The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and Carthage for control of the Mediterranean from 264 BC to 146 BC. The wars led to Rome becoming the most powerful civilization in the western Mediterranean, and, after the defeat of the Seleucid Empire and Macedon in the 2nd century BC, Rome became the most powerful power in the entire Mediterranean world.
Background[]
Sited on the coast of North Africa in modern-day Tunisia, Carthage was a colony founded by Phoenicians from the Levant around 800 BC. The Phoenicians were seafarers and Carthage grew rich on maritime trade. By the 3rd century BCE its naval power allowed it to dominate much of the western Mediterranean. It had a strong presence in Sicily, where its main enemy was the Greek city of Syracuse. At the same time, Rome was extending its power southward through Italy. Between 280 and 275 BCE King Pyrrhus of Epirus, intervening in defense of the Greek cities in the area, fought both the Carthaginians in Sicily and the Romans in southern Italy. After Pyrrhus left, Roman forces pushed down to the toe of Italy. Their anxiety about the Carthaginian presence in Sicily led them to cross the straits of Messina in 264 to lend support to the Mamertines, a band of mercenary soldiers in conflict with both Syracuse and Carthage. This intervention escalated into a full-scale war for possession of Sicily.
War[]
The First Punic War, from 264 to 241 BCE, began as a land conflict in Sicily. The Carthaginians were dependent upon supply and reinforcement by sea from North Africa. Rome was not a naval power, but in 261 BCE decided to create a fleet from scratch, as the only means of driving the Carthaginians out of the island. What followed was, in terms of the numbers of ships and men committed, by far the largest naval war fought in the ancient world.
[]
Taking Carthaginian warships as their models, the Romans managed to build 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes in 60 days. A quinquereme was a hefty vessel, rowed by 300 oarsmen and capable of carrying 120 soldiers. The Romans could not match the skilled Carthaginian seamen in maneuver, but their legionary marines were a formidable boarding force. Rome won a series of victories from Mylae in 260 to Tyndarus in 257 BCE. In 256 the Romans prepared a seaborne invasion of North Africa. The Carthaginians intercepted the invasion fleet off the Sicilian coast at Cape Ecnomus, but in the battle that ensued lost almost 100 ships captured or sunk. This disaster left them incapable of preventing a Roman landing in Africa. In 255 Rome seemed on the brink of winning the war, but severe setbacks followed. The Roman expeditionary force in Africa was routed and almost annihilated after a devastating charge by Carthaginian massed elephants at Tunis. At sea hundreds of Roman warships were lost in storms. The costs of the prolonged war threatened to exhaust Rome’s resources. After the failed African expedition, fighting was once more concentrated in Sicily. Carthaginian forces, under general Hamilcar Barca from 247, adopted a purely defensive strategy, resisting sieges and engaging in raids and skirmishes. Their position grew increasingly precarious. In 241 a desperate effort to resupply the remaining Carthaginian held cities in Sicily was thwarted when a grain fleet from Africa was intercepted by a Roman fleet at the Aegates Islands. The Romans sank or captured 120 of the heavily laden ships. Carthage agreed to abandon Sicily and pay a large indemnity in return for peace.
The second war[]
For a long time the Carthaginians were in no state to resume war with Rome. The desire for revenge was passed down a generation, Carthaginian general, Hannibal, inheriting it from his father, Hamilcar Barca. Spain, where both Rome and Carthage were expanding their influence, provided the flashpoint for renewed war. In 219 Hannibal seized the Spanish city of Saguntum in defiance of Rome. The following year he led an army from Spain through southern Gaul and across the Alps into Italy. Hannibal’s army - including Spanish tribesmen, Libyan infantry, Numidian horsemen, and Gallic warriors recruited en route - descended into Italy from the Alpine passes with a few surviving war elephants and struck toward Rome. A Roman army sent to meet them was ambushed and destroyed at Lake Trasimene. Fabius, appointed dictator to lead the Roman war effort under now desperate circumstances, adopted a strategy that won him the nickname "Cunctator" ("delayer"), avoiding pitched battle with Hannibal’s superior forces. This did not satisfy the Romans’ bellicosity. In 216 Pabius was dismissed and the Romans and their allies confronted Hannibal at Cannae. The outmaneuvered Romans were encircled and systematically butchered - as many as 48,000 men may have been killed.
A protracted struggle[]
The Battle of Zama
Despite these losses Rome refused to sue for peace and resumed Fabian delaying tactics. Hannibal maintained his army in southern Italy year after year, living off the land, but had no clear strategy for bringing the war to a successful conclusion. Some cities took the opportunity to rebel against Roman domination, among them Syracuse in 213. The Romans retook the city in 211 after a long siege, despite the inventor Archimedes providing the Syracusans with ingenious defensive devices, such as a ship-lifting claw and an incendiary heat ray. Few reinforcements reached Hannibal from Carthage. When his brother, Hasdrubal, led another army from Spain over the Alps in 207, he was defeated and killed by the Romans at the battle of the Metaurus. When Hannibal finally returned to Carthage in 202, he had been in Italy for a total of 16 years. Roman general Scipio, a survivor of Cannae, had executed a triumphant campaign in Spain from 210 to 206, scoring a series of victories over the Carthaginians. After returning to Italy, in 204 he mounted an invasion of North Africa from Sicily. At first the Carthaginians sued for peace, but Hannibal’s return with his army stiffened their resolve and peace negotiations broke down. In 202 Hannibal faced Scipio’s army at Zama. Scipio’s forces were strengthened by the defection of the Numidian cavalry from the Carthaginian side. The battle was close-fought but ended in total victory for Rome. Carthage admitted defeat and was stripped of its navy and its remaining colonial possessions around the western Mediterranean. Scipio had earned the cognomen (nickname) "Africanus" by which he is known to history.
Aftermath[]
After the defeat at Zama, Carthage was stripped of its military power, but Rome's thirst for vengeance would not be satisfied until its rival had been utterly destroyed. The most prominent advocate of renewed military action was the Roman orator, Cato the Elder, who ended every speech with the statement: "Carthage must be destroyed!" In 149 BCE the Romans sent an army to besiege the city, accusing the Carthaginians of breaking their treaty with Rome. The siege went badly until the arrival of Scipio Aemilianus, adoptive grandson of Scipio Africanus. The city was first blockaded to near-starvation and then, in 146 BCE, taken by assault. The Carthaginians fought desperately, a final core of resisters burning themselves to death in a temple. All surviving Carthaginians were marched off into slavery. The Romans then razed the city, leaving not a single building standing.