Did Rome win the First Punic War By building a navy and establishing superior naval tactics to counter the hitherto dominant Carthaginian fleet?

Answer 1

Yes , that was exactly what happened . Despite all the effort on land, it was the fighting at sea that decided the outcome of the war. At the start of the war, Carthage was by far the greater naval power, with what was probably close to a standing navy, while Rome herself had no navy, instead relying on those of her allies that had a naval tradition. It was these allies that provided the navy used to transport the first Roman army to Sicily in 264. Only in 260 did Rome decide to build her own fleet, of 120 ships. These ships were said to be copied from a captured Carthaginian ship, and the higher individual performance of Carthage's ships was probably due to the superior quality of their crews. The bulk of the ships on both sides were quinqueremes, or 'fives', probably with three banks or oars. The main tactic of naval warfare at this point was the boarding attack, after which marines crossed over to fight on the target galley, probably in part explaining why the Romans did so well. These ships had a very large crew, in the Roman case some 300 men plus marines, resulting in the very large numbers of men present at some of the naval battles of the war. The new Roman fleets were to win a series of great naval victories, but suffer a shocking level of losses to storm and wreck .