In 240 BC in what is now north-west Tunisia, a Carthaginian army led by Hamilcar Barca defeated a rebel army led by Spendius and Autaritus, after 2,000 Numidian cavalry led by Naravas defected from the rebels to Carthage. The precise location of the battle is unknown. Carthage was fighting a coalition of mutinous soldiers and rebellious African cities in the Mercenary War which had started in 241BC.
Hamilcar's army had manoeuvred to bring rebel-controlled towns back to Carthage while a rebel army under the command of Spendius, which included a contingent of Gauls under Autaritus and a group of Numidian cavalry under Naravas, shadowed it. Unable to confront the Carthaginian war elephants and cavalry on open ground, the rebels stayed on higher and rougher terrain and harassed the Carthaginian army. The Carthaginians became trapped in a mountain valley and their situation was bleak. Naravas defected to Carthage, bringing his 2,000 cavalry with him. Hamilcar, with his route of retreat now clear, deployed for battle. Spendius chose to engage and in a hard-fought battle was heavily defeated.
Spendius perceived Hamilcar's generous treatment of rebel prisoners as the motivation behind Naravas's defection and feared the disintegration of his army. To remove the possibility of any goodwill between the sides, he had 700 Carthaginian prisoners tortured to death. The Carthaginians, in turn, killed their prisoners. From this point, neither side showed any mercy, and the unusual ferocity of the fighting caused the contemporary historian Polybius to term it the "Truceless War". The rebel army was finally defeated in 238 BC, with the last rebel city surrendering in 237 BC.
Background
The First Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC, and lasted for 23 years, from 264 to 241 BC. The two powers struggled for supremacy primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. While the war with Rome was being fought on Sicily, the Carthaginian general Hanno led a series of campaigns which greatly increased the area of Africa controlled by Carthage. He extended its control to Theveste (modern Tébessa, in Algeria) south west of their capital. Hanno was rigorous in squeezing taxes out of the newly conquered territory to pay for both the war with Rome and his own campaigns. Half of all agricultural output was taken as war tax, and the tribute due from all towns and cities was doubled. These exactions were harshly enforced, causing extreme hardship in many areas.
After immense material and human losses on both sides during the First Punic War, the Carthaginians were defeated. The Carthaginian Senate ordered the commander of its forces on Sicily, Hamilcar Barca, to negotiate a peace treaty on whatever terms he could; convinced the surrender was unnecessary he left Sicily in a rage, delegating negotiations to his deputy Gisco. The Treaty of Lutatius was agreed and brought the First Punic War to an end.
Mutiny
The post-war evacuation of the Carthaginian army of 20,000 men from Sicily was left in the hands of Gisco. He split the army into small detachments based on their regions of origin and sent these back to Carthage one at a time. He anticipated they would be promptly paid the several years' back pay they were owed and hurried on their way home. The Carthaginian authorities decided instead to wait until all the troops had arrived and then attempt to negotiate a settlement at a lower rate. They despatched the returning troops to Sicca Veneria (modern El Kef), away.
Freed from their long period of military discipline and with nothing to do, the men grumbled among themselves and refused all attempts by the Carthaginians to pay them less than the full amount due. Frustrated by the Carthaginian negotiators' attempts to haggle, all 20,000 troops marched to Tunis, from Carthage. Panicking, the Senate agreed to payment in full. The mutinous troops responded by demanding even more. Gisco, who had a good reputation with the army, was brought over from Sicily in late 241 BC and despatched to the camp with enough money to pay most of what was owed. He started to disburse this, with promises that the balance would be paid as soon as it could be raised, when discipline broke down. Several soldiers insisted no deal with Carthage was acceptable, a riot broke out, men who stayed loyal to Carthage were stoned to death, Gisco and his staff were taken prisoner, and his treasury was seized.
The rebels declared Spendius, an escaped Roman slave who faced death by torture if he were recaptured, and Mathos, a Berber dissatisfied with Hanno's attitude towards tax raising from Carthage's African possessions, their generals. The news of a formed, experienced, anti-Carthaginian army in the heart of its territory spread rapidly and many cities and towns rose in rebellion. Provisions, money and reinforcements poured in; eventually another 70,000 men according to the ancient Roman historian Polybius, although many would have been tied down in garrisoning their home towns against Carthaginian retribution. The pay dispute had become a full-scale revolt. The three years of war that followed are known as the Mercenary War and threatened Carthage's existence as a state.
