Editing Punic Wars (section)

====Roman victory, 243–241 BC====
After more than 20 years of war, both states were financially and demographically exhausted.{{sfn|Bringmann|2007|p=127}} Evidence of Carthage's financial situation includes their request for a 2,000-talent loan{{#tag:ref|Several different "talents" are known from antiquity. The ones referred to in this article are all Euboic (or Euboeic) talents, of approximately {{convert|26|kg|lb}}.{{sfn|Lazenby|1996|p=158}}{{sfn|Scullard|2006|p=565}} 2,000 talents was approximately {{convert|51|lt|kg|order=flip|abbr=off}} of silver.{{sfn|Lazenby|1996|p=158}}|group=note}} from [[Ptolemaic Egypt]], which was refused.{{sfn|Bagnall|1999|p=92}}{{sfn|Miles|2011|p=193}} Rome was also close to [[Sovereign default|bankruptcy]] and the number of adult male citizens, who provided the manpower for the navy and the legions, had declined by 17 per cent since the start of the war.{{sfn|Bagnall|1999|p=91}} Goldsworthy describes Roman manpower losses as "appalling".{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=131}}

The Romans rebuilt their fleet again in 243{{spaces}}BC after the Senate approached Rome's wealthiest citizens for loans to finance the construction of one ship each, repayable from the [[War reparations|reparations]] to be imposed on Carthage once the war was won.{{sfn|Lazenby|1996|p=49}} This new fleet effectively blockaded the Carthaginian garrisons.{{sfn|Scullard|2006|p=565}} Carthage assembled a fleet which attempted to relieve them, but it was destroyed at the [[battle of the Aegates Islands]] in 241{{spaces}}BC,{{sfn|Miles|2011|p=196}}{{sfn|Bagnall|1999|p=96}} forcing the cut-off Carthaginian troops on Sicily to negotiate for peace.{{sfn|Scullard|2006|p=565}}{{sfn|Lazenby|1996|p=157}} The [[Treaty of Lutatius]] was agreed by which Carthage paid 3,200 talents of silver{{#tag:ref|3,200 talents was approximately {{convert|81|lt|kg|order=flip|abbr=in}} of silver.{{sfn|Lazenby|1996|p=158}}|group=note}} in reparations and [[Sicilia (Roman province)|Sicily was annexed]] as the first [[Roman province]].{{sfn|Miles|2011|p=196}} Polybius regarded the war as "the longest, most continuous and most severely contested war known to us in history".{{sfn|Scullard|2002|p=178}} Henceforth Rome considered itself the leading military power in the western Mediterranean and increasingly the Mediterranean region as a whole. {{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|pp=128–129, 357, 359–360}}