Peace, however, between the two states was short-lived. The First Punic War (264–241 BCE) against the Romans eventually led to Carthage’s defeat and, with it, the loss of its overseas assets and near bankruptcy. Carthage’s overseas involvement, which some scholars view as a form of imperialist expansion, led it into frequent military conflict on the island of Sicily with the powerful Greek city of Syracuse, and later with the rising regional power, Rome. Carthage also came to wield considerable influence over a Punic bloc consisting of old western Phoenician colonies as well as new Carthaginian foundations across North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearics, and southern Spain. Founded in the 8th century BCE on the North African littoral by Phoenician settlers from Tyre, Carthage had by 500 BCE become the major naval and commercial power in the central and western Mediterranean.
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