The Dawson Ledger
Event

First Punic War (264-241 BCE)

Rome builds a large fleet and defeats Carthage at sea; war is the main ancient case of a land power winning through naval construction.

Greco-Roman

Event Details

  • Date: 264 BCE-241 BCE
  • Type: interstate-war
  • Civilizations: greco-roman

Description

Rome builds a large fleet and defeats Carthage at sea; war is the main ancient case of a land power winning through naval construction. Polybius Book 1 is the principal ancient source.

Quantitative facts and their sourcing

  • Dates 264-241 BCE; outcome: Roman victory (Wikipedia infobox).
  • Predominantly a naval and Sicilian-theatre war. PRIMARY-SOURCE figures: Polybius 1.63 (Perseus, read): two sea-fights, one with combined fleets exceeding 500 quinqueremes and one nearly 700; over the war, counting shipwrecks, Romans lost 700 quinqueremes and Carthaginians 500. Human casualty totals not asserted.

Confidence

medium (dates/outcome); casualties NOT quantified. Numbers marked "Wikipedia-compiled (stub)" come from a secondary aggregator and must be upgraded to page-level scholarly citations before any Official use.

Citations

  • polybius-1-63-perseus [formal] Polybius (-150). Polybius, Histories 1.63 (Perseus Digital Library, Paton transl.; read). Perseus Digital Library (Tufts). https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0234:book=1:chapter=63. Verified 2026-10-11 (resolves).
  • lazenby1996-first-punic-war [formal] J. F. Lazenby (1996). The First Punic War: A Military History. Stanford University Press. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8389108W. Verified 2026-10-11 (Open Library record found; edition exists, page-level not checked).
  • goldsworthy2000-fall-of-carthage [formal] Adrian Goldsworthy (2000). The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146 BC. Cassell. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8264208W. Verified 2026-10-11 (Open Library record found; edition exists, page-level not checked).
  • wp-first-punic-war [STUB (secondary aggregator)] Wikipedia contributors (2026). First Punic War (Wikipedia; secondary aggregator, stub-grade). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Punic_War. Verified 2026-10-11 (resolves).

Review status

SOFT draft. Not Official. Needs editor review of CAD tags (estimated) and page-level citation upgrade.

About this entry

A draft entry preserved from civilization.study. Evidence grade: low. 3 of 4 listed sources are fully documented; the rest are names only. Method and sources

Conflict card

This card is generated from Civitas's war record and carries the same evidence badge as every other conflict card.

How to read the evidence badges
Primary text read
Civitas read the ancient or primary text for at least one figure on this card. Other figures may still be Wikipedia-compiled and are labelled.
Generic placeholder: an advancing line for a war or campaign. Not an image of this event.
interstate war · 264 BCE-241 BCE

First Punic War (264-241 BCE)

Rome builds a large fleet and defeats Carthage at sea; war is the main ancient case of a land power winning through naval construction.

Evidence: Primary text read Draft estimate

What the record says

  • Unverified (Wikipedia-compiled) Dates 264-241 BCE; outcome: Roman victory (Wikipedia infobox).
  • Primary text Predominantly a naval and Sicilian-theatre war. PRIMARY-SOURCE figures: Polybius 1.63 (Perseus, read): two sea-fights, one with combined fleets exceeding 500 quinqueremes and one nearly 700; over the war, counting shipwrecks, Romans lost 700 quinqueremes and Carthaginians 500. Human casualty totals not asserted.

Confidence. medium (dates/outcome); casualties NOT quantified.

Where it sits

Sources and evidence

No page-level citation is claimed for any source. Figures marked unverified come from a Wikipedia aggregator and are not for Official use.

Link to this conflict

Art: Patterns of Civilization chronicle art, made with AI: illustrations, not historical evidence. Entries are drafts preserved from civilization.study. Method and sources.