Soon after he landed in Sicily, he resolved to invade Africa:  for this purpose his fleet was collected in the port of Lilibaeum.  Never was embarkation made with more order and solemnity:  the concourse of people who came from all parts to see him set sail, and wish him a prosperous voyage, was prodigious.  Just before he weighed anchor, he appeared on the poop of his galley, and, after an herald had proclaimed silence, addressed a solemn prayer to the gods.  It is foreign to our purpose to give any account of the campaign in Africa, which, it is well known, terminated in the utter defeat of the Carthaginians, who were obliged to sue for peace.  This was granted them on very severe terms:  all the cities and provinces which they possessed in Africa previously to the war, they were indeed permitted to retain, but they were stripped of Spain, and of all the islands in the Mediterranean; all their ships of war, except ten galleys, were to be delivered up to the Romans; and, for the future, they were not to maintain above that number at one time:  even the size of their fishing boats and of their trading vessels was regulated.  In the course of fifty years ten thousand talents were to be paid to the Romans.  During a short truce which preceded the peace, the Carthaginians had seized and plundered a Roman squadron, which had been dispersed by a storm, and driven near Carthage; as a satisfaction for this, they were obliged to pay the Romans 25,000 pounds weight of silver.  The successful termination of the second Punic war gave to the Romans complete dominion of the sea, on which they maintained generally 100 galleys.  Commerce flourished, particularly that most important branch, the trade in corn, with which Rome, at this period, is said to have been so plentifully furnished, that the merchants paid their seamen with it.

The power of the Romans at sea was now so well established, that no foreign power could hope to attack, or resist them, unless they were expert navigators, as well as furnished with a numerous fleet.  Under this impression, Philip king of Macedon, who had long been jealous and afraid of them, applied himself sedulously to maritime affairs.  As it was about this period that the Romans began to turn their thoughts to the conquest of Greece, it may be proper to take a retrospective view of the maritime affairs and commerce of that country.  An inspection of the map of Greece will point out the advantages which it possessed for navigation and commerce.  Lying nearly in the middle of the Mediterranean, with the sea washing three of its sides; possessed of almost innumerable inlets and bays, it was admirably adapted to ancient commerce.  Its want of large and navigable rivers, which will always limit its commerce in modern times, presented no obstacle to the small vessels in which the ancients carried on their trade; as they never navigated them during the winter, and from their smallness and lightness, they could easily drag them on shore.