Note 290 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
1. At the commencement of the first Punic war a fleet was hastily built and, under the command of C. Duilius, destroyed that of the Carthaginians, B.C. 260.
2. A second fleet was prepared, and a great victory was won over the Carthaginians near Agrigentum, B.C. 256.
3. A third fleet was fitted out in B.C. 250, and nearly destroyed off Drepana, in the next year.
4. About the same time a fourth fleet, conveying stores to the army besieging Lilybæum, was entirely destroyed, together with the store ships, by a hurricane off Camarina.
5. A fifth fleet was built, B.C. 241, to relieve Lilybæum, which had now been besieged for eight years.
This fleet, under C. Lutatius Catulus, defeated the Carthaginians, and put an end to the first Punic war in B.C. 241.
During the second and third Punic wars no fleets were employed, except as transports.