Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire during the period 264 to 146 BC. Three such wars took place, involving a total of forty-three years of warfare on both land and sea across the western Mediterranean region, and a four-year-long revolt against Carthage.

The First Punic War broke out on the Mediterranean island of Sicily in 264 BC as a result of Rome's expansionary attitude combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to the island. At the start of the war Carthage was the dominant power of the western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire (a thalassocracy), while Rome was a rapidly expanding power in Italy, with a strong army but no navy. The fighting took place primarily on Sicily and its surrounding waters, as well as in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia. It lasted twenty-three years, until 241 BC, when the Carthaginians were defeated. By the terms of the peace treaty Carthage paid large reparations and Sicily was annexed as the first Roman province. The end of the war sparked a major but eventually unsuccessful revolt within Carthaginian territory known as the Mercenary War.

The Second Punic War began in 218 BC and witnessed the Carthaginian general Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and invasion of mainland Italy. This expedition enjoyed considerable early success and campaigned in Italy for fourteen years before the survivors withdrew. There was also extensive fighting in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa. The successful Roman invasion of the Carthaginian homeland in Africa in 204 BC led to Hannibal's recall. He was defeated in the battle of Zama in 202 BC and Carthage sued for peace. A treaty was agreed in 201 BC which stripped Carthage of its overseas territories and some of its African ones, imposed a large indemnity, severely restricted the size of its armed forces and prohibited Carthage from waging war without Rome's express permission. This caused Carthage to cease to be a military threat to Rome.

In 151 BC Carthage attempted to defend itself against Numidian encroachments; Rome used this as a justification to declare war in 149 BC, starting the Third Punic War. This conflict was fought entirely on Carthaginian territory in what is now Tunisia and centred on the siege of Carthage. In 146 BC the Romans stormed the city of Carthage, sacked it, slaughtered or enslaved its population and completely demolished the city. The Carthaginian territories were taken over as the Roman province of Africa. The ruins of the city lie east of modern Tunis on the North African coast.

The most reliable source for the Punic Wars is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. He is best known for The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible interviewed participants from both sides in the events he wrote about. He accompanied his patron and friend, the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, in North Africa during the Third Punic War; modern historians consider Polybius to have treated Scipio and his relatives unduly favourably, but the consensus is to accept his account largely at face value. Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious and insightful historian", while the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states that "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts". Polybius's work is considered broadly objective in spite of his pro-Roman point of view. The details of the wars in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account.

The other major source commonly used by modern historians, particularly where Polybius's account is not extant, is the Roman historian Livy. Livy relied heavily on Polybius, but wrote in a more structured way, with more details about Roman politics, as well as being openly pro-Roman. His accounts of military encounters are often demonstrably inaccurate; the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy says Livy's "reliability is often suspect", and the historian Philip Sabin refers to Livy's "military ignorance".

Other, later ancient histories of the wars also exist, often in fragmentary or summary form. Modern historians usually take into account the writings of various Roman annalists, some contemporary; the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus; and later writers such as Plutarch, Appian, and Dio Cassius. No primary sources written from a Carthaginian point of view have survived, although elements of some – such as Philinus of Agrigentum – can be found in the works of some of the pro-Roman writers, especially Polybius. Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions, such as the trireme Olympias.

The Roman Republic had been aggressively expanding in the southern Italian mainland for a century before the First Punic War. By 270 BC, when the last Greek cities of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) submitted after the conclusion of the Pyrrhic War, it had conquered all of peninsular Italy south of the Arno River. During this period of Roman expansion Carthage, with its capital in what is now Tunisia, had come to dominate southern Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), much of the coastal regions of North Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and the western half of Sicily in a maritime empire (a thalassocracy).