The Battle of Himera

Unfortunately, this very important and equally spectacular ancient battle is not nearly as famous as the story of the Spartan/Greek and Persian War, and its often overlooked by mainstream history.

The Battle of Himera

The Battle of Himera (480 BC), fought on the same day as the more famous Battle of Salamis, or on the same day as the Battle of Thermopylae, saw the forces of Gelo, King of Syracuse, and Theron, the sole ruler of Agrigentum, defeating the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar, ending the Carthaginian threat to the Greek cities on the island of Sicily.

Hamilcar had led an army of 300,000 from Carthage, Libya, Iberia, Liguria, Helisycia, Sardinia, and Corsica against the Sicilians.

After winning the battle, Gelon could not find Hamilcar despite exhaustive searching. Herodotus maintains that Hamilcar, unable to obtain a favorable omen during his many sacrifices that day and having heard that his army was on the brink of defeat, leaped into the flames. His body was completely incinerated.

For years afterwards, the Carthaginians offered sacrifices to him and erected monuments of him in their various colonies and a splendid monument in Carthage.

Further reading:
http://www.livius.org/sh-si/sicily/sicily_t06.html



Their is bebate on whether nor not Hamilcar's army was so huge,said to have been a massive force of 300,000 strong,modern scholars claim around 50,000. But if the historical account is true,then that wouldve been surely an army of mythic proportion rivaling even the Persians in the East. Whether or not such an army that size existed or not,it doesn't alter the very impressive victory the Sicilians had achieved . Not only accomplished something unreal for any ancient army at that time, let along the armies of small city-states in Greek speaking Sicily,they also did something even more impressive,with Hamilcar killing himself prior to the battle's climax, the Sicilians not only simply won , they utterly annihilated the gargantuan force. The Sicilians also sent whatever supplies and money they could to their Greeks friends to help with their war against the Persians.

Originally posted by Yiannis tyrannos (two n in the word Tyrannos) of Syracuse is a prime example.

Edited by Tyranos - 02-Oct-2007 at 16:57