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The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and greatest naval war of antiquity, the two powers struggled for supremacy.
The First Punic War broke out on the Mediterranean island of Sicily in 264 BC as Rome's expansion began to encroach on Carthage's sphere of influence on the island. At the start of the war Carthage was the dominant power of the western Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire , while Rome was a rapidly expanding power in Italy , with a ...
The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c.118 BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. [1] [2] [note 1] His works include a manual on military tactics, not extant, but he is known today for The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC, or about a century after the siege.
Regulus was first consul in 267 BC. He campaigned with his co-consul (Lucius Julius Libo) against the Sallentini, captured Brundisium, and thence celebrated a double triumph. [2] During the first Punic War, he was elected suffect consul in 256 BC, in place of Quintus Caedicius, who had died in office. [3]
The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War [note 1] is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c.118 BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. [2] [3] His works include a now-lost manual on military tactics, [4] but he is known today for The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC, or about a century after the Battle of the Aegates.
In 264 BC, the states of Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War. [23] Carthage was a well-established maritime power in the Western Mediterranean; Rome had recently unified mainland Italy south of the Po under its control. The immediate cause of the war was control of the Sicilian town of Messana (modern Messina).
The Treaty of Lutatius was the agreement between Carthage and Rome of 241 BC (amended in 237 BC), that ended the First Punic War after 23 years of conflict. Most of the fighting during the war took place on, or in the waters around, the island of Sicily and in 241 BC a Carthaginian fleet was defeated by a Roman fleet commanded by Gaius Lutatius Catulus while attempting to lift the blockade of ...
The Battle of Messana in 264 BC was the first military clash between the Roman Republic and Carthage.It marked the start of the First Punic War.In that period, and after the recent successes in southern Italy, Sicily became of increasing strategic importance to Rome.