Phase 5

The End of the Monarchy

  Gisco and Hamilcar II were brothers the sons of Hanno III (the Great).  When their father had been executed, Hamilcar II received the throne.  Hamilcar, one of the ablest generals that the Carthaginians ever had, was in command of their forces in Africa. Nevertheless, after a series of great successes, a faction, who was jealous of his reputation, opposed him and they charged him with planning to undermine the liberties of the people. Through their influence, he was condemned, and executed; and his brother Gisco was banished. They appointed no new generals; but under the other generals command, the Carthaginian armies met with nothing but repeated defeats, until their very survival became a matter of doubt.

  While this was going on things in Sicily had started to brew again and may well been the cause of their armies being defeated.  The death of Dionysius ultimately led to a power struggle between Dion, and Dionysius II of Syracuse and other contenders.  The Punic holdings in Sicily were secure, as Syracuse had begun to lose its government control over the Sicilian cities because of internal conflict that turned into open warfare.  

  Because of the political problems of Syracuse and the threat from Sparta, a group of Syracusans sent an appeal for help to the City of Corinth in Greece, which arrived there in in 344 BCE.  Corinth could not refuse to help though her chief citizens declined the responsibility. Timoleon by an unknown voice  was nominated in the assembly and was chosen to carry out the mission by a unanimous vote.  He set sail for Sicily with a few leading citizens of Corinth and a small troop of mercenaries.  He eluded the Carthaginian squadron stationed at Tauromenium (now Taormina) and upon arrival was given a friendly reception. 

Timoleon of Corinth

  Carthage had done little directly during 364-345 BCE to interfere, but in 343 BCE, they decided to oppose Timoleon. The Carthaginians failed to stop his ascent to power in Syracuse.  Mago the Carthaginian commander had the advantage of numbers and the support of allied Greeks, was even admitted into Syracuse.  However, he bungled so much that he killed himself rather than face the Tribunal of the 104 in Carthage.  Timoleon managed to gain the support of the tyrants in league with Carthage, and the Punic expedition sent to Sicily in retaliation of Syracusan raids was defeated in the Battle of Crimissus by the combined Greek forces.

  In early June of 339 BCE, the battle was fought. Timoleon was positioned on a hill with his army, overlooking a plain were the Carthaginian army was located. The Crimissus River separated the two armies and covered the plain in a thick fog, making it impossible to see the Carthaginian camp. However, the noise signaled the Greeks that the Carthaginians were going to cross the river. The sun had risen higher in the sky and dissipated the fog on the plain, making the Carthaginian troops visible. The four-horse chariots were at the vanguard of the army. Behind them was infantry that the Greeks identified as Carthaginian citizens and at the rear were the foreign troops. When Timoleon saw their army separated by the river, it gave him a good opportunity to attack. He decided to send the cavalry ahead to prevent the Carthaginian citizen infantry from forming their phalanx (Plutarch 1918, 27.1–7).  The phalanx in Ancient Greece: was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar weapons ( Oxford English Dictionary).

A Greek Phalanx

  Timoleon then commanded his army to descend into the plain. He assigned the other Sicilian Greeks and a few of his mercenaries to his wings. He commanded the center, which was composed of the Syracusans and his best mercenaries. He saw that his cavalry could not attack the enemy infantry because of the chariots. He ordered his cavalry to ride past the line of chariots to attack the infantry on the flank. He then charged the enemy with the infantry. The Carthaginian citizen infantry resisted the Greeks sturdily however, thanks to their excellent armor and large shields. Fortunately, for the Greeks a thunderstorm rose up behind them and started a shower of hail and rain. The storm hit the Greeks in the back, but the Carthaginians in the face. The storm put them at a severe disadvantage: the water and mud made them ineffective fighters because of their heavy armor. To make things worse for the Carthaginians, the storm caused the Crimissus to overflow from its banks and many smaller streams to flow over the plain ( Plutarch 1918, 27.7–28.7).

    The Carthaginian army fled when the Greeks defeated the first rank of four hundred men. Many of those who fled over the plain the Greeks overran and killed. Some drowned in the river when they met that part of the Carthaginian army, which still tried to cross the river. Out of the 10,000 casualties for the Carthaginian army, 3,000 were Carthaginian citizens. Carthage had never lost so many of its own citizens before because it normally employed Libyans, Numidians and Iberians for its armies. At least 5,000 prisoners were  taken. As they stripped the dead bodies of their possessions the Greeks acquired a great deal of gold and silver from the dead rich Carthaginian citizens lying on the battlefield (Plutarch 1918, 28.8–29).

   It was after this battle that Gisco the son of Hanno III was recalled and elected king. In these difficulties, what could they do? They could not raise Hamilcar from his tomb. They therefore sent a contrite letter to Gisco, recalling him from exile and appointing him general of their armies. They promised to hand over to him his own, and his brother's enemies, for him to punish as he wished. Gisco, on his return to his country, ordered that his enemies to be brought before him in chains. He ordered them to lie down upon their bellies on the ground, and he thrice put his foot lightly upon their necks. Then he said that, by this humiliation, he had taken sufficient revenge on them for his brother's death. After this, he dismissed them saying, “I will not return evil with evil, but repay evil with good.” This conduct won Gisco the favor and ready obedience of all parties, both of friends and enemies as someone who was both amiable and great. 

  Nevertheless, he achieved little against Timoleon, who had captured some pro-Carthaginian Greek cities.  In 338 BCE, a peace treaty was concluded.  The accord left the Punic possessions in Sicily unchanged, with Syracuse left to deal with the other cities in Sicily.

