It was the longest continuous conflict and the greatest naval war of antiquity. The two powers struggled for supremacy primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. Rome still exists as the capital of Italy, while Carthage was razed by Rome in a later war its ruins lie 16 kilometres (10В mi) east of modern Tunis on the North African coast. The First Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rdВ centuryВ BC, and lasted for 23 years, from 264 to 241В BC.

It is probably the coin mentioned by Polybius, who tells that Hamilcar's mercenaries were given a gold coin as first payment when they returned from Sicily in 241 BC. Other sources include inscriptions, coins and archaeological evidence. Modern historians also take into account the later histories of Diodorus Siculus and Dio Cassius, although the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states that 'Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts'. Other, later, histories of the war exist, but in fragmentary or summary form. The modern historian Andrew Curry considers that 'Polybius turns out to fairly reliable' while Craige Champion describes him as 'a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian'. The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus is to accept it largely at face value, and the details of the war in modern sources are almost entirely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. Only part of the first book of the 40 comprising The Histories deals with this war. He was on the staff of Scipio Aemilianus when he led a Roman army during the Third Punic War on a campaign through many of the locations of the actions of the Mercenary War. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible personally interviewed participants in the events he wrote about. Д¬arthaginian written records were destroyed along with their capital, Carthage, in 146В BC and so Polybius's account of the Mercenary War is based on several, now-lost, Greek and Latin sources. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view. His works include a now-lost manual on military tactics, but he is known today for The Histories, written sometime after 146В BC, or about a century after this war.

118В BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167В BC as a hostage. The main source for almost every aspect of the Punic Wars is the historian Polybius ( c. PolybiusВ вЂ“ 'a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian' This has been considered to be the single greatest cause of war with Carthage breaking out again in 218В BC in the Second Punic War. However, Rome declared that this would be an act of war and occupied both Sardinia and Corsica, in contravention of the recent peace treaty. An expedition was prepared to reoccupy Sardinia, where mutinous soldiers had slaughtered all Carthaginians. To prevent this, in 240В BC Spendius and Autaritus tortured 700 Carthaginian prisoners to death (including Gisco), after which the war was pursued with great brutality on both sides.Д«y early 237В BC, after numerous setbacks, the rebels were defeated and their cities brought back under Carthaginian rule. He campaigned successfully, initially demonstrating leniency in an attempt to woo the rebels over. Hamilcar Barca, a veteran of the campaigns in Sicily (and father of Hannibal Barca), was given joint command of the army in 240В BC and supreme command in 239В BC. War-weary Carthage fared poorly in the initial engagements of the war, especially under the generalship of Hanno. 70,000 Africans from Carthage's oppressed dependant territories flocked to join them, bringing supplies and finance. When a compromise seemed to have been reached, the army erupted into full-scale mutiny under the leadership of Spendius and Matho. The war began in 241В BC as a dispute over the payment of wages owed to 20,000 foreign soldiers who had fought for Carthage in Sicily during the First Punic War. It lasted from 241 to late 238 or early 237В BC and ended with Carthage suppressing both the mutiny and the revolt. The Mercenary War, also known as the Truceless War, was a mutiny by troops that were employed by Carthage at the end of the First Punic War (264вЂ“241В BC), supported by uprisings of African settlements revolting against Carthaginian control.

Combat manual mercenaries