What link the punic wars to the factors that eventually caused the Republic to collapse and to be replaced with an empire?

Answer 1

The Second Punic war caused many peasants to lose their land. Their farms had either been ravaged in the war or had been neglected because of the peasants' prolonged military service. Moreover, the many war captives of the war created an abundant supply of slaves. Most of them were used to till the fields of the large landed estates. The big landlords took advantage of the slaves and the misfortune of the peasants to buy land on the cheap. Many landless peasants flocked to Rome to eke out a living and swelled the masses of the poor.

One of the causes of the civil wars which tore apart the Late Republic and led to the fall of the Republic was the conflict between populares and optimates. The former was a political faction which championed the cause of the poor and pressed for reforms in their favour. The latter was a political faction which favoured the aristocracy and was opposed to these reforms.

This war also contributed to the problems which led to the Social War or Allied War, which occurred just before the civil wars of the Late Republic. Many of the various Italic peoples were allies of Rome and supplied soldiers who supported the Roman legions (the auxiliaries). The Romans pursued a policy of land redistribution in the allied territories which favoured either the Romans who had settled there or small local elites. This led to the impoverishment of the Italic peasants. This problem was greatly exacerbated by the mentioned effects of the Second Punic War. Impoverishment eventually led to the allies demanding to be granted Roman citizenship to gain equality with the Romans. They contributed to the Roman military, but received little back in terms of land policy or political rights. When Rome refused to grant this, the allies rebelled, sparking the war.