Why do you think the Punic Wars are important to Rome's history?

Answer 1

In order to know fought between the two strongest contenders for control over the central Mediterranean Sea of the time. For a long time during the second Punic war, it could seem that Carthage would become the victor. The wars ended with a strong destruction of Carthage, that ended the city's period as an independent power house and a important trade centre. However, the city would later became an important trading centre inside the Roman Empire.

Answer 2

There were three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. Carthage was a Phoenician city in Tunisia which had a large trading empire in the western Mediterranean and a powerful fleet.

Each war had a different cause. Tension created in Sicily by mercenaries who had seized a city on the east coast lead to a war which developed into a struggle over the control of Sicily. The Second War was precipitated by the desire of Hannibal, a Carthaginian general, to take revenge for the first war and for Rome fraudulently seizing Sardinia (a Carthaginian possession) taking advantage of Carthage being busy with a military revolt there after that war. He wanted to attack Italy and Rome. In the third war Rome wanted to destroy Carthage to destroy her rival.

Rome won all the three wars. She destroyed Carthage and took over her possessions, Corsica, Sardinia, western Sicily, southern Spain, Tunisia and western Libya. In the course of the wars Rome also developed the most powerful fleet in the western Mediterranean. She became the overlord of that part of that sea.

During the second war, Rome also fought a war in Greece against a king who had allied with Hannibal. This war started a process through which Rome eventually took over mainland Greece. This, in turn, later also led to Rome's expansion into Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Judea.

The Punic wars marked the beginning of Rome becoming the dominant power in the whole of the Mediterranean and a period of large scale imperial expansion. Moreover, in the second war, Rome was put under enormous military stress and suffered tens of thousands of casualties at the hands of Hannibal during his campaign in Italy. Memories of this endured.

Answer 3

Winning them established Rome's dominance of the Western Mediterranean.