(M757) On returning to Persepolis, in Persia, he visited and repaired the tomb of Cyrus, the greatest conqueror the world had seen before himself. In February, B.C. 324, he marched to Susa, where he spent several months in festivities and in organizing his great government, since he no longer had armies to oppose. He now surrounded himself with the pomp of the Persian kings, wore their dress, and affected their habits, much to the disgust of his Macedonian generals. He had married a beautiful captive—Roxana, in Bactria, and he now took two additional wives, Statira, daughter of Darius, and Parysatis, daughter of King Ochus. He also caused his principal officers to marry the daughters of the old Persian grandees, and seemed to forget the country from which he came, and which he was destined never again to see. Here also he gave a donation to his soldiers of twenty thousand talents—about five hundred dollars to each man. But even this did not satisfy them, and when new re-enforcements arrived, the old soldiers mutinied. He disbanded the whole of them in anger, and gave them leave to return to their homes, but they were filled with shame and regret, and a reconciliation took place.

(M758) It was while he made a visit to Ecbatana, in the summer of B.C. 324, that his favorite, Hephaestion, died. His sorrow and grief were unbounded. He cast himself upon the ground, cut his hair close, and refused food and drink for two days. This was the most violent grief he ever manifested, and it was sincere. He refused to be comforted, yet sought for a distraction from his grief in festivals and ostentation of life.

(M759) In the spring of B.C. 323, he marched to Babylon, where were assembled envoys from all the nations of the known world to congratulate him for his prodigious and unprecedented successes, and invoke his friendship, which fact indicates his wide-spread fame. At Babylon he laid plans and made preparations for the circumnavigation and conquest of Arabia, and to found a great maritime city in the interior of the Persian Gulf. But before setting out, he resolved to celebrate the funeral obsequies of Hephaestion with unprecedented splendor. The funeral pile was two hundred feet high, loaded with costly decorations, in which all the invention of artists was exhausted. It cost twelve thousand talents, or twelve million dollars of our money. The funeral ceremonies were succeeded by a general banquet, in which he shared, passing a whole night in drinking with his friend Medius. This last feast was fatal. His heated blood furnished fuel for the raging fever which seized him, and which carried him off in a few days, at the age of thirty-two, and after a reign of twelve years and eight months, June, B.C. 323.

(M760) He indicated no successor. Nor could one man have governed so vast an empire with so little machinery of government. His achievements threw into the shade those of all previous conquerors, and he was, most emphatically, the Great King—the type of all worldly power. "He had mastered, in defiance of fatigue, hardship, and combat, not merely all the eastern half of the Persian empire, but unknown Indian regions beyond. Besides Macedon, Greece, and Thrace, he possessed all the treasures and forces which rendered the Persian king so formidable," and he was exalted to all this power and grandeur by conquest at an age when a citizen of Athens was intrusted with important commands, and ten years less than the age for a Roman consul. But he was unsatisfied, and is said to have wept that there were no more worlds to conquer. He would, had he lived, doubtless have encountered the Romans, and all their foes, and added Italy and Spain and Carthage to his empire. But there is a limit to human successes, and when his work of chastisement of the nations was done, he died. But he left a fame never since surpassed, and "he overawes the imagination more than any personage of antiquity." He had transcendent merits as a general, but he was much indebted to fortunate circumstances. He thought of new conquests, rather than of consolidating what he had made, so that his empire must naturally be divided and subdivided at his death. Though divided and subdivided, the effect of those conquests remained to future generations, and had no small effect on civilization, and yet, instead of Hellenizing Asia, he rather Asiatized Hellas. That process, so far as it was carried out, is due to his generals—the Diadochi—Antigonas, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, &c., who divided between them the empire. But Hellenism in reality never to a great extent passed into Asia. The old Oriental habits and sentiments and intellectual qualities remained, and have survived all succeeding conquests. Oriental habits and opinions rather invaded the western world with the progress of wealth and luxury. Asia, by the insidious influences of effeminated habits, undermined Greece, and even Rome, rather than received from Europe new impulses or sentiments, or institutions. A new and barbarous country may prevail, by the aid of hardy warriors, adventurous and needy, over the civilized nations which have been famous for a thousand years, but the conquered country almost invariably has transmitted its habits and institutions among the conquerors, so much more majestic are ideas than any display of victorious brute forces. Dynasties are succeeded by dynasties, but civilization survives, when any material exists on which it can work.

Athens was never a greater power in the world than at the time her political ruin was consummated. Hence the political changes of nations, which form the bulk of all histories, are insignificant in comparison with those ideas and institutions which gradually transform the habits and opinions of ordinary life. Yet it is these silent and gradual changes which escape the notice of historians, and are the most difficult to be understood and explained, for lack of sufficient and definite knowledge. Moreover, it is the feats of extraordinary individuals in stirring enterprise and heroism which have thus far proved the great attraction of past ages to ordinary minds. No history, truly philosophical, would be extensively read by any people, in any age, and least of all by the young, in the process of education.

The remaining history of Greece has little interest until the Roman conquests, which will be presented in the next book.



BOOK III.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.



CHAPTER XXVI.

ROME IN ITS INFANCY, UNDER KINGS.

In presenting the growth of that great power which gradually absorbed all other States and monarchies so as to form the largest empire ever known on earth, I shall omit a notice of all other States, in Italy and Europe, until they were brought into direct collision with Rome herself.

(M761) The early history of Rome is involved in obscurity, and although many great writers have expended vast learning and ingenuity in tracing the origin of the city and its inhabitants, still but little has been established on an incontrovertible basis. We look to poetry and legends for the foundation of the "Eternal City."

(M762) These legends are of peculiar interest. AEneas, in his flight from Troy, after many adventures, reaches Italy, marries the daughter of Latinus, king of the people, who then lived in Latium, and builds a city, which he names Lavinium, and unites his Trojan followers with the aboriginal inhabitants.

(M763) Latium was a small country, bounded on the north by the Tiber, on the East by the Liris and Vinius, and on the south and west by the Tuscan Sea. It was immediately surrounded by the Etruscans, Sabines, Equi, and Marsi. When Latium was originally settled we do not know, but the people doubtless belonged to the Indo-European race, kindred to the early settlers of Europe. Latium was a plain, inclosed by mountains and traversed by the Tiber, of about seven hundred square miles. Between the Alban Lake and the Alban Mount, was Alba—the original seat of the Latin race, and the mother city of Rome. Here, according to tradition, reigned Ascanius, the son of AEneas, and his descendants for three hundred years were the Latin tribes. After eleven generations of kings, Amulius usurps the throne, which belonged to Numitor, the elder brother, and dooms his only daughter, Silvia, to perpetual virginity as a Vestal. Silvia, visited by a god, gives birth to twins, Romulus and Remus. The twins, exposed by the order of Amulius, are suckled by a she-wolf, and brought up by one of the king's herdsmen. They feed their flocks on the Palatine, but a quarrel ensuing between them and the herdsmen of Numitor on the Aventine, their royal origin is discovered, and the restoration of Numitor is effected. But the twins resolve to found a city, and Rome arises on the Palatine, an asylum for outlaws and slaves, who are provided with wives by the "rape of the Sabine women."

(M764) Thus, according to the legends, was the foundation of Rome, on a hill about fourteen miles from the mouth of the Tiber, and on a site less healthy than the old Latin towns, B.C. 751, or 753. According to the speculations of Mommsen, it would seem that Rome was at a very early period the resort of a lawless band of men, who fortified themselves on the Palatine, and perhaps other hills, and robbed the small merchants, who sailed up and down the Tiber, as well as the neighboring rural population, even as the feudal barons intrenched themselves on hills overlooking plains and rivers. But all theories relating to the foundation of Rome are based either on legend or speculation. Until we arrive at certain facts, I prefer those based on legend, such as have been accepted for more than two thousand years. It is but little consequence whether Romulus and Remus are real characters, or poetic names. This is probable, that the situation of Rome was favorable in ancient times for rapine, even if it were not a healthy locality. The first beginnings of Rome were violence and robbery, and the murder of Remus by Romulus is a type of its early history, and whole subsequent career.

(M765) Romulus and his associate outlaws, now intrenched on the Palatine, organize a city and government, and extend the limits. The rape of the Sabines leads to war, and Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, obtains possession of the Capitoline Hill—the smallest but most famous of the seven hills on which Rome was subsequently built. In the valley between, on which the forum was afterward built, the combatants are separated by the Sabine wives of the outlaws, and the tribes or nations are united under the name of Ramnes and Tities, the Sabines retaining the capitol and the Quirinal, and the Romans the Palatine. Some Etruscans, in possession of the Caelian Hill, are incorporated as a third tribe, called Luceres. But it is probable that the Sabine element prevailed. Each tribe contains ten curiae of a hundred citizens, which, with the three hundred horsemen, form a body of three thousand three hundred citizens, who alone enjoyed political rights.

(M766) The government, though monarchical, was limited. The king was bound to lay all questions of moment before the assembly of the thirty curiae, called the Comitia Curiata. But the king had a council called the Senate, composed of one hundred members, who were called Patres, or Fathers, and doubtless were the heads of clans called Gentes. The Gentes were divided into Familiae, or families. These Patres were the heads of the patrician houses—that class who alone had political rights, and who were Roman citizens.

(M767) Romulus is said to have reigned justly and ably for thirty-seven years, and no one could be found worthy to succeed him. At length the Roman tribe, the Ramnes, elected Numa Pompilius, from the Sabines, a man of wisdom and piety, and said to have acquired his learning from Pythagoras. This king instituted the religious and civil legislation of Rome, and built the temple of Janus in the midst of the Forum, whose doors were shut in peace and opened in war, but were never closed from his death to the reign of Augustus, but a brief period after the first Punic war.

(M768) He established the College of Pontiffs, who directed all the ceremonies of religion and regulated festivals and the system of weights and measures; also the College of Augurs, who interpreted by various omens the will of the gods; and also the College of Heralds, who guarded the public faith. He fixed the boundaries of fields, divided the territory of Rome into districts, called pagi, and regulated the calendar.

