The Involvement of Carthage and Rome in the Three Punic Wars

... The Involvement of Carthage and Rome in the Three Punic Wars The purpose of this paper is to examine the involvement of Carthage and Rome in the three Punic Wars. The factors discussed in this paper are these: the undercurrents for conflict that existed between the two nations following the Pyrrhic War and Roman hegemony of southern Italy, the inevitability of war between the two powers, and the reasons why Rome emerged victorious in the three conflicts. The paper concludes with a discussion of Rome's unnecessary destruction of Carthage following the third Punic War. For centuries, Rome had remained a land power preoccupied with conquering territory in Italy. Carthage was a major naval power whose ships controlled the western Mediterranean. While Rome expanded for political reasons, trade and commerce motivated Carthage's foreign policy. During the centuries of their earliest contact, Rome and Carthage had lived in harmony (Scullard, 1989 as

want to read more? →