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 .
24-466: Leading experts on Carthage have been sceptical as to whether it 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
48-462: 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
72-421: A naked seizure of power. Similarly, Herodotus tells us that Hamilcar I 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
96-524: 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
120-486: A republic. With the arrival of Mago, Carthaginian foreign policy appears to have changed dramatically. If previously Carthage had tentatively colonized 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,
144-454: Is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx and its equivalents in the various European languages . The Germanic term is notably different from the word for "King" in other Indo-European languages ( *rēks "ruler"; Latin rēx , Sanskrit rājan and Irish rí ; however, see Gothic reiks and, e.g., modern German Reich and modern Dutch rijk ). The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship , in
168-502: Is derived from the Common Germanic * kuningaz . The Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas . It is a derivation from the term *kunjom "kin" ( Old English cynn ) by the -inga- suffix. The literal meaning is that of a "scion of the [noble] kin", or perhaps "son or descendant of one of noble birth" ( OED ). The English term translates, and
192-764: 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
216-441: Is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds the powers of government without control, or the entire sovereignty over a nation ; he is a limited monarch if his power is restrained by fixed laws; and he is an absolute, when he holds the whole legislative , judicial , and executive power , or when the legislative or judicial powers, or both, are vested in other people by
240-509: 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
264-629: The Greeks , might even have entered into an alliance with the Persian Xerxes (the accounts are unsure) in order to defeat 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
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#1732765439915288-571: The King of Bahrain and the King of Eswatini . Battle of Cabala The Battle of Cabala was fought in Sicily between Carthage and Syracuse . Syracuse was victorious. It is uncertain in what year it was fought and could have occurred in any year from 378 BCE to 375 BCE. The exact location of Cabala is also unknown. Dionysius I commanded the Syracusian forces while Mago commanded
312-796: The Late Middle Ages there were a number of large and powerful kingdoms in Europe, which would develop into the great powers of Europe in the Early Modern period . By the end of the Middle Ages, the kings of these kingdoms would start to place arches with an orb and cross on top as an Imperial crown , which only the Holy Roman Emperor had had before. This symbolized them holding the imperium and being emperors in their own realm not subject even theoretically anymore to
336-510: The Carthaginian military forces. By 410 BCE Hannibal I (son of Gisco and grandson of Hamilcar) 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
360-606: 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 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
384-468: The Holy Roman Emperor. Philosophers Works Currently (as of 2023 ), seventeen kings are recognized as the heads of state of sovereign states (i.e. English king is used as official translation of the respective native titles held by the monarchs). Most of these are heads of state of constitutional monarchies ; kings ruling over absolute monarchies are the King of Saudi Arabia ,
408-535: 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. King King
432-431: 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
456-672: 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
480-702: The intermediate positions of counts (or earls ) and dukes . The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the former Carolingian Empire , i.e. the kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire (centered on the nominal kingdoms of Germany and Italy ). In the course of the European Middle Ages, the European kingdoms underwent a general trend of centralisation of power, so that by
504-487: The king. Kings are hereditary sovereigns when they hold the powers of government by right of birth or inheritance, and elective when raised to the throne by choice. The term king may also refer to a king consort , a title that is sometimes given to the husband of a queen regnant , but the title of prince consort is more common. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning , which in turn
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#1732765439915528-611: The kingdom of the Franks developed into the Carolingian Empire by the 8th century, and the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England were unified into the kingdom of England by the 10th century. With the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, the system of feudalism places kings at the head of a pyramid of relationships between liege lords and vassals, dependent on the regional rule of barons , and
552-489: The pre-Christian period a type of tribal kingship . The monarchies of Europe in the Christian Middle Ages derived their claim from Christianisation and the divine right of kings , partly influenced by the notion of sacral kingship inherited from Germanic antiquity . The Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms . In Western Europe,
576-664: Was at the siege of the Greek city of Agrigentum that an epidemic swept through 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
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