A note on names.
Carthage, much like Rome, had only a short list of personal names (e.g. Hannibal, Mago, Hasdrabul) and so many of these characters will share names. Wherever possible I shall give surnames, however when that is impossible I shall define them by some notable trait (e.g. Hamilcar the Great, etc.) I know it's confusing, but just bear with it.
The First Punic War proper began in 264 BC when Appius Claudius Caudex and his two legions disembarked at Messina and defeated the Carthaginian and Syracusean forces besieging the city. The Mamertine rebels who controlled the city pledged allegiance to Rome and Claudius then marched south on Syracuse. When faced with two legions coming towards them, the Sycracuseans were split. Some wanted to surrender, others wanted to fight and wait for relief. Those in favour of surrendering said that Rome would interfere in their affairs less than Carthage, and that Syracuse should use this opportunity to drive Carthage from Sicily forever.
Those opposed to surrender, however, were led by Kleomenes, who made an impassioned speech before the Assembly. He compared Claudius to Phillip of Macedon, and said that the people of Syracuse should not swap one imperial foe for another. He said that Syracuse should ally with Carthage for the time being, just as they had done against the Mamertines, to preserve the status quo on Sicily and, once the Italians were gone, to pursue war with Carthage once more. This prompted one leading Syracusean to exclaim that no one but the Sycracuseans were allowed to fight the Carthaginians.
It was a contentious issue, and one which split the city. However, they did not have much time to argue as Claudius’s army began a systematic destruction of the countryside and began to settle in for a siege of Syracuse. Claudius sent word to the Sycracuseans that if they sent him 1,000 talents of silver and promised to resupply his army, he would leave them in peace. Kleomenes, who was by then the city’s leading politician, replied hat they had no supplies to give the Romans, as the legions had just burned all their food. Claudius saw this for what it was-a rejection-and prepared for a siege. He pitched his camp to the north of the city, from which they could be resupplied from Messina and away from the malarial swamps which had been the bane of the Athenians during their Sicilian venture.
During the siege, the Carthaginian forces under Hamilcar (no relation to Hamilcar Barca, who was just 16 at the time) regrouped and reinforcements arrived from Africa. Allies from Iberia, Liguria, Gaul, Numidia, Libya, Greece and Sicily all marched on his forward base in Agrigento, which became the hub of Carthaginian power in Sicily. The general strategy was to secure several walled cities with garrisons and to then use lighter troops and mercenaries to fight the Romans in the field. Thus most of western Sicily was held, yet Hamilcar also sent numerous parties east and north to probe for Roman weakness.
In late 264, Syracuse still stood defiant of Rome, and word had reached Hamilcar that the Sycracuseans were willing to ally with him in order to repel the Romans. This decisive shift in public mood had been caused by Claudius rather recklessly crucifying a group of Syracusean children who had been caught foraging for firewood outside the city walls. Kleomenes was effectively in complete control of the city and he had enlisted every fighting man to defend the walls. Hunger, however, was beginning to take its toll, and he wrote to Hamilcar pleading that if Carthage did not help, he would be lynched and Syracuse destroyed.
Hamilcar decided hat Winter was the best time to attack. The Romans would be in winter quarters and would not be expecting an attack. He therefore mustered his strength, a full 50,000 men, 4,000 horse and 40 elephants, and in early 263 BC he arrived outside the Roman pickets around Syracuse.
When Kleomenes saw the flash of the winter sun on Carthaginian arms he is said to have jumped for joy, and ordered all fighting men present themselves for an immediate counter-attack. Hamilcar, however, was cautious, and did not attack immediately. He drew up his soldiers and ordered them to set up a watch. Claudius, seeing that he was effectively surrounded, decided that an immediate attack on the Carthaginians was expedient. He therefore amassed his soldiers in one giant block and two Roman legions surged towards the exposed Carthaginian lines.
Hamilcar, seeing the attack, decided that it would be best not to fight it head on. He therefore stationed his Gallic, Iberian and Ligurian allies in front of the Romans while ordering his Libyan and African elite soldiers to wait in the wings. The massive block of Roman arms barely slowed down as they ground through the Carthaginian allies. However, Hamilcar timed his flank attack well, and his African and Libyan mercenaries drove deep into the Roman lines. He also swung his cavalry to face the Roman horse, which were dispersed swiftly.
Claudius, seeing that he was fighting no two fronts, decided to peel soldiers away from the rear maniples to attack the Africans on the flank. This action was, however, disrupted by Numidian and Carthaginian cavalry skirmishes, which greatly hindered his movements. After around an hour of fighting, Claudius realised that he could not win where he was. The Sycracuseans sallied and struck the Romans in the rear. Claudius ordered one final push north which scattered and broke the Celtic allies’ lines. He ordered his men to make a fighting retreat, and this was done well. order was kept as they withdrew and a rout was prevented. Despite this, his soldiers were pursued mercilessly, and hundreds were captured by light cavalry and native Sicilians.
