Battle of Cape Ecnomus

Battle of Cape Ecnomus

Part of: First Punic War

Schematic representation of the course of the battle

date	256 BC Chr.
place	Cape Ecnomus, today's Licata, Sicily
output	Victory of the Romans

Parties to the conflict
Roman Republic	Carthage
Commander
Marcus Atilius Regulus Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus	Hanno Hamilkar
Troop strength
approx. 330 ships	approx. 350 ships
losses
24 ships sunk	30 ships sunk 65 ships captured

The Battle of Cape Ecnomus (also Sea Battle of Eknomos ), which took place off the south coast of Sicily near Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC. Chr. During the First Punic War was fought, was a naval battle between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic . Due to the large number of probably up to 290,000 seafarers involved, it was one of the largest sea battles in ancient history.

prehistory

After the conquest of Agrigentum , the Romans decided to build a fleet and thereby threaten Carthage's superiority in the Mediterranean . Compared to the Carthaginians, Rome had little experience in building a fleet, but the initial disadvantage was offset by the use of boarding bridges ( corvus ). The resulting series of Roman naval battles led to an attempted invasion of Carthaginian dominion in Africa.

Such a conquest required a large number of ships to carry both legions and associated equipment to Africa. The logistical problems were compounded by the fact that Carthage's fleet was patrolling the coast of Sicily. Only warships such as triremes and quinqueremes , which had little cargo space, could therefore be used for the transports . Rome responded to this problem by building a military fleet of over 200 ships under whose guidance the Mediterranean should be safely crossed. The two consuls of that year, Marcus Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus , were entrusted with the command of this fleet. The Carthaginians responded to the threat by sending out a fleet of the same size, which was under the command of Hanno and Hamilkar . Your job should be to intercept the Romans.

The Battle of Cape Ecnomus

Both fleets were divided into four squadrons. The Roman fleet approached the Sicilian coast in battle formation; while two squadrons of the military fleet led the fleet in a wedge formation, the other two squadrons covered the transport ships in their midst. On the south coast of Sicily they met the Carthaginian fleet, which had traditionally lined up in a long line. Hamilkar commanded the fleet from a ship in the middle. Hanno, the second Carthaginian commander, was on a ship on the right flank.

Hamilkar initiated an apparent retreat of his two squadrons located in the middle: The aim of this pseudo-retreat was to induce the front military fleet of the Romans to pursue them in order to separate them from the Roman transport ships. The two Carthaginian flank squadrons took advantage of the resulting gap and attacked the transport ships from two sides. The Roman transport ships dodged towards the Sicilian coast, while the rearguard of the Roman naval fleet faced the fight against the Carthaginian flanks.

Meanwhile, that part of the Carthaginian fleet under Hamilkar's command was embroiled in a lengthy sea battle with the part of the military fleet that had followed them. The Carthaginians were defeated in this naval battle and evaded by fleeing. Thereupon the now free Roman part of the fleet turned back to intervene in the naval battle in their rear. A Punic flank squadron managed to escape, but the other was almost completely destroyed due to being numerically inferior. The Carthaginians were tactically well led, but had no antidote in close combat against the boarding bridges.

Aftermath

After the sea route was clear for the Romans, the Roman army landed in Africa and began their criminal campaign against Carthage under the command of Marcus Atilius Regulus. When the Romans stood before Carthage, they asked for peace, but rejected the harsh peace conditions. In the following year, the Battle of Tunes , the Roman expeditionary army was defeated. During the evacuation of the rest of the army, there was a sea ​​battle at Cape Bon , which was won by the Romans. The loss of almost 300 ships with around 100,000 seafarers during a storm on the return voyage represents one of the largest shipwrecks in the history of seafaring.

Web links

• Polybius: Ecnomus (256 BCE) . In: Livius.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Histories from Polybios : Book I. Section 26 (English)
2. ↑ Helmut Pemsel: Sea rule . tape I . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1995, ISBN 3-89350-711-6 , pp. 50 .