The Carthage and Roman Wars

¶ … Second Punic War The Punic wars, a total of three wars were violent clashes that took place between Rome and Carthage and spanned across a timeline of almost a Century starting from 264 BC and ending in 146 BC with the destruction of Carthage. During this time, Rome had established itself as the dominant power across the Italian Peninsula while Carthage was a powerful city state that was in Northern Africa had developed itself into a strong maritime power in the world at the time.

In the context of this discussion however, the second Punic war will be the area of focus and in particular the causes of the war. In the years leading to 237 BC, Rome had taken over the control of Sardinia and Corsica. However, Carthage managed to establish another base of influence in Spain in 237 BC with the leadership of general Hamilcar Barca and after his death under his son-in-law called Hasdrubal.

As put by Livy and Polybius in their account of the second Punic war, Hamilcar hated Rome so much that he ensured his hate was perpetuated through his son Hannibal who he made to swear a blood oath to be an enemy of Rome while Hannibal was still a young boy. Barca died in 229 BC and the leadership of the army went to Hasdrubal who also died a few years later in 221 BC. Hannibal took over the leadership of Carthaginian army.

Two years after he took over the leadership of the army, he led the Carthaginian army into Saguntum across the Ebro River which was an Iberian city under the protection of Romans, an act that effectively meant declaration of war against Rome. Hannibal led as many as 90,000 infantry, 12,000 Calvary and several elephants into Italy where they achieved a lot of victory in many areas like in Ticinus, Trasimene and in Trebia.

The most significant achievement of Hannibal's army was in 216 BC where his better trained cavalry surrounded a Roman army despite it being twice the size of the Hannibal army and they inflicted massive damages to the army. However, the Roman army, under Publius Cornelius Scipio was able to recollect itself and repel the Carthaginian army and also mark several victories in North Africa and in Spain. By 203 BC Hannibal's forces were forced to retreat from Italy and concentrate on defending their hold on North Africa.

The massive loss that the Hannibal army suffered in the second Punic War effectively marked the end of the Carthage empire and leaving Rome in control of Spain with the Carthage retaining its control only in North Africa (Tufts University, n.d). One of the major causes of the second Punic war was the supremacy struggle between Rome and Carthage over the Western Mediterranean region.

The Carthaginian dominion was growing in Spain and the establishment of the Carthaginian army in the Spanish Peninsula as was initiated by Barca was a cause of worry for Roman army hence the war easily broke out as a control measure to the expansion and influence of the Carthaginian army. The war skills and courage that Hannibal had was also a cause of the second Punic war since the great Roman army felt that the extra ordinary war skills and confidence that Hannibal had was a reason to be worried.

Roman army had to get into war in order to have the chance to tame the influence of Hannibal. With Carthage entrusting their future into the hands of a great warrior, and on the other side the Romans having support of a courageous group of people, the second Punic war was inevitable (Morey W.C., 1901). The second Punic war also had significant roots in the first Punic war since the Carthaginian army, under Barca were forced to surrender regions such as Sicily, Corscica and Sardinia.

This left Barca bitter and a sworn enemy of Rome. In order to redeem himself, Barca with his army set out on an expansionist mission in the Southern Spain in order to get the resources to pay the fine money imposed on them at the and of firs Punic war by Romans. This expansionist mission made Romans to fear that the North Italian tribes like Lugurians and Gallic might join up with Barca and deal a defeating blow to them.

This precarious situation made war inevitable since Rome was determined to ensure that Carthaginian army.