Punic Wars

They were the equivalent of today's tanks.

Rome did not fight Carthage in order to dominate the western basin of the Mediterranean. Rome found herself dominating this part of the Mediterranean as a result of her victories. However, this was the outcome, rather than the purpose of Rome fighting the Punic Wars.

The First Punic War broke out because of tensions in eastern Sicily. The Romans intervened to help some mercenaries which had seized the city of Messana (Messina) and who had been attacked by Syracuse, the most powerful of the Greek city-states in eastern and southern Sicily. Rome defeated Syracuse and forced her to become an ally. At this point Carthage, which was worried about the security of her possessions in western Sicily, mobilized for war. The situation developed into a contest over the control of Sicily. Rome won, seized the Carthaginian possessions in the west and maintained alliances with the Greeks in the east and south. Immediately after the war Rome took advantage of Carthage having to deal with a revolt by her mercenaries to seize Sardinia and Corsica, which were Carthaginian possessions. However, that this did not amount to a domination of the western Mediterranean. Control of these islands was not sufficient for domination and, more importantly, Rome was not interested in dominating the western Mediterranean. Rome's horizon and that time did not stretch beyond Italy. Her interest in Sardinia and Corsica was their proximity to the Italian mainland and their relevance for the security of Italy. The fact that Rome was not interested in the western Mediterranean is also indicated by the fact that she did not object to Carthage building up a power base in Spain and that she ended up paying a heavy price for this (see below).

The Second Punic War was about Rome's survival. It was an invasion of Italy by Hannibal, a Carthaginian military commander who wanted revenge for the theft of Sardinia and Corsica. His father, Hamilcar, had conquered southern Spain and turned it into a domain of his family (the Barcas). Southern Spain was Hannibal's power base and the springboard for his invasion of Italy. He routed the armies of Rome and her Italian allies four times and caused great panic in Rome, which seemed doomed. However, he then got bogged down in the south of Italy and his campaign eventually came to a dead end. Meanwhile, a second Roman expedition is Spain defeated the Carthaginians there and Rome took over the Carthaginian possessions in southern Spain, thus cutting Hannibal off his source of reinforcements and depriving Carthage of an important source of wealth (the silver mines). The Romans then started a successful campaign in Africa (Tunisia), Carthage's homeland, which was aimed at bringing the war to an end.

The Third Punic War was fought because a war faction which wanted the destruction of Carthage won the day in the politics of Rome. This faction argued that Carthage was aiming at becoming a big military power again and that her continued prosperity was a threat to Rome's security. This threat had to be eliminated through destruction.

The Romans had the Mediterranean under their control and prevented any supplies from reaching the City of Carthage and it's people from receiving foodstuffs by ship .

Rome fought Carthage for 23 years 264 to 241 BCE during the First Punic War.

No one sacked Rome during the Punic Wars.

The excuse that Rome used to declare war was the fact that Carthage raised an army to defend herself against territorial encroachments by the Numidians, their next door neighbours, without consulting Rome. Under the terms of the peace treaty Carthage was demilitarised and she was not allowed to raise an army without Rome's consent. Carthage thought that when she finished paying a 50-year war indemnity to Rome she had fulfilled the peace treaty and was free form it.

There was a political faction in Rome which wanted to destroy Carthage to eliminate this rival because she had recovered economically after the second war. They were worried about Carthage's economic resurgence.

Carthage was defeated by Rome.

Their lives and freedom - those who were not killed and couldn't escape were enslaved.

All were.. involved in the Mediterranean area at some point in antiquity of the Middle Ages. A strange question!

The Second Punic War is the most famous of these three wars because of Hannibal's invasion of Italy, which at its beginning seemed to threaten Rome's existence.

Rome and Carthage.

