The three Punic Wars, between Rome and the city of Carthage, established Rome as the preeminent power in the western Mediterranean and ended in the destruction of Carthage.
The first Punic War (264–241 B.C.E.) broke out because of Roman-Carthaginian struggles over control of Sicily, sparked by the revolt of Messina against Carthage and Roman intervention to aid Messina. This war was fought by a formidable Roman navy, equipped with the corvus, and ended with the Carthaginian departure from Sicily.
The second Punic War (218–202 B.C.E.) resulted from the Carthaginian strategy of colonizing the Iberian peninsula with trade cities, including the future Barcelona, named after its founder Hamilcar Barca. The Romans, too, were interested in Iberian resources, like tin and copper, and established an alliance with the city of Saguntum. In 221 B.C.E., this cold war between Carthage and Rome flared up when Hannibal, Barca’s son, conquered Saguntum and, in response to Roman protests, invaded the Italian peninsula in 218, using elephants in a famous campaign across the Alps. Unwisely abandoning a policy of attrition against Hannibal, the Romans were nearly destroyed at the Battle of Cannae. Satisfied that Carthage could regain influence in the western Mediterranean and not wanting to waste resources besieging Rome, Hannibal roamed southern Italy. Meanwhile, the Romans rebuilt their army, reassured their Italian allies, and sent an army under Publius Cornelius Scipio to ravage Carthaginian Spain, cutting Hannibal off from his supplies. When Hannibal evacuated to go back to Carthage, the Romans followed and defeated him at Zama in 202. Rome now added Spain and the area around Carthage to its empire.
The Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome led to the rise of Rome to political and economic dominance in the Western world in the latter centuries of the first millennium B.C.E. Shown here is a battle scene during Second Punic War. (Library of Congress)
The third Punic War (149–146 B.C.E.) was a security measure meant to protect Rome from future confrontations with a resurgent Carthage. Cato the Censor, flush with triumph from Greek and Asia Minor campaigns, argued before the Roman Senate that Carthage was a deadly enemy close to home and convinced it to demand that Carthage give up its port and move inland. When Carthage refused this deliberately outrageous demand, the Romans invaded, seized the city, and systematically slaughtered the inhabitants. As a final gesture, the Romans sowed the area with salt, making it uninhabitable for a generation, after which the Romans recolonized the region.
These wars were a manifestation of the collision of the expanding land power of Rome and the naval trading empire of Carthage. The Carthaginians needed to maintain their major port and a sphere of influence in Iberia and the Mediterranean islands. Rome, whose expansion was blocked by these policies, used its advantages of land possessions, larger population, and military organization to destroy its rival and assume control of the western Mediterranean.
Margaret Sankey
See also: Roman Empire.
Cavan, Bruce. The Punic Wars. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.
Morris, William O’Connor. Hannibal: Soldier, Statesman, Patriot and the Crisis of the Struggle between Carthage and Rome. New York: Putman, 1897.
Wise, Terence. Armies of the Carthaginian Wars. London: Osprey, 1982.