The Mercenary War, also called the Libyan…

The Mercenary War, also called the Libyan War and the Truceless War by Polybius, began as a dispute over the payment of money owed the mercenaries between the mercenary armies who had fought the First Punic War on Carthage's behalf, and a destitute Carthage, which has lost most of its wealth due to the indemnities imposed by Rome as part of the peace treaty.

The dispute grows until the mercenaries seize Tunis by force of arms, and directly threaten Carthage, which then capitulates to the mercenaries' demands.

The conflict would end here, did not two of the mercenary commanders, Spendius and Mathos, persuade the Libyan conscripts in the army to accept their leadership, then persuade them that Carthage will exact vengeance for their part in the revolt once the foreign mercenaries are paid and sent home.

They also persuade the combined mercenary armies to revolt against Carthage, and various Libyan towns and cities to back the revolt.

A hotly contested "labor dispute" thus explodes into a full-scale revolt.

An unprepared Carthage, heavily outmatched in terms of troops, money, and supplies, fares poorly in the initial engagements of the war, especially under the generalship of Hanno the Great.