Punic Wars

The three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome, in the beginning 264 B.C. and the ending with the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. By the time the first Punic war broke out, Rome had become the dominate power throughout the Italian peninsula, while Carthage a powerful city in the Northern Africa had established itself as the leading maritime power in the world. The first Punic wars broke out in 264 B.C. when Rome interfered in a dispute on the carthagian controlled Island of Sicily; The war ended with Rome in control of both Sicily and Corsica and marked the empire’s emergence as a naval as well as a land power. In the second Punic War, the great Carthangian general Hannibal invaded Italy and scored great victories at Lake Transience and Cannae before his eventual defeat at the Romans in 202 B.C. Left Rome in control of the western Mediterranean and much of Spain. In the Third Punic Wars, the romans, led Scipio, captured and destroyed the city of Carthage in 146 B.C. Than the carthangian revolt and attacked Rome.
Tradition holds that Phoenician settlers from the Mediterranean port of Tyre ,what is now called “Lebano” founded the city-state of Carthage on the northern coast of Africa, just north of modern-day Tunis, around 814 B.C. (The word "Punic," later the name for the series of wars between Carthage and Rome, was derived from the Latin word for Phoenician.) By 265 B.C., Carthage was the wealthiest and most advanced city in the region, as well as its leading naval power. Though Carthage had clashed violently with several other powers in the region, notably Greece, its relations with Rome were historically friendly, and the cities had signed several treaties defining trading rights over the years. In 264 B.C., Rome decided to intervene in a dispute on the western coast of the island of Sicily (then a Carthaginian province) involving an attack by soldiers from the city of Syracuse against the city of Messina. While Carthage supported Syracuse, Rome supported