A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

3. Commander of the Carthaginian supplies which were voted to Hannibal after the battle of Cannae, B. C. 216, and with which he arrived in Italy in the ensuing year. (Liv. 23.13, 41.) In B. C. 214, he was sent with fifty-five ships to the aid of Syracuse, then besieged by the Romans; but, finding himself unable to cope with the superior fleet of the enemy, he withdrew to Africa. (Liv. 24.36.) Two years after, we again find him at Syracuse; for we hear of his making his escape out of the harbour, carrying to Carthage intelligence of the perilous state of the city (all of which, except Achradina, was in the possession of Marcellus), and returning within a few days with 100 ships. (Liv. 25.25.) In the same year, on the destruction by pestilence of the Carthaginian land-forces under Hippocrates and Himilco, Bomilcar again sailed to Carthage with the news, and returned with 130 ships, but was prevented by Marcellus from reaching Syracuse. He then proceeded to Tarentum, apparently with the view of cutting off the supplies of the Roman garrison in that town; but, as the presence of his force only increased the scarcity under which the Tarentines themselves suffered, they were obliged to dismiss him. (Liv. 25.27, 26.20; comp. Polyb. Spicil. Rel. 9.1; Schweig. ad loc.)