The Second Punic War involved combatants in the Mediterranean.
First Punic War . The First Punic War ended with a treaty between Rome and Carthage , but years of bloodshed were to follow in the Second and Third Punic Wars before the strategic issue of power in the western Mediterranean was resolved in favor of Rome , and in the total destruction of Carthage . 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 . A sideshow of this war was the indecisive First Macedonian War in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ionian Sea .