The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mylae

an ancient city in northern Sicily, the present-day Milazzo.

In 260 B.C., during the First Punic War (264–241), the Roman fleet of 120 ships under the command of the consul Gaius Duilius gained its first naval victory over the Carthaginians with 130 ships off Mylae. A decisive role in the outcome of the battle was played by such Roman technical innovations as the corvus, or boarding hook. The Carthaginians lost 45 ships—14 were sunk and 31 were captured by the Romans. After the victory at Mylae, the Romans began military operations on African territory.

In 36 B.C., in a battle off Mylae, Octavian’s fleet under Marcus Agrippa won a victory over Sextus Pompey.

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References in periodicals archive

Eliot's 'The Wasteland refers in line 70 to the Battle of Mylae (260 BCE), a conflict in the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage.

Chivalry to the rescue: the dynamics of liberation in Don Quijote'

Principal battles: Porusia (Perugio) (41); Mylae (Milazzo), Naulochus (near Milazzo) (36); Actium (31).

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius (64-12 B.C.)

Cornelius Scipio Asina, who was captured by the Carthaginians off the Lipari islands (spring 260); aware of Roman naval deficiencies, he invented a combined grappling hook and boarding ramp, the corvus (crow), to maximize superior Roman skills in hand-to-hand fighting; led the fleet, equipped with the new weapon, into combat with the Carthaginian fleet off Mylae, and won a resounding victory over his surprised opponents (summer/autumn 260); celebrated the first naval triumph, during which the rostrum (beak), composed of captured bronze ship rams, was set up in the Forum; chosen censor (258) and later served as dictator to settle an electoral dispute (231).

Duilius (Duellius), Gaius (c. 300-c. 225 B.C.)

And when one person hails another on London Bridge as having been with him 'at Mylae,' how is the non-classical reader to guess that this is the name of a Punic sea-fight in which a Phoenician sailor, presumably, the speaker, had taken part?

Disciplining 'The Waste Land', or how to lead critics into temptation

Principal battles: Thapsus (46); Munda (probably Montilla in southern Spain) (45); Cumae, Messana (Messina), Mylae (Milazzo) (38); Naulochus (east of Milazzo) (36).

Pompeius Magnus Pius, Sextus (Sextus Pompey) (c. 67-35 B.C.)