Long before Hannibal Barca led the armed forces of Carthage into a titanic struggle with Rome, Carthage had vied for centuries with the Greek city-state of Syracuse for supremacy in the Western Mediterranean. Tyrant includes twelve of the most decisive battles in the recurring wars that pitted Carthage against the Greeks of Syracuse. The armies of Syracuse were similar to the contemporary hoplite armies of the mainland Greek city-states, but with better cavalry and a strong mercenary corps of both Greek and Western barbarian units. Even more significantly, the Tyrants of Syracuse were far better generals than the typical city-state strategos, with the resources to wage extended campaigns in Sicily, Italy and even Africa. On the other side of the sea, Carthage in this period was extending its empire into inland Africa, Sardinia, Corsica and Spain. But Carthage faced her most formidable opposition in the Greek hoplite armies of Sicily. Carthage relied on North African tribal levies augmented with barbarian mercenaries from all over the Western Mediterranean. In Sicily, Carthaginian armies were usually supported by allied and mercenary Greek units. The only Carthaginians to serve in these armies were officers and heavy cavalry. This combination had only limited success against Syracuse. Carthage, therefore, experimented with her own hoplite force, the Sacred Band of Foot.

The long struggle between Carthage and Syracuse began with the legendary battle of Himera, 480, in the same year as Thermopylae and Salamis. Gelon, the first Tyrant of Syracuse repelled a massive invasion and immolated Hamilcar Mago, King of Carthage. Seventy years later, Hamilcar's grandson, King Hannibal, gains vengeance at the expense of the Strategos Diocles, at Second Himera, 409. Daphnaeus, another strategos, won an incomplete victory over the same army, led this time by King Himilco Hanno at Akragas, 406. These battles led to the rise of the Tyrant Dionysius I, whose complex attack at Gela, 405 was thwarted by King Himilco. Later during the 3rd Dionysiun-Punic War, the Syracusans smashed a huge Punic army under the Suffete Mago at Cabala, 377. Soon thereafter, Mago's son, Himilco, rebuilt his father's army and led it to a surprising victory over Dionysius at Cronium, 376. Dionysius' death led to a civil war in Syracuse that was finally ended when the Corinthian Timoleon was invited to become Strategos. Timoleon, with a small army, crushed a huge Punic force including the Sacred Band, under Hasdrubal, as it attempted to cross the Crimissos River, 341. Timoleon next crushed the army of Mamercus, the Campanian Tyrant of Catana, at the Abolus River, 338. Agathocles became the next Tyrant of Syracuse, suffering a defeat from an expeditionary army under Hamilcar at Mount Ecnomus, 311. Agathocles, audaciously invaded Africa, crushing the army of Hanno at White Tunis, 310, before Himilco turned the tables at Tunis, 307. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus led the last great Syracusan army to challenge Carthage at Lilybaeum, 276, a stunning tactical victory over Mago that had little strategic effect.

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