Battle of Alalia
| Battle of Alalia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Map of the Tyrrhenian Sea surrounded by Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Phocaeans |
Etruscans Carthage | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 60 Pentekonters | Around 120 Ships | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Almost 40 Pentekonters lost; rams of the surviving ships severely damaged. | Unknown | ||||||||
The naval Battle of Alalia took place between 540 BC and 535 BC off the coast of Corsica between Greeks and the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians. A Greek force of 60 Phocaean ships defeated a Punic-Etruscan fleet of 120 ships while emigrating to the western Mediterranean and the nearby colony of Alalia (now Aléria). It was nonetheless, in the words of Herodotus, a cadmean victory (a victory involving one's own ruin) which benefited the Etruscans and Carthaginians.