Relationship Between Rome And Carthage

Carthage and Rome were two great rivals of the west who also almost equal in strength and resources, situated of the western Mediterranean and Italian Peninsula. Firstly, it is very important to know that Rome 's relations with Carthage down to 264 B.C.E. had been friendly. The two powers had even allied around 500 B.C.E. against the Etruscans. By this treaty Rome recognized the Mediterranean as Carthage 's sphere of influence, and Carthage even claimed a Roman could not wash his hands in the sea without its permission (The flow of History, n. d.).

Carthage was originally a colony of Tyre, and had come to be the capital of great commercial empire on the northern coast of Africa. Tradition holds that Phoenicians settlers from Mediterranean

Finally, war broke out when Hannibal attacked the Spanish city of Saguntum, which was an ally of Rome in the Second Punic War (2l8-20l B.C.E.). This entails that despite Carthage were never discouraged by their defeat and Rome still recognized that Carthage was a force to reckon. In terms of human life, thousands of lives were lost on each side with neither Rome nor Carthage making any headway or willing to quit. In military composition studies shows that Carthage was composed almost exclusively of foreign mercenary units while its navy was manned by citizens. The reason of this difference is, that the Carthaginians employed foreign mercenaries; and that on the contrary the Roman armies are composed of citizens, and of the people of the country (Polybius, n.d.), in this respect the government of Rome is greatly preferable to that of Carthage .Also as Carthage 's military battled the Greeks over control of the island of Sicily they were influenced to development of the Carthaginians ' weapons and tactics, causing Carthage to adopt the Greek-style hoplite soldier fighting in the phalanx formation (Wikipedia (2017).The Romans had pool of hundreds of thousands of small farmers to draw upon. The Carthaginians used mainly mercenaries and federates. The Carthaginians, in the

As earlier stated that the First Punic War broke out in 264 B.C. when Rome interfered in a dispute on the Carthaginian-controlled island of Sicily, the war ended with Rome in control of both Sicily and Corsica and marked the empire’s emergence as a naval as well as a land power(History.com)

In the Second Punic War we see the great Carthaginian general Hannibal invading Italy and recorded great victories at Lake Trasimene and Cannae before his eventual defeat at the hands of Rome’s Scipio Africanus in 202 B.C.(History.com), the result of the war left Rome in control of the western Mediterranean and much of Spain.

Finally, Carthage ‘s last struggle, though without arms, without warships and without allies ((Morey,1901), was in the Third Punic War, the Romans, led by Scipio the Younger, captured and destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 B.C., which also saw turning Africa into yet another province of the mighty Roman