Father of the House of Thunder: A Report on the Life of Hamilcar Barca During the First Punic War

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March 10th, 241 B.C., Hamilcar Barca stood somewhere on his mountain top as Roman navy swept over Hamilcar’s reinforcements. 120 Carthaginian ships hit the bottom of the Mediterranean. 10,000 prisoners are taken while Rome lost only about 12 ships. Hanno escapes with 50 ships back to Carthage and upon arrival, Hanno is crucified as punishment for his failure.

This loss had sealed their fates, Carthage winning this war was impossible. As all hope of winning the war dwindled down to nothing for the great general, Rome had made another attempt at his fort. During this attack, shortly after the defeat of Hanno, the Carthaginians looked for peace. Hamilcar, being the general, had full authority to negotiate. The great general, Hamilcar Barca, the leader with so little that did so much damage, had Rome’s respect.

Rome came up with the terms of Punic withdrawal from Sicily, the return of all prisoners without ransom, Carthage having to pay for theirs, the promise of not to fight against Hiero and their indemnity of about 2,200 Euboric talents to be paid over the course of 20 years. Nothing brought up the topics of Sardinia or the uni fleet.

The treaty however, had not been ratified by the Roman senate who had already sent a commission of 10 Senators to debate on the Forum. After reading fully and making no big changes, they changed the indemnity from 2,200 talents in 20 years to 3,200 talents and in it had to be paid in full within 10 years. Also, they had to surrender all islands between Sicily and Italy. These terms were much harsher that previously spoken of but Carthage agreed anyway.

Hamilcar Barca, the defeated general of Carthage, led his senior soldiers from Mt Eryx, picked up the garrison in Drepana and went Lilybaeum, there he deposited more 20,000 warriors in to the hands of the Lilybaeum commandantGisco to organize their their ways back home to Africa. Hamilcar left much sooner than his former troops to face the shame from his peers and superiors because he lost the war and gained no major achievements.

Politically, things could have been way better for him at home. Because Carthage fought for a solid 23 years against Rome, sued for peace in 241 B.C. Carthage surrendered Sicily while the Punic troops who fought hard and resisted there were finally withdrawn. The great general of carthage, Hamilcar Barca, was removed and replaced by Gisco. Gisco, is now to organize the pay and evacuation of his mercenaries. Because the Punic Army held few actual Carthaginians, Carthage instead agreed to pay for warriors from other warlike surrounding tribes.

Expecting their pay, the sell-swords slowly but surely began pouring into Carthage. Of the mercenaries were, Barbaric Celts, Mauretanian light cavalry, Libyan infantry, lightly armed Iberians, Greeks, Balearic slingers, Lobo-Phoenicians, Ligurians, Roman deserters and a few others.

Being cheated out of what was promised, these tribes and peoples formed an uneasy army, it was a lot more like a huge gang, rather than an army. Some of these warriors brought their families and some carried their personal belongings. After 23 years of war, much of the veterans grew elderly and some of their children that grew up on the camp all filled the ranks of this new gang.

Originally, the soldiers used their own clothes and weapons of their tribes but over time, uniforms got tattered and weapons were replaced with better ones, typically weapons of Rome. This new gang at the time had no name and not much organization. They looted all they could, bought whatever they need at the Sicilian markets and learned a bit each others native languages. understanding and learning different languages was still rough around that time so if somebody ever needed to communicate in a tongue that they knew nothing about, they could hire an interpreter to help.

With all of them being so brutish and aggressive, they developed a habit of not paying for anything. At an attempt to ease this gangs anger, Carthage paid them each with one gold piece and asked them to move to a nearby city called Sicca and wait for the rest of their wages. After waring for so long, Carthage had problems coming up with such a large some of money to pay these sell-swords and they decided to bring back Hanno to negotiate with the mercenaries about them possibly taking a pay cut.

During their time in Sicca, waiting for their dues, they had plenty of time to remember back to Hamilcar’s many promises of rewards during the war. Thinking about how much they were promised, when Hanno made the suggestion of a pay cut, a huge wave of indignation broke out in camp.

The mercenaries felt mocked when the veterans, women and children all pleaded to these warriors about how much Carthage had suffered in an attempt at appealing to their inner humanity. Hanno “the great” it would seem did not do so great in this negotiation, being a typical nobleman and a failure just furthered the gangs rage.

In response to this perceived mockery, the mercenaries quickly marched on Carthage and seized the nearby town of Tunis where the held a ransom; the city in exchange for what they were already owed. Carthage quickly sent food and supplies in an attempt to quell their rage but then the mercenaries presented even greater demands.

Claiming they must be compensated for lost horses, payments for rations promised and of course, overall payment for their services. The dispute was entrusted to Gisco, being very popular with the troops and appearing with a huge amount of gold in tunis for negotiations. However two men, a companion named Spendius and the Libyan Mathos started to antagonize the situation.

Spendius, the Companion was a Roman deserter who feared extradition. Deserters were actually pretty frequent among all factions in the war. Mathos on the other hand, as a Libyan knew that Carthage ravaged the Libyan hinterland with taxes and tributes assumed that because Libyans were to be paid last, that they might not get their dues and even be slaughtered.

Mathos, fearing this outcome, struck up that same horror and old hatred through the Libyan Warriors while Spendius agitated other ethnic groups with his ability to speak multiple languages. Soon enough, the whole crowd fell into a frenzy and even stoned to death those who agreed with Gisco. This crowd then plotted for war, a Mercenaries War also know as the Traceless War.

The Rebels took Gisco along with his delegation prisoners and sent messenger to Libyan cities asking for support in this uprising. Their hatred was so great that almost all of these cities sent provisions and reinforcements. Making Mathos, Spendius and Atari the leaders, they all divided their forces into three parts. Two

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