Battle of the Lipari Islands
Battle of the Lipari Islands | |
---|---|
Part of the Lipara Harbour, Sicily 38°28′21″N 14°57′39″E / 38.47250°N 14.96083°E | |
Result | Carthaginian victory |
Hannibal Gisco
Scipio captured
The Battle of the Lipari Islands or Battle of Lipara was a naval encounter fought in 260 BC during the
The Romans had recently built a fleet in order to contest the Carthaginians' maritime control of the western Mediterranean and Scipio had impetuously ventured to the Liparas with the advance squadron. The battle was little more than a skirmish, but is notable as the first naval encounter of the Punic Wars and the first time Roman warships had engaged in battle. Scipio was ransomed after the battle and known thereafter as Asina (Latin for "female donkey"). The Romans went on to win the two, larger, naval encounters that followed and establish a rough sea-going parity.
Primary sources
The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War[note 1] is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage.[2][3] His works include a now-lost manual on military tactics,[4] but he is best known for his work The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC, or about a century after the battle.[2][5] Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view.[6][7]
Carthaginian written records
Other sources include inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and empirical evidence from reconstructions such as the trireme Olympias.[19] Since 2010 a number of artefacts have been recovered from the site of the Battle of the Aegates, the final battle of the war, fought nineteen years later. Their analysis and the recovery of further items are ongoing.[20]
Background
Operations in Sicily
The First Punic War between Carthage and Rome broke out in 264 BC.[21] Carthage was a well-established maritime power in the western Mediterranean; Rome had recently unified mainland Italy south of the River Arno under its control. The immediate cause of the war was control of the Sicilian town of Messana (modern Messina). More broadly both sides wished to control Syracuse, the most powerful city-state on Sicily.[22] By 260 BC the war had lasted four years, and the Romans had pushed forward into Sicily, with a number of successes, including the capture of Agrigentum, an important Carthaginian base. However, the Carthaginian navy repeatedly raided the Romans' rear areas and even the coast of Italy. Their control of the sea also made it impossible for the Romans to successfully blockade those Carthaginian cities which were on the coast. The Carthaginians were engaging in their traditional policy of waiting for their opponents to wear themselves out, in the expectation of then regaining some or all of their possessions and negotiating a mutually satisfactory peace treaty.[23]
Ships
During this war the standard warship was the
In 260 BC the Romans set out to construct a fleet and used a shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme as a blueprint for their own.[28] As novice shipwrights, the Romans built copies that were heavier than the Carthaginian vessels, which made them slower and less manoeuvrable.[29] The quinquereme was the workhorse of the Roman and Carthaginian fleets throughout the Punic Wars, so ubiquitous that Polybius uses it as a shorthand for "warship" in general.[30] A quinquereme carried a crew of 300, of which 280 were oarsmen and 20 deck crew and officers;[31] it would normally also carry a complement of 40 marines,[32] and if battle was thought to be imminent, this would be increased to as many as 120.[33][34]
Getting the oarsmen to row as a unit, as well as execute more complex battle manoeuvres, required long and arduous training.
Battle
It was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year, known as consuls, to each lead their military forces. The patrician Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, the year's senior consul, was given command of the fleet. He put to sea with the first 17 ships produced. As the first-ever Roman warships they spent some time training in home waters before sailing to Messana. There they prepared for the main fleet's arrival and supported the logistics of the Roman army at the sea crossing to Sicily.[40][41]
While Scipio was at the
The Romans entered the harbour at Lipara. The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by Hannibal Gisco, the general who had commanded the garrison at Agrigentum, and was based at Panormus (modern-day Palermo) some 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Lipari. When he heard of the Romans' advance to Lipara he despatched 20 ships under Boödes, a Carthaginian aristocrat, to the town. The Carthaginians arrived at night and trapped the Romans in the harbour. Boödes led his ships in an attack on the Romans inside the harbour the next morning. Scipio's men offered little resistance. The inexperienced crews were no match for the well-drilled Carthaginians and were rapidly outfought. Some Romans panicked and fled inland and the consul himself was taken prisoner, along with many of the other Roman senior officers. Some later accounts have Scipio treacherously captured while parleying, but this is probably a Roman fabrication. All of the Roman ships were captured, most with little damage.[43][44][45] The battle was little more than a skirmish, but is notable as the first naval encounter of the Punic Wars and the first time Roman warships had engaged in battle.[42]
Aftermath
Scipio was later released, probably ransomed. His easy defeat earned him the pejorative
Shortly after the Lipara victory, Hannibal Gisco was scouting with 50 Carthaginian ships when he encountered the full Roman fleet. He escaped, but lost most of his ships.[47][48] It was after this skirmish that the Romans installed the corvus on their ships.[49][50] The corvus was a bridge 1.2 m (4 ft) wide and 11 m (36 ft) long, with a heavy spike on the underside, which was designed to pierce and anchor into an enemy ship's deck. This allowed marines to more easily board enemy ships and capture them.[33]
Later the same year Scipio's fellow consul,
The war was to last for another 19 years before ending in a Carthaginian defeat and a negotiated peace.[54][55] Thereafter Rome was the leading military power in the western Mediterranean, and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole. The Romans had built more than 1,000 galleys during the war, and this experience of building, manning, training, supplying, and maintaining such numbers of ships laid the foundation for Rome's maritime dominance for 600 years.[56]
Notes, citations and sources
Notes
- ^ The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus), meaning "Carthaginian", and is a reference to the Carthaginians' Phoenician ancestry.[1]
- ^ Sources other than Polybius are discussed by Bernard Mineo in "Principal Literary Sources for the Punic Wars (apart from Polybius)".[18]
- ^ The figures for Carthaginian losses are taken from Polybius. Other ancient sources give 30 or 31 ships captured and 13 or 14 sunk.[52]
Citations
- ^ Sidwell & Jones 1997, p. 16.
