The crisis at Messana began when mercenaries in dispute with Syracuse seized the city and appealed to both Rome and Carthage for help. Carthaginian intervention close to Italy alarmed Rome. Movement into Sicily's informal buffer zone changed the strategic calculation. Each power expected a short, profitable war because it thought the other's military weakness would be decisive: Rome's weak navy or Carthage's reliance on mercenary land forces. The conflict lasted twenty-three years.
Chapter · 17:31-19:48
Why Sicily turned rivalry into war
The First Punic War began when Rome and Carthage collided in Sicily's former buffer zone, despite both expecting an easy and profitable conflict.