• 1st Samnite War (343-341 BC)
• 2nd Samnite War (326-304 BC)
• 3rd Samnite War (298-290 BC) 
• Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC) 
• 1st Punic War (264-241 BC)
• 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC)
• 3rd Punic War (171-168 BC) 

This is a list of major Roman Wars during their history. I decided to write this because I’ve been learning about them in history lately.

The Romans fought very many wars to get their massive empire. They fought so many wars that there was always a war going on. It was unlikely if there wasn’t a war. Because of this, I will only write some of the major ones. In Italy, there were many different tribes. The Etruscans, the Samnites etc. They also had to put down many different rebellions throughout their vast empire. Lots of different Empires also threatened the too, but the Romans eventually came out victorious. 

1st Samnite War (343-341 BC) 

The Samnites were a neighboring, small tribe that lived next to the Romans. The Samnites decided to attack the Sidicini tribe. The Sidicini were a very small tribe and so they asked for help from another tribe, the Campanians. In the coming battle, the Samnites defeated the Campanians and so the Campanians asked Rome for help. Campanian ambassadors began to travel to Rome and plead for them to help them. They Campanians persuaded the Romans saying that they if the Romans didn’t help them, than the Samnites would just get stronger and eventually conquer Rome. There was one thing, the Romans already had an alliance with the Samnites and wanted to stay loyal to it. The Campanians, hearing that the Romans refused their proposal, surrendered to the Samnites. The Samnites sent Envoys to Rome and told the Roman Senators that they should keep their hands off their land. Also they told them their intentions of Invading the local Capua tribe. The Samnites said they would burn all of the Campanians land too. After the Roman Senators heard all of this, they decided to wage war against the Samnites. At the first battle, the Battle of Mount Gaurus the Romans had a victory.

The second battle, the Battle of Saticula, almost was a Samnite victory when the commander Cornelius Cossus was being trapped. Fortunately, a small Roman detachment went on a hilltop to distract the Samnites, giving time for the rest of the troops to retreat. The Samnites gathered a lot of men and laid siege to the city of Suessula, Campania. The Samnites were underprepared, and were foraging for food, when a Roman force attacked them and forced them to retreat. In 342 BC, the Romans and the Samnites negotiated for peace, ending the war. 

2nd Samnite War or Great Samnite War (326-304 BC) 

The Second Samnite War started for multiple reasons. One of them was that the Romans had set up a colony in Campania breaking the treaty. The colony was in a town called Fregellae and was supposed to be in Samnite territory. The town was probably supposed to be controlled by the Volsci tribe but the Samnites had conquered it in the past. Another reason was that Paleopolis, a Samnite city, had attacked local Romans living in Campania. Two leading men, in the Samnite city of Naples, arranged a plot to give the city over to the Romans. After this happened the Romans were able to take 3 other Samnite towns. Alifae, Callifae, and Rufrium. Also 2 more tribes, the Lucanians and the Apulians allied with the Romans. In 325 BC, the Vestini tribe allied with the Samnites and when news of this reached Rome, they sent troops and ravaged the Vestini countryside, taking the towns of Cutina and Cingilia. In 324 BC, the Samnites wanted peace and a treaty was signed, but not even one year later, the war started back again. Gaius Pontius, the Samnite commander moved his army to Caudine Forks then sent several men disguised as shepherds grazing their flocks toward Calatita. They lied and told them that the Samnites were going to go attack their ally Lucera. The Romans were marching to Lucera and had to pass through Caudine Forks, which was where the Samnites were located. These were small, dirt roads in the Apennine Mountains. Soon, the Romans were completely surrounded by the Samnites.

The Samnites forced them to surrender, give up their weapons, and leave Samnite territory. In 316 BC the Romans laid siege to the Samnite city of Saticula near the border of Campania. From 316-314 BC there were many battles, and in 314, the Romans took troops to the city of Sora. It was a very difficult city to take because of its position, but a Samnite deserter told the Romans how to take it. The Romans did eventually take it. From 312-308 BC the Etruscan tribe entervend. At the time, this tribe was probably the second strongest, the Romans being the first strongest. From 307-304 BC the war started to wind up. These final battles were mostly in the land of Samnia and Apulia. In 304, the Samnites sent ambassadors to Rome to negotiate peace. 

3rd Samnite War (298-290 BC) 

In 299 BC, the Etruscan tribe prepared for war with the Romans. The reason was that the Romans set up a colony very near to their territory in the next-door tribe of Umbria. However, the Gauls invaded the Etruscans territory before the Etruscans could go to war with Rome. So the Etruscans gave money to the Gauls so that they would stop conquering their land. The Romans made an alliance with the Picente Tribe. The Picentes were worried about the Senone Gauls (A different tribe of Gauls) and the Pretutti, who were both allied with the Samnites. The Romans decided to invade Etruscia and then the Samnites invaded Rome. In 297 BC after about a year of fighting had taken place, a few city-states in Etrusca had thought about suing for peace. After this, the Romans moved their armies out of Etrusca then moved all their forces to Samnium. For Months, the Romans ravaged the Samnites land. The Romans kept fighting until they pushed the Samnites out of their own territory. One Samnite commander, Gellius Egnatius went to Etrusca and convinced them to fight on their side. The Romans invaded Etrusca again, but couldn’t get any victories. Also, the Samnites started raiding Campania which was basically a colony of Rome. The Umbrians and the Gaulls had also joined the Samnites and the Etruscans. The four allies travel to Sentinium. The Samnites devised a plan and that was for two of the forces to attack the Romans head on, and the other two to destroy their camp during the battle. Unfortunately, two Samnite deserters informed the Romans of their plan. The Etruscans and the Umbrians went to go guard their land leaving the Samnites and the Etruscans to take on the Romans.

