are there any similarities between the Persian wars and the Punic wars?

Question

the persian wars were between greek city states & the Persian empire and the Punic wars were between Romans & Carthaginians.

Answer 1

Not really, neither were the combatants the same, nor the style displayed of fighting similar.

The Persian wars were a series of invasions of the almighty persian empire into the greek city-state geography. Strategically, the Greeks were only defending their independence from Persia, who stretched its lines of communication and supply to field vast armies which probably exceded the population of many areas of Greece (Xerxes' invasion). The victory over the Persians allowed the Athenias to become the main power of Greece, which would only lead them into a vast conflict with Sparta that would end up wasting both's resources and energy.

During the Persian invasions of Greece, the oriental style of using subdued nation-slaves as cannon fodder and nobility on charriots and horseback to deliver the punch was rendered ineffective due to Greek geography and the superior use of the phalanx, armed with citizen-soldiers, whose shock tactics defeated time and again the Persians aristocrats.


The Punic wars were between Rome and Carthage, which decided who was to rule the world. Both were ascendant city states that had conquered and allied themselves with gigantic confederations, and while they had been friends and allies for many years, the fear that the other would force it's will led to the series of wars fought in nearly a century that would make Rome the master of the world.

Both city-states deployed their allies and citizens in the field as soldiers and commanders, waging war all over the western mediterranian (Spain, Sicily, SE France, Italy, Northern Africa). Both were on the offensive and defensive many times, lost armies, won vast amounts of territories, and in the end, the victor mercilesly destroyed the defeated.

New styles in siege warfare (Syracuse, Carthage), army movility (Hannibal's impressive dash into Italy, Scipio's astounding lighting strike into Cartago Nova), tactics (echelons, reserves, manouvres to envelop the enemy) were the norm of the conflicts. It is probable that this was the most epic of all wars fought in the world until WWII, since both states were very even and both produced during the conflict some of the best generals the world has seen (Hannibal Barca and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus)

Answer 2

I believe the punic wars were between Greek states, while the Persian wasrs were between Greece and Persia. The first weakened Greece, the second strengthened Greece.

Answer 3

use of massive airpower and smart weapons utter lack of strategy but brilliant use of tactics pretty mediocre generalship and worse leadership from Washington both wars were justified on falsified principles and motives (Persian Gulf was about oil; Iraq was about---well we still don't know why).

Answer 4

Yes, there is at least one: in both cases there were casualties.