had been keeping and dashed them together in war. (Mai, p.178. Zonaras,
8, 8.)

2. ¶The conflict, according to report, concerned Messana and Sicily, but
in reality both parties perceived that from this region danger
threatened their native land, and they thought that the island, lying,
as it did, between them, would furnish to the side that conquered it a
safe base for operations against the other party. (Mai, p.179. Zonaras,
8, 8.)

[Sidenote: B.C. 264 (_a.u._ 490)] 3. ¶Gaius Claudius came to the meeting,
and among other remarks which he made to tempt them declared that the
object of his presence was to free the city, since the Romans had no
need of Messana; and that he would immediately sail away, as soon as he
should set their affairs in order. Next he bade the Carthaginians also
either to withdraw, or, if they had any just plea to offer, to submit
to arbitration. Now when not one of the Mamertines (by reason of fear)
opened his lips, and the Carthaginians since they were occupying the
city by force of arms paid little heed to him, he stated that the
silence on both sides afforded sufficient evidence: on the part of the
invaders it showed that they were in the wrong, for they would have
justified themselves if their purposes were at all honest, and on the
part of the Mamertines that they desired freedom; they might have been
quite free to speak, had they espoused the cause of the Carthaginians,
especially as there was a force of the latter present. Furthermore he
promised that he would aid them, both on account of their Italian origin
and on account of the request for assistance they had made. (Mai, p.179.
Zonaras, 8,8.)

4. ¶Gaius Claudius lost some of the triremes and with difficulty reached