Wikipedia article of the day for July 18, 2026

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 18, 2026 is Hamilcar's defeat of Spendius and Autaritus.
Hamilcar's defeat of Spendius and Autaritus took place in 240 BC during the Mercenary War. The precise location of the battle, in what is now north-west Tunisia, is unknown. A Carthaginian army led by Hamilcar Barca defeated a rebel army led by Spendius and Autaritus. Unable to confront the Carthaginian war elephants and cavalry on open terrain, the rebels stayed on higher and rougher ground and harassed the Carthaginian army, trapping it in a mountain valley. The Carthaginian situation was bleak until the rebel commander Naravas defected, bringing 2,000 cavalry with him, allowing Hamilcar to deploy his army. Spendius chose to engage in a battle but was heavily defeated. Spendius perceived Hamilcar's generous treatment of rebel prisoners as the motivation behind Naravas's defection and had 700 Carthaginian prisoners tortured to death to prevent reoccurrence; the Carthaginians, in turn, killed their prisoners. From this point, neither side showed any mercy; the unusual ferocity caused contemporaries to term it the "Truceless War". (This article is part of a featured topic: Mercenary War.)