Rome and Carthage: The Struggle for the Mediterranean

Introduction

Carthage and Rome were the two dominant superpowers in their time. Rome was so emboldened by her early victories with the Etruscans, the Italians, and the Latins that she ventured to expand her empire towards the Mediterranean and encountered Carthage, wealthy and powerful nation in the northern shore of Africa. Rome waged a series of three wars with Carthage which history now termed as the Punic wars (Wikipedia, 2017). The struggle was for the control of the Mediterranean which at that time was a major trading hub between the East and the West. Carthage was the first foreign power that Rome encountered outside of Italy. Rome eventually won the Punic wars, became a strong naval force in the Mediterranean, successfully

Rome’s military strength lies in the number of citizens and allies that were loyal to Rome and were willing to go to war with her. The Roman Empire incorporated its citizens and allies in its organized and well planned ambition to expand and conquer the Mediterranean. As they kept creating loyal citizens and allies, Rome grew a bigger, more powerful army that outnumbered the Carthaginians. One advantage of the Carthaginian government, though, is that contrary to that of Rome, the Carthaginian’s military commander is headed by a permanent military leader instead of the civil magistrates in Rome. Thus, in the beginning, Carthage was successful in its conquest of the western

Carthage and Rome both were significant enough to be great rivals of the west., they both were roughly equal in strength because of their direction to expand, conquer additional territories, and control the Mediterranean. Although they were both equal in strength, Rome’s better structure and political system, and its newly built naval fleet contributed to the downfall of the once mighty Carthaginian Empire. The Roman Empire became the mistress of the Mediterranean and eventually became a world