Mercenary Revolt

The Mercenary Revolt was when Carthage was unable to pay its mercenaries after its defeat in the 1st Punic War. The unpaid mercenaries lead by Mathos soon revolted with the support of various Libyan towns. The war became so cruel that it was soon called the "truceless war". It could only end with the annihilation of one side. Carthage had its prisoners trampled to death, while the mercenaries had their prisoners hands amputated, castrated and thrown in a pit. In one incident, the Carthaginians crucified some mercenary leaders, then the mercenaries raided and kidnapped some Carthaginian generals. The mercenaries took down the bodies of their leaders and replaced them with the captured Carthaginian generals. However, Mathos was captured, tortured and presumably executed by the Carthaginians. All the mercenary rebels either defect to the Carthaginians or killed. Little is known about the war, what is recorded is by Roman historians that are possibly biased. All Carthaginian records were presumably destroyed in the Sack of Carthage by the Romans.