As the Ancient Greek city-states were invaded by the mighty Persian Empire several times
in the 5th century BC, the struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean became central to historians.
However, simultaneously the Greeks were under attack elsewhere, this time by the nascent
Carthaginian empire. In the rich lands of Sicily, these two famous maritime and mercantile
peoples would collide in a lesser-known war, culminating in the Battle of Himera, a battle
that set in motion events which would change the face of the world forever.
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After the fall of Mycenaean civilization during the Bronze Age collapse and the Dark Ages
that followed it, the Greek world entered a period of city-states, and of all the changes
which occurred during this revolutionary era, permanent overseas colonies, established by
migrants from the Greek states, were perhaps the greatest in terms of long-term significance.
It was motivated by many possible factors, including commercial benefit, resource acquisition,
religious motivation, human exploratory desire and, perhaps most prominently, overpopulation
and a lack of arable land in the homeland. Many regions were profoundly affected by the
proliferating Greek settlers, spanning the entire Mediterranean world and even beyond.
From the coasts of the Black Sea to the seaboard of modern Libya and southern Gaul, Greek culture,
material, trade and peoples planted seeds in much of Europe and the Aegean world. By
500 BC, around 1,500 of these independent small city-states existed.
Among the most prominent regions settled by the archaic Greeks were the lands of Magna
Graecia and Sicily in the central Mediterranean. Thucydides tells us that the east coast city
of Naxos, founded in 734 BC, was the first Greek colony on the island. Next to arise
was the city of Syracuse, slightly to the south of Naxos, and founded the year after
Naxos by a Corinthian known as Archias, and his followers. The first truly permanent Greek-Sicilian
settlement was Gela, established in 688 BC. Over the subsequent centuries, additional
waves of settlers came to the rich lands of Sicily, and gradually pushed to the west , where
cities such as Akragas and Selinus came into existence. As the Greeks edged further to
the west, they began to encounter another great Mediterranean civilisation: the Carthaginian
Empire, centered in modern day Tunisia. The peoples who had founded Carthage - the
Phoenicians - were a prosperous thalassocratic people who had long supplied the massive,
West Asian empires with valuable metals and luxury goods, making tremendous profits from
the exchanges. The bronze age collapse of the Greek world conversely ushered in a three-century
long Phoenician golden age among the independent Levantine cities, during which they were free
from serious external interference. The first colonies of the Phoenicians were
likely just trading outposts established during the late ninth and early eighth centuries
BC, some of which were located in Sicily’s western regions, including Motya, Panormus
and Soluntum. More colonists from Tyre, led by the exiled royal, Elissa, supposedly set
off for Africa after a dynastic struggle in the mother city, where they first established
the city of Carthage in 814 BC. By 650 BC Carthage gained its independence and gradually
expanded its trade routes and influence into Africa, the western Mediterranean and Sicily.
It seems as though initially Greeks, natives and Phoenicians existed without much major
conflict. However around 580 BC, a group of colonists from Knidos attempted to colonise
the area near Lilybaeum using force , but were driven away by the natives and Phoenicians
in the first instance of serious conflict over Sicilian land.
Another factor which heightened tensions was the final severing of Carthage from its mother
city of Tyre by the rising Achaemenid Empire, in the last third of the sixth century BC.
In reaction to this, Carthage began to expand even more vigorously. Primary targets were
the now-isolated Phoenician trading posts and cities, some of whom sought protection
from their Phoenician kin in Carthage, though some would resist absorption.
Meanwhile, in the Greek regions on the eastern and southern Sicilian coast, social change
was occurring swiftly. Intense social stratification, inequality and possibly Carthaginian pressure,
led to the rise of tyrants in the cities of Sicily. Initially taking root in cities such
as Selinus, the tyrannos phenomena spread to Gela, where a man named Cleandrus seized
power in 505 BC. He ruled for 7 years and notably built the city’s first wall, possibly
indicating the heightened danger of attack. In 498 BC, Cleandrus died and was succeeded
by his brother, Hippocrates, who took the throne for himself. His reign as tyrant would
initiate a brief golden age for the city of Gela.
