Acts of Vengeance
Hannibal sacrificed 3,000 Greek prisoners at the place where Hamilcar, his grandfather and leader of the 480 BC expedition, had fallen. The city of Himera was utterly destroyed, even all the temples were flattened to the ground, and the women and children were enslaved. Hannibal did not, however, divert a river over the city site (like the Greeks did at Sybaris in 511 BC) to complete his revenge. The spoils of war were divided among his troops, and the prisoners were sold into slavery. The Italian mercenaries, who mostly led the assault, complained that they had been abused by their commander and that their payment was not sufficient. They were subsequently discharged. Ironically, they took service with the Greeks.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Himera (409 BC)
Famous quotes containing the words acts of, acts and/or vengeance:
“... the big courageous acts of life are those one never hears of and only suspects from having been through like experience. It takes real courage to do battle in the unspectacular task. We always listen for the applause of our co-workers. He is courageous who plods on, unlettered and unknown.... In the last analysis it is this courage, developing between man and his limitations, that brings success.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (18671945)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“The great King of kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded
That thou shalt do no murder. Will you then
Spurn at his edict, and fulfill a mans?
Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand
To hurl upon their heads that break his law.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)