The Chronos Cataloga register of films on the ancient Mediterranean

The second night in story order

The Battle of Ecnomus, 256 BC, narrated for sleep

The summer of 256 BC. Off a headland on the southern coast of Sicily called Ecnomus, the consuls Regulus and Manlius Vulso meet the fleet of Carthage under Hamilcar and Hannon.1. n.1 The Hamilcar here is not Hamilcar Barca. Nor is the Hanno the one later called the Great. The ending is safe to know from the start: the formation holdsn.2, the army lands in Africa at Aspis, and the year settles into winter quarters. n.2 The Carthaginian centre drew back on Hamilcar’s order, then turned. It was planned; whether it was a feigned retreat is less certain.

Plate VII.Two fleets on one coast, generated for the piece: the Roman fleet near, by its red tent, the Carthaginian at anchor far along the shore.

The night, chapter by chapter

  1. 0:07Chapter 1: The Supplied Coast
  2. 5:51Chapter 2: The Yards and Sleeping Fleet
  3. 12:03Chapter 3: Two Fleets, One Shore and the Wedge
  4. 19:23Chapter 4: The Far Off Meeting and the Pinned Pair
  5. 26:07Chapter 5: The Working Beach and Aspis
  6. 33:08Chapter 6: The Coastal Road and Two Camps at Adys
  7. 40:32Chapter 7: The Camp Streets and Tunis in Winter
  8. 48:11Chapter 8: Council Lamps and the Winter Quay
  9. 55:47Chapter 9: Laying Up and the Empty Beach
  10. 1:01:53The end of the night

Titles and times as published with the video; each opens it on YouTube at that point.

What is contested

  • Polybius puts about 140,000 men aboard the Roman ships and about 150,000 with Carthage, the second figure worked back from his numbers. Modern historians doubt both, and the narration flags the doubt where the figures come.
  • A plate in the published video labels one side of the wedge “triarii”; in Polybius the triarii are the fourth squadron, behind the transports (1.26.15). The figure below follows Polybius, and the ledger carries the error as C-08.
The Roman order of battle at Ecnomus, after Polybius 1.26 Two flagships side by side at the apex. The first squadron runs back from one and the second from the other, forming the two sides of a wedge. The third squadron closes the base in a single line, towing the horse transports behind it. Behind them the fourth squadron, the triarii, forms one long line that overlaps the base at both ends. abcdef
Figure.The order of battle as Polybius describes it, drawn from his text for this page.

The figure, keyed

  1. aThe two six-banked galleys of the consuls, side by side at the front (1.26.11).
  2. bThe first squadron, in single file behind one galley (1.26.12).
  3. cThe second squadron, behind the other, the files opening outward into a wedge (1.26.12 to 1.26.13).
  4. dThe third squadron, in a single line across the base (1.26.13).
  5. eThe horse transports, on towing lines behind the third squadron (1.26.14).
  6. fThe fourth squadron, the triarii, one long line overlapping the base at each end (1.26.15).

See also

The First Punic War, narrated for sleep

The war this night sits inside, told in one night.

The night before

1:07:54

The corvus and the Battle of Mylae: how Rome built a navy, 260 BC

Four years earlier, awake: the captured ship Rome built its fleet on, and the boarding bridge.

Awake

27:43

Rome and Carthage between the wars, narrated for sleep

The next night in story order: the peace, the unpaid army, and Hamilcar crossing to Iberia.

The next night

1:34:07

Sources

Polybius, Histories, Book 1 (1.25 to 1.31), translated by W. R. Paton (Loeb Classical Library), checked against the LacusCurtius text; the two quotations in the narration are his words, unchanged

Every text these films use, with its translation.