CHAPTER LI
THE ROMANS BUILD A FLEET
The Romans had conquered Pyrrhus with the help of the
Carthaginians. Now that they no longer needed the help
of their new allies, the Romans would have been glad had
the Carthaginians sailed away to their home in Africa.
But this they did not seem to think of doing.
In Sicily they took possession of many Greek towns, and this made Rome jealous. Their fleet, too, was often seen sailing along the coasts of Italy.
Like the Vikings of the North, the Carthaginians would suddenly swoop down upon some undefended coast town and plunder it and the surrounding district. Farm-houses were burned, plantations destroyed, and men and women dragged away to be sold as slaves, long before the Romans had been able to gather an army and march to the spot to punish the offenders.
But such insolence Rome could not brook, and she declared war against the bold intruders. This was the beginning of the first Punic war, which was the name given to the struggle between the Romans and Pœni or Carthaginians for the empire of the world.
On land the Romans quickly showed that they were more powerful than their former allies, and in about three years the Carthaginians had been forced to sail away to the shores of Africa, while those who stayed behind held only a few sea-coast towns in Sicily.
But the Carthaginian fleet was as powerful as ever, and the Romans saw that they would never get rid of their