(M769) According to the legends, Tullus Hostilius was the third king of Rome, elected by the curiae. He assigned the Caelian Mount for the poor, and the strangers who flocked to Rome, and was a warlike sovereign. The great event of his reign was the destruction of Alba. The growing power of Rome provoked the jealousy of this ancient seat of Latin power, and war ensued. The armies of the two States were drawn up in battle array, when it was determined that the quarrel should be settled by three champions, chosen from each side. Hence the beautiful story of the Curiatii and the Horatii, three brothers on each side. Two of the Horatii were slain, and the three Curiatii were wounded. The third of the Horatii affected to fly, and was pursued by the Curiatii, but as they were wounded, the third Roman subdued them in detail, and so the Albans became subjects of the Romans. The conqueror met his sister at one of the gates, who, being betrothed to one of the Curiatii, reproached him for the death of her lover, which so incensed him that he slew her. Thus early does patriotism surmount natural affections among the Romans. But Horatius was nevertheless tried for his life by two judges and condemned. He appealed to the people, who reversed the judgment—the first instance on record of an appeal in a capital case to the people, which subsequently was the right of Roman citizens.

(M770) Hostilities again breaking out between Alba and Rome, the former city was demolished and the inhabitants removed to the Caeilian Mount and enrolled among the citizens. By the destruction of Alba, Rome obtained the presidency over the thirty cities of the Latin confederacy. Tullus, it would seem, was an unscrupulous king, but able, and to him is ascribed the erection of the Curia Hostilia, where the Senate had its meetings.

(M771) The Sabine Ancus Martius was the fourth king, B.C. 640, who pursued the warlike policy of his predecessor, conquering many Latin towns, and incorporating their inhabitants with the Romans, whom he settled on Mount Aventine. They were freemen, but not citizens. They were called plebeians, with modified civil, but not political rights, and were the origin of that great middle class which afterward became so formidable. The plebeians, though of the same race as the Romans, were a conquered people, and yet were not reduced to slavery like most conquered people among the ancients. They had their Gentes and Familiae, but they could not intermarry with the patricians. Though they were not citizens, they were bound to fight for the State, for which, as a compensation, they retained their lands, that is, their old possessions.

(M772) On the death, B.C. 616, of Ancus Marlius, Lucius Tarquinius, of an Etruscan family, became king, best known as Tarquinius Priscus. He had been guardian of the two sons of Ancus, but offered himself as candidate for the throne, from which it would appear that the monarchs were elected by the people.

(M773) He carried on successful war against the Latins and Sabines, and introduced from Etruria, by permission of the Senate, a golden crown, an ivory chain, a sceptre topped with an eagle, and a crimson robe studded with gold—emblems of royalty. But he is best known for various public works of great magnificence at the time, as well as of public utility. Among these was the Cloaca Maxima, to drain the marshy land between the Palatine and the Tiber—a work so great, that Niebuhr ranks it with the pyramids. It has lasted, without the displacement of a stone, for more than two thousand years. It shows that the use of the arch was known at that period. The masonry of the stones is perfect, joined together without cement. Tarquin also instituted public games, and reigned with more splendor than we usually associate with an infant State.

(M774) This king, who excited the jealousy of the patricians, was assassinated B.C. 578, and Servius Tullius reigned in his stead. He was the greatest of the Roman kings, and arose to his position by eminent merit, being originally obscure. He married the daughter of Tarquin, and shared all his political plans.

(M775) He is most celebrated for remodeling the constitution. He left the old institutions untouched, but added new ones. He made a new territorial division of the State, and created a popular assembly. He divided the whole population into thirty tribes, at the head of each of which was a tribune. Each tribe managed its own local affairs, and held public meetings. These tribes included both patricians and plebeians. This was the commencement of the power of the plebs, which was seen with great jealousy by the patricians.

(M776) The basis or principle of the new organization of Servius was the possession of property. All free citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, were called to defend the State, and were enrolled in the army. The equites, or cavalry, took the precedence in the army, and was composed of the wealthy citizens. There were eighteen centuries of these knights, six patrician and twelve plebeian, all having more than one hundred thousand ases. They were armed with sword, spear, helmet, shield, greaves, and cuirass. The infantry was composed of the classes, variously armed, of which, including equites, there were one hundred and ninety-four centuries, one hundred of whom were of the first rank, heavily armed—all men possessing one hundred thousand ases. Each class was divided into seniores—men between forty-five and sixty, and juniores—from seventeen to forty-five. The former were liable to be called out only in emergencies. This division of the citizens was a purely military one, and each century had one vote. But as the first class numbered one hundred centuries, each man of which was worth land valued at one hundred thousand ases, it could cast a larger vote than all the other classes, which numbered only ninety-four together. Thus the rich controlled all public affairs.

(M777) To this military body of men, in which the rich preponderated, Servius committed all the highest functions of the State, for the Comitia Centuriata possessed elective, judicial, and legislative functions. Servius also rendered many other benefits to the plebeians, He divided among them the lands gained from the Etruscans. He inclosed the city with a wall, which remained for centuries, embracing the seven hills on which Rome was built. But it is as the hero of the plebeian order that he is famous, and paid the penalty for being such. He was assassinated, probably by the instigation of the patricians, by his son-in-law, Lucius Tarquinius, who mounted his throne as Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, B.C. 534. The daughter of the murdered king, Tullia, who rode in her chariot over his bleeding body, is enrolled among the infamous women of antiquity.

(M778) Tarquinius Superbus, a usurper and murderer, abrogated the popular laws of Servius Tullius, and set aside even the assembly of the Curiae, and degraded and decimated the Senate, and appropriated the confiscated estates of those whom he destroyed. He reigned as a despot, making treaties without consulting the Senate, and living for his pleasure alone. But he ornamented the city with magnificent edifices, and completed the Circus Maximus as well as the Capitoline Temple, which stood five hundred years. He was also successful in war, and exalted the glory of the Roman name.

(M779) An end came to his tyranny by one of those events on which poetry and history have alike exhausted all their fascinations. It was while Tarquin was conducting a war against Ardea, and the army was idly encamped before the town, that the sons of Tarquin, with their kinsmen, were supping in the tent of Sextus, that conversation turned upon the comparative virtue of their wives. By a simultaneous impulse, they took horse to see the manner in which these ladies were at the time employed. The wives of Tarquin's sons at Rome were found in luxurious banquets with other women. Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, was discovered carding wool in the midst of her maidens. The boast of Collatinus that his wife was the most virtuous was confirmed. But her charms or virtues made a deep impression on the heart or passions of Sextus, and he returned to her dwelling in Collatia to propose infamous overtures. They were proudly rejected, but the disappointed lover, by threats and force, accomplished his purpose. Lucretia, stung with shame, made known the crime of Sextus to her husband and father, who hastened to her house, accompanied with Brutus. They found the ravished beauty in agonies of shame and revenge, and after she had revealed the scandalous facts, she plunged a dagger in her own bosom and died, invoking revenge. Her relatives and friends carried her corpse to the market-place, revealed the atrocity of the crime of Sextus, and demanded vengeance. The people rallied in the Forum at Rome, and the assembled Curiae deprived Tarquin of his throne, and decreed the banishment of his accursed family. On the news of the insurrection, the tyrant started for the city with a band of chosen followers, but Brutus reached the army after the king had left, recounted the wrongs, and marched to Rome, whose gates were already shut against Tarquin. He fled to Etruria, with two of his sons, but Sextus was murdered by the people of Gabii.

(M780) Thus were the kings driven out of Rome, never to return. In the revolution which followed, the patricians recovered their power, and a new form of government was instituted, republican in name, but oligarchal and aristocratic in reality, two hundred and forty-five years after the foundation of the city, B.C. 510. Historical criticism throws doubt on the chronology which assigns two hundred and forty-five years to seven elective kings, and some critics think that a longer period elapsed from the reign of Romulus to that of Tarquin than legend narrates, and that there must have been a great number of kings whose names are unknown. As the city advanced in wealth and numbers, the popular influence increased. The admission of commons favored the establishment of despotism, and its excesses led to its overthrow. It would have been better for the commons had Brutus established a monarchy with more limited powers, for the plebeians were now subjected to the tyranny of a proud and grasping oligarchy, and lost a powerful protector in the king, and the whole internal history of Rome, for nearly two centuries, were the conflicts between the plebeians and their aristocratic masters for the privileges they were said to possess under the reign of Tullius. Under the patricians the growth of the city was slow, and it was not till the voices of the tribunes were heard that Rome advanced in civilization and liberty. Under the kings, the progress in arts and culture had been rapid.

(M781) Mommsen, in his learned and profound history of Rome, enumerates the various forms of civilization that existed on the expulsion of the Tarquins, a summary of which I present. Law and justice were already enforced on some of the elemental principles which marked the Roman jurisprudence. The punishment of offenses against order was severe, and compensation for crime, where injuries to person and property were slight, was somewhat similar to the penalties of the Mosaic code. The idea of property was associated with estate in slaves and cattle, and all property passed freely from hand to hand; but it was not in the power of the father arbitrarily to deprive his children of their hereditary rights. Contracts between the State and a citizen were valid without formalities, but those between private persons were difficult to be enforced. A purchase only founded an action in the event of its being a transaction for ready money, and this was attested by witnesses. Protection was afforded to minors and for the estate of persons not capable of bearing arms. After a man's death, his property descended to his nearest heirs. The emancipation of slaves was difficult, and that of a son was attended with even greater difficulties. Burgesses and clients were equally free in their private rights, but foreigners were beyond the pale of the law. The laws indicated a great progress in agriculture and commerce, but the foundation of law was the State. The greatest liberality in the permission of commerce, and the most rigorous procedure in execution, went hand in hand. Women were placed on a legal capacity with men, though restricted in the administration of their property. Personal credit was extravagant and easy, but the creditor could treat the debtor like a thief. A freeman could not, indeed, be tortured, but he could be imprisoned for debt with merciless severity. From the first, the laws of property were stringent and inexorable.

