![]() Since the Carthaginians had recently captured seventeen new Roman ships and their commander, he may have felt confident enough to stop the main Roman fleet and take over more of their ships. ![]() It is possible that his motive was more ambitious than this. According to Polybius, he wanted to discover the strength and the general disposition of the enemy and perhaps he intended to combine this reconnaissance with a plundering raid. The reasons for Hannibal’s voyage are not clear. He does not give details about the battle but claims that Hannibal lost most of his fifty ships before escaping with the remainder. Polybius states that Hannibal came upon the main Roman fleet sailing southwards in good order and trim. ![]() This could well have been the Taurianum promontory, known today as Cape Vaticano. Next, the Roman and Carthaginian fleets clashed off the coast of Bruttium, near a place called the Cape of Italy. So, for the Romans, Lipara was an important target and the capture of it could have been their first success in the campaign to conquer the Punic ports. While they already controlled the ports of Messana and Syracuse and could rely on the support of their ally Hiero along the east coast of the island, the rest of the Sicilian seaboard was dominated by the Punic fleet and was hostile to them. If the Romans had captured it, the crossing of their main fleet would have been safer. It was one of the ports that the Carthaginians could use to protect traffic in the Straits and interfere in Roman transports. The Romans gave Scipio the nickname ‘Asina’, she-ass, but he was released later in an exchange of prisoners and continued his career. Much has been made of this failed enterprise. Scipio surrendered to Boödes, who took him and the captured ships to Hannibal. Hannibal dispatched Boödes, a member of the senate, with twenty ships and he blockaded the Romans in the harbour. The Carthaginians at Panormus learned about Scipio’s presence at Lipara. Polybius describes how an opportunity came up to capture Lipara by treachery, and so Scipio sailed there with his seventeen ships. However, Scipio was then taken prisoner at the Lipari Islands. The consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio had given orders to the captains to sail towards the Straits when the fleet was ready, while he put to sea with seventeen ships and proceeded to Messana to prepare for the arrival of the main fleet. The intensification of the Punic war at sea was demonstrated when the new Roman fleet first approached Sicily and the Carthaginians made an effort to stop it from securing a position on the Sicilian coast. It is not mentioned in period sources after the battle of Ecnomus and apparently the Battle of the Aegates Islands that decided the first Punic war was won without it. As Roman naval tactics improved and the Roman crews became more experienced, the boarding-bridge was no longer used in battle. These losses were probably the main reason for the abandonment of the boarding-bridge in ship design by the end of the war. ![]() Some other historians believe that its weight on the prow compromised the ship’s navigability and the Romans lost almost two entire fleets to storms in 255 and in 249 BC, largely due to the instability caused by the device. According to Bonebaker, Professor of Naval Architecture at Delft, with the estimated weight of one ton for the boarding bridge, it is “most probable that the stability of a quinquereme with a displacement of about 250 m3 (330 cu yd) would not be seriously upset”. Operating in rough seas, the device became useless and was abandoned. The Romans’ application of boarding tactics worked they won several battles, most notably those of Mylae, Sulci, Tyndaris, and Ecnomus.ĭespite its advantages, the boarding bridge had a serious drawback: it could not be used in rough seas since the stable connection of two working ships endangered each other’s structure. The boarding-bridge allowed her to use her marines against the superior Carthaginian naval skills. The Republic’s military strength was on land, and her greatest assets were the discipline and courage of her soldiers. Before the First Punic War, the Roman Republic had not campaigned outside the Italian Peninsula. In the 3rd century BC, Rome was not a naval power, and had little or no experience in war at sea. ![]()
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