History Of Events That Led To The Battle Of Mylae

THE BATTLE OF MYLAE

Introduction Three hundred years Before the Common Era, there were two superpowers who controlled the Mediterranean Sea and its adjacent nations. Rome held a great empire to the north, with a vast, experienced army reknown for its discipline and legendary exploits. Carthage occupied modern day northern Africa to the south and was the undisputed master of the seas. As both empires strived to expand their territories, they were eventually to engage each other in a series of three wars. These three wars spanned from the occupation of Messina in 264 B.C.E. until the burning of Carthage in 146 B.C.E. 1
This paper will discuss the history of events leading to the battle of Mylae, examine the battle
itself, and analyze the impact it had on the balance of military power between Rome and Carthage. The case study will include a discussion on tactics used, and how the same principles of combat can be applied today.

History

Prior to war, the Roman and Carthaginian empires held an uneasy relationship with each other. The first sea treaty between Rome and Carthage was established in 508 B.C.E. Rome allowed Carthage limited access to its ports, and Carthage dictated to Rome how and when Rome could shore its vessels in the Mediterranean.2
Sicily became the trigger for the war between Rome and Carthage. The island is stationed in the center of the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Italy. At that time the land was split between Carthage, Messina, and Syracuse. Carthage colonized the western two-thirds of Sicily. Messina held a small kingdom in the northeast corner..3 Syracuse possessed the southeastern region. Eventually, Syracuse marched upon Messina, and the citizens of Messina asked Rome for help.4 Because of its proximity to the Italy, Messina could be used as a forward staging area, enabling the Carthaginians to wage war dangerously close to the Roman capital. Roman Senators agreed to deploy two legions of Roman soldiers to the town of Messina, not anticipating that this lead to a series of events that would draw the Romans into three extended wars with the Carthaginians.
On the Ides of March, 264 B.C.E., the Roman consulate Appius Claudius marched two legions of Roman soldiers from the capital of Rome and boarded transport ships. They debarked off the coast of Sicily and marched to occupy the city of Messina. Upon their successful occupation of the city, Claudius offered a peace treaty with Hiero, the commander of the mercenary army of Syracuse. Thinking his forces, superior in number, could conquer the Romans, Hiero refused, and Claudius immediately attacked. The Roman legions achieved victory, and as the defeated army of Hiero retreated south, Claudius turned to the west and attacked the Carthaginians occupying the mainland of Sicily. The Carthaginian security forces stationed on the outlying colonies of the empire were not able to withstand a large assault, and were defeated.5
The rapid victories achieved by Appius Claudius enabled the Roman legions to march across Sicily, occupy Syracuse, and surround its capital. Out of interest in preserving the prosperity of his country, Hiero entered into a peace treaty with Rome. This alliance enabled Rome to place its footprint dangerously close to the shores of North Africa, and Carthage responded with military action. Thus, the treaty of Syracuse was the trigger for the First Punic War.6
In 262 B.C.E., Carthage deployed approximately eight legions of 40,000 soldiers to the town of Agrigento, located in the southwestern corner of Sicily. Like Messina, Agrigento’s proximity to the North African coastline made it an ideal staging area to base and conduct operations. Upon hearing the news of this massive movement of troops, Rome sent four legions to stage out of Messina. From there, the Roman army marched across Sicily to surround Agrigento. Roman legions blockaded Agrigento and attempted to force the Carthaginian mercenaries into surrender, and the Carthaginian forces outside the city took key terrain and disrupted supplies from reaching the Romans. Through poor decisions made by both sides, a stalemate ensued which lasted into the winter. Agrigento was the battle from which Carthage was to pay the price for using contracted soldiers to fight its wars. In December of 262 B.C.E., the mercenary army trapped at Agrigento escaped, and the city fell to Rome. It was at this point that Rome declared war on Carthage.7
In 261 B.C.E. Rome deployed two armies to Sicily in order to complete its conquest of the island. Despite defeating Carthaginian forces and occupying their cities, Rome was not able to achieve strategic dominance. Carthage maintained a steady stream of resupplying fresh troops and supplies to the Sicilian shoreline, always able to repel the Romans in counterattack. At this point, Roman leadership realized that the war could not achieve victory without taking control of the Mediterranean.8
Prior to the First Punic War, Rome relied heavily on allies for naval support. Contractors and merchant vessels would provide transport to move troops and supplies across the region. Once Rome realized they desperately needed a massive, dedicated navy in order to defeat Carthage, they set out to build a fleet of warships. At that time in history, the main ship used by the Carthaginian navy was known as the quinquireme. This ship carried up to 300 oarsmen and 300 soldiers, with the oarsmen laid out on five levels. The sheer height alone of the quinquireme coupled with the number of fighters in its hull proved to be an immense threat to any adversary. Rome only had access to a handful of triremes (three-tiered warships with a hundred men).9 Although the Romans empire had never sailed a fleet before, they set out to stand up a navy. During the initial land battles which followed the occupation of Messina, Rome was able to capture one quinquireme from the Carthaginians. Knowing nothing about ship building, the Romans took apart the warship, studied its design, and began to produce copies. Merchant sailors were called in as trainers and oarsmen practiced drills on models built on dry land. Eventually, Rome set sail to the Mediterranean with a fleet of 300 warships.10
The first encounter between Rome and Carthage on the seas turned out to be a disaster for the new Roman navy. Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, placed in command of one of the empire’s new fleets, seized the port of Lipari north of the Sicilian coastline. Lacking experience and an understanding of naval strategy (as all Romans did in those times), Scipio stationed his fleet in the harbor overnight, and woke to find himself surrounded by Carthaginian warships. While Scipio’s fleet surrendered, the remainder of the ships returned to Rome unharmed.11
With Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio a prisoner, Gaius Dulius, consulate to the Roman army, took charge of the navy. In 260 B.C.E. he led the Romans to an unprecedented victory in the Battle of Mylae, which is the focus of this study.

