Battle of Cape Ecnomus 256 BC
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 256 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Italy | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | First Punic War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 37.0500, 13.9000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Cape Ecnomus or Eknomos (Ancient Greek: Ἔκνομος) was a naval battle, fought off southern Sicily, in 256 BC, between the fleets of Carthage and the Roman Republic, during the First Punic War (264–241 BC). The Carthaginian fleet was commanded by Hanno and Hamilcar; the Roman fleet jointly by the consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus. It resulted in a clear victory for the Romans.
The Roman fleet of 330 warships plus an unknown number of transports had sailed from Ostia, the port of Rome, and had embarked approximately 26,000 picked legionaries shortly before the battle. They planned to cross to Africa and invade the Carthaginian homeland, in Tunisia. The Carthaginians were aware of the Romans' intentions and mustered all available warships, 350, off the south coast of Sicily to intercept them. With a combined total of about 680 warships carrying up to 290,000 crew and marines, the battle was arguably the single largest battle of ancient history, and was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved.
When the fleets met, the Carthaginians took the initiative and the battle devolved into three separate conflicts, where the Carthaginians hoped that their superior ship-handling skills would win the…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cape Ecnomus (revision 1371349589), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the First Punic War
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- Battle of Mylae 260 BC
- Battle of the Lipari Islands 260 BC
- Battle of Sulci 258 BC
- Battle of Tyndaris 257 BC
- Battle of Adys 255 BC
- Battle of the Bagradas River (255 BC) 255 BC
- Siege of Aspis 255 BC
- Battle of Panormus 251 BC
- Siege of Lilybaeum (250–241 BC) 250 BC
All 14 battles of the First Punic War →
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