Mago
- A Carthaginian, the brother of Hannibal, Nep. Hann. 7, 4; 8, 2; Liv. 21, 47; 4, 6; Aur. Vict. Vir. Ill. 49; Sil. 11, 556; and perhaps also id. 4, 564.—
- II Another Carthaginian, the author of a work on agriculture, which was afterwards translated into Latin by order of the Roman Senate, Cic. Or. 1, 58, 249; Varr. R. R. 1, 1, 10; Col. 1, 1, 13; Plin. 18, 3, 5, § 22.—
- III A son of Hamilcar the elder, Just. 19, 2, 1.—
- IV A town in the Balearic islands, now Port Mahon, Plin. 3, 5, 11, § 77.
- 1. ~ de Grote, Carthaags veldheer ca. 550 v. Chr., grondlegger v.d. Carthaagse heerschappij;
- 2. jongste broer v. Hannibal.
Qui exponens dictum Johannem percussit in calido motu unum ictum, solum de manu in qua tenebat gladium subtus guttur, non tamen de cuspide gladii, sicut credit ; sed solum de manice(sic) seu Magone.
(Μάγων), a name of common occurrence at Carthage. Hence the same difficulty is found as with most other Carthaginian names in discriminating or identifying the different persons incidentally mentioned who bear this name.
1. A Carthaginian who, according to Justin, was the founder of the military power of that city, being the first to introduce a regular discipline and organisation into her armies. He is said to have himself obtained by this means great successes; and still farther advantages were reaped by his two sons Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, who followed in their father's footsteps. (Justin, 18.7, 19.1.) If the second of his two sons be correctly identified with the Hamilcar that was killed at Himera [Hamilcar, No. 1], we may conclude that Mago himself must have flourished from 550 to 500 years before Christ. (See Heeren, Ideen, vol. iv. p. 537.)
2. Commander of the Carthaginian fleet under Himilco in the war against Dionysius, B. C. 396. He is particularly mentioned as holding that post in the great sea-fight off Catana, when he totally defeated the fleet of the Syracusans under Leptines, the brother of Dionysius, sinking or destroying above 100 of their ships, besides capturing many others. (Diod. 14.59, 60.) We have no information as to the part he bore in the subsequent operations against Syracuse itself; but after the disastrous termination of the expedition, and the return of Himilco to Africa, Mago appears to have been invested with the chief command in Sicily, where he endeavoured by measures of lenity and conciliation towards the Greek cities, and by concluding alliances with the Sicilian tribes, to reestablish the Carthaginian power in the island. In 393 he advanced against Messana, but was attacked and defeated by Dionysius near Abacaenum, which compelled him to remain quiet for a time. The next year, however, having received powerful reinforcements from Sardinia and Africa, he assembled an army of 80,000 men, with which he advanced through the heart of Sicily as far as the river Chrysas, but was there met by Dion sins, who having secured the alliance of Agyris, tyrant of Agyrium, succeeded in cutting off the supplies of the enemy, and by this means reduced them to such distress, that Mago was compelled to conclude a treaty of peace, by which he abandoned his allies the Sicilians to the power of Dionysius. (Id. 14.90, 95, 96.) After this Mago returned to Carthage, where he was not long after raised to the office of king or suffete, a dignity which he held in B. C. 383, when the ambition and intrigues of Dionysius led to the renewal of hostilities between Carthage and Syracuse. Mago landed in Sicily with a large army, and after numerous petty combats, a pitched battle at length took place, in which, after a severe contest, the Carthaginians were defeated, and Mago himself slain. (Diod. 15.15.)
