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league with the Romans. In the meantime the Etolians, displeased by the policy which the Romans were pursuing, invited Antiochus, into Europe; and that monarch, passing over into Greece, made himself master of the island of Eubœ'a (B. c. 191). War was instantly declared; the consul, Acil'ius Glábrio, appeared in Greece with a powerful army; he gained a signal victory over the Syrians at the straits of Thermop'ylæ, and reduced the Etolians to such great extremities, that they were forced to beg a peace; but the senate demanded such harsh conditions, that they resolved to endure the hazards of war a little longer (B. c. 190).

In the following year, the senate intrusted the conduct of the war to Lúcius Scip'io, under whom his brother Africánus served as a lieutenant. Having soon tranquillized Greece, the two brothers passed into Asia: after many minor successors, they forced Antiochus to a general battle near the city of Magnésia, in which that monarch was completely overthrown (B. c. 189). He was forced to purchase peace by resigning all his possessions in Europe, and those in Asia north of Mount Taurus; paying a fine of fifteen thousand Eubœan talents (about three millions sterling); and promising to give up Han'nibal. That illustrious exile fled for refuge to Prúsias, king of Bith'ynia; but finding that he was still pursued by the vindictive hatred of the Romans, he put an end to his life by taking poison, which in anticipation of such an extremity, he always carried with him concealed in a ring.

On their return home, the Scip'ios were accused of having taken bribes from Antiochus and embezzling the public money (B. c. 186). Africanus refused to plead, preferring to go into voluntary exile at Liter'num, where he died. Lúcius was condemned; and on his refusal to pay the fine imposed, all his property was confiscated. About the same time Rome exhibited the first example of religious persecution: a sect called the Bacchanalians, having been accused of the most monstrous crimes, several laws were enacted for its extirpation; but it is scarcely possible to discover how far the charges against this unfortunate society were supported by evidence.

The mastery assumed by the Romans in Greece gave great and just offence to the principal states; but their yoke was felt by none so grievously as Per'ses, king of Macedon, who opened for himself a way to the throne by procuring the judicial murder of his brother Demétrius. Mutual complaints and recriminations soon led to open war (B. c. 170). Per'ses having collected his forces, entered Thessaly, captured several important towns, defeated a Roman army on the river Péneus, and was joined by the greater part of the Epirote nation. His successes continued until the Romans intrusted the conduct of the war to Æmilius Paul'lus, son of the general that had fallen in the battle of Can'næ, though he was past the age at which they usually sent out commanders. While the new general advanced against Macedon, the prætor Ancius invaded Illyricum, whose monarch had entered into alliance with Per'ses, and subdued the entire kingdom in the short space of thirty days. Per'ses being hard pressed, resolved to hazard a battle near the walls of Pyd'na (B. c. 167). After both armies had remained for some days in sight of each other, an accident brought on an engagement contrary to the wishes of the leaders; it ended in a complete victory of the Ro

mans. Per'ses fled to Samothrace, but was soon forced to surrender, and was reserved to grace the triumph of the conqueror. Macedon, Epírus, and Illyricum, were reduced to the condition of provinces, and it became evident that the independence of the remaining Grecian states would not long be respected. The triumph of Æmilius Paul'lus was the most splendid which had been yet exhibited in Rome, and it became the precedent for the subsequent processions of victorious generals.

The destruction of the Macedonian monarchy was soon followed by that of the miserable remains of the once proud republic of Carthage. To this war the Romans were stimulated by the rigid Cáto, surnamed the Censor, who was animated by his envy of Scip'io Nasíca, on account of his great influence in the senate, and by a haughty spirit of revenge for some slights which he imagined he had received from the Carthaginians when sent as ambassador to their state. The pretext for the war was some quarrels between the Carthaginians and the Numidians, in which, however, the former only acted upon the defensive. At first, the Carthaginians attempted to disarm their enemies by submission; they banished all who had incurred the displeasure of the Romans, and surrendered their arms and military stores to the consuls; but when informed that they must abandon their city and consent to its demolition, they took courage from despair, and set their insulting foes at defiance (B. c. 168). They made the most vigorous exertions to supply the place of the weapons they had surrendered: men of every rank and station toiled night and day in the forges; the women cut off their long hair, hitherto the great source of their pride, to furnish strings for the bows of the archers, and engines of the slingers; and the banished As'drubal was recalled to the defence of his country.

