Quintus Lutatius Catulus

Quintus Lutatius Catulus served as consul in 242 BCE and was given command of a newly built Roman fleet. In 241 BCE he intercepted a Carthaginian fleet carrying supplies and reinforcements to the besieged city of Lilybaeum off the Egadi Islands, winning a decisive naval victory that broke Carthaginian resistance and ended the First Punic War after 23 years of fighting. He was awarded a triumph. In the political conflicts of the late Republic he was a leader of the Optimate faction and an enemy of Marius; when Marius and Cinna captured Rome in 87 BCE, Catulus was proscribed and forced to commit suicide.

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