The aftermath of the Battle of Syracuse was one which flipped the war from one of Carthaginian defence to one where the Carthaginians had the initiative. Claudius withdrew to Naxos, where he decided he would remain until he could regroup his forces. Of the 14,000 men he had before Syracuse, some 4,000 were dead and another 2,000 had either deserted or been taken prisoner. Hamilcar’s losses had been relatively light, yet there was discontent among his Celtic mercenaries, who had been little but cannon fodder for the Romans. His army, relatively intact and buoyed by Syracusean reinforcements, was in a good position to fight the Romans, and he headed north after a month of rest in Syracuse.
By the Spring of 263, Claudius had been relieved of his command and the Consul Marcellus was in overall command of Sicily. He had four legions under his command- some 30,000 men. He had little time to exercise this new muscle, however, as Hamilcar attacked Naxos. The Carthaginians were beaten off, with heavy casualties on both sides, yet Rome was still on the defensive. Marcellus spent a year in Naxos and the north east, trying to get more support in Sicily. After Syracuse, most Sicilian states had gone over to Carthage. This, however, would change in 262 as Syracusean popular opinion began to turn away from Kleomenes. He had become increasingly tyrannical, and was seen too often with Hamilcar or with Carthaginian aides. In 262 a vote was held and Kleomenes was ostracised and Syracuse allied with Rome against Carthage.
This dramatic change in the war’s belligerents caught Hamilcar off guard. He was forced to retreated back to Agrigento as the Sycracuseans began to harass his lines of communication. At Agrigento he sent a request to Carthage asking for reinforcements. This was granted, and an extra 20,000 men were sent to Sicily as well as another 10 elephants. Hamilcar then used these forces to garrison frontline cities which were wavering between Carthage and Rome. Seven cities switched allegiances, yet within two years they had all been defeated and garrisoned by Carthaginian forces.
In 260 BC Hamilcar finally moved against Syracuse. The city had never recovered from the Roman siege, and was still weak. The sight of a Carthaginian army once more outside the city elicited not whoops of joy but moans and lamentations. A half-hearted counter attack was made, yet this was brushed aside. After two days of siege there was a coup within the city. The anti-Carthaginian Council of Fourteen was toppled and a pro-Carthaginian tyrant named Alcibiades took over. His one week long rule would see Syracuse occupied by Carthaginian soldiers. However, there was a popular backlash against this and for three days Carthaginians were harassed and even murdered. Finally, a small group of Libyans was caught in a dead end and pelted with tiles until they were all killed. Hamilcar would take no more of this, and ordered Alcibiades deposed. He was stripped and beheaded in public before Hamilcar ordered the city razed.
Most of Syracuse was destroyed; its surviving population was sold into slavery while the burnt out ruins of the city were left standing by the conquering Carthaginians as a warning. Following this, Hamilcar once more marched north to confront the Romans. Their Consul, another Claudius-Tiberius Claudius Caudex-was determined to end the long and expensive war during his year of office. He came out to confront Hamilcar on the slopes of Mount Etna and, after two days of skirmishing, finally defeated him. Hamilcar retreated yet made a fighting retreat-he sent skirmishers to harass the Romans so they could not pursue his main body, while sending raiding parties around the volcano to harass the Roman rear. Claudius, distracted by this, let Hamilcar escape, and Hamilcar then swung his forces north, around the hilly area of central Sicily and then east to Messina. He thus circumvented Naxos and Claudius, and once more besieged Messina.
Claudius, when he heard that 70,000 Carthaginians had appeared without warning on front of Messina, assumed there must be two Carthaginian forces, and this one had come from Lilybaeum via the north. He did not consider that Hamilcar could move so far so fast. He therefore concluded that this was a trap-if he moved on Messina, Hamilcar would suddenly swoop down, take Naxos and threaten his rear. He therefore decided to plunge headlong towards Agrigento, guessing that this would be where Hamilcar’s force would regroup. He arrived at Agrigento a week after he set off from Etna, and by this time Messina was on the point of surrender. When he reached Agrigento, he saw that the city was virtually undefended but for its high walls and the small Carthaginian garrison. He then realised he had been tricked, yet decided that Agrigento was worth the los of Messina. He set in for a siege, and the very next day, Messina fell.
