Battle of Himera (409 BC)
Near the site of the first battle and great Carthaginian defeat of 480 BC, the Second Battle of Himera was fought near the city of Himera in Sicily in 409 between the Carthaginian forces under Hannibal Mago (a king of Carthage of the Magonid family, not the famous Hannibal of the Barcid family) and the Ionian Greeks of Himera aided by an army and a fleet from Syracuse. Hannibal, acting under the instructions of the Carthaginian senate, had previously sacked and destroyed the city of Selinus after the Battle of Selinus in 409. Hannibal then destroyed Himera which was never rebuilt. Mass graves associated with this battle (along with the first Battle of Himera in 480 BC) were discovered in 2008-2011, corroborating the stories told by ancient historians.
| Second Battle of Himera (409 BC) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The Sicilian Wars | |||||||||
Second Battle of Himera 409 BC. Political boundaries and path of troop movement are inexact because of lack of primary source data. Source file for this image is created by Marco Prins-Jona Lendering and used as per permission given | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Himera Syracuse | Carthage | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Diocles | Hannibal Mago | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 16,000 | 60,000 (Ancient sources) | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 3,000 + 3,000 executed | 6,000+ | ||||||||
