The Islands in 218 B.C.

The Islands — Carthage.

What remained of Carthage’s island empire after Rome stripped away Sicily (241) and Sardinia (237): the Pityusae and the Balearics off the Spanish coast, and Malta in the central narrows. Small in land but vital at sea — naval stations on the trade lanes, and in the Balearic slingers the most feared light troops of the age. Even this remnant was shrinking: within months of the war’s outbreak a Roman squadron would seize Malta itself.