ile Hannibal was making this dangerous march, the Romans were
sending to Spain, under the two elder Scipios, one part of their
fleet, carrying a consular army. This made the voyage without serious
loss, and the army established itself successfully north of the Ebro,
on Hannibal's line of communications. At the same time another
squadron, with an army commanded by the other consul, was sent to
Sicily. The two together numbered two hundred and twenty ships. On its
station each met and defeated a Carthaginian squadron with an ease
which may be inferred from the slight mention made of the actions, and
which indicates the actual superiority of the Roman fleet.

After the second year the war assumed the following shape: Hannibal,
having entered Italy by the north, after a series of successes had
passed southward around Rome and fixed himself in southern Italy,
living off the country,--a condition which tended to alienate the
people, and was especially precarious when in contact with the mighty
political and military system of control which Rome had there
established. It was therefore from the first urgently necessary that
he should establish, between himself and some reliable base, that
stream of supplies and reinforcements which in terms of modern war is
called "communications." There were three friendly regions which
might, each or all, serve as such a base,--Carthage itself, Macedonia,
and Spain. With the first two, communication could be had only by sea.
From Spain, where his firmest support was found, he could be reached
by both land and sea, unless an enemy barred the passage; but the sea
route was the shorter and easier.

In the first years of the war, Rome, by her sea power, controlled
absolutely the basin between Italy, Sicily, and Spain, known as the
Tyrrhenian and Sardinian Seas. The sea-coast from the Ebro to the
Tiber was mostly friendly to her. In the fourth year, after the battle
of Cannae, Syracuse forsook the Roman alliance, the revolt spread
through Sicily, and Macedonia also entered into an offensive league
with Hannibal. These changes extended the necessary operations of the
Roman fleet, and taxed its strength. What disposition was made of it,
and how did it thereafter influence the struggle?

The indications are clear that Rome at no time ceased to control the
Tyrrhenian Sea, for her squadrons passed unmolested from Italy to
Spain. On the Spanish coast also she had full sway till the younger
Scipio saw