3. Commander of the Carthaginian fleet and army in Sicily in B. C. 344. When Timoleon had made himself master of the citadel of Syracuse after the departure of Dionysius, IIicetas, finding himself unable to cope single-handed with this new and formidable rival, called in the assistance of Mago. who appeared before Syracuse with a fleet of 150 triremes, and an army of 50,000 men. He did not, however, accomplish anything worthy of so great a force; not only were both he and Hicetas unable to make any impression on the island citadel, but while they were engaged in an expedition against Catana, Neon, the Corinthian governor of Syracuse, took advantage of their absence to make himself master of Achradina. Jealousies likewise arose between the Carthaginians and their Syracusan allies, and at length Mago, becoming apprehensive of treachery, suddenly relinquished the enterprise, and on the approach of Timoleon at the head of a very inferior force, sailed away with his whole fleet, and withdrew to Carthage. Here his cowardly conduct excited such indignation, that he put an end to his own life, to avoid a worse fate at the hands of his exasperated countrymen, who, nevertheless, proceeded to crucify his lifeless body. (Plut. Tim. 17-22; the same events are more briefly related by Diodorus, 16.69, but without any mention of the name of Mago.)
4. Commander of a Carthaginian fleet, which, according to Justin, was despatched to the assistance of the Romans during the war with Pyrrhus, apparently soon after the battle of Asculum (B. C. 279). The Roman senate having declined the proffered aid, Mago sailed away to the south of Italy, where he had an interview with Pyrrhus himself, in which he endeavoured to sound that monarch in regard to his views on Sicily. (Justin, 18.2.) It was probably part of the same fleet which we find mentioned as besieging Rhegium and guarding the straits of Messana, to prevent the passage of Pyrrhus. (Diod. Exc. Hoesclel. 22.9, p. 496.)
5. Son of Hamilcar Barca, and brother of the famous Harnibal. He was the youngest of the three brothers, and must have been quite a youth when he accompanied Hannibal into Italy, B. C. 218. But his whole life had been spent in camps, under the eye of his father or brother, and young as he was, he had already given proofs not only of personal courage, but of skill and judgment in war, sufficient to justify Hannibal in entrusting him with services of the most important character. The first occasion on which he is mentioned is the passage of the Po, which he effected successfully at the head of the cavalry: according to Caelius Antipater, he and his horsemen crossed the river by swimming. (Liv. 21.47.) At the battle of the Trebia shortly afterwards, he was selected by his brother to command the body of chosen troops placed in ambuscade among the thickets of the bed of the river, and by his well-timed attack on the rear of the Roman army contributed mainly to the success of the day. (Plb. 3.71, 74; Liv. 21.54, 55; Frontin. Strateg. 2.5.23.) We next find him commanding the rear-guard during the attempt to cross the Apennines, and in the dangerous and toilsome march through the marshes of Etruria. At Cannae he was associated with his brother in the command of the main body of the Carthaginian army: such at least is the statement of Polybius and Livy: Appian, on the contrary, assigns him that of the right wing: in either case, it is clear that he held no unimportant post on that great occasion. (Plb. 3.79, 114; Liv. 22.2, 46; Appian. Annib. 20.) After the battle he was detached by Hannibal with a considerable force, to complete the subjugation of Samnium: as soon as he had effected this he marched southwards into Bruttium, and after receiving the submission of many cities in that part of Italy, crossed over in person to Carthage, where he was the first to announce the progress and victories of his brother. The tidings naturally produced a great effect, and, notwithstanding the opposition of Hanno, the Carthaginian senate came to the resolution of sending powerful reinforcements to Hannibal in Italy. A force of 12,000 foot and 1500 horse, with twenty elephants and sixty ships, was accordingly assembled, and placed under the command of Mago, but just as he was about to sail intelligence arrived of the alarming state of the Carthaginian affairs in Spain, which induced the government to alter their plan of operations, and Mago, with the forces under his command, was despatched to the support of his brother Hasdrubal in that country, B. C. 215. (Liv. 23.1, 11, 13, 32; Appian, App. Hisp. 16; Zonar. 9.2, 3.)
