How many Punic Wars were there?

Three. The First Punic War (264-241 BC) was fought mainly at sea over Sicily; the Second (218-201 BC) was Hannibal's war in Italy; the Third (149-146 BC) ended with the destruction of Carthage.

Why did Carthage lose to Rome despite Hannibal?

Hannibal won crushing victories in Italy, but Rome refused to surrender, drew on far deeper reserves of manpower, largely avoided pitched battle with Hannibal himself, and carried the war to Africa. Carthage could not match Rome's persistence or reinforce Hannibal effectively.

What happened to Carthage in the end?

In the Third Punic War Rome besieged and destroyed Carthage in 146 BC, burning the city, killing or enslaving its people and annexing its territory. Rome was left the unrivaled power of the western Mediterranean.

Hannibal Barca was Carthage's greatest general, who led an army over the Alps into Italy in the Second Punic War and destroyed a larger Roman army at Cannae in 216 BC in a famous double envelopment still studied today.

Did the Romans sow salt on Carthage?

No ancient source says so. Rome burned and razed the city in 146 BC, but the salting story appears to be modern: the historian R. T. Ridley traced it to a chapter in the Cambridge Ancient History published in 1930.

Rome vs Carthage: Why Rome Won the Punic Wars

Q: How long did the Punic Wars last?

The three wars spanned 118 years, from 264 to 146 BC, with about 43 years of actual fighting: 23 years in the first war, 17 in the second and 3 in the third.

Quick answer

Who won the Punic Wars, Rome or Carthage?

Rome won. Carthage had the better general in Hannibal, who crushed Rome at Cannae, but Rome had the deeper reserves and could lose battles without losing the war. Scipio finally beat Hannibal at Zama in 202 BC, and in 146 BC Rome razed Carthage to the ground, ending the rivalry of the three Punic Wars.

For more than a hundred years two cities fought for mastery of the western Mediterranean. Carthage was the older, richer sea power; Rome the rising land power of Italy. Their rivalry, the three Punic Wars, produced one of history's greatest generals and ended with one of the two cities wiped from the earth.¹

	Rome	Carthage
Home	Central Italy	North Africa, near modern Tunis
Strength	Citizen legions and deep reserves of manpower	A great navy and mercenary armies
The wars	The three Punic Wars, 264 to 146 BC	The three Punic Wars, 264 to 146 BC
First war	264 to 241 BC: naval victories off Mylae (260), Ecnomus (256) and the Aegates Islands (241)²	Gave up Sicily and paid 3,200 talents within ten years³
Warships lost, first war	About 700 quinqueremes, wrecks included	About 500 (both figures from Polybius)⁴
Second war	218 to 201 BC: beaten at the Trebia (218), Lake Trasimene (217) and Cannae (216); won at the Metaurus (207), Ilipa (206) and Zama (202)⁵	Kept only ten warships and paid 10,000 talents over fifty years⁶
Third war	149 to 146 BC: besieged, took and razed Carthage⁷	About 50,000 men and women surrendered at the end and were enslaved⁸
Manpower	Over 700,000 infantry and 70,000 cavalry fit to serve in 225 BC, Romans and allies together, according to Polybius⁹	Polybius gives no matching figure
Years at war	About 43 of the 118 years from 264 to 146 BC	The same 43 years
Turning point	Won the decisive battle at Zama, 202 BC	Came close under Hannibal, then lost at Zama
Outcome	Victor, and the Mediterranean superpower	Destroyed; the city was razed in 146 BC
Lasting legacy	An empire that shaped Europe	A warning of a great power undone

Key points

The two powers fought three Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BC.¹⁰
Carthage was the great naval and trading power; Rome's strength was its citizen legions and manpower.
Hannibal invaded Italy and crushed Rome at Cannae, yet could not win the war.
Rome ended the rivalry by razing Carthage to the ground in 146 BC.

Carthage: the sea power

Colored historical map of the western Mediterranean with Spain, Italy and North Africa and the routes of the Second Punic War — The Second Punic War on a map from Eduard Rothert's historical atlas of 1906, with Hasdrubal's march to Italy and an inset of the fighting around Capua in 215 BC. Public domain

Carthage, founded by Phoenician settlers in North Africa, was the dominant trading and naval power of the western Mediterranean, rich enough to hire large mercenary armies and field war fleets. Its greatest weapon was Hamilcar Barca's son Hannibal, who marched an army over the Alps into Italy and destroyed Roman armies at the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and, above all, Cannae in 216 BC, one of the worst defeats Rome ever suffered. Yet Carthage struggled to reinforce him, and its reliance on paid troops and distant campaigns left it vulnerable when the war turned.¹¹

Rome: the land power

Rome's strength was different: a deep pool of citizen and allied manpower that let it raise army after army even after catastrophic losses. Refusing to surrender after Cannae, Rome largely avoided pitched battle with Hannibal, wore him down in Italy, and carried the war to Spain and then Africa. Under Scipio it beat Hannibal at last on his own soil at Zama in 202 BC. Rome also learned to fight at sea, building fleets from scratch to break Carthaginian naval power.¹²

Black and white relief of a Roman galley with oars and armored soldiers standing on deck — A Roman warship with armed men on deck, carved on a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, as reproduced by Élisée Reclus in 1905. Public domain. Élisée Reclus, L'Homme et la Terre, 1905, via Wikimedia Commons.

