Himilco (died 396 BC) was a member of the Magonids , a Carthaginian family of hereditary generals , and had command over the Carthaginian forces between 406 BC and 397 BC. He is chiefly known for his war in Sicily against Dionysius I of Syracuse .
101-974: Between 550 BC and 375 BC, the Magonid Family of Carthage played a central role in the political and military affairs of the Carthaginian Empire. Himilco came to prominence after being selected as deputy to his cousin Hannibal Mago in 406 BC for the Carthaginian expedition to Sicily. He took command of the expedition after Hannibal's death and sacked Akragas , Gela and Camarina while fighting off determined Greek opposition led by successive leaders of Syracuse. The peace treaty Himilco concluded with Dionysius of Syracuse in 405 BC expanded Carthaginian holdings in Sicily to their maximum extent. Elected "king" around 398 BC, Himilco then led
202-532: A central theme being the mistreatment of the poor by the rich during festival-time. In the dialogue, Cronus rejects the Hesiodic tradition of him eating his children and then being overthrown, and instead claims that he peacefully abdicated the throne in favour of his youngest son Zeus, although he still resumes rulership for seven days each year (his festival) in order to remind humanity of the plenteous, toil-free and luxuriant life they enjoyed under his reign before
303-742: A city at Lilybaeum to replace Motya before marching north. When the Sicanis refused to join Dionysius or leave their cities and the Sicel city Halyciae switched sides, Dionysius retreated to Syracuse after despoiling lands in Western Sicily. The siege of Segesta and Entella was over. Himilco chose not to march to Syracuse along the southern coast of Sicily, as Dionysius had destroyed all the crops and hostile Greek cities stood on his path. After garrisoning Carthaginian territory, he made treaties with
404-498: A clever solution to his strategic problem. The Carthaginians founded a city at Tauromenium , south of Messina and populated it with Sicels. This encouraged all the Sicel cities except Assurous to abandon Dionysius. Thus Himilco weakened his enemy while gaining additional allies and protection from the Messinian Greeks. The Carthaginians marched south, with the fleet sailing along the coast but an eruption of Mt. Etna made
505-662: A coalition of Sicilian Greek cities led by Syracusan rebels. Dionysius massively fortified the city of Syracuse between 400 BC and 398 BC and built up his forces, adding new weapons like the catapult and quinqueremes to his arsenal. In 398 BC he attacked the Carthaginian city of Motya , sparking off the first of four wars he would launch on Carthage. The Greeks and Sicilians rebelled and joined Dionysius, leaving only 5 cities ( Panormus , Solus , Segesta , Entella and Ankyara) in Sicily loyal to Carthage. The Greeks besieged simultaneously Motya , Segesta and Entella in Sicily while Himilco began to mobilize Carthaginian forces. Without
606-421: A company of Curetes , armored male dancers, shouted and clapped their hands to make enough noise to mask the baby's cries from Cronus. Other versions of the myth have Zeus raised by the nymph Adamanthea , who hid Zeus by dangling him by a rope from a tree so that he was suspended between the earth, the sea, and the sky, all of which were ruled by his father, Cronus. Still, other versions of the tale say that Zeus
707-493: A creature capable of dethroning Zeus. Hera did so, and thus Typhon came to be. Cronus was said to be the father of the wise centaur Chiron by the Oceanid Philyra , who was subsequently transformed into a linden tree. The god consorted with the nymph, but his wife Rhea walked on them unexpectedly; in order to escape being caught in bed with another, Cronus changed into the shape of a stallion and galloped away, hence
808-462: A division of influence and commercial activities. This is the first known source indicating that Carthage had gained control over Sicily and Sardinia , as well as Emporia and the area south of Cape Bon in Africa. 483 BCE: Carthage launches First Sicilian War against Greece in an attempt to gain control of Sicily 480 BCE: Carthage suffers a disastrous loss at Battle of Himera in which Hamilcar
909-477: A free path. RV 6 .47.4 varṣmāṇaṃ divo akṛṇod he cut [> created] the loftiness of the sky. This may point to an older Indo-European mytheme reconstructed as *(s)kert wersmn diwos "by means of a cut he created the loftiness of the sky". The myth of Cronus castrating Uranus parallels the Song of Kumarbi , where Anu (the heavens) is castrated by Kumarbi . In the Song of Ullikummi , Teshub uses
1010-558: A large part of Carthage's African dominions were conquered and more of the Atlantic coast of Africa was explored and settled. Great advances were also made in African inland trade. Meanwhile, Carthage appeared to make an effort in keeping itself out of any new wars on Sicily. This peace and newly acquired vast trading empire also helped rebuild the Carthaginian military forces. By 410 BCE Hannibal I (son of Gisco and grandson of Hamilcar)
1111-492: A large supply fleet, while beached ships could be surprised and captured while ships remaining on the open seas could be destroyed by storms. Daphenaus began to harass the Carthaginians using peltasts and cavalry from Akragas and soon the Carthaginians faced a food shortage as less and less supplies got through. With morale falling, the mercenaries came close to mutiny as winter approached. Himilco temporarily placated
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#17327726996961212-415: A problem – there was not enough food stocked at Akragas to feed both the population and the army until further supplies could be gathered – and organizing that would take time because of the winter season. Mistrust between Greeks from various quarters now burst open when this news became public – thus reducing their ability to take a joint decision regarding continuing the conflict. Himilco further aggravated
