(1) In a series of three wars, known as the Punic Wars, the Romans eventually defeated the Carthaginians .(2) Messana was a port city controlling the Straits and so when a Carthaginian fleet was invited in by one side, Rome felt it had to respond in some way.(3) We must remember that after the Romans were through with Carthage, no Carthaginian language or culture - in effect, no Carthaginians - survived; all we know of them we know from Roman accounts.(4) Beginning in the ninth century BC, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians , and Celts entered the Iberian Peninsula.(5) It is an ancient city, dating at least far as the Second Punic War when it was sacked by the Carthaginian general, Mago.