Dusmanul la Poarta!-Partea-12!

 1-Acest articol este copiat!

2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1!

The largest naval battle in history

Rome continued to seek out Carthage on the waves, their Punic opponents having no answer for the Roman corvus turning the tide on the maritime masters. In 258 BC the swollen Roman fleet tracked down and cornered the now much smaller Carthaginian fleet at the Batte of Sulco, off the west coast of Sardinia. The Consul Gaius Sulpicius Paterclus triumphed, and the Carthaginian fleet was largely sunk, with the surviving ships abandoned on land. Carthaginians were never forgiving of failures in their commanders, and after this latest failure Hannibal Gisco was either stoned to death or crucified by his mutinying army.

A fresh Carthaginian fleet mustered on the African coast in late Spring 256 BC, before sailing to Lilybaeum (Marsala), their Sicilian base, to resupply and load up with marines. Sailing east to Heraclea Minoa, the power’s easternmost Sicilian town, they were joined by Carthage’s remaining Sicilian ships. This mammoth fleet now comprised around 350 ships, nearly all quinqueremes, commanded by Hanno, who had been defeated at Agrigentum six years prior, and Hamilcar, who had managed to lure 6,000 legionaries into the clutches of his 50,000-strong army and annihilate them at the Battle of Thermae in 259 BC.

Following their naval victories, Rome decided that the key to ending the war lay in being direct, and attacking Carthage itself. They thus mustered an invasion force of legionaries and accompanying cavalry, and prepared the transports necessary to carry them to Africa. Aware of the threat, Carthage knew that they had one last chance to resume their naval supremacy or be at the mercy of Rome’s vaunted legions. Their epic fleet thus set out to intercept Rome’s invasion force, and send its legions to the bottom of the Mediterranean, rather than enabling them to set foot on African soil for the first time. The Romans mustered a similarly sized fleet to the Carthaginians at Ostia, with around 330 warships, mostly quinqueremes, to protect their transports.

The Consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lusius Manlius Vulso Longus, were given command of the fleet, each taking a hexareme as their flagship. The Roman fleet sailed south along the Italian coast before crossing the Strait of Messana, then south and west to Phintias (Licata), where they met the legions on Sicily. Eighty legionaries were packed onto each warship to either land in Africa or support the marines in the naval battle to come. In total there were around 140,000 men about the Roman ships – rowers, crew, marines and legionaries. The Carthaginian fleet had around 150,000 men aboard. The Battle of Cape Ecnomus that would follow would be the largest naval battle of all time in terms of combatants involved, eclipsing the numbers that would fight at Salamis, at Actium, at Yamen, at Lepanto, at Red Cliffs, at Trafalgar, at Jutland, and at Midway.

Rather than sail directly for Africa, the Romans sailed west to hug the Sicilian coast. It was vital to hug the shore and minimise time spent at open sea, as storms could – and would – be devastating. At a time when ships were largely oar powered, it meant they had oar hole openings several feet above the water line. Sharp turns, waves that hit side on, or just choppy waters could rapidly fill a ship with water. The sheer number of people involved to operate each ship not only weighed them down, but also meant the amount of provisions being carried had to be minimised. Thus crews would regularly beach ships each night so that they could replenish supplies. It was only in the later Medieval Age that the ditching of oar power allowed ships to carry far more supplies, and far fewer crew, enabling mariners to cross the oceans and making ships far more seaworthy. It is also worth noting that most crew in antiquity did not know how to swim, and as marines and legionaries would be on the ship in full armour, the sinking of a ship would be a death sentence for most aboard.

The Carthaginians anticipated the Roman route, and intercepted their fleet after it left Licata. The Romans advanced in a compact formation in four squadrons of varying sizes, with two leading the way as an echelon, forming a wedge, with the right under Vulso and the left under Regulus. The hexareme flagships formed the tip of the wedge, with a third squadron behind them towing the transports, and the fourth at the rear as a reserve. The Carthaginians sailed east, and sailed in three squadrons in a single line, with their left/north (landward) ring protruding. The centre was commanded by Hamilcar, and the right by Hanno.

Hamilcar signalled a feigned retreat while the two leading squadrons made for the Carthaginian centre. The Consuls pursued, causing the third Roman squadron to fall behind, and a gap now opened in the Roman lines. The Carthaginian wings bypassed the Roman centre to attack the flanks of the Roman rear, thus avoiding the corvus, and now attacked the Roman ships that were towing the transports. Being packed full of armoured infantry, the transports were the greater prize for the Carthaginians to sink, rather than the Roman ships. A discarding of the tow cables gave the Roman ships manoeuvrability, though the drifting transports were now helpless, and impeding the Roman rear. Having separated the Roman centre from the rearmost squadrons, Hamilcar now turned to fight the pursuing Consuls. With the Roman fleet fragmented, he could sense that a Carthaginian victory was close.

The encounter essentially devolved into three separate battles. By breaking up the tight Roman formation, Hamilcar hoped to use the Carthaginians’ greater experience on the water to outmanoeuvre the Romans and ram them, negating the threat of the corvus. While the Roman navy had swollen in size over the last few years, many in the Carthaginian ships were new recruits, and thus their superiority in manoeuvring was less than anticipated. Although the Roman ships were slower than their counterparts, their sturdy build also made them less susceptible to ramming. As the tactical masterplan dissolved as events unfolded, the Roman legionaries were soon swarming aboard the Carthaginian ships.

The Roman commanders who had been towing the transports felt outmatched, and retreated to shore. The Carthaginians were unable to cut them off, allowing the Romans to take up a defensive position in shallow water, preventing an attack on their flanks. Despite this the battle there was hard pressed, and the rearmost Romans almost outfought in a desperate situation. The battle was decided in the centre, where the leading two Roman squadrons fought the second Carthaginian squadron. Ships on both sides were rammed and sunk, but more Carthaginian ships were boarded and captured. After a long fight, the survivors of the remaining Carthaginian fleets lost heart and fled, and at the Consuls’ signal the Roman centre abandoned its pursuit to return and assist the other squadrons and save the drifting transports. Vulso attacked the first Carthaginian squadron and Regulus the third under Hanno, flanking them and threatening the trap them betwixt two Roman squadrons. Hanno withdrew what ships he could, while Regulus thus moved to reinforce Vulso’s attack on the first Carthaginian squadron, now surrounded. Here the Carthaginians suffered their heaviest losses, and 50 of their new ships surrendered. After a confused and heavy day of fighting, the Battle of Cape Ecnomus had seen Carthage decisively defeated, with 30 ships sunk and 64 captured, and with them some 40,000 men perished. It had not been a cheap victory for Rome though, with 24 ships sunk, and around 10,000 men killed.

After their victory, the Romans landed in Sicily for repairs and rest. The prows of captured Carthaginian ships were sent to Rome to adorn the speaker’s platform in the Forum, a tradition that started with the Battle of Mylae. The Carthaginian fleet sailed home to prepare to fight again, though its commanders were now unable to predict where the Romans would make their beachhead in Africa. With the seas now clear, the path was now open for Rome to invade Africa, attack Carthage directly, and bring the war to an end.