Roman withdrawal from Africa (255 BC)

Despite the heavy losses of both sides, the war continued for a further 14 years, mostly on Sicily or the nearby waters, before ending with a Roman victory.

[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 Cape Hermaeum.

[7][8] Carthaginian written records were destroyed along with their capital, Carthage, in 146 BC and so Polybius's account of the First Punic War is based on several, now-lost, Greek and Latin sources.

[14] Other, later, histories of the war exist, but in fragmentary or summary form,[15] and they usually cover military operations on land in more detail than those at sea.

[20] Carthage was a well-established maritime power in the western Mediterranean; mainland Italy south of the River Arno had recently been unified under Roman control.

According to the classicist Richard Miles, Rome's expansionary attitude after southern Italy came under its control combined with Carthage's proprietary approach to Sicily caused the two powers to stumble into war more by accident than design.

[21] The immediate cause of the war was the issue of control of the independent Sicilian city state of Messana (modern Messina).

[24] Vessels were built as cataphract, or "protected", ships, with a closed hull and a full deck able to carry marines and catapults.

All warships were equipped with a ram, a triple set of 60-centimetre-wide (2 ft) bronze blades weighing up to 270 kilograms (600 lb) positioned at the waterline.

All of the rams recovered by modern archeologists were made individually by the lost-wax method to fit immovably to a galley's prow,[40] and secured with bronze spikes.

Encouraged by these and frustrated at the continuing stalemate in Sicily, the Romans changed their focus to a sea-based strategy and developed a plan to invade the Carthaginian heartland in North Africa and threaten Carthage (close to Tunis).

[43] Both sides were determined to establish naval supremacy and invested large amounts of money and manpower in maintaining and increasing the size of their navies.

[44][45] The Roman fleet of 330 warships plus an unknown number of transport ships[46] sailed from Ostia, the port of Rome, in early 256 BC, commanded by the consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus.

[36][48][49] The Carthaginians were aware of the Romans' intentions and mustered all available warships, 350, under Hanno[note 3] and Hamilcar, off the south coast of Sicily to intercept them.

[55] As a result of the battle, the Roman army, commanded by Regulus, landed in Africa near Aspis (modern Kelibia)[56] and captured it.

Hamilcar, Hasdrubal and Bostar were placed in joint command of an army which was strong in cavalry and elephants and was approximately the same size as the Romans'.

[64][66] The historian Marc DeSantis suggests that a lack of soldiers serving as marines on the Carthaginian ships, compared with the Romans', may have been a factor in their defeat and in the large number of vessels captured.

In mid-July, somewhere between the friendly city of Camarina and Cape Passaro, the south-east corner of Sicily, a sudden summer storm blew up and devastated the Roman fleet.

[64][66][74] DeSantis considers 100,000 to be a conservative estimate[75] while the historian Howard Scullard breaks the loss down as 25,000 soldiers, who would have included many of the survivors of Regulus's army; and 70,000 rowers and crew, with many of these probably being Carthaginians taken captive in the recent battle.

[82] The Romans rapidly rebuilt their fleet, adding 220 new ships, and captured Panormus (modern Palermo) in 254 BC.

[87] It was to be seven years before Rome again attempted to field a substantial fleet, while Carthage put most of its ships into reserve to save money and free up manpower.

[91] Carthage assembled a fleet which attempted to relieve them, but it was destroyed at the Battle of the Aegates Islands in 241 BC,[92][93] forcing the cut-off Carthaginian troops on Sicily to negotiate for peace.

[92] The question of which state was to control the western Mediterranean remained open, and when Carthage besieged the Roman-protected town of Saguntum in eastern Iberia in 218 BC, it ignited the Second Punic War with Rome.