-264 BC - Appius Claudius, one of the consuls, along with 2 legions, landed in Sicily.
-Their goal was to secure Messina and then use that opportunity to conquer the rest of the island.
-The Carthaginians made an alliance with Hiero II of Syracuse to attack the Romans.
-Hiero II led an an attack against the legions, but quickly backed off. The Carthaginians were now on their own, and forced back by the Romans.
-The Romans then marched on Syracuse, but Hiero II knew that the Roman army was too weak to take the city.
-The Romans knew that too, and marched back to Messina.
-263 BC- another Roman consul arrives with two more legions, begins to attack Syracuse's allied towns.
-Hiero II sues for peace, and the Romans offer him a sweet deal- he could remain king, but must supply allied troops for the Roman army.
-262 BC- Rome continued its campaign against the Carthaginians in Sicily.
-Attacked Agrigentum in the south and built a wall around the city to prevent any entrance or exit to/from the city, which left the Roman army open to being besieged themselves.
-This is exactly what happened, and they were soon trapped by Carthaginian reinforcements.
-Finally, Agrigentum relented and called out the Romans to an open battle, but the Romans won.
-Somehow, during the fall of the city, the legions went crazy in their looting frenzy and ended up slaughtering everyone.
-They decided to spin this by saying they were "making an example". However, this just rallied the Carthaginian cities against Rome.
-After Agrigentum, Rome had conquered much of Sicily, but Carthage still controlled the western part of the island.
-Also, sieges wouldn't work because the coastal cities could be supplied by the sea.
-This inspired Rome to challenge the Carthaginians in the water, and the Romans began to build their own navy.
-They studied Carthaginian ships, and in 2 months had built 120 ships. Unfortunately, they didn't know shit about actual seamanship, and were complete noobs.
-Leading this new fleet was a dude named Publius Cornelius Scipio.
-Scipio was to lead a scouting fleet to Massina, but while waiting he got greedy and decided to raid a coastal town nearby, which tipped off the Carthaginians to a Roman naval assault.
-The Carthaginians now knew that Rome was trying to build a navy, and Scipio was soon surrounded by a Carthaginian fleet.
-Scipio was eventually captured, but freed later. Because of his noobishness, he earned the cognomen "Asina" ("female donkey").
-At this point, a full-on naval war had begun between Carthage and Rome.
-Carthage sent 145 ships to attack Rome's 120.
-Rome had a new secret weapon though- the "corvus" ("raven")!
-The corvus was a huge plank and spike that could hook other ships, create a bridge, and turn a ship battle into an infantry battle!
-It was surprisingly effective! With help from the corvus, the Romans actually won their first major naval battle.
-However, the corvus actually stopped being so effective once the Carthaginians developed tactics to stay out of its reach.
-256 BC- Rome had also begun to also attack the Carthaginians in Sardinia and Corscia, but quickly realized that this wasn't sustainable, and that maybe it would be better to bring the battle to North Africa instead! So, they built a huge fleet (350 ships) in Sicily for this mission and sent them on their way.
-Carthage countered by sending a huge fleet to intercept them.
-A huge naval battle was fought at Cape Ecnomus (near Licata, Sicily). Somehow, the Romans were able to fight off the Carthaginians, and ultimately landed in North Africa!
-Their plan had been to land south of Carthage and then attack the capital, but their plan got messed up and many of these ships had to head back to Rome, so the force that finally arrived was 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry.
-The Romans then headed towards Carthage, attacking towns on the way, and easily defeating the first Carthaginian army that tried to drive them off.
-However, the Carthaginians had a secret weapon too- Numidian cavalry! However, unfortunately for Carthage, they had just received news that the Numidians wanted to back out of the fight, and were ultimately revolting against Carthage. Thus, Rome demanded Carthage's complete surrender and submission to Rome.
-The Carthaginians panicked, but were able to hire mercenaries from Sparta to come save them!
-The Spartan general, Xanthippus, showed up and reorganized the Carthaginian army, which had been pretty shitty due to incompetence.
-The Carthaginian armies then fought against Rome and won! The Romans were either driven off or captured (including their general, Regulus).
-The Roman fleet that had just arrived as reinforcements was able to rescue the fleeing Roman armies and take them back to Rome, but unfortunately for them there was a brutal storm on their way home and the entire fleet was destroyed!
-After this, the Carthaginians stupidly decided to dismiss Xanthippus because the elite were scared of him using his power to take over.
-The Romans, desperate for some kind of victory, attacked the Carthaginian city of Lilybaeum in Sicily.
-249 BC- Lilybaeum had been under siege for a year, but no progress was being made due to horrible luck and incompetence.
-At this point, both Rome and Carthage were exhausted.
-Rome was also beginning to have problems with the Gauls in the north.
-Meanwhile, Carthage was still dealing with the Numidians.
-Sicily had become a slapdash, free-for-all battleground.
-The Carthaginians began to just do annoying, guerilla warfare.
-In 244 BC, they finally managed to drive a lot of Romans out of central Sicily.
-Rome, however, refused to give up! They made one last push to take Sicily, and Carthage decided to just give it up, working out a deal with Rome.
-However, this royally pissed off one Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca, who had been fighting in Sicily.
-He made his son, Hannibal Barca, swear an oath of eternal hatred for Rome.
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