As consul in 260 BC, during the First Punic War, he won Rome's first ever victory at sea by defeating the Carthaginians at the Battle of Mylae.

[2] Duilius was one of the consuls for the year 260 BC, and was initially appointed to command Rome's land forces in Sicily against Carthage, as part of the First Punic War.

[10] This allowed Roman legionaries acting as marines to board enemy ships and capture them, rather than employing the previously traditional tactic of ramming.

[12] The Carthaginians anticipated victory, due to the superior experience of their crews, and their faster and more manoeuvrable galleys, and broke formation to close rapidly with the Romans.

[note 3] Landing probably at the gulf of Termini, he relieved Segesta of its siege by the Carthaginian Hamilcar, and then stormed the fortress of Macella (possibly Macellaro near Camporeale).

[18][19][20] As his term as consul neared its end, Duilius returned to Rome to hold elections and to celebrate, in early 259, the first Roman triumph for a naval victory.

Lazenby suggested that, since he lacked an aristocratic pedigree, the nobility "may have got tired of his boastfulness", if the tone of the commemorative inscription attached to his column (CIL VI, 1300) reflects his own attitude.

Due to Duilius' victory being commemorated with a column adorned with the ramming beaks (rostra) of captured warships being erected in the Forum, behind where speakers were standing when delivering a speech, the word "Rostrum" gained in Latin - and thence to various modern languages - the meaning of referring to a dais.