M.n Regulus Serranus was consul for the first time in 257 BC, with the patrician Gnaeus Cornelius Blasio, and prosecuted the First Punic War against the Carthaginians.
He then obtained possession of the islands of Lipara and Melite, which he laid waste with fire and sword.
Legend says he was plowing in the field when the delegation from Rome informed him that he had been re-elected consul (Aen.
In this year, the Romans gained a brilliant victory at Panormus, under the proconsul Lucius Caecilius Metellus.
Thinking that the time had now come to bring the war to a conclusion, they sent both consuls to Sicily with an army of four legions and two hundred ships.