Treaties between Rome and Carthage The treaties between Rome and Carthage are the four treaties between the two states that were signed between 509 BC and 279 BC . The treaties influenced the course of history in the Mediterranean , and are important for understanding the relationship between the two most important cities of the region during that era . They reveal changes in how Rome perceived itself and how Carthage perceived Rome , and the differences between the perception of the cities and their actual characteristics . As city - states that became empires , Rome and Carthage eventually found it necessary to formalise their reciprocal interests and zones of influence . For centuries , the two operated side by side , even as allies . Their economic interests and methods of expansion were different : Rome did not look to the sea , engaged first in defending itself against the neighbouring Samnites , Etruscans , Gauls , and Greeks , and then in conquering them ; Carthage , lacking a real civic army and repelled in Sicily by the Greeks , appeared indecisive regarding its expansion strategy : while the aristocratic party was inclined to extend the power of the city into surrounding lands , the commercial party was more interested in exploiting trade routes and markets . By stipulating and observing four main treaties , the relationship between Rome and Carthage was one of tolerance for centuries . Carthage and Rome also concluded two treaties to end the First and Second Punic War in 241 BC and 201 BC , by which time the relationship between the powers had changed considerably . Background . Carthage . Carthage was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician colonists from Tyre , and by the 6th century BC the sailors and merchants of Carthage were known throughout the western Mediterranean . In the 4th century BC , following a series of military conquests , Carthage controlled many territories west of the gulf of Sirte in present - day Libya , and much of the coasts of Numidia and Iberia . The coasts of Sardinia and Corsica were already under Carthaginian control when the city - state attempted , in three wars between 480 and 307 BC , to conquer Sicily . These attempts were stopped by the Greeks , who had , by then , heavily colonized the island . Primarily interested in commerce , Carthage had no standing army , and mostly used mercenary forces composed of Numidian cavalry , Libyans , and Iberians . Rome . Rome was founded only seventy years after Carthage ( in 753 BC , following Varronian chronology ) . For the first several centuries of its history , Rome was involved in a lengthy series of wars with its neighbours , which resulted in the Roman army ' s specialization in land warfare . The Roman economy and social structure began to incorporate the results of these wars : taking loot or tribute , redistributing conquered land , and sometimes using subjugated peoples as military allies ( " socii " ) . With respect to maritime commerce , the Romans simply entrusted themselves to the Etruscan and Greek fleets . Commercial control . In the 2nd century BC , a great line divided the commerce of the Mediterranean : the Aegean , Adriatic and Ionian seas were largely controlled by the maritime cities of the Greeks ( in Greece , Asia Minor , and , after Alexander the Great , Egypt ) , while the western Mediterranean was the commercial zone of the Carthaginians , with the exception of the Tyrrhenian Sea , which Carthage shared with the Etruscans and the Greek colonies of southern Italy . First treaty 509 BC . Background . The first treaty between the two city - states was signed the year the Roman Republic was founded , in 509 BC as dated by the Varronian method . The calculations of Polybius , a Greek historian whose calculations are based on the years of the Persian expedition against the Greek free cities , produced a slightly different date ; he wrote that the events of the treaty took place " twenty - eight years before the passage of Xerxes into Greece " . Xerxes , the king of Persia , crossed the Hellespont with his armies in June , 480 BC . During the war with Ardea , following the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud , Rome found that it needed to secure itself and its supplies , which were controlled for the most part by Greek and Etruscan merchants , since the Etrsucan Cerveteri and its port of Pyrgi supplied Rome . Rome therefore tried to gain the support of the Carthaginians who by that time were already operating in Cerveteri , as evidenced by votive writings found in Etruscan and Phoenician . At the same time , Carthage was engaged in fighting the Greek colonies that had spread from Greece across the western Mediterranean . The presence of Greek cities along the coasts of southern Italy and the eastern part of Sicily limited Phoenician commerce to the region ' s interior . In Spain and Provence , Carthage fought to compete with Phocaea n colonies , and in Sardinia and Corsica , Carthage was joined by the Etruscans in their competition with the Phocaeans , resulting , subsequently , in the Phocaeans being driven out , Corsica and the Tyrrhenian becoming Etruscan , and Sardinia and the western half of Sicily becoming Carthaginian ( eastern Sicily would remain Greek for centuries ) . Additionally , in 510 BC , Carthage had to fight to hold off Spartan incursions into western Sicily . Terms of the treaty . This treaty was signed between Rome and Carthage twenty - eight years before the invasion of Greece by Xerxes , according to Polybius . The treaty stated that there " shall be friendship between the Romans and their allies , and the Carthaginians and their allies " on the conditions listed below . Conditions on Rome and her allies . The conditions imposed by the treaty on Rome and her allies were that Conditions on Carthage and her allies . The conditions imposed by the treaty of Carthage and her allies were that Implications . Per the treaty , Carthage did not renounce any military action except against a small territory , Latium , and maintained a free hand for action against the Greeks and Etruscans , both of whom were militarily and economically more powerful and dangerous than Rome . In the graphic at right , the following areas are highlighted and labeled : Roman expansion , before the fall of Tarquin the Proud , was directed towards the Tyrrhenian coast to the southwest , and the Roman Republic was proclaimed while Tarquin ' s army was fighting Ardea . It can be supposed that Rome , with its small size , wanted to formalize the exclusion of competition from Carthage while it began pressuring the Greeks . Otherwise , the contrast of this diplomacy with the war against Ardea would not be so pronounced , nor would it make sense to specifically exclude Carthaginian fortresses . Second treaty 348 BC . Background . After 150 years of campaigning , Rome had conquered a good portion of Etruria , destroyed Veii , and repelled the Gallic invasion of 390 BC , although it felt threatened by the second Gallic invasion of 360 BC . Rome had been and still was shaken by internal strife , especially between the patricians and the plebeians for access to public office and therefore to political activity and the management of land and spoils of the incessant wars . Rome was also fighting the Ernici , the Volsci , the Tiburtini , and the Etruscans , and was preparing for battle with the Samnites , who were coming down from the mountains to raid rich Campania , which Rome also desired . In Sicily and in southern Italy , where Dionysis the Great had created the beginnings of a unified state , Dionysius the Younger , his son , tried to enlarge his inheritance , but met with resistance from other Greek forces . A flurry of alliances , including some with the Carthaginians , led to the disintegration of Dionysius ' s power , and his deposition in 345 BC . Taranto , which had been left out of the fighting , grew in power , and other forces arrived from Greece . Rome was beginning to assert its influence in these struggles . Carthage , after having closed the war with the Cyrenaica , thus stabilizing the eastern boundary of the Phoenician territory , had been always at war with the Greeks and in particular with Syracuse , for control of Sicily . It was also in conflict with the Etruscans , who , blocked by the Gauls from northern Italy , and by the Romans from Latium , applied themselves aggressively to the Tyrrhenian Sea to control traffic there . Terms of the treaty . This second treaty was an attempt to copy the first treaty , with the addition of some cities . The Carthaginians added Tyre and Utica , while promising not to attack the coastal cities of Latium that had allied themselves with Rome . Similar to the first treaty , it stated that there " shall be friendship between the Romans and their allies , and the Carthaginians , Tyrians , and [ the ] township of Utica " on the conditions listed , and that Romans were allowed to trade and do business in the Carthaginian province of Sicily and in Carthage , and Carthaginians were allowed to trade and do business in Rome . Implications . Carthage saw Rome as a possible adversary that had resisted invasion and in war was proving itself potentially dangerous . Rome also controlled a large amount of territory , larger — if not richer — than its perennial rival Syracuse . Moreover , the fact that Carthage allowed Phoenician merchants to operate in Rome shows that the former did not fear commercial competition from Rome and that it could operate it own territories , while treating Rome as an upcoming potential client that should be put under its political control . It is therefore to the credit of Carthaginian diplomacy that the revision to the 509 BC treaty imposed additional restrictions on Rome , written at a time when it was heavily engaged in military ( and therefore financial ) obligations . Additionally , the prohibition against Rome ' s founding of cities did not appear in the first treaty , and shows that Carthage may have caught on to the method of Roman expansion ; commerce did not interest Rome as much as the control and exploitation of its territory . To the Romans , if an area was deserted it would be substantially occupied ; if the area was inhabited , it would be conquered and forced to pay in assets and troops , and eventually to accept Roman or Latin colonies . This was probably foreign to the commercial mentality of the Carthaginians in 509 BC , who founded colonies almost exclusively to support warehouses . Third treaty 306 BC . Background . During this period , Rome was in control of most of southern Etruria and the territory of Campania , and was in the middle of its wars with the Samnites . Begun in 343 BC , these would not be concluded until 290 BC , and had become a regional revolt , with the populations of Latium and Etruria trying to free themselves from Roman rule . There were other incidents causing