it wasnt puny wars, it was punic wars. their pun game was too strong. rome was regularly humiliated by clever wordplay and their best and brightest could only come up with a retort like "well your face is an ass!"

so there was no choice, they had to destroy carthage.

(i looked for /c/shittyaskhistory and it doesn't seem to exist)

Once a roman reaches the carthage they can be drafted into wars which were deemed too insignificant and their family wouldn't be compensated in the event of their death