The patriarch, Hamilcar Barca (275–228 BC), served as a Carthaginian general in the First Punic War (264–241 BC) and in the subsequent Mercenary War (240–238 BC). Reputedly, he made his eldest son Hannibal swear a sacred oath upon an altar of the gods "to never be a friend of Rome". After the Roman victory, he expanded the colonial possessions in Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal), where he drowned crossing a river.