Ancient Greece, Late Classical Period, Second Sicilian War (410-367 BC): Carthage

In the western Mediterranean from 600 BC, rival claims led to wars between Etruscans, Carthaginians and Greeks. The Carthaginian Malchus (r.c.556-c.550 BC) won successes in Sicily, where the western end of the island remained in Carthaginian hands until the third century BC. For three centuries the Carthaginians and Greeks fought intermittently for the allegiance of the Elymians (west), Sicans (central) and Sicels (east). In 480 BC Hamilcar (1) was defeated and killed at Himera.

After Hamilcar’s death, the aristocracy in Carthage gradually assumed more control through a Council of Elders. For seventy years Carthage, although maintaining an interest in the northwest corner of the island around the towns of Motya and Panormus, it otherwise kept out of Sicilian affairs. In 410 BC Greek Selinus, an ally of Syracuse, reoccupied the disputed lands across the Mazaros River, and Elymian Segesta appealed to Carthage for assistance. The Carthaginian Council debated the matter at some length and eventually Hannibal (1) Mago (r.440-406 BC), grandson of Hamilcar (1), was authorised to aid Segesta by any means he considered necessary.

He sent five thousand African soldiers and eight hundred Italian mercenaries to Segesta. While the Selinus troops were plundering Segestan territory the reinforced army of Segesta inflicted almost a thousand casualties on the Greeks and they retreated back to Selinus. Segesta meanwhile, fearing retaliation by Syracuse, appealed to Carthage for further aid. 

Hannibal put together a much larger army of perhaps fifty thousand and in spring 409 BC landed at Motya, a long time Punic stronghold off the west coast of Sicily. At Selinus he set up six towers and put an equal number of iron-braced battering rams against the walls. The defences had fallen into disrepair and after nine days the walls were breached. A fierce hand-to-hand battle then ensued and on the ninth day when all resistance had finally ceased, six thousand Greeks had been made prisoner, three thousand soldiers had escaped to Acragas, while sixteen thousand Greeks had died in the battle and a subsequent massacre; only those who had sought shelter in the temples were spared.

Hannibal marched to Himera and set up his main camp on the west of the city, while about a third of the army encamped to the south of Himera. He dug tunnels under the walls, which he propped up with wooden supports and when these were set on fire a large section of the wall collapsed. Carthaginian infantry came through the gap but the Himerans repulsed the attack. The Syracusan general Diocles (fl.413-408 BC) arrived with reinforcements and together with the Himeran force attacked the Carthaginian line. At this point Hannibal launched a counterattack with his reserve force west of Himera, routing the Greeks and driving them into the city. Deciding that the city could not be saved, Diocles used the Syracusan ships at night to evacuate all his troops and half the population. The Carthaginians broke through the following day. Hannibal executed three thousand Greek prisoners, enslaved the women and children and destroyed the city (Himera was never rebuilt; a new city named Thermae was built nearby). Hannibal, apparently satisfied, disbanded his army, garrisoned the Punic territory and returned to Carthage with the fleet.

In summer 406 BC Hannibal (1) and his cousin Himilco (1) (r.406-396 BC) with an army of some 120,000 men landed at Motya in Sicily to attack the south coastal settlement of Greek Acragas. To augment their force of 10,000 troops the Acragantines hired 1500 Greek mercenaries under a Spartan, Dexippus. When Hannibal reached the city he built two fortified camps: a main camp west of the city; and a smaller camp east of the city, blocking the road to Gela. He opened the attack with two tall siege towers but when these were burned down during a night raid he built siege ramps up the city walls, but the attack faltered when a plague swept through the camp and carried away many men, including Hannibal himself.

Himilco now assumed command of the Punic army. At this point Daphnaeus of Syracuse arrived with 30,000 hoplites and 5000 cavalry. Himilco took the mercenaries in the eastern camp to intercept this army, while the main army stayed in their camp to keep the garrison of Acragas in check. A battle was joined and the Greeks managed to defeat the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians retreated past Acragas to their main camp; the siege had been lifted from the city, and the eastern camp of the Carthaginian army had fallen into Greek hands.

The Syracusans, who were now leading the resistance, organised a force to prevent food and supplies from reaching the Carthaginian camp. But a force of forty triremes, summoned from Panormus and Motya by Himilco, caught a Syracusan convoy off guard and captured an entire cargo of grain intended for Acragas. In December after an eight-month siege, faced with a dwindling food supply and no additional help, the citizens evacuated Acragas and marched east for Gela. Himilco occupied the city shortly after their departure.