Mathos

Mathos was a leader of the rebel mercenaries and subject peoples in Carthage’s Mercenary War. After Carthage failed to settle arrears owed to troops from the First Punic War, Mathos helped lead a brutal revolt in North Africa before being defeated by Hamilcar Barca.

In Gustave Flaubert’s Salammbo, Mathos, one of the rebel leaders, becomes obsessed with Salammbô, the daughter of Hamilcar Barca, while the theft of a sacred veil draws her into the political and religious crisis around Carthage.