The Punic Wars: How, Where, Why, and Who?

The Punic Wars were three wars between Rome and Carthage that started on 246 BCE and ended on 146 BCE. The Romans separated their army into 5,000 men legions that did not fight for pay, and were Roman citizens. A group of eighty's s century and the men on horseback are the cavalry. Each Roman soldier had a shield, sword, dagger, armor, and a tunic. These wars happened because Rome and Carthage both wanted control of Sicily, so they could be able to trade more. The first Punic War started in 264 BCE. It was a naval battle for Sicily, and Rome beat Carthage for it in 241 BCE. The Second Punic War started in 218 BCE, and this battle was on land. A new, wise Carthaginian general named Hannibal wants to avenge Carthage from their loss of Sicily against Rome. Hannibal decides to cross Iberia and the Alps to attack northern Rome. Hannibal gains a lot of the Roman peninsula, but he never can get to Rome. This means that even though Hannibal took Roman land, the Romans were never defeated and technically still won. Hannibal stopped trying to invade Rome in 201 BCE. The last Punic War happened in 149 BCE when Rome became tired of Carthage and wanted them gone. Roman generals like Scipio and Tiberius Gracchus attacked Carthage and successfully invaded it. Carthage burned for 17 days and the whole city was basically left to ashes. All of Carthage's 50,000 citizens were sold into slavery and Roman made it into one of their providences. At the end of the second century BCE; over a million slaves, Carthaginian and Greek citizens, were in Italy. The Italian aristocrats took over and had large estates with slaves working on them called latifundia. The Punic Wars show the intense rivalry between Rome and Carthage just because they both wanted a little island named Sicily.