The Carthaginian destruction of Himera in 409 BCE ended the city permanently, avenging the Carthaginian defeat at the same site in 480 BCE.
Key Facts
- Date
- 409 BCE
- Carthaginian commander
- Hannibal Mago of the Magonid family
- Outcome
- Carthaginian victory; Himera destroyed and never rebuilt
- Prior Carthaginian action
- Sack of Selinus in 409 BCE before the battle
- Mass graves discovered
- 2008–2011, corroborating ancient accounts
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Carthage sought to avenge its catastrophic defeat at the First Battle of Himera in 480 BCE. Acting under the Carthaginian senate's instructions, Hannibal Mago first sacked Selinus in 409 BCE, then turned his forces toward Himera to complete the retaliatory campaign against the Sicilian Greeks.
Carthaginian forces under Hannibal Mago engaged the Ionian Greeks of Himera, who were aided by an army and fleet from Syracuse, near the city of Himera in Sicily in 409 BCE. Despite Syracusan support, the Carthaginians prevailed and captured the city, avenging the defeat suffered on the same ground seventy years earlier.
Himera was utterly destroyed by Hannibal Mago and was never rebuilt, erasing one of Sicily's major Greek cities. Mass graves uncovered between 2008 and 2011 have since provided archaeological evidence corroborating the ancient historians' accounts of the battle's scale and violence.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Hannibal Mago.
Side B
2 belligerents