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The Punic Wars
• Prior to the Punic Wars, Rome battled with its
neighbors to expand. Greece had many colonies in
southern Italy which was known as Magna Graecia.
• The Celts invaded from the north, sacking Rome in
390 B.C.E.
• One positive that arose was Rome created a huge
system of roads to connect all of its empire. One of
the most important roads that was built during the
republic was the Via Appia or Appian Way.
• Also, such constant fighting led to dramatic
innovations in the Roman military.
• For instance, the Romans developed the corvus on
their ships, allowing sailors to connect their ship to
that of an enemy by means of a plank and hook.
• The Punic Wars consisted of three separate wars
fought by the Romans against Carthage from 264146 B.C.E.
• Why “Punic” if the wars were against Carthage? In
Latin, the people from Carthage were called the
“Peoni” and anything related to them was Punic.
• The First Punic Wars were fought from 264-241
B.C.E. Each side lost nearly 100,000 men. In the
end, Rome won and added Sicily, Sardinia and
Corsica to its territories.
• The Second Punic War was fought from 218-202
B.C.E. This time the Carthaginians were led by
Hannibal, the sworn enemy of Rome.
• To give his side greater strength, Hannibal employed
a number of war elephants against the Romans.
• In a stroke of genius, Hannibal surprised Rome by
crossing over through Spain and attacking from the
North.
• To do so, Hannibal and his war elephants had to
cross over the Italian Alps.
• For quite some time, Hannibal was very successful.
Indeed, in the Battle of Cannae in 216 B.C.E., the
Romans lost 80,000 soldiers in just one day.
• However, the Romans held out and eventually
Hannibal’s supplies were cut off and his army
depleted. The Romans were led by a general named
Scipio who forced Hannibal back to Carthage to
defend his homeland.
• Scipio routed the Carthaginians. Rome demanded
that Hannibal be turned over but he escaped and
eventually committed suicide.
• About 50 years later in 146 B.C.E., war broke out
again between Rome and Carthage in what is now
known as The Third Punic War.
• Carthage was throttled again. After 100 years of on
again, off again, war with Carthage, the Romans
had enough.
• As you will see, you do not want to get the Romans
to the point where they have had enough.
• First, Carthage was captured and burned to the
ground.
• Anyone still living was sold into slavery.
• Then, the charred ruins of the city were smashed up
and the area was ploughed up.
• Finally, to make sure nothing would grow there
again, the Romans sowed salt into the ground.
• By the end of the Punic Wars, Rome had established
itself as the major power of the western
Mediterranean…
• …with a future eye on the world.