The First Punic War

       The First Punic war was fought between Rome and Carthage over the control of Sicily. Before the wars Rome and Carthage would solve the disputes with treaties. Carthage had a strong navy with great ship designs. They had been victorious in the Mediterranean. When Rome set its sights on Sicily, Carthage felt threatened. With Rome’s growth and expansion it made them a bigger threat. Rome seemed to have every resource readily available. With not having a strong fleet, Rome decided to improvise. Rome had captured a Carthaginian ship. Rome came up with the idea to make identical boats. In 60 days, Rome had built 120 identical Carthaginian ships. Romans decided to add one feature, the corvus. The corvus was a rotating platform with a giant spike on the end of it. Once the disguised Roman ships got close to the Carthaginian ship, the Romans would lower the corvus onto the Carthaginian ship. The spike would anchor onto the enemy ship, connecting the two. The platform was a bridge so the Romans could travel from their ship to the Carthage ship. There, the Romans could engage in hand-to-hand combat. The Romans were much better at fighting in hand-to-hand combat. The Carthaginians were easily defeated. The Carthaginians didn’t even form battle lines for their fleet because they knew Rome’s naval warfare was no great threat. The Carthaginians were caught off guard. This was Rome’s first naval victory. Battles continued after Carthage continued to dismiss the corvus. Carthage continued to be defeated. In the battle of Ecnomus the Romans had 330 ships and the Carthaginians had around the same number. The Romans formed a plan which then separated the Carthaginian’s battle formations. This created another devastating loss for Carthage. Carthage fought back at Drepana where they outmaneuvered the Romans fleet. The Romans had 120 ships which 93 were captured. The Roman captain was tried for treason in Rome for attempting to attack at night. The First Punic war was officially won by the Romans when Catulus, a Roman captain, took his fleet that had trained during summer, to the Aegates Islands. The Carthaginians were scarred. The Romans had sunk 50 Carthaginian ships, captured 70, and took 10,000 Carthaginian prisoners. The Carthaginians were running low on finances. Without the money, it was hard for them to get all of their resources to build ships or man their men. Carthage had to try to recover after decades of war so they pursued peace terms. Rome is now the Mediterranean’s superpower. 

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Sources:

Cartwright, Mark. “Carthaginian Naval Warfare.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, 9 June 2016, www.ancient.eu/Carthaginian_Naval_Warfare/.

Cartwright, Mark. “First Punic War.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, 26 May 2016, www.ancient.eu/First_Punic_War/.

“First Punic War.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Punic_War#/media/File:First_Punic_War_264_BC_v2.png.