After the Second Punic War Hannibal was elected leader of Carthage. He weakened the power of the council of judges which had become a dictatorial force, fought corruption and the privileges of the aristocracy and restored the economy of Carthage. Some aristocrats accused Hannibal of planning an alliance against Rome with Antiochus III the king of the Seleucid Empire which was centred on Syria who was planning a war against Rome. The Romans set up a commission of enquiry. Hannibal went into voluntary exile and fled to the court of Antiochus. He became his military advisor during the Roman-Syrian War. He commanded the Seleucid flee in two naval battles in which he was defeated. When Antiochus seemed prepared to hand him to the Romans in the course of peace negotiations, Hannibal took refuge at the court of Prusias I, the king of Bithynia (in north-western Turkey), who was engaged in a war with King Eumenes II of Pergamon (in western Turkey) a Roman ally.

Hannibal won a naval battle and two land battles against Pergamon. The Romans threatened Prusias into handing over Hannibal. Rather than facing this fate, Hannibal poisoned himself. His words before dying were: "Let us relieve the Romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced, since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death."

No Hannibal was involved in the Second Punic war and Rome won all three Punic Wars.

In the famous historical battle of Cannae in 216 BC BCE, Hannibal met the Roman armies of Varo. The Romans wanted to rid Italy of Hannibal for once & for all. This was not to be.

Varo had assembled 87,000 troops to overwhelm the Carthaginians. Hannibal's forces numbered approximately 50,000 troops and were in a defensive mode as Varo unleashed his forces.

The massive frontal attack began to push the front lines of Carthage backwards, and Hannibal's tactics have been recorded and studied by military analysts to this day. Here is a summary:

1. With the Roman push forward, Hannibal was in trouble as his troops were falling back while continuing to fight, it was not a retreat;

2. Hannibal sent his crack cavalry troops to successfully outflank the Romans on both sides;

3. Hannibal did have more in number of cavalry then did Varo and analysts agree that Hannibal's cavalry were better horsemen;

4. Hannibal began to complete what is now called the "double sealed envelope" tactic;

5. This was the ability of Hannibal's cavalry to attack the Roman army from behind, while successfully outflanking Varo on two sides;

6. It was a cardinal sin to ever let one's army be attacked from behind unless it was an ambush. This was not an ambush;

7. Varo's troops were sealed on four sides; and

8. Approximately 60,000 Roman troops were lost in a battle that was one of its worst defeats on the Italian peninsula.

Hannibal was in Spain when the Second Punic War began, as Carthage had retained its colonies on the Iberian coast after the First Punic War, with Cadiz and New Carthage foremost among them. Barcelona is named after Hannibal's family, Barca. Hannibal actually began the war by beseiging the Roman city of Saguntum on the Iberian coast.

The Punic Wars. The Carthaginians were Phoenician, and the Latin word for them was punicus, from which came the name of punic.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus led a very distinguished life and was one of the greatest Roman generals that ever lived, gaining victory over Hannibal at Zama and thereby ending the Second Punic War. From the time he was given the command of an army when he was 25, after the disastrous defeats of the Romans at Ticinus, Trebia, and Cannae, he never lost a battle, earning the agnomen Africanus "The African" after Zama. Without him Rome very probably would have lost the war as Mago, Hasdrubal Barca, and Hasdrubal Gisco would have brought their armies to bear on Rome's northern frontier through Hispania while Hannibal ravaged the interior of Italy unchecked.

The actor who plays Lecter is Anthony Hopkins.

He had a strategic grasp which overshone his opponents, and was able to apply what we today call the principles of was both strategically and tactically to overcome the Roman Empire's efforts against him He did this with forces less than that available to Rome and was defeated in the end by an equally astute Roman general who brought the contest down to a single battlefield where he could compel Hannibal to face his superior force.

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The first punic war was fought over the island of Sicily

Polybius says that he attempted to extract a large sum of money from Andobales, whom he describes as the most faithful friend the Carthaginians had in Iberia. When Andobales refused to pay, Hasdrubal brought a false accusation against him and forced him to give his daughters as hostages.

The ancient Greek historian, Polybius recored the events at the Battle of Cannae. He is given credit for his works on the Punic Wars.

Initially Sicily, then the Western Mediterranean.

The Punic Wars had no self or selves.