Hamilcar Barca - The Truceless War

The Truceless War

The “Undefeated” army now created a unique problem for Carthage. Had Hamilcar suffered a decisive defeat, casualties and prisoners would have diminished their numbers and Carthage would have had an excuse not to pay anything. But the now the 20,000 men strong army had to be paid their dues fully.

Gisco sensibly sent the troops to Carthage in small groups with intervals in between so the government could pay them off without trouble. However, the Carthaginian authorities waited until the whole army had gathered at Carthage, probably by the summer of 241 BC. As the strain on the Punic population increased, Carthaginian authorities then send them off to Sicca, planning to plead with the whole army to forego their unpaid wages by pointing out the dire financial situation of Carthage. Hamilcar’s former soldiers, who had been kept together only by his personal authority and by the promise of good pay, broke out into open mutiny once Hanno the Great tried to impose this, and marched on Carthage and encamped at Tunis. The soldiers refused to accept Hamilcar as an arbitrator, angered by his refusal to accompany his army from Sicily and retiring to Carthage as soon the treaty with Rome was formalized, and although Carthage at this point conceded all their demands, things soon boiled over and started the conflicted known as the Mercenary War. The rebels, under Spendius and Matho, were joined by 70,000 African subjects of Carthage. The rebels divided their forces, detachments were sent to besiege Utica and Hippo while others cut Carthage off from the mainland, probably in the winter of 241 BC or spring of 240 BC.