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Episode 43, The First Punic War Part 2. Let Them Drink.

The southern coast of Sicily is home to some of the bluest waters of the Mediterranean Sea,

the joy of travelers and tourists throughout the ages.

Yet, in 256 BC, harsh reality betrayed the normally idyllic landscape.

The flotsam and jetsam of wooden planks, linen sailcloth, and rope littered the shores of Cape

Gnomus, a sign of the destruction of roughly 90 Carthaginian and Roman warships, while the remains

of what used to be their crew members bobbed up and down

with the waves, mutilated by sword and spear, or having succumbed to Poseidon's domain and

drowned, some 30,000 to 40,000 in all, meeting a watery grave. The victor, the Roman consul

Marcus Aetlius Regulus, had much to be proud of. The defeat of the Carthaginians in their natural habitat, the sea, was the lynch pin that enabled

the remaining 300 ships to continue on their great expedition.

For nearly a decade, Roman Carthage had fought, largely on the island of Sicily, and while

the Romans were confident that they could best any Carthaginian army on

land or sea and claim the island's fertility for their own, the Romans were no more

successful at dislodging Carthage than the Greeks of Syracuse who had clashed with

their Punic rivals off and on for nearly 250 years. Yet, a plan had been in the works

that could have ended the war. The Roman Legion was dominant

against any number of land armies that Carthage could buy and throw their way. And so, Rome wanted

to bring the fight to Carthage directly and invade North Africa in the most daring logistical

endeavor the Republic had ever yet organized. The invasion was not without precedent. Agathocles,

the tyrant and king of Syracuse during the late 4th, early 3rd century BC, had proved that

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