Arif Hodzic

Having got this far, they weren't going to stop now.

Before we look at the next stage of the war, let's pause for a moment to consider an important question.

How do we know all this?

Why do we have so much information about battles fought more than 2000 years ago?

Motivations, timelines, numbers of elephants,

For the First Punic War, our main source is a historian called Polybius, who lived during the second century BCE.

Polybius was Greek, but he also spent years in Rome after being taken hostage.

As a politician and historian,

He traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean, working and carrying out research.

Polybius is remembered for his Histories, a 40-volume work that explores the rise of the Roman Republic.

In the Histories, Polybius documents the Punic Wars in detail.

Compared to some other ancient historians, Polybius seems to have been quite rigorous.

He prided himself on carefully consulting documents and aimed for an objective approach to history, where possible.

He interviewed people who had participated in battles or acquaintances of important figures, such as Hannibal.

Polybius was not alive during the First Punic War.

He was born a few decades after it ended.

Nonetheless, his writings about the war are generally considered to be reliable.

There are even archaeological findings that support Polybius' account.

Artifacts including helmets, vases, and parts of warships have been discovered off the coast of Sicily.

This suggests that Polybius' description of the Battle of Aigetes, a battle we'll be coming up to later, was indeed accurate.