The
Second Punic War, also referred to as
The Hannibalic War and (by the Romans)
The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern
Mediterranean. This was the second major war between
Carthage and the
Roman Republic and its allied Italic
socii, with the crucial participation of
Numidian-
Berber armies and tribes on both sides. The two states had three major conflicts against each other over the course of their existence. They are called the "
Punic Wars" because Rome's name for Carthaginians was
Poeni, derived from
Poenici (earlier form of
Punici), a reference to the founding of Carthage by
Phoenician settlers.