First Punic War
(Most of what we know about this war comes from either Polybius or Livy):
By 274 BC, the Romans had taken over all of Italy. Then a Greek city that was NOT in Italy asked the Romans to help it out in a war.
Sicily seen from space (the tip of Italy is on the right)
A beach in Sicily
Now Sicily was divided in two parts. One part had Greek cities in it. The other part had Carthaginian cities. When the Carthaginians heard that the Romans were coming, they were afraid the Romans would try to conquer them, too. So they attacked the Romans. At first the Romans lost, because to go to Sicily you had to go in boats, and the Romans weren't very good sailors. But the Romans learned how to sail by capturing a Carthaginian (Punic) ship and copying it. And in the end they beat the Carthaginians and won the first Punic war. Now they took over the whole island of Sicily, and made all the cities pay taxes to Rome and have a Roman governor.
The Romans had not conquered the city of Carthage itself, which was in Africa. But the Romans made the people of Carthage pay the Romans a huge amount of money, to pay for the war.
To find out more about the First Punic War, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
The Ancient Roman World, by Ronald Mellor (2004). Straight political history, for middle schoolers.
Classical Rome, by John Clare (1993). For kids, the whole political history from beginning to end.
The Romans: From Village to Empire, by Mary Boatwright, Daniel Gargola, and Richard Talbert (2004). Okay, it's a little dry, but it is up to date and has all the facts you could want.
The First Punic War: A Military History, by J. F. Lazenby (1996). The only academic narrative account of the war in English.
The Second Punic War
Main Roman history page
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