When we think of Rome in the ancient world, we tend to think of the massive military empire that eventually stretched across three continents. We think of the Senate, Julius Caesar, and Brutus.

What we don’t think of is the Rome of the Republic, which barely managed to control the Italian peninsula south of the Alps and which felt threatened by the massive Carthaginian Empire. In fact, it’s fair to say that many of us have forgotten Carthage altogether. (READ MORE from Aubrey Gulick: The Kansas Prelude to America’s Deadliest War)

In the third century B.C., Rome was doing quite well. It had just won the Pyrrhic War against the Greek king of Epirus (Carthage had helped) and was hungry for expansion and empire. Its position jetting out into the Mediterranean made it the perfect seat for a fundamentally Mediterranean empire — but it wasn’t the only city with that advantage.

If you look at a map of the Mediterranean in 240 B.C. you’ll notice something interesting. Sicily — Italy’s soccer ball — nearly touches a protrusion of Africa. At the tip of that protrusion is a city: Carthage. The Carthaginian empire hemmed in the Italian peninsula. It ran all along the coast of Africa, claimed many of the islands (including parts of Corsica and Sardinia), and crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into southern Spain.

Sicily had been a tough nut for Carthage to crack (its inhabitants had no intention of becoming anyone’s satellite state), but it had nearly established its control of the island in 264 B.C. when Rome showed up to claim the island for its own. Carthage fought back, and the war — the First Punic War — was brutal.

Sicily is rugged and mountainous, which makes staging a battle difficult — in 23 years there were just two staged battles. Nonetheless, both sides poured all they had into the island, both in finances and manpower. With both sides on the brink of bankruptcy, Carthage tapped out and signed a treaty. Twenty-three years later, they were back at it. (READ MORE: The Secret to Winston Churchill’s Greatness)

If you are familiar with the Punic Wars, this is the era you probably think of. Rome and Carthage had been fighting via mercenaries — which is the perfect way to accidentally stumble into a war — and so when their navies skirmished around Sicily, and Rome took the island of Malta, war broke out again.

This time, the Carthaginian general Hannibal thought he had a strategy that would work. He marched some 37 elephants, 20,000 infantrymen, and 6,000 cavalry through Spain and down the Alps hoping to strike at the heart of the beast. He made friends with the German barbarians and waded into Italy. Few Romans had seen elephants and the war went sideways quickly. For a few years, it was all Rome could do to survive. Then came Publius Cornelius Scipio.

Scipio figured the easiest way to get rid of Hannibal was to invade Carthage. If the city felt threatened, it would recall its greatest general. The plan worked — and eventually (after some skirmishing), Scipio signed a treaty that effectively reduced Carthage to a wealthy trading outpost with no empire. But Rome wasn’t done with Carthage. In 149 B.C., the embittered and still angry Romans laid siege to the city, demanding that it be burned. Three years later, on Feb. 5, 146 B.C., (traditionally) Scipio’s adopted grandson (also named Scipio) oversaw the destruction of the last of the city. (READ MORE: Jordan Peterson Reclaims Religious Beliefs That Promote Freedom)

The Punic Wars made the Roman Empire. They established Rome as the preeminent military force of the Mediterranean, built and tested its navy, and released it from the confines of a neighboring empire. They are the reason Rome is the mother of the West — and not Carthage.

This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way, on Feb. 5, 2024.