Dionysian Wars (398-367 BC)
The First Dionysian War (398-396 BC) began when Dionysius marched westwards along the southern coast for Motya. The Greeks cities made tributary by the earlier treaty rebelled, killed Carthaginian residents and sent soldiers to join Dionysius. Sicels, Sicans and the city of Messana also sent contingents. By the time he reached Motya, his army had swelled to eighty thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, along with a fleet of two hundred warships and five hundred transports carrying his supplies and war machines. He sent his navy under his brother Leptines to blockade Motya, and himself moved with the army to Eryx, which surrendered to him.
The Phoenician city of Motya was situated on a small island about one kilometre off the west coast of Sicily to which it was joined by an artificial mole. Motya itself was surrounded by a wall that rose to a height of eight to nine metres. Lack of space had compelled the citizens to construct houses often six floors high, which towered over the walls.
The citizens had cut up the mole, so the Greeks beached their warships and set about rebuilding it. Once the mole was completed, Dionysius set forward his siege towers, which equalled the height of the tallest buildings in the city. A storm of arrows and missiles cleared the wall of defenders then battering rams were brought up and forced the gates. As the Greek troops advanced, the Phoenicians launched a storm of missiles from the rooftops and houses and took a heavy toll on the attackers. Dionysius sent a picked group under cover of darkness to take hold of the positions before the Phoenicians realised what was happening. The weight of numbers was then enough to overcome all resistance.
The siege of Motya occupied nearly all the summer. Dionysius left a Sicel force to garrison Motya, and one hundred and twenty ships under Leptines to watch for the arrival of a force from Carthage. The rest of the fleet he sent back to Syracuse, while he himself went on to besiege Segesta and Entella. The operations against these two towns met with little success and the Segestaeans even successfully mounted a night attack in which they burnt down most of the enemy tents. Although few perished in the flames, all of the cavalry horses were lost.
In spring 397 BC Himilco led an army of fifty thousand men, four hundred triremes and six hundred transports to Sicily. He reached Panormus, recaptured Eryx then went on to recapture Motya and to found Lilybaeum. Dionysius, not wanting to confront the superior Carthaginian force, fell back to Syracuse. Leptines and the Greek fleet after sinking fifty enemy transports probably returned to Selinus.
Himilco, supported by his fleet, marched along the north coast to Cape Pelorus at the narrowest part of the strait, a few kilometres north of Messana. The walls of Messana had fallen into disrepair so the men marched north to confront the Carthaginians near their encampment. Himilco decided to outflank them and instructed his fleet to attack the undefended city directly. After taking control of the harbour the Carthaginians stormed the city, which fell quickly. Most of the Greeks managed to escape to the various fortresses nearby.
Himilco marched south and at the foot of Mount Taurus he founded Tauromenium on an existing settlement. After populating it with allied Sicels and fortifying it to serve as a future base, he continued his march southwards along the coast with his fleet sailing alongside. An eruption of Mount Etna forced him to take his army on a detour inland, while Mago (2) (r.396-377 BC) with the fleet continued on to Catana. Hearing that Himilco had divided his forces, Dionysius moved his army to Catana to engage the Carthaginian fleet. Although the Greek fleet was outnumbered, their ships were larger and heavier, and carried more troops. Leptines charged headlong into the opposing line and at first carried all before him, but the Carthaginians’ boarding tactics favoured by their greater numbers eventually won them the victory. The Greeks lost over twenty thousand men and a hundred ships.
With Mago now threatening to continue south with his fleet and attack and capture Syracuse, Dionysius returned to defend the city. When Himilco and his army arrived at Syracuse they moved round the Epipolae Plateau to the low ground south of the city and built a camp in the Polichana area next to the Great Harbour, where his fleet could land soldiers and supplies. Forts were built at Dascon and Plemyrium to safeguard the main camp and provide safer anchorage for his ships. Syracuse’s defences were very strong so Himilco completed his arrangements for the siege then went to winter quarters. Polyxenus, brother-in-law to both Dionysius and Hermocrates, was sent to Italy and Greece to gain assistance, and returned to Syracuse with thirty ships commanded by the Spartan Pharacidas.