It is hardly necessary to point out in detail the part borne by Mago in the subsequent operations in Spain, a sketch of which is given under HASDRUBAL, No. 6. We find him mentioned as cooperating in the siege of Illiturgi (B. C. 215), in the defeat of the two Scipios (B. C. 212), and on several other occasions- (Liv. 23.49, 24.41, 42, 25.32, 39, 26.20; Appian, App. Hisp. 24.) His position during these campaigns is not quite clear, but it would seem that though frequently acting independently, he was still in some degree subject to the superior authority of his brother, as well as of Hasdrubal, the son of Gisco: perhaps it was the somewhat ambiguous character of their relations to one another that led to the dissensions and jealousies among the three generals, of which we hear as one of the chief causes that led to the disasters of the Carthaginian arms. (Plb. 10.6.) At length, in 209, it was determined at a council of the three generals, held shortly after the battle of Baecula, that while Hasdrubal, the son of Barca, set out on his adventurous march into Italy, Mago and the other Hasdrubal should carry on the war in Spain; the former repairing in the first instance to the Balearic islands, in order to raise fresh levies for the approaching campaign. (Liv. 27.20.) The whole of the following year is a blank, so far as the Spanish war is concerned; but in 207 we had Mago in Celtiberia at the head of an army composed mainly of troops levied in that country, but to which Hanno, who had just arrived in Spain, had lately joined his new army of Carthaginian and African troops. Their combined forces were, however, attacked by M. Silanus, one of the lieutenants of Scipio, and totally defeated; Hanno himself was taken prisoner, while Mago, with a few thousand men, effected his escape, and joined Hasdrubal, the son of Gisco, in the south of Spain. Here they once more succeeded in assembling a numerous army, but the next year (B. C. 206) their decisive defeat by Scipio at Silpia [Hasdrubal, p. 358] crushed for ever all hope of re-establishing the Carthaginian power in Spain. (Liv. 28.1, 2, 12_16; Plb. 11.20_24; Appian, App. Hisp. 25_27; Zonar. 9.8.) After this battle Mago retired to (Gades, where he shut himself up with the troops under his command; and here he remained long after Hasdrubal had departed to Africa, still keeping his eye upon the proceedings of the Romans, and not without hope of recovering his footing on the main land; for which purpose he was continually intriguing with the Spanish chiefs, and even it is said fomenting the spirit of discontent among the Roman troops themselves. The formidable insurrection of Indibilis and Mandonius, and the mutiny of a part of the Roman army, for a time gave him hopes of once more restoring the Carthaginian power in that country; but all these attempts proved abortive. His lieutenant Hanmo was defeated by L. Marcius, and Mago, who had himself repaired to his assistance with a fleet of sixty ships, was compelled to return to Gades without effecting anything. At length, therefore, he began to despair of restoring the fortunes of Carthage in Spain, and was preparing to return to Africa, when he received orders from the Carthaginian senate to repair with such a fleet and army as he could still muster to Liguria, and thus transfer the seat of war once more into Italy. The command was well suited to the enterprising character of Mago; but before he finally quitted Spain he was tempted by intelligence of the defenceless state of New Carthage to make an attempt on that city, in which however he was repulsed with considerable loss. Foiled in this quarter, he returned to Gades, but the gates of that city were now shut against him, an insult he is said to have avenged by putting to death their chief magistrates, whom he had decoyed into his power, under pretence of a conference; after this he repaired to the Balearic islands, in the lesser of which he took up his quarters for the winter. (Liv. 28.23, 30, 31, 36, 37; Appian, App. Hisp. 31, 32, 34, 37; Zonar. 9.10.) The memory of his sojourn there is still preserved, in the name of the celebrated harbour called Portus Magonis, or Port Mahon.
