Siege of Akragas (406 BC)

Part of The Sicilian Wars

Date	406 BC
Location	Akragas
Territorial changes	Dorian Greek city Akragas sacked

Belligerents

Akragas
Syracuse

Carthage

Commanders and leaders

Daphnaus, Dexippus

Hannibal Mago
Himilco Hanno

Strength

40,000, 40 Triremes

120,000 (Ancient sources), 120 Triremes

Casualties and losses

Unknown

6,000+

The Siege of Akragas took place in 406 BC in Sicily; the Carthaginian enterprise ultimately lasted a total of eight months. The Carthaginian army under Hannibal Mago besieged the Dorian Greek city of Akragas in retaliation against Greek raids on Punic colonies in Sicily. The city had managed to repel Carthaginian attacks until a relief army from Syracuse defeated part of the besieging Carthaginian army and lifted the siege of the city.

During the siege, Hannibal and a large number of Carthaginian soldiers had perished of plague, and the survivors were in dire straits after the Greeks managed to cut their supply lines. However, the Carthaginians, now led by Himilco, a Magonid kinsman of Hannibal, managed to capture a Greek supply convoy of ships using the Carthaginian fleet, which forced the Greeks to face the threat of starvation in turn. This caused first the Sicilian Greek detachment, then most of the population of Akragas to leave the city, enabling Himilco to capture and sack the city.

Carthage had stayed away from Sicilian affairs for almost seventy years following the defeat at Himera in 480 BC; during the intervening time Greek culture had started to penetrate the Elymian, Sikanian and Sicel cities in Sicily. The Greek tyrannies of Syracuse and Akragas, which were responsible for the victory at Himera, had fallen apart by 460 BC and the Greeks had to fend off the challenge of Ducetius in addition infighting among themselves. The inactivity of Carthage regarding Sicily changed in 411 when the Ionian Greek (former Elymian) city Segesta clashed with the Dorian Greek city Selinus and got the worst of the conflict. Segesta then appealed to Carthage for aid. 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, and Syracuse was in conflict with Naxos and Leontini, two Ionian Greek cities sympathetic to another Ionic city, Athens, the enemy of Sparta.

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