 In the course of the Punic Wars Palermo was fought over by the Carthaginians and the Romans until, in 254 BC, the Roman fleet besieged the city.It eventually surrendered and the population had to pay a war tribute to save their liberty.Hasdrubal tried to take it back, but the Roman consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated him and imposed a lasting Roman rule over the town he knew as Panormus.