Opposing armies
Carthaginian armies were nearly always composed of foreigners; citizens only served in the army if there was a direct threat to the city of Carthage. Roman sources refer to these foreign fighters derogatively as "mercenaries", but the modern historian Adrian Goldsworthy describes this as "a gross oversimplification". They served under a variety of arrangements; for example, some were the regular troops of allied cities or kingdoms seconded to Carthage as part of formal arrangements. The majority of these foreigners were from North Africa.
Libyans provided close-order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; as well as close-order shock cavalry carrying spears (also known as "heavy cavalry")both were noted for their discipline and staying power. Numidians provided light cavalry who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat, and javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers. Both Spain and Gaul provided experienced infantryunarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. Specialist slingers were recruited from the Balearic Islands. The close-order Libyan infantry and the citizen militia would fight in a tightly packed formation known as a phalanx. Sicilians and Italians had also joined up during the war to fill the ranks. The Carthaginians frequently employed war elephants; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time. Both armies are likely to have been composed of similar types and proportions of troops, except the rebels were weaker in cavalry and lacked elephants.
Prelude
Mathos ordered two groups of rebels north to blockade the two main citiesother than Carthagethat had not already come over: the major ports of Utica and Hippo (modern Bizerte). Hanno, as the commander of Carthage's African army, took the field with an army of 8,000–10,000 men and 100 war elephants. Most of the Africans in his force remained loyal; they were accustomed to acting against their fellow Africans. His non-African contingent also remained loyal. An unknown number of Carthaginian citizens were incorporated into this army.
In early 240 BC Hanno was defeated while attempting to raise the siege of Utica at the Battle of Utica. For the rest of the year Hanno skirmished with the rebel force, repeatedly missing opportunities to bring it to battle or to place it at a disadvantage; the military historian Nigel Bagnall writes of Hanno's "incompetence as a field commander". At some point during 240 BC the Carthaginians raised another army, of approximately 10,000. It included deserters from the rebels, newly hired mercenaries, citizen militia, 2,000 cavalry, and 70 elephants, and was placed under the command of Hamilcar Barca, who had previously led the Carthaginian forces on Sicily. Hamilcar led this force out from Carthage and a rebel army of 25,000 under Spendius moved to attack it in the Battle of the Bagradas River. After a complex battle, the Carthaginians routed the rebels, who suffered losses of 8,000 men.
Hamilcar was appointed joint commander of the Carthaginian army, alongside Hanno, but there was no cooperation between the two. While Hanno manoeuvred against Mathos to the north near Hippo, Hamilcar confronted several towns and cities that had gone over to the rebels, bringing them back to Carthaginian allegiance with varying mixtures of diplomacy and force. He was shadowed by a superior-sized rebel force under Spendius, assisted by the experienced Gallic commander Autaritus. Spendius felt unable to face Hamilcar's cavalry and elephants in open battle and so stayed on higher and broken ground, where much of the effect of the cavalry and elephants would have been nullified. From here the rebels harried the Carthaginian foragers and scouts. A war of attrition worked for the rebels; with their superior numbers, they could withstand more losses than the Carthaginians. Spendius probably also awaited reinforcements and a favourable situation in which to engage Hamilcar's army. It is not known what measures Hamilcar employed to counter the harassment tactics of Spendius, or the exact route Hamilcar followed after his victory over the rebels at the Bagradas River. Hamilcar's army by this time consisted of between 10,000 and 15,000 men, as well as his elephants. Spendius' force totalled some 20,000–25,000 men: half or more were freshly recruited Libyans, 8,000 were veterans from Sicilymany of them Gauls, under Autaritusand there were 2,000 Numidian cavalry.
Engagement Hamilcar marched a long distance to the east during this campaign, but just how far is not known. At some point during these manoeuvres he and the Carthaginian army became trapped in a mountain valley. Locations suggested for the battle by modern historians cover a swathe of territory and include: close to Tunis; near modern Grombalia or close to ancient Nepheris; to the east of the lower Bagradas or close to the Mellane river; between Utica and Hippacra; or near modern Souk al Jamaa. It is unclear from the sources whether Hamilcar becoming trapped was because of a successful stratagem by Spendius, or a failed attempt by Hamilcar to attack an isolated part of the rebel army. Spendius blocked the valley exit with his Libyan contingent, threatening the camp with his main body while the Numidians took a position to the Carthaginian rear. The exact location of this position is not known: there has been much modern speculation, with widely separated possibilities being suggested, but no consensus has been reached. The Carthaginian position was well fortified and had access to water, but food and animal fodder was limited. If Hamilcar was to avoid starvation, he was going to have to leave his camp and attempt to fight his way out against a prepared opponent, with a large enemy force in his rear. Polybius considered this "a great dilemma".