oved so fatal to the
Roman fleets. The transports were all dashed to pieces, and of his 105
ships of war only two escaped. Thus the Roman fleet was a third time
destroyed. These repeated misfortunes compelled the Romans to abandon
any farther attempts to contest the supremacy of the sea.

About this time a really great man was placed at the head of the
Carthaginian army--a man who, at an earlier period of the war, might
have brought the struggle to a very different termination. This was the
celebrated Hamilcar Barca,[29] the father of the still more celebrated
Hannibal. He was still a young man at the time of his appointment to the
command in Sicily (B.C. 247). His very first operations were equally
daring and successful. Instead of confining himself to the defense of
Lilybaeum and Drepanum, with which the Carthaginian commanders had been
hitherto contented, he made descents upon the coast of Italy, and then
suddenly landed on the north of Sicily, and established himself, with
his whole army, on a mountain called Hercte (the modern _Monte
Pellegrino_), which overhung the town of Panormus (the modern
_Palermo_), one of the most important of the Roman possessions. Here he
maintained himself for nearly three years, to the astonishment alike of
friends and foes, and from hence he made continual descents into the
enemy's country, and completely prevented them from making any vigorous
attacks either upon Lilybaeum or Drepanum. All the efforts of the Romans
to dislodge him were unsuccessful; and he only quitted Hercte in order
to seize Eryx, a town situated upon the mountain of this name, and only
six miles from Drepanum. This position he held for two years longer; and
the Romans, despairing of driving the Carthaginians out of Sicily so
long as they were masters of the sea, resolved to build another fleet.
In B.C. 242 the Consul Lutatius Catulus put to sea with a fleet of 200
ships, and in the following year he gained a decisive victory over the
Carthaginian fleet, commanded by Hanno, off the group of islands called
the AEgates.

[Illustration: Plan of Mount Ercta. A. Ercta, now _Monte Pellegrino_. B.
Panormus, the modern _Palermo_.]

This victory gave the Romans the supremacy by sea. Lilybaeum, Drepanum,
and Eryx might now be reduced by famine. The Carthaginians were weary of
the war, and indisposed to make any farther sacrifices. They therefore
sent orders to Hamilcar to make peace on the best terms he could. It was
at le