(M782) In religion, the ancient Romans, like the Greeks, personified the powers of nature, and also abstractions, like sowing, field labor, war, boundary, youth, health, harmony, fidelity. The profoundest worship was that of the tutelary deities, who presided over the household. Next to the deities of the house and forest, held in the greatest veneration, was Hercules, the god of the inclosed homestead, and, therefore, of property and gain. The souls of departed mortals were supposed to haunt the spot where the bodies reposed, but dwelt in the depths below. The hero worship of the Greeks was uncommon, and even Numa was never worshiped as a god. The central object of worship was Mars, the god of war, and this was conducted by imposing ceremonies and rites. The worship of Vesta was held with peculiar sacredness, and the vestal virgins were the last to yield to Christianity. The worshipers of the gods often consulted priests and augurs, who had great colleges, but little power in the State. The Latin worship was grounded on man's enjoyment of earthly pleasures, and not on his fear of the wild forces of nature, and it gradually sunk into a dreary round of ceremonies. The Italian god was simply an instrument for the attainment of worldly ends, and not an object of profound awe or love, and hence the Latin worship was unfavorable to poetry, as well as philosophical speculation.

(M783) Agriculture is ever a distinguishing mark of civilization, and forms the main support of a people. It early occupied the time of the Latins, and was their chief pursuit. In the earliest ages arable land was cultivated in common, and was not distributed among the people as their special property, but in the time of Servius there was a distribution. Attention was chiefly given to cereals, but roots and vegetables were also diligently cultivated. Vineyards were introduced before the Greeks made settlements in Italy, but the olive was brought to Italy by the Greeks. The fig-tree is a native of Italy. The plow was drawn by oxen, while horses, asses, and mules were used as beasts of burden. The farm was stocked with swine and poultry, especially geese. The plow was a rude instrument, but no field was reckoned perfectly tilled unless the furrows were so close that harrowing was deemed unnecessary. Farming on a large scale was not usual, and the proprietor of land worked on the soil with his sons. The use of slaves was a later custom, when large estates arose.

(M784) Trades scarcely kept pace with agriculture, although in the time of Numa eight guilds of craftsmen were numbered among the institutions of Rome—flute-blowers, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, carpenters, fullers, dyers, potters, and shoemakers. There was no yield for workers in iron, which shows that iron was a later introduction than copper.

(M785) Commerce was limited to the mutual dealings of the Italians themselves. Fairs are of great antiquity, distinguished from ordinary markets, and barter and traffic were carried on in them, especially that of Soracte, being before Greek or Phoenicians entered from the sea. Oxen and sheep, grain and slaves, were the common mediums of exchange. Latium was, however, deficient of articles of export, and was pre-eminently an agricultural country.

(M786) The use of measures and weights was earlier than the art of writing, although the latter is of high antiquity. Latin poetry began in the lyrical form. Dancing was a common trade, and this was accompanied with pipers, and religious litanies were sung from the remotest antiquity. Comic songs were sung in Saturnian metre, accompanied by the pipe. The art of dancing was a public care, and a powerful impulse was early given by Hellenic games. But in all the arts of music and poetry there was not the easy development as in Greece. Architecture owed its first impulse to the Etruscans, who borrowed from the Greeks, and was not of much account till the reigns of the Tuscan kings.



CHAPTER XXVII.

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC TILL THE INVASION OF THE GAULS.

(M787) The Tarquins being expelled, political power fell into the hands of the patricians, under whose government the city slowly increased in wealth and population, but it was the heroic period of Roman history, and the legends of patriotic bravery are of great interest.

(M788) The despotism of Tarquinius Superbus inflamed all classes with detestation of the very name of king—the wealthy classes, because they were deprived of their ancient powers; the poorer classes, because they were oppressed with burdens. The executive power of the State was transferred to two men, called consuls, annually elected from the patrician ranks. But they ruled with restricted powers, and were shorn of the trappings of royalty. They could not nominate priests, and they were amenable to the laws after their term of office expired. They were elected by the Comitia Centuriata, in which the patrician power predominated. They convened the Senate, introduced ambassadors, and commanded the armies. In public, they were attended by lictors, and wore, as a badge of authority, a purple border on the toga.

(M789) The Senate, a great power, still retained its dignity. The members were elected for life, and were the advisers of the consuls. They were elected by the consuls; but, as the consuls were practically chosen by the wealthy classes, men were chosen to the Senate who belonged to powerful families. The Senate was a judicial and legislative body, and numbered three hundred men. All men who had held curule magistracies became members. Their decisions, called Senatus Consulta, became laws—leges.

The Roman government at this time was purely oligarchic. The aristocratical clement prevailed. Nobles virtually controlled the State.

(M790) Brutus, on the overthrow of the monarchy, was elected the first consul B.C. 507 with L. Tarquinius Colatinus; but the latter was not allowed to possess his office, from hatred of his family, and he withdrew peaceably to Lavinium, and Publius Valerius was elected consul in his stead—a harsh measure, prompted by necessity.

(M791) The history of Rome at this period is legendary. The story goes that Tarquin, at the head of the armies of Veii and Tarquinii, seeking to recover his throne, marched against Rome, and that for thirteen years he struggled with various success, assisted by Porsenna, king of Etruria. The legends say Horatius Cocles defended a bridge, single-handed, against the whole Etrurian army—that Mamillus, the ruler of Tuscalum, fought a battle at Lake Regillus, in which the cause of Tarquin was lost—the subject of the most beautiful of Macaulay's lays—and that Mutius Scaevola attempted to assassinate Porsenna, and, as a proof of his fortitude, held his hand in the fire until it was consumed, which act converted Porsenna into a friend. Another interesting legend is related in reference to Brutus, who slew his own sons for their sympathy with, and treasonable aid, to the banished king. These stories are not history, but still shed light on the spirit of the time. It is probable that Tarquin made desperate efforts to recover his dominion, aided by the Etruscans, and that the first wars of the republic were against them.

(M792) The Etruscans were then in the height of their power, and were in close alliance with the Carthaginians. Etruria was a larger State than Latium, from which it was separated by the Tiber. It was bounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the north by the Appenines, and the east by Umbria. Among the cities were Veii and Tarquinii, the latter the birthplace of Tarquinius Priscus, and the former the powerful rival of Rome.

(M793) In the war with the Etruscans, the Romans were worsted, and they lost all their territory on the right bank of the Tiber, won by the kings, and were thrown back on their original limits. But the Etruscans were driven back, by the aid of the Latin cities, beyond the Tiber. It took Rome one hundred and fifty years to recover what she had lost.

(M794) It was in those wars with the Etruscans that we first read of dictators, extraordinary magistrates, appointed in great political exigencies. The dictator, or commander, was chosen by one of the consuls, and his authority was supreme, but lasted only for six months. He had all the powers of the ancient kings.

(M795) The misfortunes of the Romans, in the contest with the Etruscans, led to other political changes, and internal troubles. The strife between the patricians and the plebeians now began, and lasted two centuries before the latter were admitted to a full equality of civil rights. The cause of the conflict, it would appear, was the unequal and burdensome taxation to which the plebeians were subjected, and especially vexations from the devastations which war produced. They were small land-owners, and their little farms were overrun by the enemy, and they were in no condition to bear the burdens imposed upon them: and this inequality of taxation was the more oppressive, since they had no political power. They necessarily incurred debts, which were rigorously exacted, and they thus became the property of their creditors.

(M796) In their despair, they broke out in open rebellion, in the fifteenth year of the republic, during the consulship of Publius Servilius and Appius Claudius—the latter a proud Sabine nobleman, who had lately settled in Rome. They took position on a hill between the Anio and Tiber, commanding the most fertile part of the Roman territory. The patrician and wealthy classes, abandoned by the farmers, who tilled the lands, were compelled to treat, in spite of the opposition of Appius Claudius. And the result was, that the plebeians gained a remission of their debts, and the appointment of two magistrates, as protectors, under the name of tribunes.

(M797) This new office introduced the first great change in the condition of the plebeians. The tribunes had the power of putting a stop to the execution of the law which condemned debtors to imprisonment or a military levy. Their jurisdiction extended over every citizen, even over the consul. There was no appeal from their decisions, except in the Comitia Tributa, where the plebeian interest predominated—an assembly representing the thirty Roman tribes, according to the Servian constitution, but which, at first, had insignificant powers. The persons of the tribunes were inviolable, but their power was negative. They could not originate laws; they could insure the equitable administration of the laws, and prevent wrongs. They had a constitutional veto, of great use at the time, but which ended in a series of dangerous encroachments.

(M798) The office of aediles followed that of tribunes. There were at first two, selected from plebeians, whose duty it was to guard the law creating tribunes, which was deposited in the temple of Vesta, They were afterward the keepers of the resolutions of the Senate as well as of the plebs, and had the care of public buildings, and the sanitary police of the city, the distribution of corn, and of the public lands, the superintendence of markets and measures, the ordering of festivals, and the duty to see that no new deities or rites were introduced.

(M799) One year after the victory of the plebeians, a distinguished man appeared, who was their bitter enemy. This was Caius Marcius, called Coriolanus, from his bravery at the capture of a Volscian town, Corioli. When a famine pressed the city, a supply of corn was sent by a Sicilian prince, but the proud patrician proposed to the Senate to withhold it from the plebeians until they surrendered their privileges. The rage of the plebeians was intense, and he was impeached by the tribunes, and condemned by the popular assembly to exile. He went over, in indignation, to the Volscians, became their general, defeated the Romans, and marched against their city. In this emergency, the city was saved by the intercession of his mother, Volumnia, who went to seek him in his camp, accompanied by other Roman matrons.

