The Punic Wars: Is Carthage Equal To Rome?

To compare Rome and Carthage, the strength and resources available to both are close enough to make the war last a long time. Carthage was wealthy, yet not as organized as Rome. Carthage ruled the sea with its fearful navy, Rome had the terrifying army. Carthage might have had the superior leaders, but Rome had more loyal citizens ready to jump into the fray. The Carthaginians could be best described as a people that loved to win, where the Romans would be better defined as people that hated to lose. (Kornell, 2012).

The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts between Rome and Carthage for control of the Mediterranean. They are called the Punic Wars because the word “Punic” is derived from the Roman word for Phoenician, in reference to the Carthaginians’ ancestry. Carthage was founded by settlers from Phoenicia on the fertile land of North Africa. The Phoenicians were known as brave and skillful sailors and merchants. By the third century BC, Carthage became a substantially strong power of the Western Mediterranean. It was considered the richest city in the world. All maritime trade between East and West Mediterranean went through it. Hundreds of ships transported goods from all over the world. The city, built up with tall buildings, had 700 thousand inhabitants. The Greek colonies in Sicily and Southern Italy were the only serious competition to Carthage. There was a continuous struggle between them for the possession of the island for 100 years, since the end of the fifth century BC. Four times the Carthaginians conquered the island. However, they could not take the city of Syracuse.

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.

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.

In the early 3rd century B.C., Rome and Carthage were expanding their empires and met at the city of Sicily. At the time the Roman military consisted of well regulated infantry and cavalry, but hardly any naval forces ready for combat. The Carthaginian military was the opposite.

After these events the Carthaginian Empire decided to use their Navy as one of the strategies to win the war. What they didn’t know is that the Romans had built many ships and armed them with a

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.

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.

Over the course of one-hundred years the Mediterranean antiquity was rocked by an ancient cold war between the North African seafaring state of Carthage, and the newly rising city of Rome located on the Italian Peninsula. In the course of two major wars and one extended three year long siege of Carthage itself Rome would conquer its last major foe and turn the Mediterranean into a Roman lake.

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)

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 “nearly equal in strength and resources” (Morey, 1901). Carthage was wealthier, had better leaders, a powerful navy. Her main strength was its wealth and resources from her commerce. On the contrary, Rome was better organized, had a better army and a “body of loyal citizens” (Morey, 1901). Her main strength was her well organized political system and its

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 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