power of Carthage that he was able to force
commercial treaties upon the Etruscans, and the Greeks of both Sicily
and Italy. The first agreement between Carthage and Rome was made in
509, one year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, in the consulship of
Junius Brutus and Marcus Horatius. The text is preserved by Polybius
(_Hist._ iii. 22-23). It assigned Italy to the Romans and the African
waters to Carthage, but left Sicily as a dangerous neutral zone.

Mago was succeeded as commander-in-chief by his elder son Hasdrubal (c.
500), who was thrice chosen suffetes; he died in Sardinia about 485. His
brother Hamilcar, having collected a fleet of 200 galleys for the
conquest of Sicily, was defeated by the combined forces of Gelo of
Syracuse and Theron of Agrigentum under the walls of Himera in 480, the
year in which the Persian fleet was defeated at Salamis (some say the
two battles were simultaneous); it is said that 150,000 Carthaginians
were taken prisoners. The victory is celebrated by Pindar (_Pyth._ i.).

These two leaders of the powerful house of the Barcidae each left three
sons. Those of Hasdrubal were Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Sapho; those of
Hamilcar, Himilco, Hanno and Gisco. All, under various titles, succeeded
to the authority which it had already enjoyed. About 460 Hanno,[3]
passing beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), founded
settlements along the West African coast in the modern Senegal and
Guinea, and even in Madeira and the Canary Islands.

In Sicily the war lasted for a century with varying success. In 406
Hannibal and Himilco destroyed Agrigentum and threatened Gela, but the
Carthaginians were forced back on their strongholds in the south-west by
Dionysius the Elder, Dionysius the Younger, Timoleon and Agathocles
successively, whose cause was aided by a terrible plague and civil
troubles in Carthage itself, A certain Hanno, unquestionably of the
Barcide house, attempted to seize the supreme power, but his partisans
were overwhelmed and he himself suffered the most cruel punishment.
Profiting by these troubles, Timoleon defeated the Carthaginians at
Crimissus in 340, and compelled them to sue for peace. This peace was
not of long duration; Agathocles crossed to Africa and besieged
Carthage, which was then handicapped by the conspiracy of Bomilcar.
Bomilcar was crucified, and Agathocles having been obliged to return to
Sicily, his general Eumarcus was compelled to carry his army out of
A