Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were fought between Rome and Carthage in Rome. There were three different wars. The First Punic War was 264 - 241 BCE and it was naval battles for control of the strategically located island of Sicily; Rome won. The Second Punic War was 218 - 201 BCE. The Carthaginian general Hannibal almost takes Rome by attacking Rome from the north after crossing Iberia and the Alps. He lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he never can get to Rome; Rome wins again. The third and final Punic War was 149 - 146 BCE. Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage. Carthage was burned for 17 days, the city walls and buildings were destroyed. When the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery. The rest of Carthage’s territories were annexed and made into the Roman province of Africa. The slaves were poured into Italy and by the end of the second century BCE, there were over a million slaves in Italy. The small farmers lost their land to aristocrats if they couldn't pay their debts. The slaves worked on farms for the rich. The big farms became estates called latifundia.