1313-581: A quite similar position in Egyptian mythology as the father of the gods Osiris , Isis , Seth and Nephthys as Cronus did in the Greek pantheon. This equation is particularly well attested in Tebtunis in the southern Fayyum : Geb and Cronus were here part of a local version of the cult of Sobek , the crocodile god. The equation was shown on the one hand in the local iconography of the gods, in which Geb
1414-526: A republic. 550 BCE: Mago I takes power. 540 BCE: A Carthaginian- Etruscan alliance had expelled the Greeks from Corsica after the Battle of Alalia . 530 BCE: Mago dies and Hasdrubal I takes power. Mid 520s BCE: Hasdrubal, along with his brother Hamilcar I , launches an expedition against Sardinia . 510 BCE: Hamilcar I takes power. 509 BCE: Treaty was signed between Carthage and Rome indicating
1515-541: A standing army Himilco could not go to the aid of Motya immediately. While Carthage raised mercenaries and organized logistics, Himilco sent 10 triremes to attack Syracuse itself, hoping to draw off the Greeks from Motya. Although the Carthaginians sank whatever was afloat in the harbour of Syracuse, Dionysius did not withdraw his soldiers from Western Sicily. Himilco could not mount an assault on undefended Syracuse as he lacked soldiers. Himilco next manned 100 triremes and sailed to Selinus in Sicily and then arrived at Motya
1616-414: Is an accepted version of this page In Ancient Greek religion and mythology , Cronus , Cronos , or Kronos ( / ˈ k r oʊ n ə s / or / ˈ k r oʊ n ɒ s / , from Greek : Κρόνος , Krónos ) was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans , the divine descendants of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). He overthrew his father and ruled during
1717-476: Is even possible to reconstruct the internal history of Carthage, and this needs to be borne in mind in relation to the Magonids. Mago and his successors probably ruled less like kings and more like tyrants or political strongmen. Diodorus , however, describes them as kings according to the law, which implies a legal procedure rather than a naked seizure of power. Similarly, Herodotus tells us that Hamilcar I
1818-708: Is killed, ending the First Sicilian War . Hanno II , also known as Hanno the Navigator, takes power. The Tribunal of 104 is established, severely weakening the power of the Kings. Carthage becomes a republic . 440 BCE: Hanno's reign ends, under whom a large part of Africa was added to Carthage's dominion and more of the Atlantic coast of Africa was explored and settled. Himilco I takes power. 410 BCE: Hannibal I takes power. The same year, he invades Sicily . 409 BCE: Invasion of Sicily ends with destruction of
1919-625: Is mentioned in the Sibylline Oracles , particularly in book three, wherein Cronus, 'Titan,' and Iapetus , the three sons of Uranus and Gaia, each receive a third of the Earth, and Cronus is made king overall. After the death of Uranus, Titan's sons attempt to destroy Cronus's and Rhea's male offspring as soon as they are born. However, at Dodona , Rhea secretly bears her sons Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades and sends them to Phrygia to be raised in
2020-618: Is related to "horned", assuming a Semitic derivation from qrn . Andrew Lang 's objection, that Cronus was never represented horned in Hellenic art, was addressed by Robert Brown, arguing that, in Semitic usage, as in the Hebrew Bible , qeren was a signifier of "power". When Greek writers encountered the Semitic deity El , they rendered his name as Cronus. When Hellenes encountered Phoenicians and, later, Hebrews, they identified
2121-462: Is that Rhea and Cronus were given names of streams: Rhea from ῥοή (rhoē) "river, stream, flux" and Cronus from χρόνος (chronos) "time". Proclus (5th century), the Neoplatonist philosopher, makes in his Commentary on Plato's Cratylus an extensive analysis of Cronus; among others he says that the "One cause" of all things is "Chronos" (time) that is also equivalent to Cronus. In addition to
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#17327726996962222-509: The Battle of Cabala (378/375 BCE) in southern Italy against the Syracusan army. Finally, Carthage and Syracuse agreed a peace. In 480 BCE, following Hamilcar I's death, the King lost most of his power to an aristocratic Council of Elders. In 308 BCE, Bomilcar attempted a coup d'etat to restore the monarch to full power, but failed, which led to Carthage becoming in name as well as in fact
2323-483: The Strait of Messina . Himilco probably was not confident of holding an area so far from Carthage. He faced a strategic dilemma: if he took time to reduce the mountain fortresses of Messina, Dionysius would have time to prepare or launch an attack on Carthaginian Sicily. If Himilco simply marched off, the Messinian Greeks could harass his rear. Dividing the army would weaken his striking power against Dionysius. Himilco found
2424-480: The "sickle with which heaven and earth had once been separated" to defeat the monster Ullikummi , establishing that the "castration" of the heavens by means of a sickle was part of a creation myth , in origin a cut creating an opening or gap between heaven (imagined as a dome of stone ) and earth enabling the beginning of time ( chronos ) and human history. A theory debated in the 19th century, and sometimes still offered somewhat apologetically, holds that Κρόνος
2525-511: The Attic month of Hekatombaion , a festival called Kronia was held in honour of Cronus to celebrate the harvest, suggesting that, as a result of his association with the virtuous Golden Age, Cronus continued to preside as a patron of the harvest . Cronus was also identified in classical antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn . In an ancient myth recorded by Hesiod 's Theogony , Cronus envied