(M800) A greater man than he, was Spurius Cassius, who rendered public services of the greatest magnitude, yet a man whose illustrious deeds no poet sang. He lived in a great crisis, when the Etruscan war had destroyed the Roman dominions on the right bank of the Tiber, and where the Volscians and Acquians were advancing with superior forces. Rome was in danger of being conquered, and not only conquered, but reduced to servitude. But he concluded a league with the Latins, and also with the Hernicians—a Sabine people, who dwelt in one of the valleys of the Appenines, by which the power of Rome was threatened. He is also known as the first who proposed an agrarian law. It seems that the patricians had occupied the public lands to the exclusion of the plebeians. Spurius Cassius proposed to the Comitia Centuriata that the public domain—land obtained by conquest—should be measured, and a part reserved for the use of the State, and another portion distributed among the needy citizens—a just proposition, since no property held by individuals was meddled with. This popular measure was carried against violent opposition, but when the term of office of Cassius as consul expired, he was accused before the curiae, who assumed the right to judge a patrician, and he lost his life. He was accused of seeking to usurp regal power, because he had sought to protect the commons against his own order. "His law was buried with him, but its spectre haunted the rich, and again and again it arose from its tomb, till the conflicts to which it led destroyed the commonwealth."

(M801) The following seven years was a period of incessant war with the Acquians and Veientines, as well as dissensions in the city, during which the great house of the Fabii arose to power, for Fabius was chosen consul seven successive years, and even proposed the execution of the agrarian law of Cassius, for which he was scorned by the patricians, and left Rome in disgust, with his family, and all were afterward massacred by the Veientines. But one of the tribunes accused the consuls for their opposition of the tribunes for the execution of the agrarian law. He was assassinated. This violation of the sacred person of a tribune created great indignation among the commons, and Volero, a tribune, proposed the celebrated "Publilian Law," that the tribunes henceforth, as well as the plebeian aediles, should be elected by the plebeians themselves in the Comitia Tributa. Great disorders followed, but the commons prevailed, and the Senate adopted the plebiscitum, and proposed it to the Comitia Curiata, and it became a law. This step raised the authority of the tribunes, and added to Roman liberties.

(M802) The critical condition of Rome, from the renewed assaults of the Acquians and Volscians, led to the appointment of another very remarkable man to the dictatorship—L. Quintius Cincinnatus, a patrician, who maintained the virtues of better days. He cultivated a little farm of four jugera with his own hands, and lived with great simplicity. He summoned every man of military age to meet him in the Campus Martius, and these were provided with rations for five days. He then marched against the triumphant enemy, surrounded them, and compelled them to surrender. He made no use of his political power, and after sixteen days, laid down the dictatorship, and retired to his farm, B.C. 458. All subsequent ages and nations have embalmed the memory of this true patriot, who preferred the quiet labors of his small farm of three and a half acres to the enjoyment of absolute power.

But his victory was not decisive, and the Romans continued to be harassed by the neighboring nations, and they, moreover, suffered all the evils of pestilence. It was at this time, in the three hundredth year of the city, that they sought to make improvements in their laws—at least, to embody laws in a written form. Greece was then in the height of her glory, in the interval between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, and thither a commission was sent to examine her laws, especially those of Solon, at Athens. On the return of the three commissioners, a new commission of ten was appointed to draw up a new code, composed wholly of patricians, at the head of which was Appius Claudius, consul elect, a man of commanding influence and talents, but ill-regulated passions and unscrupulous ambition. The new code was engraved upon ten tables, and subsequently two more tables were added, and these twelve tables are the foundation of the Roman jurisprudence, that branch of science which the Romans carried to considerable perfection, and for which they are most celebrated. The jurisprudence of Rome has survived all her conquests, and is the most valuable contribution to civilization which she ever made.

(M803) The decemvirs—those who codified the laws—came into supreme power, and suspended the other great magistracies, and ruled, under the direction of Appius Claudius, in an arbitrary and tyrannical manner. Their power came to an end in a signal manner, and the history of their fall is identified with one of the most beautiful legends of this heroic age, which is also the subject of one of Macaulay's lays.

(M804) Appius Claudius, who perhaps aspired to regal power, became enamored of the daughter of a centurion, L. Virginius. In order to gratify his passions, Claudius suborned a false accuser, one of his clients, who was to pretend that the mother of Virginia had been his slave. Appius sat in judgment, and against his own laws, and also the entreaties of the people, declared her to be the slave of the accuser. Her father returned from the army, and in his indignation plunged a dagger in her breast, preferring her death to shame. The people and soldiers rallied around the courageous soldier, took the capitol, and compelled the decemvirs to lay down their office. The result of this insurrection was the creation of ten tribunes instead of the old number, and ten continued to be the regular number of tribunes till the fall of the republic. It was further decreed that the votes of the plebs, passed in the Comitia Tributa, should be binding on the whole people, provided they were confirmed by the Senate and the assemblies of the curias and centuries. The persons of the tribunes were declared to be inviolable, under the sanctions of religion, and they, moreover, were admitted to the deliberations of the Senate, though without a vote. Thus did the commons ascend another step in political influence, B.C. 449. The next movement of the commons was to take vengeance on Appius Claudius, who ended his life in prison.

(M805) The plebs, now strengthened by the plebeian nobles, who sought power through the tribunate, insisted on the abrogation of the law which prevented the marriage of plebeians with patricians. This was effected four years later, B.C. 445. These then attempted to secure the higher magistracies, but this was prevented for a time, although they acquired the right of plebeians to become military tribunes, or chief officer of the legions, but none of the plebeians arose to that rank for several years.

(M806) A new office of great dignity was now created, that of censors, who were chosen from men who had been consuls, and therefore had higher rank than they. It was their duty to superintend the public morals, take the census, and administer the finances. They could brand with ignominy the highest officers of the State, could elect to the Senate, and control, with the aediles, the public buildings and works. There were two elected to this high office, and were chosen from the patrician ranks till the year B.C. 421, when plebeians were admitted. They were even held in great reverence, and enjoyed a larger term of office than the consuls, even of five years.

(M807) The commons gained additional importance by the opening of the quaestorship to the plebeians, which took place about this time. The quaestors virtually had charge of the public money, and were the paymasters of the army. As these were curule officers, they had, by their office, admission to the Senate. Another great increase of power among the plebeians, about twenty years after the decemviral legislature, was the right, transferred from the curiae to the centuries, of determining peace and war.

(M808) While these internal changes were in progress, the State was in almost constant war with the Volscians and Acquians, and also with the Etruscans. The former were kept at bay by the aid of the Latin and Hernican allies. The latter were more formidable foes, and especially the inhabitants of Veii—a powerful city in the plain of Southern Etruria, and the largest of the confederated Etruscan cities, equal in size to Athens, defended by a strong citadel on a hill. The Veientines, not willing to contend with the Romans in the field, shut themselves up in their strong city, to which the Romans laid siege. They drew around it a double line of circumvallation, the inner one to prevent egress from the city, the outer one to defend themselves against external attacks. The siege lasted ten years, as long as that of Troy, but was finally taken by the great Camillus, by means of a mine under the citadel. The fall of this strong place was followed by the submission of all the Etruscan cities south of the Ciminian forest, and the lands of the people of Veii were distributed among the whole Roman people, at the rate of seven jugera to each landholder, B.C. 396.

(M809) But this event was soon followed by a great calamity to Rome—the greatest she had ever suffered. The city fell into the hands of the Gauls—a Celtic race. They were rather pastoral than agricultural, and reared great numbers of swine. They had little attachment to the soil, like the Italians and Germans, and delighted in towns. Their chief qualities were personal bravery, an impetuous temper, boundless vanity, and want of perseverance. They were good soldiers and bad citizens. They were fond of a roving life, and given to pillage. They loved ornaments and splendid dresses, and wore a gold collar round the neck. After an expedition, they abandoned themselves to carousals. They sprung from the same cradle as the Hellenic, Italian, and German people. Their first great migration flowed past the Alps, and we find them in Gaul, Britain, and Spain. From these settlements, they proceeded westward across the Alps. In successive waves they invaded Italy. It was at the height of Etruscan power, that they assumed a hostile attitude. From Etruria they proceeded to the Roman territories.

(M810) The first battle with these terrible foes resulted disastrously to the Romans, who regarded them as half-disciplined barbarians, and underrated their strength. Their defeat was complete, and their losses immense. The flower of the Roman youth perished, B.C. 390.

(M811) The victors entered Rome without resistance, while the Romans retreated to their citadel, such as were capable of bearing arms. The rest of the population dispersed. The fathers of the city, aged citizens, and priests, seated themselves in the porches of their patrician houses, and awaited the enemy. At first, they were mistaken for gods, so venerable and calm their appearance; but the profanation of the sacred person of Papirius dissolved the charm, and they were massacred.

(M812) The Gauls then attempted to assault the capital, but failed. But a youth, Pontius Cominius, having climbed the hill in the night with safety, and opened communication with the Romans at Veii, the marks of his passage suggested to the Gauls the means of taking the citadel. In the dead of the following night a party of Gauls scaled the cliff, and were about to surprise the citadel, when some geese, sacred to Juno, cried out and flapped their wings, which noise awakened M. Manlius, who rushed to the cliff and overpowered the foremost Gaul. A panic seized the rest, and the capitol was saved. At length, when the siege had lasted seven months, and famine pressed, the invaders were bought off by a ransom of one thousand pounds weight of gold. "The iron of the barbarians had conquered; but they sold their victory, and by selling, lost it." They were subsequently defeated by Camillus, and Manlius, surnamed Torquatus, from the gold collar he took from a gigantic Gaul, and also by other generals.

The destruction of Rome was not a permanent calamity; it was a misfortune. The period which followed was one of distress, but the energy of Camillus reorganized the military force, and new alliances were made with the Latin cities. Etruria, humbled and restricted within narrower limits, and moreover enervated by luxury, was in no condition to oppose a people inured to danger and sobered by adversity.

