Battle of the Himera River | |||||||
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![]() Battle of the Himera River (446 BC) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Syracuse | Acragas | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Over 1,000 |
The Battle of the Himera River was fought in 446 BC [1] between Syracuse and Acragas near the Himera river. The latter had declared war on Syracuse because their common enemy, the Sicel leader Ducetius, had returned to Sicily to colonize Cale Acte. Syracuse had exiled rather than executed Ducetius in 450 BC. Syracuse defeated Acragas and the conflict was settled with a peace treaty.
In classical antiquity the name Himera was used for two rivers on Sicily: the Grande and the Salso. The Grande flows north towards its mouth at the site of ancient Himera, the Salso follows a southern course to its mouth in modern Licata. It is not certain near which river the battle took place.
In 450 BC Ducetius was decisively defeated by Syracuse in the Battle of Nomae and by Acragas at Motyum. [2] Fearing that he would be slain by his own people, he fled to Syracuse in a desperate attempt to save himself. At night he entered the city's marketplace and seated himself at the altars of the gods to become a suppliant who was entitled to sanctuary. The Syracusans were amazed and magistrates called a meeting of the Assembly to determine how he should be dealt with. Some proposed to punish him, but the elder citizens convinced the Assembly that it would be a sacrilege to execute a suppliant. The Syracusans exiled Ducetius to Corinth and provided him with sufficient financial resources to support himself. [3]
After spending some time in Corinth Ducetius broke the agreement and sailed back to Sicily with colonists to found Cale Acte. This angered the Acragantines, who were envious of Syracusans and accused them of releasing their common enemy without having consulted them first. They declared war on Syracuse. [4]
The other Greek cities of Sicily were divided, some joined Acragas and some joined Syracuse. The two forces met near the Himera River where Syracuse won the battle. Over a thousand Acragantines were killed in the fighting. After the battle Acragas sent ambassadors to Syracuse to discuss terms for a peace treaty which ended the war. The terms of the treaty are unknown. [4]
The battle may have taken place on the southern Himera River, the modern Salso.[ citation needed ] Syracuse probably had a superiority in cavalry, which made Acragas pick a battle site close to a river to negate this advantage of their enemy somewhat. Nevertheless, its superior cavalry most likely enabled Syracuse to win the battle. The number of Syracusan casualties would have been minor.[ citation needed ]
Agrigento is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden age of Ancient Greece with population estimates in the range of 200,000 to 800,000 before 406 BC.
Year 446 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Barbatus and Fusus. The denomination 446 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Battle of Himera, supposedly fought on the same day as the Battle of Salamis, or at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae, saw the Greek forces of Gelon, King of Syracuse, and Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum, defeat the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar the Magonid, ending a Carthaginian bid to restore the deposed tyrant of Himera. The alleged coincidence of this battle with the naval battle of Salamis and the resultant derailing of a Punic-Persian conspiracy aimed at destroying the Greek civilization is rejected by modern scholars. Scholars also agree that the battle led to the crippling of Carthage's power in Sicily for many decades. It was one of the most important battles of the Sicilian Wars.
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