Mercenary War
During the First Punic War, the Carthaginians used armies composed mainly of mercenaries (unlike the Romans), whose payment they settled after the wars, which until then had almost always been Punic victories.
However, the First Punic War was a crushing Carthaginian defeat, and the Romans had imposed a treaty on them according to which Carthage was obliged to pay the enormous war indemnity of 3200 talents. The payment of this fine caused a real economic crisis in the city, and the leaders could not settle the mercenaries (nearly 20,000 men) who were waiting. They therefore decided, in the absence of payment, to help themselves to the country, and ravaged the North African coasts, soon joined by many other brigands, eager to make a fortune by plundering. Their leaders were Matho, Spendios and Autarite.
The Inexpiable War
In Carthage, there is panic. Hamilcar Barca, one of the greatest generals of the First Punic War and the future father of Hannibal, is called back to quell the revolt. Hesitating to fight his own troops, the abuses that they committed on the Carthaginian mercenaries who remained faithful convinced him. The government therefore hired new mercenaries, 10,000 men and 70 elephants, and entrusted them to Hamilcar. After a few victories, Rome, fearing that the second city in the western Mediterranean would fall under the blows of insurgents and disappear, thus ending a flourishing trade between the two cities, agreed to hand over certain Punic prisoners of war and refused to help the rebels.
Gisco, a Carthaginian noble, is then sent as a parliamentarian; he was captured and tortured:his hands and feet were cut off, then he was thrown alive into a pit, like 7,000 other Carthaginians. Hamilcar, in retaliation, crushed the prisoners he held with his elephants. This is where the nickname “Inexpiable War” comes from.
Hamilcar then succeeded in blocking the insurgents under the command of Spendios in a parade, known as "of the Axe" (mentioned by Gustave Flaubert in his novel Salammbô). Hungry, the mercenaries are reduced to eating human flesh.
Conflict Resolution
Hamilcar then asks to see certain generals of the insurgent armies to offer them the Paix des Braves. These are immediately crucified, but in the meantime, the small soldiers, not seeing their generals return, believe in treason and torture the remaining generals, to take revenge.
The Libyans, who had given their support to the rebels in the hope of freedom from Carthaginian tutelage, were beaten shortly afterwards, near Leptiminus.