The fall of Messina cut Claudius off from Italy, as Carthage had complete naval supremacy. The rest of the Roman aligned cities in Sicily surrendered to Hamilcar over the next month while Claudius seized Agrigento. He killed about a quarter of its population yet gained nothing from doing so. His soldiers were exhausted, and the ruined city provided little shelter. Claudius then ordered them east, to try and take Syracuse and hold it until they could be relieved. As they marched, however, they were ambushed by Hamilcar along the coastal road.
The ambush was executed badly, as the Carthaginians attacked all at different times. The Romans, however, were caught unprepared nonetheless, Claudius most of all. The Consul was killed and from then on all Roman leadership in Sicily was gone. Of the four legions, two were destroyed completely and the other two so badly mauled that they were forced to disband after the war’s end. With the destruction of Roman forces on Sicily, Carthage was in a position to make substantial demands.
The Roman Senate was riven by discord over what to do. There was a substantial party which wanted peace at any cost, yet many others demanded that more armies be raised and the Carthaginians be repaid in blood for what they had done at Syracuse and on the coastal road. There was little Rome could do, however, as they had no way of reaching Sicily. Their fledgling fleet was devoted to battle too soon in 259 and was smashed by the Carthaginians. They then burnt Roman naval facilities at Ostia and Misenum. With no means of getting to Sicily, the Romans were impotent. The peace party gained the upper hand in the Senate and in 258 a treaty was made with Carthage.
The terms of the treaty were that Carthage would return to Rome all prisoners or hostages taken during the war or procured before the war. In return, Rome would surrender any claims on Sicily and would recognise it, Sardinia and Corsica as eternally Carthaginian. They were also forced to pay 10,000 talents of silver as reparations. Rome was also ordered to surrender any rights to a fleet, and was made to surrender any ship larger than a bireme to Carthage.
The Treaty humiliated Rome, and over the next twenty years it would purge its peace party and embark on a course that would inevitably cause it to collide with Carthage once more. However, for the time being they were limited to the Italian peninsula. Carthage, meanwhile, had all of the Mediterranean in her palm. Hamilcar and his army returned to Carthage in 256 BC in triumph. An officer in his army who had led the attack which killed Tiberius Claudius was honoured. This man was Hamilcar Barca, and he was promoted to General, and sent to Iberia. A young man, it was felt by the military establishment that his aggression and his obvious genius would make him the perfect general. They also hoped that years of frontiers work would wear him down somewhat and make him more manageable.
Iberia had been a core Carthaginian interest for a century, yet by 255 BC its holdings were largely limited to a handful of ports in the south east and a swathe of land that barely brushed the interior. Hamilcar Barca, however, would change this in his ten year Iberian Campaign. He began as a young man, someone already highly decorated and who had been shown to follow his own political path. By the end, he would be the most respected man in Carthage, the most feared general in the Mediterranean and one of the most powerful men in the known world.
He was voted a force of 20,000 men by the Suffets (the civil magistrates who had virtual dictatorial powers in Carthage for a single six month term in office, yet whose power never reached into actual military matters) and he landed in Carthago Nova in early 255. He began drilling his men and while they were readying for battle he readied his forward base. Carthago Nova was a relatively small yet prosperous city which was Carthage’s main stronghold in Spain. Its defences were strong and it had a small garrison supplemented by a well funded militia. Hamilcar sent emissaries to the local chieftains and leaders demanding that they present themselves at Carthago Nova to submit themselves to the new Carthaginian General. Several dozen of the most important arrived on the appointed date and submitted themselves to Hamilcar. He raised them up and bade them return to their homes and prepare for war. He assured them that when he finished they would be the most powerful men in Iberia.
Hamilcar’s Iberian Wars lasted from 255 to 243 BC and would bring Iberia firmly under Carthaginian control. Everywhere he went, he planted colonies and built roads. He would enslave thousands of Spaniards and then use them as labourers to build roads and stockades. His army of 30,000 kept a permanent detachment of slave labourers with them at al times to prepare defences and to carry heavy equipment. Mineshafts were dug as Carthaginian commerce embedded itself in the landscape of the peninsula as firmly as it was in the hearts of the Carthaginians themselves. In the south, vast estates were formed and worked by hundreds of slaves who would tend enormous vineyards and winepresses, and who would tend the olive groves and crush them for oil. To the north, speculators would invest in mining interests which would strip mountains bare. The ground became riddled with tunnels dug by hapless Spaniards, who turned up valuable ores to be smelted on the surface by their countrymen. The air was vile and polluted, and the fumes scorched the skin and burnt the eyes. The soldiers serving in this despoiled landscape covered their faces with veils while they guarded the precious mines against Spanish insurgents, who conducted a guerrilla campaign against the Carthaginians for decades after the subjugation of the peninsula.
