<P> Carthage had a liquidity problem and attempted to gain financial help from Egypt, a mutual ally of Rome and Carthage, but failed . This resulted in delay of payments owed to the mercenary troops that had served Carthage in Sicily, leading to a climate of mutual mistrust and, finally, a revolt supported by the Libyan natives, known as the Mercenary War (240--238 BC). During this war, Rome and Syracuse both aided Carthage, although traders from Italy seem to have done business with the insurgents . Some of them were caught and punished by Carthage, aggravating the political climate, which had started to improve in recognition of the old alliance and treaties . </P> <P> During the uprising in the Punic mainland, the mercenary troops in Corsica and Sardinia toppled Punic rule and briefly established their own, but were expelled by a native uprising . After securing aid from Rome, the exiled mercenaries then regained authority on the island of Sicily . For several years, a brutal campaign was fought to quell the insurgent natives . Like many Sicilians, they would ultimately rise again in support of Carthage during the Second Punic War . </P> <P> Eventually, Rome annexed Corsica and Sardinia by revisiting the terms of the treaty that ended the first Punic War . As Carthage was under siege and engaged in a difficult civil war, they grudgingly accepted the loss of these islands and the subsequent Roman conditions for ongoing peace, which also increased the war indemnity levied against Carthage after the first Punic War . This eventually plunged relations between the two powers to a new low point . </P> <P> After Carthage emerged victorious from the Mercenary War there were two opposing factions: the reformist party was led by Hamilcar Barca while the other, more conservative, faction was represented by Hanno the Great and the old Carthaginian aristocracy . Hamilcar had led the initial Carthaginian peace negotiations and was blamed for the clause that allowed the Roman popular assembly to increase the war indemnity and annex Corsica and Sardinia, but his superlative generalship was instrumental in enabling Carthage to ultimately quell the mercenary uprising, ironically fought against many of the same mercenary troops he had trained . Hamilcar ultimately left Carthage for the Iberian peninsula where he captured rich silver mines and subdued many tribes who fortified his army with levies of native troops . </P>

Perhaps the greatest threat to the roman republic after the punic wars was