Appius Claudius Caudex

Appius Claudius caudex was a member of the Roman patrician family of the Claudian. He was the grandson of Appius Claudius Caecus and consul in the year 264 BC

He pulled the Republic to the question of the possession of Sicily in the conflict with Carthage into it. In 265 BC, Hiero II of Syracuse had attacked Messina to remove the city's Mamertines, mercenaries from Campania, they had conquered a few years earlier. The Mamertines allied then with a lying near the Carthaginian fleet, and together they fought off the Syracusans. When the Carthaginians but not left the city after this success again, the Mamertines turned in the year 264 BC in Rome.

Some senators were not willing to help them, but Appius Claudius convinced the residents to support them. He led an army to Messina, and since the Mamertines the Carthaginians had persuaded to withdraw, he met before the city only little resistance. The Mamertines they gave Appius Claudius, the Romans moved, then looked but besieged, when the Carthaginians returned and resumed their blockade again. Then, when the Syracusans also homed outside the city, Appius Claudius sent ambassadors in both camps, but was rejected. Then he brought his troops from the city, beat Syracuse in a battle, which Hiero prompting to retire, as the next day the Carthaginians.

This conflict was one of the immediate causes of the First Punic War.