Battle of Cape Ecnomus: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Cape Ecnomus - Prelude

Battle of Cape Ecnomus - Prelude

Following the conquest of Agrigentum, the Roman Republic decided to build a fleet and threaten Carthage's supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea. Rome's initial disadvantage in experience was compensated by the use of corvus in the ship's prows. The resulting series of Roman victories in naval battles such as Mylae, inspired an attempt of invasion of Carthaginian lands in Africa.

Such an operation demanded an enormous amount of ships to transport the legions and their gear to Africa. To complicate the logistical problem, Carthage's fleet was patrolling the coasts of Sicily, forcing the transport to be done in military vessels like triremes and quinqueremes, with little storage space. Therefore Rome built a large fleet, of about 200 ships, to make the crossing of the Mediterranean with safety, and the two consuls of the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus, were named to command it. But the Carthaginians were not going to let this threat to pass undisturbed and launched an equally sized fleet, commanded by Hanno and Hamilcar, to intercept the Romans.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prelude", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki