Did the punic wars widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor in rome?

Answer 1

Under Roman law, anything which could be held for a year without challenge could be kept. While the soldiers were away during extended wars, they were not able to challenge the takeover of the common land by big landowners.

Small-farmers relied on the common land to graze their ploughing oxen and to provide edible nuts and other produce to supplement what they could grow on their own small plots, which became unviable when the common land was lost to them (the same thing happened in England in the 16th Century CE enclosures of the common land).

In addition, the wars produced a great supply of slaves, who replaced free labour.

This double displacement enriched the upper classes who took advantage of all this, and impoverished the lower classes.

The collapse of the small farming class, who provided the backbone of the army, weakened Rome's military capacity which led to the recruitment of the non-propertied class during the Germanic invasion. These unpropertied men had no farms to return to after a war, and turned to their generals to provide for them. The generals used these clients to further their own power aspirations.

These changes sowed the seeds of the civil wars.