From this unexpected display of courage and patriotism, the Romans found Carthage not quite so easy a conquest as they had anticipated : during the first two years of the war they suffered repeated disappointments; but at length they intrusted the command of their armies to Scip'io Emiliánus, the adopted son of the great Africánus (B. c. 147). On his arrival in Africa Scip'io's first care was to restore the discipline of the soldiers, who had been allowed by their former commanders to indulge in dangerous licentiousness. His strictness and moderation won him the friendship of the African nations, and enabled him in his second campaign (B. c. 146) to press vigorously the siege of Carthage. After a severe struggle, the Romans forced an entrance into the city on the side of Cóthon, or the port, and made themselves masters of the great wall. Thence Scip'io, with a large body of soldiers, cut his way to the principal square of the city, where he bivouacked all the following night. On the next morning the fight was renewed, and the whole city, except the citadel and the temple of Æsculápius, taken: six days were spent in preparation for the siege of these strongholds; but, on the seventh, the garrison in the citadel surrendered at discretion; and the deserters in the temple of Esculapius, setting fire to that building, perished in the flames.

Scanty as are our limits, two incidents connected with the destruction of this ancient commercial metropolis, so long the rival of Rome for supremacy in the western world, must not be omitted. When Scip'io

beheld Carthage in flames, his soul was softened by reflections on the instability of fortune, and he could not avoid anticipating a time when Rome herself should experience the same calamities as those which had befallen her unfortunate competitor. He vented his feelings, by quoting from Homer, the well-known lines in which Hector predicts the fall of Troy :—

"Yet come it will, the day decreed by fates;

(How my heart trembles, while my tongue relates!)
The day when thou, imperial Troy, must bend,
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end."

The second incident is still more tragic: As'drubal, the first mover of the war, had fled with the deserters, accompanied by his wife and children, to the temple of Esculapius, but went over to the Romans a little before the destruction of that edifice. While the fire was kindling, the wife of As'drubal, having decked herself in the best manner she could, appeared with her two children on the top of the temple, whence, calling out to Scip'io, she begged him to punish her husband according to his deserts, that traitor to his God, his country, and his family. Then directing her speech to As'drubal-" Thou wicked, perfidious wretch," she exclaimed, "thou most cowardly of men! This fire will quickly consume me and my children: but thou, once ruler of mighty Carthage, what a triumph shalt thou adorn! And what punishment wilt thou not suffer from him at whose feet thou art sitting!" This said, she cut the throats of her children, threw their bodies into the burning building, and sprung after them into the very centre of the flames.

During the third Punic war, the disturbances excited in Macedonia by an impostor, Andris'cus, who pretended to be the son of Philip, kindled a new war, which proved fatal to the independence of Greece. The Achæans stimulated by some factious leaders, took up arms but were subdued the very same year that Carthage was destroyed. Mum'mius, the consul who conducted this war, sacked and burned Corinth; and after having plundered the city of its statues, paintings, and most valuable effects, levelled its walls and houses to the ground. Thebes and Chalcis soon after shared the same sad fate. If we may believe Velleíus Pater'culus, Mum'mius was so little acquainted with the value of the beautiful works of art which fell into his possession, that he covenanted with the masters of the ships, whom he hired to convey from Corinth to Italy a great number of exquisite pieces of painting and statuary, that "if they lost any of them, they should furnish others in

their stead."

Spain next began to attract the attention of the Romans. No nation that the republic had subdued defended its liberties with greater obstinacy. The war for the subjugation of the Spaniards commenced six years after the expulsion of the Carthaginians from the western peninsula, and was exceedingly obstinate (B. c. 200). This struggle was protracted partly from the natural state of the country, which was thickly populated and studded with natural fortresses, partly from the courage of the inhabitants, and partly from the peculiar policy of the Romans, who were accustomed to employ their allies to subdue other nations. The chief enemies against whom the invaders had to contend were the

Celtiberians and Lusitanians; and so often were the Romans defeated, that nothing was more dreaded by the soldiers at home than an expedition against such formidable foes. At length the Lusitanians found a leader worthy of their bravery (B. c. 146) in Viriátus, who, from a shepherd, became a hunter and a robber; and in consequence of his distinguished valor was chosen general-in-chief by his countrymen. This bold leader long maintained his ground against the Roman armies, and was equally formidable whether victorious or vanquished. Indeed, he was never more to be dreaded than immediately after defeat, because he knew how to make the most of the advantages arising from his knowledge of the country, and of the dispositions of his countrymen. Unable to compete with Viriátus, the consul Cæ'pio treacherously procured his assassination (B. c. 140); and the Lusitanians, deprived of their leader, were easily subdued.

