The Punic Wars: A “Clash Of Civilizations” In Antiquity

The conflict that opposed the Carthaginians, called puny by the Romans, and the Eternal City, was one of epic proportions, similar to the Iliad, because, just as in the Iliad one of the combatants was removed forever, not only from the political game of the region, but also from history. The Punic Wars lasted long, the reason/stake was actually the control of the Mediterranean Sea, one of the most important spheres of influence in Antiquity.

These military clashes followed the patterns of a genuine “clash of civilizations”, there was a confrontation of two civilizations with their military blocks, interests, mentalities, technologies, logistics, strategies and manner of belligerence. The two civilizations, one of money, the other of pragmatism, opposed once again, after the Iliad and the Greco-Persian wars, the Orient (and North Africa) with the West, thus redrawing the map of the world power.

The winner in this “clash” was Rome, by the perseverance, tenacity and national unity of its army to the detriment of Carthage, a civilization of money, equally pragmatic, but lacking national political unity. So the West was victorious, changing the Roman winners in the super-power of the ancient world, a sort of gendarme of the world around the Mediterranean Sea which was turned into a Roman lake (Mare Nostrum.)