The Punic Wars
During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, three wars were fought between Rome and Carthage. The name Punic, which is used to describe them, is derived from the Latin and Greek words for Phoenician. The city of Carthage, located in what is now Tunisia in North Africa, had been founded in 814 BC by Phoenicians from Tyre in Lebanon.
The first two wars were long, lasting for 23 years and 17 years, separated by an interval of 23 years. The third war lasted nearly three years. It started 52 years after the end of the second war. All three wars were won by Rome, which subsequently emerged as the greatest military power in the Mediterranean Sea. The enmity of Carthage impelled Rome to build up its large army and to create a strong navy. The great military leaders of the war for Carthage were Hamilcar Barca and his sons Hasdrubal and Hannibal. Rome's outstanding leaders were Scipio Africanus and his adopted grandson, Scipio Aemilianus.
The first war saw Rome fighting to break Carthage's growing hold on the chain of islands that enable it to control the W Mediterranean. The second war directly pitted the ambitions of the two commercial powers; the initial area of conflict was Sicily. The last war was the final, desperate attempt of Carthage to preserve its freedom.
First Punic War
The First Punic War, 264–241 B.C., grew immediately out of a quarrel
between the Sicilian cities of Messana (now Messina) and Syracuse. One
faction of the Messanians called on Carthage for help and another faction
called on Rome. The Strait of Messana, which separates the Italian Peninsula
from Sicily, was of extreme strategic importance, and both powers responded.
The Punic army arrived in Sicily first, arranged a peace between Messana
and Syracuse, and established a garrison. Upon its arrival, the Roman army
ejected the Carthaginians from the garrison, and thus the war began.
Roman legions occupied E Sicily, and the newly created Roman fleet,
after victories at Mylae (260) and off Cape Ecnomus (256), landed a force
in Africa. This excursion was a failure, and its commander, Regulus, was
captured (255) by the Greek mercenary general Xanthippus. In Sicily the
Romans took Palermo (254) but were effectively blocked farther west by
the brilliant guerrilla warfare of Hamilcar Barca, and they failed to take
Lilybaeum, the chief Punic base. The Romans equipped a new fleet that destroyed
(241) the Punic fleet off the Aegates (now Aegadian Isles), and Carthage
sued for peace. The terms were the payment of an indemnity and the cession
of Punic Sicily to Rome. The chief events of the next 20 years were the
Roman entry into Sardinia and Corsica—a gross breach of treaty—and the
conquests in Spain by Hamilcar Barca, his sons Hasdrubal and Hannibal (247-183
BC) and his son-in-law also called Hasdrubal.
Second Punic War
When Hamilcar Barca's son Hannibal took (219) the Spanish city of Saguntum (present-day Sagunto), a Roman ally, Rome declared war. This Second Punic, or Hannibalic, War, 218–201 B.C., was one of the titanic struggles of history. From his father, Hamilcar Barca, the defender of Sicily in the First Punic War, Hannibal learned to hate Rome. As a young boy Hannibal swore "that so soon as age will permit, I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome" as he stood at the altar beside his father, the great Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca before they left for Spain, where Hamilcar hoped to make up for the losses that Carthage had suffered in the First Punic War. He succeeded as general in Spain on the death of his brother-in-law, Hasdrubal, in 221 B.C.
Hannibal appears to have been both just and merciful. He is renowned for his tactical genius. After consolidating his position for two years, he besieged Rome's ally Saguntum (now Sagunto), which fell eight months later. Carthage supported him, and Rome declared war (the Second Punic War, 218–201 B.C.).
With a relatively small army of select troops, Hannibal set out to invade Italy by the little-known overland route. He fought his way over the Pyrenees and reached the Rhône River before the Romans could block his crossing, moved up the valley to avoid their army, and crossed the Alps. This crossing of the Alps, with elephants and a full baggage train, is one of the remarkable feats of military history. Which pass he used is unknown; some scholars believe it was the Mont Genèvre or the Little St. Bernard.
He descended into Italy with 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry having lost 30,000 and 3000 respectively during the crossing of the alps. Hannibal overran the Po valley, winning recruits from the Gallic tribes. A Roman force with a numerical superiority of 14,000 tried to stop him on the Trebbia, only to be wiped out. In the spring of 217, in April, he crossed the Apennines and marched toward Rome. At Lake Trasimeno he destroyed the main Roman army in a battle that cost the Romans 15,000 dead and another 15,000 prisoner. On 2nd August 216 BC, a large Roman army met Hannibal's band at Cannae in southeastern Italy. Hannibal outwitted and annihilated them, slaying an estimated 60,000. In one of the most deceisve battles in history, Hannibal allowed the Romans to drive through his center, then his brother Hasdrubal wheeled his cavalry around to envelop the enemy flank and rear. The Roman force was surrounded and nearly annihilated. Hannibal however did not follow up his victory with a direct attack on Rome.
The wise statesman Quintus Fabius Maximus chose not to risk another engagement, instead followed the Carthaginians, delaying and harassing them and so he earned the nick name 'the delayer'. Hannibal remained in Italy, trying to bring Rome's allies to his side. Although most of S Italy then allied itself with him, including the important city of Capua he was insufficiently supported from home due to Roman maritime supremacy which prevented enough supplies from reaching him. As time went by Hannibal became less and less able to assail Rome and had to content himself with ravaging and reducing smaller places.
Beginning in 212 B.C. the tide gradually turned against Hannibal. In 211 the Romans retook Capua, despite his rapid march toward Rome to entice them away. In 207 he fought his way for the last time into a position near Rome, but the defeat and death (207) of his brother Hasdrubal on the Metaurus (Metauro) River made his position hopeless, and he withdrew into the mountains of Bruttium. Recalled to Carthage in 203 to check the advance of Scipio Africanus Major in Africa, he was decisively beaten at Zama (202).
After the conclusion of peace (201), Hannibal became (probably in 196) a suffete, or chief magistrate, of Carthage. He reformed the government and reorganized the revenues in order to pay the heavy tribute imposed by Rome. At the war's close, Carthage surrendered to Rome its Spanish province and its war fleet. Rome owed its success to various factors: its stubborn will and splendid military organization; its superior economic resources; its generals, Fabius and, above all, Scipio; the failure of supply from Carthage to Hannibal's Italian army; and the mountainous character of central Italy, which rendered the Punic superiority in cavalry nearly useless.
Denounced to the Romans for allegedly intriguing against Rome, he fled (195) to Antiochus III of Syria. He took a small part in Antiochus's war with Rome, and after the Syrian defeat he fled again, this time to Bithynia. About to be delivered to the Romans, he poisoned himself.
Third Punic War
The Third Punic War, 149–146 B.C., the last war was a final and desperate attempt by Carthage to preserve Punic liberty. This war originated, like the others, with deliberate Roman aggression, the result of agitation by Cato the Elder for the destruction of Carthage. Charging Carthage with a technical breach of treaty in resisting the encroachment of the Numidian king Masinissa (a Roman ally), Rome declared war and blockaded the city. Carthage refused to surrender. The younger Scipio (Scipio Africanus Minor) conquered it, house by house, and sold the surviving inhabitants into slavery. The city was razed and its site plowed up.