# Salammbô — Character guide

> Key figures in Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert.

- [Matho](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/matho.md): Matho is a mercenary commander whose unpaid soldiers make him a natural leader of the revolt, but his fixation on Hamilcar's daughter Salammbô transforms a war over wages into a sacrilegious pursuit. He steals the zaïmph
- [Hamilcar Barca](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/hamilcar.md): Hamilcar Barca is the veteran commander whose plenary powers let him override rivals like Hanno and dictate the defense of Carthage, but his own household is as troubled as the state. He suspects his daughter Salammbô of
- [Salammbô](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/salammbo.md): Salammbô lives in the jeweled seclusion of her father's palace, tending the sacred serpent and suffering a wasting longing that the priest Schahabarim names as the goddess's touch. She has seen the zaïmph and cannot forg
- [Spendius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/spendius.md): Spendius is a freed slave whose hatred of Carthage is colder and more patient than Matho's passion, and he supplies the revolt with the schemes its Libyan chief lacks. He manipulates the mercenary council, engineers the 
- [Hanno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/hanno.md): Hanno is the old Suffet whose animosity toward Hamilcar shapes Carthage's councils as much as any foreign threat, and whose plenary command he accepts only after weighing his appetite for authority against his grudges. H
- [Narr'Havas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/narr_havas.md): Narr'Havas is the young Numidian monarch whose betrothal to Salammbô was sealed in Hamilcar's tent and whose love has since been crowded by ambition. He arrives at besieged Carthage as a savior with six thousand men and 
- [Gisco](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/gisco.md): Gisco commands Carthage's forces in the field, a veteran tasked with holding together an army of mercenaries whose wages the state has let fall into arrears. His predicament sharpens the novel's central grievance: the me
- [Schahabarim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/schahabarim.md): Schahabarim holds the sacred rites of Tanith and the ear of Hamilcar's household, yet his faith is hollowed by doubt he cannot confess. He feeds Salammbô's visions rather than calming them, and when Carthage reels under 
- [Taanach](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/taanach.md): Old Taanach keeps the rhythms of Salammbô's chamber — drawing back the felt lozenges at sunset, releasing the musk-scented doves, watching her charge waste into trance and refusal. She is the household's memory and its h
- [Zarxas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/zarxas.md): Balearic slinger and mercenary leader in the revolt.
- [Autaritus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters/autaritus.md): Gaulish mercenary leader who joins the revolt against Carthage.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/salammb_se/characters