(which happened to be shallow) between it and the mainland he made a clear stretch of solid ground and thus conducted with greater facility his hostile operations against the wall, which was rather weak at that point.  Incidentally the Carthaginians caused the Romans excessive annoyance by undertaking circuitous voyages to Sicily and making trips across into Italy.—­They exchanged each other’s captives man for man; those left over (since the numbers were not equal) the Carthaginians got back for money.

In the subsequent period various persons became consuls but effected nothing worthy of record.  The Romans owed the majority of their reverses to the fact that they kept sending out from year to year different and ever different leaders, and took away their office from them when they were just learning the art of generalship.  It looked as if they were choosing them for practice and not for service.

The Gauls, who were acting in alliance with the Carthaginians and hated them because their masters treated them ill, abandoned to the Romans for money a position with the guarding of which they had been entrusted.  The Romans secured for mercenary service the Gauls and other of the Carthaginian allies who had revolted from their service; never before had they supported foreigners in their army.  Elated at this accession and furthermore by the ravaging of Libya on the part of the private citizens who were managing the ships, they were no longer willing to neglect the sea, and they again got together a fleet.

[Sidenote:  B.C. 241 (a.u. 513)] VIII, 17.—­And Lutatius Catulus was chosen consul and with him was sent out Quintus Valerius Flaccus as praetor urbanus.  On coming to Sicily they assailed Drepanum both by land and by sea and demolished a section of the wall.  They would have captured the town but for the fact that the consul was wounded and the soldiers were wholly engrossed in caring for him.  During the delay which ensued they learned that a body of the enemy had come from home with a huge fleet commanded by Hanno, and they turned their attention to these new arrivals.  When the forces had been marshaled in hostile array, a meteor like a star appeared above the Romans and after rising high to the left of the Carthaginians plunged into their ranks.  The naval combat was a vigorous one on the part of both nations, and for several reasons; especially were the Carthaginians anxious to drive the Romans into complete despair of naval success, and the Romans to retrieve their former disasters.  In spite of everything the Romans carried off the victory, for the Carthaginian vessels were impeded by the fact that they carried freight,—­grain and money and other things.