Why was Rome at a disadvantage in the First Punic War? The Start of the First Punic War: On the island of Sicily, the people of Messina were in a conflict with the Kingdom of Syracuse, and in the mid-260s BC, the people of Messina asked for help from both Carthage and Rome. With...
In the south of Spain Cadiz (Gades) was a Phoenician city. The, by then, Carthaginian domain in Spain was much expanded by Hamilcar Barca, the father of the great Hannibal (247-183 BC), in the time between the First (264-241) and Second (218-201) Punic Wars with Rome. In the ...