Battle of Ecnomus (256 BC) - Largest Naval Battle in History

the epic encounter between the carthaginian and roman fleets attic Nomis is a top contender for the title of largest naval battle in history in terms of ship and personnel count according to Polybius 680 warships faced off with an estimated two hundred and ninety thousand rowers and marines participating by comparison the battle of salamis between the Greeks and Persians we have fielded a similar number of ships but these were smaller and only counted for up to 200,000 men it would take almost 2,000 years for galleys to once again assemble in such numbers at the Battle of Lepanto between the Holy League and the Ottomans this encounter saw 484 warships and 150,000 men take the field the famed Spanish Armada and the opposing English fleet fielded 330 warships in World War 1 the Battle of Jutland involved 250 warships and 100,000 men in World War two the enormous Battle of Leyte Gulf in full 367 warships and 200,000 men these numbers are simply staggering and attest the mind-blowing scale of ancient combat the battle of economists took place during the First Punic War Rome and only just secured control of southern Italy and now came elbow to elbow with Carthage which had territorial holdings along North Africa Spain Sicily Sardinia Corsica and numerous other islands around the Mediterranean the conflict was sparked off in Sicily in 264 BC when a group of mercenaries upset the local status quo creating an opportunity for both superpowers to step in and pursue their own ambitions for the island which played a key role in the strategic control of the region this local matter quickly escalated into a bloody 23-year war which neither side could have foreseen the First Punic War was a showdown between one of the strongest armies and one of the strongest navies in the western Mediterranean the opening stages the Warsaw Rome's land forces make a rapid advance into Sicily before being checked by the Carthaginian fleets vice-grip on the island which could strangle Roman supply logistics while keeping its own fully operational in response decided to raise a fleet of 120 warships and face the Punic forces at sea though they were outmatched when it came to traditional naval warfare the Romans were able to even the odds with the invention of the Corvis boarding bridge both sides now found themselves on a relatively even naval footing and through massive resources into shipbuilding so as to gain a decisive advantage following their victory at aggregate time the Romans had expanded their war aims to include the complete Punic expulsion from Sicily part of the strategy involved taking the fight to Carthage's doorstep and to 56 BC the Romans made the bold decision to once again escalate the conflict by mounting an invasion of North Africa an enormous fleet of 330 vessels was amassed and made its way down the Italian coast to Masana before sailing around Cape pakkun us to link up with the main army and Sicily here the Pick of the Roman infantry was taken aboard to serve as Marines and provide an invasion force the Navy then prepared to set out with orders to fight a fleet action or continue the journey directly to Africa the Carthaginians were not blind to Rome's actions and had been preparing to counter the anticipated move they summoned a grand fleet of 350 ships the largest in their history to destroy the invasion force this new Armada sailed from Africa to Lulla BAM before rounding correctly on manoa the Punic commanders were confident in their strength and determined to seek out a direct engagement the two fleets advanced towards each other along the Sicilian coast and came head-to-head attack Noah's in 256 BC warships of this period were galleys long shallow draft vessels powered primarily by or there are many classifications of ships but both sides attic newest were composed mostly of confirms also known as fives these were typically around forty meters long and five meters wide with a compliment of about three hundred rowers and 120 Marines smaller triremes were most likely present to some degree as well as larger hex areum's which served as flagships traditional naval combat of the time revolved around ramming tactics ships relied on speed and maneuverability to strike at the opponent's flank shearing off oars or rupturing the hull in this art of war the Carthaginians were king the Romans on the other hand were new to naval warfare and could not compete on this level as a result they sought to redefine the game entirely by focusing on boarding tactics where they could excel at close quarters combat to this end they had developed a Corvis at all boarding bridge with a spike at the end which could be swiveled and dropped onto enemy decks if they got too close the difference in tactics would dictate the deployment of the fleet's the importance of the battle was such that both Roman consuls losses manless vaso and marcus a Tullius Regulus were present they deployed the fleet in a compact battle order in the shape of the triangle this would allow the ships to share overlapping defenses and find safety in numbers the dense formation could also be used to face a threat from any direction the Roman fleet was organized by splitting the force into four divisions the first two divisions were each led by a consul in their respective flagships they formed the tip of the spear with the remainder of their divisions Ashland one after another to the sides the base of the triangle was composed to the third division which towed the horse transports the final fourth Division deployed in a line behind this protecting the rear and acting as a final reserve this group was appropriately Nick named the triarii the Carthaginians were commanded by hamilkar overall commander of the forces in Sicily and hano the general would defended agrigento they advanced in the typical battle formation of line abreast however unit commanders had no intention of fighting a standard battle they were well aware of Rome's reliance in the cordis and knew that a frontal assault would be suicidal as a result they planned to break up the compact formation before sweeping in from the sides and rear only then could they employ their superior ramming skills and pick the Romans apart in a series of smaller encounters the first step in the plan would be to draw the Romans into the