The army consisted of Gauls,
Ligurians, Baleareans, and Greeks. At first they were insolent in
their quarters in Carthage, and were prevailed upon to remove to
Sicca, where they were to remain and expect their pay. There they
grew presently corrupted with ease and pleasure, and fell into
mutinies and disorder, and to making extravagant demands of pay and
gratuities; and in a rage, with their arms in their hands, they
marched 20,000 of them towards Carthage, encamping within fifteen
miles of the city; and chose Spendius and Matho, two profligate
wretches, for their leaders, and imprisoned Gesco, who was deputed
to them from the commonwealth. Afterwards they caused almost all
the Africans, their tributaries, to revolt; they grew in a short
time to be 70,000 strong; they fought several battles with Hanno and
Hamilcar Barcas. During these transactions, the mercenaries that
were in garrison in Sardinia mutinied likewise, murdering their
commander and all the Carthaginians; while Spendius and Matho, to
render their accomplices more desperate, put Gesco to a cruel death,
presuming afterwards to lay siege to Carthage itself. They met with
a shock indeed at Prion, where 40,000 of them were slaughtered; but
soon after this battle, in another they took one of the Carthaginian
generals prisoner, whom they fixed to a cross, crucifying thirty of
the principal senators round about him. Spendius and Matho were at
last taken, the one crucified and the other tormented to death: but
the war lasted three years and near four months with excessive
cruelty; in which the State of Carthage lost several battles, and
was often brought within a hair's-breadth of utter ruin.
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