Sicily after the Defeat of the Sicilian Expedition

The impetus for Athenian involvement on Sicily during the Peloponnesian War had come from the Elymian city of Segesta (or Egesta) in the island’s northwest. Segesta had been quarreling with the nearby Greek city of Selinus over some disputed land and asked Athens for aid (Thuc. VI 6; Diod. XII 82-83). With the collapse of Athens’ great expedition (see chap. 14), the Segestans, bereft of allies, yielded the land to Selinus. However, this no longer satisfied the Selinun-tians, who demanded more, with the result that the frightened Segestans now appealed to Carthage (Diod. XIII 43).

There had been peace between Greeks and Carthaginians on Sicily for two generations, but Hannibal, the grandson of Hamilcar, the losing general at Himera in 480 (see chap. 10), happened to be one of the two suffetes (“judges” - the chief executives of Carthage) in that year. Hannibal persuaded the Carthaginian Council to grant him an army (Diod. XIII 43-44), some 100,000 strong, against Selinus in 409 (Timaeus, BNJ 566, Fr. 103). Against so large an army the Selinuntians could do little, and Hannibal took their town and destroyed it (Diod. XIII 54-59). Then he marched on Himera and destroyed it as well. Having avenged his grandfather, he returned home (Diod. XIII 60-62), but a long series of wars between Greeks and Carthaginians had begun.

In 409 and 408 Hermocrates, a Syracusan politician, undertook a private war against the Carthaginians. With mercenaries he occupied Selinus and began raiding Carthaginian territory (Diod. XIII 63). In 406 the Carthaginians responded with a second invasion. Hannibal and a cousin, Himilco, led 120,000 troops (Timaeus, BNJ 566, Fr. 25) over to Sicily. They landed on the southern coast and marched on the Greek city of Acragas which they besieged. Plague in the Carthaginian camp (Hannibal himself died) as well as a Syracusan relief force’s victory over a detachment of the Carthaginian army almost derailed the Carthaginian offensive. However, the cautious Greek generals refused to follow up that victory; and just as it seemed that hunger would destroy the Carthaginians, with forty ships Himilco intercepted Greek ships bringing supplies to Acragas. Now it was the Acragantines’ turn to starve. With supplies running low, they evacuated the city. (Diod. XIII 80-90).