# At Sicca explained — Salammbô

> Chapter companion for Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert.

## What happens

The Mercenaries depart Carthage for Sicca, where they await payment and grow restless. Their idleness leads to disputes and plotting, culminating in the arrival of the Suffet Hanno, whose attempt to placate them fails, inciting the Barbarians to march on Carthage.

## Themes in this chapter

### War and Destruction

The mercenaries' idleness and resentment foreshadow the coming war, as they arm themselves and march on Carthage.

### Power and Corruption

Hanno's corrupt and inept leadership, his past treachery, and his grotesque appearance embody the decay of Carthaginian authority.

## Character check-ins

### Hanno

The Suffet Hanno arrives at the camp in a lavish litter to harangue the soldiers, but his deformity and past treachery provoke contempt.

### Spendius

Spendius declaims against Carthage and later rouses the camp, circling on a Punic stallion to urge departure.

### Matho

Matho remains in his tent until Spendius rouses him; he then mounts a horse and joins the march to Carthage.

## Key lines

> Every day men came flocking in nearly naked, and with grass on their heads to protect them from the sun; they were the debtors of the rich Carthaginians and had been forced to till the lands of the latter, but had escaped.

Daily, nearly naked men with grass on their heads arrived—debtors who had fled the lands of wealthy Carthaginians.

_Illustrates the influx of desperate refugees into the mercenary camp._

> He held a spatula of aloe-wood in his hand wherewith to scratch his skin.

He carried an aloe-wood spatula to scratch his skin.

_Highlights Hanno's grotesque physical condition and idle luxury._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/salammb_se/chapters/ii-at-sicca
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/salammb_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/salammb_se/chapters