Carlos Campbell Fall of the Roman Republic After Rome’s conquest of the central Mediterranean from 387 BCE to 146 BCE there republic slowly fell due to many factors from these conquest including spoils of war, increase of population the militarization of politics, and the lack of a written constitution. Rome went into a number of wars against the trading city of Carthage from 264 BCE to 146 BCE. During this time Rome suffered a number of losses during this time but unless you take them out Rome just came back learning from their mistakes until they got it right (Freels, L.8). The first Punic War was fought over the control of Sicily after Rome came in control over southern Italy and became interested in the small southern island. The Carthaginians interest in wanting to control Sicily was to gain a complete trading monopoly in the western Mediterranean and block foreign trade from interfering with their business (Scullard. P.3). The conclusion of this war “officially” ended in a stalemate although it was basically won by Rome who gained control of not only Sicily but Sardinia and Corsica. At this point Rome did not include the island in her Italian confederacy but chose to govern a considerable part of it. The same was done to Sardinia and Corsica. (Freels. L8, Scullard P.3). Hannibal, prince of Carthage took over Spain in 221 before attacking Italy in 218. He fought for fifteen years against Rome before being forced to flee by Scipio’s landing in N.Africa where Hannibal lost again, leaving the Peninsula to Rome. These locations were turned into two new provinces (Scullard P.3). After the death of Hannibal at the battle of Zama the power of Carthage was basically crushed forever. Around 149-146 Rome razed, cursed, and ploughed over Carthage and around that period attacks Corinth to show its place as the dominant power & master of the Mediterranean. Between 241 and 200 Rome has gained four provinces and 50 years later 2 more. All of these except Macedonia were a result of the struggles with Carthage (Scullard P.4). The slaves from these conquests put many of Roman citizens out of a job. These citizens now depended on the government for food, which Rome provided in the form of Bread and Circuses. This put a hole in the government’s spending money for their armies. (scullard P.4). This gave way to Rome winning many spoils of war including but not up to territory, slaves, new citizens, and a naval power. This also had a negative impact on Rome because the soldiers in these wars were all once farmers expecting to come back to their land, which was taken over by the rich. Without any land they went to the