Battle of Drepana
{'<entity_0>': 'Battle of Drepana', '<entity_1>': 'First Punic War', '<entity_2>': 'Carthage', '<entity_3>': 'Drepana', '<entity_4>': 'Trapani', '<entity_5>': 'Sicily', '<entity_6>': '248 BC', '<entity_7>': 'Roman Republic', '<entity_8>': 'west'}
[['Battle of Drepana', 'location', 'Trapani'], ['Trapani', 'direction relative to location', 'west'], ['Battle of Drepana', 'point in time', '248 BC'], ['Battle of Drepana', 'location', 'Sicily'], ['Battle of Drepana', 'location', 'Drepana'], ['Battle of Drepana', 'location', 'Roman Republic'], ['Battle of Drepana', 'location', 'Carthage'], ['Battle of Drepana', 'part of', 'First Punic War']]
The naval <entity_0> (or Drepanum) took place in 249 BC during the <entity_1> near <entity_3> (modern <entity_4>) in western <entity_5>, between a Carthaginian fleet under Adherbal and a <entity_7> fleet commanded by Publius Claudius Pulcher. It was <entity_2>'s greatest naval victory of the war; they turned to the maritime offensive after <entity_3> and all but swept the Romans from the sea. It was seven years before <entity_7> again attempted to field a substantial fleet, while <entity_2> put most of its ships into reserve to save money and free up manpower. The main source for almost every aspect of the <entity_1> is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c.118 BC), a Greek sent to <entity_7> in 167 BC as a hostage. Carthaginian written records were destroyed along with their capital, <entity_2>, in 146 BC and so Polybius's account of the <entity_1> is based on several, now-lost, Greek and Latin sources. In 264 BC the states of <entity_2> and <entity_7> went to war, starting the <entity_1>. <entity_2> was a well-established maritime power in the western Mediterranean; <entity_7> had recently unified mainland Italy south of the River Arno under its control. <entity_7>'s expansion into southern Italy probably made it inevitable that it would eventually clash with <entity_2> over <entity_5> on some pretext. During 252 and 251 BC the <entity_7> army avoided battle, according to Polybius because they feared the war elephants which the Carthaginians had shipped to <entity_5>. Early in the blockade, 50 Carthaginian quinqueremes gathered off the Aegates Islands, which lie 15–40 kilometres (9–25 mi) to the <entity_8> of <entity_5>. Pulcher, the senior consul, supported by a council of war, believed these gave him sufficient advantage to risk an attack on the Carthaginian fleet at <entity_3>, 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of Lilybaeum along the <entity_8> coast of <entity_5>. Meanwhile, Adherbal led his fleet past the confused <entity_7> vanguard and continued <entity_8>, passing between the city and two small islands to reach the open sea. The Carthaginians further exploited their victory by raiding, ineffectively, the coasts of <entity_7> Italy in <entity_6>. The absence of <entity_7> fleets then led <entity_2> to gradually decommission her navy, reducing the financial strain of building, maintaining and repairing ships, and providing and provisioning their crews. It was seven years after <entity_3> before <entity_7> attempted to build another substantial fleet.
['naval battle']