Battle of Cape Ecnomus

Battle of Cape Ecnomus
Part of the First Punic War
The Naval Battle Near Ecnomus (256 BC)
Date 256 BC Location Off southern Sicily 37°03′00″N 13°54′00″E / 37.0500°N 13.9000°E / 37.0500; 13.9000 Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Carthage
Commanders and leaders
Marcus Atilius Regulus Lucius Manlius Vulso	Hamilcar Hanno
Strength
330 ships 138,600[1]–140,000 crew and marines	350 ships 147,000[2]–150,000 crew and marines
Casualties and losses
24 ships sunk 10,000 men killed	30 ships sunk 64 ships captured 30,000–40,000 men killed or captured
Cape Ecnomus class=notpageimage| Location of the battle, off the south coast of Sicily

The Battle of Cape Ecnomus or Eknomos (Ancient Greek: Ἔκνομος) was a naval battle, fought off southern Sicily, in 256 BC, between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, during the First Punic War (264–241 BC). The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by Hanno^{[note 1]} and Hamilcar; the Roman fleet jointly by the consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus. It resulted in a clear victory for the Romans.

The Roman fleet of 330 warships plus an unknown number of transports had sailed from Ostia, the port of Rome, and had embarked approximately 26,000 picked legionaries shortly before the battle. They planned to cross to Africa and invade the Carthaginian homeland, in what is now Tunisia. The Carthaginians were aware of the Romans' intentions and mustered all available warships, 350, off the south coast of Sicily to intercept them. With a combined total of about 680 warships carrying up to 290,000 crew and marines, the battle was arguably the single largest battle of ancient history, and was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved.^{[4][5][note 2]}

When the fleets met, the Carthaginians took the initiative and the battle devolved into three separate conflicts, where the Carthaginians hoped that their superior ship-handling skills would win the day. After a prolonged and confusing day of fighting, the Carthaginians were decisively defeated, losing 30 ships sunk and 64 captured to Roman losses of 24 ships sunk.

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