ConflictEurope

The Punic Wars

265 BCE – 147 BCE

Hannibal crosses the Alps, and Rome becomes a great power

In depth

At Cannae in 216 BCE Hannibal encircled an army twice the size of his own and destroyed it — the battle is still studied as the classic double envelopment. Rome won even so, because it could lose armies and raise new ones. The wars transformed Rome from within: the farmers who made up the army lost their land, great slave-worked estates took over, and the social imbalance this created eventually felled the Republic.

For children

Hannibal marched from Spain over the Alps with elephants and beat the Romans again and again on their own soil. Carthage nevertheless lost in the end. Rome burned the city and became master of the whole Mediterranean.

Connects to

Carthage815 BCE – 147 BCE
The Roman Republic510 BCE – 28 BCE
Caesar assassinatedOct 46 BCE

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org