today the Waters of the Western Mediterranean are largely at peace forming part of a major trade route for Millennia each year almost a third of the world's Mercantile vessels pass through its Waters following the long route between the Straits of Gibraltar to the engineering Marvel it is the Suez Canal but over 2 000 years ago it was the theater of the largest naval war in ancient history fought between the two superpowers of Carthage and Rome over the course of two decades it would see the launching of fleets on a vast scale beginning as a conflict over only a single City it would soon evolve into a struggle for the entirety of Sicily and eventually grew to include the coast of Italy Sardinia and even carthage's Heartland in Northern Africa both sides would adopt Innovative new approaches to Naval Warfare and construct some of the largest fleets in world history the strain of which would bring them to the edge of financial ruin and most significantly over the course of its battles hundreds of thousands of men would be sent to their deaths the events of the first Punic War are often overshadowed by those of its successor as noted by J.F Lazenby in his authoritative account of the war this overshadowing is understandable on its surface it lacks many of the aspects as they've attracted historians to the Second Punic War amongst its generals we have viewed that are as iconic as the famous Hannibal Barker or the Roman Commander Scipio Africanus and its deciding battles took place at Sea rather than on land the sources we have available for the first Punic War are also far poorer than those for the second the closest we have to a contemporary account is that of the Greek author polybius who was born over 40 years after its events the result of all of this is often this conflict is treated simply as the precursor to the Second Punic War which served to draw the battle lines from which both sides would conduct that more famous conflict yet it lasted for over 23 years the longest war in either Greek or Roman history and constitutes the largest naval conflict fought by any of the ancient states of the Mediterranean on the Roman side it marked the first time that armies would leave Italy and in doing so would take them on the first step to Empire for Carthage the war would threaten its naval hegemony in the Western Mediterranean a challenge that surprisingly came from a foe almost entirely untested at sea [Music] in an earlier video on this channel We examined the expansion of both Roman carvage throughout the Western Mediterranean in the centuries preceding the first Punic War along with the concerns surrounding the major ancient sources we have available to us and the reasons behind the war's outbreak in today's video we will pick up where we left off by examining the major events of the first Punic War which rapidly evolved from a conflict over the city of masana to a war for all of Sicily for those in need of a refresher however here is a quick summary of the events that led to the outbreak of hostilities between the two powers over the course of the 4th Century BC the Roman Republic had succeeded in subjugating many of the peoples of central Italy through a combination of colonies outright conquests and a complex system of treaties that bound many of them to the Republic as allies in the early 3rd Century BC it also came into increasing conflict with the Greek city-states of southern Italy which in 280 BC led the city of tarrington to appeal to King pyrus of Emperors for Aid the next year the king crossed with his army to Sicily where he defeated the Romans at the battles of heraclear and asculum however in doing so pyrus's Army suffered a large amount of casualties which unlike the Romans he would struggle to replace with his opponents refusing to entertain any idea of Peace the King instead chose to answer a call for Aid against the carthaginians by the Greek city-state of Syracuse in Southeastern Sicily here he would meet with renewed military success followed by diplomatic failure after he alienated much of the Iowans Greek population [Music] in late 276 BC he would abandon Sicily and return to Southern Italy where the next year his forces were severely depleted by the Romans at the Battle of beneventum soon after Pirates abandoned his allies and returned to Emperors and by the end of 272 BC Roma taken control of southern Italy in preceding centuries Carthage had similarly been consolidating its leadership over the surviving Phoenician colonies of the Western Mediterranean by the early 3rd Century BC it had come to control large areas of Northern Africa the belarics Sardinia and Western Sicily though like that of Rome much of this territory relied on intricate systems of alliances rather than direct rule in Sicily however there is evidence that carthaginian control over its possessions had become more centralized biker due to their stationing of large military forces there to defend them against Syracuse this consolidation did not come without setbacks however in the Years prior to the outbreak of the war with Rome the carthaginians had seen Pirates reduce their Sicilian territory to the single port city of Louisville however after pyrus's return to Italy the carthaginians would have an opportunity to recover their position by 270 BC they'd re-entrenched their rule in western and southern Sicily holding the important Phoenician port cities of Louis bayam pinomus and ripana to the West whilst also commanding the allegiance of Greek centers such as heraclear Manoa selenus and aggregentum meanwhile in 289 BC a group of companion mercenaries known as the mamatides sees the town of misana in northeastern Sicily using the town as a base this group spent the next two decades raiding their neighbors which aroused the wrath of Syracuse's new ruler Hiro II after an initial defeat in 275 BC in 265 BC he crushed the mamatine's forces which left the route to massana itself open with little of a recourse the mammatines cast out for allies sending emissaries to Carthage in the west and the Romans across the sea the former were more than happy to answer the call and a carthaginian Garrison was dispatched and received by the mamatides after which hero seems to have withdrawn in Rome however the mama times plea received a mixed reception not only were the Romans already exhausted from their Wars in southern Italy but they had themselves recently subdued a similar group of companion mercenaries at the city of reggia opening them to charges of hypocrisy if they chose to intervene according to polybius the Senate voted