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The Second Punic War (referred to as "The War Against Hannibal" by the Romans) lasted from 218 to 202 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. It was the second of three major wars of the former Cypriot-Phoenician colony Carthage and its dependencies against the Roman Republic. They are called "Punic Wars" because Rome's name for Carthaginians was Punici (older Poenici, due to their Phoenician ancestry). In modern historiography "Punic" is used to make a disjunction between Phoenicians and the people of Carthaginian origin.