Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/346

332 HANNIBAL. thaginians determined on sending another, and a still greater, armament to Sicily, he at first declined the command, and was only induced to accept it by having his cousin Himilco associated with him. After making great preparations, and assembling an immerse force of mercenary troops, Hannibal took the lead, with a squadi.-on of fifty triremes, but was quickly followed by Himilco, with the main anny ; and having landed their whole force in safety, they proceeded immediately to invest Agrigentum, at that time one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in Sicily. But while the two generals were pushing their attacks with the utmost digour on several points at once, a pestilence sud- venly broke out in the camp, to which Hannibal himself fell a victim, B. c. 406. (Diod. xiii. 80 — 86.). 3. Father of Hanno, who joined Hieron in the siege of Messana. [Hanno, No. 8,] 4. A Carthaginian general, who happened to be stationed with a fleet at Lipara, when Hieron, after gaining a great victory over the Mamertines, was preparing to follow up his advantage, and besiege Messana itself. The Carthaginians were at this time hostile to the Mamertines, and, in name at least, friendly to Hieron ; but Hannibal was alarmed at the prospect of the latter obtaining so important an accession of power ; he therefore has- tened to the camp of Hieron, and induced him to grant terms to the Mamertines, while he himself succeeded in introducing a Carthaginian garrison into the city of Messana. (Diod. Exc. HoescM. xxii. 15. p. 500.) These events must have occurred in 270 B. c. (See Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. ii. p. 268, not.) It may probably have been this same Hannibal who is mentioned by Diodorus {Eiicc. Hoeschel. xxiii. 5) as arriving at Xiphonias with a naval force to the support of Hieron, but too late to prevent that prince from concluding peace with the Romans, B. c. 263. 5. Son of Cisco (Zonar. viii. 10), and com- mander of the Carthaginian forces at Agrigentum, when it was besieged by the Romans during the first Punic war, B. c. 262. It seems not improbable that this may be the same person with the pre- ceding, but we have no evidence by which to decide the fact, and the name of Hannibal appears to have been so common at Carthage, that it can by no means be assumed. Hannibal had a con- siderable army under his command, yet he did not venture to face the Romans in the field, and shut himself up within the walls of Agrigentum. The Roman consuls, L. Postumius Megellus and Q. Mamilius Vitulus, established their armies in two separate fortified camps, which they united by lines of intrenchment, and thus proceeded to blockade the city. Hannibal was soon reduced to great dis- tress, for want of provisions, but held out, in hopes of being relieved by Hanno, who had advanced as far as Heraclea to his support. [Hanno, No. 8.] But the operations of the latter were unsuccessful, and when he at length ventured on a decisive eifort, he was completely defeated. Hereupon Hannibal, who had himself made an unsuccessful attack upon the Roman camp, during their engage- ment with Hanno, determined to abandon the town, and succeeded, under cover of the night, in forcing his way through the enemy's lines, and .making good his retreat with what troops remained to him in safety to Panormus. Agrigentum itself was im- mediately afterwards stormed and plundered by HANNIBAL. the Romans. (Polyb. i. 17 — 19 ; Zonar. viii. 10 ; Oros. iv. 7.) Hannibal's attention was henceforth directed principally to carrying on the contest by sea : with a fleet of sixty ships, he ravaged the coasts of Italy, which were then almost defence- less ; and the next year (b. c. 260), on learning that the consul, Cn. Cornelius Scipio Asina, had put to sea Avith a squadron of seventeen ships, he dispatched Boodes, with twenty gallies, to meet him at Lipara, where the latter succeeded by a stratagem in capturing Scipio, with his whole squadron. After this success, Hannibal put to sea in person, with fifty ships, for the purpose of again ravaging the coasts of Italy, but, falling in unex- pectedly with the whole Roman fleet, he lost mai^y of his ships, and with difficulty made his escape to Sicily with the remainder. Here, however, he joined the rest of his fleet, and C. Duilius, having taken the command of that of the Romans, almost im- mediately brought on a general action off Mylae. Hannibal, well knowing the inexperience and want of skill of the Romans in naval warfare, and having apparently a superior force, had anticipated an easy victory, but the valour of the Romans, together with the strange contrivance of the corvi^ or board- ing bridges, gained them the advantage ; the Car- thaginians were totally defeated, and not less than fifty of their ships sunk, destroyed, or taken. Hannibal himself was obliged to abandon his own ship (a vessel of seven banks of oars, which had formerly belonged to Pyrrhus), and make his escape in a small boat. He hastened to Carthage, where, it is said, he contrived by an ingenious stratagem to escape the punishment so often inflicted by the Carthaginians on their unsuccessful generals. (Po- lyb. i. 21—23 ; Zonar. viii. 10, 11 ; Oros. iv. 7 ; Diod. Ejcc. Vatic, xxiii. 2 ; Dion Cass. Frag. Vat. 62 ; Polyaen. vi. 16. § 5.) He Avas, nevertheless, deprived of his command, but was soon after (ap- parently the very next year, 259) again sent out, with a considerable fleet, to the defence of Sardinia, which had been attacked by the Romans under L. Scipio. Here he was again unfortunate, and, having lost many of his ships, was seized by his own mutinous troops, and put to death. (Polyb. i. 24; Oros. iv. 8; Zonar. viii. 12. There is some discrepancy between these accounts, and it is not clear whether he perished in the year of Scipio's operations in Sardinia, or in the following consul- ship of Sulpicius Paterculus, B. c. 258.) 6. A son of the preceding, was one of the Car- thaginian officers at Lilybaeum during the siege of that city by the Romans. He was emploj-^ed by the general, Himilco, to treat with the disafliected Gaulish mercenaries, and succeeded in inducing them to remain faithful. (Polyb. L 43.) 7. Son of Hamilcar (perhaps the Harailcar who was opposed to Kegulus [Hamilcar, No. 7]), was chosen by the Carthaginians, as a distinguished naval officer and a friend of their admiral, Adher- bal, to command the squadron destined for the relief of Lilybaeum in the 15th year of the first Punic War, B. c. 250. That city was at the time blockaded by the Romans both by sea and land ; but Hannibal, sailing from Carthage with fifty ships to the small islands of the Aegusae, lay there awaiting a favourable wind ; and no sooner did this arise, than he put out to sea, and spreading all sail, stood straight into the harbour of Lilybaeum, before the Romans could collect their ships to op- pose him. He thus landed a force of 10,000 men