Talk:Spendius/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Hog Farm (talk · contribs) 18:58, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Lead

• "When the disagreement broke down into a full-scale mutiny in late 242 BC" - Maybe I'm just not understanding the subject, but the 242 BC date doesn't seem to sit well with the rest of the chronology here. Are you sure that date's correct?

No; I'm not and it's not. My thumb fingers. Thanks.

• "which captured a senior Carthaginian general" - Name known?

Yes - Hannibal - as given in the main article. But mentioning a Carthaginian Hannibal without more of an explanation than I want to include in a lead seems an invitation for reader confusion. If a reader wants to know more, they can read the article.

Title

• I'm wondering if this should be at the base title Spendius. There's currently no article there. There are other Spendiuses, but from some brief searches this Spendius seems to be WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. If you agree this needs moved, wait til the review gets closed or Legobot has seizures.

I'll change it as you suggest once the nomination is closed.

Background

• "an ancient historian described him as a "slave deserter from the Romans" He was recruited into the" - Two things. 1.) This needs a full stop in there. 2.) Which ancient historian?

Oops. Both done.

End of the First Punic War and Mutiny

• "and ordered their commander on Sicily, Hamilcar Barca to negotiate a peace treaty with the Romans" - comma after Barca

Done.

• Link/introduce Mathos at the first mention, not the second.

Done.

• "Spendius, an escaped Roman slave from Campania who faced death by torture if he were returned to Roman authority. " - This is a sentence fragment

And his whole introduction doesn't make sense. Some text has gone walkabout and I proofread straight past it. Fixed.

• "A riot broke out, dissenters were stoned to death" - Seems like you need a conjunction in here.

Fixed.

War

• "The Carthaginians, accustomed to fighting the militias of the Numidian cities, were still celebrating their victory when Spendius counter-attacked" - The implication seems to be that the Numidian militias generally did not engage in counterattacks, which is why the Carthaginians were caught unawares. If this is true, it should probably be spelled out a bit more explicitly. American militias in the War of 1812 were very much of the "once the start running, they keep running" variety

Yep. I am probably assuming knowledge to avoid a long explanation. (Which, to be fair, the source gives.) Fixed.

• "The Carthaginians fled, with great loss of life, losing their baggage and siege trains" - Maybe I'm being too nitpicky here, but siege trains is in the plural, while when it was first mentioned, there was only one.

No - two separate trains: the baggage train; and the siege train. Yes?

• "South west of Utica Hamilcar moved his force" - South-west or Southwest, your choice.

Why? It is what I was taught and seems a perfectly acceptable - if strangely minority - usage.

Must be an engvar thing. I consider myself fairly well-read, and I don't think I've ever seen that usage before.

• "Spendius's army was defeated. losing 10,000 killed and 4,000 captured" - Looks like this should be a comma, not a full stop

It should.

• "who, consistent with their response to the mutineers on Sardinia, declined" - First time this is mentioned, while this mention almost seems to imply that the reader has prior knowledge of this incident.

Gah! Probably got cut as unnecessary detail somewhere. Which it is. Deleted.

• "In early 238 BC the lack of supplies forced the Mathos and Spendius" - There's either too few or too many words here, I'm not entirely sure which.

Too many. Translated into English.

Aftermath

• Is there a link for Byzacium? If not, can you briefly explain where it is in relation to Leptivs Parva?

It redirects to Byzacena, which bears very little relationship to the Carthaginian province. I have rewritten to remove the province name, which I don't think adds anything. I have also added a link to the Battle of Leptis Parva, which was strangely missing.

References

• Having two different Hoyos 2015s seems a little odd, as one appears to be a chapter of the other. Also not entirely clear when you cite Hoyos 2015 which one is intended.

Ah. Well. He both edited and contributed to the volume and I seem to have confused myself. Duplicate removed.

Other

• Should this article be in Category:Mercenary War?

I didn't know there was such a category. (I rarely bother with categories.) Done, and a couple of others added

That's about it, I think. Can't really access the relevant parts of any of the sources, so AGF on that. Image licensing looks good. Hog Farm _Bacon 03:49, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Cheers Hog Farm. Prompt and thorough as ever. All addressed I think. Gog the Mild (talk) 11:46, 8 October 2020 (UTC)