Mago (brother of Hannibal)

Mago († 203 BC ) was a Carthaginian general in the Second Punic War , a son of Hamilkar Barkas and the youngest brother of Hannibal .

Until the year 216 BC he took In the campaign of his brother Hannibal in Italy. After the Battle of Cannae , he brought the message of victory to Carthage and then went to Spain, where he fought the Romans with his other brother Hasdrubal . 211 BC He defeated the Roman generals Publius and Gnaeus Scipio with him .

After Hasdrubal withdrew to Italy, he was promoted to commander in chief of the Carthaginian armed forces in Spain. From the legions under the command of the younger Publius Scipio, the later Scipio Africanus , Mago was 206 BC. Defeated at Ilipa together with his general Hasdrubal Gisgo and the East Numid king Massinissa, who was still in league with Carthage at that time . The latter then withdrew to Africa with his remaining units.

Via Gades ( Cádiz ) and after wintering on the island of Menorca , Mago drove in 205 BC. BC to Liguria to take up the fight against the Romans. According to legend, Menorca's capital Maó (Mahón in Castilian) owes its name to this stay.

At an armistice in 203 shortly before the end of the war, he was ordered to return to Carthage; he died of a wound on the way to Africa.

literature

• Thomas Friedrich: Biography of the Barkiden Mago: a contribution to the criticism of Valerius Antias . Konegen, Vienna 1880 (studies from ancient history 3. Online )
• Klaus Geus: Prosopography of the literarily attested Carthaginians . Peeters, Leuven 1994, ISBN 90-6831-643-5 . (Studia Phenicia 13) (Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta 59), pp. 181-187

Web links

• Jona Lendering: Mago Barca . In: Livius.org (English)