(M813) The subsequent fate of Manlius, who saved the city, suggests the fickleness and ingratitude of a republican State. The distress of the lower classes, in consequence of the Gaulish invasion, became intolerable. They became involved in debt, and thus were in the power of their creditors. Manlius undertook to be their defender, but the envy of the patricians caused him to be accused of aspiring to the supreme power, and he was, in spite of his great services, sentenced to death and hurled from the Tarpeian rock. His error was in premature reform. But, in the year 367 B.C., the tribunes Licinius and L. Sextius secured the passage of three memorable laws in the Curiata Tributa—the abolition of the military tribunate, which had increased the power of the patricians, and the restoration of the consulate, on the condition that one of the consuls should be a plebeian; the second, that no citizen should possess more than five hundred jugera of the public lands; and the third, that all interest thus paid on loans should be deducted from the principal. These were called the Licinian Rogations. But a new curule magistracy was created, as a sort of compensation to the patricians, that of praetors, to be held by them, exclusively. These political changes were made peaceably, and with them the old gentile aristocracy ceased to be a political institution. The remaining patrician offices were not long withheld from the plebeians. But these political changes did not much ameliorate the social condition of the poorer classes. The strictness of the Licinian laws, the oppression of the rich, the high rate of interest, and the existence of slavery, made the poor poorer, and the rich richer, and prevented the expansion of industry. The plebeians had gained political privileges, but not till great plebeian families had arisen. Power was virtually in the hands of nobles, whether patrician or plebeian, and aristocratic distinctions still remained. The plebeian noble sympathized with patricians rather than with the poorer classes. Debt, usury, and slavery began to bear fruits before the conquest of Italy.



CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE CONQUEST OF ITALY.

Hitherto, the Romans, after the expulsion of the kings, were involved in wars with their immediate neighbors, and exposed to great calamities. All they could do for one hundred and fifty years was to recover the possessions they had lost. During this period great prodigies of valor were performed, and great virtues were generated. It was the heroic period of their history, when adversity taught them patience, endurance, and public virtue.

(M814) But a new period opens, when the plebeians had obtained political power, and the immediate enemies were subdued. This was a period of conquest over the various Italian States. The period is still heroic, but historical. Great men arose, of talent and patriotism. The ambition of the Romans now prominently appears. They had been struggling for existence—they now fought for conquest. "The great achievement of the regal period was the establishment," says Mommsen, "of the sovereignty of Rome over Latium." That was shaken by the expulsion of Tarquin, but was re-established in the wars which subsequently followed. After the fall of Veii, all the Latin cities became subject to the Romans. On the overthrow of the Volscians, the Roman armies reached the Samnite territory.

(M815) The next memorable struggle of Rome was with Samnium, for the supremacy of Italy. Samnium was a hilly country on the east of the Volscians, and its people were brave and hardy. The Samnites had, at the fall of Veii, an ascendency over Lower Italy, with the exception of the Grecian colonies. Tarentum, Croton, Metapontum, Heraclea, Neapolis, and other Grecian cities, maintained a precarious independence, but were weakened by the successes of the Samnites. Capua, the capital of Campania, where the Etruscan influence predominated, was taken by them, and Cumae was wrested from the Greeks.

But in the year B.C. 343, the Samnites came in collision with Rome, from an application of Capua to Rome for assistance against them. The victories of Valerius Corvus, and Cornelius Cossus gave Campania to the Romans.

(M816) In the mean time the Latins had recovered strength, and determined to shake off the Roman yoke, and the Romans made peace with the Samnites and formed a close alliance, B.C. 341. The Romans and Samnites were ranged against the Latins and Campanians. The hostile forces came in sight of each other before Capua, and the first great battle was fought at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. It was here that Titus Manlius, the son of the consul, was beheaded by him for disobedience of orders, for the consuls issued strict injunctions against all skirmishing, and Manlius, disregarding them, slew an enemy in single combat. "The consul's cruelty was execrated, but the discipline of the army was saved."

(M817) This engagement furnishes another legend of the heroic and patriotic self-devotion of those early Romans. The consuls, before the battle, dreamed that the general on the one side should fall, and the army on the other side should be beaten. Decius, the plebeian consul, when he found his troops wavering, called the chief pontiff, and after invoking the gods to assist his cause, rushed into the thickest of the Latin armies, and was slain. The other consul, Torquatus, by a masterly use of his reserve, gained the battle. Three-fourths of the Latin army were slain. The Latin cities, after this decisive victory, lost their independence, and the Latin confederacy was dissolved, and Latin nationality was fused into one powerful State, and all Latium became Roman. Roman citizens settled on the forfeited lands of the conquered cities.

(M818) The subjugation of Latium and the progress of Rome in Campania filled the Samnites with jealousy, and it is surprising that they should have formed an alliance with Rome, when Rome was conquering Campania. They were the most considerable power in Italy, next to Rome, and to them fell the burden of maintaining the independence of the Italian States against the encroachments of the Romans.

(M819) The Greek cities of Palaeapolis and Neapolis, the only communities in Campania not yet reduced by the Romans, gave occasion to the outbreak of the inevitable war between the Samnites and Romans. The Tarentines and Samnites, informed of the intention of the Romans to seize these cities, anticipated the seizure, upon which the Romans declared war, and commenced the siege of Palaeapolis, which soon submitted, on the offer of favorable terms. An alliance of the Romans with the Lucanians, left the Samnites unsupported, except by tribes on the eastern mountain district. The Romans invaded the Samnite territories, pillaging and destroying as far as Apulia, on which the Samnites sent back the Roman prisoners and sought for peace. But peace was refused by the inexorable enemy, and the Samnites prepared for desperate resistance. They posted themselves in ambush at an important pass in the mountains, and shut up the Romans, who offered to capitulate. Instead of accepting the capitulation and making prisoners of the whole army, the Samnite general, Gaius Pontius, granted an equitable peace. But the Roman Senate, regardless of the oaths of their generals, and regardless of the six hundred equites who were left as hostages, canceled the agreement, and the war was renewed with increased exasperation on the part of the Samnites, who, however, were sufficiently magnanimous not to sacrifice the hostages they held. Rome sent a new army, under Lucius Papirius Cursor, and laid siege to Lucania, where the Roman equites lay in captivity. The city surrendered, and Papirius liberated his comrades, and retaliated on the Samnite garrison. The war continued, like all wars at that period between people of equal courage and resources, with various success—sometimes gained by one party and sometimes by another, until, in the fifteenth year of the war, the Romans established themselves in Apulia, on one sea, and Campania, on the other.

The people of Northern and Central Italy, perceiving that the Romans aimed at the complete subjugation of the whole peninsula, now turned to the assistance of the Samnites. The Etruscans joined their coalition, but were at length subdued by Papirius Cursor. The Samnites found allies in the Umbrians of Northern, and the Marsi and Pieligni of Central Italy, But these people were easily subdued, and a peace was made with Samnium, after twenty-two years' war, when Bovianum, its strongest city, was taken by storm, B.C. 298.

(M820) The defeated nations would not, however, submit to Rome without one more final struggle, and the third Samnite war was renewed the following year, for which the Samnites called to their aid the Gauls. This war lasted nine years, and was virtually closed by the great victory of Seutinum—a fiercely contested battle, where the Romans, though victorious, lost nine thousand men. Umbria submitted, the Gauls dispersed, and the Etruscans made a truce for four hundred months. The Samnites still made desperate resistance, but were finally subdued in a decisive battle, where twenty thousand were slain, and their great general, Pontius, was taken prisoner, with four thousand Samnites. This misfortune closed the war, but the Samnites were not subjected to humiliating terms. The Romans, however, sullied their victories by the execution of C. Pontius, the Samnite general, who had once spared the lives of two Roman armies, B.C. 291. Rome now became the ruling State of Italy, but there were still two great nations unsubdued—the Etruscans in the north, and the Lucanians in the south.

(M821) A new coalition arose against Rome, soon after the Samnites were subdued, composed of Etruscans, Bruttians, and Lucanians. The war began in Etruria, B.C. 283, and continued with alternate successes, until the decisive victory at the Vadimonian Lake, gained by G. Domitius Calvinus, destroyed forever the power of the Etruscans. The attention of Rome was now given to Tarentum, a Greek city, at the bottom of the gulf of that name, adjacent to the fertile plain of Lucania. This city, which was pre-eminent among the States of Magna Grecia, had grown rich by commerce, and was sufficiently powerful to defend herself against the Etruscans and the Syracusans. It was a Dorian colony, but had abandoned the Lacedaemonian simplicity, and was given over to pleasure and luxury; but, luxurious as it was, it was the only obstacle to the supremacy of Rome over Italy.

(M822) This thoughtless and enervated, but great city, ruled by demagogues, had insulted Rome—burning and destroying some of her ships. It was a reckless insult which Rome could not forget, prompted by fear as well as hatred. When the Samnite war closed, the Tarentines, fearing the vengeance of the most powerful State in Italy, sent to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a soldier of fortune, for aid. They offered the supreme command of their forces, with the right to keep a garrison in their city, till the independence of Italy was secured.

(M823) Pyrrhus, who was compared with Alexander of Macedon, aspired to found an Hellenic empire in the West, as Alexander did in the East, and responded to the call of the Tarentines. Rome was not now to contend with barbarians, but with Hellenes—with phalanxes and cohorts instead of a militia—with a military monarchy and sustained by military science. He landed, B.C. 281, on the Italian shores, with an army of twenty thousand veterans in phalanx, two thousand archers, three thousand cavalry, and twenty elephants. The Tarentine allies promised three hundred and fifty thousand infantry and twenty thousand cavalry to support him. The Romans strained every nerve to meet him before these forces could be collected and organized. They marched with a force of fifty thousand men, larger than a consular army, under Laevinius and AEmilius. They met the enemy on the plain of Heraclea. Seven times did the legion and phalanx drive one or the other back. But the reserves of Pyrrhus, with his elephants, to which the Romans were unaccustomed, decided the battle. Seven thousand Romans were left dead on the field, and an immense number were wounded or taken prisoners. But the battle cost Pyrrhus four thousand of his veterans, which led him to say that another such victory would be his ruin. The Romans retreated into Apulia, but the whole south of Italy, Lucania, Samnium, the Bruttii, and the Greek cities were the prizes which the conqueror won.

