Punic Wars

 

Rome fought two vicious wars with Carthage, a city on the north coast of Africa, between 264 BCE and 146 BCE. The wars were called the Punic Wars because Punica was the Roman name for  Phoenicia. The Romans initiated the first Punic War in order to gain control of Sicily, an island off the southwest tip of the *Italian peninsula. Carthage tried to seek revenge in the Second Punic War. A young general named Hannibal attacked Rome by leading an army of elephants over the Alps and into Italy. Hannibal defeated the Roman army, but was unable to take the whole city. The Romans won the war after Hannibal was recalled to Carthage.

 

Fifty years after the Second Punic War, Rome’s leaders decided to destroy Carthage. When Rome defeated Carthage, the soldiers slaughtered the people and poured salt over the Carthaginian farmland to ensure that crops could no longer grown. Many historians suggest that the brutality of the Romans can only be compared to the acts of the German Nazis in the twentieth century.