254 – 250 BC
Panormus
The Romans rebuild their fleet with 220 new ships, and early in 254 BC both consuls attack Panormus, the largest Carthaginian city on the north coast of Sicily, with about 70,000 people. Siege engines breach the walls, the Romans storm the outer town, and the inner town surrenders. Of its inhabitants, 14,000 buy their freedom and 13,000 are sold into slavery.
The battle of Panormus, engraving from a French edition of Polybius, about 1727Wikimedia Commons, unknown engraver, Public domain (Battle of Panormus (Histoire de Polybe, Volume 1).jpg)
Much of western inland Sicily now comes over to Rome, and in 252 BC the Romans take Thermae and Lipara. In 253 BC a storm sinks another 150 Roman ships on the way back from raiding Africa. Hasdrubal, who fought against Regulus in Africa, brings reinforcements and elephants to Sicily, and for two years the Romans keep to the hills, by Polybius’s account out of fear of the elephants.
In late summer 250 BC Hasdrubal learns that one consul has left Sicily with half the Roman army. He marches from Lilybaeum with 30,000 men and between 60 and 142 elephants and lays waste the harvest of Rome’s new allies. The other consul, Lucius Caecilius Metellus, withdraws his two legions into Panormus.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 1, 38 to 40.
- John Lazenby, The First Punic War (1996).
- Nigel Bagnall, The Punic Wars (1999).
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