Why was Sicily so important to Rome and Carthage in 264 BC

Carthagehad a large trading network around the western basin of the Mediterranean andalso traded goods from this part of this sea to the eastern Mediterranean.Sicily was important to them because partly because of its strategic location. It lies between the western and eastern Mediterranean,which helps to control the routes between them. Tunisia, which is whereCarthage was, also had a similar strategic position, but Sicily was furthernorth and closer to Italy, southern France and the Balearic Islands. Carthage’sfive ports in western Sicily also provided a link with Sardinia and Corsica,which belonged to Carthage. Moreover, Sicily had good agricultural land. Theimportance of Sicily for the Romans at the outset of the war is not clear. Thereasons for sending an army to Sicily are not clear either. Rome controlledcentral and southern Italy, including Calabria, which is next door and only two miles from Sicily. However she did not have trading networks around the westernMediterranean, hardly had a navy to speak of and did not look beyond Italy.Therefore, Sicily did not have a great strategic importance for them at thattime. We are told that the senate was reluctant to get involved in Sicily. Manysenators did not want to intervene to help the Mamertine mercenaries becausethey had seized the city of Messana (Messina) unlawfully and mistreated itspopulation. The debate in the senate reached impasse. The matter was thenpassed to the vote of the assembly of the soldiers, which could vote on war andpeace. It voted for war. We are not told clearly why. It has been speculatedthat the soldiers were keen on war booty or that commercial interests influencedthe vote as Sicily had rich agricultural land. When Rome won the war itbenefited from the island strategic position and her agricultural riches. Bythen it also had a large navy and she started to look beyond Italy.