ABSTRACT
The Mamertines' requests for aid from both Rome and Carthage in 264 BC had pitted the two great republics of the western Mediterranean against each other and touched off the First Punic War. Rome turned itself into a major naval power to overcome Carthage's advantage at sea. Immediately after that, Carthage was further weakened by the Truceless War with its mercenaries. At first, Rome cooperated with Carthage. In 238, the Romans put their own strategic, and perhaps financial, considerations uppermost when they turned on Carthage. They forced it to surrender Sardinia and pay an additional indemnity or face renewed war with them. While taking over Sardinia, and soon thereafter, Corsica, the Romans pursued their previously planned campaigns against the Ligurians and Gauls in northern Italy. In the same period, the Romans mounted brief expeditions to suppress Illyrian piracy. In the meantime, the notorious pirates of Illyria, along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, had grown ever bolder.
