Wikipedia
Bomilcar may refer to:
- Bomilcar (4th century BC), Carthaginian commander in the war against Agathocles
- Bomilcar (Suffete) (3rd century BC), Carthaginian suffete and commander in the Second Punic War, father of Hanno
- Bomilcar (3rd century BC), Carthaginian commander in the Second Punic War, supply officer of Hannibal
- Bomilcar (2nd century BC), Numidian nobleman and follower of Jugurtha
Bomilcar was a Numidian nobleman of the 2nd century BC and a follower of the Numidian king Jugurtha, whom he later betrayed.
Deep in the confidence of Jugurtha, Bomilcar was employed on many secret services. In particular, when Jugurtha was at Rome, in 108 BC, Bomilcar undertook and effected for him the assassination of Massiva, who happened to be at Rome at the same time, and who, as well as Jugurtha himself, was a grandson of Masinissa, and a rival claimant to the throne of Numidia. The murder was discovered and traced to Bomilcar, who was obliged to enter into large recognizances to appear and stand his trial; but, before the trial came on, his master privately sent him back to Africa.
In the ensuing year, we find him commanding a portion of Jugurtha's army, with which he was defeated in a skirmish at the river Muthul by Publius Rutilius Rufus, lieutenant of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus. In the winter of the same year Metellus, after his unsuccessful attempt on Zama, engaged Bomilcar by promises of Roman favour to deliver Jugurtha to him alive or dead; and it was accordingly at his instigation that the king sent ambassadors to make offers of unconditional submission to Metellus.
In consequence of this advice Bomilcar seems to have become an object of suspicion to his master, which urged him the more towards the execution of his treachery. Accordingly he formed a plot with Nabdalsa, a Numidian nobleman, for the seizure or assassination of the king; but the design was discovered to Jugurtha by Nabdalsa's agent or secretary, and Bomilcar was put to death.
Bomilcar was a Carthaginian commander in the Second Punic War (218–201 BC).
He was the commander of the Carthaginian supplies which were voted to Hannibal after the battle of Cannae (216 BC), and with which he arrived in Italy in the ensuing year. In 214 BC, he was sent with 55 ships to the aid of Syracuse, then besieged by the Romans; but, finding himself unable to cope with the superior fleet of the enemy, he withdrew to Africa.
In 212 BC, he escaped the harbor at Syracuse, carrying to Carthage news of the perilous state of the city (all of which, except Achradina, was in the possession of Marcellus), and returning within a few days with 100 ships.
In the same year, on the destruction by pestilence of the Carthaginian land-forces under Hippocrates and Himilco, Bomilcar again sailed to Carthage with the news, and returned with 130 ships, but was prevented by Marcellus from reaching Syracuse. He then proceeded to Tarentum, apparently with the view to cutting off the supplies of the Roman garrison in that town; but, as the presence of his force only increased the scarcity under which the Tarentines themselves suffered, they were obliged to dismiss him.
Bomilcar (3rd century BC) was a Carthaginian nobleman and commander in the Second Punic War.
He was the father of the Hanno who commanded a portion of Hannibal's army at the passage of the Rhone, 218 BC. This Bomilcar seems to have been one of the Carthaginian suffetes and to have presided in that assembly of the senate in which the second Punic war was resolved on.
Bomilcar (4th century BC) was a Carthaginian commander in the war against Agathocles, who invaded Africa in 310 BC.
In the first battle with the invaders, Bomilcar, his colleague Hanno having fallen, betrayed the fortune of the day to the enemy, with the view, according to Diodorus, of humbling the spirit of his countrymen, and so making himself tyrant of Carthage. Two years after this, 308 BC, after many delays and misgivings, he attempted to seize the government with the aid of 500 citizens and a number of mercenaries; but his followers were induced to desert him by promises of pardon, and he himself was taken and crucified.