Titus Otacilius Crassus was a Roman statesman and general during the middle era of the Roman Republic. He was one of the two consuls of 261 BCE, serving with Lucius Valerius Flaccus. During his consulship, he and his consular colleague Flaccus fought against the Carthaginians on Sicily as part of the ongoing First Punic War.[1] Before sailing to Sicily they strengthened the coastal defences of Italy against attacks by Hannibal Gisco, a Carthaginian admiral sent to raid the Tyrrhenian coast. The consuls besieged Mytistraton, but were eventually driven off by Hamilcar, the new commander of Carthage's Sicilian army, who defeated them at Thermae near Palermo. They returned to Italy were they started building Rome's first warfleet, created after Carthaginian example. In 260, the fleet was ready and would be used by Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina, one of the two consuls of that year.[2]
References
- ^ Polybius, The Histories, 1.20.3–7, cf. Diodorus Siculus 23.9; Frontinus, Stratagems 3.16.3; Zonaras 8.10, as cited by T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1951, 1986), vol. 1, p. 204.
- ^ Polybius, The Histories, 1.20-21.
Modern Sources
- Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton: The Magistrates of the Roman Republic. Vol. 1, New York 1951, p. 204.
- Adrian Goldsworthy: The Fall of Carthage, 2000.
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