Battle of Himera (409 BC) - Background

Background

Phoenicians of Western Sicily had aided the Elymians against the Dorian Greeks of Selinus in 580 BC, when a Greek colonization attempt of Lilybaeum was defeated. The invasion of Spartan Dorieus was again defeated by Carthage near Eryx in 510 BC, and a war followed where Carthage destroyed the city of Hereclea Minoa. Carthage had signed treaties with the cities of Selinus, Himera and Zankle by 490 BC. The pretext for launching the great Punic Sicilian expedition of 480 BC was the restoration of the deposed tyrant of Himera. The Sicilian Greeks under the tyrants Gelo of Syracuse and Theron of Akragas had crushed the Punic expedition in the 1st battle of Himera in 480 BC.

Carthage had stayed away from Sicilian Greek affairs following the defeat for 70 years, during which time Greek culture started to penetrate the Elymian, Sikanian and Sicel cities. The political landscape in Sicily also changed as Greek tyrants were replaced by democracy and oligarchy, the domain of Syracuse shrunk and infighting between Greek cities flared up in Sicily. Athens had sent fleets to Sicily in 427, 425 and 424 BC to intervene, which caused Hermocrates of Syracuse requesting all Sicilian Greek cities to remain at peace at the congress of Gela in 424 BC.

The Elymian city of Segesta had clashed with Selinus over territorial rights and marriage issues, and had been worsted in the conflict. After an appeal to Carthage was turned down in 415 BC, Athens heeded the plea for help and sent over an expedition that was ultimately defeated at Syracuse in 413 BC. Faced with renewed hostility from Selinus, Segesta again appealed to Carthage in 410 BC. The Carthaginian Senate, after some debate, agreed to intervene. This appeal came at a time when the mainland Greek cities were locked in the Peloponnesian War, and Syracuse, an ally of Sparta, was not focused on Sicily. The Syracusan fleet was operating in the Aegean Sea.