Punic Wars

The dates of the First Punic War are 264-241 B.C.

The Roman army was built on subsistence farmers who had to leave their farms to fight. Prolonged campaigns meant that they were not farming, and in their absence the large landowners slyly commandeered common land which provided grazing for the farm ploughing oxen, and other produce to supplement the produce of the small subsistence farms. Under Roman law, if someone took land and was not challenged for a year, it became their possession.

The large landowners also found it cheaper to run their expanded properties with slaves rather than paid labour, and so there was not alternative employment. The defeat of Carthage provided plenty of slaves.

The core strength of the Roman state was disappearing, the Gracchus brothers attemped to reverse the trend and were murdered for their pains - the beginng of civil wars which lasted for a century, and was settled only by a new form of government guided by a single person. The trappings of republicanism were retained, but an autocrat guided it in the background using special powers which progressively increased.

Rome wanted to keep carthage from completely taking over sicily

First off, I'm not sure this is what you're looking for seeing as you listed under literature, but I'm going to summarize the battle:

It's the second Punic War between the city states of Carthage (north africa) and Rome (central italy). A brilliant new Carthagenian General named Hannibal Barca (commonly Hannibal) has boldly trekked his army through Spain, then the Pyrenees, then south France, then crossing the Alps, with African elephants no less, in an incredibly bold plan to attack Rome by surprise. After various battles, the Romans are completely unable to score a major victory against Hannibal, who marches freely up and down the east coast of Italy with his army. At a point, the Romans have some success attempting to starve Hannibal's invasion force, but this was taking to long, and the people demanded swift action, so the Romans gambled everything on sending an enormous army to face off with Hannibal once and for all.

The two armies met near Cannae. The Roman army was led by two generals, who switched off command each day. That day, an aggressive general named Varro was in command. Before the battle he deepened the Roman fighting formation, sacrificing maneuvrability for smashing power, which would prove a fatal mistake. Hannibal lined up in a concave formation, bowed in the center, his infantry a combination of gauls, carthagenians, and others, with his Numibian Cavalry on each wing. His chosen formation seemed to invite an all out frontal attacked, and Varro obliged. To start the battle, Hannibal's superior Numibian cavalry crushed the Roman horsemen (this would repeatedly, in the future, be a problem for Rome) and began to chase off stragglers while awaiting Hannibal's orders. While this happened, the Roman Centuries attacked, and Hannibal's men began to lose ground. Then, just as victory seemed sure for the Romans, Hannibal ordered his best infantry, the Libyan Pikes, into action, crashing down on either side of the Roman's flanks. In another moment, Hannibal's Numibian cavalry returning from running down the routing enemy and charged in the Roman's rear. The Romans were now completely surrounded, and packed in so tight they could not use their weapons. Had there been any oreder, they could have easily organized at a point and by sheer numbers broke free, but that order never came amidst the confusion.

Aftermath: This was a crushing defeat for Rome, who lost up to 86,000 of a force of 90,000 men and horses, while Hannibal lost a (relatively) mere 8,000 out of his army of 50,000 (His elephants had all died in earlier battles and while crossing the Alps). This is especially noteworthy because almost an entire army was completely annhilated in mere hours. The next time this men men would die in such a short period of time came again four times:The first battle of the Somme, D-Day, and at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the battle, Hannibal continued his march up and down the Italian coast, to strong to be defeated, to weak to attack Rome. This continued until Scipio Africanus launched a Roman attack on Carthage to draw Hannibal out of Italy to defend his city. This worked, and Hannibal was finally defeated, ironically on his home soil at the battle of Zama. As the other two, the second Punic War was a decisive win for Rome, and helped established their dominance of Mediterranean sea trade for the next half millenium.

Carthage and Rome clashed in many places throughout the three Punic Wars. The main theatres of war were the island of Sicily, Spain, the Mediterranean seaways, Italy, and finally the plains of North Africa and into Carthage.

He used African war elephants which were trained to charge at terrified foot-soldiers and scare cavalry horces.

Hannibal took the route through the mountains to attack Rome from the last place they expected to be attacked from. When Rome heard that Hannibal was coming through the mountains, they sent an extremely large force to meet him. When the Romans moved up into the mountains, Hannibal surrounded and defeated them. Though he lost the manpower needed to sack the city, he would not be defeated until Scipio Africanus met him in battle in Carthage.

he used the ancient kinds of snowshoes made to climb the mountain because of the snow on the cliffs but the method he used to get down the mountain was by melting the rock with a strong mixture of melting solution to melt the rock and get over the Alps.

no there were no women in the punic war

His name was Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca (who was a general in the first punic war). Hannibal is sometimes called the "father of strategy." He led an invasion of the Italian peninsula, crossing over the Alps into northern Italy to wage a campaign that would last for 15 years. During this time he would win three major battles against the Roman legions: Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae.

In order to know fought between the two strongest contenders for control over the central Mediterranean Sea of the time. For a long time during the second Punic war, it could seem that Carthage would become the victor. The wars ended with a strong destruction of Carthage, that ended the city's period as an independent power house and a important trade centre. However, the city would later became an important trading centre inside the Roman Empire.

No, they got Sicily, and shortly afterwards took over Sardinia and Corsuca when they fell into the hands of mercenarie troops.

To take the war to Rome by invading Italy. As he didn't have a seige train to capture the city itself, he roamed around the countryside trying to detach as many of Rome's disgruntled allies to his side as he could. He was partially successful only, so did not get the comprehensive victory he sought, as the Romans, after three defeats, avoided open battle.

Eventually Rome woke up to his trick and invaded North Affrica to threaten Carthage, using local kings to help. Hannibal was withdrawn from Italy to protect Carthage, and was defeated there.

North.

This is important because the Romans were expecting an attack from the South.

Carthage did not 'gain' the Second Punic War, it lost.

It had many leaders - its Council, its Senate and several military commanders. The most notable military commander was Hannibal Barca.

It gained dominance of the Western Mediterranean.

Rome.

In the First Punic War, to gain control of Sicily.

In the Second Punic War, to neutralise Carthage and gain dominanace of the Western Mediterranean.

In the Third Punic War, to eliminate Carthage entirely as a threat or competitor.

He marched his army from Spain through southern Gaul, and into Cisalpine Gaul in northern Italy over the Alps.

He didn't get to Rome, which he didn't try to attack as he did not have a seige train. He ranged throughout Italy trying to weaken Rome by trying to detach its Italian allies.

No island was found by Carthage and Rome. The first Punic War, the first of the tree wars fought between Rome and Carthage, was over the control of Sicily.

Hannibal was unsuccesfal because he marched his troops almost non-stop through the alps and he fought against another excellent general, Gaius Julius Ceasar. Hannibal was unsuccessful for a number of reason non include fighting against Julius Caesar because Julius Caesar wasnt even alive in the same time as Hannibal.

The principals were Carthage and Rome. Rome won all three wars, and totally destroyed Carthage, making it the dominant power in the Western Mediterranean. In addition, as Macedonia had sided with Carthage, Rome set out to punish it, and so became involved with the Greek east, leading to its progressive inclusion of the Hellenistic kingdoms (the remnants of Alexander's empire) into the Roman Empire.