Punic war and its influence on roman domination of mediterranean Essay

Punic war and its influence on roman domination of mediterranean - Essay Example The Romans developed a system of written communication and numbers that are still in use today and, with this ability to record information, were also able to develop elaborate feats of technology. They introduced the concept of civil engineering and developed many new forms of architectural design such as the Roman arch. They were able to exert this type of long-range influence thanks largely to their successes experienced during the Punic Wars. To understand the tremendous influence the Romans were able to garner out of these victories, it is necessary to have some background into the three wars that are collectively referred to as the Punic Wars, the reach of this influence and the way in which this influence managed to dominate the thinking and culture of what has become known as the ‘Western’ world. The first Punic War was fought on the island of Sicily in 264 BC (Hooker, 1996). However, the beginning of the war seems somewhat confused. â€Å"Carthage occupied the Sicilian town of Massana in 264 BC, after the Mamertines, a group of mercenaries, appealed to Carthage for help against Hiero II, king of Syracuse (a Sicilian city-state). This concerned Rome, since Massana is in the northeast corner of Sicili, very near the Greek towns of Italy which fell under Roman protection. Once the problem with Heiro II was solved, the Mamertines appealed to Rome for aid in fighting off the Carthaginians† (Stackhouse, 2007). While Carthage looked forward to winning a new port placed in an ideal position for achieving domination over the entire Mediterranean, Rome felt winning the city would provide them with a strong location for land defense. â€Å"Although the two powers had no quarrel before, they also had no shared racial or cultural heritage† (Stackhouse, 2007). With Rome bes ieging the cities, Carthage opted to break