Xanthippus of Carthage

[okamido]

Xanthippus of Carthage

 

 

-"Just about this time there arrived at Carthage one of the recruiting-officers they had formerly dispatched to Greece, bringing a considerable number of soldiers and among them a certain Xanthippus of Lacedaemon, a man who had been brought up in the Spartan discipline, and had had a fair amount of military experience" (Polybius, 1.32.1).

 

-"the Carthaginians, considering that their misfortunes were due to bad generalship, asked the Lacedaemonians to send them a commander. The Lacedaemonians sent them Xanthippus." (Appian, 3.2).

 

-"... various allies came to the Carthaginians, among them Xanthippus from Sparta. This man assumed absolute authority over the Carthaginians, since the populace was eager to entrust matters to his charge and Hamilcar together with the other officials stepped aside voluntarily" (Zonaras, 8.13).

 

Xanthippus is a man very little is known about. Recruited in Sparta by Carthaginian handlers in their quest to find aid against the Romans in the First Punic War, Xanthippus led a contingent of 500 Greek mercenaries to the far off lands. Upon arrival, Xanthippus was given complete control over all mercenary forces in the employ of Carthage, as well as the reduced and suffering Carthaginian war machine when battle with the Roman Consul, Marcus Atilius Regulus, seemed inevitable.

 

Quickly noticing that the Carthaginians were not utilizing their cavalry and elephants properly due to a fear of open ground and the Roman foot soldier, Xanthippus quickly retrained and reorganized the way that each of these potentially devastating aspects of Carthage's military would be deployed. In addition, Xanthippus levied more citizen soldiers and ordered them trained in the current style of Greek phalanxes, and prepared them for the frontal assualt. His retraining and reorganizing of the soldiers under his command had them screaming to be led against the Romans, full of confidence in themselves and in their commander.

 

According to Polybius, Regulus was coming to be agitated that another may soon be sent from Rome, and the glory of ending this conflict would fall to him. He was spoiling for a fight, that would soon be his. He would get his fight as Xanthippus marched his men into the open ground they so used to fear. The two forces lined up, and at the end of the day, Regulus was a prisoner of Xanthippus, and the Roman army was wiped out.

 

For five years Regulus remained a "guest" of Carthage till he was paroled on the condition that he would seek peace in the Roman Senate. Upon his arrival to Rome, he denounced his parole and beseeched the Senate to continue fighting. Defeated yet honorable, Regulus was returned to Carthage to face his fate, execution by torture.

 

Xanthippus on the other hand went on to a second victory for Carthage. Deploying to Lilybaeum, which was under siege by the Romans, Xanthippus led them in battle breaking the siege and scattering the Roman forces. From this point the fate of Xanthippus becomes murky. One of possibly three outcomes have been reported for him. The first, he simply returned to Greece, waiting for further conflict, and further payment. The second, he was sent home by jealous members of the citizenry of Lilybaeum, on a sabotaged vessel which sank, killing all aboard including Xanthippus. The third, and the one I would like to think was true, especially after his performance against Rome, was that he lived out his days as a Govenor for Ptolemy III Euergetes in a newly obtained province.

 

Some friends of mine have postulated that perhaps Xanthippus never truly existed. The idea is that since the primary source of his accomplishments comes from Polybius, a pro-Roman Greek, he may have been fabricated to cover the idea of a loss to Carthage. Any thoughts?

[Tribunicus Potestus]

Nice post. I was just reading about Xanthippus the other day I don't think I have enough information to draw a conclusion. All the hypotheticals presented for his fate are plausible and have examples in the ancient world. J F Lazerby holds the rigged ship story to be implausible. But didn't Nero try something similar to rid himself of his mother? The practice it seems to me must have had some basis in fact.

Edited October 7, 2011 by Tribunicus Potestus

[okamido]

Nice post. I was just reading about Xanthippus the other day I don't think I have enough information to draw a conclusion. All the hypotheticals presented for his fate are plausible and have examples in the ancient world. J F Lazerby holds the rigged ship story to be implausible. But didn't Nero try something similar to rid himself of his mother? The practice it seems to me must have had some basis in fact.

You are correct, Nero did attempt something quite similar with his mother. To the 'demise' of Xanthippus, I don't see the real point in dealing him out in that manner, but I suppose that some could have had enough emnity towards him to enact that ploy. The romantic in me would like to believe that he received his Egyptian reward, but the realist thinks it was more likely a lonely death on a battlefield somewhere.

[Tribunicus Potestus]

We are in total agreement. It's refreshing when that happens. The only difference is that I would reverse the probabilities. My realist says that in ancient battles from the accounts that have come down to us leaders often escaped the battlefield while their armies went down to defeat. There is always the fluke that he was killed in battle but if he made it to egypt he might have dodged the bullet.

[Klingan]

Xanthippus on the other hand went on to a second victory for Carthage. Deploying to Lilybaeum, which was under siege by the Romans, Xanthippus led them in battle breaking the siege and scattering the Roman forces. From this point the fate of Xanthippus becomes murky. One of possibly three outcomes have been reported for him. The first, he simply returned to Greece, waiting for further conflict, and further payment. The second, he was sent home by jealous members of the citizenry of Lilybaeum, on a sabotaged vessel which sank, killing all aboard including Xanthippus. The third, and the one I would like to think was true, especially after his performance against Rome, was that he lived out his days as a Govenor for Ptolemy III Euergetes in a newly obtained province.

 

First of all, thanks for a very good post on an interesting topic. I am curious, however, where these different outcomes have been proposed? Are they to be found in the ancient literature or in the works of modern scholars?

[okamido]

Xanthippus on the other hand went on to a second victory for Carthage. Deploying to Lilybaeum, which was under siege by the Romans, Xanthippus led them in battle breaking the siege and scattering the Roman forces. From this point the fate of Xanthippus becomes murky. One of possibly three outcomes have been reported for him. The first, he simply returned to Greece, waiting for further conflict, and further payment. The second, he was sent home by jealous members of the citizenry of Lilybaeum, on a sabotaged vessel which sank, killing all aboard including Xanthippus. The third, and the one I would like to think was true, especially after his performance against Rome, was that he lived out his days as a Govenor for Ptolemy III Euergetes in a newly obtained province.

 

First of all, thanks for a very good post on an interesting topic. I am curious, however, where these different outcomes have been proposed? Are they to be found in the ancient literature or in the works of modern scholars?

 

Hi Klingan,

 

As to the demise of Xanthippus at Lilybaeum, we have the reports of Diodorus(23.16). For his possible existence as a 'govenor' to Ptolemy III Euergetes, we must look to Jerome(Daniel XI.9) and for the most probable answer, one of him just sailing home, we have Polybius (I.36). In Polybius' account, he states that he has more information on Xanthippus that he would discuss at another time. I unfortunately have not come across it, if it exists, and would be interested to discover which of the other outcomes he might possibly corroborate.

[caldrail]

So basically we have an experienced warrior who had the fortune of getting a top job with the Carthaginians. other than that, Xanthippus doesn't appear to be a remarkable chcracter in any way - the classical sources don't say much about him because there probably wasn't much to say. It's rather like the modern day where british officers train foreign armies but never do anything to merit a news report.