- ^ a b Goldsworthy 2006, p. 20.
- ^ a b Tipps 1985, p. 432.
- ^ Shutt 1938, p. 53.
- ^ Walbank 1990, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, pp. x–xi.
- ^ Hau 2016, pp. 23–24.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 23.
- ^ Shutt 1938, p. 55.
- ^ a b Goldsworthy 2006, p. 21.
- ^ a b Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 20–21.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, pp. x–xi, 82–84.
- ^ Tipps 1985, pp. 432–433.
- ^ Curry 2012, p. 34.
- ^ Hoyos 2015, p. 102.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 22.
- ^ a b c Goldsworthy 2006, p. 98.
- ^ Mineo 2015, pp. 111–127.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 23, 98.
- ^ Royal & Tusa 2019, pp. 13–18.
- ^ Warmington 1993, p. 168.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 92, 96–97, 130.
- ^ Coates 1995, p. 138.
- ^ a b de Souza 2008, p. 358.
- ^ Meijer 1986, p. 120.
- ^ Coates 1995, pp. 129–130, 138–139.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 97, 99–100.
- ^ Murray 2011, p. 69.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 104.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 100.
- ^ Tipps 1985, p. 435.
- ^ a b Casson 1995, p. 121.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 102–103.
- ^ Casson 1995, pp. 278–280.
- ^ Curry 2012, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Tusa & Royal 2012, p. 14.
- ^ Miles 2011, p. 178.
- ^ Wallinga 1956, pp. 77–90.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 105.
- ^ Harris 1979, pp. 183–4.
- ^ a b Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 105–106.
- ^ a b Bagnall 1999, p. 61.
- ^ Harris 1979, pp. 184–5.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 105–6.
- ^ Miles 2011, p. 181.
- ^ a b Rankov 2015, p. 153.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, p. 67.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, p. 68.
- ^ Miles 2011, p. 182.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, p. 106.
- ^ Lazenby 1996, p. 157.
- ^ Bagnall 1999, p. 97.
- ^ Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 128–129, 357, 359–360.
Sources
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- ISBN 978-0-304-36642-2.
- ISBN 978-0-19-814866-1.
- Hau, Lisa (2016). Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-1107-3.
- Hoyos, Dexter (2015) [2011]. A Companion to the Punic Wars. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley. ISBN 978-1-1190-2550-4.
- Lazenby, John (1996). The First Punic War: A Military History. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2673-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7099-3565-0.
- ISBN 978-0-14-101809-6.
- Mineo, Bernard (2015) [2011]. "Principal Literary Sources for the Punic Wars (apart from Polybius)". In Hoyos, Dexter (ed.). A Companion to the Punic Wars. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley. pp. 111–128. ISBN 978-1-1190-2550-4.
- Murray, William (2011). The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-993240-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-7600-2.
- ISBN 978-88-913-1835-0.
- Shutt, Rowland (1938). "Polybius: A Sketch". Greece & Rome. 8 (22): 50–57. S2CID 162905667.
- ISBN 978-0-521-38600-5.
- de Souza, Philip (2008). "Naval Forces". In Sabin, Philip; van Wees, Hans & Whitby, Michael (eds.). The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, Volume 1: Greece, the Hellenistic World and the Rise of Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 357–367. ISBN 978-0-521-85779-6.
- Tipps, G.K. (1985). "The Battle of Ecnomus". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 34 (4): 432–465. JSTOR 4435938.
- Tusa, Sebastiano; Royal, Jeffrey (2012). "The Landscape of the Naval Battle at the Egadi Islands (241 B.C.)" (PDF). Journal of Roman Archaeology. 25. Cambridge University Press: 7–48. S2CID 159518193.
- ISBN 978-0-520-06981-7.
- Wallinga, Herman (1956). The Boarding-bridge of the Romans: Its Construction and its Function in the Naval Tactics of the First Punic War. Groningen: J.B. Wolters. OCLC 458845955.
- ISBN 978-1-56619-210-1.
Further reading
- Polybius (2020) [c. 167–118 BC]. "The Histories". Bill Thayer's Web Site. Translated by Paton, William Roger; Thayer, Bill. University of Chicago. Retrieved 4 May 2020.