The Third Punic War is a much smaller engagement than the two previous punic wars and primarily consisted of a single action, the Battle of Carthage, but results in the complete destruction of the city of Carthage, the annexation of all remaining Carthaginian territory by Rome, and the death or enslavement of the entire Carthaginian population.

The Third Punic War ends Carthage's independent existence.By the end of the third war, after more than a hundred years and the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome has become the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean.

With the end of the Macedonian wars — which run concurrently with the Punic wars — and the defeat of the Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great in the Roman-Syrian War (Treaty of Apamea, 188 BCE) in the eastern sea, Rome emerges as the dominant Mediterranean power and the most powerful city in the classical world.This was a turning point that means that the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean will pass to the modern world via Europe instead of Africa.

The Roman victories over Carthage in these wars give Rome a preeminent status it will retain until the division of the Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire by Diocletian in 286.