Mamertines
Sign in to savethumb|Coin minted under Mamertine rule, depicting a warrior
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, Mamertines is referenced by 50 other articles, and connects out to Latin, Julius Caesar and Greek.
It sits within the topics Italian mercenaries, Magna Graecia and Mercenary units and formations of antiquity.
Its subject is documented across 23 Wikipedia language editions.
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Capture of Messina
- Dominion over northeastern Sicily
- Decline
- Legacy
- See also
- Notes
- External links
thumb|Coin minted under Mamertine rule, depicting a warrior
The Mamertines (, "sons of Mars", ) were Greek mercenaries of Italic origin who had been hired from their home in Campania by Agathocles (361–289 BC), Tyrant of Syracuse and self-proclaimed King of Sicily. After Syracuse lost the Seventh Sicilian War, the Greek city of Messina was ceded to Carthage in 307 BC. When Agathocles died in 289 BC it left many of his mercenaries idle and unemployed in Sicily. Most of them returned home but some, liking the climate and the prospect of adventure on a foreign island, remained. They played a major role in the lead-up to the First Punic War.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mamertines” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.