Hoyos B. Dexter. Unplanned Wars: The Origins of the First and Second Punic Wars

Walter de Gruyter, 1998. — 326 p. — (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 50).Attempts to reconstruct the reasons why the Romans and the Carthaginians engaged in long and damaging wars with each other despite prosperous periods of alliance. Relying on ancient sources such as the accounts of Polybius, Livy, and Diodorous, the author discusses the period from the antecedents to the First Punic War of 264 B.C.E. to the war-declaration of 218 B.C.E. Arguing that the reasons for the two wars were intertwined, he contends that the outcomes of the wars differ markedly from the original aims of the great powers. Neither side, according to the author, sought war with the other, but war resulted from misunderstandings and miscalculations.