The Sicilian Wars were a series of wars fought between Carthage and the ancient Greek city-states of Magna Graecia over control of the island of Sicily. Both the Greeks and Phoenician colonists were expert sailors who sought to establish maritime empires across the Mediterranean world, causing hundreds of years of fighting between the two civilizations which resulted in stalemate; the start of the Punic Wars in 264 BC resulted in the Roman Republic's conquest of Sicily from both the Carthaginians and Magna Graecians.
Background[]
After the fall of Mycenae, the Greek world entered a period of city-states which was to last for over a thousand years. Colonists from these city-states, motivated by commercial benefit, resource acquisition, religious motivation, human exploratory desire, and overpopulation and a lack of arable land in Greece led to the establishment of 1,500 Greek colonies across the entire Mediterranean world and beyond (from the Black Sea ports to the coast of Libya and southern Gaul) by 500 BC. Among the most prominent regions settled by the archaic Greeks were the lands of Magna Graecia and Sicily. The east-coast city of Naxos, founded in 734 BC, was the first Greek city founded on the island; Syracuse (located just south of Naxos) was founded by Corinthian settlers a year later. 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, gradually pushing to the west and founding new cities such as Acragas and Selinus. As they expanded west, they came into contact with the Phoenician Carthaginians. The Phoenicians had prospered following the Bronze Age collapse, establishing trading outposts in western Sicily (such as Motya, Panormus, Soluntum, and Lilybaeum) during the late 9th and early 8th centuries BC. Colonists from Tyre founded Carthage in 814 BC, and, by 650 BC, Carthage had gained independence and expanded its influence across the western Mediterranean.
Wars[]
Rise of Carthage[]
Carthaginian troops in Sicily
The Greeks, Carthaginians, and native Sicels lived in peace until 580 BC, when a group of colonists from Knidos attempted to colonize the area near Lilybaeum using force, only to be driven away by the natives and Phoenicians in the first instance of conflict over Sicilian land. In addition, the final severing of Carthage from its mother city of Tyre by the Persian Empire in the late 6th century BC led to Carthage expanding even more vigorously, including the isolated Phoenician trading posts and cities, many of whom sought protection from Carthage, while some resisted absorption.
Rise of Gela[]
Hippocrates of Gela leading his men
Meanwhile, in the Greek regions on the eastern and southern Sicilian coast, intense social stratification, inequality, and Carthaginian pressure led to the rise of tyrants in the Greek city-states. Initially taking root in Selinus, the phenomenon of tyranny spread to Gela in 505 BC, with Cleandrus building the city's first wall. He died in 498 BC, and his brother Hippocrates took the throne for himself. His reign as tyrant initiated a brief golden age for the city, and he first secured elite armed forces for himself (including a cavalry bodyguard, strong infantry units, and Sicilina mercenaries) and expanded across the plain of Catania, besieging Leontini and then striking north at Naxos. He then advanced further up the east coast and besieged the large city of Messana on the northeastern tip of Sicily. He installed the tyrant Skythes to rule the city before decisively defeating a Syracusan army at the Helorus River in 492 BC. The Syracusan population blamed their oligarchs and expelled them from the city, and Hippocrates ultimately agreedto a prisoner exchange in which the Syracusan prisoners were excanged for the city of Camarina. In 491, Hippocrates was killed in battle with the Sicles on Mount Etna, leaving Gela at the head of a seemingly burgeoning empire.
Gelon's troops burning a city
Many cities decided to adopt democracy, only for the aristocratic cavalry commander Gelon to crush them and make himself the new tyrant of Gela and its territories. Messana was lost to pro-Carthaginian insurrectionists, and, in 489 BC, tensions between the pro-Punic Selinus and the anti-Punic Acragas flared up into a few border skirmishes. Gela and Acragas, led by Theron, forged an anti-Carthaginian alliance, and Gelon supported Syracuse's exiled oligarchs (who were based at Casmenae) in retaking their city. Gelon then made Syracuse his new capital, as it included a large harbor and a stalwart island fortress. Gelon left his brother Hieron in control of Gela, and he went on to raze Camarina, Megara Hyblaea, and Euboea before deporting their populations to Syracuse, turning it into the richest and largest city on Sicily as a result.
First Sicilian War[]
A map of Sicily during the 480s BC
Sicily was now split between two rival blocs: Syracuse, Acragas, and their Hellenic allies on the south and east coast, and Carthage and its sympathizers on the north and west of the island. The city of Himera, a critical point connecting the various pro-Punic cities, was ruled by the staunch anti-Syracusan tyrant Terillus, who was also a friend of King Hamilcar Mago of Carthage. In 482, Theron expelled Terillus from Himera, and Terillus appealed to Hamilcar for aid. The opposing forces began making their preparations, and, at the same time, envoys from Greece begged for Syracusan support against Persia during the renewed Greco-Persian Wars. It was widely speculated that Persia and Carthage had made an alliance to destroy Hellenic civilization, but Syracuse sent an envoy to Xerxes with gifts of gold, earth, and water to symbolize submission to Persia. Gelon and Theron had a total of 50,000 infantry (Greek hoplites) and 5,000 cavalry, while the Carthaginians had a 300,000-strong mercenary army consisting of mostly Liby-Phoenicians from North Africa and Iberians from Spain, as well as Ligures, Sardinians, Corsicans, and Sicilian-Greek cavalrymen from Selinus. This army was larger than Gelon's, but inferior in training and equipment. A fleet of hundreds of transport ships and 60 triremes accompanied Hamilcar to Sicily, and he landed at Panormus to restore Terillus to the throne; for him, conquering Sicily was a secondary aim. On the voyage, the Carthaginian fleet was smashed with strong storms, and the vessels carrying the Carthaginian chariots and cavalry were lost. However, the Carthaginians reorganized along the coast and marched east, meeting the Greeks at Himera. The ensuing Battle of Himera saw the Greeks deceive and destroy the Carthaginian army, slaying Hamilcar in the process. While almost the entire Carthaginian army was lost, the Greeks imposed only moderate peace terms, receiving 2,000 silver talents and no territorial gains. Himera, however, was confirmed as part of Greek territory.