Salammbo

After Carthage’s defeat in the First Punic War, unpaid mercenary soldiers turn against the city and the conflict becomes a brutal struggle for survival. 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. The novel follows the siege, negotiation, ritual violence and military counterattack of the Mercenary War, presenting Carthage as a world of wealth, fear, ceremony and extreme punishment.