2626-637: The Blessed , having been released from Tartarus by Zeus. This version of Cronus's fate is also found in Pindar . In a fragment of an Orphic cosmogony, Zeus intoxicates Cronus with honey, sending him to sleep, and then castrates him. In a Libyan account related by Diodorus Siculus (Book 3), Uranus and Titaea were the parents of Cronus and Rhea and the other Titans. Ammon, a king of Libya , married Rhea (3.18.1). However, Rhea abandoned Ammon and married her younger brother Cronus. With Rhea's incitement, Cronus and
2727-457: The Carthaginian army and a hostile Syracuse, although he took speedy action and managed to recapture Syracuse. Himilco and the Carthaginians camped near Syracuse but made no attempt to besiege the city. After a few weeks Himilco sent a herald with a peace offer. It has been speculated that a plague had broken out in the Carthaginian camp, causing the Carthaginians to request a truce. During the whole campaign Himilco had lost more than half his army to
2828-466: The Carthaginian army. From Catana Himilco marched south to Syracuse and camped to the south of the city while the Carthaginian fleet entered the Great Harbour. Himilco built his fortified camp near the temple of Zeus, then built 3 additional forts and employed 3,000 transports to bring in supplies for the Carthaginian force, while 208 warships were stationed at Syracuse. The land around Syracuse
2929-528: The Carthaginian camp which killed Hannibal. Hannibal's cousin Himilco II (son of Hanno the Navigator and grandson of Hamilcar) now assumed the reins of power of Carthage. He was only formally crowned king in 396 BCE, but this most likely means that a Carthaginian king could only be installed in the city of Carthage itself and so he had to wait to receive his title formally until he returned home from Sicily. He spent his time on Sicily in an on-and-off war with
3030-420: The Carthaginian effort against Dionysius from that date. Although initially successful, Himilco suffered a reverse at Syracuse in 396 BC when his forces were decimated by the plague and then defeated by Dionysius. He managed to bring the Carthaginian members of his army home after bribing Dionysius and abandoning his other troops. Himilco publicly assumed full responsibility for the debacle, and after visiting all
3131-521: The Carthaginian expedition to Sicily in 406 BC to punish Hermocrates for raiding Carthaginian possessions around Motya and Panormus . Hannibal initially refused, pleading old age, but accepted when the Carthaginian Senate elected Himilco as his deputy. Hannibal led 60,000 soldiers and 1000 transports, escorted by 120 triremes to Sicily, where the cities of Akragas and Syracuse had gathered soldiers from Sicily and southern Italy to oppose
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3232-499: The Carthaginian ships – many of which was not properly manned. Himilco chose to open negotiations with Dionysius. A bribe of 300 silver talents ensured the safe passage of 40 ships bearing all the Carthaginian citizens to Carthage. Himilco abandoned his mercenaries and allies to their fate. The Sicilians went home, the Iberians joined Dionysius while the rest were enslaved. The people of Carthage were outraged by Himilco's actions and
3333-603: The Carthaginians had demolished tombs to get materials for the siege ramps, many of the Carthaginian soldiers believed that divine anger had caused the plague. Himilco's first challenge was to tackle the plague. Left unchecked, the plague would have decimated the Carthaginians, and if Himilco retreated, the Greeks might have carried the war into Carthaginian territories in Sicily. Himilco was in no position to force an advantageous truce – and defeated generals were often crucified in Carthage. Himilco chose to sacrifice some animals to
3434-442: The Carthaginians managed to learn of the approach of one such convoy. Himilco then summoned 40 triremes from Motya and Panormus , which sailed up during the night and remained hidden from Greek scouts, then surprised the Greek flotilla at dawn. The Carthaginians sank 8 Greek triremes and captured the entire supply flotilla. The Carthaginians now had food to last for several months and their morale improved. The Greeks now faced
3535-577: The Carthaginians with missiles. While Himilco's crews suffered casualties, Dionysius had his men drag 80 triremes across the base of the isthmus to the north of Motya into the open sea beyond. These ships then sailed south so the Carthaginians in turn were almost trapped between the Greeks firing catapults and the triremes. The Carthaginians sailed back to Carthage, and Motya eventually fell after days of fierce street fighting. After capturing Motya, Dionysius kept Segesta and Entella under siege, garrisoned Motya and withdrew to Syracuse, while his brother Leptines
3636-472: The Carthaginians. In the spring of 406 BC, Hannibal laid siege to Akragas , the wealthiest city in Sicily by "straddling" the city with 2 camps, while the Carthaginian fleet was based at Motya. The main Carthaginian army was in the western camp while the eastern one housed the Iberian and Campanian mercenaries. Akragas could field 10,000 hoplites and some cavalry and also had 1,500 crack mercenaries under
3737-400: The Carthaginians. The Greeks then launched a three pronged attack on the Carthaginian camp. The imaginative battle plan, if implemented properly, might have trapped the Carthaginians but for the lack of coordination among Greek army units, which enabled the Carthaginians to defeat the Greeks. Dionysus then abandoned Gela and fell back to Camarina, and then left Camarina for Syracuse, while both
