Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage | World History | Khan Academy

- [Instructor] As we enter
into the 3rd Century BCE,

we see the Roman Republic
that was founded in 509 BCE

has now exerted control over most

of the Italian peninsula.

But it's not the only
power in the Mediterranean.

We have the remnants of
Alexander the Great's empire

and we also have the Carthaginians.

And you can see here in blue

that Carthage had an extensive empire

that controlled most of the
the western Mediterranean.

You can imagine, it was
only a matter of time

before they come into
conflict with each other.

It turns out they are
actually going to have

three significant wars.

Some historians view it
as the most significant

and largest scale wars

up to that point in history.

The first of these

happens in 264

BCE

and then it goes on for 23 years

to 241

BCE.

This is known as the First

Punic War.

You can see it on the
timeline right over here

going from 264

to 241,

right over there.

It's a result of a conflict

that starts between two
city-states in Sicily.

Sicily is this island right over here.

You have the city-state of Syracuse

which is a powerful

city originally established by the Greeks,

and it gets into a scuffle with Messana

which is another
city-state at the northern,

northeastern tip of Sicily.

Rome and Carthage, these two
great powers get embroiled

and it ends up being a conflict
over the island of Sicily

where Carthage already had a
foothold on the west coast.

What's interesting going into this war

is that Carthage had a powerful,

you could view it as
an empire over the sea.

It had a very powerful navy.

While Rome had a very powerful army.

Not really much of a navy, to speak of.

But as we'll see as we go
through the First Punic War,

that will change.

The first major battle
happens at Agrigentum,

I'm probably mispronouncing it here,

on Sicily.

The Romans are able to win decisively,

and then the Carthaginians,
you could imagine,

started to say,

"Well maybe we should
engage them more into sea."

That happens in 260 at the
Battle of Lipari Islands

which are right over here.

When the Romans get
defeated there, they say,

"Hey, maybe we need a
little bit more of a navy."

And so over the course
of these several decades,

you have

this continual fighting.

There are some Carthaginian
or Punic victories

we've talked about in previous video.

The word Punic is derived
from what the Romans

called the Carthaginians which is derived

from their roots as Phoenicians.

You have some Punic victories,
but for the most part,

Rome is successful.

And so, at the end of the First Punic War,

a few things happened.

You have Carthage leaves Sicily.

Carthage expelled

from

Sicily.

You have war indemnity.

Rome tells Carthage,
"Hey, you've gotta pay us

"for all of the damage you created."

This is difficult for Carthage because

a war cost Carthage a lot,

and Carthage, especially, it
didn't have citizen soldiers.

Its army was made up of ...

Its navy had citizen, I
guess you say, sailors.

But it's army was made
up mainly of mercenaries.

These are soldiers

who really, if you pay them enough,

they're gonna fight for you.

They don't really have allegiances

based on some type of
ideology or citizenship.

Carthage, as they went
through this many decades war,

they went ahead and pay
all these mercenaries.

They had their own cost.

And now, Rome is making
them pay indemnity.

War indemnity

to Rome.

The other, I guess you
could say side effect

of this First Punic War

is that it was a catalyst
for Rome building its navy.

Rome

builds

navy.

You can imagine especially the
cost of the First Punic War,

it becomes very difficult for Carthage.

It actually de-stabilizes Carthage.

A lot of the mercenaries,
when they're not paid

as they see they should
be, they actually rise up.

From 240 to 238, you have a Mercenary War.

So 240

to 238

BCE,

you have a Mercenary War.

Eventually, it's able to be
put down by the Carthaginians

but the side effect is
it weakens their hold

on Sardinian Corsica.

And so, by the end of the Mercenary War,

the map looks like this right over here.

You could view this map

as what the Mediterranean
looked like in 238

BCE.

Where you see now the Romans

not only have control of
the Italian peninsula,

they've gained control
over Corsica, Sardinia, and

Sicily.

Roman power is only going to increase

but the Carthaginians, this proud empire,

they're not done here.

In 218,

the Carthaginian general Hannibal,

the famous Hannibal, decides
to attack the Romans.

He does it in a unconventional way.

He attacks from the north.

He takes his army,
which includes elephants

through the Swiss Alps.

This is an artist depiction of

Hannibal's army with its
elephants going through

the Swiss Alps.

They're able to wreak havoc
over the Italian peninsula.

This goes on for roughly 15 years.

From

218

BCE

'til 201

BCE,

you have the Second Punic War.

Even though Hannibal's
able to wreak havoc for

over a decade on the Italian peninsula,

he's never able to fully
take control of Rome.

There's several explanations there.

One is that the people that he conquers

kept rising up against him.

They weren't just happy to be subjugated

by the Carthaginians,

by the Punics, I guess you could say.

And he never was able to
get as many reinforcements

as necessary to fully subjugate Rome.

By the end of the Second Punic War,

the Romans decide to take
the battle to Carthage.

In 202

BCE at the Battle of Zama,

the Romans are able to
decisively beat Hannibal.

Hannibal is called back
to defend the homeland

and he is defeated here at Zama.

In 201 BCE, you have the
end of the Second Punic War.

By that point, at the end
of the Second Punic War,

you now have

Rome in control

of significant chunks
of the Iberian peninsula

that used to be under control of Carthage.

And Carthage has really been reduced to a

client state of Rome.

This is roughly what the map looks like.

After this, Rome isn't happy.

This was a pretty ugly war.

Hannibal was here wreaking
havoc on the Italian peninsula.

He was almost successful
at taking over Rome.

He was an existential threat
to the Roman Republic.

Carthage essentially becomes
a client state of Rome.

They have to pay war indemnity.

They really can't have a
significant army anymore

or a significant navy.

Many people in Rome over
the next several decades

even though Carthage is weakened so much,

they start arguing,

"Hey, we should just
completely destroy this city

"because every time we destroy
them or at least we beat them

"we get into this peace treaty

"but then they get powerful again and then

"we get into a war with them."

These are very ugly wars.

Finally, in 149,

let me write this,

149

BCE

as Carthage is starting to
reassert a little bit of power,

it's trying to rebuild its military,

the Romans get scared.

They say, "You know what,
let's just finish them off

"once and for all."

They say, "All right."

They start to put very onerous
terms on the Carthaginians.

They say, "Hey, move
your city further inland.

"We don't want you to ever be a power."

The Carthaginians of course really can't.

They say, "Hey, we're just
gonna move our entire city

"and we're gonna cede to your demands."

And so the Romans used
that as grounds for attack.

From 149

BCE to 146

BCE,

you have the Third Punic War.

Which is really the one where

Rome goes to destroy Carthage,

and they are able to
destroy Carthage ending a

700-year

city-state, empire,
whatever you wanna call it.

The city of Carthage is utterly destroyed.

Its inhabitants are enslaved

which the Romans like to
do for subjugated people.

The city was burned in a very

systematic way for 17

days.

The Romans wanted to ensure that Carthage

could never rise up
again to threaten Rome.

After the Third Punic War,

the Romans are now the dominant empire

in the Mediterranean.

Not only did they control that,

what they controlled going
into the Third Punic War,

but now they controlled

Carthage's African colonies.

The same year, 146 BCE,

the Romans were also able
to take control of Greece.

As we exit out of the Third Punic War,

you now have a Rome

that is extremely powerful

and this Roman Republic is
starting to resemble this

empire.

It's not officially an empire yet.

It's still officially a republic,

but it's taking control of other people

so you could view it as an empire.

It's starting to take shape
as this major civilization

that will eventually control
the entire Mediterranean.