The Punic Wars

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Three wars between Rome and Carthage (264-241, 218-201, 149-146 BCE) that turned an Italian land power into a naval and overseas one. Rome acquired Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Spain, built a fleet essentially from nothing, survived Hannibal's invasion of Italy, and finally destroyed Carthage in 146 BCE. This is the point at which the Mediterranean stops being a contested space and starts becoming Roman interior water. Casualty figures and fleet sizes reported by Polybius and later authors are large and not independently verifiable.

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