to reject the mamatimes request not to be denied the consuls took their case to the city assemblies swayed by Promises of treasure their members voted for war and Rome dispatch an army to masana under the command of the consul appius Claudius caudex despite the claim of the Punic Commander they who would never permit the Romans even to wash their hands in the sea appius and his army successfully evaded the carthaginian fleet and landed in Sicily with the arrival of these new players in Sicilian politics Hiro chose to Ally with the carthaginians whose Garrison the mamatimes put out of their City despite the arrival of additional carthaginian and Syracuse and forces this Alliance came to naught after being either defeated or possibly fought to a standstill Rome's enemies withdrew an appears secured the city the first Punic War had begun at its Inception it seems unlikely that either side would have expected a war on the scale that would follow indeed a serious argument has been made by historians the focus of the Roman intervention in Sicily appears to be more to conduct a short war against Syracuse rather than to attempt to expel the carthaginians from the island entirely to counter this we do have polybius's assertion the Romans were worried by carthaginian expansion in Sicily which they construed as a threat to their own territory in Italy this claim has in turn been received with skepticism by some Modern historians for example Professor Boris rankoff notes that outside of the carthaginians reclaiming their former Sicilian territory after pyrus's Invasion there is no evidence for any such expansion and that over the past Century it is Carthage that would have watched as Rome aggressively expanded its control of Italy conversely Professor H.H scullard writing in a chapter of the Cambridge series on ancient history argued that it is clear from our surviving sources that the Romans specifically declared war on carvage not Syracuse if for the moment however we assume that Rome's motive for war in Sicily was simply that behind its Wars in Italy to seize plunder and territory and that of Carthage was either to gain territory or to prevent further Roman expansion then it seems some form of agreement could have been made in the early stages of the war as we detailed in our last episode similar treaties had been made in Prior centuries between the two Powers demarking their respective spheres of influence both sides had also recently concluded major Wars with pyrus and Rome would be nearly continuously at war with its Italian neighbors for decades prior coverage had simply spent much of the 4th Century BC at war with the various rulers of Syracuse and as such it could be argued that a period of Peace would have been in both it and Rome's interests whether such an agreement could have held long term in the face of mutual suspicions and a newfound land border between the two Powers seems unlikely but there is little indication that in 264 BC a wide-scale war was either desired or imminent alas it was not to be and soon a chain of events would unfold that made a war for the total control of Sicily inevitable at the war's beginning both Roman Carthage afford to have stood relatively equal in strength we've had similar governments populations and controlled sprawling Empires built on complex systems of allies subjects and colonies where Rome held a distinct Advantage was in its ability to quickly mobilize troops from its territories which it could draw both from its own citizens and in large amounts from its allies by comparison the Manpower of the regions that Carthage ruled over directly was much lower and its approach to Warfare altogether different instead of Fielding its own core of Citizen soldiers in the first Punic War Carthage would rely on hired mercenaries to make up the bulk of its forces along with a smaller portion of troops conscripted from its North African subjects whilst carpage lacked in its ability to draw armies however at the outbreak of the war at vastly outweighed Rome in Naval power the primary theater in which the conflict would be determined at the start of the War Rome would have been only too aware of these forces as in 272 BC a large carthaginian Fleet had arrived offshore as a besieged Tarentum likely as a show of support for the Greek City due to its status as a major Maritime trade Empire Carthage was also by far the wealthier of the two Powers though over time this Advantage may have been somewhat neutralized by the expense of maintaining large mercenary forces for more than two decades with all this in mind let us continue where we left off at the end of our last episode after appius's successful repulsion of Syracuse and carthaginian forces from masana in 264 BC the next year Rome would dispatch its forces to Sicily once again at the time it was Roman military custom to maintain two armies each led by one of their two Chief magistrates the consuls these figures would command their armies for only a single year which due to how military campaigns were waged at the time meant that they effectively had only one summer of action before both sides were forced into winter camps or small is only a small number of these leaders would receive repeat commands during the first Punic War limiting any chances to use the experience they had gained indeed this custom was noted by the ancient author Cassius Dio whose work is preserved in an epitome by a later author cenaris as being detrimental to the long-term Roman performance in the war as no sooner had a commander gained experience then he was switched out for another leader who may be entirely untested this lack of follow-up opportunities combined with the comparatively short campaign season is also frequently noted to have made Roman commanders act aggressively in the field as they were incentivized to try and grab glory for themselves before their replacement arrived the next year by comparison the carthaginians would employ a more professional approach to selecting their generals electing dedicated military commanders rather than a revolving door of politicians this approach which may have been unique to carvage at the time meant that these military leaders were able to remain in post and gain more experience as the war progressed on the flip side according to historian JF Lazenby these commanders were often poorly supported with reinforcements as the Punic Wars wore on with coverage's leaders seemingly expecting their generals to Simply get on with the job once appointed there is also little evidence that these figures had any major