ABSTRACT
The Hannibalic War (Second Punic War) granted Rome supremacy in the western Mediterranean and guaranteed its future intervention in the affairs of the Greek kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean. The war was a consequence of the way the First Punic War ended, breeding resentment at Carthage and resulting in the Barcid family rebuilding Carthaginian power in Spain. The Romans fought the First Illyrian War and the Second Illyrian War beforehand, and fought the First Macedonian War during the Hannibalic War, after Philip V of Macedon made a treaty with Hannibal. The Romans were crushed at the Trebbia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae but, under the younger Scipio (Scipio Africanus), managed an astonishing turnaround that crushed Carthaginian fortunes in Spain and undermined Hannibal’s position in Italy, leading to the denouement at Zama in 202 bc. As the end of the war played out, isolationist and interventionist factions warred in the senate; the interventionists won, leading to a greater involvement of the Roman senate in Greek affairs.
