The great struggle for imperial dominance in the ancient world Although this history of Carthage covers events from the earliest days of that state, the text concentrates particularly on the period from 550 BC until the fall of the city after a three year siege to Roman forces under Scipio Aemilianus in the Third Punic War in 146 BC. This period in the Mediterranean ancient world was dominated by the rivalry between Carthage and Rome which was inevitably moving towards the total destruction of one of the protagonists. Church's book is an excellent history that describes these conflicts in detail from the campaigns of Malchus and