Battle of the Aeolian Islands

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Battle of the Aeolian Islands
Part of: First Punic War
date 260 BC Chr.
place Port of Lipari near Sicily
output Carthaginian victory
Parties to the conflict

Carthage

Roman Republic

Commander

Boodes and Hannibal Gisko

Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina ( Consul )

Troop strength
approx. 20 ships approx. 17 ships
losses

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The Battle of the Aeolian Islands in 260 BC BC was the first meeting between the fleets of the Roman Republic and Carthage in the First Punic War . The result of this ambush, which can hardly be called a battle, was a Carthaginian victory.

After the successes in Sicily, for example in the Battle of Agrigento , the Romans had enough confidence to build and equip a fleet that would allow them to rule the Mediterranean . The republic commissioned and built a fleet of around 150 quinqueremes and triremes in the record time of two months. The patrician Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio , Senior Consul of the Year, took command of the first 17 completed ships that were built in Messana and launched in preparation for the landing of the fleet in Sicily.

When Scipio was in the strait, he received the information that the Carthaginian base at Lipari intended to overflow to his side. What followed is commonly referred to as Carthaginian treason, but the sources do not give much detail and are generally pro-Roman. The fact is that the consul could not resist the temptation to take over an important city without a fight and sailed for Lipara. When the Romans pulled into the port with their brand new ships, part of the Carthaginian fleet under Hannibal Gisko - the general defeated in Agrigento - and Boodes were waiting in ambush. Boodes had around 20 ships blocked the port and thus the Romans. Scipio and his men offered little resistance. The inexperienced crews fled ashore and the consul himself was captured. His behavior earned him the pejorative cognomen Asina , the donkey. The disparaging mocking name donkey and especially donkey stood for stupidity and instinct in Rome.

The Lipara Incident did not put an end to the First Punic War any more than did Scipio's career. A short time later, the junior consul Gaius Duilius and the rest of the fleet avenged the humiliation at the Battle of Mylae .

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