Atilius was consul a second time in 250, with his patrician colleague being Lucius Manlius Vulso. In this year, the Romans gained a brilliant victory at Panormus, under the proconsul Lucius Caecilius Metellus. Thinking that the time had now come to bring the war to a conclusion, they sent both consuls to Sicily with an army of four legions and two hundred ships. Regulus and his colleague undertook the siege of Lilybaeum, the most important Carthaginian possession in Sicily; but they were foiled in their attempts to carry the place by storm and, after losing a great number of men, were obliged to turn the siege into a blockade.