Page "Gelo" Paragraph 17

The other great contribution of Gelo was the victory at Himera over the Carthaginians.

The battle was significant because of the timing and location of the event.

There is little doubt that if Hamilcar had managed to defeat the large Sicilian force of Gelo and Theron, he could have conquered the entire island of Sicily if he so wished.

The Greek states on the mainland would have been unable to send troops due to their own war with the Persians.

If, as many historians believe, the Persian and Carthaginian armies were in contact with each other, a defeat at Himera for Gelo could have led to a two pronged attack on the Greek mainland by the Persian and the Carthaginians, and perhaps to the eventual demise of Greek civilisation.

But by defeating Hamilcar in 480 BC, Gelo managed to keep Sicily free from Carthaginian invasion for the next seventy years.