“Periodization” is a trendy academic term for historians' use of particular (and sometimes arbitrary) chronological terms—often in reference to wars in general, and in particular to when they started and ended.
Were there really “three” Punic Wars rather than just one that continued for well over a century from 264-146 BC, ending only with the Roman absolute destruction of Carthage?
We talk about the “Peloponnesian War” (431-404 B.C.) that ended with the defeat of Athens. Yet a few scholars see the Spartan-Athenian “war” breaking out earlier in 460, and continuing with off-and-on fighting for almost a century—until Sparta was crushed by Thebes at Leuctra in 371 and ended formally its hostilities with a resurgent democratic Athens.
In others words, what sometimes looks like a war to end all wars can turn out to be a breathing space or lull between rivals.
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