arVIIOT?^"'"*" ""'"'""V Library "ifiii? SHI iiS!.„J!?.?.,."°"'a" republic. olin.anx 3 1924 031 232 576 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031232576 HISTOEY OF EOIE. FIRST DIVISION: THE REPUBLIC. ENCYCLOPJIDIA METEOPOLITAM: OK, S»Bst£m of Winibmal Itnotole&ge : ON A METHODICAL PLAN PEOJECTED BY SAMUEL TAYLOE COLEEIDGE. SECOND EDITION, REVISED. €)iix'^ Wm'wm. 3kinr{ unit 1Jingrii|ilii[. HISTORY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. LONDON : PUBLISHED BY JOHN JOSEPH GEIPFIN AND CO. «S BAILER-SIKEET, POKTMAN 3QDARE ; AND RICHARD GRIFFIN & CO., GLASGOW. 1852. THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TILL THE TIME OE STLLA, THE LATE THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. HEAD MASTER OF EUGBT SCHOOL. JACOB HENRY BROOKE MOUNTAIN, D.D. PREBENBABT OF UNOOLN, VTCAU OF ELUNHAM. E. POCOCKE, Esq. GEORGE CECIL RENOUARD, B.D. TELLOW OF SIDITET-STTSSEX COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. THE LATE MICHAEL RUSSELL, D.D., D.C.L. BISHOP OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH. AiTO SIR THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, D.C.L. ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF HER MAJESTY'S COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. SECOND EDITION. EDITED BY E. POCOCKE, Esq. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE CREDIBILITY OF EARLY ROMAN HISTORY, BT THE LATE THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. • ' il( PREFACE. The reader will find in this Tolume an order of arrangement similar to that adopted in " Tlie Early History of Greece. " The same group- ing of legendary events followed bv a gradual emancipation from the dominion of fiction will be fotind to characterize our historr of the progressing power of Eome. The historical deductions drawn from these sourcts. and firmly established as tacts by the researches of Kiebuhr, Arnold, and other illustricus scholars, ■will, it is hoped, be found collated with a perspicuity con5istent with the plan of this work. "A Terr comprehensive account of Sicilv in connection with Carthage, and their subsequent connection with Eome, displaying the resources and poHtical tendencies of the great African Eepublio. and thereby conveying jusr notions of the vast power which the ambition of Eome encountered and subdued, is next presented to the reader. The noble treatises on the First and Second Punic Wars, fit)m the pen of the lamented Dr. Arnold, and his Introductory Essay upon " The Credi- bilitv of Early Eoman Historv." greatly enhance the value of this portion of the work: while the masterly sketch of the "External Advancement of the Eoman Empire," the '• lives of the Gracchi," and of " ComeKus SvEa, ' by the same distinguished scholar, leave nothing to be desired in dignitv of treatment or ia ■vigorous research. The contributions of Sir T. X. Talfourd and other celebrated writers, whose names adorn the work, ■will be found equal to the importance of their subiects. To the Editor has fellec the duty of recording the PREFACE. Early Roman Legends, and of presenting a concise view of the his- torical or political facts thence deduced and established by successful investigation. The authorities foUowed have been those most generally esteemed by the classical student of history. The Editor, however, takes this opportunity of observing, that additional information, eluci- dating the darker periods of Roman history, drawn fi-om independent sources, will shortly be published. The continuation of the history of Rome, from the age of Sylla to the subversion of the Western Empire, will be completed in two other volumes, which are now nearly ready for pubHcation. They will contain contributions by the late Dr. Arnold, the Rev. Professor Jeremie, the Rev. Dr. J. H. Brooke Mountain, the Rev. J. B. Ottley, the Rev. Dr. G. C. Renouard, and the late Bishop Russell. These treatises are unusually copious ; and from their distinguished authorship, and as developing the germs of the civilization, jurisprudence, and feudal power of Europe in the Jliddle Ages, they offer great advantages to the historical student. E. pococe:e. London, November, l.S,51. NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS. THOMAS AENOLD, D.D. The Introductory Dissertation on the Credibility of Early Roman History. Chaptek XIII Hamilcar Barca. The First Punic War. Chapter XIV Hannibal. The Second Punic War. Chapter XV Sketch of the External Advancement of the Eoman Republic, from the End of the Second Punic War to the Invasion of the Cimbri. Chapter XVI. — Tiberius Gracchus. Chapter XVII. — Cains Gracchus. Chapter -Will. — Sketch of the Internal State of Rome, from the Death of Caius Gracchus to the Commencement of the Social War. Chapter XIX.