center this would be executed by thinning out the line and ordering the captains to fall back as the enemy approached hamilkar himself would be stationed here to ensure good order meanwhile the flanks were extended to vastly overlap the Romans the left wing was deployed toward the shoreline while Hinault led the fastest ships on the extreme right flank this strategy of drawing the Roman war machine into a weakened centre only to deliver a devastating attack from the flank and rear bears a striking resemblance to Hannibal's winning strategy at cannae forty years later the battle began with both fleets approaching one another as they drew close the Roman commanders at the front of the fleet could best assess the Punic battle order they would have seen a mighty fleet which both outnumbered at the same time however they must have noticed that his thickfreakness and the enemy's mainline and sought to exploit it what better target for the tip of of spear than an enemy's exposed belly surely it was better to deal a killing blow immediately than wait for a larger force to overwhelm and so the Consul sounded the charge and surged forward with their divisions as the Roman fleet advance the Carthaginians fell back in a seeming panic could it be this easy the commanders of both sides must have thought as they smiled as the first and second Roman divisions plunged ahead they left the rest of the fleet behind a large gap quickly formed between the console ships and the slower third and fourth divisions and at this moment Hamilcar decided that the Romans had been lured sufficiently far enough away and signaled his ships to turn about they swiftly engaged the enemy in a fierce fight ensued the Roman lines may have lost a degree of their compassion in defense and perhaps some Punic War ships were able to slip through the gaps in the formation and attack from the stern the rest of the first and second Roman divisions likely began to close ranks again and attempted to grapple the enemy ships with their Corvina meanwhile the Swift punic right flank led by Hinault had managed to get behind the entire Roman fleet and descended upon the rear line of kirari the attack here was fierce as the Swift vessels made the most of their maneuverability the triarii were somewhat able to reform to meet this new threat but we're getting the worse end of the engagement with the first two divisions far ahead and the fourth division cotton Hanna's attack the vulnerable roman third division with the hoarse transports found itself alone this was the exact situation that hamilkar had hoped to create now the punic left flank which had been executing a sweeping maneuver along the shore smelled blood in the water and set its sights on the exposed Romans sensing this impending disaster the Roman captains of the third division cut the horse transports loose and redeployed to meet the punic onslaught this Roman division was outnumbered and found itself driven up against the shoreline here they formed up side to side in a last-ditch effort to withstand the attack with the shore at their rear and the Corvis at their front the beleaguered Roman galleys were able to mount a defense the Carthaginians were unable to breach this impregnable formation and could do little more than keep the enemy in place the battle now was broken up into three distinct encounters just as hamilkar had wanted however back at the main engagement between the Punic Center and the Roman first and second divisions the tide of battle began to shift despite Hammel cars active role in the fighting and some early success more and more Carthaginian ships were falling prey to the Corvis and being boarded by Roman Marines soon the line began to collapse and fell into a full retreat we also organized the efforts to capture the Punic ships who failed to fleet while Regulus rounded up as many warships as he could and reeled them about to save the rest of the fleet his quick-thinking proved critical as these victorious ships were able to join the bitter action around the triarii and swing the odds back into Rome's favored together the 1st 2nd and 4th Roman divisions sawed off the Carthaginians in this sector of the battlefield before turning together as one to rescue the 3rd Roman division along the shore here the Carthaginians now found themselves trapped in a complete envelopment and suffered heavy losses this final move and the last of the three encounters a techno --mess brought the Romans ultimate victory all of cold thirty Punic War ships were sunk and 65 were boarded while approximately thirty to forty thousand men were killed or captured the Romans on the other hand had twenty four of their ships sunk with no recorded boardings and only suffered around ten thousand casualties this was a decisive Roman victory while the Carthaginian tactics had proved successful in breaking up the Roman fleet they failed to deliver the final finishing blow it seems this is largely due to the inability of the Carthaginians to effectively counter the Roman Corvis this was particularly true in the clumsy chaos of such large fleet actions were simpler boarding tactics proved superior to complex ramming maneuvers camel colors attempted double envelopment however would live on and would be championed by Hannibal who later proved its devastating effect after the battle the Roman fleet returned to shore for a pair and replenishment in short order it once again set sail and made the crossing to Africa delivering Roman boots on Carthaginian home soil for the first time while Regulus is invasion would ultimately end a defeat and the war would drag on for another five years the colossal efforts shown by the Romans proved their willingness to pour everything they had into a fight to set them apart from the Carthaginians who won their fair share of victories but were never able to capitalize on them ultimately this distinction was at the core of what made the Romans unique amongst their peers and placed them on the road to Empire if you are interested in the Roman Navy please be sure to check out these previous videos which cover classification construction operation maintenance and tactics of the Republican fleet I also cover many more battles of antiquity which you can find here I hope you enjoyed thanks for watching you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 2,449,417

