The tyrants who dominated Greek Sicilian cities within the Hellenic Age recruited troopers of fortune for territorial enlargement, and in some instances as a result of these rulers have been wildly unpopular with their citizenry and required bodyguards. “The recruitment of mercenaries even spurred the usage of coinage in Sicily to pay them,” Dr. Reitsema stated.
The Sicily of antiquity, wealthy in assets and strategically situated, was dwelling to each Greek and Carthaginian colonies, which for a very long time coexisted amicably. However when Terillus, tyrant of Himera, was ousted by his personal individuals in 483 B.C., he referred to as on his Carthaginian allies to assist him retake the town.
Three years later, the Carthaginian common Hamilcar Mago sailed from North Africa to Himera with an expeditionary power estimated by Herodotus at greater than 300,000 sturdy. (Trendy historians put the determine nearer to twenty,000.) However cavalry and foot troopers from two neighboring Greek Sicilian city-states, Syracuse and Agrigento, got here to Himera’s support, and Hamilcar’s troops have been routed and his ships set ablaze. When all appeared misplaced, the overall is alleged to have killed himself by leaping right into a pyre.
In 409 B.C., Hamilcar’s grandson, Hannibal Mago, returned to settle scores. This time, the Greek military consisted primarily of residents of Himera, with few reinforcements. The Greeks have been defeated, and the town was razed.
The graves and the western necropolis at Himera have been found in 2009, in the course of the building of a rail line connecting Palermo and Messina. The positioning has since yielded the stays from greater than 10,000 burials. To archaeologists, probably the greatest indicators of a mercenary — international or native — is burial in a communal grave.
“Almost definitely, mercenaries wouldn’t have been recognized to the individuals cleansing up the battlefield and burying the casualties,” Dr. Reitsema stated. Consequently, mercenaries would have been extra seemingly than citizen-soldiers to wind up in nameless mass graves and change into archaeologically invisible, or much less seen, Dr. Reitsema stated.