While this was occurring, Hamilcar was the gatekeeper. It was he who would get access to valuable mines for merchants and who could obtain the best lands for wine growers. From all this he became wealthy-so wealthy, in fact, that he founded his own city, out of his own pocket, which he called Barcaria. Sitting on the north east coast of Spain, it looked south towards the Balearics and Carthage, a symbol of this new man’s new-found power. Investors flocked there, eager to make themselves and Hamilcar yet richer. Meanwhile, the Suffets lined their own purses with rich bribes, as they occasionally threatened to raise important duties from Iberia. None of these threats materialised, and Iberia was systematically plundered by the Carthaginian merchant class.
While Hamilcar stormed around Iberia making and remaking boundaries, alliances and, of course, personal fortunes, Carthage consolidated its position in Sicily. The Suffets of 251 BC voted to spend some 10,000 talents on reconstruction, resettlement and consolidation of power. Agrigento was rebuilt over the course of two decades as a perfectly planned city with high walls, sewers and wide streets. Syracuse too was rebuilt, with great docks and wharves and impressive defences. The people settled in these cities were the very poorest of Carthaginian society. Carthage always faced the problem of overpopulation in its core African territories. The land around Carthage was almost entirely owned by the aristocracy, and so there were many poor urbanites who often worked as porters or servants. These were encouraged to go and settle Sicily and Sardinia, as well as the new colonies in Corsica. These colonies were much like the Carthaginian ships in that they were all of a standard model. They were planned in advance and then planted in a likely area and then left to grow. Thus Carthage extended its hold over the western Mediterranean.
The colonies founded from 251-230 BC would become part of the third sphere of Carthaginian expansion. The first sphere was its expansion into North Africa, the Balearics, Sicily and Sardinia. The second sphere was Numidia, Libya, Corsica, Central Sicily and Southern Iberia. This third sphere would include all of Sicily as well as the rest of Iberia. the colonies would each had a Council of Magistrates as well as a Carthaginian Governor, who would hold military power and some civil powers such as law enforcement and the upkeep of roads and defences. He would command a garrison (if it was present-this was relatively rare) or the militia, which would be made up of all male citizens aged between 20 and 40.
Despite his enormous wealth, Hamilcar continued to present himself as a friend of the common man. He opened up huge areas of land around Barcaria for smallholders and he thus became the patron of a great number of impoverished families. He also made friends with Iberian nobles, whom he gave land and title to. These too became his clients, and by 243 he was the most connected man in Carthaginian politics.
His rivals, who labelled themselves the Republicans, for they felt he was undermining the Carthaginian Republic, attempted many times to have him removed from office. Every time, however, they found that Hamilcar had bribed the magistrates, and so he retained his command. Finally, in 242 BC his ostentatious displays of power turned even the bribed Suffets against him. He resigned his command and returned to Carthage, to be greeted in the streets with enormous crowds whom he showered with gold coins. He had brought with him carts loaded down with bullion and slaves, and he paraded all of this in front of the city. The crowds of people began to chant his family name-Barca-and to the Suffets this sounded much like the word ‘thunderbolt’ (the two mean the same in the Phoenician language spoken in Carthage) and indeed Hamilcar was a thunderbolt-a force of nature which reached down from Heaven to scorch the earth which no mortal could resist.
When he entered the Council Chambers and faced down the 12 Suffets and the Council of Elders, the noise of the mob could still be heard. He was wearing his military uniform, yet he had removed his sword. Instead, he bore his rod of office-the one given him twelve years previously by the men who now stared at him in disbelief. The young man fresh from battle was gone, in his place was a truly formidable political animal. No one knew what he would say, yet many could guess. His enemies feared that he would pass their death sentence; that the mob contained disguised agents who would burst in at any moment and massacre them all. Fourteen prominent Republicans slunk out of a back entrance and fled to Utica, several miles away. The rest awaited his judgement.
But then he shocked all of them.
He returned to them his rod of office, and saluted them. He said that his service to Carthage was over, and that if they would allow him, he would retire from public and military service. Relieved, the magistrates accepted his retirement. Hamilcar Barca returned to face the crowd, and saluted them before bidding them farewell. They cheered him on as he and a small escort rode out from the city.
Hamilcar Barca’s astonishing climb down was totally unexpected. Most thought that he would declare the Republic dead, and that he would make himself tyrant. However, it has since become apparent that this would have been a mistake. Barca was popular with the masses yet his fellow Generals thought little of him. He had no support among the navy, and all of his armies were in Iberia. With no way of moving his soldiers around, he would have been isolated, with only the mob for comfort. His financial reserves, although enormous, were minuscule when compared to those of the Carthaginian empire. Barca was playing a long game with the Republicans, one which not even he would live to see finished. For by 243 BC he had three sons; Hannibal, Hasdrabul and Mago, and he had big plans for each of them.