3838-762: The Cyclopes who gifted him his thunderbolts. In a vast war called the Titanomachy , Zeus and his older brothers and sisters, with the help of the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes, overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Afterwards, many of the Titans were confined in Tartarus . However, Oceanus , Helios , Atlas , Prometheus , Epimetheus , and Astraeus were not imprisoned following the Titanomachy. Gaia bore
3939-480: The Greeks beat back the attack and repaired the breaches in the walls during the night. Dionysius soon arrived with a relief force consisting of 30,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 50 triremes and camped to the east of the city. Himilco chose to await developments in his camp and did not offer battle. Following the script used at Akragas, Dionysius harassed Carthaginian supply columns for 3 weeks with light troops. Greek soldiers had other ideas and forced him to attack
4040-440: The Greeks considered Cronus merely an intermediary stage between Uranus and Zeus, he was a larger aspect of Roman religion . The Saturnalia was a festival dedicated in his honour, and at least one temple to Saturn already existed in the archaic Roman Kingdom . His association with the "Saturnian" Golden Age eventually caused him to become the god of "time", i.e., calendars, seasons, and harvests—not now confused with Chronos ,
4141-593: The Italian mainland. Himilco kept a part of his army in the main camp to watch Akragas while the mercenaries marched east to fight the Greeks. Daphaenus defeated the mercenaries, drove the survivors to the main camp and occupied the eastern camp, thus lifting the siege. Himilco chose not to offer battle to the victorious Greeks, but he did not abandon his position either. The Carthaginians were dependent of supplies brought overland from Western Sicily and through foraging. There were no natural harbours near Akragas to house
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4242-674: The Judaeo-Christian week is called in Latin Dies Saturni ("Day of Saturn"), which in turn was adapted and became the source of the English word Saturday . In astronomy , the planet Saturn is named after the Roman deity. It is the outermost of the Classical planets (the astronomical planets that are visible with the naked eye). In Greco-Roman Egypt, Cronus was equated with the Egyptian god Geb , because he held
4343-457: The Libyans revolted and besieged the city. It is not known if Himilco was summoned before the tribunal of Hundred and Four. It was said that Himilco accepted full responsibility for the disaster, dressed up as a slave and then went to all the temples of the city, begging forgiveness. After that he bricked himself up in his house, refused to see his family and starved himself to death. His successor
4444-530: The Olympians took over. During antiquity, Cronus was occasionally interpreted as Chronos , the personification of time. The Roman philosopher Cicero (1st century BC) elaborated on this by saying that the Greek name Cronus is synonymous to chrónos (time) since he maintains the course and cycles of seasons and the periods of time, whereas the Latin name Saturn denotes that he is saturated with years since he
4545-514: The Semitic El , by interpretatio graeca , with Cronus. The association was recorded c. 100 AD by Philo of Byblos ' Phoenician history, as reported in Eusebius ' Præparatio Evangelica I.10.16. Philo's account, ascribed by Eusebius to the semi-legendary pre- Trojan War Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon , indicates that Cronus was originally a Canaanite ruler who founded Byblos and
4646-491: The Spartan Dexippus in the city. After the initial Carthaginian assault on the city gate nearest to the main Carthaginian camp with two siege towers failed, Hannibal then began to build siege ramps to assault the city from several directions. However, a plague swept through the Carthaginian army and Hannibal perished with many of his soldiers. Himilco was elected as the commander of the Carthaginian force. Because
4747-533: The Syracusan army. 377 BCE??: Mago's son Himilco Mago defeats Dionysius at Battle of Cronium. Syracuse and Carthage make peace. 348 BCE: Second treaty signed with Rome, now a significant power in Italy. 344 BCE: Mago III dies. Hanno III takes power. 340 BCE: Hanno III attempts a coup d'etat against the Council of Elders to restore full monarchical power, but he fails, and is executed. Cronus This
4848-450: The Titans", and in another poem (476 BC), Pindar has Cronus released from Tartarus and now ruling in the Isles of the Blessed , a mythical land where the Greek heroes reside in the afterlife: Those who have persevered three times, on either side, to keep their souls free from all wrongdoing, follow Zeus's road to the end, to the tower of Cronus, where ocean breezes blow around the island of
4949-419: The blessed, and flowers of gold are blazing, some from splendid trees on land, while water nurtures others. With these wreaths and garlands of flowers they entwine their hands according to the righteous counsels of Rhadamanthys , whom the great father, the husband of Rhea whose throne is above all others, keeps close beside him as his partner. Prometheus Lyomenos ( Prometheus Unbound ), an undated lost play by
5050-453: The care of three Cretans. Upon learning this, sixty of Titan's men then imprison Cronus and Rhea, causing the sons of Cronus to declare and fight the first of all wars against them. This account mentions nothing about Cronus either killing his father or attempting to kill any of his children. In Hesiod's Theogony , and Homer's Iliad , Cronus and his Titan brothers are confined to Tartarus, apparently forever, but in other traditions Cronus and
