After the failed invasion of North Africa, the Carthaginians were able to reinforce her garrisons on Sicily, now under the command of their general Carthalo (1) (fl.254-249 BC). In 254 BC he decided to attack Agrigentum, but fearing that he was not strong enough to hold it, he burnt the city to the ground. The Carthaginians now only held a few towns in Sicily: Drepana, Lilybaeum, Selinus, Heraclea Minoa, Thermae, Lipari Islands, and the Aegates Islands off the west coast of Sicily.
The consuls 02Atilius Calatinus (fl.258-247 BC) and 12Cornelius Scipio Asina crossed the strait with 220 ships. At Messana they collected the ships that had survived the storm and sailed westwards along the north coast to Panormus, the Carthaginians’ chief city in Sicily. Siege engines were used to demolish the seaward tower and the infantry forced their way through. They captured the so-named New Town and the inhabitants of the Old Town surrendered. The consuls left a garrison and sailed back to Rome. Other cities in Sicily now changed sides, expelling their Carthaginian garrisons.
In summer 253 BC the consuls 04Servilius Caepio and 02Sempronius Blaesus with a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships sailed via Sicily to Libya. They often landed troops, but achieved nothing worthwhile. They got into difficulties on the shallows of the Lesser Syrtis (=Gulf of Gabes). On their return to Italy they were overtaken off Cape Palinurus by a terrific storm and lost one hundred and fifty ships.
After this disaster the Senate restricted the fleet to convoy duty and coast defence. In 252 BC a fleet under the command of the consuls 01Aurelius Cotta and 05Servilius Geminus captured the Lipari Islands and the outpost of Thermae. Meanwhile, Hasdrubal (3) had reinforced Carthalo at Lilybaeum with thirty thousand men and a hundred and forty elephants. The Sicilian campaign now settled into minor sieges and skirmishes in the centre of the island: the Carthaginians had problems at home, and the Romans fearful of the Carthaginian elephants kept to the mountains and broken ground.
In 251 BC Hasdrubal marched towards Panormus, where the consul 02Caecilius Metellus had been sent to protect the allies’ ripening corn crops. Hasdrubal, believing his enemy to be weak, crossed the Oreto River that lay between them. The Roman light troops dropped into the ditches in front of the city. When the elephants came in range they were met by a shower of javelins and missiles thrown from the walls and trenches, and charged back into their own ranks. At this point Metellus ordered his legions to charge at the Carthaginian left flank. The Carthaginian line broke, but the Romans did not pursue the fleeing army, preferring instead to capture the remainder of the elephants. After this defeat, Hasdrubal was recalled to face death at Carthage.
In 250 BC the consuls 03Atilius Regulus (fl.257-242 BC) and 05Manlius Vulso (fl.256-216 BC) with one hundred and twenty ships and four legions laid siege to Lilybaeum, now under the command of Himilco (2). Included within the city were the former inhabitants of Silinus (the Carthaginians wishing to confine themselves to the defence of as few places as possible had destroyed Silinus and transferred all its citizens to Lilybaeum), and ten thousand mercenaries.
The Roman army successfully prevented access to the city by land, but the blockade at sea was far from secure. The harbour was small and only very experienced seamen could sail through its narrow entrance. The Carthaginians chose a naval officer Hannibal (3) son of Hamilcar to command a squadron of fifty ships carrying reinforcements and supplies for Lilybaeum. As he neared the city he waited for a favourable wind and then with full sail he entered the harbour.
After their recent defeats, the Carthaginians had redesigned their ships to be lighter and faster. The Romans discovered that the boarding bridge, though useful in naval battles at close quarters, made the ships less seaworthy and manoeuvrable in situations like this and had to be abandoned.
A Carthaginian sailor named Hannibal (4) the Rhodian gained valuable intelligence by using the speed and shallow draft of his fast quadrireme to enter the shallows and avoid the Roman fleet. In 249 BC he was forced to run aground and his ship taken by the Romans who used its design to construct a navy that could match the Carthaginians.
