Battle of the Aegates

Battle of the Aegates
Part of the First Punic War
Date 10 March 241 BC Location Aegates Islands, western Sicily 37°58′N 12°12′E / 37.97°N 12.20°E / 37.97; 12.20 Result Roman victory Treaty of Lutatius
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Carthage
Commanders and leaders
Gaius Lutatius Catulus Quintus Valerius Falto	Hanno
Strength
c. 200 quinqueremes	c. 250 quinqueremes
Casualties and losses
30 quinqueremes sunk 50 quinqueremes damaged	50 quinqueremes sunk 70 quinqueremes captured 10,000 men captured
Aegates Islands class=notpageimage| Location of the battle, off the west coast of Sicily

The Battle of the Aegates was a naval battle fought on 10 March 241 BC between the fleets of Carthage and Rome during the First Punic War. It took place among the Aegates Islands, off the western coast of the island of Sicily. The Carthaginians were commanded by Hanno, and the Romans were under the overall authority of Gaius Lutatius Catulus, but Quintus Valerius Falto commanded during the battle. It was the final and deciding battle of the 23-year-long First Punic War.

The Roman army had been blockading the Carthaginians in their last strongholds on the west coast of Sicily for several years. Almost bankrupt, the Romans borrowed money to build a naval fleet, which they used to extend the blockade to the sea. The Carthaginians assembled a larger fleet which they intended to use to run supplies into Sicily. It would then embark much of the Carthaginian army stationed there as marines. It was intercepted by the Roman fleet and in a hard-fought battle, the better-trained Romans defeated the undermanned and ill-trained Carthaginian fleet, which was further handicapped by being laden with supplies and having not yet embarked its full complement of marines.

As a direct result, Carthage sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Lutatius, by which Carthage surrendered Sicily to Rome and paid substantial reparations. Henceforth Rome was the leading military power in the western Mediterranean, and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole.