Roman records make the casualty totals testable

Roman losses are given as twenty-four ships sunk and roughly ten thousand men killed, figures treated as plausible against the stated ship complements and casualties aboard surviving vessels. The Republic kept census and pay records that made personnel totals more than casual estimates. Two consuls, former consuls serving as censors, praetors, and other ambitious magistrates had reasons to expose false accounting by a commander. Scrutiny extended to the distribution of booty and the money paid in taxes. Exposing a commander's misconduct could advance a subordinate's political career. These competing interests provide a reason to take the reported scale seriously while still testing it.