by Piyumal Wijeratne

Created on: February 22, 2009   Last Updated: February 23, 2009

The Punic wars were a series of wars between Carthage which was the dominant power of the western Mediterranean by 264 BC and the Roman republic which was expanding by that time. These wars were fought between 264 BC and 146 BC. This series of three wars caused thousands of deaths and Rome emerged victorious in all three wars.

The first Punic war was fought from 264 BC to 241 BC partly in Sicily and partly in Africa. This was mainly a series of naval battles. This war began as a conflict between Hiero II of Syracuse and the Mamertines of Messina. In this conflict the Mamertines requested help from both Rome and Carthage. The Romans arrived in Messina before the Carthaginian navy and this angered the Carthaginians.

The Romans started to capture Sicily and Carthage lost the Battle of Agrigentum in a disasterous manner. Carthage then focused their attention on sea as they had a powerful navy which the Romans did not have. Romans lost the Battle of the Lipari Islands in 260 BC. But this was only a temporary setback and the Romans quickly formed a navy of 100 warships within two months.

The Romans used a new device called the assault bridge in their ships and this made it possible for the Romans to board the Carthaginian ships and capture them. The Roman navy was victorious in every engagement except the Battle of Tunis and two other engagements. Carthage finally signed a peace treaty with Rome offering the Romans total control over Sicily. This defeat led to a revolt of the mercenary troops of Carthage. Rome took this opportunity to seize control over the islands Corsica and Sardinia.

After the victory of the mercenary war by Carthage there emerged two factions in Carthage. One was the reformist faction led by Hamilcar Barca and the other was the more conservative faction led by Hanno the great. Eventually Hamilcar Barca left Carthage for Iberian Peninsula. Hamilcar captured some Silver mines in Iberia and he started the Iberian conquest. After Hamilcar died in battle Hasdrubal the fair took command of the forces in Iberia and he planned to invade Rome with the help of Celts. Romans invaded the Po region and Hasdrubal was killed in the meantime. Then Hannibal Barca took control in Iberia and started the next Punic war by attacking the city of Saguntum.

Hannibal was a great commander and he understood the weaknesses of the Roman cavalry and made his cavalry stronger to face them. He won a lot of battles including the Battle of the Trebia, the Battle of Lake Trasimene

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