Theron

Gelo, recruiting mercenaries widely, builds up a strong fleet and conquers the nearby Ionian Greek cities of Euboea and …

…Megara Hyblaea in about 483 BCE, selling their common people into slavery and bringing their oligarchs to Syracuse.

He controls the Greek and Sicel communities of east Sicily and becomes linked by marriage with Theron, tyrant of Akragas (later the Roman Agrigentum, modern Agrigento).

The city of Himera had once requested Phalaris, tyrant of Akragas (570-554 BCE), to rule them.

Theron in 483 BCE emulates Phalaris when he deposes Terillus and adds Himera to his domain.

Terillos had come to power in Himera after expelling the ruling oligarchs (who had taken refuge in Akragas), and he probably lacks popular support, which may have been exploited by Theron.

Terillos requests the aid of Hamilcar, Suffet of Carthage.

Anaxilas also lobbies on his behalf, and sends his own children as hostages to Carthage as a token of loyalty.

Akragas, another Doric city, has meanwhile taken over neighboring Sican and Sicel lands under the tyrant Theron.

To forestall any conflicts between Akragas and Syracuse, Gelo and Theron have married into each other’s families, thus creating a united front against the Sicels and Ionian Greeks of Sicily.

Anaxilas of Rhegion, one of the most important cities in Magna Graecia, who had captured Zankle from Gela in 490 BCE, has allied himself with Terillus of Himera to counter this Doric threat, and married the daughter of Terillus.

Himera and Rhegion next become allies of Carthage; the tyrants even build up personal relationships with the Magonid dynasty of Carthage.

Selinus, a Doric city whose territory borders Theron's domain, also becomes a Carthaginian ally—perhaps the fear of Theron and the destruction of Megara (mother city of Selinus) by Gelo, had played a part in this decision.

Thus, three power blocks are delicately balanced in Sicily by 483 BCE—Ionians dominating the north, Carthage the west, Dorians the east and south.

The Sicels and Sicans in the interior remain passive, and if not directly under Greek rule, do not hinder the movements of their forces.

The Elymians join the Carthaginian alliance.

The mainland Greeks send an embassy to Gelo requesting aid against Xerxes.

Gelo at first complains that the Greeks had spurned his request of aid against the Carthaginians in the past, but he offers to sent twenty-four thousand foot, four thousand horse and two hundred warships in addition to fully provisioning the combined Greek force in Greece if he were to be made the supreme commander.

The Spartans object to this, and Gelo then asks to be the commander of either the land or naval forces in exchange for his help.

The Athenian envoy then objects, and the Greeks are dismissed.

Gelo also hedges his bets, sending three ships under Cadmus of Kos to Delphi, with instructions to offer his submission to Xerxes in case of a Persian victory.

Hamilcar, delayed by three years, leads a Carthaginian expedition to Sicily, which coincides with the expedition of Xerxes against mainland Greece in 480 BCE.

He is said to have assembled an army numbering three hundred thousand soldiers from Iberia, Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, Gaul and Africa under the command of a body of Carthaginian officers, along with war chariots, two hundred warships and three thousand transports for the venture.

Hamilcar had chosen not to sail to Selinus and then attack Akragas, although it lies on the coast closest to Carthage.

The Carthaginian fleet, escorted by sixty triremes, sails to Panormus instead.

Hamilcar has chosen this course probably because restoring Terrilus was his primary objective.

The conquest of Sicily, if this indeed is a consideration, takes second place to his duty as a guest friend of Terrilus.

The fleet is battered by storms at sea, losing the ships carrying the chariots and horses—which is to be a significant factor in the coming battle.

The Greek fleet, able to muster two hundred ships, does not contest the crossing; in fact, it will play no part in the coming battle.

Hamilcar spends three days reorganizing his forces at Panormus, and repairing his battered fleet.

The Carthaginians march along the Sicilian coast to Himera, with the fleet sailing alongside.

