    39

    t rade: Sicily.  The Carthaginian merchants could not hold out against

    Latin ferocity.  The island became a Roman possession.  As part of the

    peace settlement, Rome also demanded--and got--every island that

    dotted the sea between Sicily and the African coast.  Then Rome broke

    the treaty under which she had been granted this windfall and seized

    Carthaginian-controlled Sardinia and Corsica as well.75

    With these enemy outposts in the middle of their sea lanes, the

    Carthaginians were in trouble.  Their merchants could no longer sail in

    safety from one market to another.  Every Carthaginian trading vessel

    was in danger of Roman naval attack.

    But a Carthaginian general named Hamilcar Barca had an idea.

    He wanted to put the Romans on the defensive.76  And he was

    determined to open new sources of supply to replace those the Romans

    were cutting off.  Hamilcar Barca's plan: to outflank Roman might by

    turning one of the old Carthaginian trading partners into a massive

    province.  That territory was Spain.  Its conquest would allow the

    Carthaginians to monopolize Spanish goods, carrying them by land, if

    necessary, back to Carthage's customers in the East.  What's more, a

    massive Carthaginian domain hulking to the west of the Roman sphere

    of influence might make the toga-wearers feel less secure about their

    Mediterranean rampage.77

    To put his plan in motion, Hamilcar Barca kissed his wife and

    most of his children goodbye, took one nine-year-old son as a

    companion, mobilized his soldiers, and marched well over a thousand

    miles to the Spanish coast.  There, his troops demonstrated just who

    was on top of the local pecking order.  During nine years, they won a

    steady stream of battles against the native troops.  Spanish tribes

    eventually flocked to the Carthaginian side.  A small mob of Iberian,

    Celtiberian, Tartessos and Gallic chiefs offered to ally their men with

    the Carthaginian military machine.78

    Barca not only enlarged his army--he enriched the Carthaginian

    treasury depleted by Roman trade obstructions.  How?  He pumped

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