DUILIUS (or DuELLTUS),

See also:

• GAIUS

GAIUS  , Roman general during the first Carthaginian War and commander in the first Roman naval victory . In 260 B.c., when consul in command of the land forces in Sicily, he was appointed to supersede his colleague Cn . Cornelius Scipio Asina, commander of the fleet, who had been captured in the harbour of Lipara . Recognizing that the only chance of victory lay in fighting under conditions as similar as possible to those of a land engagement, he invented a system of grappling irons (corvi) and boarding bridges, and gained a brilliant victory over the Carthaginian fleet off Mylae on the north coast of Sicily . He was accorded a triumph and the distinction of being accompanied, when walking in the streets during the evening, by a torchbearer and a flute-player . A memorial column (columna rostrata), adorned with the beaks of the captured ships, was set up in honour of his victory . The inscription upon it (see LATIN LANGUAGE, section 3, " The Language as Recorded ") has been preserved in a restored form in pseudo-archaic language, ascribed to the reign of Claudius . See Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, i . No . 195; Polybius i . 22; Diod . Sic. xvii .

44;

Frontinus, Strat. ii . 3; Florus ii . 2; Cicero, De senectute, 13; SIlius Italicus vi . 667; and PUNIC WARS .