They were supported by an uprising of Carthage's oppressed African territories and 70,000 local recruits flocked to join them, bringing supplies and finance.

In 238 BC Mathos and the remnants of the rebel army left the area around Carthage and marched 160 km (100 mi) south to the wealthy port city of Leptis Parva.

[1] A dispute over the payment of wages owed developed and late in the year the troops mutinied under the leadership of Spendius and Matho starting the Mercenary War.

[13][14] Meanwhile, the rebels under Mathos had blockaded the Carthaginian-supporting cities of Utica and Hippo (modern Bizerte)[15] and put an army under Spendius into the field.

[21] Few of the original mutineers remained, after the previous three years of fierce campaigning, to participate in this battle; most of the rebel army was made up of indigenous North Africans.

[30] It was a set piece battle, with no subtleties of manoeuvre – Mathos was not a proficient general and the Carthaginians were so superior that they felt no need for stratagems.

[22] Most of the towns and cities which had not already come to terms with Carthage now did so, with the exceptions of Utica and Hippo, whose inhabitants feared vengeance for their massacre of Carthaginians.

[34] Immediately after the war Hamilcar led many of his veterans on an expedition to expand Carthaginian holdings in southern Iberia; this was to become a semi-autonomous Barcid fiefdom.

In 218 BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged the Roman-protected town of Saguntum in eastern Iberia, providing the spark which ignited the Second Punic War.