Both Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus wrote that the Carthaginians initiated negotiations. They offered a large sum of money. In Plutarch's account, they also offered ships. According to Diodorus Siculus, Pyrrhus refused to accept money and was persuaded to concede Lilybaeum to the Carthaginians. However, his friends and the delegates from the Greek cities urged him not to "grant a stepping-stone for an attack on Sicily, but rather to drive the Phoenicians out of the entire island and to make the sea the boundary of his domain." Plutarch did not mention Pyrrhus being swayed by his friends and the delegates of the cities. In his version, Pyrrhus rejected the offer because he wanted "to pursue the ambitions for which he had left home in the beginning and set his heart on Libya." In other words, Pyrrhus wanted to conquer Carthage, which was in what the Greeks called Libya (Plutarch was Greek) and the Romans called Africa. In Diodorus Siculus’ account, the negotiations occurred during the siege of Lilybaeum. After this Pyrrhus engaged in skirmishes near the city walls. The Carthaginians resisted effectively because of the size of their forces and because they had so many catapults that there was not enough room for all of them on the city walls. Many of the men of Pyrrhus were killed and he was at a disadvantage. Pyrrhus set out to build war engines which were more powerful than those he brought from Syracuse. However, the Carthaginian resistance continued, favoured by the rocky terrain. After two months he gave up the siege. Pyrrhus then bent his efforts towards building a large fleet to transport his troops to Africa after he gained mastery of the sea.