Situated on the western bank of the River Himera, the city sits atop a hill (three hundred to four hundred feet high) that is steep in the northern, western, and eastern sides but gradually slopes to the south.

There are hills to the west and south of the city.

The Carthaginians erect two camps, joined by siege works: the Sea camp is set to the north of Himera by the sea, surrounded by a palisade and a ditch.

The army is billeted in a separate camp to the south on a low hill west of Himera.

Theron is already present in Himera with his army, but the Greeks do not interfere with Carthaginian operations.

The Greek allies of Hamilcar (Greeks of Selinus and Anaxilas of Rhegion) are absent—and never join the battle.

It is not known if Hamilcar wished to build siege weapons at Himera or settle the issue through battle.

After the camps are erected, the Punic ships drop off provisions at the sea camp and are sent to Sardinia and Africa for more supplies.

Twenty triremes patrols the sea, the rest of the ships are beached in the sea camp.

Himera is not fully invested—the east and south sides were open.

Hamilcar leads a picked body of men on reconnaissance mission, and defeats the Greeks in a pitched battle outside Himera.

The Greeks block the west gates of Himera and their morale also falls, while the Carthaginian foragers range the territory of Himera.

Theron sends messages to Gelo, who arrives with his army and encamps across the river.

Gelon's cavalry manages to capture many of the foragers, as Hamilcar has no cavalry present to counter his moves.

The morale in Himera improves, and the bricked-up gates are cleared on Gelo's orders.

The different versions of the battle given by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus are hard to reconcile; Diodorus provides a more detailed account.

Herodotus noted that Sicilian tradition held that this battle and the battle of Salamis were fought on the same day.

The Greek and Punic armies fight from dawn on through the day, while Hamilcar watches the battle from his camp and offers sacrifices to Baal in a huge fire.

Sometime after the battle is joined, disguised Greek horsemen kill Hamilcar while he is preparing the sacrifice, and then set fire to the beached ships, causing great confusion at the sea camp.

However, it is not known what further role the Greek cavalry played in the battle.

The Carthaginians rush to launch whatever ships they can save and some of the ships, overcrowded with soldiers, leave the site altogether.

When the news of Hamilcar's death and the burning of ships reaches the fighting armies, the Greeks press harder and rout the Carthaginians, who flee to their camp.

Gelo's army storms the Carthaginian camp and the Greeks scatter to loot the tents.

The Iberians of the Carthaginian army reform, then attack the now disordered Greeks, inflicting severe casualties.

The Greeks fight back, but they are hard pressed and the Iberians get the upper hand in the struggle.

At this critical juncture, Theron decides to join the battle.

He directs his attack on the flank and rear of the Iberian position inside the camp and also sets fire to tents near them.

The Iberians finally give way, and retreat to the ships still afloat.

Other Carthaginian survivors leave the camp and retreat to a hill inland, where they attempt to defend themselves.

The hill is waterless and they are ultimately forced to surrender.

About half of the Carthaginian army and majority of the fleet is destroyed, with numerous prisoners and rich booty falling into Greek hands.

Diodorus commented that the surviving Carthaginian ships were sunk in a storm on their return journey to Africa.

Ten thousand mass graves from the era show over two hundred thousand Greek dead, buried ten to fifteen per grave on the site).

The army had no siege engines and the Etruscans and the Elymians, allies in past struggles against Greeks, were not part of it.

Gelo and Theron do not attack Rhegion or the Carthaginian territory in Sicily after the battle, nor does Carthage, which initially mans the city walls and prepares for a Greek invasion of Africa, renew the struggle.

Gelo offers mild terms to the Carthaginian embassy that arrives asking for a ceasefire.

Carthage pays two thousand silver talents as indemnity and erects two monuments in the memory of Himera, but loses no territory.

Selinus and Rhegion also come to terms with Syracuse, and Anaxilas marries his daughter to Hiero, brother of Gelo, who will succeed him as tyrant of Syracuse in 478.