Agathocles managed to gather the remains of his army and retreat to Syracuse, but lost control of Sicily.

[3] The specific terms of the treaty stipulated that the Sicilian Greek towns Heraclea Minoa, Selinunte and Himera were to be controlled by Carthage as had previously been the case, and all the others were to be autonomous under the hegemony of Syracuse.

[5] Hamilcar was sent to Sicily with 130 triremes, 2,000 citizen soldiers, 10,000 Libyans,[A] 1,000 mercenaries, 200 Etruscans, and 1,000 Balearic slingers.

After the army's departure from Carthage, sixty triremes and two hundred supply ships were lost in a storm.

[6] Agathocles recognized that the Carthaginian army was superior to his own and feared that several of the cities under his control would desert him for Carthage.

The hill acquired its name, which literally means 'lawless', because Phalaris had reputedly tortured people there in his brazen bull.

Diodorus attributes this to sayings from earlier times which foretold that a great number of men were destined to die in battle at this place.

When Greeks were driving away beasts of burden from the enemy camp, Carthaginian troops pursued them.

They had no opportunity to form a line of battle and fought fiercely for the moat, but the Greeks won the contest.

[9] The Greeks withdrew over a distance of forty stades, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km), while being pursued by the Carthaginian cavalry.

Because the pursuit took place during the middle of the day most of the fleeing Greeks became thirsty due to the heat and drank the water from the Himera river.

Because the Himera river is naturally salty (which is reflected by its modern name Salso) many Greeks died from drinking its water.

[11] Agathocles retreated to Syracuse and lost control over the rest of Sicily, while Carthage had gained superiority in land and naval forces.

[12] Agathocles supplied Syracuse with grain, left it with an adequate garrison and then crossed over to Libya to transfer the war to Africa.