. The Numantine war in hither Spain had been allowed to languish while the Lusitanians remained in power; it was now renewed with fresh vigor on both sides, and the pro-consul Pompey laid siege to Numan'tia. He was soon compelled to raise the siege, and even to enter into a treaty with the Numantines; but dreading the resentment of the senate, he disavowed the negotiation, and, by his great interest, escaped the punishment of his perfidy. A similar disgrace befell Pompey's successor, Mancínus; and the Romans, alarmed by the great victories of the Numantines, raised Scip'io Æmiliánus a second time to the consulship, and assigned him Spain as his province. Scip'io spent his entire consular year in restoring the discipline of soldiers dispirited by defeat, and neglected by their former generals; he then, with the inferior title of pro-consul, directed all his attention to concluding the war. Having obtained reinforcements from Africa, he laid close siege to Numan'tia, blockading every avenue to the town. After a protracted defence of more than six months, the Numantines destroyed their wives and children, set fire to their city, threw themselves on their swords or into the flames, and left the victors nothing to triumph over but empty walls (B. c. 133). Spain henceforth became a Roman province, governed by two annual prætors.

A rich province in Asia was obtained nearly at the same time on much more easy terms. At'talus, king of Per'gamus, dying, bequeathed his dominions to the Roman republic: and the senate took possession of the valuable inheritance, without heeding the remonstrances of the legitimate heir. But this acquisition of the wealthiest and finest districts in Asia Minor eventually cost the Romans very dear, both by the corruption of morals consequent on the great influx of Asiatic wealth, and the dreadful wars in which this legacy involved them with Mithridátes, king of Pon'tus.

SECTION VI.-From the Beginning of the Civil Dissensions under the Gracchi, to the Downfall of the Republic and Death of Pompey.

FROM B. C. 134 TO B. c. 48.

DURING the Punic, Macedonian, and Spanish wars, the power of the senate, on which the administration of the government necessarily devolved, increased very rapidly, and the form of the constitution con

sequently was changed more and more into that of a hateful aristocracy, against which the tribunes of the people struggled rather as factious demagogues than as honest defenders of popular rights. The aristocracy acquired vast wealth in the government of the provinces, and they employed their acquisitions in extending their political influence. The most obvious means of effecting this purpose was jobbing in the public lands, undertaking the management of extensive tracts, and sub-letting them to a crowd of needy dependants.

Tibérius Grac'chus, the son of a consul, whose mother Cornélia was a daughter of the celebrated Scip'io Africanus, witnessed with indignation the progress of corruption, and, to check it, resolved to enforce the Licinian prohibition against any individual renting more than five hundred acres of the public land. His office of tribune enabled him at once to commence operations; but before committing himself to the hazards of a public struggle, he sought the advice of the most virtuous and respectable men in Rome, all of whom sanctioned his project. Not daring to oppose directly the attempt to enforce a well-known law, the corrupt nobles engaged one of the tribune's colleagues to thwart his measures. Grieved, but not disheartened, Tibérius procured the deposition of this unworthy magistrate, and carried a law, constituting a triumvirate, or commission of three persons, to inquire into the administration of the public lands, and the violations of the Licinian law (B. C. 132). This was followed by a proposal, that the treasures which At'talus, king of Per'gamus, had bequeathed to the Romans should be distributed among the poorer classes of the people. During the agitation of this and some similar laws, his year of tribuneship expired, and the patricians resolved to prevent his re-election by absolute violence. So great was the uproar on the first day of the comitia, that the returning officer was obliged to adjourn the proceedings. Early in the following morning, when the assembly met, Tibérius received information that some of the nobles, accompanied by bands of armed retainers, had resolved to attack the crowd and take his life. Alarmed by this intelligence, he directed his friends to arm themselves as well as they could with staves; and when the people began to inquire the cause of this strange proceeding, he put his hand to his head, intimating that his life was in danger. Some of his enemies immediately ran to the senate, and reported that Tibérius Grac'chus openly demanded a crown from the people. Scip'io Nasíca, a large holder of public lands, seized this pretext to urge the consul to destroy the reformer. On the refusal of that magistrate to imbrue his hands in innocent blood, Nasíca, accompanied by a large body of the patricians, with their clients and dependants, assaulted the unarmed multitude; Tibérius was slain in the tumult, and many of his friends were either murdered or driven into banishment without any legal process. So great was the odium Nasíca incurred by his share in the murder of his kinsman, that the senate, to screen him from popular resentment, sent him to Asia, under a pretext of public business, but in reality as a species of honorable exile: he died in a few months, the victim of mortification and remorse.

While the city was thus disturbed by civil tumults, Sicily was harassed by the horrors of a servile war; and the new province of

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