In the 3rd century BC, the Carthaginians were the dominant sea power in the Mediterranean, and their empire stretched from Spain to Tunisia. Meanwhile, the Romans had taken over the Italian Peninsula and had intentions to carry on expanding. But the wars began in Sicily around 280 BC when a band of Italian mercenaries, the Mamertines, began to ravage the land. The small Sicilian state of Syracuse attacked them, so the Mamertines asked the Carthaginians for help. The Carthaginians agreed, but the mercenaries did not like being under Carthaginian protection, so they formed an alliance with Rome. This new alliance put Rome at war with Carthage in 264 BC.

The Romans marched into Sicily, defeated Syracuse, and forced them to become their ally. Yet the Carthaginians, later under the command of Hamilcar, held out despite numerous losses. In 261 BC, the Romans then set about creating a navy to rival the Carthaginians, and for the next 20 years, fought the Carthaginians at sea. Roman naval successes left Carthage unable to fund the creation of new ships, so in 241 BC, they sued for peace with Rome, losing most of Sicily. The devastated economy of Carthage led to mercenaries revolting in the capital. It was eventually crushed, but the Romans took advantage of the uprising to annex Sardinia and Corsica.

In the aftermath of the revolt, the successful general in Sicily, Hamilcar, was disgruntled with the Senate, so he marched an army into Spain and brought a great deal of land under Carthaginian control. His son, Hannibal, eventually took control in 219 BC and attacked the town of Saguntum, a Roman ally. War broke out the next year, 23 years after the First Punic War ended. Hannibal took his powerful army overland to Italy and famously crossed the Alps with elephants. However, he lost most of his siege engines on the Alps and therefore couldn't take Rome itself. Meanwhile, a Roman army under Scipio marched west into Spain.

Over the next few years, Hannibal's army crushed the Romans in battle, notably at the Battle of Cannae, and devastated the countryside of southern Italy. So the Romans, under Fabius Maximus, avoided battles and tried to wear the Carthaginians down through a war of attrition. Meanwhile, the Romans were successful in Sicily. Syracuse allied themselves with Carthage, and the Romans laid siege to their capital. The city held out for a couple of years thanks to the innovations of the famed inventor Archimedes, but it eventually fell in 212 BC. But elsewhere, they weren't so successful in Spain. The Roman armies were defeated, and the commander Scipio was killed in 211 BC. Plus, they also had to deal with a new enemy at the outbreak of the Roman-Macedonian War.

However, the situation for the Romans eventually changed. In 210 BC, Scipio's son, later Scipio Africanus, landed an army in Spain and took New Carthage, the most important city in the region. With it, he gathered a great deal of supplies and allies and crushed the Carthaginian forces in Spain at the Battle of Ilipa in 206 BC. However, while Scipio Africanus was campaigning in Spain, Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal, decided to leave Spain and join his brother in the Italian campaign. He arrived in 207 BC, but the Romans were able to intercept him from joining forces with his brother by defeating him at the Battle of the Metaurus.

Now the Romans had the advantage. The Carthaginian defeats resulted in political uprisings in the Numidian tribe, a powerful ally of Carthage. A young prince aligned himself with Rome, and Rome took advantage of this situation. In 204 BC, Scipio Africanus was deployed to Africa to unite with the Numidians and fight the Carthaginians on their home front. The Romans devastated the Carthaginian forces at the Battle of the Great Plains. Now the Carthaginians were desperate, so they made peace with Rome and recalled Hannibal from Italy. However, Carthage quickly broke their armistice, so Scipio Africanus led his forces into battle against Hannibal at the Battle of Zama and crushed his army for one last time, ending the Second Punic War in 201 BC.

Carthage was stripped of its empire and reduced to a small Roman client state in modern-day Tunisia. Rome was now the dominant power in the Mediterranean, and over the next 50 years, expanded its empire a great deal. Finally, in 149 BC, they turned their attention to Carthage once more as they feared they could regain their strength. They declared war – the Third Punic War – and laid siege to the city. Three years later, the city had fallen. Rome destroyed the city, massacred hundreds of thousands, and sold the rest into slavery, ending Carthage forever.