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In 264 BC Rome was a land power and Carthage a thalassocracy ruling Mediterranean trade from modern Tunisia, until a mercenary dispute at Messana in Sicily dragged both into the 23-year First Punic War. Rome copied a stranded Carthaginian quinquereme, trained rowers on benches built on the beach, and invented the corvus, a 36-foot boarding bridge with an iron spike that turned sea fights into infantry fights. It won at Cape Ecnomus, among the largest naval battles in history, but lost more than 100,000 men when top-heavy ships capsized in a 255 BC storm. Defeated in 241 BC, Carthage fought the Mercenary War while Rome seized Sardinia and Corsica.

Hamilcar Barca built a new base in Iberia with silver mines and local warriors, and in 218 BC his son Hannibal attacked Saguntum and marched about 37,000 troops and 37 elephants over the Alps. He won at the Trebia and Lake Trasimene, then encircled a Roman army of about 80,000 at Cannae in 216 BC. Fabius Maximus avoided pitched battle, Scipio took New Carthage, won over the Numidian prince Masinissa and beat Hannibal at Zama in 202 BC. Fifty years later, with Cato the Elder ending every speech by calling for Carthage’s destruction, Rome disarmed the city, ordered it moved inland, and took it in 146 BC under Scipio Aemilianus.

• The tale that Rome sowed Carthage’s soil with salt is a 19th century myth.
• At Cannae at least 67,500 Romans were killed or captured in a single afternoon.
• After Cannae Rome banned public mourning, lowered the draft age and offered freedom to enslaved men who would fight.
• At Zama Scipio left open lanes so Hannibal’s 80 war elephants ran harmlessly through the Roman lines.
• Carthage surrendered 200,000 sets of armor and 2,000 catapults before Rome ordered its people 10 miles from the sea.