The arrangement was however still worse, by which the chief command of the fleet was treated as an appanage to the chief command of the land army, and any one who chanced to be president of the city thought himself able to act the part not of general only, but of admiral too.

The worst disasters which Rome suffered in this war were due not to the storms and still less to the Carthaginians, but to the presumptuous folly of its own citizen-admirals.
Rome was victorious at last.

But her acquiescence in a gain far less than had at first been demanded and indeed offered, as well as the energetic opposition which the peace encountered in Rome, very clearly indicate the indecisive and superficial character of the victory and of the peace; and if Rome was the victor, she was indebted for her victory in part no doubt to the favour of the gods and to the energy of her citizens, but still more to the errors of her enemies in the conduct of the war--errors far surpassing even her own.
Notes for Chapter II 1.II.

V.Campanian Hellenism 2.II.VII.Submission of Lower Italy 3.

The Mamertines entered quite into the same position towards Rome as the Italian communities, bound themselves to furnish ships (Cic.
Verr.v.19, 50), and, as the coins show, did not possess the right of coining silver.
4.II.VII.Submission of Lower Italy 5.II.VII.Last Struggles in Italy 6.