VII.165: Th ey, however, who dwell in Sicily, say that
Gelo, though he knew that he must serve under the
Lacedaemonians, would nevertheless have come to
the aid of the Hellenes, had not it been for Terillos,
the son of Crinippos, king of Himera; who, driven
from his city by Th ero, the son of Ainesidemos, king
of Agrigentum, brought into Sicily at this very time an
army of three hundred thousand men—Phoenicians,
Libyans, Iberians, Ligurians, Helisykians, Sardinians,
and Corsicans, under the command of Hamilcar the
son of Hanno, king of the Carthaginians. Terillos
prevailed upon Hamilcar, partly as his sworn friend,
but more through the zealous aid of Anaxilaos the son
of Cretines, king of Rhegium; who, by giving his own
sons to Hamilcar as hostages, induced him to make the
expedition. Anaxilaos herein served his own father-
in-law; for he was married to a daughter of Terillos, by
name Kydippe. So, as Gelo could not give the Hellenes
any aid, he sent (they say) the sum of money to Delphi.
VII.166: Th ey say too, that the victory of Gelo and Th ero
in Sicily over Hamilcar the Carthaginian fell out upon
the very day that the Hellenes defeated the Persians at
Salamis. Hamilcar, who was a Carthaginian on his father’s
side only, but on his mother’s a Syracusan, and who had
been raised by his merit to the throne of Carthage, after
the battle and the defeat, as I am informed, disappeared
from sight: Gelo made the strictest search for him, but he
could not be found anywhere, either dead or alive.
VII.167: Th e Carthaginians, who take probability for
their guide, give the following account of this matter:
Hamilcar, they say, during all the time that the battle
raged between the Hellenes and the barbarians, which
was from early dawn till evening, remained in the
camp, sacrifi cing and seeking favorable omens, while he
burned on a huge pyre the entire bodies of the victims
which he off ered. Here, as he poured libations upon
the sacrifi ces, he saw the rout of his army; whereupon
he cast himself headlong into the fl ames, and so was
consumed and disappeared. But whether Hamilcar’s
disappearance happened, as the Phoenicians tell us, in
this way, or, as the Syracusans maintain, in some other,
certain it is that the Carthaginians off er him sacrifi ce,
and in all their colonies have monuments erected to his
honor, as well as one, which is the grandest of all, at
Carthage. Th us much concerning the aff airs of Sicily.
From: Herodotus, Th e History, George Rawlinson,
trans. (New York: Dutton and Co., 1862).
Herodotus: “Th e Carthaginian Attack on Sicily,”
excerpt (Th e Histories, fi fth century b.c.e.)
Africa
THEN the king of Khita-land,
With his warriors made a stand,
But he durst not risk his hand
In battle with our Pharaoh;
So his chariots drew away,
Unnumbered as the sand,
And they stood, three men of war
On each car;
And gathered all in force
Was the fl ower of his army,
for the fi ght in full array,
But advance, he did not dare,
Foot or horse.
So in ambush there they lay,
Northwest of Kadesh town;
And while these were in their lair,
Others went forth south of Kadesh,
on our midst, their charge was thrown
With such weight, our men went down,
For they took us unaware,
And the legion of Pra-Hormakhu gave way.
But at the western side
Of Arunatha’s tide,
Near the city’s northern wall,
our Pharaoh had his place.
And they came unto the king,
Pen-ta-ur: “ Th e Victory of Ramses II over the Khita,”
inscription on the wall of fi ve temples, one at Karnak (ca. 1326 b.c.e.)
Egypt
1156 war and conquest: primary source documents
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