Cavalry general
Maharbal
“You know how to win a victory, Hannibal; you do not know how to use it,” he tells him after Cannae, according to Livy.
Cavalry commander at Cannae
People · 21 figures, 10 biographies
The Barcas, the “Thunderbolt”
Barca is thought to come from the Punic baraq, “lightning”. One father, three sons, three daughters and their marriages, and many lost names: a family that stood up to Rome for half a century.
The Barcid family tree
Barcas, companion of Elissa?
Hamilcar's father
Hamilcar Barca
Hamilcar's wife
A daughter
Bomilcar
Hanno
A daughter
Hasdrubal Barca
No known wife or children
Mago Barca
No known wife or children
A daughter
Naravas
Dashed: uncertain link, a modern reconstruction or known from a single late source. The names of Hamilcar's daughters have not come down to us.
Gaps in the tree
Why so many names are missing
Carthage's archives disappeared in 146 and its books were scattered. What we know of the Barcids comes from Greek and Roman authors, who cared about generals and rarely named women or children.
Hamilcar's fatherUnknown. Only a poetic tradition traces the family back to a companion of Elissa; the nickname Barca (“lightning”) is attested only from Hamilcar onwards.
The Barcids' motherUnknown: neither her name nor her origin is known.
The three daughtersTheir names have not come down to us. “Salammbô”, often presented as Hamilcar's daughter, is a character invented by Flaubert in his 1862 novel.
Naravas, BomilcarNeither their parents nor their descendants are known, apart from Hanno, son of Bomilcar.
Hannibal's childrenNo ancient historian mentions any. In Silius Italicus, Imilce bears him a son in Hispania whom the Carthaginian Senate wants to sacrifice: a poetic episode with no reliable historical value.
Hasdrubal, MagoNo known wives or children. After Hannibal's death in 183, the sources no longer mention any descendant of the Barcas.
Generals & figures
General · Cannae
Hasdrubal (cavalry)
Commands the heavy cavalry that rides around the legions and closes the trap at Cannae.
Closes the trap at Cannae
General · † 202
Hasdrubal son of Gisco
One of the three generals in Iberia (214 – 206): victor over the Scipios in 211, beaten by Scipio at Ilipa in 206. He won Syphax over to Carthage by giving him his daughter Sophonisba. Defeated in Africa in 203 and condemned by Carthage, he died in 202, by suicide according to Appian.
Scipio's opponent, Sophonisba's father
Queen of Numidia · † 203
Sophonisba
Daughter of Hasdrubal son of Gisco, wife of Syphax and then of Masinissa, she drank poison rather than walk in Scipio's triumph (Livy, XXX, 15).
The queen who chose poison
Founder · c. 814
Elissa / Dido
A princess of Tyre, she founds Carthage on the hill of Byrsa.
Founder · c. 814
Navigator · 5th c.
Hanno
Sails along West Africa with 60 ships, according to the Periplus attributed to him.
The Periplus to West Africa
Navigator · 5th c.?
Himilco
Setting out north from Gades, he explored Europe's Atlantic coasts as far as the Oestrymnides, the tin islands. His lost account is known only through Pliny the Elder (II, 169) and the poet Avienus, who speaks of four months at sea, seaweed and shallows.
The tin route
War leader · 6th c.
Mago I
Founder of the Magonid dynasty around the mid-6th century. According to Justin (XVIII, 7; XIX, 1), he reorganised the army and laid the foundations of Carthage's military power.
Founder of the Magonids
Magonid · 6th c.
Hasdrubal son of Mago
Eleven times general according to Justin (XIX, 1), he fought in Sardinia, where he died of his wounds. His brother Hamilcar succeeded him at the head of the family.
Eleven times general, died in Sardinia
Magonid · † 480
Hamilcar son of Mago
He led the great Sicilian expedition, crushed at Himera in 480 by Gelon of Syracuse and Theron of Akragas. According to Herodotus (VII, 167), he vanished during the battle while sacrificing on a pyre. Herodotus, however, calls him the son of a Hanno: the Magonid genealogy remains a reconstruction.
Defeated at Himera, 480
Statesman · 3rd c.
Hanno the Great
Leader of the great landowners' faction, conqueror of Hecatompylus in Africa, unlucky general of the Mercenary War, then open opponent of Hannibal's war according to Livy.