Carthage, much like Rome, had only a short list of personal names (e.g. Hannibal, Mago, Hasdrabul) and so many of these characters will share names. Wherever possible I shall give surnames, however when that is impossible I shall define them by some notable trait (e.g. Hamilcar the Great, etc.) I know it's confusing, but just bear with it.
The First Punic War proper began in 264 BC when Appius Claudius Caudex and his two legions disembarked at Messina and defeated the Carthaginian and Syracusean forces besieging the city. The Mamertine rebels who controlled the city pledged allegiance to Rome and Claudius then marched south on Syracuse. When faced with two legions coming towards them, the Sycracuseans were split. Some wanted to surrender, others wanted to fight and wait for relief. Those in favour of surrendering said that Rome would interfere in their affairs less than Carthage, and that Syracuse should use this opportunity to drive Carthage from Sicily forever.
Those opposed to surrender, however, were led by Kleomenes, who made an impassioned speech before the Assembly. He compared Claudius to Phillip of Macedon, and said that the people of Syracuse should not swap one imperial foe for another. He said that Syracuse should ally with Carthage for the time being, just as they had done against the Mamertines, to preserve the status quo on Sicily and, once the Italians were gone, to pursue war with Carthage once more. This prompted one leading Syracusean to exclaim that no one but the Sycracuseans were allowed to fight the Carthaginians.
It was a contentious issue, and one which split the city. However, they did not have much time to argue as Claudius’s army began a systematic destruction of the countryside and began to settle in for a siege of Syracuse. Claudius sent word to the Sycracuseans that if they sent him 1,000 talents of silver and promised to resupply his army, he would leave them in peace. Kleomenes, who was by then the city’s leading politician, replied hat they had no supplies to give the Romans, as the legions had just burned all their food. Claudius saw this for what it was-a rejection-and prepared for a siege. He pitched his camp to the north of the city, from which they could be resupplied from Messina and away from the malarial swamps which had been the bane of the Athenians during their Sicilian venture.
During the siege, the Carthaginian forces under Hamilcar (no relation to Hamilcar Barca, who was just 16 at the time) regrouped and reinforcements arrived from Africa. Allies from Iberia, Liguria, Gaul, Numidia, Libya, Greece and Sicily all marched on his forward base in Agrigento, which became the hub of Carthaginian power in Sicily. The general strategy was to secure several walled cities with garrisons and to then use lighter troops and mercenaries to fight the Romans in the field. Thus most of western Sicily was held, yet Hamilcar also sent numerous parties east and north to probe for Roman weakness.
In late 264, Syracuse still stood defiant of Rome, and word had reached Hamilcar that the Sycracuseans were willing to ally with him in order to repel the Romans. This decisive shift in public mood had been caused by Claudius rather recklessly crucifying a group of Syracusean children who had been caught foraging for firewood outside the city walls. Kleomenes was effectively in complete control of the city and he had enlisted every fighting man to defend the walls. Hunger, however, was beginning to take its toll, and he wrote to Hamilcar pleading that if Carthage did not help, he would be lynched and Syracuse destroyed.
Hamilcar decided hat Winter was the best time to attack. The Romans would be in winter quarters and would not be expecting an attack. He therefore mustered his strength, a full 50,000 men, 4,000 horse and 40 elephants, and in early 263 BC he arrived outside the Roman pickets around Syracuse.
When Kleomenes saw the flash of the winter sun on Carthaginian arms he is said to have jumped for joy, and ordered all fighting men present themselves for an immediate counter-attack. Hamilcar, however, was cautious, and did not attack immediately. He drew up his soldiers and ordered them to set up a watch. Claudius, seeing that he was effectively surrounded, decided that an immediate attack on the Carthaginians was expedient. He therefore amassed his soldiers in one giant block and two Roman legions surged towards the exposed Carthaginian lines.
Hamilcar, seeing the attack, decided that it would be best not to fight it head on. He therefore stationed his Gallic, Iberian and Ligurian allies in front of the Romans while ordering his Libyan and African elite soldiers to wait in the wings. The massive block of Roman arms barely slowed down as they ground through the Carthaginian allies. However, Hamilcar timed his flank attack well, and his African and Libyan mercenaries drove deep into the Roman lines. He also swung his cavalry to face the Roman horse, which were dispersed swiftly.
Claudius, seeing that he was fighting no two fronts, decided to peel soldiers away from the rear maniples to attack the Africans on the flank. This action was, however, disrupted by Numidian and Carthaginian cavalry skirmishes, which greatly hindered his movements. After around an hour of fighting, Claudius realised that he could not win where he was. The Sycracuseans sallied and struck the Romans in the rear. Claudius ordered one final push north which scattered and broke the Celtic allies’ lines. He ordered his men to make a fighting retreat, and this was done well. order was kept as they withdrew and a rout was prevented. Despite this, his soldiers were pursued mercilessly, and hundreds were captured by light cavalry and native Sicilians.