military experience prior to their initial appointments and as we will see repeated failure by these generals could be met with punishments far more severe than simply being replaced in 263 BC the Roman commanders were that years consoles manius Valerius and manias otakilius Crassus who sought to expand on appius's success as with the previous year carvage may have made some attempt to prevent their armies from Crossing using its Naval forces in this time however Naval forces were highly restricted in their movements along the coast and it was difficult to prevent forces from Crossing narrow Straits such as those of masana which in good conditions might have been crossed at night in only a few hours both armies apparently made it to Sicily unharmed likely been aided in their Crossing by ships provided by Rome's Greek subjects in southern Italy their arrival was quickly met with another success as it apparently inspired a number of settlements throughout Eastern Sicily to change their allegiance to Rome soon after this Valerius and his army would march on Syracuse and renew hostilities Carthage appears to have made no effort to Aid Hiro until it was too late with his options limited the Syracuse and ruler chose to forego a longer Siege and came to terms the next year he agreed to pay a large Indemnity and to hand over any Roman prisoners in return for peace and his continued Independence in doing so he also abruptly switched from being an ally of Carthage and an enemy of Rome to an unfaltering source of support for the Roman cause for the remainder of the war hero would Faithfully Supply the Romans with the resources they needed to continue this new Ally also proved invaluable in providing the Romans with a more substantial base from which to supply their expeditions throughout the early years of the war with Carthage with Rome's conflict with Syracuse at an end and with the exception of a brief raid conducted by Valerius against the west of the island further campaigning would wait until the next year in 262 BC the Romans once again dispatched two Consular armies to deal with the carthaginians if we go by figures provided by deodora's succulus these joint armies comprised of some 100 000 men though modern historians have considered a figure closer to forty thousand to be more realistic under the leadership of el posthumous megalus and qmamilius retellers this Army successfully crossed to masana for heading south to Syracuse after the defection of the important city of segester to the Romans the Carthage unions also hurried to send reinforcements dispatching a large force of mercenaries to Sicily the main base for these reinforcements was intended to be their Allied city of agrigentum also known as acrogas on the southwestern shore of the island unfortunately for the carthaginians the Romans quickly realized the center's strategic value marching their armies West from Syracuse they arrived at agri-gentum around Harvest Time where upon they laid Siege to the city according to polybius the carthaginian Garrison seems to have been small but the population would have been swelled by an influx of local refugees with some 50 000 people now trapped within the city starvation soon set in and the Punic Garrison could only hope to hold out for a short period without being reinforced meanwhile the Roman army had similar problems to contend with whilst this Force likely received supplies from hero at Syracuse the logistics of feeding tens of thousands of men far from home would still have been difficult the result of this was that after the Romans had built their Camp much of the army was dispersed into the city's surrounding fields to gather the ripened grain with the Roman Force split up in this manner the carthaginians spied an opportunity led by a commander named Hannibal they launched a raid against the Roman foragers caught unaware and probably unarmed the Romans fell back to their fortified camp with the carthaginians in Pursuit here they had posted soldiers who were forbidden to abandon their positions on pain of death and it was a resolution of these troops that saved the Romans to quote polybius they bravely stood their ground against a far superior enemy force their losses were not slight but their opponents suffered more in the end they surrounded the enemy just as they were about to breach The Stockade and those they did not kill there they harassed and slaughtered all the way back to a Crag s with the carthaginian raid repulsed both the procedures and the besieged had learned a valuable lesson from this point onwards the Romans would forage in a much more cautious manner whilst Hannibal restricted his attacks in favor of waiting for reinforcements to arrive with agri-gentum isolated the Punic reinforcements had to be diverted most likely to the port of little Bayer pervert to the West according to deodora seculis recites fullness of agricas as his Source this huge Force consisted of 50 000 infantry supported by some 6 000 cavalry under the command of the same Hano that had led carthaginian forces at masana this Army marched South to relieve aggregentum by the time of his arrival the Romans had heavily entrenched their positions after two months of attempting to alternatively besiege or promote the enemy camps the dire state of the defenders in the city seems to have forced Hano into open battle the result was the first major Encounter of the Punic Wars The Battle of aguigentum in the era of the first Punic War major battles often followed something of a typical form the front line of both armies usually consisted of skirmishers who would harass the enemy prior to the main engagement on the Roman side these skirmishers who may already have been known as velites were equipped with light throwing Spears a sword a helmet and a shield on the carthaginian side the exact composition of these skirmishes is less certain it is possible that they consisted of Spaniards equipped with the famed falerica javarens in which the later Roman pillion would evolve or of singers recruited from the Balearic Islands Behind These the center of each Army was made up by waves of heavy infantry arrayed in equal lengths these are the troops that would conduct the bulk of the fighting seeking to defeat their enemies through slow envelopment lastly the wings of ivarami would be supported by the cavalry in the area before the Stirrup these men are unlikely to have been used to mount Mass charges against the Infantry and instead would have aimed to drive off their opposing counterparts with this achieved the Victorious Cavalry could