Blog 5 The Set Up

So at this point things are not going particularly well for Carthage due to being in massive debt due to fighting a large scale war and with the additional burden of a massive tribute. Furthermore, they lost their profitable lands and ports in Sicily. When Hamilcar returned to Carthage with his army of mercenaries Carthage couldn’t pay them.  So roughly 20,000 mercenaries, disgruntled with a lack of pay and not trusting Carthage anymore, were now in open revolt. Hanno the Great and Hamilcar Barca were given joint command of the army. They bought more mercenaries to help fight the new threat and decided to pay them up front this time (to avoid making previous mistakes). Along with new mercenaries, citizen soldiers joined the Carthaginian army. However the Libyans joined with the rebels.[1]

Now this was a truly brutal war. Carthage executed and tortured most of the prisoners they took. The rebels followed suit.  This was rather uncommon and Polybius said it was most brutal war to ever happen. After some military defeats, Hanno gave full command to Hamilcar who destroyed the majority of the mercenary forces who were trapped in a ravine. He starved out the rebels when they were trapped.  He later crucified two of the mercenary leaders just to make a point[2]. Even when Carthage was significantly outnumbered they managed to beat this new threat. After two years the war was over. But Rome saw an opportunity in Sardinia where they claimed that it was ruled by rebels and they forcibly annexed it. Carthage was going to retake the island but Rome declared war on them. After being weakened by  two consecutive wars the Carthaginians gave in. The new treaty called for further payment to the Romans.

So Carthage was in a pickle at this point. With two major trade hubs down, they were basically crippled in an economic sense now.  So to get more money Hamilcar proposed raising an army to expand their African holdings. Although Hamilcar had to intention to do this, instead he sailed to Spain without permission[3]. But before going he did a traditional sacrifice where his young son Hannibal swore to never be a friend to Rome. It’s open to interpretation but I believe it meant that Rome will always be Hannibal’s enemy. So after eight years of fighting and diplomacy the Carthaginians now controlled a large portion of the Iberian Peninsula. Hamilcar died, but under what circumstances historians aren’t really sure. One story involved him sacrificing himself so his sons could escape. After that command went to Hamilcar’s son-in-law Hasdurbal the Fair who further expanded the Barcid Spanish territory[4].  Before long, silver started to come back to Carthage and they managed to pay off their debt quicker than the Romans anticipated.

But after years of fighting across the Iberian Peninsula, the mercenary force that came with Hamilicar became loyal soldiers to the Barcid family. See, although this land was Carthaginian territory it really belonged to the Barcid family. This was their territory and it was in Spain that the Second Punic War would start.

509 words

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[1] Miles, 204.

[2] Polybius, Book 1, 235.

[3] Appian, History of Rome: The Hannibalic war, 7.2.

[4] Polybius, 1, 239.