The Consul Appius Claudius, Was Ordered By The Senate To Proceed To Sicily:
Previously To His Departure, He Despatched Caius Claudius, A Legionary
Tribune, With A Few Vessels To Rhegium, Principally, It Would Seem, To
Reconnoitre The Naval Force Of The Carthaginians.
The consul himself soon
followed with a small fleet, hired principally from the Tarentines,
Locrians, and Neapolitans.
This fleet being attacked by the Carthaginian
fleet, which was not only much more numerous, but better equipped and
manned, and a violent storm rising during the engagement, which dashed many
of the Roman vessels in pieces among the rocks, was completely worsted. The
Carthaginians, however, restored most of the vessels they captured, only
expostulating with the Romans on the infraction of the treaty at that time
subsisting between the two republics. This loss was in some measure
counterbalanced by Claudius capturing, on his voyage back to Rhegium, a
Carthaginian quinquireme, the first which fell into the possession of the
Romans, and which served them for a model. According to other historians,
however, a Carthaginian galley, venturing too near the shore, was stranded,
and taken by the Romans; and after the model of this galley, the Romans
built many of their vessels.
Claudius was not in the least discouraged by his defeat, observing that he
could not expect to learn the art of navigation without paying dear for it;
but having repaired his fleet, he sailed again for Sicily, and eluding the
vigilance of the Carthaginian admiral, arrived safe in the port of Messina.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 186 of 1007
Words from 51131 to 51383
of 273188
