A long time ago, a big fight broke out between Rome and Carthage.

Carthage and Rome had never liked each other.

Both cities were busy building empires of their own. Carthage had grown into a huge empire. 

Carthage had a strong army, a strong navy, and a strong government. 

First Punic War

 One day, Rome looked at how big Carthage was getting. The problem, as Rome saw it, was that Carthage controlled three islands in the coast of Italy. Rome decided that Carthage needed to join the Republic. Carthage disagreed. Carthage and Rome fought for 20 years. This was the first Punic War. Nobody won but many people had died.

To end the fighting, Carthage offered Rome a deal. Carthage

said: “If you’ll go away and leave us alone, we’ll give you the island of Sicily.” Rome took the deal. But they also took Sardinia and Corsica, the other two islands in the coast of Italy. 

Carthage was furious.

Hannibal But because they were tired of fighting Rome.

Carthage decided to fight Spain, conquered by Romans. 

A general took his army and his nine-year-old son, Hannibal, and left for Spain. Before he left home, he made his son swear that as soon as he was old enough, Hannibal would fight the Romans. Hannibal promised. That was the beginning of the legend of Hannibal, military genius.

 

Hannibal, a clever leader Over the next several years, while fighting in Spain,

Hannibal learned to be a strong leader. Hannibal won most of his battles by coming up with clever ideas. 

One time, while fighting at sea, Hannibal had his men drop barrels full of snakes onto the deck of an enemy ship. The enemy wasn’t prepared to fight snakes. Hannibal won that battle easily.

2nd Punic war       A few years after his Dad died, the soldiers in Spain chose

Hannibal to be their new general. He was only 26 years old.

Hannibal had never forgotten the promise he had made to his father. He decided to attack Rome from the north. Rome would never expect that.  Hannibal’s plan was to march 90,000 soldiers and 37 elephants from Spain, over the Alps, into Italy, and then take Rome by force. 

His plan did not work as expected. The route was more difficult that he had expected. He lost nearly all his elephants and half his men on the trip. He expected people in Northern Italy to help him. They did help him by leaving him alone, but they would not join his army.

Hannibal came up with a new plan. Instead of marching on Rome, he drove Rome crazy by attacking smaller cities and stealing food and weapons. Hannibal and his men stayed on the Italian peninsula for 15 years, causing trouble where he could. 

3rd Punic War• In 203 BCE, Rome decided to attack

Carthage instead of fighting Hannibal. Carthage, in a panic, called Hannibal home.

• Romans destroyed Carthage and all their territory became part of the Roman Empire.

The End of Hannibal• Hannibal spent the rest of his life fighting the growing power of Rome. The Romans never stopped looking for him. In spite of all their best efforts, the Romans did not catch up with Hannibal until he was 64 years old! Even then, they didn’t get him. He chose to die by swallowing the poison he kept

     in his ring. 

Answer the questions.

• What was the reason to start fighting?• Which empires were involved?• Who was Hannibal?• How did he fight Romans?• What marked the end of the Punic wars?• Write a short paragraph describing Hannibal.