The Three Punic Wars

There were three Punic or Carthaginian Wars is Roman history. These were between 264 and 146 BC. These wars were the first great wars of Roman expansion outside Italy. The enemy of Rome had a large empire that stretched along the coast of North America and southern Spain and some parts of Sicily. This empire was known as Carthage. The purpose of these wars was to decide which power would become the dominant force around the Mediterranean Sea.

The Punic Wars were a series of wars between the two most powerful forces in the Mediterranean at the time, Rome and Carthage. The First Punic war started over a group of Italian pirates conquering Sicily (which was controlled by Carthage), and they turned to Rome to help them get rid of Carthaginian rule. The war lasted 20 years and cost one-fifth of the male population in Rome. In total, there were one million soldiers involved in the war, a feat that wouldn’t happen again for hundreds of years. The war was a back and forth with Carthage slowly losing on land while Rome managed to carry out a series of naval engagements. This was Rome’s first experience with a navy, but once they started winning battles, Carthage surrendered.

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.

The three Punic Wars demonstrated the Roman emperors’ power over Rome with laws over land, environment, and conflicts. In The three Punic Wars Carthage and Rome fought for power over Mediterranean Sea. Carthage was lead by hannibal. The first Punic War was in 264 BC when Rome and Carthage wanted power to rule Sicily. The wars started when when Mercenary soldiers surrounded the city of Messena which is now Messina in Sicily and requested aid from Rome and Carthage against Hiero II, the king of Syracuse. Carthage and Rome hadn't always been enemies, they were on friendly terms before the greek king Pyrrhus had entered Italy.

The Punic wars were a combination of several conflicts between the Roman and Carthaginian empires. The first of the three campaigns began in the 3rd century B.C., and the final encounter occurred about a hundred years later. The Roman and Carthaginian militaries were the largest in the region, but their differences showed clear advantages, and weaknesses. When the final war ended, Rome emerged victorious, but the men and resources lost dealt a heavy blow to the empire.

The first Punic war started as the Romans moved over the sea and marched on Sicily to gain lands there. The war began 264 BCE and finished 241 BCE. There were a lot of battles especially with the Battle of Agrigentum being a massive learning curve for the Carthage army as it was routed by the Romans.

Yet when Carthage took Sicily, Rome responded by building 330 ships to fight for their land, starting the First Punic War. Carthage was defeated by Rome in 241 BCE, and had to give up Sicily. Carthage went to war with Rome again when the Carthaginian general Hannibal attacked the city of Saguntum, Rome’s ally. This was the start of the Second Punic War. Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama, meaning Carthage lost against Rome once more. The Third Punic War began when Carthage refused Rome’s demands to have Carthage dismantled and rebuilt further inland. The Roman general Scipio Aemilianus surrounded Carthage with armed forces for three years until it fell and the Romans burned it to the ground. Around 122 BCE, Julius Caesar decided to re-build Carthage, and five years after his death, the city rose again. Power and importance shifted back to Carthage, until the fall of the

From 264 BC to 146 BC, a series of wars broke out between Carthage and Rome. These wars were probably the largest that had ever taken place in this time period, and were called The Punic Wars. The reason for the conflict was the existing Carthaginian Empire and expanding Roman Republic came into contact with one another. During this time new strategic weapons and plans were being used. The Romans successfully defeated the Carthaginians with a wide use of tactics and sophisticated weapons.

Believe it or not, Carthage and Rome started off as friends. The main reason they started fighting each other was because of a small island territory off the coast of Italy called Sicily. Despite Carthage's constant disputes with its neighboring regions, Carthage and Rome were historically friendly towards one another. Over the years, the two cities formed and signed treaties solidifying trading rights. Ultimately the First Punic war was launched in 264 B.C., when Rome got in the middle of a dispute on the Carthaginian controlled island of Sicily (Punic Wars)

Rome conquered and benefitted from numerous, widespread interactions. They interacted in both peaceful and violent ways. Rome had to revitalize after every Punic War. The Punic Wars consisted of three different wars between Rome and Carthage. Although Rome conquered Carthage in all three wars, they suffered many losses in each war and never crushed Carthage until the third Punic War. Through the conquering of Carthage, Rome was able to expand their borders and become the uncontested leaders of the Mediterranean world. During Pax Romana(31 B.C.- AD 180), Rome increased their trade with other nations. This allowed for a blending of cultures in the Roman empire that would’ve been inaccessible otherwise. They rid the Mediterranean of piracy which

Roma omnia vincit: by 44BC. Rome had conquered a vast array of land from Gaul to Numidia to Syria. Although not completely joined up for instances most of Anatolia was not under the Roman State. The question was a topic of much debate in the 1980s, after Harris published his ‘War and Imperialism in Republican Rome’. Promoting a view that Roman expansion was aggressive, while the main thought was that Rome had gained provinces via defensive measures; Sherwin-White rebuffed Harris’ claims but partly for them being too extreme in thought. The debate resulted in three points of view: economic imperialism: an aggressive policy that believes Rome is intentionally seeking to dominate other states. Defensive imperialism: unintentional empire, a result from major wars such as the Macedonian war and the Punic wars. Rome entered the wars either to help allies or protect herself. This was part of Badian’s thesis against the Marxist polemic. The essay will incorporate the theories but will weigh up if Rome was aggressive or defensive in approach to acquiring an empire. The sources that will be used are Harris and White predominantly as the two are of opposing views. Ancient evidence will mostly come from literary sources such as Polybius, Sallust and Livy to name three and bearing in mind biases that they may have. For instance, Polybius was a Greek and a hostage so at times there may be an anti-Roman feel to his prose. The essay will indicate that the evidence and practises of

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.

This began the Punic wars. There were three Punic wars. Rome and Carthage were the two strongest contenders of the central Mediterranean Sea of that time. In each of these wars Carthage lost. These wars lasted off and on from 246 BC to 149 BC, with Carthage eventually being destroyed.

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).