- the punic wars were started when the roman empire wanted to expand by conquering carthage and sicily which were both very wealthy port cities- the first punic war began when rome overtook sicily because they were doing inhuman things such as sacrificing children to their gods- the second punic war began when hannibal grows up hating rome and he collects his entire army to take over rome: they go through northern italy - rome hears of this plan and sneaks around carthage since they had no defense and quickly overtook carthage - the romans became the dominant power in the western mediterranean

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