The Pinic Wars: The Punic Wars

The Punic wars are a series of three wars fought between the Romans and Carthaginians. The result of the first two Punic wars was Carthage being left in a much weaker state than before, the mass Roman importation of slaves, and an increased mentality of expansion and dominance over the Mediterranean. The result of the third war was that Carthage was completely eradicated and that the main threats to Rome were now internal issues created during the first two wars.
Carthage is a city built on trade, especially overseas trade, and as such they built a substantial navy to complement that. At the beginning of the first Punic war, Rome had no substantial navy to be a threat to the Carthaginians, but as the war went on Rome built their first great

However, this changed after the Punic wars. A shift in power occurred which made it so that the Senate now controlled Rome’s military, and with that the power of declaring war and making peace, along with control over decisions on foreign matters and policies. This dominance in power led to a spiral of corruption and political violence that led to the deaths of politicians such as Tiberius and Gaius Gracchi, slave rebellions, and civil unrest amongst the common people. Eventually this violence would be curbed by reforms set by Lucius Sulla, who with an iron fisted approach, would rise to dictatorship, and use his unlimited power to reconstruct Roman government to fit his vision of the perfect republic. His actions would eventually inspire Julius Caesar to declare himself dictator for life, which later led Augustus establishing himself as the first emperor. So in a sense, you could say the the internal strife caused by the division between slaves, commoners, and the rich set the foundations of the political events that would lead to the first