The aftermath of the Battle of Syracuse was one which flipped the war from one of Carthaginian defence to one where the Carthaginians had the initiative. Claudius withdrew to Naxos, where he decided he would remain until he could regroup his forces. Of the 14,000 men he had before Syracuse, some 4,000 were dead and another 2,000 had either deserted or been taken prisoner. Hamilcar’s losses had been relatively light, yet there was discontent among his Celtic mercenaries, who had been little but cannon fodder for the Romans. His army, relatively intact and buoyed by Syracusean reinforcements, was in a good position to fight the Romans, and he headed north after a month of rest in Syracuse.
By the Spring of 263, Claudius had been relieved of his command and the Consul Marcellus was in overall command of Sicily. He had four legions under his command- some 30,000 men. He had little time to exercise this new muscle, however, as Hamilcar attacked Naxos. The Carthaginians were beaten off, with heavy casualties on both sides, yet Rome was still on the defensive. Marcellus spent a year in Naxos and the north east, trying to get more support in Sicily. After Syracuse, most Sicilian states had gone over to Carthage. This, however, would change in 262 as Syracusean popular opinion began to turn away from Kleomenes. He had become increasingly tyrannical, and was seen too often with Hamilcar or with Carthaginian aides. In 262 a vote was held and Kleomenes was ostracised and Syracuse allied with Rome against Carthage.
This dramatic change in the war’s belligerents caught Hamilcar off guard. He was forced to retreated back to Agrigento as the Sycracuseans began to harass his lines of communication. At Agrigento he sent a request to Carthage asking for reinforcements. This was granted, and an extra 20,000 men were sent to Sicily as well as another 10 elephants. Hamilcar then used these forces to garrison frontline cities which were wavering between Carthage and Rome. Seven cities switched allegiances, yet within two years they had all been defeated and garrisoned by Carthaginian forces.
In 260 BC Hamilcar finally moved against Syracuse. The city had never recovered from the Roman siege, and was still weak. The sight of a Carthaginian army once more outside the city elicited not whoops of joy but moans and lamentations. A half-hearted counter attack was made, yet this was brushed aside. After two days of siege there was a coup within the city. The anti-Carthaginian Council of Fourteen was toppled and a pro-Carthaginian tyrant named Alcibiades took over. His one week long rule would see Syracuse occupied by Carthaginian soldiers. However, there was a popular backlash against this and for three days Carthaginians were harassed and even murdered. Finally, a small group of Libyans was caught in a dead end and pelted with tiles until they were all killed. Hamilcar would take no more of this, and ordered Alcibiades deposed. He was stripped and beheaded in public before Hamilcar ordered the city razed.
Most of Syracuse was destroyed; its surviving population was sold into slavery while the burnt out ruins of the city were left standing by the conquering Carthaginians as a warning. Following this, Hamilcar once more marched north to confront the Romans. Their Consul, another Claudius-Tiberius Claudius Caudex-was determined to end the long and expensive war during his year of office. He came out to confront Hamilcar on the slopes of Mount Etna and, after two days of skirmishing, finally defeated him. Hamilcar retreated yet made a fighting retreat-he sent skirmishers to harass the Romans so they could not pursue his main body, while sending raiding parties around the volcano to harass the Roman rear. Claudius, distracted by this, let Hamilcar escape, and Hamilcar then swung his forces north, around the hilly area of central Sicily and then east to Messina. He thus circumvented Naxos and Claudius, and once more besieged Messina.
Claudius, when he heard that 70,000 Carthaginians had appeared without warning on front of Messina, assumed there must be two Carthaginian forces, and this one had come from Lilybaeum via the north. He did not consider that Hamilcar could move so far so fast. He therefore concluded that this was a trap-if he moved on Messina, Hamilcar would suddenly swoop down, take Naxos and threaten his rear. He therefore decided to plunge headlong towards Agrigento, guessing that this would be where Hamilcar’s force would regroup. He arrived at Agrigento a week after he set off from Etna, and by this time Messina was on the point of surrender. When he reached Agrigento, he saw that the city was virtually undefended but for its high walls and the small Carthaginian garrison. He then realised he had been tricked, yet decided that Agrigento was worth the los of Messina. He set in for a siege, and the very next day, Messina fell.
