Rome won, which made Carthage cranky, so they started the second Punic War. In 219 BCE, Hannibal attacked a Roman town, then led an army across Spain, and then crossed the freaking Alps with elephants. Hannibal and his elephant army almost won, but alas, they didn't, and as a result, the Romans got Spain. People in Spain are definitely not Romans, despite Russell Crowe's character in Gladiator, which means that by 201 BCE, Rome was definitely an empire. The third Punic War was a formality. Rome found some excuse to attack Carthage and then destroyed it so completely that these days you can't even find it on a map. Eventually, this whole area and a lot more would be incorporated into a system of provinces and millions of people would be ruled by the Roman Empire.