1st Punic War I
When the entire Apennine Peninsula came under Roman rule, the spheres of interest of Rome and Carthage intersected, dominating virtually the entire western Mediterranean and the adjacent coast. The power struggle of these two ancient state units lasted over a hundred years, during which there were three wars called Punic wars. The story of the first of them begins with the Mamertins, a rather strange group of Sicilians who had nothing to do with Rome or Carthage - except that they dragged these powers into a protracted war.
