Hamilcar's victory with Naravas

Spendius perceived Hamilcar's generous treatment of rebel prisoners as the motivation behind Naravas's defection and feared the disintegration of his army.

From this point, neither side showed any mercy, and the unusual ferocity of the fighting caused the contemporary historian Polybius to term it the "Truceless War".

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

[11] Freed from 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.

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 another 70,000 men according to the ancient Roman 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 historian Adrian Goldsworthy describes this as "a gross oversimplification".

[20][21] 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.

[note 2] Both armies are likely to have been composed of similar types and proportions of troops, except the rebels were weaker in cavalry and lacked elephants.

[26] Mathos ordered two groups of rebels north to blockade the two main cities – other than Carthage – that had not already come over: the major ports of Utica and Hippo (modern Bizerte).

It included deserters from the rebels, newly hired mercenaries, citizen militia, 2,000 cavalry, and 70 elephants, and was placed under the command of Hamilcar Barca,[note 3] who had previously led the Carthaginian forces on Sicily.

[30] Hamilcar led this force out from Carthage and a rebel army of 25,000 under Spendius moved to attack it in the Battle of the Bagradas River.

[35] While Hanno manoeuvred against Mathos to the north near Hippo, Hamilcar confronted several towns and cities that had gone over to the rebels, bringing them back to Carthaginian allegiance with varying mixtures of diplomacy and force.

Spendius' force totalled some 20,000–25,000 men: half or more were freshly recruited Libyans, 8,000 were veterans from Sicily – many of them Gauls, under Autaritus – and there were 2,000 Numidian cavalry.

[40] Spendius blocked the valley exit with his Libyan contingent, threatened the camp with his main body and the Numidians took a position to the Carthaginian rear.

If Hamilcar was to avoid starvation, he was going to have to leave his camp and attempt to fight his way out against a prepared opponent, with a large enemy force in his rear.

[44] With Carthaginian morale high after this unexpected turn of events and their line of retreat secure, Hamilcar had his army leave their fortifications and deploy in battle formation.

After a hotly contested battle, regarding which few details survive, the role of the Carthaginian elephants and the Numidian cavalry proved decisive and the rebels were defeated.

[45] Since leaving Carthage, Hamilcar had treated rebels he had captured well and offered them a choice of joining his army or free passage home.

Encouraged by his senior subordinates, notably Autaritus, to remove the possibility of any goodwill between the sides, he had 700 Carthaginian prisoners, including Gisco, tortured to death: they had their hands cut off, were castrated, their legs were broken, they were thrown into a pit and then buried alive.

[49][50] At some point between March and September 239 BC the previously loyal cities of Utica and Hippo slew their Carthaginian garrisons and joined the rebels.

Trapped in the mountains and with their food exhausted, the rebels ate their horses, their prisoners and then their slaves, hoping Mathos would sortie from Tunis to rescue them.

Eventually, the surrounded troops forced their leaders, including Spendius, to parley with Hamilcar, who, on a thin pretext, took them prisoner.

[57][58] In an act of mercy captives were sold into slavery,[59] except for Mathos who was dragged through the streets of Carthage and tortured to death by its citizens.