Why Did Carthage Become The Equal To Rome Research Paper

How did Carthage become almost the equal to Rome?

Introduction:

The Roman Republic was an ancient territory known for its people, people that would fight for passion, unity, and for the prosperity of their country. Carthage, in historic times, was known for its great rulers, especially of the likes of Hannibal. Both of these countries had a mindset on expansion. Both were the worst of rivals. And during the time of the Punic Wars, Carthage was on the brink of becoming the equal to Rome. In fact, during much of the war, it can be argued that Carthage was already stronger than the likes of Rome. Both powers had their strengths. They both had their weaknesses. All in all, this led to Rome becoming a naval power, and eventually taking the best

According to Illustrated History of the Roman Empire, “The beginnings of Carthage date back to the Phoenicians, who were a people in the Middle East inhabiting Phoenicia, the region known as Lebanon. The Phoenicians established themselves as a sea-faring people early on, dominating much of the sea trade of the Mediterranean (Illustrated History, n.d.).” And speaking of Phoenicians, the name Punic, the term given for the Punic Wars, comes for the Latin word Punicus (aka Poenicus), which means Carthaginian. This was a reference to the Carthaginians’ Phoenician lineage (Sidwell, 1997). The reason why I mention this history is because the only way to describe how Carthage almost became the equal of Rome, one would have to look at the details of the Punic Wars. It should be noted that Carthage was the dominant merchant nation of the Mediterranean at the time. The buying and selling of Carthage made it a wealthy and very powerful nation that no doubt was bound to become rivals with Rome, whom was on the verge of expansion within the

So a better question to be asked is not how did Carthage become almost the equal of Rome, but how did Carthage fall from its equality?! As he states, “In comparing these two great rivals of the West, we might say that they were nearly equal in strength and resources. Carthage had greater wealth, but Rome had a better organization. Carthage had a more powerful navy, but Rome had a more efficient army. Carthage had more brilliant leaders, while Rome had a more steadfast body of citizens. The main strength of Carthage rested in her wealth and commercial resources, while that of Rome depended upon the character of her people and her well-organized political system. The greatness of the Carthaginians was shown in their successes, while the greatness of the Romans was most fully revealed in the dark hours of disaster and trial (Morey,