With ships of the old type but with corvus removed, the consul 05Claudius Pulcher, learning that the Carthaginian fleet of one hundred and ten ships was soon to be reinforced by another seventy ships, attempted to surprise the Carthaginians in the harbour of Drepana. Seeing through the Roman plan the Carthaginian commander Adherbal (1) ordered his fleet to leave the harbour and confront the Romans in the open sea. Lacking the corvus and unable to turn fast enough to avoid being rammed or do the same to the enemy, the Romans were defeated. Pulcher managed to escape with thirty ships, but the remaining ninety three were lost.
The other consul 03Junius Pullus was put in charge of a second fleet carrying supplies for the army at Lilybaeum. He sailed from Syracuse with eight hundred transports and one hundred and twenty warships. He was intercepted by Carthalo who, without fighting, forced Pullus to seek shelter near Cape Pachynus. Observing a violent storm approaching, Carthalo rounded the cape where his ships rode safely in smooth water while the storm wrecked the Roman fleet on the coast. Of the Roman fleet only some twenty ships now survived of the two hundred and forty with which she had started the year.
Pullus managed to escape with two warships and made his way to the Roman army encamped at Lilybaeum. From there he marched northwards and seized the city of Eryx and the Temple of Aphrodite on the mountain behind Drepana, thus commanding all roads leading to the city. Though Rome had lost control at sea, the only two towns still held by Carthage in Sicily were now cut off from the rest of the island.
Once again the opposing sides were in a position of stalemate. Over the following two years the only incident worthy of note being that in 248 BC when Rome rewarded Hieron II for his loyalty by granting him a revision of his treaty: it became a foedus aequum (‘treaty between equals’), he received additions to his kingdom, any tribute still outstanding was remitted, and the treaty was made for all time.
In 247 BC 05Hamilcar Barca (c.47; fl.247-228 BC), father of 05Hannibal Barca (c.65; fl.221-c.183 BC), took command of the Carthaginian fleet and ravaged the coast of Bruttium. Rome responded by founding protective coastal colonies at Alsium (247 BC), Fregenae (245 BC) and Brundisium (244 BC). In 246 BC Hamilcar landed west of Panormus, fortified a position on a mountain named Heirkte behind the city, anchored his fleet at its foot so that he was in communication with the besieged ports, and began raiding the Italian coast.
In 244 BC Hamilcar captured the town of Eryx on the northern slopes of the mountain, but the Roman garrison retained possession of the Temple of Aphrodite at the top of the mountain and the Roman army encamped at the base cut him off from interfering with the siege of Drepana. The siege he now mounted against the garrison lasted to the end of the war.
In 243 BC the Romans decided to build a new fleet and return to naval warfare. As the treasury was exhausted a massive loan was raised from the people to pay for the construction of two hundred quinqueremes constructed on the model of the ‘Rhodian’ ship (i.e. without corvi). In the summer of the following year the new fleet sailed under the consul 01Lutatius Catulus to Sicily where he blockaded the harbours of Lilybaeum and Drepana.
In 241 BC Catulus was granted proconsulship in order for him to continue his military efforts against Carthage. Hearing of his activities, the Carthaginian fleet returned under Hanno (6) with supplies for Drepana. Battle was joined off Lilybaeum at the Aegates Islands. Hampered by their inadequate equipment and heavy freights the Carthaginians were soon defeated, losing one hundred and twenty ships, seventy of which were captured. Following his victory Catulus captured Lilybaeum, isolating Hamilcar and his army in Sicily.
The Carthaginian government gave Hamilcar full powers to negotiate for peace. The final terms stipulated that Carthage was to evacuate Sicily and the adjacent islands; return all prisoners; pay one thousand talents and then two thousand two hundred in ten annual payments; and that neither side was to attack the allies of the other nor to recruit soldiers in the dominions of the other.
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