Early in the ensuing summer Mago landed in Liguria, where he surprised the town of Genoa. His name quickly gathered around him many of the Ligurian and Gaulish tribes, among others the Ingaunes, and the spirit of disaffection spread even to the Etruscans, so that the Romans were obliged to maintain an army in Etruria, as well as one in Cisalpine Gaul, in order to hold him in check. Whether these forces proved sufficient effectually to impede his operations, or that he wasted his time in hostilities against the mountain tribes, in which at one time we find him engaged, our imperfect accounts of his proceedings will not enable us to decide. It is certain that, though repeatedly urged by messages from Carthage to prosecute the war with vigour, and more than once strengthened with considerable reinforcements, he did not effect anything of importance, and the alarm at first excited at Rome by his arrival in Liguria gradually died away. Meanwhile, the successes of Scipio in Africa compelled the Carthaginians to concentrate all their forces for the defence of their capital, and they at length sent messengers to recal Mago as well as his brother Hannibal from Italy B. C. 203. Just before these orders arrived Mago had at length encountered in Cisalpine Gaul the combined forces of the praetor Quiuctilius Varus and the proconsul M. Cornelius. The battle, which was fought in the territory of the Insubrians, was fiercely contested, but terminated in the complete defeat of the Carthaginians, of whom 5000 were slain. Mago himself was severely wounded, but effected his retreat to the seacoast among the Ingaunes, where he received the pressing summons of the senate to Carthage. He immediately embarked his troops, and set sail with them in person, but died of his wound before they landed in Africa. (Liv. 28.46, 29.4, 5, 13, 36, 30.18, 19; Polyb. Frag. Hist. 31; Appian, App. Hisp. 37, Annib. 54, Pun. 9, 31, 32; Zonar. 9.11, 13.) Such is the statement of Livy and all our other authorities; but Cornelius Nepos, on the contrary, represents him as not only surviving the battle of Zama, but as remaining at Carthage after the banishment of Hannibal, and subsequently co-operating with his brother at the commencement of the war with Antiochus (B. C. 193) in endeavotring to induce the Carthaginians to join in hostilities against Rome. According to the same author, he was banished from Carthage on this account, and died soon after, being either shipwrecked or assassinated by his slaves. (Corn. Nep. Hann. 7, 8.) It seems probable that the circumstances here related refer in fact to some other person of the name of Mago, whom Nepos has confounded with the brother of Hannibal.
6. One of the chief officers of Hannibal in Italy, whose name is appended to the treaty concluded by that general with Philip V., king of Macedonia. (Plb. 7.9.) It would seem probable that he is the same who was sent immediately afterwards with Bostar and Gisco to accompany the Macedonian ambassadors back to the court of Philip, and obtain the ratification of the treaty by that monarch, but who unfortunately fell into the hands of the Romans, and were carried prisoners to Rome. (Liv. 23.34.) Schweighaeuser, on the contrary, supposes him to be the same with the following.
7. Surnamed the Sannite (o Σαυνίτης), was one of the chief officers of Hannibal in Italy, where he held for a considerable time the chief command in Bruttium. Here he is mentioned in B. C. 212 as co-operating with Hanno, the son of Bomilcar, in the siege and capture of Thurii; and not long after he was enabled by the treachery of the Lucanian Flavius to lead the Roman general Tib. Gracchus into an ambuscade in which he lost his life. [Flavius, No. 2.] Mago immediately sent his lifeless body, together with the insignia of his rank, to Hannibal. (Liv. 25.15, 16; Diod. Exc. Vales. xxvi. p. 569; V. Max. 1.6.8.) In 208 we find him defending the city of Locri against the Roman general L. Cincius, who pressed the siege with so much vigour both by land and sea, that Mago could with difficulty hold out, when the opportune arrival of Hannibal himself compelled the Romans to raise the siege with precipitation. (Liv. 27.26, 28; comp. Frontin. Strateg. 4.7.29.) According to Polybius (9.25), this Mago had been the companion and friend of Hannibal from his earliest youth: he was involved by the Carthaginians themselves in the same general charge of avarice with his great commander.
8. A Carthaginian of noble birth, and a near relation of Hannibal, taken prisoner in Sardinia B. C. 215. (Liv. 23.41.)
9. An officer who commanded a body of Carthaginian cavalry at Capua in B. C. 212, and by a sudden sally threw the Roman army under the two consuls App. Claudius and Fulvius into confusion, and occasioned them heavy loss. (Liv. 25.18.) It is probably the same whom we find shortly afterwards commanding a body of horse under Hannibal himself, and taking a prominent part in the defeat of the praetor Cn. Fulvius at Herdonea. (Id. 21.)