(M824) Pyrrhus then offered peace, since he only aimed to establish a Greek power in Southern Italy. The Senate was disposed to accept it, but the old and blind Appius Claudius was carried in his litter through the crowded forum—as Chatham, in after times, bowed with infirmities and age, was carried to the parliament—and in a vehement speech denounced the peace, and infused a new spirit into the Senate. The Romans refused to treat with a foreign enemy on the soil of Italy. The ambassador of Pyrrhus, the orator Cineas, returned to tell the conqueror that to fight the Romans was to fight a hydra—that their city was a temple, and their senators were kings.

(M825) Two new legions were forthwith raised to re-enforce Laevinius, while Pyrrhus marched direct to Rome. But when he arrived within eighteen miles, he found an enemy in his front, while Laevinius harassed his rear. He was obliged to retreat, and retired to Tarentum with an immense booty. The next year he opened the campaign in Apulia; but he found an enemy of seventy thousand infantry and eight thousand horse—a force equal to his own. The first battle was lost by the Romans, who could not penetrate the Grecian phalanx, and were trodden down by the elephants. But he could not prosecute his victory, his troops melted away, and he again retired to Tarentum for winter quarters.

(M826) Like a military adventurer, he then, for two years, turned his forces against the Carthaginians, and relieved Syracuse. But he did not avail himself of his victories, being led by a generous nature into political mistakes. He then returned to Italy to renew his warfare with the Romans. The battle of Beneventum, gained by Carius, the Roman general, decided the fate of Pyrrhus. The flower of his Epirot troops was destroyed, and his camp fell, with all its riches, into the hands of the Romans. The king of Epirus retired to his own country, and was assassinated by a woman at Argos, after he had wrested the crown of Macedonia from Antigonus, B.C. 272. He had left, however, to garrison, under Milo, at Tarentum. The city fell into the hands of the Romans the year that Pyrrhus died.

(M827) With the fall of Tarentum, the conquest of Italy was complete. The Romans found no longer any enemies to resist them on the peninsula. A great State was organized for the future subjection of the world. The conquest of Italy greatly enriched the Romans. Both rich and poor became possessed of large grants of land from the conquered territories. The conquered cities were incorporated with the Roman State, and their inhabitants became Roman citizens or allies. The growth of great plebeian families re-enforced the aristocracy, which was based on wealth. Italy became Latinized, and Rome was now acknowledged as one of the great powers of the world.

(M828) The great man at Rome during the period of the Samnite wars was Appius Claudius—great grandson of the decemvir, and the proudest aristocrat that had yet appeared. He enjoyed all the great offices of State. To him we date many improvements in the city, also the highway which bears his name. He was the patron of art, of eloquence, and poetry. But, at this period, all individual greatness was lost in the State.



CHAPTER XXIX.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

A contest greater than with Pyrrhus and the Greek cities, more memorable in its incidents, and more important in its consequences, now awaited the Romans. This was with Carthage, the greatest power, next to Rome, in the world at that time—a commercial State which had been gradually aggrandized for three hundred years. It was a rich and powerful city at the close of the Persian wars. It had succeeded Tyre as the mistress of the sea.

(M829) We have seen, in the second book, how the Carthaginians were involved in wars with Syracuse, when that city had reached the acme of its power under Dionysius. We have also alluded to the early history and power of Carthage. At the time Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, it contained nearly a million of people, and controlled the northern coast of Africa, and the western part of the Mediterranean. Carthage was strictly a naval power, although her colonies were numerous, and her dependencies large. The land forces were not proportionate to the naval; but large armies were necessary to protect her dependencies in the constant wars in which she was engaged. These armies were chiefly mercenaries, and their main strength consisted in light cavalry.

(M830) The territories of Carthage lay chiefly in the islands which were protected by her navy and enriched by her commerce. Among these insular possessions, Sardinia was the largest and most important, and was the commercial depot of Southern Europe. A part of Sicily, also, as we have seen (Book ii., chap. 24), was colonized and held by her, and she aimed at the sovereignty of the whole island. Hence the various wars with Syracuse. The Carthaginians and Greeks were the rivals for the sovereignty of this fruitful island, the centre of the oil and wine trade, the store-house for all sorts of cereals. Had Carthage possessed the whole of Sicily, her fleets would have controlled the Mediterranean.

(M831) The embroilment of Carthage with the Grecian States on this island was the occasion of the first rupture with Rome. Messina, the seat of the pirate republic of the Mamertines, was in close alliance with Rhegium, a city which had grown into importance during the war with Pyrrhus. Rhegium, situated on the Italian side of the strait, solicited the protection of Rome, and a body of Campanian troops was sent to its assistance. These troops expelled or massacred the citizens for whose protection they had been sent, and established a tumultuary government. On the fall of Tarentum, the Romans sought to punish this outrage, and also to embrace the opportunity to possess a town which would facilitate a passage to Sicily, for Sicily as truly belonged to Italy as the Peloponnesus to Greece, being separated only by a narrow strait. A Roman army was accordingly sent to take possession of Rhegium, but the defenders made a desperate resistance. It was finally taken by storm, and the original citizens obtained repossession, as dependents and allies of Rome. The fall of Rhegium robbed the pirate city of Messina of the only ally on which it could count, and subjected it to the vengeance of both the Carthaginians and the Syracusans. The latter were then under the sway of Hiero, who, for fifty years, had reigned without despotism, and had quietly developed both the resources and the freedom of the city. He collected an army of citizens, devoted to him, who expelled the Mamertines from many of their towns, and gained a decisive victory over them, not far from Messina.

(M832) The Mamertines, in danger of subjection by the Syracusans, then looked for foreign aid. One party looked to Carthage, and another to Rome. The Carthaginian party prevailed on the Mamertines to receive a Punic garrison. The Romans, seeking a pretext for a war with Carthage, sent an army ostensibly to protect Messina against Hiero. But the strait which afforded a passage to Sicily was barred by a Carthaginian fleet. The Romans, unaccustomed to the sea, were defeated. Not discouraged, however, they finally succeeded in landing at Messina, and although Carthage and Rome were at peace, seized Hanno, the Carthaginian general, who had the weakness to command the evacuation of the citadel as a ransom for his person.

(M833) On this violation of international law, Hiero, who feared the Romans more than the Carthaginians, made an alliance with Carthage, and the combined forces of Syracuse and Carthage marched to the liberation of Messina. The Romans, under Appius, the consul, then made overtures of peace to the Carthaginians, and bent their energies against Hiero. But Hiero, suspecting the Carthaginians of treachery, for their whole course with the Syracusans for centuries had been treacherous, retired to Syracuse. Upon which the Romans attacked the Carthaginians singly, and routed them, and spread devastation over the whole island.

This was the commencement of the first Punic war, in which the Romans were plainly the aggressors. Two consular armies now threatened Syracuse, when Hiero sought peace, which was accepted on condition of provisioning the Roman armies, and paying one hundred talents to liberate prisoners.

The first Punic war began B.C. 264, and lasted twenty-four years. Before we present the leading events of that memorable struggle, let us glance at the power of Carthage—the formidable rival of Rome.

(M834) As has been narrated, Carthage was founded upon a peninsula, or rocky promontory, sixty-five years before the foundation of Rome. The inhabitants of Carthage, descendants of Phoenicians, were therefore of Semitic origin. The African farmer was a Canaanite, and all the Canaanites lacked the instinct of political life. The Phoenicians thought of commerce and wealth, and not political aggrandizement. With half their power, the Hellenic cities achieved their independence. Carthage was a colony of Phoenicians, and had their ideas. It lived to traffic and get rich. It was washed on all sides, except the west, by the sea, and above the city, on the western heights, was the citadel Byrsa, called so from the word βύρσα, a hide, according to the legend that Dido, when she came to Africa, bought of the inhabitants as much land as could be encompassed by a bull's hide, which she cut into thongs, and inclosed the territory on which she built the citadel. The city grew to be twenty-three miles in circuit, and contained seven hundred thousand people. It had two harbors, an outer and inner, the latter being surrounded by a lofty wall. A triple wall was erected across the peninsula, to protect it from the west, three miles long, and between the walls were stables for three hundred elephants, four thousand horses, and barracks for two thousand infantry, with magazines and stores. In the centre of the inner harbor was an island, called Cothon, the shores of which were lined with quays and docks for two hundred and twenty ships. The citadel, Byrsa, was two miles in circuit, and when it finally surrendered to the Romans, fifty thousand people marched out of it. On its summit was the famous temple of AEsculapius. At the northwestern angle of the city were twenty immense reservoirs, each four hundred feet by twenty-eight, filled with water, brought by an aqueduct at a distance of fifty-two miles. The suburb Megara, beyond the city walls, but within those that defended the peninsula, was the site of magnificent gardens and villas, which were adorned with every kind of Grecian art, for the Carthaginians were rich before Rome had conquered even Latium. This great city controlled the other Phoenician cities, part of Sicily, Numidia, Mauritania, Lybia—in short, the northern part of Africa, and colonies in Spain and the islands of the western part of the Mediterranean. The city alone could furnish in an exigency forty thousand heavy infantry, one thousand cavalry, and twenty thousand war chariots. The garrison of the city amounted to twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse, and the total force which the city could command was more than one hundred thousand men. The navy was the largest in the world, for, in the sea-fight with Regulus, it numbered three hundred and fifty ships, carrying one hundred and fifty thousand men.

Such was this great power against which the Romans were resolved to contend. It would seem that Carthage was willing that Rome should have the sovereignty of Italy, provided it had itself the possession of Sicily. But this was what the Romans were determined to prevent. The object of contention, then, between these two rivals, the one all-powerful by land and the other by sea, was the possession of Sicily.

(M835) During the first three years of the war, the Romans made themselves masters of all the island, except the maritime fortresses at its western extremity, Eryx and Panormus. Meanwhile the Carthaginians ravaged the coasts of Italy, and destroyed its commerce. The Romans then saw that Sicily could not be held without a navy as powerful as that of their rivals, and it was resolved to build at once one hundred and twenty ships. A Carthaginian quinquereme, wrecked on the Bruttian shore, furnished the model, the forests of Silo the timber, and the maritime cities of Italy and Greece, the sailors. In sixty days a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships was built and ready for sea. The superior seamanship of the Carthaginians was neutralized by converting the decks into a battle-field for soldiers. Each ship was provided with a long boarding-bridge, hinged up against the mast, to be let down on the prow, and fixed to the hostile deck by a long spike, which projected from its end. The bridge was wide enough for two soldiers to pass abreast, and its sides were protected by bulwarks.

