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[2] The Carthaginians at first dispatched ambassadors to the ruler and asked for the return of their cities, and when he paid no attention to them, this came to be the beginning of the war.

Now the Carthaginians formed an alliance with the Italian Greeks and together with them went to war against the tyrant; and since they wisely recognized in advance that it would be a great war, they enrolled as soldiers the capable youth from their own citizens, and then, raising a great sum of money, hired large forces of mercenary troops. As general they chose their king1 Magon and moved many tens of thousands of soldiers across to Sicily and Italy, planning to wage war on both fronts.

1 Magon was obviously one of the two annually elected suffetes, who corresponded roughly to the Roman consuls. Diodorus must have known that the Carthaginians had no "kings"; but probably avoided for his readers the use of the unfamiliar term.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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