In the Battle of Sentinum the Samnites and their allies were devastated leaving 20,000 of their troops dead, and only 8,000 Romans dead. After this defeat the rest of the war the Samnites slowly lost. The Samnites surrendered and were finally conquered in 290 BC. 

Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC)

The Pyrrhic War was fought between The Hellinestic states (Greece) and Rome. The War is named after the Greek Commander Pyrrhus. There is also a saying that comes from the war and that is a “Pyrrhic Victory” which means that you won the battle at too high of a cost. It was called Pyrrhic because the commander, Pyrrhus, won most of the battles but suffered many casualties. A Greek named Plutarch said “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.” Because of the heavy casualties when they won. The war started because the Tarentum tribe asked Greece to come fight with him against Rome. After this, two Roman consuls marched on general Pyrrhus. They came to a point near a river and prepared to fight. For hours and hours, the battle still raged on with no clear winner. The Greeks sent in battle elephants, and these frightened the Roman horses. The battle was starting to get in favor of the Greeks, so the Romans retreated. In 279 BC, the Greeks invaded Apulia. The Romans went to a town called Asculum, which was near where Pyrrhus was encamped. The battle commenced and lasted one or two days. On some accounts, it said the Romans won. On another it said Pyrrhus won. In this battle Pyrrhus lost a great deal of troops.

From 278-275 BC, Pyrrhus invaded Sicily, which was not very successful. After this campaign Phyrrus was finished in the last battle, the battle of Beneventum. 

1st Punic War (264-241 BC) 

The war began because the Romans and the Carthiginians were both big empires trying to expand their territory.

Most of the war was fought in and near Sicily. Also, some of it was in Africa and Iberia (Modern day Spain, Gibraltar, and Southern France.) The Romans attacked forts and cities in Sicily like Messina, Akragas, Mylae, and Sulci. The battles in Sicily were from 264-257. Most of the cities that the Romans captured they would sell the inhabitants into slavery. From 256-255 the fighting would be in Africa. The Romans launched an invasion into North Africa, mostly in modern day Tunisia. While the Roman fleet sailed through the Meditarianian sea, one of the largest sea battles in history took place when the Carthaginians went to meet them. It was the battle of Cape Ecnomus.

The Romans launched a massive attack on the Capital city of Carthage, Tunis. Tunis is also the modern day capital of Tunisia. Luckily, the Carthaginians repelled it. From 255-241 the war went back to Sicily. In 255 BC, the Carthaginians recaptured Akragas. The Romans had a major victory capturing Panormus. (Modern day Palmero, capital of Sicily.) In 250, the Cartaginians tried to take Panormus with their battle elephants but were repelled by the Romans raining javelins down on them. The Romans started two nine year sieges on two of the Carthaginians strongholds at Lilybaeum and Drepana. The Carthaginians did have a major naval victory at the battle of Phintias. In 243 the Romans built back their fleet and in the battle of the Aegates Islands they destroyed the Carthaginian navy which made the Carthaginians sign the treaty of Lutatius ending the war. 

2nd Punic War (218-201 BC)

In 218 the Carthaginian general Hannibal, invaded Roman Sicily. The Romans responded to by capturing Malta. Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal also started a campaign in Iberia (Spain, Portugal, and Southern France.) Hannibal was sent to Iberia where he then moved his army north into Gaul (France) and took a route through the middle of the land. In fall Hannibal reached the Alps mountain range and crossed using Elephants.

In modern day Piedmont, Italy the Roman troops were in their winter barracks and Hannibal surprised them. This delayed the Roman invasion into Africa. Hasdrubal invaded southern Italy and was helped by some of the Native tribes. He met Roman troops at Cannae and had a great victory there. After the battle most of Rome’s allies left the war and the Samnites joined the Carthaginians. Hannibal’s other brother, Mago was also a general in the Carthaginian army. For 11 year most of the fighting took place in Southern Italy and by 207 Hannibal was almost pushed out of Southern Italy.

In 207 Hasdrubal had a failed attempt to invade Italy and in 203 Mago had failed also. In 204 Publius Cornelius Scipio had invaded North Africa so Hannibal was welcomed back. His brother, Mago had died on a ship while coming back from Iberia. By 201 Scipio had taken North Africa forcing the Carthaginians to surrender. 

3rd Punic War (171-168 BC) 

The third Punic war basically consisted of just one battle. It was the siege of Carthage. The Romans after they had one their victory in the 2nd Punic war kept demanding harsher and harsher negotiations and finally the Carthaginians had enough of it. They formed an army under command of Hasdrubal so the Roman army tried to siege out Carthage but the walls were really strong. The Siege lasted for years with intense fighting between the two sides.

Hasdrubal had any Roman POW tortured to death. In 146 the Romans launched the main assault on the city and burnt it to the ground. All of the citizens were turned into slaves and 10s of thousands of soldiers were captured. The once great empire of Carthage had been destroyed.