Mago Barca

Mago Barca was the youngest of Hamilcar's three sons and fought Rome for seventeen years on three continents. He crossed the Alps with Hannibal in 218 BC and commanded on the day the Carthaginians came closest to winning the war outright. At the Trebia that December, Hannibal hid Mago with two thousand picked infantry and cavalry in a watercourse overgrown with brush in the middle of open ground, having satisfied himself that the Romans would not scout it. The Roman army was drawn across an icy river without breakfast, engaged frontally, and Mago's force came out of the ground behind them. He also commanded the Numidian cavalry that opened Trasimene, and fought at Cannae. He was sent to Carthage after Cannae to report and to ask for reinforcements, and poured out on the senate house floor the gold rings taken from the fingers of dead Roman knights — a demonstration that failed to produce the army he came for, and the moment historians usually treat as the war's real turning point. He then fought in Spain for a decade alongside his brother Hasdrubal, losing it piece by piece to Scipio and finally at Ilipa in 206 BC. He took the remnant to the Balearics — Port Mahon is named for him — and then landed in Liguria in 205 BC to raise the Gauls against Rome. He was defeated and badly wounded in 203 BC, and was recalled with Hannibal to defend Carthage. He died of the wound at sea off Sardinia. Carthage sued for peace after Zama the following year.

• Lived: 243 BCE – 203 BCE
• Nationality: Carthaginian
• Roles: general