then return to the battle and attack the enemy infantry from behind these battles would usually continue until one side succeeded in either flanking or enveloping their enemies a process that may have taken anything from minutes to hours after this the battle would usually turn into a route and it is at this point that most the casualties were likely inflicted with men being ridden down by the opposing cavalry as we will see over the course of these wars there is also plenty of room for Battlefield tactics and Innovations on both sides at agri-gentum however this basic blueprint would mostly play out here the Romans forward their standard practice of arranging their heavy infantry in free lines in the center of the field the first of these were the hastati who usually consisted of each legion's youngest members these armored men would have been equipped with a short sword designed for cutting and stabbing though whether this was yet the Gladius of later legionaries is still uncertain each man would have combined this with an oval-shaped shield and may also have carried a number of javelins behind them were arrayed the principles experienced Veterans of Prior campaigns who could be deployed in case of difficulty the third and final line consisted of the oldest men of the army the triari equipped with Spears these men formed the Vanguard of the Roman army acting as a defensive line behind which the rest of the Infantry could withdraw in moments of crisis these lines were further broken up into units known as manipuls there would have been arrayed in a chessboard fashion with gaps between each unit perhaps to allow reinforcements to be cycled in and out during battle compared to the Romans the carthaginians would deploy far more mixed forces in battle whilst the city did have its own citizen soldiers during the first Punic War these forces would only be deployed in the direst of circumstances instead much of the carthaginian forces consisted of mercenary troops drawn from Northern Africa Spain liguria and even from amongst the Celtic peoples of Northern Europe unlike the Roman menopause these troops would have been deployed in more of a masked phallax similar to those of the Greek city-states rather than a long Pike however the carthaginian forces seem to have been armed with a shorter stabbing Spear and a shield other weapons may have varied depending on the mercenary's background with spaniard's potential using shorter cutting for a sword similar to the Romans whilst Celtic and ligurian mercenaries may have used the longer slashing swords common to those regions supporting this infantry may also bend the feared namibian Cavalry whose reputation may have boosted the other troops morale and alongside their conventional forces the carthaginians also frequently possessed a weapon that the Romans did not war elephants elephants had been used in Ancient Warfare in the Mediterranean since at least the 5th Century greco-persian Wars designed to induce panic in enemy forces these beasts were usually placed ahead of the front line in a staggered fashion during the initial assault to Aid the psychological impact of their charge decorative elements such as armor were often applied to the elephant's head and body and it was not uncommon for them to be fed large amounts of wine prior to battle in order to enhance their rage as to whether they carried turrets or not as commonly shown in artistic depictions of these battles the situation is uncertain since the 1940s a number of Scholars have argued that the type of elephant used by the carthaginians would not have had the strength to carry a turret or its attendant archers and according to Professor JF Lazenby these animals would have instead carried only a single Rider however it should be noted that plebius claims elephants of a similar size were employed by the Egyptian forces towards the end of the second century BC and that these did indeed carry turrets whatever the case in the first Punic War it is clear that the elephants themselves would have been considered the main weapon and that these bees could be highly effective in combat however they also came with a major downside in that they were just as liable to turn on their own troops when maddened a trailer the Romans would later use to their advantage alongside the rest of his army Hannah had brought a sizable contingent of war elephants with him from Africa when it came to their placement however we are told that he made a critical mistake rather than placing his elephants ahead of his army as they were more commonly used in Ancient Warfare he instead placed them behind an initial rank of Infantry the exact thinking behind this formation is uncertain it may simply have been a mistake caused by the Commander's inexperience or it may have been designed so the first line of carthaginian infantry could tire out their Roman equivalents before the elephants arrived but what instead happened was that the defeaton withdrawal the carthaginian Infantry inspired panic in the rest of the army to quote polybius the Clashing of these men with the elephants and the remaining ranks behind them through the carthaginian Army into utter confusion most of them died during the ensuing General Route but some made it back to heraclia with the carthaginian reinforcements defeated and the city on the verge of starvation Hannibal then chose to make a daring Breakout packing the Roman trenches with baskets filled with chaff he and his men escaped under the cover of Darkness Rome took control of the city which they proceeded to plunder much of the population was sold into slavery the Battle of agricentum was a major victory for the Romans in addition to the loss of troops and elephants the fall of the city destroyed any carthaginian hopes of supplying their forces through southern Sicily however this Victory came only after a near disaster on the Roman side which highlighted logistical problems that they would do well to avoid in the future and despite their Victory the number of casualties inflicted on the Roman side also seems to have been high to quote deodorus of Sicily after a Siege of six months they became masters of agricas in the manner described and carried off all the slaves to the numbers of more than 25 000 but the Romans also suffered losses thirty thousand infantry and 1500 cavalry on their face these casualties may seem staggering especially considering the scale of Ancient Warfare assuming that modern estimates of the size of the Roman Force at roughly 40 000 men are correct that over three quarters of the Roman army