THE ROMANS BUILD A FLEET
The Romans had conquered Pyrrhus with the help of the Carthaginians.
Now that they no longer needed the help of their new allies, the Romans
would have been glad had the Carthaginians sailed away to their home in
Africa. But this they did not seem to think of doing.
In Sicily they took possession of many Greek towns, and this made Rome
jealous. Their fleet, too, was often seen sailing along the coasts of
Italy.
Like the Vikings of the North, the Carthaginians would suddenly swoop
down upon some undefended coast town and plunder it and the surrounding
district. Farm-houses were burned, plantations destroyed, and men
and women dragged away to be sold as slaves, long before the Romans
had been able to gather an army and march to the spot to punish the
offenders.
But such insolence Rome could not brook, and she declared war against
the bold intruders. This was the beginning of the first Punic war,
which was the name given to the struggle between the Romans and Pœni or
Carthaginians for the empire of the world.
On land the Romans quickly showed that they were more powerful than
their former allies, and in about three years the Carthaginians had
been forced to sail away to the shores of Africa, while those who
stayed behind held only a few sea-coast towns in Sicily.
But the Carthaginian fleet was as powerful as ever, and the Romans saw
that they would never get rid of their enemy, until they, too, had a
fleet, and could cope with them on sea as well as on land. So, although
they knew little about ships and none of them were sailors, the Romans
determined to build a fleet.
The Carthaginian warships were large vessels with five benches, built
one above the other. The five benches were provided for five sets of
rowers.
These large five-decked boats were called quinqueremes, quinque being
the Latin word for five, and remus for an oar.
One day, one of these Punic vessels was stranded on the Italian coast.
Here was the very model the Romans needed. They seized it, and sent it
to Rome as a copy for the ships that were to form the new fleet.
When the quinquereme reached Rome the shipwrights at once set to work.
Forests were hewn down, timber was sawn, and in two short months the
Romans had built and launched one hundred ships, large and solid as
those of the Carthaginians.
And what was perhaps even more wonderful was that there were sailors
ready to man the fleet. For while the ships were being built, the men
chosen to form the crew had been placed on benches on dry land. These
benches were arranged in the position they would have on board.
Here the landsmen, who had still to be changed into sailors, had
practised the movements of the oars, and had learned to keep time as
they would have to do when actually at sea. A musical accompaniment had
helped them to pull the oars together.
But these hastily trained sailors could not hope to handle their
vessels as skilfully as the well-trained mariners of Carthage. So the
Romans added to each ship a solid wooden bridge, with a spike at the
end. When the enemy’s ship drew near, the Romans meant to drop the
bridge, which was attached to the masts, on to the deck of their foe.
The spike, sinking into the deck by the force of the fall, would hold
the ship, while the Romans would rush across this rough drawbridge and
fight with their enemy at close quarters, as though they were on land.
In 260 B.C. the new fleet put to sea under the command of the Consul
Duilius, and before long it met the enemy on the northern coast of
Sicily.
The Carthaginians had no fear of the newly built ships and quickly
trained sailors. Their captain even thought the usual manœuvres
unnecessary, and sailed toward the Roman fleet in a careless way,
thinking to charge prow to prow. To his surprise he found his vessels
suddenly gripped by the ships of the enemy, and unable to move.
The bridges, of which I told you, could be wheeled round the masts
and dropped just where they were needed, and the Romans, aided by the
careless attack of the Carthaginians, had dropped their bridges at the
right moment and secured the enemy’s ships.
Before the Carthaginians had recovered from their surprise, the Romans
had rushed on board, sword in hand, and ere long had captured many of
the crew and taken possession of, or destroyed, fifty of the Punic
vessels.
Even the flagship, a huge vessel of seven rows of oars, which the
Carthaginians had once taken from Pyrrhus, was abandoned to the victors.
This, the first great victory at sea, caused much joy in Rome, and
Duilius was awarded a triumph.
It is said that to the end of his life, the Consul was accompanied by
a flute-player and a torchbearer as he returned home from banquets, in
memory of this glorious victory.
Three years later another great battle was fought at sea, both sides
claiming the victory.
But the Romans were ambitious and inspired by their success, they
determined to sail to Africa and attack the Carthaginians in their own
country.
So they began to build a larger fleet of three hundred and thirty
ships. When it was ready they sent on board two armies, of about
40,000 men, under the command of the two Consuls, Regulus and Manlius.
As the Roman fleet sailed along the south coast of Sicily, it was met
at Ecnomus by an even larger Carthaginian fleet, under the command of
Hamilcar and Hanno.
The Punic generals had been sent to scatter or destroy the Roman fleet
before it reached Africa.