Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE)
E538380
The Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) was a major First Punic War campaign in which Roman forces crossed into Carthaginian territory, won initial victories, but ultimately suffered a disastrous defeat that halted their early attempts to end the war quickly.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) canonical | 1 |
| Roman invasion of Africa in 256 BC | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5655563 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) Context triple: [First Punic War, notableEvent, Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE)]
-
A.
Vandal conquest of North Africa (439 CE)
The Vandal conquest of North Africa in 439 CE was a pivotal event in which the Vandals seized the wealthy Roman provinces around Carthage, severely weakening Western Rome’s economic and military power and hastening its collapse.
-
B.
Vandalic War in North Africa
The Vandalic War in North Africa was a 6th-century Byzantine campaign under Emperor Justinian I that reconquered the Vandal Kingdom and restored imperial control over key western Mediterranean territories.
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C.
Roman North Africa
Roman North Africa was a prosperous region of the Roman Empire in the Maghreb, known for its major cities like Carthage and Hippo and for being a center of early Latin Christianity.
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D.
Roman siege of Carthage
The Roman siege of Carthage was the brutal, years-long assault (149–146 BC) in which Rome captured and destroyed the North African city of Carthage, ending the Third Punic War and Carthaginian power.
-
E.
Muslim conquest of North Africa
The Muslim conquest of North Africa was the 7th–8th century expansion of early Islamic caliphates across the Maghreb, bringing much of the region under Arab-Muslim political and religious influence.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) Target entity description: The Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) was a major First Punic War campaign in which Roman forces crossed into Carthaginian territory, won initial victories, but ultimately suffered a disastrous defeat that halted their early attempts to end the war quickly.
-
A.
Vandal conquest of North Africa (439 CE)
The Vandal conquest of North Africa in 439 CE was a pivotal event in which the Vandals seized the wealthy Roman provinces around Carthage, severely weakening Western Rome’s economic and military power and hastening its collapse.
-
B.
Vandalic War in North Africa
The Vandalic War in North Africa was a 6th-century Byzantine campaign under Emperor Justinian I that reconquered the Vandal Kingdom and restored imperial control over key western Mediterranean territories.
-
C.
Roman North Africa
Roman North Africa was a prosperous region of the Roman Empire in the Maghreb, known for its major cities like Carthage and Hippo and for being a center of early Latin Christianity.
-
D.
Roman siege of Carthage
The Roman siege of Carthage was the brutal, years-long assault (149–146 BC) in which Rome captured and destroyed the North African city of Carthage, ending the Third Punic War and Carthaginian power.
-
E.
Muslim conquest of North Africa
The Muslim conquest of North Africa was the 7th–8th century expansion of early Islamic caliphates across the Maghreb, bringing much of the region under Arab-Muslim political and religious influence.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
event in the First Punic War
ⓘ
military campaign ⓘ |
| belligerent |
Carthage
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Roman Republic NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| cause |
Roman desire to break Carthaginian power at its source
ⓘ
Roman strategic decision to carry the war into Africa ⓘ |
| commander |
Hamilcar (Carthaginian general in Africa)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus NERFINISHED ⓘ Marcus Atilius Regulus NERFINISHED ⓘ Xanthippus of Sparta NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| conflictBetween |
Carthaginian Republic
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Roman Republic NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| endTime | 255 BCE ⓘ |
| followedBy |
Roman focus on Sicily after failure in Africa
ⓘ
renewed naval warfare in the First Punic War ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Battle of Adys
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Battle of Bagradas River (255 BCE) NERFINISHED ⓘ Battle of Cape Ecnomus NERFINISHED ⓘ Battle of Tunis NERFINISHED ⓘ Roman evacuation from Africa ⓘ Roman landing in Africa ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | 3rd century BCE ⓘ |
| involved |
Roman consular army
ⓘ
Roman fleet ⓘ |
| location |
Africa
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Carthaginian territory ⓘ |
| militaryTheater | North African theater of the First Punic War NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor |
decisive Carthaginian counterattack under Xanthippus
ⓘ
initial Roman victories on African soil ⓘ large-scale Roman amphibious operation ⓘ |
| objective |
end the First Punic War rapidly
ⓘ
force Carthage to surrender quickly ⓘ |
| opponent |
Carthaginian citizen army
ⓘ
Carthaginian mercenary forces ⓘ |
| outcome |
capture of Marcus Atilius Regulus
ⓘ
failure of early Roman attempt to end the war ⓘ heavy Roman losses in men and ships ⓘ |
| partOf | First Punic War NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| precededBy | Roman naval victory at Cape Ecnomus ⓘ |
| result |
Carthaginian victory
ⓘ
Roman invasion repelled ⓘ |
| startTime | 256 BCE ⓘ |
| strategicConsequence |
demonstrated limits of Roman land operations in Africa at that time
ⓘ
encouraged Carthage to continue resistance in the First Punic War ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) Description of subject: The Roman invasion of Africa (256–255 BCE) was a major First Punic War campaign in which Roman forces crossed into Carthaginian territory, won initial victories, but ultimately suffered a disastrous defeat that halted their early attempts to end the war quickly.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Roman invasion of Africa in 256 BC