would have been wiped out we should remember however that in reporting these figures theodorus is working from a presumed total of 100 000 troops on the Roman side from which thirty thousand lost would have been more realistic despite the uncertainty around these figures the losses on the Roman side do seem to have been heavy which combined with the Escape of the carthagino Garrison may explain why neither of the commanders agregendum received a Triumph for their victory according to H.H scollard the Roman's brutal treatment of the City's population in the battle's aftermath may also have unnecessarily soured relations with Sicily's Greek population on the whole however these blemishes seem not to have troubled the Romans greatly according to polybius the Jubilation with which the Roman senate received the news of victory was such that it led to a change in war policy going forward quote when news of what had happened at Accra gas reached the Roman senate their original plans were ousted by Euphoria and jubilation it was no longer enough that they had saved the mamateans and had already profited from the war now they expected to be able to drive the carthaginians off Sicily altogether and thereby Advance Roman interests enormously whether aggregentum truly marked such a change in policy is uncertain as we discussed there is some reason to think that the Roman war effort in Sicily up until 263 BC was limited to securing masana what would their focus on activities in the eastern half of the island after agri-gentum however there seems to have been no way to avoid the war escalating this battle would also Mark a turning point in how the war would be conducted whilst the carthaginians had been defeated the rest of the war would only see a handful of land battles on this scale with the second not occurring for another six years the reason for this is larger Geographic Rome had successfully besieged agri-gentum with its land forces alone but this was because the city was located several miles Inland and had no dedicated Port through which the carthaginians could resupply it this was not the case with the carthaginian centers on the west of the island Each of which was located on the coast and contained their own fortified Harbor through which they could be resupplied anyone wishing to wage a land War also had to contend with Sicily's mountainous terrain which would have restricted the easy movement of armies throughout the island despite these factors the land War would continue for the remainder of the first Punic War though it would take many years for it to achieve meaningful results instead in the years after agri-gentum the major conflicts of the war would be fought in a theater with which the Romans were far less familiar the war at Sea was a very different animal from the war on land a raid against the might of the carthaginian Navy it might be expected that the Romans would have been at an insurmountable disadvantage as the foremost Maritime power of the Western Mediterranean Carthage would not only have been able to muster a vastly larger Fleet but it would also have benefited from Superior shipbuilding methods and from having far more experienced Crews at its disposal by comparison Rome had little direct experience of Naval Warfare a fact that authors such as polybius were more than happy to play up quote after all their shipwrights had no experience at all of their construction it was not a case of their having adequate ways and means but of their lacking Ways and Means altogether they had never before given any thought to taking to the Sea and yet as soon as the idea occurred to them they committed themselves so audaciously to its realization that straight away before they were even experts in Naval matters they intended to fight the carthaginians at Sea where carthaginians had held uncontested sway for Generations in reality the Romans were not entirely the naval virgins that plebius makes them out to be a small Roman Fleet had been in existence since at least the early 3rd Century BC and even saw action in Rome's battles in southern Italy however this Fleet played at best a limited role in the war and in 282 BC it was soundly defeated by taranton and its only major battle in the years before the outbreak of the first Punic War it may even have been disbanded entirely with Rome instead relying on its Southern Italian allies for Naval support and it may even have been able to call on carthage's assistance during the pirate War it also remains uncertain if the Romans decision to expand the war at Sea was immediately prompted by Rome's claim new goal of expelling the carthaginians from Sicily despite the victory at agri-gentum the Senate doesn't appear to have ordered any major shipbuilding initiatives for another two years and according to historian Boris rankoff there is also reason to think that polybius's other sighted motivations may have played as larger factor in the Senate's decision these include ongoing raids by Carthage along the Italian Coast as well as the continuing defection of important Sicilian Seaside towns due to their fear of the carthaginian Navy the construction of a large Navy would also have allowed the Romans greater Security in transporting their armies Across The Straits of masana during which they remained vulnerable to enemy ships as such the decision by the Senate to build a Navy may also have had something of a defensive motivation eventually however it seems the Romans realize that any Hope of Victory in Sicily would require an effective Naval blockade of carthage's Harbors in the west which in turn meant that they would have to neutralize the carthaginian Navy thus the construction of a fleet on an entirely different scale was required in 260 BC under a new set of consoles Gaius Cornelius scibio and Caius duillius a massive shipbuilding effort was carried out according to Bolivia's this new Fleet included some 20 tririms a centuries-old ship design that had been used widely throughout the Eastern Mediterranean these Sleek vessels would have measured roughly 120 feet by 20 and outside of any combat troops would have held a crew of perhaps 200 men of these the vast majority would have been required simply to man the oars with these rowers likely being drawn from Rome's Naval allies as well as perhaps from the least wealthy men of Roman society the proletari by far the bulk of this sweet however consisted of 100 vessels of a newer design the Quinn query like the tririm the name of these larger vessels derived from the number of men assigned to each of its rowing units