__NOTOC__ Adherbal (, ; died 230BC), also known as Atarbas (, ''Atárbas''), was the admiral of the Carthaginian fleet which battled the Romans for domination of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

during the

First Punic War The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and grea ...

(264–241BC).

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

identified Adherbal during the Battle of Drepana as the Carthaginian commander-in-chief. He led the Carthaginian fleet to

Drepana Drepana () was an Elymians, Elymian, Carthaginian Empire, Carthaginian, and Roman Republic, Roman port in classical antiquity, antiquity on the western coast of Sicily. It was the site of Battle of Drepana, a crushing Roman defeat by the Carthage ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

and inflicted a crushing defeat on the

Roman consul The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

P. Claudius Pulcher during the naval battle in 249BC.

Battle of Drepana

Encouraged by previous victories, the new consul for 250 Gaius Atilius Regulus launched a campaign to attack the last Punic strongholds on the island of Sicily: Lilybaeum and Drepana. For this surprise attack, which was carried out in 249, the Romans mustered a fleet of 123 quinqueremes. Adherbal was tasked to defend Drepana with the assistance of Hannibal the Rhodian and Carthalo. In their desire for stealth, the Romans attacked at night causing them to lose their formation. Adherbal commanded the Punic fleet and immediately ordered his forces to set to sea when the straggling line of Roman galleys approached the shore by dawn. His defense cost the Romans 93 ships while Carthage lost nothing. Adherbal's conduct during the siege was documented by historians such as Polybius and Leonardo Bruni. The latter, for instance, described the admiral delivering an '' oratio obliqua'' before his forces as he led them to meet the Romans. He would later write that Adherbal "won great praise as the man who, by virtue of his courage and skill, restored to his fellow Carthaginians their lost reputation as a sea power."

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* . {{Famous Carthaginians Carthaginian commanders of the First Punic War Admirals 3rd-century BC births 230 BC deaths Year of birth unknown 3rd-century BC Punic people