The Punic Wars: Is Carthage Equal To Rome?

All in a word, a more disciplined army and a stronger sense of honor and belongings of Romans made them competitive and advantageous than the Carthaginians so that the Romans can build a powerful empire in the core area of Europe that almost contains the whole Mediterranean.

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.

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.

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.

They city valued the Mediterranean’s because of its possessed wealthy provinces and prosperous seaport, but it suffered serious consequences from the Romans in the First Punic War (264-241). After Rome's victory, it stripped Carthage of its most

Back In Time (booklet) Made by: Isabella Romero Presented to: Alvaro Herrera “The story of two important cities in history” What was it? Carthage and Rome. These were two important cities in history.

Another big one was the areas there army’s where powerful. The Roman Land army was unstoppable while the Carthage Navy could over rule any other navy. Infact prior to the Punic Wars, Rome was almost an exclusively land-based military. Its army was also comprised largely of citizen volunteers who were well-trained to fight cohesively

Rome and Carthage were both similar, yet different, cities that had their commercial influence in the western mediterranean sea. So it is only natural that these two civilizations eventually clashed with one another in the Punic Wars over the supremacy of the mediterranean sea. Both civilizations had similar governments and power, yet the Romans prevailed over the Carthage and in the process became a naval power. Carthage starts out as a Phoenician colony from Tyre. Unlike the Romans, who became powerful by conquering their neighbors, the Carthaginians became a naval power through commerce.

The tradition tells us that Carthage was founded around 813 BC by Queen Dido, also known as Ellisa; doughter of the king of Tyre, who had fled from the city to escape her murderous brother Pygmalion. Her settlement was called Kart-Hadasht; the New City, Greeks used to call it Karchedon, and Romans changed it into Carthago. (Durant 1972)

Carthage gained her power through the wealth of trade and commere, bringing the northern African colonies and cities of Sicily under control, solidified her dominance in the Mediterranean. Through wealth comes strength and the ability to obtain more wealth by expanding one’s territory, which brought Carthage to desire the Greek cities of Italy also (Morey, 1901). The very cities bordering Rome, leading to the beginning of hostilities between Carthage and Rome.

" 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.

the strongest of the two in this field. This superiority was met by a large scale Roman construction of the navel fleet after their land forces captured one of the Carthaginian ships. Soon this was reflected in the fightings, and in 256 Carthage was besieged, but the Romans were defeated. Then for some years Carthage was the most successful who was commanded by Hamilcar. However, at the battle at the Aegates Islands in 241, the Carthaginians were beaten so badly that they requested peace. This agreement involved leaving

The situation between Rome and Cartage is no different. Despite the individual reasons of Rome and Carthage, there are two underlying causes of conflict, control of trade and expansion. During the time of Rome’s rise, Carthage was the adversary that was the closest to Rome’s equal. Rise of Carthage Cartage’s emergence and rise to power was extremely slower than its fall and destruction. Carthage, originally being a Phoenician colony, inherited most of its advantages and surfaced as the capital of commerce within the Mediterranean, especially after the fall of Tyre (Mulligan, 2014).

One could say that the two cities of Carthage and Rome “grew up” at the same time, from the 7th Century BCE on. By the time Rome began expanding its borders through trade and alliances, one of the first established super-powers it met was Carthage; already a well developed power in its own right. As Morey states, the two cities were fairly equally matched; Carthage was wealthier, but Rome was better organized. Carthage had a better navy and Rome a better Army. Carthage had better leaders, but Rome had more dependable and loyal citizens.

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).