It is known by the name of the Punic wars to the three armed conflicts that faced between years 264 a. C. and 146 a. C. to the two main powers of the western Mediterranean of the time: Rome and Carthage. Rome was victorious, and with this it became the most powerful state in the western Mediterranean, which added to the end of the Macedonian wars and the defeat of the Seleucid emperor Antiochus III Megas in the Roman-Syrian war in the eastern Mediterranean, converted the Roman Republic in the dominant power in the Mediterranean. The overwhelming defeat of Carthage meant a turning point that caused the knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean civilizations to pass to the modern world through Europe instead of Africa.