— Lucius Cornelius Sylla, Part I. Chapter XXI Lucius Cornelius Sylla, Part n. JACOB HENRY BROOKE MOUNTAIN, D.D. Chapter XX. — Mithridates. Chapter XI. — Dionysius the Elder. Chapter XII. —Dionysius the Younger. Timoleon. E. POCOCKE, Esq. Chapter I. — The Legendary History of Rome. Chapter HI. — ^The War with Porsemia. Chapter V. — Struggle for Ascendency between the Patricians and Plebeians. Chapter IX. — The Samnite Wars. X NAMES OF CONTEIBUTOES. GEORGE CECIL BENOUAED, B.D. Chaptee Vn. — Appius Claudius. Chaptek Vni. — Marcus Furius Camillus. Chapter X. — Pyrrhus of Epirns. THE LATE BISHOP RUSSELL. Chapter XXn Ancient Spain. Sm T. N. TALFOUED, D.C.L. Chapter II. — Lucius Junius Brutus. Chapter IV. — Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Chapter VI. — Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus. Tlie Treatises have all been revised for the present Edition by their respective Contributors, with the exception of those by the late Dr. Arnold and Bishop Russell, which are reprinted from the former edition. The Chapters by the Editor have been written expressly for this Edition. The dates have been reduced throughout the work to one uniform system. CONTENTS. rNTEODUCTORY DISSERTATION, On the Credibility of Early Roman History . . 1 CHAPTER I Legendaut HisTOKT OP Rome . 13 Section 1. Legend of jEneas .... .13 2. Legend of Ascanius .14 3. Legend of Romulus . . . . 15 4. Legend of Nnma Pompilins . . ' . . .19 5. Legend of Tullus Hostilius . . . .21 6. Tale of Ancas Martins .... . . 24 7. Tale of Lueins Tarqninins Priscns . . . 24 8. Tale of Servins TuUius .... . . 28 9. Tale of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus . .30 10. Condition of the Roman People at this Epoch . . 33 HISTOET OF THE EOMAN REPUBLIC. CHAPTER n.— Lucros Jtraius Brdtus . ... 37 CHAPTER m.—WAK WITH POESENNA . . . . .51 CHAPTER IV.— CAins Mabctos Coeiolantjs 54 CHAPTER V. — Steuggle eok Ascendency between the Pateicians AND Plebeians .74 CHAPTER VI. — ^Lxjciirs Quintius Cincinnatos . . . .77 CHAPTER VH— Appius Claudius . . .89 CHAPTER Vm.— Marcus Eukius Camillus . .96 CHAPTER IX.— The Samnite Wahs— ... .123 The Eirst Samnite War . . . .125 The Second Samnite War ... . .127 The Third Samnite War .... .128 XU CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER X.— Pykrhus .... • 1^'^ CHAPTER XL— DiONTSins the Elder . • ^^^ CHAPTER Xn.— DioNTSics the YonsGER • ^^^ TlMOLEON .... -200 CHAPTER Xrn.— Hamilcab Barca . . . 215 The Pirst Punic War ... -221 CHAPTER XrV.— Hannibal . . .... 243 The Second Punic War ... . . 245 CHAPTER XV.— Sketch of the Exteenal Advaiicement of the RoMAU Republic, from the End of the Second Punic War to the Invasion of the Cimeri . .290 The Third Punic War 306 CHAPTER XVI— Tiberius GRACcnns . • • -323 CHAPTER XVn.— Caius Gracchus . . . • -338 CHAPTER XVni Sketch of the Internal State of Rome, from the Death of Caius Gracchus to the Com- mencement OF THE Social War . . .353 CHAPTER XIX.— Lucius Cornelius Sylla, Part 1 374 CHAPTER XX.— MiTHEiDATES .395 CHAPTER XXT Lucius Cornelius Stlla, Part H. . . . 438 CHAPTER XXn.— Ancient Spain ... . . 477 Roman Chronology . . . 503 Index ...... . 