Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/368

Rh 864 HASDRUBAL. Harpies were to perish by the hands of the Bo- reades, but the latter were to die if they could not overtake the Harpies. The latter fled, but one fell into the river Tigris, which was hence called Harpys, and the other reached the Echinades, and as she never returned, the islands were called Strophades. But being worn out with fatigue, she fell down simultaneously with her pursuer ; and, as they promised no further to molest Phineus, the two Harpies were not deprived of their lives. ( Apollod. i. 9. §21.) According toothers, the Boreades were on the point of killing the Harpies, when Iris or Hermes appeared, and commanded the conquerors to set them free, or both the Harpies as well as the Boreades died. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 286, 297 ; Tzetz. Chil. i. 217.) In the famous Harpy monument recently brought from Lycia to this country, the Harpies are repre- sented in the act of carrying off the daughters of Pandareus. (Th. Panofka, in the Arclmeol. Zeit- ung for 1843, No. 4; E. Braun, in the Rhein. Mus. Neue Folge, vol. iii. p. 481, &c., who con- ceives that these rapacious birds with human heads are symbolical representations of death carrying off everything.) [L. S.] HASDRUBAL ('Ao-S/Jougas), According to Gesenius {d.Phoen. Mon. pp. 401, 407) this name is more correctly written Asdrubal, without the aspiration, which has been adopted from a mistaken analogy with Hannibal, Hamilcar, &c. (See Dra- kenborch, ad L*iv. xxi. 1.) The same writer ex- plains it as Bgmfying ctijiis auadlium est Baal. 1. A Carthaginian general, son of Mago, is represented by Justin as being, together with his father and his brother, Hamilcar, one of the chief founders of the military power and dominion of Carthage. Accord- ing to that writer he was eleven times invested with the chief magistracy, which he calls dictatorship {dictatura,hj which it is probable that he means the chief military command, rather than the office of suifete), and four times obtained the honours of a triumph, an institution which is not mentioned on any other occasion as existing at Carthage. But the only wars in which Justin speaks of hira as engaged, are one against the Africans, which ap- pears to have been on the whole unsuccessful, and one in Sardinia, in which Hasdrubal himself perished. (Just. xix. 1.) He left three sons, Han- nibal, Hasdrubal, and Sappho, who are said to have followed up their father's career of conquest, and to have held, together with their cousins, the three sons of Hamilcar, the chief direction of all aflairs at Carthage ; but their particular actions are not specified. (Id. xix. 2). The chronology of this part of the Carthaginian history, as related by Justin, is extremely uncertain. 2. A son of the preceding, of whom nothing more is known. (Just. I. c.) 3. One of the commanders of the great Cartha- ginian army which was defeated by Timoleon at the river Crimissus, in B. c. 339. [Timoleon]. Plutarch, the only author who mentions the names of the Carthaginian generals, on this occasion {Timol. 25) does not tell us what became of them. 4. A Carthaginian general in the first Punic war, called by Polybius son of Hanno. He is first mentioned as one of the two generals appointed to take the field against Regulus in B. c. 256, and who, by their injudicious management, brought Carthage to the brink of ruin. (Polyb. i. 30 — 31.) Though the rirtual command of the aru)y was HASDRUBAL. soon after transferred to Xanthippus, it does not appear that the generals were ever deposed ; and after the final defeat of Regulus, Hasdrubal was immediately despatched to Sicily, with a larg« army, and not less than 140 elephants. (Id. 38.) The terror with which these animals at this time inspired the Romans rendered them unwilling to encounter Hasdrubal in the field, and thus gave him the command of the open country, notwith- standing which he appears to have wasted his time in unaccountable inactivity ; and during a period of two years to have effected nothing beyond a few unimportant skirmishes. At length, in the begin- ning of B. c. 250, he was aroused to exertion, and advanced to attack the Roman consul, L. Caecilius Metelhis, under the walls of Panormus. But Metellus, by his skilful dispositions, not only re- pulsed his attack, but totally defeated his army ; and, what was of the greatest consequence, killed or took captive all his elephants. This defeat had more than almost any other a decisive influence on the fate of the war, as from this time the Roman superiority by land was almost undisputed. Has- drubal escaped from the action to Lilybaeum, but was put to death on his return to Carthage. (Po- lyb. i. 39,40; Diod. Exc. Hoesch. xxni. 14, p. 506; Zonar. viii. 14; Oros. iv. 9.) 5. A Carthaginian, son-in-law of the great Hamilcar Barca. He appears to have early taken part in public affairs, and distinguished himself while yet a young man as one of the most influ- ential leaders of the democratic party at Carthage during the interval between the first and second Punic wars. Community of interests led to a close connection between him and Hamilcar Barca, whose daughter he had married, and whom he accom- panied into Spain in 238 B. c. From thence he was sent back to Africa to take the command in a war against the Numidian tribes, whom he com- pletely defeated and reduced to submission. (Diod. Exc. Hoesch. XXV. 2. p. 510). At what time he returned to Spain we know not, but we find him there in b. c. 229, when, after the death of Hamil- car, he hastened to collect together his scattered forces, and was soon after nominated by the govern- ment of Carthage to succeed him as commander-in- chief. Hasdrubal does not appear to have been distinguished so much by his talents for war, as by his political management and dexterity, and espe- cially his conciliating manners: and these qualities, as they had first gained him popularity at home, were now also of the utmost service in conciliating the minds of the Spaniards, and gaining them over to the Carthaginian alliance. Still more to increase this disposition, he married the daughter of one of the Spanish chieftains. (Diod. ^. c p. 511.) At the same time, by the foundation of the city of New Carthage, in a situation admirably chosen, on accoimt of its excellent port and easy communica- tion with Africa, as well as from its proximity to the silver mines of Spain, he contributed greatly to the consolidation of the Carthaginian empire in that country. Meanwhile he carried on warlike operations against the more distant and hostile tribes ; and these enterprizes, the conduct of which he entrusted to the young Hannibal, are said to have been almost uniformlj' successful. By these means he had already extended the dominion of Carthage over a great part of the peninsula, when he was assassinated by a slave, whose master he had put to death (b.c. 221). He had held the