Phintias founds the city of Licata on the site of archaic settlements on the right bank of the Salso in 282 BCE, who named it for himself, razing the city of Gela and resettling its population at his new settlement.

Phintias lays it out on a great scale, with its walls, temples, and agora.

As late as the first century BCE, inscriptions and coins show that the inhabitants retained the name Geloi.

The Roman Republic, in order to initiate its invasion of Africa, constructs a major fleet, comprising transports for the army and its equipment, and warships for protection.

Carthage attempts to intervene with a fleet of three hundred and fifty ships (according to Polybius), but is defeated in 256 by Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus and Marcus Atilius Regulus in the Battle of Cape Ecnomus off the southern coast of Sicily.