with five rowers being allocated to what was most likely a line of three separate oars compared to the tririm we have far less information available as to the dimensions of these vessels though we do know that their increased size would have required a crew of roughly 300 men to which would have been added a permanent complement of some 40 Marines in a famous story provided to us by polybius the Romans were also aided in designing these newer vessels by the discovery of a carthaginian queen query that had run aground in 264 BC this story has generally been treated as a plausible one by historians though according to JF Lazenby the Romans may also have drawn upon Naval designs provided by its allies such as Tarentum and Syracuse to train the vast number of new recruits that will be needed to man these vessels his Crews were first drilled on land Seated on benches in the same order as they would sit at sea despite their relative inexperience in shipbuilding if Olivia's is to be believed the Romans were also able to complete the mammoth task of constructing this Fleet in only two months whilst this claim is one that has been treated with the degree of skepticism in recent decades the archaeological remains of mass-produced Punic vessels have been found and it would not be surprising if the Romans had simply adopted the same model and with the construction of this Fleet the Romans were ready to face carvage once again the initial launching of the Roman fleet was not an auspicious one after a period of sea training to acclimate its Crews the fleet receded South towards Sicily in the meantime its leader Gaius Cornelius Scipio went ahead to masana with a smaller force of 17 ships to prepare for the fleet survival here he made a daring move one that quickly proved to be a mistake after receiving word that the important port of lipara of the northeastern coast of Sicily was to be betrayed to the Romans he chose not to wait for the rest of his Fleet receding with his small group of ships he succeeded in occupying the harbor unfortunately for him the main body of the carthaginian fleet was moored only slightly to the West at the important center of pinomas in command was the same Hannibal that had led the Garrison at Agri Genta and upon hearing of the Roman seizure of the para he dispatched 20 ships of his own arriving under the cover of night the carthaginian successfully boxed in the harbor throwing their inexperienced Roman Crews into disarray some fled Inland and the carthaginians took control of the port captured by the enemy Scipio would eventually be ransomed and returned to Rome though not before acquiring the nickname that would follow him for the rest of his career a Cena the she donkey whilst this blunder was a humiliating one for the Romans it was quickly matched by a mistake on Hannibal's behalf receiving word of the arrival of the rest of the Roman Fleet he sailed out with 50 vessels to try and gauge its size rounding a place polybius refers to as the Cape of Italy he accidentally Came Upon the bulk of the Roman Fleet the general himself managed to escape but only after losing half of his ships on the Roman side scipio's Consular colleague highest duelius left his forces in Sicily and took control of the fleet learning that the carthaginians were ravaging the territory of my line near masana he put out to see himself the result was the first large-scale naval battle the Punic Wars The Battle of my life in a purely conventional naval battle the carthaginians would have held a clear advantage for the last 200 years the primary method of ship to ship combat had been through head-on ramming in Aid of this ships of the era were equipped with a large bronze Ram attached to the prowl below the water line the remains of which have been discovered throughout the Mediterranean this method appears to become less effective as larger thicker hold vessels such as the quinquirim were developed but it would still have remained the primary form of ship to ship Warfare at the time of the Punic Wars according to polybius the Romans knew full well that their ships were poorly equipped and sluggish unable to match the ramming skill of the experienced carthaginian Cruise the Romans instead looked to a new weapon to ensure their victory this was known as the corvus or the raven to quote polybius this was a cylindrical pole four fathoms long and with the diameter of Three Palms fixed upright on the prow of a ship with a pulley on the top its base was surrounded by planks nailed together at right angles to one another so as to form a gangplank four feet wide and 36 Long the pole projected through an oblong hole in the middle of the Gangplank 12 feet in from the end on the end of the structure there was fixed a pestle-like iron Spike with a ring at the top so that the whole thing looked quite like a device for pounding grain in a ramming run a rope that was tied onto the ring and passed through the pulley on top of the pole raised the Raven and then released it onto the deck of the enemy ship the device was either deployed straight over the prow or it could be swiveled around if the ships collided side to side once the corvus was stuck in the deck of a carthaginian ship Roman Marines would cross and attack the enemy crew either jumping across the decks if the vessels were side on or climbing over the body of the corvus itself in choosing to employ this weapon the Romans seemed to have been seeking to neutralize their inexperience in Naval Warfare by effectively turning it into a series of small-scale land battles one in which the likely armed carthaginian Crews will be unable to resist the exact size of the opposing Fleet varies from source to source according to Dear Doris the carthaginians mustered over 200 vessels though polybius offers a more conservative figure of 130 ships leading it was the same Hannibal as before who commanded his Fleet from a large Flagship said to have been seized from Pirates during his war in Sicily coming across the Roman Fleet the carthaginians seemed to have been initially surprised by the strange device the Roman ships were carrying trusting in their greater Naval experience however they soon rushed to attack losing all semblance of formation in the process in their rush to engage the Roman vessels many of the carthaginian ships found themselves grappled by the Roman corvi and with their ships immobilized their Crews were no match for the Roman marines that boarded them According to polybius some 50 of the carthaginian vessels were taken with later sources giving totals of 30 or 31 captured