Battle of Catana (397 BC)
| Battle of Catana (397 BC) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The Sicilian Wars | |||||||||
 Punic Victory at Catana 397 BC. Political boundaries and path of troop movement are inexact because of lack of primary source data. Source map created by Marco Prins-Jona Lendering |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Syracuse Sicilian Greeks |
Carthage | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Leptines of Syracuse | Mago | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 180 ships, mostly Quinqueremes | 300 Triremes, 200 Transports | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 100 ships sunk/captured, 20,000 sailors drowned/captured | light | ||||||||
The Battle of Catana took place in the summer of 397 BC. The Greek fleet under Leptines, the brother of Dionysius I of Syracuse, engaged the Carthaginian fleet under Mago near the city of Catana in Sicily. While the Greek army under Dionysius was present near the city of Catana during the battle, the Carthaginian army under Himilco was away in the interior of Sicily, making a detour around the erupting Mt. Etna. The Carthaginian fleet crushed the Greek fleet in the battle, which ultimately led to the siege of Syracuse by the Carthaginians later in 397 BC.
Carthage had invaded Sicily in 406 BC in retaliation of Greek raids on Phoenician lands. The expedition, first commanded by Hannibal Mago, and, after the battle of Akragas, by his kinsman Himilco, had managed to capture and sack the cities of Akragas, Gela and Camarina by the summer of 405. These defeats had caused political turmoil in Syracuse, and had ultimately brought Dionysius I of Syracuse to power as tyrant. Himilco and Dionysius signed a peace treaty to end the conflict in 405 BC, which had left Carthage in direct or indirect control of 3/5th of Sicily. The Sicels and the cities of Messina and Leontini were left independent while Dionysius was acknowledged as the ruler of Syracuse by Carthage.
Between 405 BC and 398 BC, Dionysius set about securing his political position and increasing the military might of Syracuse. He broke the treaty in 404 BC by starting a war with the Sicels. While Carthage did nothing, Dionysius was put in a difficult position by a revolt in his army, which managed to besiege Dionysius in Syracuse. Fortune and incompetence of his enemies had helped Dionysius to ultimately emerge triumphant from this crisis. Dionysius then enlarged his territory by conquering and sacking the cities of Naxos and Catana, and annexing Leontini. He hired mercenaries and enlarged his fleet building 200 new ships. The city of Syracuse was fortified, with Dionysius making the island of Ortygia (where the original city of Syracuse stood) into a fortress and encompassing the whole of Epipolae Platue by massive walls. He hired workmen to create new weapons like the Catapult and new ships like the Quinquereme. In 398 BC, Dionysius attacked the Phoenician city of Motya in Western Sicily with an army of 80,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, along with a fleet of 200 warships and 500 transports carrying his supplies and war machines.
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