The name given to the wars between Rome and Carthage for the empire of the world, of date, the first from 264 to 241, the second from 218 to 201, and the third from 149 to 146 B.C., due all to transgressions on the one side or the other of boundaries fixed by treaty, which it was impossible for either in their passion of empire to respect. It was a struggle which, though it ended in the overthrow of Carthage, proved at one time the most critical in the history of Rome.