Why do you think historians say that rome and Carthage were destined to fight each other

They probably mean that when the Romans gained control of central and southern Italy, Rome and Carthage were destined to clash over the control of next door Sicily. The Carthaginians, who had possessions in western Sicily, mobilised for war in against Rome when she intervened militarily to support some mercenaries who had seized the city of Messana, in north-eastern Sicily, on the straight which separates the island from the mainland. These mercenaries had been attacked by Syracuse, the most powerful of the Greek city-states in eastern and southern Sicily. The Romans defeated Syracuse and forced her to become a Roman ally. The Carthaginians were worried about the security of their possessions in the west in the face of this combined power.

There had been a friendly relationship between Rome and Carthage which signed three trade treaties. This broke down during the war against Pyrrhus, a Greek King who tried to invade southern Italy by fighting against Rome and, when he failed, went to Sicily and fought against the Carthaginians. The two sides had signed a treaty in which they were meant to help each other against Pyrrhus. Initially Carthage’s fleet patrolled the sea between Sicily and Rome to keep an eye on Pyrrhus’ fleet, which never reached this sea. When Pyrrhus went to Sicily Rome did not give ant help. The Carthaginians, in their turn, where happy when Pyrrhus left Sicily, returned to the mainland and fought the Romans again. He lost and left Italy, saying “What a battlefield I am leaving for Carthage and Rome!” After this war Rome took over Apulia the heel of Italy, and Calabria the toe of the peninsula, just two miles from Sicily. Carthage and Rome were now the superpowers of the western Mediterranean.