     While Carthage had been engaged in Sicily, the rise of Macedonia under Philip II and Alexander the Great saw the defeat of the Greek city-states and the fall of the Persian Empire.  All of the mainland Phoencian cities had submitted to Alexander except Tyre. The city was besieged and sacked in 332 BCE. The Carthaginian citizens present in the city were spared.

Alexander the Great

  Carthage sent two delegations to Alexander, one in 332 BCE and another in 323 BCE  However, their success was minimal.  Alexander was building a fleet in Cilicia for the invasion of Carthage, Italy, and Iberia when he died, sparing Carthage the ordeal.  Battle among the three successors of Alexander and the ultimate three-way struggle among the Antigonid, Ptolemaic Egypt, and Seleucid Syria spared Carthage any further clashes with the successor states for some time  Trade relations with Egypt was opened, giving Carthage sea-borne access to the eastern markets, which had been cut off since 480 BCE.

  The next leader of Syracuse was Agathocles, who was born at Thermae Himeraeae (modern name Termini Imerese) in Sicily. The son of a potter who had moved to Syracuse in about 343 BCE, he learned his father's trade, but afterwards entered the army. In 333 BCE, he married the widow of his patron Damas, a distinguished and wealthy citizen. Twice he was banished for attempting to overthrow the oligarchic party in Syracuse ( Chisholm, Hugh, ed.  Encyclopedia Britannica).

Remains of a Greek Temple in Syracuse

    Agathocles then married the Greek Ptolemaic Princess Theoxena in his third marriage she was a stepdaughter of Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt.   In 317 BCE, he returned with an army of mercenaries under a solemn oath to observe the democratic constitution, which was established after they entered the city, but this did not last long. After having banished and murdered some 10,000 citizens, he thus made himself master of Syracuse, he created a strong army and fleet and subdued the greater part of Sicily  In 315 BCE, Agathocles, now tyrant of Syracuse, seized the city of Messene (present-day Messina).   In 311 BCE, he invaded the last Carthaginian holdings on Sicily, breaking the terms of the current peace treaty, and lay siege to Akragas (“Greek and Macedonian Land Battles of the 4th Century B.C” by Fred Eugene Ray, Jr,).  War with Carthage followed.   Hamilcar II led the Carthaginian response and met with tremendous success. In 311 BCE, Agathocles was defeated in the Battle of the Himera River and besieged in Syracuse.  By 310 BCE, he controlled almost all of Sicily while laying siege on Syracuse itself.  In desperation, Agathocles secretly led an expedition of 14,000 men to save his rule by leading a counterstroke against Carthage itself.  The expedition ravaged the Carthaginian possessions in Africa.  From Sicily, troops were recalled under the joint commands of the generals Hanno and Bomilcar (who were two political rivals).  Agathocles defeated them. Hanno himself was killed in the battle.   

  In Africa Agathocles concluded a treaty with Ophellas, ruler of Cyrenaica, who was probably related to Ptolemy of Egypt.   He came from Cyrene with an additional 10,000 troops to aid the Syracusans.  Agathocles eventually murdered Ophellas and took over his army.  Although the Greeks managed to capture Utica, Carthage continued to resist and Syracuse remain blockaded.  

    Meanwhile in Sicily the Carthaginian commanding general Hamilcar led a night attack on Syracuse, which failed, leading to his capture and execution.  Agathocles abandoned his army in Africa and returned to Syracuse where a treaty to divide Sicily into Punic and Greek domains was made.

    In 309 BCE, after Gisco died Bomilcar was made king.  A year after this, after many delays and misgivings, he attempted to seize absolute government control with the aid of 500 citizens and a number or mercenaries, but his followers were persuaded to desert him by promises of pardon and he was taken prisoner and crucified.  One more battle was fought against Agathocles in 307 BCE this time the Greeks lost.  Thereafter the Greek world became preoccupied with their empires in the East and lost interest in expanding their colonies in Sicily.  Greek influence was replaced by Rome as the new rival of Carthage.  During this time, Carthage expanded its commercial sphere of influence, building markets on the African coast, in southern Iberia and among the islands of the western Mediterranean, venturing into the trade routes of the Sahara.  Carthage explored the commercial opportunities beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the Atlantic.  Carthage also established authority directly among the Numidian Berber peoples in the city and surrounding areas who grew more and more prosperous.

    With the death of Bomilcar came the end of the monarchy in Carthage.  Now the Tribunal of 104 took control of the empire.  There was no longer a single ruler or judge of the land.  Carthage was controlled by a council of elders or a senate, under the Tribunal of 104, this led Carthage to become in name as well as fact a republic. 

    According to the Greek historian Philinus, Carthage signed a treaty with Rome in 306 BC.  The main feature of this treaty was the same as the previous ones, that Rome would not support or intervene in Sicily, and Carthage would not influence events in Italy.  The historian Polybius considers this treaty a forgery.  Even so, by this time both sides probably adhered to this policy anyway.

City of Carthage as it might have looked at this time.

   The Tribunal of 104 gained dominance in political matters.  They were known in the past as simply, “Hundred and Four,” or “Council of 104.  It was a Carthaginian tribunal of Judges.  They had been created early in Carthage’s history, and were considered the highest constitutional authority of Carthage.  The 104 were in charge of judging generals and the military, who exercised a great deal of independence from the senate and government of Carthage. The 104 originally had been intended to provide a check to ensure that the military served the needs of the people.  In the constitution, the senate had the right to control the magistrates, but this body of 104 Judges controlled the senate, and therefore the magistrates as well.  Nor was it content to control the senate, it practically succeeded it. No Shophet (Judge), no senator, no general was exempt from their absolute rule.   The 104 held their positions for life until Hannibal’s time