How long did the Punic Wars last?
The Punic Wars are a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 BC.[1] They were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient world.[2] The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus), meaning “Carthaginian”, with reference the Carthaginians’ Phoenician ancestry. The main cause of the Punic Wars was the clash of interests between the existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman Republic. The Romans were initially interested in expansion via Sicily, part of which lay under Carthaginian control. At the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was the rapidly ascending power in Italy, but lacked the naval power of Carthage. By the end of the third war, after more than a hundred years and the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome had conquered Carthage’s empire and razed the city, becoming the most powerful state
