Siege of Motya The Siege of Motya took place either in 398 or 397 BC in western Sicily . Dionysius , after securing peace with Carthage in 405 BC , had steadily increased his military power and had tightened his grip on Syracuse . He had fortified Syracuse against sieges and had created a large army of mercenaries and a large fleet , in addition to employing the catapult and quinquereme s for the first time in history . In 398 BC , he attacked and sacked the Phoenician city of Motya despite the Carthaginian relief effort led by Himilco . Carthage also lost most of her territorial gains secured in 405 BC after Dionysius declared war on Carthage in 398 BC . Background . Carthage had stayed away from Sicilian affairs for 70 years after the defeat at Himera in 480 BC . However , Carthage , responding to the appeal for aid of Segesta against Selinus , had sent an expedition to Sicily , resulting in the sacking of Selinus and Himera in 409 BC under the leadership of Hannibal Mago . Responding to Greek raids on her Sicilian domain , Carthage launched an expedition that captured Akragas in 406 BC and Gela and Camarina in 405 BC . The conflict ended in 405 BC when Himilco and Dionysius , leader of the Carthaginian forces and tyrant of Syracuse respectively , concluded a peace treaty . Peace of 405 BC . Exactly why Himilco agreed to peace is unknown ; it is speculated that a plague outbreak in the Punic army may have been the reason . Dionysius , as future events would indicate , merely chose peace as an opportunity to gather strength and renew the war later . The treaty secured the Carthaginian sphere of influence in western Sicily , and made the Elymians and Sikans part of Carthaginian sphere of influence . The Greek cities of Selinus , Akragas , Gela and Camarina ( Greeks were allowed to return to these cities ) became tributary to Carthage . Both Syracuse and Carthage pledged to respect the independence of the Sicel s , Leontini and the city of Messina . A Tyrant triumphs . Dionysius , who had obtained his power by condemning and executing his fellow Greek generals , faced discontent among the Greeks after he had evacuated both Gela and Camarina after the Battle of Gela in 405 BC . Some Syracusans tried to stage a coup in 405 BC , but Dionysius had managed to defeat the rebels through speedy action and enemy bungling . After the treaty with Carthage was signed , Syracuse was hemmed in by the territories of Camarina and Leontini , the former a vassal of Carthage and the latter hostile to Syracuse , while the Syracusan rebels settled in the city of Aetna . Between 405 BC and 397 BC , Dionysius increased the might of Syracuse , dealt with attempts to overthrow him , and made Syracuse the best defended city in the whole Greek world . His activities , briefly , were as follows : In 398 BC , Dionysius sent an embassy to Carthage to declare war unless they agreed to give up all the Greek cities under their control . Before the embassy returned from Carthage , Dionysius let loose his mercenaries on Carthaginians living in Syracusan lands , putting them to the sword and plundering their property . Then he set out for Motya with his army , accompanied by 200 warships and 500 transports carrying supplies and war machines . Siege of Motya : Initial steps . As Dionysius and his army marched west along the southern coast of Sicily , Greek cities under Carthaginian control rebelled , killed Carthaginians living in their cities , looted their property , and sent soldiers to join Dionysius . Sicels , Sikans and the city of Messene also sent contingents so by the time Dionysius reached Motya , his army had swelled to 80 , 000 infantry and 3 , 000 cavalry . Dionysius sent his navy under his brother Leptines to blockade Motya , and himself moved with the army to Eryx , which surrendered to him . Even the city of Threame declared for him , leaving only the cities of Panormus , Solus , Ancyrae , Segesta and Entella loyal to Carthage in Sicily . Dionysius raided the surrounding areas near the first three , then placed Segesta and Entella under siege . After these cities had repulsed several assaults , Dionysius himself returned to Motya to oversee the progress of the siege . It was assumed that the cities would surrender once Motya was captured . Fortifications at Motya . The Phoenician city of Motya was situated on a small island in the middle of a mostly shallow lagoon . It was surrounded by a wall which included at least 20 watch towers , and the walls often rose from the water ' s edge to a thickness of , and a height of . Lack of space had compelled the citizens to construct houses often six floors high , which often towered over the walls . It seemed that Motya had no standing navy , and may have had a Carthaginian garrison stationed in the city . The Island was connected to the mainland by a mole long and wide on the northern side of the island , with a gate flanked by two towers on the island end . A mixed population of Phoenicians and Greeks lived inside the city . The citizens cut up the mole and prepared for a siege before the Greeks arrived to start the blockade . A lesson for Alexander . The siege Dionysius undertook is in many ways similar to the one Alexander would later face at Tyre in 332 BC , minus the interference from weather conditions and native naval activity . The Greeks beached their warships on the northern part of the lagoon and the transports near the future site of Lilybaeum . Workers , rowers from the ships and soldiers set about rebuilding the mole to reach the city walls of Motya . Carthage comes calling . Little is known of the activities of Carthage during 405 - 397 BC except that a plague had swept through Africa , which had been carried by the returning army in 405 BC , weakening Carthage . Himilco was again given the task of responding to the threat . While raising a mercenary army ( Carthage did not maintain a standing army ) Himilco sent ten triremes to raid Syracuse itself . The raiders entered the Great Harbour of Syracuse and destroyed all the ships they could find . Lacking