Hippocrates first secured elite armed forces for himself. A select bodyguard, a renowned
cavalry force, strong infantry units and a contingent of native Sicilian mercenaries
would be used to create the first ‘empire’ in Sicily . He first targeted the rich and
wealthy Plain of Catania, and besieged the city of Leontini in order to take it for himself.
He was successful in short order and then struck north at the city of Naxos.
Advancing further up the east coast, Hippocrates then put to siege the city of Messana, one
of the largest centers on the island, which was located on the northeasternmost tip of
Sicily . After capturing it, the Gelan tyrant installed a tyrant named Skythes to rule it.
Now turning southwards once again towards the illustrious city of Syracuse, Hippocrates
decisively defeated an army from that city next to the Helorus River in 492 BC. Reacting
to this defeat, the Syracusan population blamed their oligarchs and expelled them from the
city. The Gelan leader waited for the civil strife to give the city to him, rather than
besieging it, but this did not happen. In exchange for the prisoners he had taken in
the battle, he was given the city of Camarina instead. Finally in 491, Hippocrates was killed
during an attack against native Sicilians on the slopes of Mount Etna . He left the
city of Gela at the head of a seemingly burgeoning empire.
Many cities decided to adopt democracy, but they were crushed by an aristocratic cavalry
commander named Gelon, who then made himself the new tyrant of Gela and its new territories.
The details of his first years in power are uncertain, but his position was so insecure
that the crucial Messana was lost to pro-Carthaginian insurrectionists.
489 BC saw tensions between the pro-Punic city of Selinus and the anti-Punic Akragas
flare up, leading to a few border skirmishes. The threat of Carthaginian interference led
to the signing of a treaty between Gela and Akragas, which was also led by a tyrant named
Theron. Ever since its army had been defeated in 492, the city of Syracuse had suffered
from civil strife. Its oligarchs, who had withdrawn to the fortress as Casmenae after
their exile, were now supported by Gelon. With their combined effort, Syracuse fell
into Gelon’s clutches and the oligarchs were reinstalled. The tyrant then made the
newly captured Syracuse his new capital, as it possessed a magnificent harbour and a stalwart
island fortress. Leaving Gela to govern at his new capital,
Gelon left his brother Hieron in his home city. Aiming to boost the prosperity of his
new capital, Gelon razed the Greek cities of Camarina, Megara Hyblaea and Euboea before
deporting their populations to Syracuse, which became the richest and largest city of Sicily
as a result. Sicily was now split between two rival blocs.
Syracuse, Akragas and their Hellenic allies were situated on the south and east coast,
while the Carthaginians and their sympathizers sat on the north and west sides of the island.
The city of Himera was now strategically crucial, as it was a critical point connecting the
various pro-Punic cities across the northern edge of the island. Its leader, the tyrant
Terillus, was a staunch anti-Syracusan, and was even a friend of the Carthaginian ruler
Hamilcar, of the Magonid dynasty. Tensions heightened even more when Theron expelled
Terillus from Himera in 482, who then appealed to his friend Hamilcar for aid. It was clear
that the decisive conflict between the blocs was fast approaching.
As the opposing forces began making their preparations, Greek envoys from the homeland
pleaded for Gelon’s assistance, as this was the time during which massive Persian
armies and fleets, led by Xerxes, attacked. Not in a position to aid as he was occupied
by his own war, Gelon refused. It was widely speculated in Greek propaganda that the Achaemenid
King and Carthage had made an alliance to destroy Hellenic civilisation, but this has
been widely discredited by modern scholars. The Syracusan tyrant supposedly sent an envoy
to the Persian king with gifts of gold, as well as earth and water, the traditional symbols
of submission to Persia. Herodotus tells us that a total of 50,000
infantry and 5,000 cavalry made up Gelon and Theron’s army, but this is likely exaggerated.
