The 

Battle of the Aegates was a naval battle fought on 10 March 241 BCE between the fleets
of Carthage and Rome during the First Punic War. It took place among the Aegates Islands, off the
western coast of the island of Sicily. The Carthaginians were commanded by Hanno, and the Romans
were under the overall authority of Gaius Lutatius Catulus, but Quintus Valerius Falto commanded
during the battle. It was the final and deciding battle of the 23-year-long First Punic War.

The Roman army had been blockading the Carthaginians in their last strongholds on the west coast of
Sicily for several years. Almost bankrupt, the Romans borrowed money to build a naval fleet, which
they used to extend the blockade to the sea. The Carthaginians assembled a larger fleet which they
intended to use to run supplies into Sicily. It would then embark much of the Carthaginian army
stationed there as marines. It was intercepted by the Roman fleet and in a hard-fought battle, the
better-trained Romans defeated the undermanned and ill-trained Carthaginian fleet, which was further
handicapped by being laden with supplies and having not yet embarked its full complement of marines.
As a direct result, Carthage sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Lutatius, by which Carthage
surrendered Sicily to Rome and paid substantial reparations. Henceforth Rome was the leading military
power in the western Mediterranean, and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole.