According to the Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis (c.200-c.118), the First Punic War (264-241) between Carthage and Rome was “the longest and most severely contested war in history”. And indeed, it lasted almost a quarter of a century and probably, a million people lost their lives. In the end, Rome had conquered the island of Sicily, and had become a Mediterranean superpower. On this website, you can find the story of the First Punic War as it is told in the first book of Polybius’ World History: