Revolt of Hippo Zarytus and Utica
Alarmed by the recklessness displayed by the enemy,
note
Hamilcar summoned Hanno to join him, being convinced that
a consolidation of the two armies would give him the best
chance of putting an end to the whole war. Such of the
enemy as he took in the field he put to execution on the spot,
while those who were made prisoners and brought to him he
threw to the elephants to be trampled to death; for he now
made up his mind that the only possibility of
finishing the war was to entirely destroy the
enemy. But just as the Carthaginians were
beginning to entertain brighter hopes in regard to the
war, a reverse as complete as it was unexpected brought
their fortunes to the lowest ebb. For these two generals,
when they had joined forces, quarrelled so bitterly with
each other, that they not only omitted to take advantage of
chances against the enemy, but by their mutual animosity gave
the enemy many opportunities against themselves. Finding
this to be the case, the Carthaginian government sent out
instructions that one of the generals was to retire, the other to
remain, and that the army itself was to decide which of them
it should be. This was one cause of the reverse in the fortunes
of Carthage at this time. Another, which was almost contemporaneous, was this. Their chief hope of furnishing the army
with provisions and other necessaries rested upon the supplies
that were being brought from a place to which they give the
-- 92 --
name of Emporiae: but as these supplies were on their way,
they were overtaken by a storm at sea and entirely destroyed.
note This was all the more fatal because Sardinia was lost to them
at the time, as we have seen, and that island had always been
of the greatest service to them in difficulties of this sort. But
the worst blow of all was the revolt of the
cities of Hippo Zarytus and Utica, the only
cities in all Libya that had been faithful to
them, not only in the present war, but also at the time of the
invasion of Agathocles, as well as that of the Romans. To
both these latter they had offered a gallant resistance; and,
in short, had never at any time adopted any policy hostile to
Carthage. But now they were not satisfied with simply revolting
to the Libyans, without any reason to allege for their conduct.
With all the bitterness of turncoats, they suddenly paraded
an ostentatious friendship and fidelity to them, and gave
practical expression to implacable rage and hatred towards the
Carthaginians. They killed every man of the force which had
come from Carthage to their aid, as well as its commander,
and threw the bodies from the wall. They surrendered their
town to the Libyans, while they even refused the request of
the Carthaginians to be allowed to bury the corpses of their
unfortunate soldiers, Mathōs and Spendius were so elated by
these events that they were emboldened to attempt Carthage
itself. But Barcas had now got Hannibal as his coadjutor,
who had been sent by the citizens to the army in the place of
Hanno,—recalled in accordance with the sentence of the
army, which the government had left to their discretion in
reference to the disputes that arose between the two generals.
Accompanied, therefore, by this Hannibal and by Narávas,
Hamilcar scoured the country to intercept the supplies of
Mathōs and Spendius, receiving his most efficient support in
this, as in other things; from the Numidian Narávas.
