For centuries, historians believed that any physical evidence of the pivotal Battle of the Aegates was long gone. Then came a chance discovery – which led to dozens of shipwrecks.
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Dentists are not normally known for changing history. And yet a dentist in Sicily has played a small part in rewriting the history of one of Europe's most important battles.
In the early 2000s, the late archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa was visiting the home of a dental surgeon in the town of Trapani when he noticed the bronze beak of a Roman ship, known as a rostrum, on full display. The dentist told him that it had come from a fisherman – who