Why did the Romans want the western Mediterranean?

Answer 1

Part of the reason the Roman Empire grew the way it did occurred because of its enemies. The Gaul's, living in an area now called France, sacked Rome. Rome fought back and conquered Gaul, now France.

Carthage and Rome went to war. Rome won. As a result, Rome controlled the Western Mediterranean.

In Israel, King Herod overthrew the Maccabean Kingdom in a coup d'etat. He then asked the Roman Empire for help. When he died, the Roman Empire remained and made that area a Roman Colony. That happened with a number of different nations in that region.

So, while some expansion came by outright conquest, other came by the need to fight enemies and still other came when a king died but the Roman Empire stayed.

Answer 2

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.

Answer 3

Originally the Romans were not interested in the western Mediterranean. They were not a naval power and their horizon was limited to her control over central and southern Italy. Rome gained dominance in the western basin of the Mediterranean as a result of winning the Three Punic Wars (264-241 BC, 218-201 BC and 149-46 BC) between Rome and Carthage, not an interest in controlling this area.

The First Punic War was precipitated by Rome's decision to support mercenaries (the Mamertines) who had seized the city of Messana (in eastern Sicily, by the strait with the mainland) and to besiege and force into an alliance Syracuse (which had attacked the Mamertines) the most powerful of the Greek city-states of eastern and southern Sicily. This caused the Carthaginians, who had four ports in western Sicily, to mobilise for war. It is thought that the Romans were concerned that the tensions caused by the Mamertines could lead to a war between Carthage and Syracuse and that a victorious Carthage could seize eastern Sicily, which was by the Roman-controlled mainland. The situation turned into a struggle over the control of this island.

The Second Punic War was started by Hannibal, a Carthaginian general and the ruler of the Carthaginian territories in southern Spain, who invaded Italy. Rome won this war and took over the Carthaginian territories in Spain. The next door neighbours of Carthage, the Numidians of Algeria, who had been her allies, defected and went over to the Romans. At this point Rome dominated the western Mediterranean.

The Third Punic War was caused by the desire of a war party in Rome to destroy Carthage because of the animosity which Hannibal's invasion of Italy had caused and because there were fears of a resurgence in the economic and military power of Carthage.

Answer 4

The Romans did not really need to control the Mediterranean. The Roman Empire did not grow out of a grand design of conquest and expansion. It grew out of a chain of separate events and situations, such a wars waged again her, her being drawn into the squabbles of other peoples, and concerns about the instability of areas bordering the empire when Rome was already in control of the Mediterranean, even though she had not conquered the whole of it.

Rome fought three wars against Carthage. The first war developed into a fight over the control of Sicily. The second one was an attack on Rome, but its outcome and that of the third one was that Rome gained control of the western basin of the Mediterranean. Three Illyrian warswere fought on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea (next to Italy) after which, Rome established a protectorate in Dalmatia (the coastal part of Croatia). Rome wanted control of the Adriatic Sea to stop piracy from Dalmatia.

The expansion into the eastern Mediterranean started with the annexation of mainland Greece which was due to political instability in Greece. This annexation aimed at ending this instability, which had drawn Rome into wars in the area to defend her Greek allies in wars between Greek states.

The expansion into Turkey started with the bequeath to Rome of a kingdom in western Turkey (Pergamon) by its king. Three wars were waged against Rome by Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus in eastern Turkey. Rome won. As a result Rome annexed parts of Turkey and set up client states in other parts. Concerns about political instability in Syria and Judea, which had become neighbours of the empire, led to the setting up of client states there as well.

Answer 5

Trade and territory made the Romans interested in the eastern Mediterranean. That part of the empire was the gateway to the exotic goods of the east, such as spices, perfumes, cotton and papyrus. Also, many of the eastern kingdoms were Roman allies and acted as buffer states between Rome and her eastern enemies, such as Parthia.