Why The Romans Won The Punic Wars?

The first and second Punic wars occurred over a period of around 60 years in the mid and late second century B.C. Although this is a relatively short timeframe in comparison to the vast history of the Roman Empire, these wars would shape the fundamental outlook on Roman foreign policy for years to come. However important to the Romans, though, these repeated military conflicts would spell the end for their adversaries – the Carthaginians. Though at times in the fighting the Carthaginians definitively maintained an upper hand, I assert that the Romans were destined to win both wars. The Carthaginians simply could not overcome the Roman’s intrinsic courageousness, their superior political and armed forces organization, and, most importantly, the manpower the Republic possessed. The first Punic war began in 264 B.C. and lasted until 241 B.C. The conflict started when a group of Campanian mercenaries captured Messina, a city on the northeast tip of Sicily. When King Hieron of Syracuse, who governed the

This conflict began in 218 B.C. when Saguntum, a Roman ally, was attacked by Hannibal, a Carthaginian military general (Lazenby, 265). When the Carthaginian senate rejected the Roman demand to hand over Hannibal, the states went to war once more. Although the Carthaginians and Hannibal would capture much of the Italian peninsula within the first few years of fighting, the Romans and their massive military would prevail. Specifically, in 212 and 211 B.C., the Roman armed force peaked at twenty-five legions, amounting to more than 100,000 Romans and Italians under arms, with possibly an additional 50,000 serving at sea (Lazenby, 271). This allowed for the Romans to maintain control of central Italy and the city of Rome while reestablishing dominance in Spain and, later, across Greece and Sicily. Essentially, Carthage could not contend with Rome’s ability to replace lost