5/14/20

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place. naval battles for control of the strategically located island of Sicily, Rome wins this one. Second Punic War (218 - 201 BCE) 29-year-old Carthaginian general Hannibal almost does the impossible: taking Rome attacks Rome from the NORTH after crossing Iberia (Spain) and the Alps lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he never can get to Rome. Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and others mercilessly attacked the city, Carthage was burned for 17 days; the city’s walls and buildings were utterly 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. slaves poured into Italy (50,000 Carthaginians, 150,000 Greek POWs. By the end of the second century BCE there were over a million slaves in Italy. Small farmers lost their land to aristocrats (for little or no money) if they couldn’t pay their debts, sometimes because the men of the farm were fighting battles. Slaves did the work on the farms for the rich and the big farms became massive estates called latifundia.