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Punic Wars Research Paper

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The Punic Wars The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between the Roman Republic and Carthage, which Rome won each time and eventually became the master of the entire Western Mediterranean basin. The wars began in 264 BCE and ended in 146 BCE, lasting for 118 years. The name Punic comes from the Latin word for Phoenician. The war occurred because they both wanted control over the Mediterranean: Sicily. Carthage wanted Sicily because they felt as though it belonged to them, while the Romans wanted Sicily because they were nervous about having an enemy so close to their home territory. The First Punic War was a 23 year war that began in 264 BCE and ended in 241 BCE. It was a war for Sicily. The Romans started the war by sending an army to Sicily, which the Carthaginians considered an act of war because they believed Sicily was their territory. The Romans soon realized that they could not equal Carthage’s naval power so they turned the naval battle into a land battle. Carthage eventually surrendered Sicily to Rome and had to pay them a fine (Backman 185-186). This shows that the Romans were very resourceful and knew how to …show more content…

It was a war for control of Spain. It occurred because the father of a Carthaginian General named Hannibal made him take a vow of revenge against Rome. Hannibal knew he could not attack by sea, so he decided to attack by land, marching his army of 46,000 men and 37 war elephants to Italy. During the course of the travel he lost a lot of his men and all but one war elephant. He conquered a lot of the Italian Peninsula, but was never able to take the city of Rome itself. The Romans decided to attack Carthage in order to get Hannibal to leave. He was defeated at the battle of Zama, ending the Second Punic War (Mulligan). This shows that the Romans did what they had to do in order to get Hannibal to leave their city

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At the beginning of the Punic Wars Rome didn’t have experience on how to fight in the sea against Carthage since most of the ships that Rome got in that time were

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The Romans who were being led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Scipio), who had managed to win support from the Numidian leader Masinissa, was the eventual downfall to Hannibal’s campaign. Scipio was somewhat unproven as a military leader at this time, but was seen very much as the golden boy, of the Roman Army. The main threat to the Roman Army was Hannibal’s war Elephants, which had been deployed to devastating affect during previous encounters. Scipio’s first action during the battle would have to be dealing with the animals as Hannibal’s first main attack would come in the form a charge from the mighty elephants so. At this point it would seem that Hannibal was relying completely on strategy which had been successful in his other

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One is also left with the impression that the Romans made every attempt to maintain past treaties with Carthage but that the Carthaginians and Hannibal in particular were set on war. This is exactly what Livy intended when writing on the Second Punic War. The problem is that Livy seems to be writing propaganda more than history. His purpose is to thrust the blame for the war solely on Carthage and Hannibal and leave Rome blameless in the eyes of potential readers. Whether or not this was what Livy actually believed is impossible to know for

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897 Words | 4 Pages

When Rome was preoccupied with the second Punic war that was between it and Carthage,

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Hannibal was forced to fight and lost the battle due to confusion between the Carthaginian merchinaries and the Phoenician army. Hannibal was able to escape the city that night since the Romans were not keeping watch as strictly as usual. The next day, the Romans entered Agrigentum and take control. In 261 B.C. the cities inland joined the Romans. The coastal cities left Rome and joined the Carthaginians due to their naval forces.

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Carthage. It consisted mostly of Italian mercenaries and leftover mercenaries from the beginning of the campaign. Hannibal had around eighteen-thousand men yet when he reached Carthage he had an additional twenty five-thousand inexperienced levies from allies and the city’s garrison. Once ready they rallied out of Carthage to fight the Romans one last time on October 19th, 202 BC. Scipio Africanus was down by ten-thousand however, Scipio had the upper advantage.

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111 Words | 1 Pages

“The seeds of the second war were sown at the end of the first war.” Polybius points out three main causes in book III (9-10). The first cause examines Hamilcar’s attitude, he had held out seven years and only had to capitulate because a failure by the Carthaginian government to send his supplies and reinforcements. Secondly, he had defeated the Romans and believed if he could face them on equal terms the situation would be reversed. Finally, he desired revenge on the Romans for going back on their word in his treaty with Catulus.

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Polybius, however believes that we don’t know what exactly was Hannibal’s intentions, perhaps he did want to capture Rome, yet scholars Hallward, Livy and Bagnall argue this. Goldsworthy states that “Hannibal should have marched on Rome …(not) to besiege or capture the city, …but to coerce the Romans to seek terms, or at lest to further erode their creditability to march on Latium. Nevertheless, it is evident tat Hanniabal had made a significant mistake by not marching on Rome after the

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Hannibal put his elephants first, but when they panicked they turned around and essentially took out an entire flank of Hannibal?s army. Scipio recreated Hannibal?s flanking tactics at Cannae, and with men all around the Carthaginian army, Hannibal?s forces fell, and the Second Punic Wars would soon be over. Quotes from: https://www.unrv.com/empire/battle-of-zama.php Hannibal?s Death: After the Battle of Zama, Hannibal went into ? exile?.

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Introduction Rome and Carthage were almost equal in strength and resources. From the early days of the Republic, Rome and Carthage maintained a friendly relationship and even signed a treaty against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who was a threat to both states. Comparison Ancient Carthage was a wealthy state with a small population, it employed foreigners to do the unwanted jobs and relied on foreign mercenaries rather than citizens to do her fighting. The mercenaries did not have a sense of belonging to the Carthaginian nation.

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This was Rome’s biggest defeat resulting in the death of tens of thousands of men. After this massive defeat, many of Rome’s allies abandoned Rome out of fear. At this point, Rome had practically nothing. Rome’s strategy was to attack Carthage in Spain, while Hannibal was in Italy. Hannibal came back and they battled at Zama.

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561 Words | 3 Pages

The Romans allied with the Mamertines, (Campanian mercenaries), to push the Carthaginians out. Ultimately, Rome gained control of the territory but knew that Carthage was a threat to be reckoned with and that in order to defeat the Carthaginians, they no doubt had to strengthen their naval forces (Morey,

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Making a decision is a one thinking process of selection to produce a result for a final choice. A story of a young doctor who wants a family to make a final decision on medical treatments of one dying patient is an example of “Letting Doctor Make the Tough Decisions” by Pauline W. Chen. This article presents about how difficult it is to make a decision between a doctor and patients, and how medical decisions should be made in this situation. By doctors are a main audience of this article. In additions, Chen uses 3 rhetorical strategies on the article, by 3 rhetorical strategies are Logos that is using logic, Pathos that is using emotions and Ethos that is using credibility of the author.

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A mix of political, economic, and territorial factors contributed to the battle between Rome and Macedon. Rome's expansionist intentions, Macedonian rulers' ambitions, and the strategic significance of the Mediterranean region all related to the start of the conflict. While each of the four wars which I will explore below, had its unique set of causes. 1. The Macedonian

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The Comparable power it is showed during the second Punic war and shaken the power of Romans. At the end declines from the war and finally lost seriously, and the war ended forever by Roman declaration. The Second Punic War finally placed in an end to Carthage’s empire in the western Mediterranean, give a chance to Rome in control of Spain and letting Carthage hold and keep only its territory in North Africa. The Carthage also required this time to give up its belief and pay the plentiful fine to the Romans in silver (Morey, 1901).The bottom line is the war over with the Roman

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