Rival of the Barcids
Ally, then rival · 238 – 148
Masinissa
A Numidian prince educated in Carthage, he goes over to Rome's side and decides the battle of Zama. King of Numidia for over fifty years, he nibbles away at Carthaginian territory.
Ally, then rival
King of the Masaesyli · † c. 201
Syphax
King of western Numidia (Siga, then Cirta), courted by both Rome and Carthage. He chose Carthage by marrying Sophonisba and drove out Masinissa, then was defeated and captured in 203. He died a captive in Italy.
Carthage's Numidian ally
General · c. 270 – 221
Hasdrubal the Fair
Hamilcar's son-in-law, he succeeds him in Iberia, founds Cartagena and concludes the Ebro Treaty with Rome (226). Assassinated in 221.
Founder of Cartagena
Spartan mercenary · 255
Xanthippus
Hired by Carthage, he criticised Punic tactics, trained the army to fight on open ground and, with the cavalry and nearly a hundred elephants, crushed and captured Regulus near Tunis in 255 (Polybius, I, 32–34). He left Carthage soon after; the late story that the Carthaginians drowned him is unconfirmed.
Victor over Regulus, 255
Last leader · 150 – 146
Hasdrubal the Boetharch
In 150 he led the army against Masinissa that was surrounded and destroyed. Condemned to death to appease Rome, he raised an army and again became leader of the defence during the siege (149 – 146). He finally surrendered to Scipio; his wife, calling him a coward, threw herself into the flames with their sons (Polybius, XXXVIII, 20).
Defends Carthage, 149–146
General · 247 – 183
Hannibal Barca
Crosses the Alps with his elephants and crushes Rome at Cannae in 216 BC.
247 – 183
Agronomist
Mago the Agronomist
Author of a 28-book treatise on agriculture, translated into Latin by order of the Senate.
The father of agronomy
Milestones
Six centuries of Carthaginian figures
c. 814
Elissa, princess of Tyre, founds Carthage on the hill of Byrsa: the legend of the oxhide cut into strips.
c. 550 – 480
The Magonids, Mago's descendants, lead Carthage's wars; Hamilcar son of Mago is defeated at Himera in 480.
c. 500?
Hanno sails along the Atlantic coast of Africa with 60 ships and 30,000 colonists.
255
The Spartan Xanthippus, in Carthage’s service, crushes the consul Regulus before Tunis.
247 – 241
Hamilcar Barca wages guerrilla war in Sicily, from Eryx, until the end of the First Punic War.
241 – 238
Hamilcar crushes the revolt of the unpaid mercenaries, after the failures of Hanno the Great.
237
Departure for Iberia; Hannibal, aged 9, swears never to be a friend of Rome.
228 – 221
Hamilcar drowns fighting the Iberians; Hasdrubal the Fair founds Cartagena and is then assassinated. Hannibal, 26, takes command.
218 – 216
The Alps, the Trebia, Trasimene, Cannae. Mago Barca pours out before the Carthaginian Senate the gold rings of slain Roman knights.
207
Hasdrubal Barca is killed at the Metaurus; the Romans throw his head into Hannibal’s camp.
203
Syphax is captured; Mago Barca, wounded in Liguria, dies at sea. Sophonisba takes poison.
202
Zama: Masinissa’s cavalry decides Scipio’s victory.
183
Hunted by Rome, Hannibal takes poison in Bithynia.
148 – 146
Death of Masinissa; Hasdrubal the Boetharch defends Carthage to the end.
Further readingSources for this page
10 references
Ancient sources
- Polybius, HistoriesI, 32–34; XXXVIII, 20 — Xanthippus, Hasdrubal the Boetharch, Naravas, Hanno son of Bomilcar
- Livy, History of RomeXXX, 15 — Sophonisba, Maharbal, Imilce, Hasdrubal the Fair, Hanno the Great
- Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic HistoriesXVIII, 7; XIX, 1 — the Magonids
- Herodotus, HistoriesVII, 167 — Hamilcar at Himera
- Diodorus Siculus, Library of History — Hasdrubal the Fair's second marriage
- Appian, Libyca — death of Hasdrubal son of Gisco
- Pliny the Elder, Natural HistoryII, 169 — Himilco
- Avienus, Ora maritima — Himilco
- Silius Italicus, Punica — Barcas, Imilce and Hannibal's son
- Anonymous, Periplus of Hanno