THE THUNDERBOLT OF CARTHAGE

Born around 275 BCE, Hamilcar Barca grew to manhood in an expanding Mediterranean commercial empire centred on the wealthy North African city of Carthage. By the middle of the third century BCE, Carthage controlled almost all of North Africa, held large swathes of western Sicily and Sardinia, and had numerous outposts in Spain and the Balearic Isles.

The expansion of Carthaginian power across Sicily in the 3rd century BCE brought it into conflict with Rome which, by the 270s BCE, had come to dominate the Italian peninsula. The Romans feared a foreign power controlling Sicily, which lay too close to Italy for their comfort, and went to war over the island in 264 BCE.

The First Punic War, as it became known (the Romans called the Carthaginians ‘Punics’ on account of their Phoenician origin) was a long and bitter one. The Romans tried everything they could to dislodge the Carthaginians from the island, but failed, with the Carthaginians stubbornly clinging to their last remaining fortress cities of Lilybaeum and Drepana.

In 247 BCE, Carthage sent a new general to take command of the stalled war with the Romans. This was Hamilcar Barca, who would