Ca'rthalo
2. The Carthaginian commander of the cavalry in the army of Hannibal. In B. C. 217, he fought against L. Hostilius Mancinus, in the neighbourhood of Casilinum, and put him to flight. The Romans, under Mancinus, who were merely a reconnoitering band which had been sent out by the dictator, Q. Fabius, at last resolved to make a stand against the enemy, but nearly all of them were cut to pieces. This Carthalo is probably the noble Carthaginian of the same name, whom Hannibal, after the battle of Cannae, in B. C. 216, sent to Rome with ten of the Roman prisoners to negotiate the ransom of the prisoners, and to treat about peace.
But when Carthalo approached Rome, a lictor was sent out to bid him quit the Roman territory before sunset. In B. C. 208, when Tarentum was re-conquered by the Romans, Carthalo was commander of the Carthaginian garrison there.
He laid down his arms, and as he was going to the consul to sue for mercy, he was killed by a Roman soldier. (
Liv. 22.15,
58,
27.16; Appian,
de Bell. Annib. 49 ; Dio Cass.
Fragm. 152, ed. Reimar.)