The fall of Messina cut Claudius off from Italy, as Carthage had complete naval supremacy. The rest of the Roman aligned cities in Sicily surrendered to Hamilcar over the next month while Claudius seized Agrigento. He killed about a quarter of its population yet gained nothing from doing so. His soldiers were exhausted, and the ruined city provided little shelter. Claudius then ordered them east, to try and take Syracuse and hold it until they could be relieved. As they marched, however, they were ambushed by Hamilcar along the coastal road.
The ambush was executed badly, as the Carthaginians attacked all at different times. The Romans, however, were caught unprepared nonetheless, Claudius most of all. The Consul was killed and from then on all Roman leadership in Sicily was gone. Of the four legions, two were destroyed completely and the other two so badly mauled that they were forced to disband after the war’s end. With the destruction of Roman forces on Sicily, Carthage was in a position to make substantial demands.
The Roman Senate was riven by discord over what to do. There was a substantial party which wanted peace at any cost, yet many others demanded that more armies be raised and the Carthaginians be repaid in blood for what they had done at Syracuse and on the coastal road. There was little Rome could do, however, as they had no way of reaching Sicily. Their fledgling fleet was devoted to battle too soon in 259 and was smashed by the Carthaginians. They then burnt Roman naval facilities at Ostia and Misenum. With no means of getting to Sicily, the Romans were impotent. The peace party gained the upper hand in the Senate and in 258 a treaty was made with Carthage.
The terms of the treaty were that Carthage would return to Rome all prisoners or hostages taken during the war or procured before the war. In return, Rome would surrender any claims on Sicily and would recognise it, Sardinia and Corsica as eternally Carthaginian. They were also forced to pay 10,000 talents of silver as reparations. Rome was also ordered to surrender any rights to a fleet, and was made to surrender any ship larger than a bireme to Carthage.
The Treaty humiliated Rome, and over the next twenty years it would purge its peace party and embark on a course that would inevitably cause it to collide with Carthage once more. However, for the time being they were limited to the Italian peninsula. Carthage, meanwhile, had all of the Mediterranean in her palm. Hamilcar and his army returned to Carthage in 256 BC in triumph. An officer in his army who had led the attack which killed Tiberius Claudius was honoured. This man was Hamilcar Barca, and he was promoted to General, and sent to Iberia. A young man, it was felt by the military establishment that his aggression and his obvious genius would make him the perfect general. They also hoped that years of frontiers work would wear him down somewhat and make him more manageable.
Iberia had been a core Carthaginian interest for a century, yet by 255 BC its holdings were largely limited to a handful of ports in the south east and a swathe of land that barely brushed the interior. Hamilcar Barca, however, would change this in his ten year Iberian Campaign. He began as a young man, someone already highly decorated and who had been shown to follow his own political path. By the end, he would be the most respected man in Carthage, the most feared general in the Mediterranean and one of the most powerful men in the known world.
He was voted a force of 20,000 men by the Suffets (the civil magistrates who had virtual dictatorial powers in Carthage for a single six month term in office, yet whose power never reached into actual military matters) and he landed in Carthago Nova in early 255. He began drilling his men and while they were readying for battle he readied his forward base. Carthago Nova was a relatively small yet prosperous city which was Carthage’s main stronghold in Spain. Its defences were strong and it had a small garrison supplemented by a well funded militia. Hamilcar sent emissaries to the local chieftains and leaders demanding that they present themselves at Carthago Nova to submit themselves to the new Carthaginian General. Several dozen of the most important arrived on the appointed date and submitted themselves to Hamilcar. He raised them up and bade them return to their homes and prepare for war. He assured them that when he finished they would be the most powerful men in Iberia.
Hamilcar’s Iberian Wars lasted from 255 to 243 BC and would bring Iberia firmly under Carthaginian control. Everywhere he went, he planted colonies and built roads. He would enslave thousands of Spaniards and then use them as labourers to build roads and stockades. His army of 30,000 kept a permanent detachment of slave labourers with them at al times to prepare defences and to carry heavy equipment. Mineshafts were dug as Carthaginian commerce embedded itself in the landscape of the peninsula as firmly as it was in the hearts of the Carthaginians themselves. In the south, vast estates were formed and worked by hundreds of slaves who would tend enormous vineyards and winepresses, and who would tend the olive groves and crush them for oil. To the north, speculators would invest in mining interests which would strip mountains bare. The ground became riddled with tunnels dug by hapless Spaniards, who turned up valuable ores to be smelted on the surface by their countrymen. The air was vile and polluted, and the fumes scorched the skin and burnt the eyes. The soldiers serving in this despoiled landscape covered their faces with veils while they guarded the precious mines against Spanish insurgents, who conducted a guerrilla campaign against the Carthaginians for decades after the subjugation of the peninsula.
