The First Punic War

Carthage controlled most of the Mediterranean coasts. Rome’s strength was in the Italian peninsula and its land army. The first Punic war began in 264 BC as a local conflict in Sicily. Two cities on Sicily-Syracuse Messina had a quarrel and started a fight. Messina called on a first carthage and then Rome for aid so the offended Carthaginians then backed Syracuse. 

The fight was no longer about the quarrel between the cities. This was now a fight between Rome and Carthage in contrast to Sicily. War lasted from 264-241 BC and the Romans had only three defeats during that entire time. Carthage had the better navy and Rome knew they could not win in a traditional naval fight. So they invented a new weapon, the assault bridge, and instituted it on their ship. It was a smashing success as the battles could now be fought like land battles even at sea. The battle of Tunis in 255 was the Carthainians’s only major success on land in the first war that caused a break in the war. When Rome regained enough force, it again invaded Sicily and North Africa with great success. Both Rome and Carthage were financially and physically defeated after their 23 years of conflict. However, Rome did prove to be the victor as it developed its navy into a stronger force than the Carhinians at this time, because they won the peace agreement Carthage was required to leave all of Sicily, Return it’s prisoners of war and several smaller island, pay 30 tone of silver immediately and 6.6 tons of annually for 10 years.