10. Commander of the garrison of New Carthage when that city was attacked by P. Scipio in B. C. 209. So little had the Carthaginian generals thought it necessary to provide for the defence of this important post, that Mago had only 1000 regular troops under his orders when the enemy appeared before the walls. He, however, armed about 2000 more as best he could, and seems to have displayed all the qualities of an able and energetic officer; making a vigorous sally in the first instance, and repulsing the troops of Scipio in their first assault. But all his efforts were ineffectual: the Romans scaled the walls where they had been supposed to be guarded by a lagoon, and made themselves masters of the town; and Mago, who had at first retired into the citadel, with the intention of holding out there, at length saw that all further resistance was hopeless, and surrendered to Scipio. He himself, with the other more eminent of the Carthaginian captives, was sent a prisoner of war to Rome. (Plb. 10.8, 12-15, 18, 19; Liv. 26.44_46, 51; Appian, App. Hisp. 19_22.) Eutropius (3.15) and Orosius (4.18) have confounded this Mago with the brother of Hannibal.
11. An officer of cavalry under Hasdrtbal, son of Gisco, in the war against Scipio and Masinissa in Africa, B. C. 204. (Appian, App. Pun. 15.)
12. One of the Carthaginian ambassadors sent to Rome just before the breaking out of the third Punic war (B. C. 149), to avert the impending hostilities by offering unqualified submission. (Plb. 36.1.)
13. A Carthaginian, apparently not the same as the preceding, who, on the return of the embassy just spoken of, addressed the Carthaginian senate in a speech at once prudent and manly. (Plb. 36.3.) He is termed by Polybius the Bruttian (ὁ Βρέττιος), from whence Reiske inferred him to be the same with the lieutenant of Hannibal (No. 7), but this, as Schweighaeuser has observed, is impossible, on chronological grounds. That author suggests that he may be the son of the one just alluded to, and may have derived his surname from the services of his father in Bruttium. (Schw. ad Polyb. l.c. and Index Historicus, p. 365.)
14. A Carthaginian of uncertain date, who wrote a work upon agriculture in the Punic language, which is frequently mentioned by Roman authors in terms of the highest commendation. He is even styled by Columella the father of agriculture-- rusticationis parents (De R. R. 1.1.13). Nothing is known of the period at which he flourished, or of the events of his life, except that he was a man of distinction in his native country, and had held important military commands. (Col. 12.4.2; Plin. Nat. 18.5.) Heeren's conjecture that he was the same as No. 1, is wholly without foundation: the name of Mago was evidently too common at Carthage to afford any reasonable ground for identifying him with any of the persons known to us from history. His work was a voluminous one, extending to twenty-eight books, and comprising all branches of the subject. So great was its reputation even at Rome, that after the destruction of Carthage, when the libraries which had fallen into the hands of the Romans were distributed among the princes of Africa, an exception was made in favour of the work of Mago, and it was ordered by the senate that it should be translated into Latin by competent persons, at the head of whom was D. Silanus. (Plin. Nat. 18.5; Colunm. 1.1.13.) It was subsequently translated into Greek, though with some abridgment and alteration, by Cassius Dionysius of Utica, and an epitome of it in the same language, brought into the compass of six books, was drawn up by Diophanes of Bithynia, and dedicated to king Deiotarus. (Varro, de R. R. 1.1.10; Col. 1.1.10.) His precepts on agricultural matters are continually cited by the Roman writers on those subjects, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, as well as by Pliny: his work is also alluded to by Cicero (De Orat. 1.58) in terms that imply its high reputation as the standard authority upon the subject on which it treated. It is said to have opened with the very sound piece of advice that if a man meant to settle in the country, he should begin by selling his town house. (Col. 1.1.18; Plin. Nat. 18.7.) All the passages in Roman authors in which the work of Mago is cited or referred to are collected by Heeren. (Ideen, vol. iv. p. 527, &c.) [E.H.B]
MAGO [BALEARES 374a.]
(Μάγων). (1) A Carthaginian general sent against Dionysius, the Sicilian tyrant, over whom he obtained a victory, but was subsequently slain in battle.
(2) A son of the preceding, who succeeded his father in command of the Carthaginian army. He laid siege to Syracuse, but fled on the approach of Timoleon. Being impeached for cowardice by the Senate of Carthage, he escaped execution by committing suicide. After his death, his body was gibbeted and exposed in public.
(3) See Punic Wars.