We can instead estimate a more modest total of 30,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. The
footmen were probably traditional Greek-style hoplites, well trained, and equipped with
the 3-meter-long Dory spear, Xiphos short sword and the Hoplon round shield in order
to shield the man on their right side. In Carthage, preparations were headed by the
chief magistrate Hamilcar - the friend of Terillus. The elite core of the Phoenician
army was a small contingent of select guard from Carthage itself, but these were heavily
outnumbered by the raising of a huge mercenary force, which Carthage became famous for. Liby-Phoenicians
from North Africa and Iberians from Spain formed the main force, but Ligurians, Sardinians,
Corsicans and Sicilian-Greek cavalrymen from Selinus also joined Hamilcar’s force. Its
total strength is unknown, but the 300,000 men attested to by Herodotus is by no means
credible. The course of the battle suggests that Hamilcar’s army was probably only slightly
larger than Gelon’s, but was inferior in training and equipment.
Setting sail from Carthage, Hamilcar embarked with a fleet of many hundreds of transport
ships, escorted by 60 high-quality Triremes. He initially wanted to land at Selinus in
order to attack Acragas, but changed his mind and headed for Panormus instead. It is likely
that he chose this course of action because restoring Terrilus to the throne of Himera
was his primary goal, to which the conquest of Sicily was a secondary aim.
On the voyage, Carthage’s fleet was smashed by strong storms in the Strait of Sicily and
he lost the vessels carrying his chariots and cavalry. His remaining ships landed at
Panormus, where Hamilcar disembarked his forces, reorganised and began to march east along
the coast, with his fleet sailing parallel to them.
At Himera, Theron was already encamped with his army when the Carthaginians arrived. They
constructed two camps: one for the army, on a hill to the west of the city and one for
the navy on the northern coast. Both were joined by earthworks and palisades. Shortly
after his camps were finished, Hamilcar led his elite Carthaginian units on a reconnaissance
mission and defeated a small force of Theron’s Greeks in a pitched battle outside of the
city. Theron then retreated behind the walls, and sent a messenger to his ally Gelon asking
for help. At the same time, Carthaginian forces foraged in the seemingly secure region. However,
Gelon arrived in the region not long after receiving the request for aid, sent out his
cavalry, and captured the foragers, which restored the morale of Theron’s forces.
Supposedly on the same day as the Battle of Salamis, the actions of Gelon’s cavalry
prompted Hamilcar to send a message of his own south, to his allies in Selinus, requesting
cavalry reinforcements to replace his own which had been lost at sea. Unfortunately
for him, the letter was intercepted by Gelon, who planned to use his own horsemen to impersonate
Hamilcar's allies and infiltrate the sea camp. The saboteurs left the Syracusan camp under
the veil of darkness and, at daybreak, arrived at the Carthaginian sea camp, quickly being
allowed into the enemy fortification. Seeing their comrade’s success from the slopes
of the hill, Gelon ordered his army to advance on the enemy army camp, whose inhabitants
then formed up on the hilltop. Battle was joined with the Greeks charging up the slopes,
prompting a long and fierce struggle during which neither side gained any ground.
Shortly after the main battle began, Hamilcar, who was inside the sea camp, was killed by
the saboteurs, who then set fire to the beached ships, causing massive amounts of confusion.
The ships that could do, set sail and retreated. When news of Hamilcar’s death reached the
melee on the hillside, the demoralised Carthaginians routed and fled to the camp, while the Greeks
rallied and pushed forward. It seemed like victory would now come easily,
but as Gelon’s army scattered to loot the camp, Hamilcar’s veteran Iberian mercenaries
regrouped and attacked the now disorganised Greek forces, almost turning the battle for
Carthage. Despite this admirable recovery, Theron now burst out of the city with his
own army and attacked the Iberians from the flank. This was the final straw, and the remaining
Carthaginian forces either routed towards the inland hills or the few remaining Phoenician
ships. Almost the entire Punic army was destroyed,
but the Greeks only imposed moderate terms on their defeated foe. Carthage paid 2,000
silver talents as a war indemnity but lost no territory, while Himera was confirmed as
part of Greek territory. The wars on Sicily would continue for the next century and we
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