(M836) The first encounter of the Romans with the Carthaginians resulted in the capture of the whole force, a squadron of seventeen ships. The second encounter ended in the capture of more ships than the Roman admiral, Cn. Scipio, had lost. The next battle, that of Mylae, in which the whole Roman fleet was engaged, again turned in favor of the Romans, whose bad seamanship provoked the contempt of their foes, and led to self-confidence. The battle was gained by grappling the enemy's ships one by one. The Carthaginians lost fourteen ships, and only saved the rest by inglorious flight.

(M837) For six years no decided victories were won by either side, but in the year B.C. 256, nine years from the commencement of hostilities, M. Atilius Regulus, a noble of the same class and habits as Cincinnatus and Fabricius, with a fleet of three hundred and thirty ships, manned by one hundred thousand sailors, encountered the Carthaginian fleet of three hundred and fifty ships on the southern coast of Sicily, and gained a memorable victory. It was gained on the same principle as Epaminondas and Alexander won their battles, by concentrating all the forces upon a single point, and breaking the line. The Romans advanced in the shape of a wedge, with the two consuls' ships at the apex. The Carthaginian admirals allowed the centre to give way before the advancing squadron. The right wing made a circuit out in the open sea, and took the Roman reserve in the rear, while the left wing attacked the vessels that were towing the horse transports, and forced them to the shore. But the Carthaginian centre, being thus left weak, was no match for the best ships of the Romans, and the consuls, victorious in the centre, turned to the relief of the two rear divisions. The Carthaginians lost sixty-four ships, which were taken, besides twenty-four which were sunk, and retreated with the remainder to the Gulf of Carthage, to defend the shores against the anticipated attack.

(M838) The Romans, however, made for another point, and landed in the harbor of Aspis, intrenched a camp to protect their ships, and ravaged the country. Twenty thousand captives were sent to Rome and sold as slaves, besides an immense booty—a number equal to a fifth part of the free population of the city. A footing in Africa was thus made, and so secure were the Romans, that a large part of the army was recalled, leaving Regulus with only forty ships, fifteen thousand infantry, and five hundred cavalry. Yet with this small army he defeated the Carthaginians, and became master of the country to within ten miles of Carthage. The Carthaginians, shut up in the city, sued for peace; but it was granted only on condition of the cession of Sicily and Sardinia, the surrender of the fleet, and the reduction of Carthage to the condition of a dependent city. Such a proposal was rejected, and despair gave courage to the defeated Carthaginians.

(M839) They made one grand effort while Regulus lay inactive in winter quarters. The return of Hamilcar from Sicily with veteran troops, which furnished a nucleus for a new army, inspired the Carthaginians with hope, and assisted by a Lacedaemonian general, Xanthippus, with a band of Greek mercenaries, the Carthaginians marched unexpectedly upon Regulus, and so signally defeated him at Tunis, that only two thousand Romans escaped. Regulus, with five hundred of the legionary force, was taken captive and carried to Carthage.

(M840) The Carthaginians now assumed the offensive, and Sicily became the battle-field. Hasdrubal, son of Hanno, landed on the island with one hundred and forty elephants, while the Roman fleet of three hundred ships suffered a great disaster off the Lucanian promontory. A storm arose, which wrecked one hundred and fifty ships—a disaster equal to the one which it suffered two years before, when two-thirds of the large fleet which was sent to relieve the two thousand troops at Clupea was destroyed by a similar storm. In spite of these calamities, the Romans took Panormus and Thermae, and gained a victory under the walls of the former city which cost the Carthaginians twenty thousand men and the capture of one hundred and twenty elephants. This success, gained by Metellus, was the greatest yet obtained in Sicily, and the victorious general adorned his triumph with thirteen captured generals and one hundred and four elephants.

(M841) The two maritime fortresses which still held out at the west of the island, Drepanum and Lilybaeum, were now invested, and the Carthaginians, shut up in these fortresses, sent an embassy to Rome to ask an exchange of prisoners, and sue for peace. Regulus, now five years a prisoner, was allowed to accompany the embassy, on his promise to return if the mission was unsuccessful. As his condition was now that of a Carthaginian slave, he was reluctant to enter the city, and still more the Senate, of which he was no longer a member. But when this reluctance was overcome, he denounced both the peace and the exchange of prisoners. The Romans wished to retain this noble patriot, but he was true to his oath, and returned voluntarily to Carthage, after having defeated the object of the ambassadors, knowing that a cruel death awaited him. The Carthaginians, indignant and filled with revenge, it is said, exposed the hero to a burning sun, with his eyelids cut off, and rolled him in a barrel lined with iron spikes.

(M842) The embassy having thus failed, the attack on the fortresses, which alone linked Africa with Sicily, was renewed. The siege of Lilybaeum lasted till the end of the war, which, from the mutual exhaustion of the parties, now languished for six years. The Romans had lost four great fleets, three of which had arms on board, and the census of the city, in the seventeenth year, showed a decrease of forty thousand citizens. During this interval of stagnation, when petty warfare alone existed, Hamilcar Burca was appointed general of Carthage, and in the same year his son Hannibal was born, B.C. 247.

(M843) The Romans, disgusted with the apathy of the government, fitted out a fleet of privateers of two hundred ships, manned by sixty thousand sailors, and this fleet gained a victory over the Carthaginians, unprepared for such a force, so that fifty ships were sunk, and seventy more were carried by the victors into port. This victory gave Sicily to the Romans, and ended the war. The Roman prisoners were surrendered by Hamilcar, who had full powers for peace, and Carthage engaged to pay three thousand two hundred talents for the expenses of the war.

(M844) The Romans were gainers by this war. They acquired the richest island in the world, fertile in all the fruits of the earth, with splendid harbors, cities, and a great accumulation of wealth. The long war of twenty-four years, nearly a whole generation, was not conducted on such a scale as essentially to impoverish the contending parties. There were no debts contracted for future generations to pay. It was the most absorbing object of public interest, indeed; but many other events and subjects must also have occupied the Roman mind. It was a foreign war, the first that Rome had waged. It was a war of ambition, the commencement of those unscrupulous and aggressive measures that finally resulted in the political annihilation of all the other great powers of the world.

But this war, compared with those foreign wars which Rome subsequently conducted, was carried on without science and skill. It was carried on in the transition period of Roman warfare, when tactics were more highly prized than strategy. It was by a militia, and agricultural generals, and tactics, and personal bravery, that the various Italian nations were subdued, when war had not ripened into a science, such as was conducted even by the Greeks. There was no skill or experience in the conduct of sieges. The navy was managed by Greek mercenaries.

(M845) The great improvement in the science of war which this first contest with a foreign power led to, was the creation of a navy, and the necessity of employing veteran troops, led by experienced generals. A deliberative assembly, like the Senate, it was found could not conduct a foreign war. It was left to generals, who were to learn marches and countermarches, sieges, and a strategical system. The withdrawal of half the army of Regulus by the Senate proved nearly fatal. Carthage could not be subdued by that rustic warfare which had sufficed for the conquest of Etruria or Samnium. The new system of war demanded generals who had military training and a military eye, and not citizen admirals. The final success was owing to the errors of the Carthaginians rather than military science.



CHAPTER XXX.

THE SECOND PUNIC OR HANNIBALIC WAR.

The peace between the Carthaginians and Romans was a mere truce. Though it lasted twenty-one years, new sources of quarrel were accumulating, and forces were being prepared for a more decisive encounter.

Before we trace the progress of this still more memorable war, let us glance at the events which transpired in the interval between it and the first contest.

(M846) That interval is memorable for the military career of Hamilcar, and his great ascendency at Carthage. That city paid dearly for the peace it had secured, for the tribute of Sicily flowed into the treasury of the Romans. Its commercial policy was broken up, and the commerce of Italy flowed in new channels. This change was bitterly felt by the Phoenician city, and a party was soon organized for the further prosecution of hostilities. There was also a strong peace party, made up of the indolent and cowardly money-worshipers of that mercantile State. The war party was headed by Hamilcar, the peace party by Hanno, which at first had the ascendency. It drove the army into mutiny by haggling about pay. The Libyan mercenaries joined the revolt, and Carthage found herself alone in the midst of anarchies. In this emergency the government solicited Hamilcar to save it from the effect of its blunders and selfishness.

(M847) This government, as at Rome, was oligarchic, but the nobles were merely mercantile grandees, without ability—jealous, exclusive, and selfish. The great body of the people whom they ruled were poor and dependent. In intrusting power to Hamilcar, the government of wealthy citizens only gave him military control. The army which he commanded was not a citizen militia, it was made up of mercenaries. Hamilcar was obliged to construct a force from these, to whom the State looked for its salvation.

He was a young man, a little over thirty, and foreboding that he would not live to complete his plans, enjoined his son Hannibal, nine years of age, when he was about to leave Carthage, to swear at the altar of the Eternal God hatred of the Roman name.

(M848) He left Carthage for Spain, taking with him his sons, to be reared in the camp. He marched along the coast, accompanied by the fleet, which was commanded by Hasdrubal. He crossed the sea at the Pillars of Hercules, with the view of organizing a Spanish kingdom to assist the Carthaginians in their future warfare. But he died prematurely, B.C. 229, leaving his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, to carry out his designs, and the southern and eastern provinces of Spain became Carthaginian provinces. Carthagena arose as the capital of this new Spanish kingdom, in the territory of the Contestana. Here agriculture flourished, and still more, mining, from the silver mines, which produced, a century afterward, thirty-six millions of sesterces—nearly two million dollars—yearly. Carthage thus acquired in Spain a market for its commerce and manufactures, and the New Carthage ruled as far as the Ebro. But the greatest advantage of this new acquisition to Carthage was the new class of mercenary soldiers which were incorporated with the army. At first, the Romans were not alarmed by the rise of this new Spanish power, and saw only a compensation for the tribute and traffic which Carthage had lost in Sicily. And while the Carthaginians were creating armies in Spain, the Romans were engaged in conquering Cisalpine Gaul, and consolidating the Italian conquests.

