The Birth of the Roman Navy #1

[Marcus Minucius Audens]

The third century BC saw the first clash between two rising regional powers, Rome and Carthage. Rome an inland city with access to the sea by river, at this time controlled the southern two-thirds of the Italian Peninsula through a confederation of city states. Rome’s strength was her heavy infantry, supplemented by light infantry, and cavalry supplied mostly by her allies. Her navy was almost nonexistent, consisting of a few triremes (ships with three banks of oars per side, each oar pulled by one man). In time of war hired merchantmen and fleets of her allies provided most of what ships could be put to sea.

Carthage presented almost the opposite picture. A coastal city with a massive protected harbor, she was the preeminent naval power of the western and central Mediterranean. Her navy was built around up-to-date ships larger and faster than the Roman vessels, while her small army was composed of a core of native Carthaginians supplemented by North African and Spanish subjects, and (mostly Greek) mercenaries.

Neither of the two rising powers saw the other as a threat, even to allying to defeat the Epirotes of Pyrrus in the 270’s BC. In 264 BC, however they came into conflict over the grain-rich island of Sicily, an area of interest to both. An internal war had broken out among the city states of Syracuse on the island’s southeast, the Mamertines in the West, and the city of Rhegium on the toe of Italy. The weakest of the three, Mamertines, appealed to both Carthage and Rome for assistance. Both entered the war, as much to keep the other off the island as to end the strife on it

Reference:

>> Roger Mason,”The Birth of the Roman Navy,” Strategy and Tactics Magazine, #283/Nov.-Dec. 2013

Respectfully Submitted;
Marcus Audens