How Did The Romans Win Their Power Wars

The era just after the Roman republic became healthy and organized, is characterized by the need of clarification of dominance between two supreme powers. These powers were the Romans and the Carthaginians. Rome and Carthage according to Morey (1901) became the two great powers in the Mediterranean area by 265 B.C., each for different reasons. They did not want to share the power and thus the conflict was inevitable. The years that followed were a power contest until the strongest conquered all.
Who was the strongest of the two powers and what determined that strength? As explained clearly in Morey (1901), Rome had just won power over the Latin cities and most of surrounding towns and this accelerated Rome’s popularity and strength. Her army was now united and stronger than ever before. Rome with her accumulated wealth and the great army was now ready for expansion. Carthage was “…the capital of a great commercial empire on the northern coast of Africa.” The Carthaginians were also wealthy, even wealthier than the Romans because of their merchant interactions. They were the ones who controlled the trade through the inland and coastal cities of Arabia,
Romans had a very organized government and very patriotic citizens. Along with their superiority in land army they seized the Carthaginians through hand-in-hand battles. The first battle took place in Sicily and as a chain reaction one battle followed the other in which Rome won most of. Finally, the great loss of coastal cities by Carthaginians’ fleet led the Romans to invest their money and their time in building and training a powerful naval power, by copying the Carthage fleet from shipwrecks brought to the shore. (Morey, chapter XIV, para.