Battle of Himera (480 BC)
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The Battle of Himera (480 BC), supposedly fought on the same day as the more famous Battle of Salamis (according to Herodotus 7.166) or on the same day as the Battle of Thermopylae (according to Diodorus Siculus 11.24.1), saw the Greek forces of Gelo, King of Syracuse, and Theron, the sole ruler of Agrigentum, defeating the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar, ending the Carthaginian threat to the Greek colonies on the island.
Hamilcar had led an army of 300,000 from Carthage, Libya, Iberia, Liguria, Helisycia, Sardinia, and Corsica against the Sicilians.
After winning the battle, Gelon could not find Hamilcar despite exhaustive searching. Herodotus maintains that Hamilcar, unable to obtain a favorable omen during his many sacrifices that day and having heard that his army was on the brink of defeat, leaped into the flames. His body was completely incinerated.
For years afterwards, the Carthaginians offered sacrifices to him and erected monuments of him in their various colonies and a splendid monument in Carthage.
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