![]() ![]() ![]() When the Mamertines learned that the Romans were approaching, they persuaded the Carthaginian general to withdraw his forces from the city. The Romans, under the command of the consul Appius Claudius Caudex, invaded Sicily and marched to the Mamertines' aid. Yet Rome's fear of a Carthaginian stronghold so close to Italy-and greed for plunder in what they assumed would be a short war against Syracuse-outweighed their concerns. Indeed, Rome had only a few years before executed a similar group who had occupied the Italian town of Rhegium. Rome was hesitant to become entangled in a conflict outside of Italy or to come to the aid of the piratical Mamertines. The Mamertines soon regretted the Carthaginian occupation and appealed to Rome for protection, citing their status as Italians. When Hiero II of Syracuse attempted to dislodge the Mamertines in 265, they enlisted the aid of a nearby Carthaginian fleet, whose swift intervention forced Hiero to withdraw. Situated on the narrow straight the separates Sicily from Italy, Messana controlled commerce and communications between Sicily and the mainland. The seeds of the First Punic War had been sown in the 280s BC when a small band of unemployed Italian mercenaries, known as the Mamertines or the "Sons of Mars," occupied the strategic town of Messana in northwest Sicily.
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