The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and the Phoenician city of Carthage. They are known as the "Punic" Wars because Rome's name for Carthaginians was Punici (older Poenici, due to their Phoenician ancestry).
The First Punic War was fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic from 264 BC to 241 BC. It was the first of three major wars between these two ancient world super powers for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea and control of Sicily. After 23 years of conflict, Rome won and imposed heavy conditions to sign a peace with Carthage.
Rome won the First Punic War after 23 years of conflict and in the end replaced Carthage as the major power in the Mediterranean. In the aftermath of the war, both states were financially and demographically exhausted. Rome's victory was mostly due to its persistence in not admitting defeat or accepting anything but total victory. Moreover, the Republic's ability to attract private investment in the war effort by playing on their citizens' patriotism to fund ships and crews was one of the deciding factors of the war, particularly when contrasted with the Carthaginian nobility's apparent unwillingness to risk their fortunes for the common good.
The Second Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome from 218 to 204 BC. It was the second of three major wars fought between the Phoenician colony of Carthage, and the Roman Republic, then still confined to the Italian Peninsula.
Iberia was lost to Carthage forever, and she was reduced to a client state. A war indemnity of 10,000 talents was imposed, her navy was limited to 10 ships to ward off pirates, and she was forbidden from raising an army without Rome's permission. Numidia took the opportunity to capture and plunder Carthaginian territory. Half a century later, when Carthage raised an army to defend itself from these incursions, it was destroyed by Rome in the Third Punic War.
Hannibal was one of the few survivors of the battle of Zama and escaped to the east, ending up at Antiochus III' court in Syria. Whilst residing there, Hannibal again met Scipio, who asked him who he believed to be the greatest general of all time. Hannibal replied "Alexander the Greek". Scipio then asked him who was the second greatest general of all time; "Myself" replied Hannibal. Scipio then asked what would have happened if Hannibal had beaten him at the battle of Zama, to which he replied "Then I would be the greatest general of all time". Rome feared him until the day he died, which was probably unwarranted, but together with Philip's attack on Italia resulted in great suspicion of the Hellenistic kingdoms, leading to further wars and eventually their conquest.
The Third Punic War was fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic from 149 BC to 146 BC. This was the last in a series of three wars.
The Carthaginians endured the siege from 149 BC to 146 BC, when Scipio Aemilianus took the city by storm. Many Carthaginians died from starvation during the latter part of the siege, while many others died in the final six days of fighting. When the war ended, the remaining 50,000 Carthaginians (perhaps a tenth of the original pre-war population) were sold into slavery.
The city was systematically burned for somewhere between 10 and 17 days. Then the city walls, its buildings and its harbor were utterly destroyed and the surrounding territory was supposedly sown with salt to ensure that nothing would grow there again. The sowing may have been merely a symbolic curse against Rome's defeated enemy, or the account may be entirely invented; it does not appear in the records of the war, and historians today dispute whether it actually happened.