The Romans lucked into a beached, abandoned Carthaginian ship, took it apart piece by piece, reproduced it in quantity, and built their first navy. Naturally, it came as a surprise to the Carthaginians. Having their asses handed to them also came as a surprise to the Carthaginians.
It should also be pointed out that the Carthaginian armies and navies were almost entirely made up of mercenaries; the aristocracy served as the leaders and rulers of the society, and everyone else was either devoted to trades and commerce or were slaves.
So we’d have a Latin root for the word, “punitive?”