Punic Wars

The first Punic War began almost accidentally. Carthaginians had controlled much of Sicily, but the Roman occupation of the southern tip of Italy created tension between the two civilizations. When a complicated dispute arose in the Carthaginian port city of Massena, the Romans intervened and thus the first Punic War began.

The Romans captured the great fortress of Acreages in the first three years of the war. Nevertheless, the Romans realized that to win the war, they must

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Therefore, Rome resolved to see the war to a satisfactory end and began building ships again, along with training crews and admirals in naval skills. What was to follow was the era of great Roman military generals who centralized power, eventually culminating in the creation of the position of Em-peror, supreme leader of the Roman Empire. For this was Hannibal’s masterstroke: Rather than driving from the south through Sicily into the Italian peninsula, he sought to circumvent both Roman sea power and Rome's Greek allies between the Ebro River and the Alps, and also to establish an enemy base in the northern heart of the Roman dominion. drive Carthage out of Sicily, and to do this, they had to have a sea fleet. Unfortunately, Sicily was at the center of the conflict and so it was nearly ruined by the long war and in particular by the cost of great sieges. With good fortune, the Roman first army might be closed in Africa, and destroyed there like that of Regulus in the First Punic War.

With the Second Punic War at an end, Rome stood as a new confident power, free of di-rect threats. Since the Romans excelled at hand-to-hand combat, bringing their tactics and skill to the watery surface allowed them to reign over this domain as well. Finally, when the Senate built its new fleet with private funds and su-perior crews; its primary purpose was to cut off supplies to Sicily. The first war was one of the most nautically-based wars in the ancient world.

For the Romans, the second war was to fall into stages like the first had gone before. However, Rome produced a navy of a hundred quinquiremes (small, square-rigged schooners) and twenty triremes (rowed ships that were more maneuverable) and equipped ships with a “secret weapon.

The Carthaginian strategy, on the other hand, consisted of strengthening impregnable de-fensive points, controlling the sea, and then allowing Rome to exhaust itself.

The Second Punic War

Still threatened by Rome less than fifty years after the first Punic War Carthage found it-self in an impossible position: It first had to fight just to regain the position it held before the war. But he established himself in southern Italy and he had secured possession of Campania.

Common topics in this essay:
Carthaginians Rome, Apennines Po, Roman Regulus, Punic Wars, Finally Senate, War Rome, Soon Hamilcar, River Alps, War Carthage, Carthage Sicily, punic war, punic wars, war romans, hamilcar barca, italian peninsula, enemy ship, roman army, punic war romans,

Approximate Word count = 1362
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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