1. The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage.

2. But even as early as the Punic Wars the sense of citizenship was being undermined by the growth of wealth and slavery.

3. Both entered epic foreign struggles to protect weak allies from threatening aggressors (for Rome, the Punic Wars with Carthage, 264 BC–146 BC; for America, the struggle to save Europe, 1918–19.

4. Carthage was a Phoenician city-state on the coast of North Africa (the site of modern-day Tunis) which, prior the conflict with Rome known as the Punic Wars (264-146 BCE), was the largest, most affluent, and powerful political entity in the Mediterranean.