As they pushed southward, incorporating the southern Italian peninsula into their growing territory, the Romans confronted another great power in the western Mediterranean, the Carthaginians. The city of Carthage had been founded by Phoenicians as a trading colony in the eighth century B.C.E. (see Chapter 2). By the fourth century B.C.E., the Carthaginians began to expand their holdings. They had one of the largest navies in the Mediterranean and were wealthy enough to hire mercenaries to do much of their fighting. At the end of a long string of wars, the Carthaginians had created and defended a mercantile empire that stretched from western Sicily to the western end of the Mediterranean (see Map 5.1).

Beginning in the fifth century B.C.E., the Romans and the Carthaginians made a series of treaties with one another that defined their spheres of influence, and they worked together in the 270s B.C.E. to defeat Pyrrhus. But the Greek cities that became Roman allies in southern Italy and Sicily saw Carthage as a competitor in terms of trade. This competition led to the first of the three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. The First Punic War lasted for twenty-three years (264–241 B.C.E.) and ended with the Romans in possession of Sicily, which became their first real province.

The peace treaty between Rome and Carthage brought no peace because both powers had their sights set on dominating the western half of the Mediterranean. In 238 B.C.E., the Romans took advantage of Carthaginian weakness to seize Sardinia and Corsica. The Carthaginians responded by expanding their holdings in Spain under the leadership of the commander Hamilcar Barca. In the following years, Hamilcar and his son-in-law Hasdrubal (HAHZ-droo-buhl) subjugated much of southern Spain and in the process rebuilt Carthaginian power. Rome first made a treaty with Hasdrubal, setting the boundary between Carthaginian and Roman interests at the Ebro River, and then began to extend its own influence in Spain.

In 221 B.C.E., Hamilcar’s son Hannibal became the Carthaginian commander in Spain and laid siege to Saguntum (suh-GUHN-tum), a Roman-allied city that lay within the sphere of Carthaginian interest and was making raids into Carthaginian territories. The Romans declared war, claiming that Carthage had attacked a friendly city. So began the Second Punic War. In 218 B.C.E., Hannibal marched an enormous army from Spain across what is now France and over the Alps into Italy. Once there, he defeated one Roman army after another and, in 216 B.C.E., he won his greatest victory at the Battle of Cannae (KAH-nee). Hannibal then spread devastation throughout the Italian peninsula, and a number of cities in central and southern Italy rebelled against Rome. Yet Hannibal was not able to win areas near Rome in central Italy because Roman allies there, who had been extended citizenship rights, remained loyal. Hannibal’s allies did not supply him with enough food and supplies to sustain his troops, and Rome fought back.

In 210 B.C.E., Rome found its answer to the problem of Hannibal in the young commander Scipio Africanus. In the years following 210 B.C.E., Scipio operated in Spain, which in 207 B.C.E. he had wrested from the Carthaginians. That same year, the Romans sealed Hannibal’s fate in Italy. At the Battle of Metaurus, the Romans destroyed a major Carthaginian army coming to reinforce Hannibal. Scipio then struck directly at Carthage itself, prompting the Carthaginians to recall Hannibal from Italy to defend their homeland.

In 202 B.C.E., at the town of Zama near Carthage (Map 5.2), Scipio defeated Hannibal in a decisive battle. The Carthaginians sued for peace and the Roman Senate agreed.

The Second Punic War contained the seeds of still other wars. Unabated fear of Carthage combined with the encouragement of Cato the Elder led to the Third Punic War, a needless conflict that ended in 146 B.C.E. when Scipio Aemilianus, the grandson by adoption of Scipio Africanus, destroyed the hated rival and burned Carthage to the ground.

During the war with Hannibal, the Romans had invaded the Iberian Peninsula, an area rich in material resources and the home of fierce warriors. They met with bloody and determined resistance. Not until 133 B.C.E., after years of brutal and ruthless warfare, did Scipio Aemilianus finally conquer Spain. Scipio’s victory meant that Roman language, law, and culture would in time permeate this entire region, although it would be another century before the Iberian Peninsula was completely pacified.