Battle of the Lipera Islands, (260 B.C.)
Minor Roman naval defeat of the First Punic War. The newly built Roman fleet, under Cnaeus Cornelius Scipio, one of the two Roman consuls for the year, was about to cross over to the Sicilian coast. Scipio took a small force of seventeen ships ahead to Messana to prepare for the main fleet. At Messana he learnt of an offer to betray the port of Lipara, located on a group of islands to the north east of Sicily, and an important strategic location. Scipio took his fleet to Lipara, and sailed into the harbour. The Carthaginian fleet was close by on the north coast of Sicily, and a slightly larger force of twenty ships were sent to Lipara, where they trapped the Roman fleet in harbour. The novice Roman sailors did not put up a stiff resistance - some fled inland, while Scipio himself may well have been captured.
How to cite this article:
Rickard, J. (14 December 2001), Battle of the Lipera Islands, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_lipera.html