515 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. "Vase. Real Museo Borbonico POKTRAITS OF AeNOLD AND NiEBUHR The Tibek. From a Statue in the Vatican Imperial Large Brass ...... Ditto. ..... Denarius op the Gens Pompeia Titus Tatius, King of the Sabines. Iconografia da Canini Altar op Venus Cloaoina. Denarius of the Gens Scribonia. NuMA Pompilius and Ancus Martius. Iconografia da Canini Sacred Utensils. From the Frieze of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans The AiEOGALERUs, or Characteristic Cap of the Flamen Dialis . Temple op Vesta. Denarius of the Gens Cassia Ancilia- Denarius of Augustus Temple op Janus. Large Brass of Nero Head op Janus. From an Ancient Boman Coin . Voters passing along the Pons into the Septum. Denarius of the Gens Hostilia ....... The Tuxlianum op Angus Martius. Gell's Topography of Borne IjAPIdes Capitolini. Piranesi ..... The Capitolium. Large Brass of Vespasian Altar op Attus Nen«rtMs of the Gens Scrittonia.] Stone. Thus persuaded, the counsel of Attus prevailed; no new Angury prevails and iB adoptedfor centuries were created, and henceforward, in all things, the will of purposes of 7 o j state. CHAP. I. j LUCIUS TAEQUINIUS PEISCU3. 27 the gods was consulted by augury, and their intimations obeyed. Long and prosperous was the reign of Tarquinius, but he perished in the end throiigh the treachery of the sons of Ancus. In the house- hold of king Tarquinius was brought up a certain young man, of whose parentage strange tales were told. Many considered him the son of a god, while some said that his father was one of the king's dependants, and his mother a slave. Notwithstanding his dubious origin, great was his favour with the people, and as he had honourably served the king, he had been promised his daughter in marriage. Servius TuUius, for that was the name of the pohtic courtier, thus became an object of detestation and jealousy to the sons of the late king Ancus. They consequently resolved to slay the old king, in order to prevent his nominating to the succession the young favourite who would thus debar them from the throne. At their instigation, two shepherds undertook the murderous commission. They repaired to the palace of the king, and, under pretence of desiring the arbitration of Tarquinius in a mutual quarrel, they gained an interview with that prince. WMle the king was listening to the complaint of the one, the other struck him on the head with his axe. The assassins immediately fled. The sons of Ancus, however, did not reap the reward of this desperate vUlany. Tanaquil, the king's wife, proclaimed that the king was not dead, but merely stunned by the blow ; and she inti- mated, that Tarquinius had appointed Servius Tulhus to rule until he should recover. Thus supported, Servius Tulhus proceeded from the palace with the insignia of royal power, deciding the suits of the people, and in all respects acting as king. Soon, however, it was known that the king was dead, but such was the popular favoiu- dis- played towards Servius Tulhus, that he was permitted peaceably to assimie the throne. The sons of Ancus, now convinced of the hope- lessness of their claim to the crown, fled from Eome, and thus for ever became exiles from their native coimtry. Tarquinius had reigned thirty-eight years at the period of his assassination. He left two sons, Lucius and Aruns Tarquinius, who married the two daughters of Servius Tulhus. o. o Origin of Servius TulUus. The 8onB of Ancus plot the death of the king. Tarquinius is Artifice of Tanaquil. Servius Tullius king. [Sacrificial Knives, from the Frieze of the Temple of Jupiter TonanB at Eome ] 28 LEGENDARY HISTOKT OP ROME. [chap. I. B.C. .578-535. Prodigies attendmgthe birth of Tuilius. General cliaracter of Servius. His laws. Buildings and temples. Division of the people into centuries. Servius elected king by the people. Is hated by the nobilify. Tradition of the Sabine cow. THE TALE OF SERVIUS TULLIUS. Many prodigies preceded the birtli of Tullius, and others did not fail to accompany his youth ; with these, as in the case of Tarquinius, Tanaqml the Etruscan augur is closely associated. On one occa- sion, as TuUius was sleeping at mid-day, in the palace porch, lam- bent flames were seen to play around his head, which Tanaquil forbade to be extinguished, for the prophetic princess thence foretold the high destiny of the boy. Tullius shortly after awoke, and the flames disappeared. Henceforward Servius was brought up with the highest expectations of future