an army , Himilco was unable to pull off a feat similar to the one Scipio African accomplished at Carthago Nova in 209 BC : attack an almost undefended city while the main army was away and capture it . Himilco next manned 100 triremes with picked crews and sailed to Selinus in Sicily , arriving at night . From there , the Punic navy sailed to Motya the following day and fell on the transports beached near Lilybaeum , destroying all that lay at anchor . Then the Carthaginian fleet moved into the area between Motya and the peninsula to the west of the lagoon , trapping the beached Greek fleet on the northern shallows of the lagoon . Trappers trapped . In 405 BC , the Spartan navy under Lysander had managed to capture the majority of the Athenian navy in the Battle of Aegospotami while it lay at anchor . It is unknown why Himilco chose to go after the transports instead of attacking the beached Greek warships to the north of Motya . The loss of the war fleet would have forced Dionysius to lift the siege , giving Himilco a chance to carry the war to Syracuse . Himilco , however , had managed to put the Syracusan navy in a similar position the Persians were in at the Battle of Salamis : while the Carthaginian ships had room to maneuver , the Greeks did not , which nullified the numerical superiority and heavier Greek ships ( the Greeks had quinqueremes , the Carthaginians did not ) . Had Dionysius sent ships south to meet the Carthaginians , the depth of the lagoon would mean a small number of his ships would have emerged to the south of Motya to face the entire Carthaginian fleet . Himilco would then have the advantage of numbers and room to maneuver and could destroy the Greek ships in detail . Dionysius in response launched his ships with a great number of archers and slingers and supported them with his land - based catapults . While these dueled with the archers and slingers on board the Carthaginian triremes , taking a heavy toll and preventing Himilco from reaching the beached ships , Dionysius cooked up a brilliant scheme . He had his men construct a road of wooden planks on the northern isthmus , on which 80 triremes were then hauled to the open sea to the north of the isthmus . Once properly manned , these ships sailed south along the peninsula . The Carthaginian fleet now facing encirclement , Himilco chose not to fight a two - front battle against superior numbers , and sailed away to Carthage . He had accomplished little except making a sizable dent in Syracusan shipping . Assault on Motya . Without interference from the Carthaginian fleet , work on the mole progressed smoothly . As Motya herself lacked ships , they could do little until the mole came within range of arrows from their walls . Once the mole was completed , Dionysius set forward his siege tower s , which were taller than the walls of Motya and equaled the height of the tallest buildings in the city . A storm of arrows and missiles from archers and catapults cleared the wall of defenders . Then battering ram s were employed against the gates . The Phoenicians countered by putting men on ship masts , and protecting them with breastworks built on the walls . These " Crows ’ nests " were then put beyond the walls , and from these , flax , covered in burning pitch , was dropped on the siege engines , burning them . However , the Greeks learned to douse the flames with fire fighting teams , and the engines finally reached the walls despite Carthaginian efforts . Urban warfare . Forcing holes in the wall itself was only the first step in reducing the city . As the Greek troops advanced , the Phoenicians launched a storm of missiles ( arrows , stones ) from the rooftops and houses and took a heavy toll on the attackers . The Greeks next pushed the siege towers next to the houses closest to the walls , and sent troops on the roofs using gangways , who forced their way into the houses . A fierce hand - to - hand struggle began , the desperate resistance of the Phoenicians ( who expected no mercy from the Greeks ) taking a heavy toll on the attackers . For several days , the grim contest continued within the beleaguered city from dawn to dusk . Unable to gain anything in this slugging contest , Dionysius decided to change tactics . The battle usually started at daybreak and continued until nightfall , when the Greeks withdrew to rest . One day , Dionysius sent a picked group of mercenaries under a Thruian named Archylus at night with ladders to secure vantage points . Under cover of darkness , this commando detachment managed to take hold of the positions before the Phoenicians discovered what was going on . Thus the Greeks gained the advantage , and now the weight of numbers was enough to overcome all resistance . Dionysius had intended to secure as many prisoners as possible for the slave market , but the Greeks vented their frustrations by indiscriminate killing of the population . Dionysius could only save those who sought refuge in the temples . Aftermath . Dionysius crucified all the Greeks who had fought on the side of Carthage . It is not known if these were mercenaries employed by Carthage or citizens of Motya . He sacked the city and divided the vast spoils among his troops . His next garrisoned the ruins with an army made mostly of Sicels under an officer named Biton , then marched away to continue the siege of Segesta and Entella . It is not know what he did there , but the cities continued to resist . The majority of the fleet sailed back to Syracuse , with Leptines remaining behind with 120 ships at Eryx . Motya as a city was never rebuilt . Himilco chose to resettle the survivors at Lilybaeum , which would become the main base of Carthage in future . That city would never fall to siege or assault by Greeks or Romans while in Carthaginian possession . Carthage , however , sent an army and fleet to Sicily under Himilco , who had been elected " king " in 397 BC . Himilco chose to sail to Panormus , from where the attack on Syracuse and her allies would take place , which would culminate in the siege of Syracuse .