginians had been at peace for nearly 50 years, but some members of the Roman Senate were convinced that Carthage was still a threat. The Romans were looking for a reason to start another war with the Carthaginians, and they gave them one on a silver platter. "In 149 B.C., after Carthage technically broke its treaty with Rome by declaring war against the neighboring state of Numidia, the Romans sent an army to North Africa, beginning the Third Punic War." (Punic Wars) Three years later the Romans burned Carthage to the ground, and sold the 50,000 remaining survivors into slavery. Scipio Aemilianus led the destruction, and he ended all of his speeches with "Carthago delenda eat", meaning Carthage must be destroyed. (World History Book page

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

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

“Like Rome, it had two chief magistrates called suffetes, it had a council of elders called the one hundred that was similar to Rome’s senate. It also had a similarly setup assembly like the Romans. However they did differ in a few ways. Carthage had a great navy and placed their military in the hands of a permanent leader, had greater leaders and had a 3 mass wealth from commercial resources. Rome had a stronger land force that was very efficient and was overall more organized.

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.

" Words of Hannibal, (Polybius, c.200-after 118 BCE). In fact, it was a black omen to Rome as thousand eventually perished because of the young man (Morey, 1901). Kardt-Hadash (Carthage), or the New City (Levin, 2002) was an economic hub that grew mightier than Phoenicia, its mother country. Carthage was situated in what stand today as Tunis, in the Northern part of Africa.

From there on, the Romans finally found a general who could win battles. His name was Scipio Africanus and Rome used him as their strong point. They sent him to attack Spain where Hannibal’s supplies and soldiers were. He took out much of the supplies and many of the soldiers where he won the battles of Baecula and Ilipa and captured the new city of new carthage. After winning the two battles they cut off all the supplies and men and in the end he gained new allied soldiers from Spain. After that, Scipio then invaded Africa, the carthaginian homeland and defeated every carthaginian commander sent to defeat him. Nothing stood in his way from there on. He captured cities and caused destruction to all of the carthaginian soldiers. In the end, Scipio won because he caused carthage to call back Hannibal which ended the invasion of

Between the years 218 – 201 B.C. the two superpowers of their era, the Roman Empire and the Carthaginian Empire waged war with each other to determine who would control the Mediterranean (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014; Nepos, n.d.). Subsequently, this conflict known as the second Punic War would lead to the Roman Empire’s dominance in the region and would act as a stepping stone to her further expansion and growth into one of the great empires of history (Mark, 2011a). Moreover, in my discussion post for this unit, I will briefly discuss the cause of the conflict, the conflict itself and the outcomes for both participants.

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 Púnic war (herein after referred to as, “the War”) came to a close in 201 BCE, following Scípio’s victory over Hánnibal at the battle of Záma. After seventeen years of warfare, and at a great loss of life on both sides, Rome defeated Cárthage and came out on top as the new superpower in the Mediterránean region. The outcome of this war brought consequences to Cárthage and created opportunities for Rome (Morey, 1901).

During the emergence of the Roman Republic, Romans were seeking to take control and conquer not only Italy but the Mediterranean as well. After they successfully acquired the Italian Peninsula, they set their sights on Carthage. Carthage was a force to be reckoned with and no easy task for conquest. This land was founded by the Phoenicians in 800 B.C.E. its geographical location on the Mediterranean Sea made for successful commercial trade. Carthage had its own thriving civilization with a judicial system and strong military in place. Eventually its empire expanded, taking up much of the coastal cities such as: southern Spain, North Africa, Sardinia, western Sicily and Corsica. During this time, Carthage was known as the “largest and richest