Hamilcar Barca

67
Hamilcar Barca bigraphy, stories - Generals

Hamilcar Barca : biography

270 BC –

Hamilcar Barca or Barcas (c. 275 – 228 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman of Cyrene origin (thus could be of Roman, Greek, Iberian or Berber origin), leader of the Barcid family, and father of Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Mago. He was also father-in-law to Hasdrubal the Fair.

The name Hamilcar (Punic-Phoenician ḥmlqrt, "brother of Melqart") was a common name for Carthaginian men. The name Brq (or Baraq) means "thunderbolt" in the Punic language and is thus equivalent to the epithet or cognomen Keraunos, common among many contemporary Greek commanders.S. Lancel, Hannibal p.6. The word remains in Arabic and Hebrew with the same meaning.

Hamilcar commanded the Carthaginian land forces in Sicily from 247 BC to 241 BC, during the latter stages of the First Punic War. He kept his army intact and led a successful guerrilla war against the Romans in Sicily. Hamilcar retired to Africa after the peace treaty in 241 BC, following the defeat of Carthage. When the Mercenary War burst out in 240 BC, Hamilcar was recalled to command and was instrumental in concluding that conflict successfully. Hamilcar commanded the Carthaginian expedition to Spain in 237 BC, and for eight years expanded the territory of Carthage in Spain before dying in battle in 228 BC. He may have been responsible for creating the strategy which his son Hannibal implemented in the Second Punic War to bring the Roman Republic close to defeat.

Hamilcar in literature

  • Salammbô, by Gustave Flaubert
  • Pride of Carthage, by David Anthony Durham
  • The cat of the titular protagonist of The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, by Anatole France, begins the book with a cat named Hamilcar, and ends it with a kitten named Hannibal.
  • In the manga Bio Booster Armor Guyver, one of the villains is named Hamilcar Barcas.
  • The father of the protagonist, Claus Valca, in the anime television series Last Exile is named Hamilcar Valca, "Valca" being a Japanese mis-transliteration of "Barca" (V for B, and L for R).
  • In the 2002 film The Emperor’s Club, starring Kevin Kline, Hamilcar Barca is the subject of a question asked during the final stages of an educational competition. The question, trivial in nature, initiates an important turning point in how events of the story unfold.
  • "Hamilcar Barca," a poem by Roger Casement

Barcid Spain

Hamilcar’s army either crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Iberia from West AfricaPolybius 2.1.6 or, having returned to Carthage after the African activities, sailed along the African coast to Gades.Diodorus Siculus 25.10.1 Hasdrubal the Fair and Hannibal, then a child of nine, accompanied Hamilcar; it is not known who led Hamilcar’s supporters in Carthage in the absence of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal. Prior to his departure from Carthage, Hamilcar made sacrifices to obtain favorable omens and Hannibal swore never to be a “Friend of Rome” or “Never to show goodwill to the Romans.Polybius 3.11, Livy 21.1.4 Several modern historians has interpreted this as Hannibal swearing to be a lifelong enemy of Rome bent on revengeO’Connell, Robert L, The Ghosts of Cannae, pp80, ISBN 978-1-4000-6702-2Carey, Brian T, Cairns John, Allfree Joshua B, Hannibal’s Last Battle, pp40 ISBN978-1-59416-075-2Prevas, John, Hannibal Crosses The Alps, pp41 id = ISBN 0-306-81070-0Cottrell, Tony, Hannibal’s campaigns, p18 id = ISBN 0-88029-817-0 while others hold that this interpretation is a distortion.Bath, Tony, Hannibal’s campaigns, pp21Baker, G.P, Hannibal, pp70 note 2Lancel, Serge, Hannibal’s campaigns, p18 id = ISBN 0-88029-817-0

Iberian Political Situation

Hamilcar probably landed at Gades in the summer of 237 BC. Whatever direct territorial control Carthage had had in the past in Iberia,Strabo V.158 this had been lost by this time as Hamilcar was “re-establishing Carthaginian authority in Iberia”.Polybius 2.1.6 Phoenician colonies were strung along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Southwestern Spain and exercised some degree of control over their immediate areas, but only had trading contacts, not direct control, over the tribes of Iberia at that time.Lancel, Serge, Hannibal, pp30–pp31 Iberian and Celtiberian tribes were not under any unified leadership at this time and were warlike, although some had absorbed varying degrees of Greek and Punic cultural influence.