The First Punic War Part II | Ramming Speed! The Battle of Ecnomus | Rome Finally Builds a Fleet

Enough is enough, Rome's had it with these Carthaginian ships raiding their Italian shores. Rome decides to build a fleet of 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes. Consul Duilius receives the first naval triumph in Rome's history. Hamilcar the Very Able, conquers a large portion of Sicily - only to lose it again to the Romans. After 8 years and no decisive results, Rome decides to invade Africa. At Ecnomus, one of the greatest naval battles in history, certainly in antiquity, takes place with a total number of 290,000 men taking part in the battle.

Primary Sources:
Aristotle: Politics
Cassius Dio & Zonaras - Roman History
Cornelius Nepos: Hamilcar
Diodorus Siculus: Library of History
Livy Ab Urb Condita & Periochae
Orosius
Philinos
Polybius, the Histories

Secondary Sources:
A Companion to the Punic Wars
A History of Roman Sea-Power Before the Second Punic War by J. H. Thiel
The First Punic War by J. F. Lazenby
A Companion to the Roman Army
Oxford Classical Dictionary
Tipps, G. K. “The Battle of Ecnomus.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte 34, no. 4 (1985): 432–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435938.