The tyrants who ruled Greek Sicilian cities in the Hellenic Age recruited soldiers of fortune for territorial expansion, and in some cases because those rulers were wildly unpopular with their citizenry and required bodyguards. “The recruitment of mercenaries even spurred the use of coinage in Sicily to pay them,” Dr. Reitsema said.
The Sicily of antiquity, rich in resources and strategically located, was home to both Greek and Carthaginian colonies, which for a long time coexisted amicably. But when Terillus, tyrant of Himera, was ousted by his own people in 483 B.C., he called on his Carthaginian allies to help him retake the city.
Three years later, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Mago sailed from North Africa to Himera with an expeditionary force estimated by Herodotus at more than 300,000 strong. (Modern historians put the figure closer to 20,000.) But cavalry and foot soldiers from two neighboring Greek Sicilian city-states, Syracuse and Agrigento, came to Himera’s aid, and Hamilcar’s troops were routed and his ships set ablaze. When all seemed lost, the general is said to have killed himself by leaping into a pyre.
In 409 B.C., Hamilcar’s grandson, Hannibal Mago, returned to settle scores. This time, the Greek army consisted mainly of citizens of Himera, with few reinforcements. The Greeks were defeated, and the city was razed.
The graves and the western necropolis at Himera were discovered in 2009, during the construction of a rail line connecting Palermo and Messina. The site has since yielded the remains from more than 10,000 burials. To archaeologists, one of the best indicators of a mercenary — foreign or local — is burial in a communal grave.
“Most likely, mercenaries would not have been known to the people cleaning up the battlefield and burying the casualties,” Dr. Reitsema said. As a result, mercenaries would have been more likely than citizen-soldiers to wind up in anonymous mass graves and become archaeologically invisible, or less visible, Dr. Reitsema said.