and either 13 or 14 sunk among the captured vessels was Hannibal's own Flagship though according to Legend the general himself narrowly escaped by abandoning his vessel for a rowboat with that the first major naval battle the Punic Wars had ended with a surprising Victory by the inexperienced Roman Fleet even more surprisingly it was to be only the first in a remarkable run of successors that the Roman Navy would enjoy over the next two decades one that would be tempered only by the occasional blunder and the forces of nature duillius himself will be rewarded for his victory with the first Naval Triumph along with the right to construct a monument that celebrated his achievements the column no rostrata if both deodorus and Cassius Diora to be believed on the carthaginian side Hannibal would Escape any direct blame by trickery two years later however the General's luck ran out after a series of back and forth raids by the console's El Cornelius Scipio and see solpitious patricalus against Corsica and Sardinia in 258 BC the latter succeeded in ambushing the carthaginian general to quote Cassius Dio by way of zanaris subsequently atelier's compassed Hannibal's defeat by means of some false deserters who represented for datilius was going to sail to Africa again Hannibal put out hastily where upon solpisius held against him and sank the majority of his vessels the crews because of a Mist did not know for a long time what was taking place and were thrown into confusion after this fresh defeat the carthaginian general managed to escape to Saucy in Sardinia where the Romans succeeded in destroying many of his ships at Harbor soon after he was arrested by his own soldiers for incompetence and was executed whilst both of his Roman opponents went on to receive triumphs for their deeds finally in 257 BC the new console see atelius regulus earned himself a Triumph when he defeated another carthaginian Fleet off the Cape of tindaris forcing them to flee to lipara to the north by all accounts the first few years of the war at Sea were a disaster for the carthaginians their greater experience had come to nothing with the Roman use of the corvus seemingly neutralizing any advantage they had held in conventional naval combat assuming that our understanding of crew sizes from this period is accurate than a loss of 45 vessels may have meant casualties in the order between 15 to 20 000 men though some medieval authors such as erosius and nootropius Report roughly half this number killed and captured this loss of Naval Manpower may have in turn led to further problems for the carthaginians as the first Punic War progressed the gigantic loss of life in these battles and others would have required the training of large numbers of fresh Crews on both sides in the case of Carthage this influx of new recruits may have diluted any experience Advantage they held over the Romans and contributed to their unexpectedly poor performance at sea fortunately for them however their land forces had fared somewhat better in Sicily throughout the years of 261 to 258 BC as we discussed briefly before after the fall of agricentum the nature of the war in Sicily had changed with much of Sicily consisting of either Hills or mountains transporting larger armies would have been difficult complicating matters much of Sicily's non-aligned population also dwelled in fortified settlements many of which still jealously guarded their independence as we saw at the siege of agricentum the Romans would have lacked the technical knowledge to take strongly defended cities by direct assault whilst the carthaginian forces lacked the manpower to do the same since making peace with Syracuse the Romans had already failed to take Marcella whilst in 261 BC their Siege of Mitty Stratus dragged on for seven months before being abandoned that same year came the only significant engagement of the period when the Carthage unions under hano's replacement hamoka clash with Roman forces under console C aquilius Flores near the settlement of thermi himarea to quote polybius but after the battle of Malay news reached hamalkara pinomous of trouble in the Roman Camp he found out that the Romans had fallen out with their allies over the awarding of battle honors and that the Allies were in the process of establishing a separate camp for themselves between parapis and the hot springs of himera Hamilton who was in charge of the carthaginian forces launched an all-out attack on the allies and took them by surprise as they were moving from one site to the other ancient authors disagree on the exact amount of casualties suffered by the Romans polybius claims four thousand deodorus 6. after two more years of unclear action the carthaginian general then took control of the towns of enna and camarina after factions within betrayed their respective settlements in the process the carthaginians deprived the Romans of control of a major trade route across the center of the island unfortunately this runner's success would not last to retrieve the situation the Romans extended forest's command throughout the winter of 258 BC then dispatched to Sicily the consuls a attilius caitinus and the same sea sawpitious peterculus who had succeeded against Hannibal at sea after failing to draw out the carthaginian force from its winter Quarters at pinormous they instead turned to capture Mitty Stratton and another town named hippana soon after Anna was returned to Roman control by a rival faction within the city and camarina fell to the Romans the same year largely thanks to Siege equipment sent by the syracusans finally after Hannibal's defeat at Sea the Romans also moved to besiege the power on its Island neutralizing one of the last major carthaginian bases in the east by 257 BC the situation in Sicily was not much different from that five years earlier the Romans had successfully retrieved their prior position and in the process limited carthaginian access to the east of the island but whilst Hamilton no longer controlled Ena or camarina the carthaginians remained in a strong position maintaining control of their major centers at pinormous lower Bayer and rapana it was at this point however that one side made a daring move to break the impasse after their success in the naval war and with the war on land stalemated the Senate decided Rome was ready to take the fight to Carthage in its North African heartlands the Roman invasion of Africa in 256 BC constitutes the boldest action of the first Punic War you should be remembered that Roman forces had left Italy for the first time only eight years