unrest , in other parts of the region . Alexander the Great died in June , 323 BC , and the territory he had conquered was being fought over by the Diadochi , the generals of the Macedonian army ; Egypt , Greece , Macedonia , Asia Minor , and Syria were involved in incessant wars that threatened peaceful trade ; and Agathocles ascended the throne of Syracuse in 316 BC and began a campaign to rid Sicily of the Carthaginians , and in 311 BC , having been defeated in Sicily , carried the war to Africa before allying himself with Cyrenaica the following year . In 303 BC , Rome and Taranto concluded a treaty that fixed the limits of Roman navigation at the Lacine promontory ( see Capo Colonna ) and by 306 BC Rome had come to an agreement with Rhodes , another city undergoing strong commercial expansion . Existence and terms of the treaty . While Polybius claimed that this treaty never existed but was a forgery of the pro - carthagininan historian Philinus , recent research suggests that such a treaty did in fact exist . Philinus claimed that the treaty included Rome ' s agreement not to enter Sicily and Carthage ' s agreement not to set foot on the peninsula , i . e . the stipulations on Carthage did not change while Rome now found itself shut out of the Sicilian market . Fourth treaty 279 BC . Background . The Samnite Wars officially ended in 290 BC , and the subsequent actions of Rome within its territory had reduced the pressure of the Italian populace on the Greek cities in southern Italy , and in particular Taranto ; the Italians themselves were being attacked by the Roman army . Taranto was experiencing a period of wealth and expansion , to the point of securing a treaty that limited Roman navigation ( see above ) . In 282 BC , ten Roman ships appeared in Tarantine waters , violating the treaty , but they were either destroyed or forced to escape . When a Roman delegation was sent to request restitution for the ships and the captured prisoners , it was insulted , and war between the two states began in 281 BC . The Tarantines at first tried to form an anti - Roman league with the Italic populace , but it was considered to be insufficient , and thus , in 280 BC , they requested the assistance of Pyrrhus to lead the war against the Romans . Pyrrhus arrived with an army of 25 , 000 men and 20 elephants in Taranto , when it was succumbing to the Roman army , and presented himself as the champion of Greece against the advance of the Italic barbarians . Pyrrhus ' attack on Rome was heralded as a success : the Battle of Heraclea in Lucania against the legions under Publius Valerius Levinus was won thanks to the use of elephants ( which the Romans had never seen and called them Lucanian bulls ) . In 279 BC , a second great battle , the Battle of Asculum , at Ascoli Satriano , was seen as a victory by Pyrrhus over the forces of the consuls Publius Supilcius and Decius Mus . This battle , however , exacted heavy losses on the victor , so great that it inspired the term " Pyrrhic victory " . Pyrrhus subsequently returned to Taranto . Syracuse remained at war with Carthage and , after the death of Agathocles , was further embroiled in a civil war . The former , trying to change its lot and taking advantage of the fact that Pyrrhus had married Agathocles ' daughter , offered him the crown of Sicily in exchange for helping them throw off the Carthaginians . Pyrrhus accepted , partly to leave the peninsula and avoid the Romans . Pyrrhus landed in Sicily , and was successful in pushing the Carthaginians to the Lilybaeum on western coast . These manoeuvres by Syracuse and Pyrrhus prompted Carthage to sign the fourth treaty with Rome . Terms of the treaty . The treaty contained the same provisions as the two earlier treaty , with the addition of the following . Implications and aftermath . While each party to the treaty was not obliged to come to the aid of the other , it was an attempt by Carthage , which felt itself less able to carry out land warfare , to drag Rome into a land war in Sicily : the Carthaginians would supply ships for the transport of troops , and would pay the cost of supplies and cargo . The treaty also implied that Carthage was offering Rome the help of its navy against Pyrrhus , since Roman generals , such as Publius Cornelius Scipio , commonly used the sailors of its transport ships alongside the soldiers , in battle . An improvement in Rome ' s condition followed soon after the treaty , which acknowledged its increased military and economic powers . The treaty , on the other hand , betrayed Carthage ' s relative weakness in conceding that Rome was an equal , which was probably a result of its difficulties in Sicily . It may also have been this treaty that led the Romans to understand their capacity for development , the importance and the power of the Republic , and the limits of the power of Carthage . Rome would subsequently defeat Pyrrhus , who by then had defeated the Carthaginians , and needed only to extend its reach to conquer rich Sicily , with its grain reserves . In 275 BC , after the defeat of Maleventum ( Beneventum ) , Pyrrhus returned Epirus and Rome was left master of the entire Italian peninsula south of the Tusco - Emilian Apennines . Rome was also left in close contact with Greek culture , near - mastery of shipbuilding and management , and aware of the power of its legions and of the possibility of expansion . The First Punic war began fifteen years later , in 264 BC .