In the summer of 396 BC plague broke out among the Carthaginian troops. Dionysius took advantage of the situation by launching an attack. His army captured the forts at Dascon and Polichana, while his fleet commanded by Leptines and Pharacidas launched a successful attack on the enemy ships at Dascon Bay. Himilco abandoned the siege and with a fraction of his army escaped to Carthage where he accepted full responsibility for the debacle and committed suicide.
After the war Dionysius began to re-establish his position in east Sicily. He settled ten thousand of his mercenaries in Leontini, established Locrians in Messana, and founded Tyndaris nearby for Messenian refugees from Greece. In 395/4 BC he campaigned successfully against the Sicels. In winter 394 BC Dionysius made an unsuccessful attack on Tauromenium, after which Messana and Acragas defected from him.
The Second Dionysian War (393-392 BC) began with Mago landing in Sicily with another invasion force. He collected whatever forces he could and set out for Messana. Shortly after leaving Messana he was intercepted and heavily defeated near Abacaenum by Dionysius, and had to retreat to western Sicily. In 392 BC Mago attacked central Italy. When he reached the Chrysas River, the Sicels harassed the Carthaginian supply lines, while the Greek soldiers (preferring short campaigns) deserted Dionysius when he chose to wait. With neither side wanting a battle, a peace treaty was agreed that gave the Carthaginians the area west of the Mazaros River.
Peace with Carthage enabled Dionysius to embark on a conquest of the Greeks of southern Italy, who sometime during the second half of the fifth century BC had formed the Italiote League. Dionysius allied himself with the Lucanians and when he laid siege to Caulonia the league sent their army of 27,000 under the leadership of the Syracusan exile Heloris to oppose him. The two sides met at the Elleporus River, about twenty kilometres east of Caulonia. Heloris appears to have been unaware of the presence of the enemy. At dawn Dionysius attacked and took the Italians by surprise. Heloris was killed and over 10,000 prisoners were taken. Dionysius spared his captives, concluded peace with the cities and left them independent. In 387 BC he provoked a breach of the settlement and laid siege to Rhegium. In 386 BC, after almost a year, starvation forced Rhegium’s surrender and its citizens were sold into slavery.
In 385/4 BC to improve his supplies of timber, horses and mercenaries, he extended his power into the Adriatic. Wanting a friendly monarch in Epirus, he sent troops to help the Illyrians under Bardylis of Dardania (c.90; r.393-358 BC) to restore Alcetas-I of Epirus (r.390*370 BC), then in exile at Syracuse. Fifteen thousand Molossians were killed and Alcetas regained his throne. Sparta intervened to expel the Illyrians, but Alcetas retained his throne and opened the ports of Epirus to the ships of Dionysius.
The Third Dionysian War (383-c.375 BC) began when Dionysius tried to raise the states of west Sicily and provoked Carthage to declare war. Mago delivered an offensive in Sicily, and also Italy where he formed an alliance with the remnants of the Italiote League in Calabria. Dionysius attacked Thurii and managed to take Croton (379 BC), establishing his control of Calabria. In 377 BC his forces heavily defeated the Carthaginians and killed their king Mago (2) in a great battle fought on an open plain at Cabala in central Sicily. However, in the following year Dionysius lost his army and his brother Leptines to Mago (3) (r.377-344 BC) and the Carthaginians at Cronium. Peace was made with Carthage extending her domain to the Halycus River
The Fourth Dionysian War (368-367 BC) began with Dionysius capturing Selinus, Eryx and Entella, and besieging Lilybaeum, which had replaced Motya as the Carthaginians’ main western base. However, when the Carthaginians made a surprise attack on Dionysius’ naval base at Drepanum, he lost most of the one hundred and thirty triremes that he kept in the west. A truce was concluded in the winter, and in 367 BC Dionysius died a natural death. His son Dionysius II (c.54; r.367*344; d.343 BC) made peace with Carthage on the previous terms, i.e. with the border set at the Halycus River.
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