Hannibal's Second Punic War

The second punic war marks the peak of Roman power. It was the first time they were vulnerable, but it was also the last time. Hannibal took the fight to Rome's land instead of waiting for the Roman to come. Although Hannibal came very close to bring Rome down to their knees, he still couldn't do the impossible and Rome, at the end, still triumphed. And that's Rome first step into what we know about them now, an ancient super power.

Let's talk about the casualty. The Second Punic War had a total casualty of around 500,000 to 770,000 where Rome suffered around 300,000 to 500,000 deaths over the sixteen years of the Second Punic War (necrometrics.com, nd). That's an insane amount of death considering that at its peak, ancient Rome (the core
That reinforced the confident of their allies on Rome itself and make other to think again before they want to cross with them. It's not like Rome's allies were ever lost their confident, however. "In the face of all discouragements, the Roman people, supported by the faithful Latin towns and colonies, remained firm; and with fixed resolution determined to prosecute the war with greater vigor than ever before.", Morey commented. They began the war as an Italian peninsula super power, and end the war as a Meditteranean super power as Spain, Africa as well as part of Greece fell under their sphere of influence (Unrv,com, nd).

Rome, winning the Punic Wars, became a super power. They began their conquest journey from West to East. They provided protection to their allies, gain dependant city-states, going as far as burning some of the conquered civilizations to the ground. Livy, writing about Rome with his patriotic writing, said as much when writing about Rome's liberation of Greece:

“the nation which, at its own expense, with its own labor, and at its own risk, waged war for the liberty of others, and which had crossed the sea that justice, right, and law should everywhere have sovereign sway” (Livy, xxxiii,