How did the punic war effect the rome?

Answer 1

Rome eventually won the Punic wars, so the Romans expanded throughout the Mediterranean lands and much of Europe. The Punic Wars are generally seen as a very important turning point that led to the social instability that brought down the Roman Republic and led to the rise of the Empire.

First of all, Hannibal had spent fifteen years in Italy, not only fighting the Romans but also ravaging their lands. By the time he was defeated, the Italian countryside was devastated. The small farmers who made up the bulk of the Italian population had seen their lands destroyed, made worthless. In response, many rich aristocrats bought up huge tracts of these lands for very little money.

At the same time, Rome's victory in the Punic Wars (and in the simultaneous Macedonian Wars) led to a massive influx of slaves, again bought up by rich aristocrats. These slaves were sent to work the newly bought lands. The massive plantations that resulted were known as Latinfundia. The Latinfundia system, whereby most of the land was in the hands of the upper class, and worked by slaves, put the small farmers, who had been a substantial class, completely out of work. As a result, they flocked to the cities looking for jobs, but few found them.

These farmers tended to go on the dole, or even join into rowdy mobs. Some in the government, most famously the Grachus brothers, sought to redistribute the land to the farmers, but land reform acts were regularly defeated. This led to the split in Roman politics between the Optimates (who defended the interests of the land holders) and the Populares (who favored land reform).

The general Gaius Marius, in 107 BC, when Rome needed more troops to fight a barbarian invasion, came up with an idea to fix both the land and soldier problem. He allowed men with no property into the army, something that was previously restricted (it was thought that only landholders would fight bravely because they would want to protect their land). In return for military service, he promised them a land pension.

To a large degree the plan worked, except that the soldiers became more loyal to Marius, the man who was going to give them the land, than they were to the State, which had failed them. This became a constant theme in late Republican politics, the result being that time and time again, generals would march on Rome and force the senate to make them dictator (Marius did so, as did Sulla and Julius Caesar). The Roman armies became almost like personal armies, and Civil Wars were constant in the late Republic.

Caesar would attempt to solve some these problems, but it was Augustus who provided a solution by essentially dismantling the Roman Republic and replacing it was an absolutist monarchy. The Optimates faction of the Senate (Pompey, Cato, Cicero) was pretty much wiped out in the civil wars, and some land reform was accomplished. The power of individual generals was subordinated to that of the Emperor, and the soldiers had to take loyalty oaths to the Emperor. But the army remained a place where a poor Roman could join, serve twenty or so years, and come out as a land owner, allowing social mobility, and giving Rome a highly motivated, mostly volunteer army.

Also, the increased slaves from Rome's conquests (the Punic Wars led directly to Rome's wars in Greece against Carthage's allies there) brought an increased interest in foreign cultures, especially that of Greece. New found interests in poetry and philosophy spread through Roman society, and some more conservative Romans saw this as a degradation of the traditional Roman values. The conservatives, however, failed to stop the spread of Greek culture, which would greatly influence Rome's. Anyone of social standing would speak Greek and Latin, and anything Greek was considered beautiful.

Answer 2

It became dominant in the Western Mediterranean.

It was sucked into disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The peasant farmer class which made up its army was separated from their land serving in the Army and in their absence large landowners took advantage to take over the common land on which the success of their small holdings depended. This brought the Gracchi brothers to the fore, ad was the beginning of the internecine struggles which were the precursor of the civil wars.

Answer 3

Two profound effects came out of the Punic Wars, a set of three distinct conflicts between Rome and Carthage fought from 264 to 146 B.C.E. The first was the complete destruction of the power of Carthage, which had once been the dominant Central Mediterranean civilization. The second was the ascendancy of Rome as the new "dominant" of not only the Central Mediterranean but also throughout the entire region.

Answer 4

The rich became richer and the poor poorer. The army was comprised of small landholder who were sent on the campaigns. While they were away, the large landholders were able to take over the common land on which the small farmers depended to graze their ploughing oxen, and to harvest supplementary food for themselves and their small livestock. Roman law permitted that if someone could hold property for a full year without being challenged, it was theirs. The small holders on campaign were not around to challenge theirs seizures in time, and their small farms could not be operated without use of of common land.

This, as well as the dramatically increased supply of slave labour for the big estates, made the small holders less and less viable, and their chances of employment much reduced. The Gracchi brothers' attempts to rectify this were the opening steps in the Civil Wars which followed.

Some amelioration was found in settling ex-soldiers in colonies - the site of defeated Carthage was one such - but the population of landholders was so reduced that the state had to recruit soldiers from the unpropertied class to meet the threat from the Germanic invasion. And these property-less soldiers looked to their generals to provide them with post-war sustenance, giving those generals enormous political support and clout, which further changed the power balance from annually-elected leaders.

Answer 5

It became the undisputed power in the Western Mediterranean, and in the aftermath of the Second Punic War, decided to punish Macedonia for supporting Carthage. This led Rome into intervening in the eastern Mediterranean, progressively subjecting the Hellenistic kingdoms and extending its empire right around the Mediterranean Sea.

See discussion page below.

Answer 6

It cemented its control of Italy, and established it as dominant in the western Mediterranean.

The Second Punic War also turned Rome east. Philip V of Macedonia had supported Carthage, and Rome determined to put him down after they had defeated Carthage. This brought Rome into Greek affairs, and drew them by the 1st Century BCE to conquer the eastern Mediterranean, reducing the Hellenistic kingdoms to provinces or client kingdoms. This brought huge wealth and ongoing revenues, and established the Roman Empire stretching from Britain to the Euphrates River.

Answer 7

1. It began to establish an empire.

2. The disruptions caused by losses of farming population, and the takeover of their land by the upper classes using slave labour from the war instead, led to the Roman Revolution and Civil Wars, rectivfied by the autocracy of Augustus and his successors.

Answer 8

After winning the three Punic wars, Rome became the dominant force in the Mediterranean area, able to flex its muscles, so to speak, and exert military pressure on other territories or kingdoms. Rome became a power player in the world.

Answer 9

The wars widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor *Apex world history*