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Rome fought three wars with Carthage between 264 and 146BCE. The wars established Rome
as a world power and left the once powerful empire of Carthage in ruins.
Carthage was a city in North Africa originally founded as a trading post by the Phoenicians.
Since historians have tended to label the conflicts by the Roman name, we know them
as the Punic Wars. Punica was a Latin word for Phoenician.
By the time of the first Punic War, Carthage had created an empire that stretched across
North Africa and into the southern coast of modern day Spain. Merchant sailors from Carthage
traded with cities throughout the Mediterranean Sea. To protect its profitable sea trade Carthage
developed a powerful navy. The Romans completed their conquest of the
Italian peninsula by 263BCE. Rome’s economy depended on the plunder of their army. The
Roman Senate had to keep the army busy, or the army might have turned against the Senate.
The first Punic War was fought over Sicily, a Mediterranean island off the coast of the
Italian peninsula. Carthage controlled Sicily in 264BCE, so the Romans declared war to defend
a small group of Roman fortune seekers Carthage had captured.
Rome had a powerful army, but they had little experience with the sea. The Romans developed
an innovative technique to win several naval battles. They lacked the naval skill to sink
ships, so the Romans outfitted their vessels with a hinged bridge. Roman sailors used pulleys
to lower the bridge to face an enemy ship. The Roman ship would ram into an enemy vessel.
An iron spike at the edge of the bridge attached the two ships, allowing soldiers to cross
over and attack in hand-to-hand combat—where Rome was more experienced than Carthage.
To try to close the gap in naval power, the Romans captured a Carthaginian warship and
used it as a model to build their fleet. They won a few early victories and captured most
of Sicily, but the inexperience of the Roman navy left them unprepared for a catastrophic
storm that destroyed two-thirds of their fleet and killed thousands of Roman sailors. Rome
raised a second and third fleet, but storms also destroyed most of the additional ships.
A Carthaginian general named Hamilcar Barca recaptured most of Sicily, but Carthage did
not have the money or manpower to continue to engage in the conflict. In 241BCE, Carthage
surrendered Sicily to the Romans. In 218BCE, a generation after the first Punic
War, Hannibal Barca—the son of Hamilcar—commanded an army from Spain. Hannibal led an army of
40,000 soldiers, 8,000 horses and 37 war elephants in a daring and difficult journey over the
Alps. The Alps are a treacherous mountain range that stood between Spain and the Italian
peninsula. Hannibal expected some Italian cities to join
his army, but the cities remained loyal to their conqueror. Hannibal’s army won three
decisive victories against Rome in northern Italy despite being outnumbered more than
two to one. In the Battle of Canae, Hannibal’s army surrounded the Romans, killing between
50,000 to 80,000 Roman soldiers—the most destructive battle in ancient history.
After their humiliation at Canae, Rome changed their strategy. The Romans sent a new army
to northern Italy with instructions to withdraw. Hannibal spent the next twelve years destroying
the Roman countryside, but his army had no opponent to fight. The antipathy, or bad feelings
caused by Hannibal’s destruction would last for generations and would lead to the third
Punic War and the downfall of Carthage. A Roman army led by Scipio attacked Carthage
in 202BCE. Hannibal was ordered home to defend his native land. Without Hannibal in charge,
the war on the Italian peninsula turned in Rome’s favor. Once in Carthage, Hannibal
had a mercenary army in place of his loyal soldiers. Mercenaries are foreign soldiers
hired to fight. The mercenary army was no match for Scipio's trained forces. Rome defeated
Hannibal’s army and won the war. Carthage was no longer in a position to hurt
Rome after the second Punic War, but in 149BCE, Roman antipathy toward Carthage continued
to linger. A Roman senator named Cato ended every speech with the cry, “Carthage must
be destroyed.” Rome attacked Carthage and the two sides fought bloody battles in a war
that lasted almost three years. After a siege in 146BCE, the Romans broke through the city
walls of Carthage. Once they subdued the Carthaginian army, Roman soldiers went from house to house
slaughtering the people in their homes. After destroying Carthage, the Romans sold the remaining
citizens into slavery, burned the city and destroyed Carthage’s harbor.
Rome annexed Carthage by making the city a part of a Roman province they called Africa.
Africa probably comes from a Latin word that means “sunny land without cold.” The Punic
Wars established Rome as a powerful nation and the wars were an indication that Rome
would develop into one of the most powerful empires in history.