5151-399: The cities of Thermae and Cephaleodium on the north coast of Sicily to secure his supply route. Himilco attacked Lipari (whose Dorian Greek inhabitants were notorious pirates and could pose a threat to Carthaginian supplies) with 300 triremes and 300 transports, captured the island and forced the Greeks to pay 30 talents as ransom. Then he sailed and disembarked at Cape Pelorum , 12 miles to
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#17327726996965252-475: The cities were sacked by Himilco's forces as the Carthaginians marched towards Syracuse. Himilco did not press the pursuit but marched on Syracuse slowly. He thus missed an opportunity to destroy the forces loyal to Dionysius – because some Greek rebels had managed to seize Syracuse while the Greeks of Gela and Camarina had marched off to Leontini with the Italian Greeks. Dionysius was left adrift between
5353-431: The city of Selinus , ally of the powerful Greek city of Syracuse . 406 BCE: Himilco II takes power after Hannibal dies of disease. 396 BCE: Himilco is disastrously defeated in Sicily by Dionysius I of Syracuse and commits suicide. Mago II takes power. 392 BCE: After crushing Libyan revolt, Mago ends war with Dionysus in Sicily. 378/375 BCE: Mago defeated and killed at Battle of Cabala in central Sicily by
5454-412: The city, which was sacked and the Carthaginian army wintered in the city. In the following spring Himilco levelled Akragas and marched east to Gela . He did not surround the city with siege walls or "straddle" it by building several camps, but chose to encamp to the west of the city and capture the city through a direct assault. The Carthaginians duly attacked the west wall of Gela with battering rams but
5555-416: The deed was done, Cronus cast his sickle into the waves, and it was concealed under the island of Corfu , which had been noted since antiquity for its sickle-like shape, and gave it its ancient name, Drepane ("sickle"). While Hesiod seems to imply Cronus never set them free to begin with, Pseudo-Apollodorus says that after dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes and set
5656-475: The defeat at Himera. Hannibal Mago, son of Gisco, was the suffet of Carthage in 409 BC and led the expedition to Sicily which destroyed both Selinus and Himera and made Segesta a vassal entity. It is not known if Himilco had played a part in these activities, although the army had attracted a large number of Carthaginian citizens at that time. Hannibal Mago was elected "king" for his successes in Sicily. The Carthaginian Senate requested Hannibal Mago to command
5757-478: The dragon Campe to guard them. He and his older sister Rhea took the throne of the world as king and queen. The period in which Cronus ruled was called the Golden Age , as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did the right thing, and immorality was absent. In some authors, a different divine pair, Ophion and Eurynome , a daughter of Oceanus, were said to have ruled Mount Olympus in
5858-528: The early age of the Titans. Rhea fought Eurynome and Cronus fought Ophion, and after defeating them they threw them into the waves of the ocean, thus becoming rulers in their place. After securing his place as the new king of gods, Cronus learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own children, just as he had overthrown his father. As a result, although he sired the gods Demeter , Hestia , Hera , Hades , and Poseidon by Rhea, he devoured them all as soon as they were born to prevent
5959-444: The following day. The Greeks had beached their transports to the south of Motya and their warships to the north, while the crews were busy building siege works. The Carthaginians first burned all beached transports then sailed north, trapping the Greek ships in the shallow waters north of the island of Motya. Had Himilco attacked the beached Greeks warships he may have won a great victory. The Carthaginian ships were positioned superbly on
6060-672: The great Syracusan tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse until in 396 BCE he was disastrously defeated, fleeing Sicily with Carthaginian refugees whilst abandoning his remaining mercenary troops to be slaughtered by the victorious Greeks. Himilco later committed suicide. Mago II , another member of this family inherited the title of leader at first. His first task was to try and quell a Libyan revolt which came close to overthrowing Carthaginian rule altogether. Thereafter he set out to Sicily again and later even to southern Italy, to occupy himself with Dionysius. What Mago II lacked in military ability he made up for with diplomatic skill. But finally he fell in
6161-614: The half-human, half-equine shape of their offspring; this was said to have taken place on Mount Pelion . Two other sons of Cronus and Philyra may have been Dolops and Aphrus, the ancestor and eponym of the Aphroi, i.e. the native Africans . In some accounts, Cronus was also called the father of the Corybantes . Cronus is featured in one of the works of satirical writer Lucian of Samosata , Saturnalia , where he talks with one of his priests about his festival Saturnalia, with
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#17327726996966262-574: The island of Ibiza on its own, it now took the lead, establishing itself firmly as the dominant Phoenician military power in the western Mediterranean. Mago was succeeded by his son Hasdrubal I . The next successor was Hamilcar I , the son of Hasdrubal's brother Hanno. Carthage, always trying to rid itself of its opponent, the Greeks , might even have entered into an alliance with the Persian Xerxes (the accounts are unsure) in order to defeat
6363-416: The islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. The poet Pindar , in one of his poems (462 BC), wrote that although Atlas still "strains against the weight of the sky ... Zeus freed
