Xanthippus is credited with the Carthaginian formation, cavalry split between the two wings, mercenary infantry on their right, with a hastily raised phalanx of civilians in the centre and a line of elephants in front of the infantry, which defeated the Romans formed in their normal formation, with the outnumbered cavalry on the wings and legionary infantry in the centre.
The subsequent battle of Tunis was the conflict that most resembled the pitched battles of the Second Punic War and it was to be the only major Carthaginian land victory.
By using his elephants to disrupt the Roman formation and then to flank them with horse and missile cavalry, Xanthippus was able to achieve a total victory, with barely two thousand Romans escaping.
This Carthaginian victory enabled them to continue fighting for a further fourteen years but for Xanthippus it was the end of his participation in the war as, being aware of the threat of assassination posed by the jealous Carthaginian nobility, he left the west and is thought to have served in Egypt under the Ptolemies.
Xanthippus was a Greek (possibly Spartan) mercenary general hired by the Carthaginians to aid in their war against the Romans during the First Punic War.
He trained Carthaginian soldiers and led them into battle near Tunis, where his forces routed the Roman expeditionary force and captured the Roman consul Regulus in 255 BC.
Xanthippus was also the father of the Ancient Greek statesman Pericles, and was eponymous archon of Athens in 479 BC.
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