Hames
an old Lincolnshire, England, name for a flail, an instrument for threshing or beating grain from the ear by hand. The old saying, "to set the thames on fire," takes its origin from this word, and has nothing whatever to do with the river Thames. HAMILCAR (ha-mil'kär), the name of several Cathaginian generals, of whom the most celebrated was Hamilcar, HAMILTON surnamed Barca (the lightning), the father of the great Hannibal. While quite a young man he was appointed to the command of the Carthaginian forces in Sicily, in the 18th year of the first Punic War, 247 B. c., when the Romans were masters of almost the whole island .
For two years he defied all the efforts of the Romans to dislodge him; but the Carthaginian admiral, Hanno, having been totally defeated off the Ægates, 241 B. C., he reluctantly consented to evacuate Sicily. A revolt of the returned troops, joined by the native Africans, was successfully repressed by Hamilcar.
He then entered on a series of campaigns in Spain, where he founded a new empire for Carthage. Here he passed nine years, and had brought the whole southern and eastern part of the country under Carthaginian rule when he was slain in battle against the Vettones, 229 B. C. His great design of making Spain a point of attack against Rome was ably carried out by his son Hannibal.