C. 509, 348, 306, and 279.
It is said that when Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was about to leave
Sicily, he exclaimed: "What a grand arena [Footnote: _Arena_ in
Latin meant "sand," and as the central portions of the amphitheatres
were strewn with sand to absorb the blood of the fighting gladiators
and beasts, an arena came to mean, as at present, any open, public
place for an exhibition. To the ancients, however, it brought to mind
the desperate combats to which the thousands of spectators were wont to
pay wrapt attention, and it was a much more vivid word than it now is.]
this would be for Rome and Carthage to contend upon!" It did not
require the wisdom of an oracle to suggest that such a contest would
come at some time, for the rich island lay just between the two cities,
apparently ready to be grasped by the more enterprising or the
stronger. As Carthage saw the gradual extension of Roman authority over
Southern Italy, she realized that erelong the strong arm would reach
out too far in the direction of the African continent. She was,
accordingly, on her guard, as she needed to be.
At about the time of the beginning of the war with Pyrrhus, a band of
soldiers from Campania, which had been brought to Sicily, took
possession of the town of Messana, a place on the eastern end of the
island not far from the celebrated rocks Scylla and Charybdis, opposite
Rhegium.
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