238 BC
Trapped at the Saw
Early in 238 BC the rebels send most of their army, about 50,000 men under Spendius, Autaritus and Zarzas, to stop Hamilcar’s raids. For months the armies march and countermarch through the uplands, the rebels keeping to rough ground where the Carthaginian elephants and cavalry are of little use. Hamilcar has his prisoners trampled to death by elephants, which only makes the rebels fight harder.
Hamilcar Barca as imagined by Max Karl Baldamus, 1833Wikimedia Commons, Max Karl Baldamus, Public domain (Amilcare Barca (Ritratto).jpg)
In the end Hamilcar, with three divisions under himself, his deputy Hannibal and Naravas, traps the rebels at a place called the Saw, named for its jagged outline. Whether it was a pass or a range of hills, and where it lay, is unknown. Before the rebels grasp their situation the Carthaginians fortify positions on ground that makes any attack hopeless, and more than 40,000 rebels are left with water but no food.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 1, 84 to 85.
- Dexter Hoyos, Truceless War: Carthage’s Fight for Survival, 241 to 237 BC (2007).
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