While this was occurring, Hamilcar was the gatekeeper. It was he who would get access to valuable mines for merchants and who could obtain the best lands for wine growers. From all this he became wealthy-so wealthy, in fact, that he founded his own city, out of his own pocket, which he called Barcaria. Sitting on the north east coast of Spain, it looked south towards the Balearics and Carthage, a symbol of this new man’s new-found power. Investors flocked there, eager to make themselves and Hamilcar yet richer. Meanwhile, the Suffets lined their own purses with rich bribes, as they occasionally threatened to raise important duties from Iberia. None of these threats materialised, and Iberia was systematically plundered by the Carthaginian merchant class.
While Hamilcar stormed around Iberia making and remaking boundaries, alliances and, of course, personal fortunes, Carthage consolidated its position in Sicily. The Suffets of 251 BC voted to spend some 10,000 talents on reconstruction, resettlement and consolidation of power. Agrigento was rebuilt over the course of two decades as a perfectly planned city with high walls, sewers and wide streets. Syracuse too was rebuilt, with great docks and wharves and impressive defences. The people settled in these cities were the very poorest of Carthaginian society. Carthage always faced the problem of overpopulation in its core African territories. The land around Carthage was almost entirely owned by the aristocracy, and so there were many poor urbanites who often worked as porters or servants. These were encouraged to go and settle Sicily and Sardinia, as well as the new colonies in Corsica. These colonies were much like the Carthaginian ships in that they were all of a standard model. They were planned in advance and then planted in a likely area and then left to grow. Thus Carthage extended its hold over the western Mediterranean.
The colonies founded from 251-230 BC would become part of the third sphere of Carthaginian expansion. The first sphere was its expansion into North Africa, the Balearics, Sicily and Sardinia. The second sphere was Numidia, Libya, Corsica, Central Sicily and Southern Iberia. This third sphere would include all of Sicily as well as the rest of Iberia. the colonies would each had a Council of Magistrates as well as a Carthaginian Governor, who would hold military power and some civil powers such as law enforcement and the upkeep of roads and defences. He would command a garrison (if it was present-this was relatively rare) or the militia, which would be made up of all male citizens aged between 20 and 40.
Despite his enormous wealth, Hamilcar continued to present himself as a friend of the common man. He opened up huge areas of land around Barcaria for smallholders and he thus became the patron of a great number of impoverished families. He also made friends with Iberian nobles, whom he gave land and title to. These too became his clients, and by 243 he was the most connected man in Carthaginian politics.
His rivals, who labelled themselves the Republicans, for they felt he was undermining the Carthaginian Republic, attempted many times to have him removed from office. Every time, however, they found that Hamilcar had bribed the magistrates, and so he retained his command. Finally, in 242 BC his ostentatious displays of power turned even the bribed Suffets against him. He resigned his command and returned to Carthage, to be greeted in the streets with enormous crowds whom he showered with gold coins. He had brought with him carts loaded down with bullion and slaves, and he paraded all of this in front of the city. The crowds of people began to chant his family name-Barca-and to the Suffets this sounded much like the word ‘thunderbolt’ (the two mean the same in the Phoenician language spoken in Carthage) and indeed Hamilcar was a thunderbolt-a force of nature which reached down from Heaven to scorch the earth which no mortal could resist.
When he entered the Council Chambers and faced down the 12 Suffets and the Council of Elders, the noise of the mob could still be heard. He was wearing his military uniform, yet he had removed his sword. Instead, he bore his rod of office-the one given him twelve years previously by the men who now stared at him in disbelief. The young man fresh from battle was gone, in his place was a truly formidable political animal. No one knew what he would say, yet many could guess. His enemies feared that he would pass their death sentence; that the mob contained disguised agents who would burst in at any moment and massacre them all. Fourteen prominent Republicans slunk out of a back entrance and fled to Utica, several miles away. The rest awaited his judgement.
But then he shocked all of them.
He returned to them his rod of office, and saluted them. He said that his service to Carthage was over, and that if they would allow him, he would retire from public and military service. Relieved, the magistrates accepted his retirement. Hamilcar Barca returned to face the crowd, and saluted them before bidding them farewell. They cheered him on as he and a small escort rode out from the city.
Hamilcar Barca’s astonishing climb down was totally unexpected. Most thought that he would declare the Republic dead, and that he would make himself tyrant. However, it has since become apparent that this would have been a mistake. Barca was popular with the masses yet his fellow Generals thought little of him. He had no support among the navy, and all of his armies were in Iberia. With no way of moving his soldiers around, he would have been isolated, with only the mob for comfort. His financial reserves, although enormous, were minuscule when compared to those of the Carthaginian empire. Barca was playing a long game with the Republicans, one which not even he would live to see finished. For by 243 BC he had three sons; Hannibal, Hasdrabul and Mago, and he had big plans for each of them.
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