C. Duilius, primo Punico bello a Romanis dux contra Carthaginienses missus, cum videret eos multum mari valere, classem magis validam quam decoram aedificavit, et manus ferreas, quas corvos vocabant, instituit. His, quas ante pugnam hostes {5} valde deriserant, in pugna ipsa ad Liparas insulas commissa naves hostium comprehendit, easque partim cepit, partim demersit. Dux classis Punicae Carthaginem fugit, et ex senatu quaesivit quid faceret. Omnibus ut pugnaret succlamantibus: {10} ‘Feci,’ inquit, ‘et victus sum.’ Sic poenam crucis effugit, nam hac poena dux, re male gesta, apud Poenos afficiebatur. Duilius autem victor primum triumphum maritimum Romae egit, et ad memoriam victoriae columna rostrata in foro posita est. {15} (_Adapted_) Cf. FLORUS, I. xviii. 7-10. [Linenotes: 4. +corvos+ = _crows_ (the κόρακες of Polybius), boarding-bridges. A broad movable ladder, fastened to the foremast, and held in position by a rope. When the rope was let go, the iron hook at the upper end of the ladder penetrated the deck of an enemy’s ship. 6. +ad Liparas insulas+ = Aeoliae Insulae (Lipari Islands), N.E. of Sicily. Mylae was on a promontory S.E. of these Islands. 8. +Dux+, i.e. Hannibal, the defender of Agrigentum 262 B.C.] B. _Unique honour conferred on Duilius._ C. Duilium, qui Poenos classe primus devicerat, redeuntem a cena senem saepe videbam puer; delectabatur cereo funali et tibicine, quae sibi nullo exemplo privatus sumpserat: tantum licentiae dabat gloria. {20} CICERO, _De Senectute_, xiii. § 44. [Linenotes: 18. +cereo funali+,[28] i.e. _torchlight_. +nullo exemplo+ = _without any precedent_. 18-19. +sibi ... sumpserat.+ Cicero is wrong: more probably the honour was conferred on Duilius by a vote of the Comitia Tributa. 19. +dabat+ = _excused_; lit. _granted_, _allowed_. -- J. S. Reid.] [Footnote 28: The +funale+ was a torch composed of twigs twisted into a rope (+funis+) and dipped in pitch or oil. --J. S. R.] +References.+ Polybius, i. 22, for a description of the _corvi_, κόρακες. Sir Andrew Barton (Percy’s _Reliques_). Lord Howard says:-- ‘Were twenty shippes, and he but one, I swear by kirke and bower and hall, He would overcome them every one If once his beames they do down fall.’ C6 FIRST PUNIC WAR, 264-241 B.C. _Carthaginian Victory off Drepana, 249 B.C._ _Rashness of Claudius._