Mago
7. Surnamed the Sannite (o
Σαυνίτης), was one of the chief officers of Hannibal in Italy, where he held for a considerable time the chief command in Bruttium. Here he is mentioned in B. C. 212 as co-operating with Hanno, the son of Bomilcar, in the siege and capture of Thurii; and not long after he was enabled by the treachery of the Lucanian Flavius to lead the Roman general Tib. Gracchus into an ambuscade in which he lost his life. [FLAVIUS, No. 2.] Mago immediately sent his lifeless body, together with the insignia of his rank, to Hannibal. (
Liv. 25.15,
16; Diod.
Exc. Vales. xxvi. p. 569;
V. Max. 1.6.8.) In 208 we find him defending the city of Locri against the Roman general L. Cincius, who pressed the siege with so much vigour both by land and sea, that Mago could with difficulty hold out, when the opportune arrival of Hannibal himself compelled the Romans to raise the siege with precipitation. (
Liv. 27.26,
28; comp. Frontin.
Strateg. 4.7.29.)
According to Polybius (
9.25), this Mago had been the companion and friend of Hannibal from his earliest youth: he was involved by the Carthaginians themselves in the same general charge of avarice with his great commander.
