The Period Of The Punic Wars

During the early republic, the Roman state grew exponentially in both size and power. Though the Gauls sacked and burned Rome in 390 B.C., the Romans rebounded under the leadership of the military hero Camillus, eventually gaining control of the entire Italian peninsula by 264 B.C. Rome then fought a series of wars known as the Punic Wars with Carthage, a powerful city-state in northern Africa. The first two Punic Wars ended with Rome in full control of Sicily, the western Mediterranean and much of Spain. In the Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.), the Romans captured and destroyed the city of Carthage and sold its surviving inhabitants into slavery, making a section of northern Africa a Roman province. At the same time, Rome also spread its influence

The Punic Wars were made of three major wars. The last war was kind of a punishment for Carthage from Rome. The two powers in these wars were Rome and Carthage. Rome was controlling the main peninsula of Italy while Carthage was controlling the islands and trade of the Mediterranean. Rome and Carthage were once on a friendly term until things went south well. The Punic Wars have major historical content that involve both leaders on opposite side as well as the battles among the two city-states. These wars were about two powerful city states trying to see who is more dominant. These wars were like the US and Russia trying to show imperial power and show who is the bigger person in town.

Rome saw a lot of military success but economic failure. It became apparent that Rome had grown too large for it’s style of government. The person to change that government was Julius Caesar. In 63 B.C. Caesar was became the head of the state religion and thus gained a place in the senate. At that time, his childhood companion, Cicero, had caused quite a stir. He had become a consul, and in the process of giving his resignation speech, provoked the tribune to speak its mind. The Tribune wished for Pompey, , to return, which made the senate uncomfortable. A fight broke out. The Senate tried to kick caesar out of office, but they soon took it back, as he did not do anything unlawful and the people demanded him to be allowed back. Casar was then sent to Spain while Pompey gained military power. When he returned from Spain he joined Pompey, then won over Crassus, the richest man in Rome. These three formed “the first triumvirate” and had a very large amount of power, through which Caesar was able to become Consul and pass laws that would prevent people from committing certain crimes that were undermining the state at the time. Once his Consulship ended, Caesar went and conquered Gaul, but returned in 50 B.C. to find that Pompey had been elected as sole Consul and therefore terminated his alliance with Caesar. Caesar decided to fight Pompey for power. With the help of Cleopatra, Caesar was able to attain victory. He was declared dictator for two

The Second Punic War (between the Romans and the Carthaginians) contained some of the worst bloodshed in history. All of this loss of life, for some, was not in vain. This war took place during a time when the fate of Rome and Europe was to be decided (Morey, 1901). This war resulted in at least two major outcomes.

“Any clear picture of Carthaginian government is now beyond our pens. Aristotle praised the constitution of Carthage as “in many respects superior to all others,” for “a state is proved to be well ordered when the commons are steadily loyal to the constitution, when no civil conflict worth speaking of has arisen, and when no one “has succeeded in making himself dictator.” (Durant 1972)

Rome was a thriving and expanding republic that wanted to conquer the Western Mediterranean beginning with Sicily, however, Carthage, her archrival held a lot of power in those regions through trade and commerce. Carthage was also a large republic who posed a great threat to Rome’s expansion and desire to become a supreme Empire.

In 264 a.c. Rome and Carthage came into conflict over Sicily. Carthagefeared that Rome would take the island. Rome, in turn, believed that Carthage planned to close the Strait of Messina r a narrow passageway

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BCE. At the time, they were the largest wars that had ever taken place.

Carthage had only a few leaders, but they were highly intelligent, motivated leaders. Rome had multiple leaders over time called consuls. Rome’s people were unwavering in their courage, loyalty, and direction. The strength of Carthage was based on her successes, while Rome based her strength on her people’s “character [of] patriotism, fortitude, and steadfast perseverance” (Morey, 1901) in their darkest

Regardless of the Romans interesting warfare, they are about to triumph over Carthage. This is easily credited to the Roman’s ability to adapt and use their intelligence to their advantage. When it came to the warfare in the sea, which Romans struggled in, they were able to acquire a ship, take it apart, learn to recreate it even better than the original Carthagian ships. They also were able to use their power and connections with other territories to get them to become their army. Rome was also able to gain Sardinia from Carthage when they knew that Carthage couldn’t do anything about. Rome was also really smart in having their troops stationed in different places which helped in their warfare during the Punic wars. Also, by using Quintus Fabius Maximus’s strategy to limit where Hannibal and his men could go. Even though it may seem weak and as if he was “delaying” the war, it also showed that he was smart enough to want to weaken the enemy before going to battle again. This also kept Hannibal and his army in a small area.

Wherever a Roman citizen might be, he must go to Rome to vote or to take part in the making of the laws. But when the citizens of Rome met together in the Forum, or on the Campus Martius, they made a large and unwieldy body, which could not do any important political business. Rome never learned that a democratic government in a large state is impossible without representation; that is, the election by the people of a few leading men to protect their interests, and to make the laws for them. Giving up on the policy of incorporation and the absence of the principle of representation were the two great defects in the Roman political

Carthage was said to have been founded by Queen Dido in 813 B.C as a result of fleeing from the city of Tyre and from her brother Pygmalion who tried to murder her. (Mulligan, n.d.)

Rome was a small city that was founded at around 754 B.C.E in central Italy. In the 3rd century, had to deal with some people that included the Confederations of Celtic tribes. To the south of Rome was a trading center that was owned by the Carthaginians. There were trading ports and settlements all over the central and western Mediterranean. The growing and regional powers in Sicily by the Carthaginian worlds caused the clash between them and Rome. There were three major wars called the Punic wars. There was an unsuccessful march of Hannibal over the Alps whose aim was to invade Italy. The Greeks and Roman affairs were quite tough. The Romans adopted some of the Greek culture. In the east, Rome actively interacted with the Hellenistic kingdoms

This paper deals about the cooperation between Carthage and Rome, their comparison prior to enter a conflict aroused for the conquest of the Italian landlord especially Sicily and the Western Mediterranean.

The Punic Wars set the stage for the chain of events that were to bring the Roman Empire to the pinnacle of dominance in the Western Mediterranean. Which would subsequently lead to the reduction of Carthage to little more than the wreckage of a once great civilization. It is recognized that both the Romans and Carthaginians were a warring people to begin with. It was very much an inevitable fate that these two expanding empires would ultimately clash. With the nature of the disputes that led to the war: economic opportunity, aggressive expansion, and the exceeding war debt of Carthage: pressure would have been applied by leaders of both sides to seek the more aggressive path to war. The origins of the Punic wars were based solely on the aggressive