eminence, which were amply fulfilled ; indeed, he had already gained distinction in a great battle fought near the gates of Eome. The character given to Servius is that of a just and a good king, and the same popularity which he had attained before his accession to the throne, accompanied him ever after. Many were the wise and good laws enacted by him to maintain the cause of the poor, and to curb the oppressions of the rich. His war with the Etruscans, his adding to the city the Quirin- alian and Viminahan hOls, the vast mounds which he raised to unite these hiUs with the Esquiline, covering them from the assaults of an enemy, the Temple of Diana built by him for the common sacrifices of Romans, Latins, and Sabines, in which the former maintained the chief dignity, prove the activity of the hero and politician. The subdivision of ranks which he introduced into the state, appears to have been very complete. The city population was divided into four tribes, that of the country into twenty-six, who were all distributed into classes, regulated by the value of their property. These classes were again divided into centuries, who provided themselves with arms corresponding to their raiik and order. The rich had complete armour; the poorer centuries furnished themselves with darts and slings. Servius now con- voked the people, and inquired if it was their pleasure that he should be their king, to which they unanimously assented. The faction of the nobility, notwithstanding this general unanimity, was jealous of the poptdarity of Servius; while a law which he had enacted, forbidding the kingly government after his death, and instituting the annual rule of two men elected by the people, rendered him stiU more the object of patrician hatred. Unchecked by the jealousy of this powerful faction, Servius continued his peaceful labours. He made an important league with the cities of Latium, of which Rome formed a distinguished member ; which, by the extension of its ancient boundaries, now covered a space of five miles in circumference. The great temple reared for the Romans, Sabines, and Latins, became the scene of an occurrence cele- brated in tradition. A Sabine countryman had a cow of unusual size and beauty. The soothsayers had affirmed, that whichever CHAP. I.J SEETIUS TnLLITJS. 29 nation should sacrifice this cow, would gain the supremacy. The sacrifice was to be performed upon Mount Aventine. Eager to secure the superiority of his own nation, the Sabine was just about to immolate the animal before the altar, when he was sharply rebuked by the astute Eoman priest, for presuming to offer it with unwashed hands. During the absence of the Sabine for the purpose of puri- fication, the Eoman sacrificed the cow, and thus surreptitiously realised the terms of the prophecy. Though king Servius had no son, he had two daughters, whom The we have before noticed as being given away in marriage to the sons ^g serrius of Tarquinius. These unforttmate unions were productive of the jndtheir I'll ■ A m •• p'lTT 1 husbands, most nornbie cnmes. Aruns iarquimus was oi a mud and gentle spirit ; his brother Lucius proud, and very revengeful; and these were severally united to wives of an opposite character to themselves. The younger, TuUia, scrupled not to slay her husband, while Lucius privately assassinated his wife, after which a guilty marriage was effected, and iree course given to all the wickedness of their hearts, the efiects of which we shall shortly contemplate. Such was the benevolence of the king, that he discharged the debts of the indigent poor, and instituted laws depriving the creditor of the power to seize the person of the debtor, permitting the caption of his goods alone. To these generous actions he added allotments of Generous lands out of the conquered territory. But whilst he thus liberally s|^}^'°° "^ legislated for the plebeians, the king strongly distrusted the patri- cians ; and to such an extent did he carry this feeUng, that he took up his abode upon the Esquiline hill, while he assigned to them the valley of the " Patricius Vicus." The steady, long, and increasing popularity of the