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ABSTRACT
In 261 B.C., the Roman Senate took the decision to build a powerful fleet of 20 triremes and 100 quinqueremes to be able to stand the Carthaginian one. The ambitious Roman project was finalized in 260 B.C., when the ships were launched at sea and equipped with crews trained on land. The new ships engaged immediately in two little confrontations, at Lipara and near the coast of Italy. The first one ended with the Carthaginian victory while the second was won by the Romans. The two confrontations were followed by an important naval battle at Mylae that ended with the Roman victory, due to the new fight technique that involved the use of a plank to link the ships together at sea.
Keywords: Rome, Carthage, Gaius Duilius, corvus, Lipara, Mylae, quinqueremes
1. INTRODUCTION
Between 264 B.C. and 261 B.C., the Roman legions from Sicily reputed noticeable successes, prompting Syracuse to conclude peace and conquering Agrigentum. Nevertheless, Carthage was still ruling over the Western part of Sicily, because of the military bases it had established in that area and of its fleet, which was dominating over the Sicilian waters. It became obvious that, in order to win the war, Rome needed war ships able to face the powerful fleet of Carthage. In 261 B.C., the Romans changed the military tactics they used in the War for Sicily and the Senate took the decision to build 120 war ships, 20 triremes and 100 quinqueremes [1].
2. THE BUILDING OF THE ROMAN FLEET
Putting the project into practice was not an easy task. Although the Roman navy was well developed, it was only made up of commercial ships and triremes. It lacked the quinqueremes, that were specific to the Carthaginian war fleet [2].
The Romans used a Carthaginian ship they captured in 264 B.C. as a model for their quinqueremes [3]. According to the literary sources, the Roman fleet would have been built in 60 days from the moment of cutting the trees [4]. The place where this happened could not be precisely identified. It seems that some ships were built at Ostia, where the Romans could survey the activity closely, and the other part of the fleet was assembled on the docks of the Greek...