| |
| | Polybius: the First Punic War |
 | | The Romans, on receiving full information about the disaster from the survivors of the shipwreck, were deeply grieved, but being resolved on no account to give in, they decided to put on the stocks a fresh fleet of 220 ships. |
 | | In three months they were completed -a thing difficult to believe- and the new consuls, Aulus Atilius [Caiatinus] and Gnaeus Cornelius [Scipio Asina], having fitted out the fleet, put to sea, and passing the straits picked up at Messana the ships that had escaped shipwreck. |
 | | Descending with their total fleet of 300 sail on Panormus, the most important city in the Carthaginian province, they undertook its siege. |
| www.livius.org /ps-pz/punic_war/polybius_1_38.html (409 words) |
|