The battle of Adys (or Adis) took place in late 255 BC during the First Punic War between a Carthaginian army jointly commanded by Bostar, Hamilcar and Hasdrubal and a Roman army led by Marcus Atilius Regulus. Earlier in the year, the new Roman navy had established naval superiority and used this advantage to invade the Carthaginian homeland, which roughly aligned with modern Tunisia in North Africa. After landing on the Cape Bon Peninsula and conducting a successful campaign, the fleet returned to Sicily, leaving Regulus with 15,500 men to hold the lodgement in Africa over the winter. Instead of holding his position, Regulus advanced towards the Carthaginian capital, Carthage. The Carthaginian army established itself on a rocky hill near Adys (modern Uthina) where Regulus was besieging the town. Regulus had his forces execute a night march to launch twin dawn assaults on the Carthaginians' fortified hilltop camp. One part of this force was repulsed and pursued down the hill. The other part then charged the pursuing Carthaginians in the rear and routed them in turn. At this the Carthaginians remaining in the camp panicked and fled. The Romans advanced to and captured Tunis, only from Carthage. Despairing, the Carthaginians sued for peace. The terms offered by Regulus were so harsh that Carthage resolved to fight on. A few months later, at the battle of the Bagradas River (battle of Tunis), Regulus was defeated and his army all but wiped out. The war continued for a further 14 years. Primary sources The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War is the historian Polybius ( – ), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. His works include a manual on military tactics, no longer extant but he is now known for The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC, or about a century after the battle of Adys. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral between the Carthaginian and Roman points of view. The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years but the modern consensus is to accept it largely at face value and the details of the war in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. The historian Andrew Curry sees Polybius as being "fairly reliable"; while Dexter Hoyos describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". Other, later, ancient