6464-589: The joint foe. Herodotus tells that it was believed that the decisive battle of Himera between Carthaginian and Greek forces on Sicily took place on the very same day that the Greeks met with the Persians in the famous battle of Salamis in 480 BCE in Greece itself. But the Greeks were victorious in both battles and Hamilcar met his death at Himera. After Hamilcar's death, the dynasty continued with Hamilcar's son Hanno II 'the Navigator' up to 440 BCE, under whom
6565-686: The last moment. These letters were to be opened only if a storm caused the ships to become separated and lose sight of their flagship. The Carthaginian armada split into two groups: the transports headed straight for Panormus while the warships sailed north before turning east. Leptines managed to sink 50 transports (with 5,000 men and 200 chariots) but the rest of the transports reached Panormus aided by an opportune wind. The Carthaginians, reinforced by Elymian and Sikan soldiers first marched to Motya from Panormus . Eryx, which had been betrayed to Dionysius through treachery, now fell to Himilco. Himilco next attacked and captured Motya, but decided to establish
6666-566: The monster Typhon to claim revenge for the imprisoned Titans. Accounts of the fate of Cronus after the Titanomachy differ. The most popular account is that found in the Iliad , Hesiod's Theogony , and Apollodorus, all of which state that he was imprisoned with the other Titans in Tartarus. In two papyrus versions of a passage from Hesiod's Works and Days , however, Kronos rules over the Isle of
6767-409: The mythological Golden Age until he was overthrown by his son Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus . According to Plato , however, the deities Phorcys , Cronus, and Rhea were the eldest children of Oceanus and Tethys . Cronus was usually depicted with a harpe , scythe , or sickle , which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. In Athens , on the twelfth day of
6868-470: The name Cronus, portraying the deity as a great ruler over others within the aeons . During the Renaissance , the identification of Cronus and Chronos gave rise to " Father Time " wielding the harvesting scythe. H. J. Rose in 1928 observed that attempts to give the name Κρόνος a Greek etymology had failed. Recently, Janda (2010) offers a genuinely Indo-European etymology of "the cutter", from
6969-589: The name, the story of Cronus eating his children was also interpreted as an allegory to a specific aspect of time held within Cronus's sphere of influence. As the theory went, Cronus represented the destructive ravages of time which devoured all things, a concept that was illustrated when the Titan king ate the Olympian gods—the past consuming the future, the older generation suppressing the next generation. The Gnostic text Pistis Sophia (3rd–4th century) references
7070-457: The narrow mouth of the channel between the Island of Motya and the isthmus, so the Greeks would not be able to sail out with their whole fleet, and if they sailed out in small groups they would face difficulty in manoeuvring and reforming. Himilco's stratagem failed because instead of trying to engage the Carthaginian fleet, Dionysius sent his catapult armed ships and land based catapults to engage
7171-674: The north of Messina. Himilco did not march directly to Messina. When the Messinian army marched north, Himilco sent 200 triremes manned with picked rowers and soldiers to the city. Aided by a favourable wind, this fleet managed to arrive and capture the city before the Greeks doubled back. Had Himilco also defeated the Messinian army his would have won a complete victory, but he allowed the surviving Greeks to take refuge in nearby mountain fortresses, which Carthaginians could not quickly reduce. Himilco chose not to occupy Messina permanently, although it would have given Carthage permanent control over
7272-477: The other Titans made war upon Ammon, who fled to Crete (3.71.1–2). Cronus ruled harshly and Cronus in turn was defeated by Ammon's son Dionysus (3.71.3–3.73) who appointed Cronus's and Rhea's son, Zeus, as king of Egypt (3.73.4). Dionysus and Zeus then joined their forces to defeat the remaining Titans in Crete, and on the death of Dionysus, Zeus inherited all the kingdoms, becoming lord of the world (3.73.7–8). Cronus
7373-537: The other imprisoned Titans are eventually set free by the mercy of Zeus. Two papyrus versions of a passage of Hesiod's Works and Days mention Cronus being released by Zeus, and ruling over the heroes who go to the Isle of the Blessed; but other editions of Hesiod's text make no mention of this, and most editors agree that these lines of text are later interpolations in Hesiod's works. And they live untouched by sorrow in
7474-402: The plague. The treaty left Carthaginians supreme in Sicily with Syracuse isolated and Dionysius under suspicion of being a Carthaginian collaborator. The main conditions were: In return for recognizing Dionysius as the ruler of Syracuse, Himilco ensured the total reversal of all the conquests of Gelo and Hieron . Neutral powers now bordered the Syracusan domain, and the independence of these
7575-558: The playwright Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 455 BC), features a chorus composed of freed Titans as witnesses of Prometheus's freeing from the rock, perhaps including Cronus himself, although the now freed Titans are not individually identified. In one version of Typhon's origins, after the defeat of the Giants , Gaia in anger slandered Zeus to Hera, and she went to Cronus. Cronus gave his daughter two eggs smeared with his own semen and told her to bury them underground, so that they would produce
