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 their conquests, and checking their
rival.
The consul Appius Claudius, was ordered by the senate to proceed to Sicily:
previously to his departure, he despatched Caius Claudius, a legionary
tribune, with a few vessels to Rhegium, principally, it would seem, to
reconnoitre the naval force of the Carthaginians. The consul himself soon
followed with a small fleet, hired principally from the Tarentines,
Locrians, and Neapolitans. This fleet being attacked by the Carthaginian
fleet, which was not only much more numerous, but better equipped and
manned, and a violent storm rising during the engagement, which dashed many
of the Roman vessels in pieces among the rocks, was completely worsted. The
Carthaginians, however, restored most of the vessels they captured, only
expostulating with the Romans on the infraction of the treaty at that time
subsisting between the two republics.
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