Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Tunis (First Punic War).

Fought B.C. 255 between 15,000 Romans, under Regulus, and 16,000 Carthaginians, of whom 4,000 were cavalry, with 100 elephants, under Xanthippus, the Spartan. The Romans were broken by a cavalry charge, and their rout was completed by the elephants, and all but 2,500 fell on the field. Regulus was captured, and Tunis at once occupied by the Carthaginians.