"Speak softly and carry a big stick" went along with the:*

President Roosevelt's saying was “speak softly, but carry a big stick”, meaning that the U.S. would stay out of Latin American problems unless they needed to get involved. It was the Spanish american war

Explanation:

the romans were initially interested in expansion via sicily (which at that time was a cultural melting pot), part of which lay under carthaginian control. at the start of the first punic war (264-241 bc), carthage was the dominant power of the western mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire