The chiefs of these two jarring families, best known to us in history, were Hanno and Hamilcar Barcas, who was succeeded by his son Hannibal, that terror of the Romans. The opposition between these two parties was so flagrant, that Appian does not scruple to call the party of Hanno, the Roman faction;[210] and that of Barcas, the popular, or the Carthaginian, from the different interests which each party espoused. The first instance, which we meet with in history, of the enmity subsisting between the heads of these factions, was in that destructive war with the Mercenaries, from which I have made this explanatory digression. Hanno was first sent with a powerful, and well provided army against these mutinous desperadoes; but he knew little of his trade, and made perpetual blunders. Polybius,[211] who treats his character, as a soldier, with the utmost contempt, informs us, that he suffered himself to be surprised, a great part of his fine army to be cut to pieces, and his camp taken, with all the military stores, engines, and all the other apparatus of war. The Carthaginians, terrified and distressed by the bad conduct of their general, were now compelled, by the necessity of their affairs, to restore Hamilcar to the chief command of their forces, from which he must have been excluded before by the influence of the Hannonian faction. That able commander with his small army (for his whole force amounted to no more than ten thousand men) quickly changed the face of the war, defeated Spendius in two pitched battles, and pushed every advantage to the utmost, which the incapacity of the rebel-generals threw in his way. Sensible that he was too weak alone to cope with the united forces of the rebels (which amounted to seventy thousand men) he ordered Hanno (who had still influence enough to procure himself to be continued in the command of a separate body) to join him, that they might finish this execrable war by one decisive action.[212] After they were joined, the Carthaginians soon felt the fatal effects of disunion between their generals. No plan could now be followed, no measure could be agreed on;[213] and the disagreement between these two leading men arose to such a height at last, that they not only let slip every opportunity of annoying the enemy, but gave them many advantages against themselves, which they could not otherwise have hoped for. The Carthaginians,[214] sensible of their error, and knowing the very different abilities of the two generals, yet willing to avoid the imputation of partiality, empowered the army to decide which of the two they judged most proper for their general, as they were determined to continue only one of them in the command. The decision of the army was,[215] that Hamilcar should take the supreme command, and that Hanno should depart the camp. A convincing proof that they threw the whole blame of that disunion, and the ill-success, which was the consequence