e north
coast of Sicily. The Romans proved poor sailors, but the bridges gave
them the victory. These could be wheeled round the mast and dropped in
any direction, and, however the Carthaginians approached, they found
themselves grappled and boarded by the Romans, whose formidable swords
soon did the rest. In the end Carthage lost fifty ships and ten thousand
men, and with them the dominion of the seas.

This success was a great event in the history of Rome. The victory was
celebrated by a great naval triumph, and a column was set up in the
Forum, which was adorned with the ornamental prows of ships.

Three years afterwards Rome resolved to carry the war into Africa, and
for this purpose built a great fleet of three hundred and thirty ships,
and manned by one hundred and forty thousand seamen, in addition to its
soldiers or fighting men. These were largely made up of prisoners from
Sardinia and Corsica, Carthaginian islands which had been attacked by
the Roman fleets. The two consuls in command were L. Manlius Vulso and
M. Atilius Regulus.

The great fleet of Rome met a still greater Carthaginian one at Ecnomus,
on the southern coast of Sicily, and here one of the greatest sea-fights
of history took place. In the end the Romans lost twenty-four ships,
while of those of the enemy thirty were sunk and sixty-four captured.
The remainder of the enemy's fleet fled in all haste to Carthage.

The Romans now prepared to take one of the greatest steps in their
history,--to cross the sea to the unknown African world. The soldiers
murmured loudly at this. They were to be taken to a new and strange
land, burnt by scorching heats and infested with noisome beasts and
monstrous serpents; and they were to be led into the very stronghold of
the enemy, where they would be at their mercy. Even one of their
tribunes supported the soldiers in this complaint. But Regulus was equal
to the occasion: he threatened the tribune with death, forced the
soldiers on board, and sailed for the African coast.

The event proved very different from what the soldiers had feared. The
army of Carthage was so miserably commanded that the Romans landed
without trouble and ravaged the country at their will; and instead of
the scorching heats and deadly animals they had feared, they found
themselves in a fertile and thickly-settled country, where grew rich
harvests of corn, and where were broad vineyards and fruitful orchards
of figs and olives. Towns were