The Battle of Utica took place early in 240 BC between a Carthaginian army commanded by Hanno and a force of rebellious mutineers possibly led by Spendius.

[1] While the war with Rome was being fought on Sicily, the Carthaginian general Hanno was leading a series of campaigns which greatly increased the area of Africa controlled by Carthage.

[2][3] Hanno was rigorous in squeezing taxes out of the newly conquered territory in order to pay for both the war with Rome and his own campaigns.

[11] Freed of their long period of military discipline and with nothing to do, the men grumbled among themselves and refused all attempts by the Carthaginians to pay them less than the full amount due.

Frustrated by the Carthaginian negotiators' attempts to haggle, all 20,000 troops marched to Tunis, 16 km (10 mi) from Carthage.

Gisco, who had a good reputation with the army, was brought over from Sicily in late 241 BC and despatched to the camp with enough money to pay most of what was owed.

[12][13][14] The rebels declared Spendius, an escaped Roman slave who faced death by torture if he were recaptured, and Mathos, a Berber dissatisfied with Hanno's attitude towards tax raising from Carthage's African possessions, their generals.

The news of a formed, experienced, anti-Carthaginian army in the heart of its territory spread rapidly, and many cities and towns rose in rebellion.

Provisions, money and reinforcements poured in; eventually an additional 70,000 men according to the ancient Greek historian Polybius, although many would have been tied down in garrisoning their home towns against Carthaginian retribution.

Roman sources refer to these foreign fighters derogatively as "mercenaries", but the modern classicist Adrian Goldsworthy describes this as "a gross oversimplification".

[27][28] Both Spain and Gaul provided experienced infantry; unarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted.

[38] The fortifications of the rebel camp are believed to have been makeshift barricades, as archaeological investigations have not found any signs of trenches or ramparts.

[42] Many Carthaginian soldiers proceeded to loot the rebels' baggage, dispersed to forage in the surrounding countryside or accompanied Hanno into Utica.

[41] The Carthaginians were accustomed to fighting the militias of the Numidian cities, who once broken would scatter in all directions and take days to regroup.

[42] The two Carthaginian forces fought the rebels in a fierce and bitter campaign, wearing them down before finally defeating them at the Battle of Leptis Parva in 238 BC.