prior yet now Rome felt confident enough to send it still inexperienced Naval forces some 400 miles across the sea this Invasion would have required the commitment of tens of thousands of Roman troops not to mention that of a vast Fleet to transport and protect them yet such an action was not without precedent in the late 4th Century BC a Syracuse and ruler by the name of the gaffocles had conducted a similar Expedition with the aim of forcing Carthage to withdraw from Western Sicily whilst his attempt was ultimately a failure it may have provided a practical example for the Romans to emulate with the Northwestern Coast still controlled by carthaginian ports the Romans would have had to send their Fleet south from masana past Syracuse then West along Sicily's Southern Shores whilst at the same time contending with the carthaginian fleet moreover transporting the sizable Force required to besiege the carthaginian centers of North Africa would require a fleet on a far greater scale than their previous undertakings to carry it out polybius claims at over 330 quinquareems were mustered modern Scholars are presented serious doubts of whether this huge number is accurate and it has been argued that this total also includes many non-combat vessels such as horse transports unfortunately we have no alternatives to work with whilst the Roman Fleet could have been swelled by carthaginian vessels captured by the corvi in previous battles this figure would still have required the building of more than 100 quinquareems a figure that seemed challenging but by no means impossible given earlier Roman shipbuilding efforts if polybius's figures are correct and presuming that each warships included its usual contingent of 40 Marines in addition to its regular crew then this combined Fleet would have been manned by some 120 000 men a significant portion of Roman Italy's male population led by the two consoles for the year El Manlius also an air mattelius regulus The Invasion Force crossed to masana then traveled south past Syracuse towards Cape patchinon whilst traveling along the coast the fleet then stopped at the Village of finteus in the vicinity of a Hill Called economus here it joined up with Rome's land forces which according to polybius swelled a number of men on board to nearly 140 000 a total does includes some 40 000 legionnaires the movement of a fleet this size was no secret to the carthaginians in response they mustered an even larger Armada to meet it which they sent first to Lila bayam in Western Sicily Bend South to heraclear Manoa according to polybius a Punic Fleet consisted of 350 ships crewed by some 150 000 men and commanded by three separate generals the first of these was Hano the man who had failed to relieve aggregenta followed by Hamilton who would achieve some success against the Romans on land but who had recently lost to them at the naval battle of tindaris along with a third unknown Commander unlike at my life when the carthaginian crews fell victim to the corvi and the Roman Marines this time the carthaginians appear to have brought a large contingent of Marines on board their vessels though whether their numbers equaled those carried by the Roman ships is unclear soon after these two forces would meet in what may well have been the largest naval battle in world history the Battle of economists it involved nearly 700 ships in turn carrying almost 300 000 men a number equaled by few other Naval conflicts for all the risk this battle posed for the Romans for the carthaginians the stakes were even higher Not only would a victory prevent an invasion of their North African heartlands but the destruction of the Roman Fleet and army of Sicily would have deprived their enemies of vital troops for the land War whilst carvage may have been able to land new forces to reinvigorate their efforts it took place at an uncertain location close to the Southern Shores of Sicily the Romans had split their troops into four groups prior to the battle which they organized into a combat formation led by the consuls the first two squadrons led the column in a wedge-shaped formation behind which came the third Squadron Towing the Cavalry transports a final large Squadron was deployed in a line at the back of the collar which it was nicknamed the triari taken from the name of the Roman rear guard in land battles on seeing this formation the carthaginian commanders chose to array their ships in a long thin line This left anchor lined as an angle against the Sicilian Shore and it's right flank extending far beyond the outer edges of the Roman column the center of this line was placed under the command of hamoka and appears to have been kept deliberately thin with the majority of the Punic Fleet being placed on the flanks by adopting this formation the carthaginians of thoughts have been trying to split up the tight Roman column by giving the Roman Vanguard an easy target in the center to lure them out the remaining carthaginian forces could then flank the Roman third and fourth squadrons where they could hopefully exploit their experience in ramming maneuvers if this was indeed the carthaginian plan then in the initial stages of the battle it succeeded almost perfectly seeing that the enemy Center contained fewer ships than the forces on their flanks the Roman consoles charge their squadrons towards it which caused the carthaginian vessels to hastily fall back after they had lured the first two Roman groups away from the more vulnerable third Squadron they turned in gay battle preventing the consoles from aiding their other forces meanwhile the wide Punic right flank under the command of Hano swung inwards towards land enveloping the triari whilst the Left Flank realigned itself and went after the remaining Squadron after the Roman third Squadron cut its horse transports adrift the battle effectively developed into three separate actions it was here however that the carthaginian plans came undone according to both JF Lazenby and Adrian goldsworthy the carthaginians simply seemed to have had no effective answer for the Roman corvus and any advantage they possessed in ramming experience came to nothing soon the consoles managed to drive off hamilkar's forces after which they circled back and attacked the remaining carthaginian vessels by the battle's conclusion the carthaginians had lost more than 30 ships sunk to the Romans 24. more significant however were the 64 carthaginian vessels captured by the Romans defeated the carthaginian fleet withdrew to Africa leaving The Invasion route open [Music] foreign foreign foreign