Mercenary War: The Bloody Uprising Against Carthage
The Mercenary War, or Truceless War, was a brutal conflict fought between Carthage and its mutinous soldiers from 241 to 237 BCE, during a lull in the Punic Wars. When Carthage's mercenary soldiers were denied the payment that they had been promised, they revolted, leading to a large-scale rebellion supported by several North African settlements. The Carthaginians initially fared poorly against the rebels, but their luck turned around under the generalship of Hamilcar Barca (circa 275-228 BCE), who scored several decisive victories. Though Carthage ultimately won the war, it was left in a weakened condition, allowing Rome to take advantage by seizing control of Sardinia and Corsica, thereby paving the way for the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE).
In 241 BCE, the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage finally came to an end. After 23 years of perpetual warfare, both rival Mediterranean powers were war-weary and exhausted, but it was the Carthaginian spirit that broke first. No longer able to feed or supply its armies, Carthage was forced to agree to a disadvantageous peace treaty that included ceding control of Sicily to Rome, releasing all prisoners of war, and paying a massive war indemnity over the course of the next decade. The Carthaginian Senate instructed Hamilcar Barca, commander of its forces in Sicily, to finalize the treaty with the Roman Republic before seeing to the demobilization of his army. Hamilcar, however, was disgusted by the treaty, which he viewed as not only unnecessary but humiliating. Rather than follow through with his orders, he resigned the command of his army and left Sicily in grief and rage. It therefore fell to his lieutenant, Gisco, to take charge and oversee the demobilization.
Gisco found himself responsible for an army of 20,000 men, most of whom were foreign mercenaries. It had long been customary in Carthaginian warfare to employ foreigners in its armies, as citizens were typically only expected to fight when the city itself was in danger. These mercenaries came from all corners of the Mediterranean world and included Libyans, Numidians, Iberians, Gauls, Ligurians, and Sicilian Greeks. By this point, most of them were veteran soldiers who had served in Carthage's armies for years, and all of them expected that, now that the war was over, they would collect the several years' back pay that they were owed before heading home. Gisco realized the logistical headache of letting all 20,000 men go back at once, so he decided to divide the army into smaller detachments and send them to Carthage one by one. That way, the Carthaginian government could pay each contingent what it was due and send it back to its homeland before the arrival of the next one, which would avoid putting undue strain on the treasury and would avoid concentrating too many mercenaries in the city at any one time.
When the first group arrived in Carthage, however, they found that their benefactors were unable to pay them. Two decades of war had nearly sucked the Carthaginian treasury dry, and what money was left would be needed to pay the indemnity to Rome. The Carthaginian officials, therefore, decided to negotiate with the mercenaries and try to get them to accept a lower payment. Before doing so, they decided to wait until all the mercenaries had come over from Sicily, housing the mercenaries who had already come over within the walls of Carthage itself. This proved to be a bad idea. The mercenaries quickly became unruly, with the Greek historian Polybius commenting that crimes were committed "in broad daylight as well as by night" (1.63). To preserve law and order inside their city, the Carthaginians relocated the mercenaries to the town of Sicca (modern El Kef), 110 miles (177 km) away. They provided each mercenary with enough gold to meet his immediate needs and promised that the rest of the payment was forthcoming.
At Sicca, the last vestiges of military discipline broke down as the mercenaries were given over to inactivity and boredom. With little else to do, each man calculated the exact amount of money that he was owed. It was amidst this atmosphere of restlessness and heightened expectations that the camp was finally visited by Hanno, the Carthaginian general in charge of North Africa. But rather than doling out the expected payments, Hanno spoke vaguely about Carthage's economic troubles and offered to pay the mercenaries at a rate much lower than they anticipated. Over the next few days, Hanno continued to speak with mercenary leaders, but due to the many different languages spoken throughout the camp, he often had to rely on translators, leading his words to become distorted. It was not long before the mercenaries had had enough. Packing up their belongings, they marched toward Carthage, setting up camp at Tunis, only 14 miles (22 km) south of the great city. They were determined to get what they were owed – one way or another.
⇒ Mercenary War: The Bloody Uprising Against Carthage
