Marcus Atilius Regulus

Who was Marcus Atilius Regulus?

Marcus Atilius Regulus was a Roman statesman and general who was a consul of the Roman Republic in 267 BC and 256 BC.

Regulus first became consul in 267 BC, where he fought the Messapians. Elected as a consul again in 256 BC, he served as a general in the First Punic War, where he defeated the Carthaginians in a naval battle at Cape Ecnomus near Sicily and invaded North Africa, winning victories at Aspis and Adys, until he was defeated and captured at Tunis in 255 BC. After he was released on parole to negotiate a peace, he is supposed to have urged the Roman Senate to refuse the proposals and then, over the protests of his own people, to have fulfilled the terms of his parole by returning to Carthage, where, according to Roman tradition, he was tortured to death. He was posthumously seen by the Romans as a model of civic virtue.