Why Rome won

Carthage produced the greater single general, but Rome had the greater staying power. It could absorb defeats that would have ended most states, out-recruit its enemy, and turn the whole society to war. After two wars had broken Carthage's power, a fearful and vengeful Rome found a pretext for a third and destroyed the city utterly in 146 BC, selling the survivors into slavery and leaving the western Mediterranean wholly Roman. The rivalry's decisive battles, Cannae and Zama, rank among the greatest battles of ancient Rome.¹³

Painting of Roman soldiers straining at a huge wooden catapult in front of city walls — The Catapult by Edward Poynter, 1868: Roman soldiers work a siege engine against the walls of Carthage in the siege that ended with the city's destruction in 146 BC. Public domain

Could Carthage have won?

Possibly, but only in the years right after Cannae. Polybius writes that the battle made Carthage master of almost all the southern coast of Italy and left the Romans fearing for Rome itself. Yet the Latin colonies and central Italy stayed loyal, and Hannibal never had enough men to hold everything he had won.¹⁴

Carthage sent large forces to Spain and Sardinia rather than to Hannibal, choices that World History Encyclopedia counts among its strategic mistakes. Once Rome destroyed the relief army of Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal at the Metaurus in 207 BC, and Scipio drove the Carthaginians out of Spain at Ilipa in 206 BC, that chance was gone. How the two commanders compare is the subject of Hannibal vs Scipio.¹⁵

How long did the Punic Wars last?

The three wars spanned 118 years, from 264 to 146 BC, but Rome and Carthage were actually at war for about 43 of them: 23 years in the first war (264 to 241 BC), 17 in the second (218 to 201 BC) and 3 in the third (149 to 146 BC). Long periods of uneasy peace separated them.¹⁶

Polybius, who counted the years inclusively, called the first war twenty-four years of unbroken fighting, the longest and greatest war he knew of. In one sea battle, he writes, more than 500 quinqueremes took part, and in another nearly 700.¹⁷

What did Carthage have to pay Rome?

Each defeat cost Carthage more. In 241 BC it gave up Sicily and agreed to pay 3,200 talents within ten years; in 201 BC it handed over all but ten of its warships and accepted an indemnity of 10,000 talents spread over fifty years. The third war ended with no treaty at all, only the destruction of the city.¹⁸

According to Polybius, the first draft of the 241 BC peace asked for 2,200 talents over twenty years; the Roman people rejected it, and the commissioners sent to Sicily added 1,000 talents and halved the term. A few years later, weakened by the revolt of its unpaid mercenaries, Carthage also surrendered Sardinia and, by Polybius' account, paid a further 1,200 talents to avoid a new war. The peace of 201 BC fixed the payments at 200 talents a year and forbade Carthage to make war outside Africa at all, or in Africa without consulting Rome.¹⁹

Did Rome sow salt on the ruins of Carthage?

No ancient source says so. Rome burned the city in 146 BC, enslaved the survivors and laid a curse on anyone who would resettle the site, but no ancient writer mentions salt. The historian R. T. Ridley traced the story to a chapter written by B. L. Hallward for the Cambridge Ancient History in 1930.²⁰

Britannica likewise treats the salting as a later invention. Nor was the site abandoned forever: according to World History Encyclopedia, Carthage lay in ruins for more than a hundred years before it was rebuilt after the death of Julius Caesar.²¹

Carthage had the better general; Rome had the deeper reserves, and reserves won.

The verdict

Rome won because it could lose battles and still not lose the war. Hannibal's brilliance at Cannae was answered by Roman manpower and persistence, and sealed by Scipio at Zama. Explore the clash among the greatest ancient battles.

The verdict needs three caveats. Rome's victory was never certain: after Cannae, by Polybius' own account, the Romans feared for their city. It was bought at a vast price, including some 700 warships lost in the first war alone. And the final destruction of Carthage in 146 BC was not forced by any threat on the battlefield; it came more than half a century after Zama, against a city that had already given up its fleet and its overseas empire.²²

Test yourself on Cannae, Zama and the rest in the Roman battles quiz, or play today's Battle of the Day.