7676-412: The power of his father, Uranus , the ruler of the universe. Uranus drew the enmity of Cronus's mother, Gaia , when he hid the gigantic youngest children of Gaia, the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires and one-eyed Cyclopes , in Tartarus , so that they would not see the light. Gaia created a great stone sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to persuade them to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus
7777-553: The prophecy. When the sixth child, Zeus , was born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save them and to eventually get retribution on Cronus for his acts against his father and children. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete , and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, also known as the Omphalos Stone, which he promptly swallowed, thinking that it was his son. According to one Roman author, when Rhea presented
7878-463: The rise of the council of Hundred and Four with the power to try and punish Carthaginian commanders. The Magonid family continued to be active in Carthaginian foreign affairs while Himilco was alive. Himilco's father, probably Hanno , led a famous expedition down the west African coast to Cameroon, while his uncle, perhaps the famous Himilco the Navigator , had explored the western coast of Iberia, Gaul and may have reached England, seeking to tap into
7979-543: The roads near Naxos impassable. The Carthaginian army under Himilco marched around the mountain while the navy under Mago sailed to Catana, where the army rejoined Mago's force after covering the 110 km trek in two days. Without the army's protection, the beached Carthaginian ships were vulnerable to the army of Dionysius, which had assembled at Catana. However, Mago managed to defeat the Greek fleet under Leptines , and Dionysius withdrew to Syracuse before Himilco arrived with
8080-600: The root *(s)ker- "to cut" (Greek κείρω ( keirō ), cf. English shear ), motivated by Cronus's characteristic act of "cutting the sky" (or the genitals of anthropomorphic Uranus). The Indo-Iranian reflex of the root is kar- , but Janda argues that the original meaning "to cut" in a cosmogonic sense is still preserved in some verses of the Rigveda pertaining to Indra 's heroic "cutting", like that of Cronus resulting in creation: RV 10 .104.10 ārdayad vṛtram akṛṇod ulokaṃ he hit Vrtra fatally, cutting [> creating]
8181-501: The sea and also sacrificed a child to a god Greeks associated with Cronos . It is not known if the Carthaginians had taken any practical measures to combat the plague, but the plague stopped. Himilco then resumed the ramp building and also dammed the Hypsas River to gain better access to the city. Before he could complete his siege of Akragas, Daphaenus of Syracuse arrived with 35,000 Sicilian soldiers along with Greek soldiers from
8282-468: The situation by bribing some Campanian mercenaries – who deserted to him. Rumours circulated that the Spartan general, Dexippus, leading 1,500 mercenaries, had also been bribed by Himilco. The tension now caused the Greek army to fall apart. Italian Greeks quit Akragas rather than face starvation, and soon other Greeks contingents along the whole population marched east to Gela. Himilco took possession of
8383-452: The son of Misor and inventor of writing. While the Greeks considered Cronus a cruel and tempestuous force of chaos and disorder, believing the Olympian gods had brought an era of peace and order by seizing power from the crude and malicious Titans, the Romans took a more positive and innocuous view of the deity, by conflating their indigenous deity Saturn with Cronus. Consequently, while
8484-458: The swaddled rock to him, Cronus asked her to nurse the infant one last time before he swallowed him. Rhea pressed her breast against the rock, and the milk that was sprayed across the heavens created the Milky Way galaxy. Cronus then ate the rock. Rhea kept Zeus hidden in a cave on Mount Ida, Crete . According to some versions of the story, he was then raised by a goat named Amalthea , while
8585-453: The temples of the city dressed as a slave to offer penance, he is said to have starved himself to death. Nothing is known about the early life or family of Himilco. His family had been active in Carthaginian politics since 550 BC, expanding the empire in Sicily, Africa, Iberia and Sardinia during between 550 BC and 480 BC. The power of the position of "king" diminished after the defeat of his grandfather Hamilcar Mago at Himera in 480 BC with
8686-455: The tin trade with the Celts. Hanno, Himilco and their brother Gisco, along with Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Sappho (sons of Hasdrubal , the brother of Hamilcar Mago), also were active in expanding the Carthaginian domain in northern Africa and Sardinia and ending the payment of tribute to the Libyans. Gisco, however, had been exiled to Selinus , a Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily, after
8787-460: The unrelated embodiment of time in general. Nevertheless, among Hellenistic scholars in Alexandria and during the Renaissance , Cronus was conflated with the name of Chronos , the personification of " Father Time ", wielding the harvesting scythe. As a result of Cronus's importance to the Romans, his Roman variant, Saturn, has had a large influence on Western culture . The seventh day of
8888-407: The unruly mercenaries by bribing them with the gold and silver tableware of the Carthaginian officers. He still needed to improve his supply situation – and he seized on opportune information to achieve this. The Greeks were using grain ships escorted by 30 triremes to supply Akragas and their army, and had become lax due to the absence of Carthaginian ships in the vicinity. Just prior to the winter