Execution/Action Dulius, in command of the smaller, inexperienced Roman fleet, set sail after receiving word that Scipio had been captured. Hannibal Gisco, who commanded 130 Carthaginian quinquiremes, quickly moved in to meet him.12 The battle began when the Carthaginian and Roman fleets encountered each other just off the coast of Milazzo, Italy.
The prelude to battle must have seemed to be a comedy to the experienced Carthaginians.
As the centuries-old uncontested masters of the sea, they stood on their massive, elegant ships and watched their enemy strain to maintain their order and discipline on their new, untested, barely sailable vessels. The Roman navy struggled to maintain a semblance of formation, much to the amusement of the Carthaginian sailors. Hannibal’s sailors sounded off loudly with laughter and cries of derision as they watched the Roman fleet sway back and forth in an attempt to stay in an orderly pattern. The contempt Hannibal and his sailors felt for the inept Roman fleet caused him to break formation and sail in for the kill. Hannibal took an echelon of thirty vessels and drove straight for the Romans. As they got closer, they could see their enemy trying to maneuver into fighting positions, and, curiously enough, strange devices were attached to the fronts of their
ships.13
The Romans had invented a device called a Corvus to attach to its warships. Its basic function was to serve as a gangplank between vessels. It was attached to the prow of a ship, held upright by a pulley system, and able to rotate 360 degrees to enable it to lower in any direction. Underneath the gangplank was a metal claw which would pierce the deck of any ship once the corvus was dropped upon it. This device would lock two ships together, and allow all the occupants of the attacking ship to cross the corvus and overpower the other ship’s occupants in hand to hand combat.
For centuries, the Roman army had been unmatched in land warfare. Once Hannibal’s fleet approached the Romans, the Romans dropped their Corvus devices onto the enemy decks, trapping them. The Roman soldiers then swarmed over the gangplanks and onto the ships, annihilating the Carthaginians. Within minutes, the Carthaginian vessels were captured or sunk, much to the shock of the onlookers. Hannibal had travelled with the advance element, and barely escaped the carnage. The remainder of the fleet desperately attempted to outflank the Romans, only to meet the same fate each time the Romans dropped the corvus onto their decks. The endstate was a stunning defeat at the hands of Rome with a loss of fifty Carthaginian warships and no significant loss to the Romans.14 After Action The Battle of Mylae was a significant naval victory for Rome.
It upset the centuries-old notion that the Phoenicians (Carthage) ruled the seas and that Rome couldn’t compete with them for naval supremacy. The Romans proved the sea worthiness of their fleet and learned they could negate the Phoenicians skill at seafaring, by drawing the enemy in and engaging in direct, hand-to-hand combat. Lessons Learned Surprise is one of the most ancient and effective techniques of waging war against an enemy. Surprise can turn the tables on an opponent with a significant advantage. In the Battle of Mylae, the overconfidence of the Carthaginians caused them to underestimate the power of the corvus. Once deployed, it proved to be so devastatingly effective that the Carthaginians ran for their lives. Dulius used the Carthaginians pride against them. Whether the Roman fleet’s ineptitude at assembling before the Carthaginians was staged or genuine, it made the shock of being dominated that much more powerful. Another effective lesson to take from this battle is to learn to minimize your enemy’s strengths and capitalize on yours. Rome could not match Carthage toe-to-toe in sea tactics. Dulius chose to bypass them and focus on framing the battle on his terms. By doing so, he helped the Romans turn the tide on the Carthaginians, and became a celebrated hero to the empire forever
afterward.