Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were very monumental wars in Rome's history. There were three wars, lasting from 264- 146 BCE and the wars were all fought between the Roman soldiers and the Carthage soldiers. The first punic war occurred from 264-241 BCE. During this war, the Carthage's and the Romans fought for Sicily, an island in Rome. Rome luckily is victorious against Carthage, but will this victory continue? In the second punic war, occurring from 218-201 BCE we are introduced to Hannibal. Hannibal was part of the Carthage army and his goal of this war was to take Rome. He almost succeeds by using elephants to cross the Alps and Iberia so he can take a different way into Rome by going north. However, Rome is still too strong and won't go down that easily. The most Hannibal succeeds at is sieging Rome for 15 years. After these first two wars, Rome was fed up with the Carthage's. The goal of this final Punic war (149-146 BCE) was for Rome to get rid of them once and for all. The Romans attacked the Carthage city and set it on fire for 17 days. After the burning, Rome won (obviously) and all of the Carthage citizens were sold into slavery in Italy and its territories were taken by Rome. After the war, millions of slaves occupied Italy and many worked on the rich people's farms who took their land from in-debt farmers. The slaves and extra land led to large farms called latifundia to be created in Rome. Rome benefitted greatly from these wars and they were finally safe.