Page:Light and truth.djvu/195

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COLORED GENERALS AND SOLDIERS.
193

HANNO.


Hanno, an African, the father of Hamilcar, was a general of Carthage. He flourished when the Carthaginians were in their greatest prosperity. Some place his time 140 years before the founding of Rome, which would be about 800 years before the era of the whites. This commander-in-chief was sent out with a fleet and army by order of the Carthaginian Senate, to make treaties and settle colonies on the coast of Africa. [Encyclopedia Perthensis. Rollin, Voss, & Hist. Gr. 1. 4.]



HAMILCAR.


Hamilcar, an African, was the father of Hannibal. The fleet at that time consisted of two thousand ships of war, and upwards of three thousand small vessels of burden. The land forces amounted to no less than three hundred thousand men. These immense forces sailed from Carthage under the command of the celebrated Hamilcar, and were landed at Palermo, (in Latin, Panormus.) This fleet was burnt in the war by the stratagems of Gelon, an able warrior, who was sent to assist Theron the General of Hymera, a city not far from Palermo. The preparations for this war had occupied three years.


Three years after, they appointed Hamilcar their general a second time; and on his pleading his great age for declining the command in this war, they gave him for his lieutenant, Imilcon the son of Hanno, of the same family. The preparations for this war, were equal to the great design, which the Carthaginians had formed. The fleet and army were soon ready, and sailed from Carthage for Sicily. This army consisted of 300,000 men, according to Eporus; but according to Timaeus, of six hundred and twenty thousand. The General having died, after the reduction of several cities, Imilcon ended the war by a treaty with Dionysius. [Rollin.]