Battle_of_the_Strait_of_Messina

Battle of the Strait of Messina

Battle of the Strait of Messina

Sea battle between Carthage and Pyrrhus (276 BC)

For the medieval battle between Byzantines and Fatimids, see Battle of the Straits.

38°14′45″N 15°37′57″E

Quick Facts Date, Location ...

The Battle of the Strait of Messina was fought in 276 BC when a Carthaginian fleet attacked the Sicilian fleet of Pyrrhus of Epirus, who was crossing the strait to Italy. Pyrrhus had left Italy for Sicily on the Autumn of 278 BC and scored several major victories against the Carthaginian armies, but Roman successes against Pyrrhus' Italian allies convinced him to return to Italy.[1][2]

While Pyrrhus was transporting his troops to Rhegium his fleet of 110 decked warships and hundreds of transports was attacked by the Carthaginians. The Carthaginian navy sank 70 of the Greek ships and damaged 28. Pyrrhus' surviving ships, amounting to 12 warships plus the transport ships, docked at Locri where he had left his son Alexander when he opened his Sicilian campaign.[3]

Sources

  • Venning, Timothy; Drinkwater, John (2011). Chronology of the Roman Empire. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4411-5478-1.
  • Cowan, Ross (2007). For the glory of Rome:a history of warriors and warfare. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-85367-733-5.
  • Mommsen's History of Rome. Wildside Press LLC. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4344-6232-9.

References

  1. [1]
    Mommsen 2008, p. 107
  2. [2]
    Venning & Drinkwater 2011, p. 80
  3. [3]
    Cowan 2007, p. 67
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Battle_of_the_Strait_of_Messina, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.