“There shall be friendship between the Carthaginians and the Romans on the following terms, provided that they are ratified by the Roman people. The Carthaginians shall evacuate the whole of Sicily, they shall not make war on Hiero [of Syracusa], nor bear arms against the Syracusans nor their allies. The Carthaginians shall give up to the Romans all prisoners without ransom. The Carthaginians shall pay to the Romans 2,200 Euboean talents of silver over a period of twenty years.”

This treaty was not accepted by the Roman Assembly who sent commissioners to Carthage in order to assess conditions on the ground. The terms they recommended were similar but more severe; Carthage would have to pay 3,200 talents of silver over a period of 10 years and they would have to abandon all of the islands between Sicily and the African coast.

The first Punic War was one of great magnitude during which the Romans lost 700 quinqueremes and the Carthaginians 500. The states were evenly matched, but the Romans were superior in valor, although the greatest general was the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal.

The Romans were a land power and as such were used to contending against human agency. And against human agency, Roman persistence, discipline and daring eventually told. It was this set of traits the enabled the Romans to build a huge fleet in a short period of time and with the help of an innovation (the corvus) that turned sea battles into the land battles, defeat the more experienced Carthaginians at sea. However, persistence, discipline and daring when applied to the sea, was a very different matter than when applied on land. On the sea, the adversary was not a human but natural agency. And against nature, the Roman traits that lead to victory on land could lead to disaster on the sea.