ABSTRACT
Polybios implies that the Romans had begun to build 50 new ships even before Metellus’ victory at Panormus (39.15), and there is some reason to believe that the men responsible were the consuls of 250/49, Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso. Both men had been consul before – in 257/6 and 256/5 respectively – and both had had some experience of naval warfare, for Atilius Regulus had commanded against Malta and at Tyndaris, and Manlius Vulso at Ecnomus. The target this time was clearly to be Lilybaeum, and this represents a reversion to the strategy of 254, which had been interrupted by Blaesus’ raid on Africa and resumed on a smaller scale in 252 only because of the disaster suffered by Blaesus’ fleet on its return. Polybios later says (41.3) that the fleet with which Atilius and Manlius eventually put to sea numbered 200 ships, and this is consistent with what he says earlier about numbers. The attack on Panormus in 254 had involved 300 ships (38.7), the raid on Africa in 253 “the whole fleet” (cf. 39.1), and “more than 150” of these ships had been destroyed in the storm on their way back to Italy (39.6).
