Mago was commander of the Carthaginian

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

 fleet and army in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 in 344 BCE. When Timoleon

Timoleon

Timoleon , son of Timodemus, of Corinth was a Greek statesman and general.As the champion of Greece against Carthage he is closely connected with the history of Sicily, especially Syracuse.-Early life:...

 had made himself master of the citadel of Syracuse

Syracuse, Italy

Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in...

 after the departure of Dionysius

Dionysius II of Syracuse

Dionysius the Younger or Dionysius II ruled Syracuse, Sicily from 367 BC to 357 BC and again from 346 BC to 344 BC....

, Hicetas

Hicetas (general)

Hicetas was a Syracusan general, contemporary with the younger Dionysius and Timoleon. He is first mentioned as a friend of Dion, after whose death , his wife, Arete, and his sister Aristomache, placed themselves under the care of Hicetas...

, finding himself unable to cope single-handed with this new and formidable rival, called in the assistance of Mago, who appeared before Syracuse with a fleet of 150 triremes, and an army of 50,000 men. Ha did not, however, accomplish anything worthy of so great a force; not only were both he and Hicetas unable to make any impression on the island citadel, but while they were engaged in an expedition against Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

, Neon, the Corinth

Corinth

Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...

ian governor of Syracuse, took advantage of their absence to make himself master of Achradina. Jealousies likewise arose between the Carthaginians and their Syracusan allies, and at length Mago, becoming apprehensive of treachery, suddenly relinquished the enterprise, and on the approach of Timoleon at the head of a very inferior force, sailed away with his whole fleet, and withdrew to Carthage. Here his cowardly conduct excited such indignation, that he put an end to his own life, to avoid a worse fate at the hands of his exasperated countrymen, who, nevertheless, proceeded to crucify his lifeless body. (Plut.

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 Timol. 17—22; the same events are more briefly related by Diodorus, xvi. 69, but without any mention of the name of Mago.)