1While the war on land had come to a standstill at the Trebia, meanwhile operations had been carried out by land and sea around Sicily and the islands lying off Italy, both by the consul Sempronius and before his arrival. 2Twenty quinqueremes with a thousand armed men had been sent by the Carthaginians to lay waste the coast of Italy; 2nine reached the Lipari islands, eight the island of Vulcan, and three the current carried off into the strait. 3When these were sighted, twelve ships were sent from Messana by Hiero, king of the Syracusans, who happened to be at Messana at the time awaiting the Roman consul, and they captured the ships without resistance and brought them into the harbour at Messana.
4It was learned from the prisoners that, besides the twenty ships sent to Italy, to which fleet they themselves belonged, thirty-five other quinqueremes were making for Sicily to stir up their old allies; 5their chief concern was to seize Lilybaeum; 5they believed that this fleet too had been driven to the Aegates islands by the same storm by which they themselves had been scattered. 6The king writes all this, just as it had been heard, to Marcus Aemilius the praetor, whose province Sicily was, and warns him to hold Lilybaeum with a strong garrison. 7At once envoys and tribunes were sent round the communities by the praetor to rouse their people to vigilance in keeping guard, and above all Lilybaeum was held in readiness for war, an edict being posted that the naval allies should bring cooked rations for ten days to the ships, so that, when the signal was given, nothing should delay their embarking; 8and men were sent along the whole coast to look out from watch-posts for the approach of the enemy fleet.
9And so, although the Carthaginians had deliberately so regulated the course of their ships as to approach Lilybaeum before dawn, they were nevertheless detected in advance, because the moon shone all night and they came with their sails set: at once the signal was given from the watch-posts, the call to arms rang through the town, and the men went aboard the ships; 10some of the soldiers were on the walls and at the posts by the gates, some on the ships. 11The Carthaginians too, since they saw that they would be dealing with men far from unprepared, kept away from the harbour until daylight, spending that time in taking down their rigging and fitting out the fleet for battle.
12When day broke, they drew the fleet back into open water, so that there might be room for battle and the enemy's ships might have a free exit from the harbour. 13Nor did the Romans decline the fight, trusting both in the memory of deeds done around those very places and in the number and courage of their soldiers.