The Punic Wars were a series of three conflicts between Rome and Carthage, the two most powerful states in the Western Mediterranean at the time. The First Punic War focused on the control of Sicily and forced Rome to build its first major navy. The Second Punic War is famous for Hannibal's invasion of Italy with war elephants. The Third Punic War ended with the total destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE. According to legend, the Romans salted the earth around Carthage so that nothing would grow there again, although this is likely a later historical myth. The victory left Rome as the undisputed master of the Mediterranean, marking its transition from a regional Italian power to an intercontinental empire. The wealth and enslaved labor brought back from these wars, however, created massive social inequality that eventually led to the collapse of the Roman Republic.