(M849) Hasdrubal was assassinated after eight years of successful administration, and Hannibal was hailed as his successor by the army, and the choice was confirmed by the Carthaginians, B.C. 221. He was now twenty-nine, trained to all the fatigue and dangers of the camp, and with a native genius for war, which made him, according to the estimation of modern critics, the greatest general of antiquity. He combined courage with discretion, and prudence with energy. He had an inventive craftiness, which led him to take unexpected routes. He profoundly studied the character of antagonists, and kept himself informed of the projects of his enemies. He had his spies at Rome, and was frequently seen in disguises in order to get important information.

(M850) This crafty and able general resolved, on his nomination, to make war at once upon the Romans, whom he regarded as the deadly foe of his country. His first great exploit was the reduction of Saguntum, an Iberian city on the coast, in alliance with the Romans. It defended itself with desperate energy for eight months, and its siege is memorable. The inhabitants were treated with savage cruelty, and the spoil was sent to Carthage.

(M851) This act of Hannibal was the occasion, though not the cause, of the second Punic war. The Romans, indignant, demanded of Carthage the surrender of the general who had broken the peace. On the fall of Saguntum, Hannibal retired to Carthagena for winter quarters, and to make preparations for the invasion of Italy. He collected an army of one hundred and twenty thousand infantry, sixteen thousand cavalry, and fifty-eight elephants, assisted by a naval force. But the whole of this great army was not designed for the Italian expedition. A part of it was sent for the protection of Carthage, and a part was reserved for the protection of Spain, the government of which he intrusted to his brother Hasdrubal.

(M852) The nations of the earth, two thousand years ago, would scarcely appreciate the magnitude of the events which were to follow from the invasion of Italy, and the war which followed—perhaps "the most memorable of all the wars ever waged," certainly one of the most memorable in human annals. The question at issue was, whether the world was to be governed by a commercial oligarchy, with all the superstitions of the East, or by the laws of a free and patriotic State. It was a war waged between the genius of a mighty general and the resources of the Roman people, for Hannibal did not look for aid so much to his own State, as to those hardy Spaniards who followed his standard.

(M853) In the spring, B.C. 218, Hannibal set out from New Carthage with an army of ninety thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry. He encountered at the Ebro the first serious resistance, but this was from the natives, and not the Romans. It took four months to surmount their resistance, during which he lost one-fourth of his army. As it was his great object to gain time before the Romans could occupy the passes of the Alps, he made this sacrifice of his men. When he readied the Pyrenees, he sent home a part of his army, and crossed those mountains with only fifty thousand infantry and nine thousand cavalry; but these were veteran troops. He took the coast route by Narbonne and Nimes, through the Celtic territory, and encountered no serious resistance till he reached the Rhone, opposite to Avignon, about the end of July. The passage was disputed by Scipio, assisted by friendly Gauls, but Hannibal outflanked his enemies by sending a detachment across the river, on rafts, two days' march higher up, and thus easily forced the passage, and was three days' march beyond the river before Scipio was aware that he had crossed. Scipio then sailed back to Pisa, and aided his colleague to meet the invader in Cisalpine Gaul.

(M854) Hannibal, now on Celtic territory on the Roman side of the Rhone, could not be prevented from reaching the Alps. Two passes then led from the lower Rhone across the Alps—the one by the Cottian Alps (Mount Geneva); and the other, the higher pass of the Grain Alps (Mount St. Bernard), and this was selected by Hannibal. The task of transporting a large army over even this easier pass was a work of great difficulty, with baggage, cavalry, and elephants, when the autumn snows were falling, resisted by the mountaineers, against whom they had to fight to the very summit of the pass. The descent, though free from enemies, was still more dangerous, and it required, at one place, three days' labor to make the road practicable for the elephants. The army arrived, the middle of September, in the plain of Ivrea, where his exhausted troops were quartered in friendly villages. Had the Romans met him near Turin with only thirty thousand men, and at once forced a battle, the prospects of Hannibal would have been doubtful. But no army appeared; the object was attained, but with the loss of half his troops, and the rest so demoralized by fatigue, that a long rest was required.

(M855) The great talents by which Scipio atoned for his previous errors now extricated his army from destruction. He retreated across the Ticinio and the Po, refusing a pitched battle on the plains, and fell back upon a strong position on the hills. The united consular armies, forty thousand men, were so posted as to compel Hannibal to attack in front with inferior force, or go into winter quarters, trusting to the doubtful fidelity of the Gauls.

(M856) It has been well said, "that it was the misfortune of Rome's double magistracy when both consuls were present on the field." Owing to a wound which Scipio had received, the command devolved upon Sempronius, who, eager for distinction, could not resist the provocations of Hannibal to bring on a battle. In one of the skirmishes the Roman cavalry and light infantry were enticed by the flying Numidians across a swollen stream, and suddenly found themselves before the entire Punic army. The whole Roman force hurried across the stream to support the vanguard. A battle took place on the Trasimene Lake, in which the Romans were sorely beaten, but ten thousand infantry cut their way through the masses of the enemy, and reached the fortress of Placentia, where they were joined by other bands. After this success, which gave Hannibal all of Northern Italy, his army, suffering from fatigue and disease, retired into winter quarters. He now had lost all his elephants but one. The remains of the Roman army passed the winter in the fortresses of Placentia and Cremona.

(M857) The next spring, the Romans, under Flaminius, took the field, with four legions, to command the great northern and eastern roads, and the passes of the Appenines. But Hannibal, knowing that Rome was only vulnerable at the heart, rapidly changed his base, crossed the Appenines at an undefended pass, and advanced, by the lower Arno, into Etruria, while Flaminius was watching by the upper course of that stream. Flaminius was a mere party leader and demagogue, and was not the man for such a crisis, for Hannibal was allowed to pass by him, and reach Faesulae unobstructed. The Romans prepared themselves for the worst, broke down the bridges over the Tiber, and nominated Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator.

(M858) Pyrrhus would have marched direct upon Rome, but Hannibal was more far-sighted. His army needed a new organization, and rest, and recruits, so he marched unexpectedly through Umbria, devastated the country, and halted on the shores of the Adriatic. Here he rested, reorganized his Libyan cavalry, and resumed his communication with Carthage. He then broke up his camp, and marched into Southern Italy, hoping to break up the confederacy. But not a single Italian town entered into alliance with the Carthaginians.

(M859) Fabius, the dictator, a man of great prudence, advanced in years, and a tactitian of the old Roman school, determined to avoid a pitched battle, and starve or weary out his enemy. Hannibal adjusted his plans in accordance with the character of the man he opposed. So he passed the Roman army, crossed the Appenines, took Telesia, and turned against Capua, the most important of all the Italian dependent cities, hoping for a revolt among the Campanian towns. Here again he was disappointed. So, retracing his steps, he took the road to Apulia, the dictator following him along the heights. So the summer was consumed by marchings and counter-marchings, the lands of the Hispanians, Campamans, Samnites, Paelignians, and other provinces, being successively devastated. But no important battle was fought. He selected then the rich lands of Apulia for winter quarters, and intrenched his camp at Gerenium. The Romans formed a camp in the territory of the Larinates, and harassed the enemy's foragers. This defensive policy of Fabius wounded the Roman pride, and the dictator became unpopular. The Senate resolved to depart from a policy which was slowly but surely ruining the State, and an army was equipped larger than Rome ever before sent into the field, composed of eight legions, under the command of the two consuls, L. AEmilius Paulus, and M. Terentius Varro. The former, a patrician, had conducted successfully the Illyrian war; the latter, the popular candidate, incapable, conceited, and presumptuous.

(M860) As soon as the season allowed him to leave his winter-quarters, Hannibal, assuming the offensive, marched out of Gerenium, passed Luceria, crossed the Aufidus, and took the citadel of Cannae, which commanded the plain of Canusium. The Roman consuls arrived in Apulia in the beginning of the summer, with eighty thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry. Hannibal's force was forty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry, inured to regular warfare. The Romans made up their minds to fight, and confronted the Carthaginians on the right bank of the Aufidus. According to a foolish custom, the command devolved on one of the consuls every other day, and Varro determined to avail himself of the first opportunity for a battle. The forces met on the plain west of Cannae, more favorable to the Carthaginians than the Romans, on account of the superiority of the cavalry. It is difficult, without a long description, to give clear conceptions of this famous battle. Hannibal, it would seem, like Epaminondas and Alexander, brought to bear his heavy cavalry, under Hasdrubal, upon the weakest point of the enemy, after the conflict had continued awhile without decisive results. The weaker right of the Roman army, led by Paulus, after bravely fighting, were cut down and driven across the river. Paulus, wounded, then rode to the centre, composed of infantry in close lines, which had gained an advantage over the Spanish and Gaulish troops that encountered them. In order to follow up this advantage, the legions pressed forward in the form of a wedge. In this position the Libyan infantry, wheeling upon them right and left, warmly assailed both sides of the Roman infantry, which checked its advance. By this double flank attack the Roman infantry became crowded, and were not free. Meanwhile, Hasdrubal, after defeating the right wing, which had been led by Paulus, led his cavalry behind the Roman centre and attacked the left wing, led by Varro. The cavalry of Varro, opposed by the Numidian cavalry, was in no condition to meet this double attack, and was scattered. Hasdrubal again rallied his cavalry, and led it to the rear of the Roman centre, already in close fight with the Spanish and Gaulish infantry. This last charge decided the battle. Flight was impossible, for the river was in the rear, and in front was a victorious enemy. No quarter was given. Seventy thousand Romans were slain, including the consul Paulus and eighty men of senatorial rank. Varro was saved by the speed of his horse. The Carthaginians lost not quite six thousand.