Battle of the Crimissus 341 BC
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 341 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time); 2 differing years recorded, earliest shown |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Italy | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Greco-Carthaginian War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Ancient Carthage, Syracuse | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 37.9408, 12.8375 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Crimissus (also spelled Crimisus and Crimesus) was fought in 339 BC between a large Carthaginian army commanded by Asdrubal and Hamilcar and an army from Syracuse led by Timoleon. Timoleon attacked the Carthaginian army by surprise near the Crimissus river in western Sicily (originally it was thought that it was the modern Belice river in southwest Sicily, but it has been recently identified with the modern Freddo river in northwest Sicily) and won a great victory. When he defeated another much smaller force of Carthaginians shortly afterwards, Carthage sued for peace. The peace allowed the Greek cities on Sicily to recover and began a period of stability. However, another war between Syracuse and Carthage erupted after Timoleon's death, not long after Agathocles seized power in 317 BC.
Carthage had tried to prevent Timoleon's arrival on Sicily, where he had been invited by the citizens of Syracuse to depose the Greek tyrants and restore democracy and order. After liberating Syracuse itself, Timoleon sent his mercenaries to raid the Carthaginian territory on western Sicily. Carthage had already gathered a large army, which was moving towards Syracuse in response to the raids.
Vastly outnumbered, Timoleon attacked the Carthaginian army while it was crossing the Crimissus river.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Crimissus (revision 1370277748), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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