Carthage was the great adversary of early Rome. It was the first enemy that could have been considered an equal, and the Roman defeat of Carthage gave Rome primacy in the ancient world, or at least the parts of it that the Romans were aware of. There were many important stages in the development of Carthage into an ancient world superpower, into an enemy of Rome, and eventually, to its end. As with the founding of Rome, which cannot be factually verified, but had fantastic origin stories, such as the twins Romulus and Remus, suckled by wolves, or Aeneas, a refuge prince of Troy who escaped, the origin of Carthage is lost to myth and history. What is known, however, is that it had originally been a colony of Tyre. Carthage …show more content…
Nowhere has any mention been made of a city state content within its own territory and also safe from encroachment from other states seeking to expand. Thus, simply by being the two greatest powers at the time, Carthage and Rome were naturally at odds, although Carthage had been hostile to the Greeks as well. This was exacerbated by Carthage wanting the land the Greeks and Romans had. The natural rivalry became an actual conflict when the two of the three powers that controlled the island of Sicily went to war. One side, the Mamertines, basically marauders who seized the land through treachery, was losing, and requested Roman assistance. Although Rome did not want to help, they did, in order to gain a foothold on Sicily, and equally importantly, to prevent Carthage from doing so instead. The Mamertines, unfortunately, had asked for Carthaginian assistance during the delay while waiting for Roman reinforcement, and the Romans tricked and forced the Carthaginians into ceding the city to them. Much like the outbreak and spread of World War I, Carthage became allies with Syracuse, the other side, and Rome was officially in conflict with Carthage. Carthage had an extremely bad experience on Sicily; the king of Syracuse, when he saw the Romans defeat Carthage, changed sides, and the Carthaginian contingent …show more content…
Carthage initially dominated the sea, and easily crushed the inferior Roman vessels when it happened on them, and also used the naval mobility and might to reconquer many of the cities on Sicily, as well as directly attacking Roman territory all along the coast of Italy. Rome changed its circumstances when it discovered a wrecked Carthaginian ship that it then reverse engineered, and mass produced. The Romans also added their own innovations to the ships, which allowed them to use their greatest strength; a drawbridge could be dropped from the Roman ship onto an enemy ship, which allowed Roman soldiers, who were among the best trained in the world, to board and destroy enemy soldiers hand to hand, rather than trying to match the Carthaginian naval skill in a ship to ship