8989-589: Was Mago the Second . Magonids The Magonids were a political dynasty of Ancient Carthage from 550 BCE to 340 BCE. The dynasty was first established under Mago I , under whom Carthage became pre-eminent among the Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean. Under the Magonids, the Carthaginian Empire expanded to include Sardinia , Libya , and for almost a decade much of Sicily . Leading experts on Carthage have been sceptical as to whether it
9090-505: Was "king by valour," implying selection rather than hereditary succession. In 480 BCE, after Hamilcar I's death, the king lost most of his power to an aristocratic Council of Elders. In 308 BCE, Hannonian Bomilcar attempted a coup d'état to restore the monarch to full power, but failed, so that Carthage became in name as well as in fact a republic. With the arrival of Mago, Carthaginian foreign policy appears to have changed dramatically. If previously Carthage had tentatively colonized
9191-421: Was depicted as a man with attributes of Cronus and Cronus with attributes of Geb. On the other hand, the priests of the local main temple identified themselves in Egyptian texts as priests of "Soknebtunis-Geb", but in Greek texts as priests of "Soknebtunis-Cronus". Accordingly, Egyptian names formed with the name of the god Geb were just as popular among local villagers as Greek names derived from Cronus, especially
9292-485: Was devouring his sons, which implies that time devours the ages and gorges. The Greek historian and biographer Plutarch (1st century AD) asserted that the Greeks believed that Cronus was an allegorical name for χρόνος (time). The philosopher Plato (3rd century BC) in his Cratylus gives two possible interpretations for the name of Cronus. The first is that his name denotes κόρος (kóros), "the pure" ( καθαρόν ) and "unblemished" (ἀκήρατον) nature of his mind. The second
9393-416: Was forced to regurgitate his children through Gaia's cunning and Zeus's might. Cronus disgorged first the stone that he had swallowed instead of Zeus, followed by Zeus's siblings. The stone was then placed by Zeus at Pytho on Mount Parnassus . In other versions of the tale, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the children. After freeing his siblings, Zeus released the Hecatoncheires and
9494-505: Was guaranteed by both Carthage and Dionysius. Gela , Camarina , Akragas and Himera had become tribute paying Carthaginian vassals, while the Sicanians and Elymians were part of the Carthaginian domain. Himilco had ensured Carthaginian rule was at its apex in Sicily, a position it would not again reach until 289 BC. Himilco garrisoned Western Sicily and disbanded the army. Himilco was elected "king" between 405 BC and 398 BC, so he
9595-536: Was in Carthage part of that time. It is not known if he had any part in ruling the Sicilian territories, where Carthaginian rule was deemed harsh on her new subjects. When Dionysius broke the peace treaty in 404 BC by attacking the Sicel city of Herbessus, Carthage, possibly weakened by the plague, did not respond. In 403 BC Carthage provided mercenaries to restore Dionysius to power after he was besieged in Syracuse by
9696-455: Was posted at Eryx with 120 ships (triremes and quinqueremes). Himilco marshalled an army of 50,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 400 chariots, while the Carthaginian navy mobilized 400 triremes and 600 transports. In term of number of warships this was the largest armada ever mobilized by Carthage. To keep any information from leaking to the Greeks, Himilco wrote down the armada's destinations in sealed letters, which were issued to his captains at
9797-565: Was raised by his grandmother, Gaia. One Cretan myth relates how Cronus once went to Crete himself, and Zeus, in order to hide from his father, transformed himself into a snake, and changed his nymph nurses, Helice and Cynosura into bears, who later became the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor respectively. In another myth, Cronus transformed the Curetes into lions, but Rhea made them her sacred animals and yoked them in her chariot. According to Hesiod, once Zeus had grown up, Cronus
9898-449: Was ravaged for 30 days. The winter of 397 BC was spent in small skirmishes. In the spring of 396 BC, the Carthaginians captured the areas of the city not protected by walls and destroyed the temple of Demeter. During the summer a plague swept through the Carthaginian army, decimating their ranks. Dionysius launched a night attack that captured 2 forts but was unable to take the main camp. The Greek fleet also managed to burn and capture many of
9999-402: Was subsequently deified. This version gives his alternate name as Elus or Ilus , and states that in the 32nd year of his reign, he emasculated, slew and deified his father Epigeius or Autochthon "whom they afterwards called Uranus". It further states that after ships were invented, Cronus, visiting the 'inhabitable world', bequeathed Attica to his own daughter Athena , and Egypt to Taautus
10100-435: Was the king of Carthage. He immediately set out on a new campaign in Sicily, which in 409 BCE ended in the utter destruction of the city of Selinus , ally of the powerful Greek city state of Syracuse . Hannibal achieved true notoriety with the sheer destruction he wrought and with the cruelty with which he slaughtered thousands of prisoners. It was at the siege of the Greek city of Agrigentum that an epidemic swept through
10201-609: Was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle and placed him in ambush. When Uranus met with Gaia, Cronus attacked him with the sickle, castrating him and casting his testicles into the sea. From the blood that spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes , Erinyes , and Meliae were produced. The testicles produced a white foam from which the goddess Aphrodite emerged. For this, Uranus threatened vengeance and called his sons Titenes for overstepping their boundaries and daring to commit such an act. After
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