Rating: 4.9077106 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, Attila, massive, siege, Total War: Rome II (Video Game), Creative Assembly, Rally Point, Total War, DLC, New, Campaign, Release, Battle, Huge, Multiplayer, Heir of Carthage, Documentary, China, Warhammer, Rome, Tournament, Beta, Trailer, Arena, Total War (Video Game Series), music, intro, multiplayer, review, Total War: Attila, Warhammer Fantasy (Interest), total war: warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy Battle (Game), gameplay, dwarf, navy, biggest, largest, ecnomus, historia civilis, naval

Id: jpGMSzgd8eg

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 12 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/atan23]

Absolutely awesome and well made, best 15mins I've spent on my day. Thank you sir :)

[u/Oakley_HiDef]

This documentary brings the battle to life using animated maps and in-game footage from Total War: Rome II. It is also part of a larger series on the Roman Navy which you can find here:

Fleet Anatomy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PhRpvPZuIc
Fleet Operation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=397-i39mN4g Fleet Tactics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOc8muR2eq8
More Classical Antiquity Documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkOo_Hy3liEJYEQ23l6bDrFrQYdkoZ3BC

Literary Sources:

"Uniforms of the Roman World" by Kevin Kiley

"Republican Roman Warships" by Osprey Publishing

"The Fall of Carthage" by Adrian Goldsworthy "Augustus" by Anthony Everitt

[u/The_Cooler_King]

Oakley that was exceptional. Also please make more nonwarhammer videos.

[u/hank81]

680 ships and 190.000 men are the maximum estimations. A little exaggerated. You may get more realistic ciphers if you halve those numbers.

[u/norax_d2]

Even my friends that didn't play any total war, watched it. Great video.

[u/themoobster]

If you had videos like this for the greco persian and peloponnesian wars id be one happy high school teacher

[u/mobby123]

That was fantastically done! Thoroughly enjoyed every second of it, although I did prefer your graphics of maps and troop movement over the actually TW gameplay. Everything seemed really professional and crisp. Congrats bud, you've definitely earned yourself another subscriber.

[u/Predator--]

680 ships and 290000 men

290000/680= a damn cramped ship

[u/theMoly]

Very interesting. Car. should have left the 3rd division escape and struck the Triarii from behind with their left flank.