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At the promontory of Mylae, to the north-west of Messana, the Carthaginian fleet, that advanced from Panormus under the command of Hannibal, encountered the Roman, which here underwent its first trial on a great scale.
No one pursued him, for his sailing had been secret and Caesar was temporarily in the midst of great disturbance. Lepidus had attacked Messana and on being admitted to the town set fire to some of it and pillaged other portions.
So far as the Romans were concerned, they were essentially defensive wars, the proper objects of which were to hold the passes of the Pyrenees, to detain the Macedonian army in Greece, to defend Messana and to bar the communication between Italy and Sicily.
Somewhere about the year 470 a Campanian band, which had previously served under Agathocles and after his death took up the trade of freebooters on their own account, established themselves in Messana, the second city of Greek Sicily, and the chief seat of the anti-Syracusan party in that portion of the island which was still in the power of the Greeks.
As matters went well with him and his activity supplied him with soldiers and money, he sailed to Sicily, where he seized Mylae and Tyndaris without effort but was repulsed from Messana by Pompeius Bithynicus, then governor of Sicily.
Such exceptions were, no doubt, made in various cases. Messana was directly admitted to the confederacy of the -togati-, and, like the Greek cities in Italy, furnished its contingent to the Roman fleet.
By their double alliance with Messana and Syracuse, and the firm hold which they had on the whole east coast, they secured the means of landing on the island and of maintaining which hitherto had been a very difficult matter their armies there; and the war, which had previously been doubtful and hazardous, lost in a great measure its character of risk.
On these being seen from Messana, twelve ships sent out by Hiero king of Syracuse, who then happened to be at Messana, waiting for the Roman consul, brought back into the port of Messana the ships taken without any resistance.
The Roman fleet returned without loss to the harbour, only one ship being pierced, and even that also brought back into port. After this engagement, before those at Messana were aware of its occurrence, Titus Sempronius the consul arrived at Messana.
The most flourishing cities in the island Selinus, Himera, Agrigentum, Gela, and Messana were utterly destroyed by the Carthaginians in the course of these unhappy conflicts: and Dionysius was not displeased to see Hellenism destroyed or suppressed there, so that, leaning for support on foreign mercenaries enlisted from Italy, Gaul and Spain, he might rule in greater security over provinces which lay desolate or which were occupied by military colonies.
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