Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/358

Rh 344 HANNO. Borae part of the arrears to which they were justly entitled. The personal unpopularity of the envoy added to the exasperation naturally produced by such a request, and Hanno, after vain endeavours to effect a negotiation through the inferior com- manders, returned to Carthage. But when matters soon after came to an open rupture, and the mer- cenaries took up arms under Spendius and Matho, he was appointed to take the command of the array which was raised in all haste to oppose them. His previous wars against the Numidian and Afri- can troops were, however, far from qualifying him to carry on a campaign against an army disciplined by Hamilcar ; and though he at first defeated the rebels under the walls of Utica, he soon after suf- fered them to surprise his camp, and this proof of his incapacity was followed by others as glaring. Yet notwithstanding that these disasters com- pelled the Carthaginians to have recourse to Ha- milcar Barca, and that general took the field against the rebels, it would appear that Hanno was not deprived of his command, in which we find him soon after mentioned as associated with Hamilcar. But the two generals could not be brought to act together ; and their dissensions rose to such a height, and were productive of so nmch mischief, that at length the Carthaginian go- vernment, finding it absolutely necessary to recal one of the two, left the choice to the soldiers them- selves, who decided in favour of Hamilcar. Hanno was in consequence displaced : but his successor, Hannibal, having been made prisoner and put to death by the rebels, and Hamilcar compelled to raise the siege of Tunis, the government again interposed, and by the most strenuous exertions effected a formal reconciliation between the two rivals. Hanno and Hamilcar again assumed the joint command, and soon after defeated the rebel army in a decisive battle. The reduction of Utica and Hippo, of which the one was taken by Hamilcar, the other by Hanno, now completed the subjection of Africa. (Polyb. i. 74,81, 82,87, 88.) If we may trust the statement of Appian (Hisp. 4, 5), Hanno was again employed, together with Ha- milcar, in another expedition against the Nu- midians and more western tribes of Africa, after the close of the war of the mercenaries ; but was re- called from his command to answer some charges brought against him by his enemies at home. From this time forward he appears to have taken no active part in any of the foreign wars or enter- prises of Carthage. But his influence in her councils at home was great, and that influence was uniformly exerted against Hamilcar Barca and his family, and against that democratic party in the state by whose assistance they maintained their power. On all occasions, from the landing of Barca in Spain till the return of Hannibal from Italy, a period of above thirty-five years, Hanno is represented as thwarting the measures of that able and powerful family, and taking the lead in oppo- sition to the war with Rome, the great object to which all their efforts were directed. (Liv. xxi. 3, 10, 11, xxiii. 12, 13 ; Val. Max. vii. 2, ext. $13; Zonar.-viii. 22.) It is indeed uncertain how far we are entitled to regard the accounts given by Livy of his conduct on these occasions as historical : it is not very probable that the Romans were well acquainted with what passed in the councils of their enemies, and on one occasion the whole nar- rative is palpably a fiction. For Livy puts into HANNO. the mouth of Hanno a long declamatory harangue against sending the young Hannibal to join Has- drubal in Spain, though he himself tells us else- where that Hannibal had gone to Spain with his father nine years before, and never returned to Carthage from that time until just after the battle of Zama. (Liv. xxi. 3, compared with xxx. 35, 37.) Still there can be no doubt of the truth of the ge- neral fact that Hanno was the leader, oi at least one of the leaders, of the party opposed to Hanni- bal throughout the second Punic War. As one of those desirous of peace with Rome, he is men- tioned as interposing to preserve the Roman am- bassadors from the fury of the Carthaginian popu- lace in the year before the battle of Zama, B. c. 551 ; and, after that defeat, he was one of those sent as ambassadors to Scipio to sue for peace. (Appian, Fun. 34, 49.) After the close of the war, he is mentioned, for the last time, as one of the leaders of the Roman party in the disputes which were continually recurring between the Car- thaginians and Masinissa (Appian, lb. 68); but we have no information as to the period of his death. The character of Hanno will be found drawn in a masterly manner by Sir W. Raleigh in his His- tory of the World (book v. ch. i. sect. 11. p. 117, Oxf. edit.) ; though that writer has committed the mistake of confounding him with the general de- feated at the Aegates [No. 11], an error into which Arnold also appears to have fallen. (Hist, of Home, vol. ii. p. 619.) So far as we know concerning him, we cannot but wonder at his bearing the title of " the Great," an epithet which few characters in history would appear less to deserve. ] 3. An officer sent by the Carthaginians to Sar- dinia ill B. c. 239 to reduce the mercenaries there, who had followed the example of those in Africa, mutinied, and put to death their commander. Bos- tar. But no sooner did Hanno arrive in the island than his own troops declared in favour of the rebels, by whom he was taken prisoner and imme- diately crucified. (Polyb. i. 79.) 14. One of ten ambassadors sent by the Cartha- ginians to Rome in B. c. 235 to avert the war which the Romans had threatened to declare in consequence of the alleged support given to the revolt in Sardinia. Hanno is said to have effected, by the bold and frank tone which he assumed, what all the previous embassies had failed to ac- complish, and obtained a renewal of the peace on equitable terms. (Dion Cass. Em. 150 ; Ores. iv. 12.) From the terms in which he is mentioned by Dion Cassius and Orosius CAvvuu tis — mmimus homo inter legatos), he can hardly have been the same with the preceding, which would at first ap- pear not improbable. 15. A Carthaginian officer left in Spain by Hannibal when that general crossed the Pyrenees, B.C. 218. An army of 10,000 foot and 1000 horse was placed under his orders, with which he was to guard the newly-conquered province between the Iberus and the Pyrenees. On the arrival of Cn. Scipio with a Roman army at Emporia, Hanno. alarmed at the rapid spread of disaffection through- out his province, hastened to engage the Roman general, but was totally defeated, the greater part of his army cut to pieces, and he himself taken prisoner. (Polyb. iii. 35, 76 ; Liv. xxi. 23, 60.) 16. Son of Bomilcar, one of the most distin- guished officers in the service of Hannibal during