preservation of ships. Lastly, the
circumstances which gave rise to the war between the Romans and Tarentines,
to which we have already adverted, plainly prove that Polybius is wrong in
his assertion. Valerius, who commanded the Roman fleet, which was attacked
by the Tarentines, according to Livy, was one of the _duumviri navales_,
officers who had been already appointed nearly thirty years (that is,
nearly fifty years before the first Punic war), on the motion of Decius
Mus, expressly for the purpose of equipping, repairing, and maintaining the
fleets.

From these circumstances, it appears that the Romans possessed ships both
for war and commerce, previous to the commencement of their wars with the
Carthaginians, though it is extremely probable that their commerce was very
limited, and for the most part carried on in vessels belonging to the other
maritime nations of Italy, and that their ships of war were very small and
rude in their construction and equipment.

It is foreign to the object of this work to enter into a detail of the wars
between the Romans and the Carthaginians: but as the great efforts of the
Romans to become powerful at sea were made during these wars; as these
efforts, being successful, laid the foundation of the future commerce of
Rome; and as by the destruction of Carthage, in some measure caused by the
naval victories gained by the Romans, the most commercial nation of
antiquity was utterly ruined, and their commerce transferred to Rome, it
will be proper briefly to notice the naval contests between these rival
powers during the three wars in which they were engaged.

The first Punic war was occasioned by a desire on the part of the
Carthaginians to enlarge and secure their acquisitions in Sicily, and to
preserve their dominion of the sea, and by a determination on the part of
the Romans to check the progress of the Carthaginians in that island, so
immediately adjoining the continent of Italy. An opportunity soon occurred,
which seemed to promise to each the accomplishment of their respective
objects: the Mamertines, being hard pursued by Hiero king of Syracuse, and
shut up in Messina, the only city which remained to them, were divided in
opinion; some were for accepting the protection offered them by Hannibal,
who at that time commanded the Carthaginian army in Sicily; others were for
calling in the aid of the Romans. Both these powers gladly accepted the
proffered opportunity of extending the