brm_073120 - ROMAN REPUBLIC - ANONYMOUS Litra

ROMAN REPUBLIC - ANONYMOUS

(273-270 BC)

Between the capture of Taranto in 272 BC and the start of the First Punic War in 264 BC, Rome seized Rhegium in 270 BC and founded the colony of Benevento in 268 BC, while the Carthaginians imposed a garrison on Messina. The Messenians appealed to the Romans who drove out the Carthaginian garrison, the origin of the inexpiable war which was to oppose the two Mediterranean powers. In 269 BC, Quintus Ogulnius Gallus and Caius Fabius Pictor were consuls.