

CART II A(; K 



fmhaje, 



ipersti- 



tion of the 



rthajji- 



was wholly unprepared for defence, and the country, 

 !i iiad now for a long period been exempt f i urn the 

 c.ilumities of war, was filled with dismay and con- 

 fusion. Afftthoclei advanced to Tunis, and ravaged 

 the whole neighbourhood of Carthage. In this con- 

 juncture, Humio and Bomilcar were appointed to 

 command the forces, which had been hastily brought 

 i her; and eager to check the tyrant's debtruc- 

 tive ravages, they instantly took the field. They 

 advanced with no small confidence, for their army 

 consisted of forty thousand, while that of Agathocles 

 did not amount to fourteen thousand men. This 

 confidence was their* destruction ; they were routed. 

 Hanno was slain, and Bomilcar, with difficulty, drew 

 off the shattered remains of his army. Diodorus at- 

 tributes this discomfiture in a great degree to the 

 treachery of Bomilcar, who covertly aimed at the 

 sovereign authority, and who wished to convert this 

 invasion of Agathocles into an instrument for effect- 

 ing his design. 



The citizens of Carthage were extremely disheart- 

 ened by the result of this engagement, as they per- 

 suaded themselves that the tutelar deities of their 

 country must have taken part against them. To 

 appease these offended deities, they resolved to re- 

 new their offerings to the Tyrian Hercules ; and as 

 they had failed in the exact performances of the sa- 

 crifices to Saturn, they made horrible atonement, by 

 selecting two hundred infants of the noblest families* 

 for immolation ; and more than three hundred per- 

 sons of both sexes voluntarily offered themselves vic- 

 tims to their bloody idol. 



They then dispatched messengers to Hamilcar, 

 who commanded in Sicily, requiring him to come to 

 relief of his country : he does not, however, seem 

 have been aware of the extreme urgency of the 

 :ase, as he contented himself with dispatching 5000 

 icn. By pressing the siege of Syracuse, he thought 

 to draw Agathocles from his purpose; but in an at- 

 >mpt to surprise it by night, he was slain, and his 



>ops completely discomfited. 



In the mean time Agathocles had made himself 

 laster of all the open country, and Carthage itself 

 just have fallen, had it not been for a mutiny which 

 >roke out in the invader's camp. (Diod. xx.) He 

 succeeded indeed in quelling the mutiny, but by it 

 is efforts were crippled, and he was constrained, in- 

 stead of assaulting the capital itself, to be content 

 with endeavouring to detach the tributary states from 

 its interests. He contrived also to delude Ophelias, 

 one of Alexander's captains, who had established 

 himself in Cyrenaica, to co-operate with a large army ; 

 promising to assist him in becoming sovereign of 

 Africa. Ophelias ( Diod. ubi sup. ) little suspected 

 the snare that was laid for him ; he joined Agathocles 

 with a considerable force; but Agathocles caused him 

 to be assassinated, and persuaded the troops of Cy- 

 renaica to enrol themselves under his standard. A 

 transaction at this time was taking place at Carthage, 

 which, if Agathocles had received timely informa- 

 tion, would have enabled him to put an end to 

 the war. Bomilcar, to whose treachery the loss of 

 the last battle had been attributed, now began open- 

 ly to avow those designs of which he was then only 

 suspected. He endeavoured, with the absietance of 



VOL. V. PART 11. 



^ 



some mercenaries, whom he had contrived to utemble, 



t forcible possession of the chief authority in > *" > "~ .~~" 

 Carthage. His kcheme wa, however, frustrated, 

 he himself crucified in the midbtof the forum. He 

 endured his bufferings with great constancy ; and 

 from the cross he harangued the multitude, and up- 

 braided them with their ingratitude to so many il- 

 lustrious commanders. The singular good fortune The good 

 of Agathocles now began to forsake him. The Car- fortune of 

 thagiman party in Sicily made such rapid progress, 

 that he determined to leave for a season the manage- 

 ment of affairs in Africa, and to return to Sicily. 

 His return to Sicily was as fortunate as he could 

 have hoped; but he was quickly recalled, by the new 

 that his son Archagathus had been twice defeated 

 by the Carthaginians, and that he laboured under the 

 most severe want of provisions. With his usual ac- 

 tivity, he returned on the instant to Africa; his 

 troops were sunk almost into a state of despair from 

 want of food ; he found himself therefore reduced to 

 the necessity of engaging immediately, and the con- 

 sequence was an entire overthrow. The tide of for- 

 tune had now ebbed so low with him, that his only 

 anxiety was to save himself from falling into the 

 hands of the Carthaginians. He succeeded, after He retire* 

 great exertion, in effecting his escape, but he left his ^ rom Af "* 

 children and his remaining troops to the mercy of ca " 

 the conqueror. Enraged to find themselves thus de- 

 serted, they put to death the tyrant's sons. The 

 Carthaginians, however, were well pleased to grant 

 them very easy terms, and purchased the cession of 

 those strong places which were still in their hands, at 

 the price of 300 talents ; engaging to give those 

 who were unwilling to enter into their service safe 

 conduct to Sicily. This treaty was in the following 

 year ratified by Agathocles, with an additional ar- 

 ticle, which, availing themselves of his necessities, 

 they extorted, viz. that all those cities which they 

 had formerly possessed in Sicily should be restored 

 to them. Thus did these most extraordinary wars, 

 which had threatened the destruction of the Cartha- 

 ginian name, terminate in the disappointment and dis- 

 comfiture of their enemy. Their effects, however, 

 did not cease here; the success of Agathoclcs gave 

 to the Romans the first notion of the practicability 

 of invading Africa; and Livy (lib. xxviii. c. 43.) 

 makes Scipio expressly quote this example, to justify 

 the opinion he had given, that the war might with 

 advantage be transferred to the enemy's country. 

 Diodorus is so strongly impressed with the import- 

 ance of these occurrences, that he goes out of his 

 way to point out the peculiar circumstances, \vhich 

 shew the intervention of an over-ruling Providence. 



Agathocles, however, did not entirely forego his Death of A- 

 animosity to the Carthaginians; and he was making gathocles. 

 preparations for another war when death put an end 

 to his plans, (B. C. 298,) and gave to Sicily a pe- 

 riod of tranquillity to which it had so long been a 

 stranger. 



Circumstances now began to connect the Cartha- Treaty 

 ginians and Romans with each other, and gradually with Rome 



ave birth to those jealousies which, in the end, pro- renewed. 

 uced such important consequence!*. The arrival of 

 Pyrrhus in Italy, equally alarmed both nations, and 

 induced them to renew their existing treaties with 

 4c 



