These are great study notes on the Punic Wars

The Punic Wars Notes

The Punic Wars was a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage for a period of 118 years. Rome, one of the sides of these wars, was a immense empire whose influence covered much of the known world at the time. Carthage, the other player in the Punic Wars, was a city state on the North Coast of Africa which had partial control over Sicily before wars and whose location was ideal for trading ground in the Mediterranean.

The first war (264-241 BC) started because a conflict between two different city states on the island of Sicily, Messana and Syracuse, had been going on and eventually both Rome and Carthage stepped in. During their intervention, Carthage began to control more and more of the island of Sicily. So because of Carthage's expanding influence of Sicily, many Romans felt that Carthage's authority in Sicily threatened them and their trading.

Hannibal Barca counting the rings of the Roman kni...

Depiction of Hannibal and his army crossing the Al...

Theatre of Punic Wars

Romans attacked and quickly gained Sicily back in their control. However, because of Rome's lack of a navy they could not push Carthage back any farther. Rome soon built a navy. After C. Duilius won the first Roman sea battle of the Punic Wars, Rome dominated the sea winning all but one sea battle for the rest of the First Punic War. With Rome's authority on land and at sea, Carthage surrendered after the Roman victory at the Aegates Islands in 241 BC.

The peace lasted for twenty-three years before Carthage's resentfulness in losing the first war brought them into a second. The centerstone of the Second Punic War was one man, Hannibal, and his reign on "one of the great decisive wars of history."1 Hannibal in 218 BC crosses the Alps into the Po Valley with an elephant baggage train. He got the...