Eoman king, had almost deprived L. Tarquinius of any reasonable hopes of succeeding to the throne ; The the patricians, also, stung by the memory of their ancient supremacy, anf"'^™ which thev were easer to recover, united with Tarquinius in a con- Tarquin spiracy to assassinate the king; and the yoimg nobility banded conspiracy. themselves into sworn brotherhoods, whereby they bound them- selves to support each other in daring acts of violence and tyranny. The treacherous Tarquin only waited a favorable time to put into execution his blood-thirsty schemes. The harvest season, when the plebeians were absent in the fields getting in then- stock of com, presented a favourable opportunity. Followed Treacherous into the forum by a band of armed men, Tarquinius audaciously Tarquin. seated himself on the royal throne, fi-onting the senate house, the very spot whence Servius was wont to give judgment to the people. Messengers ran hastily announcing this to the king. Forthwith the aged prince hurried to the forum, and, on perceiving the intruder, indignantly inquired why he had dared to sit upon the king's seat, at the same time ordering him to descend from it. Tarquinius replied that it was the throne 30 LEGENDAET HISTOET OF EOME. [chap. Barbarous scene in the forum The king murdered. TuUia drives over the body of her father. of his father on which he was seated, to which he had more right than Servius. Tarquinius now sprang forward, seized the aged prince, and dashed him rudely down the stone steps, then, to com- plete the indignity of the insult, repaired to the senate house, and, as though already king, convoked the senate. Meanwhile, the aged king, covered with blood, had arisen, and was hasten- ing home, when he was overtaken near the EsquiKne hill by the servants of Lucius, whom he had sent in pursuit ; there was the old king slain, and left weltering in his blood in the middle of the highway. TuUia now drove to the senate house, totally unabashed by the presence of the multitudes who thronged the place, and calling her husband out of the senate, saluted him king with transports of joy. Lucius was struck with horror, and bade Tullia return home. As she was proceeding thither, the charioteer pointed out the body of the old king, her father, lying a piteous spectacle fiill in their way. He would have turned aside, but Tullia, urged on by inward fiories, bade him drive onwards. The chariot roUed over the body of the father, whose blood spurted over the chariot and the dress of the wicked TuUia. Thenceforward, that street ever bore the name of the Vicus Sceleratus, or the wicked street. The corpse of the old king lay unburied, and the scofSng impieties of Tarquinius upon this occasion, earned him the name of " Superbus." Long was the memory of the good king Servius cherished by the commons, and his birthday was celebrated upon the nones of every month. [Head of Jove .] to know if he might remove these, to give space for his own temple. Permission was granted. Permission two sacred places excepted; these were the Sacellum of the god of ^^0™ the youth, and that of Terminus, the god of boundaries. This the Saceiia. augurs affirmed to be a good omen; for the youth of the city 32 LEGENDARY HISTOEY OF EOME. [chap. I, Omens upon the Capitoline HiU. The Sibyl offers the Sacred Books. Tarqiiin makes war upon Gabii. Stratagem of Sextus. Gabii joins the Latin League. Oppressive Government of Tarquinius. should be eternal, and its boundaries never removed by conquest. As they were digging the deep foundations of the temple, a human head was discovered — a sign that the Capitoline HiU should be the head of all the world. The mighty temple thus reared by Tarquinius was consecrated to the great Etruscan divini- ties, Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno. Just about this time, a woman of strange appearance presented herself to king Tarquinius, oifering him nine books of the prophecies of the Sibyl, for three hundred pieces of gold. The offer was contemptuously refused ; whereupon the prophetess burned three of the books, and offering the remainder for the same price, these were again scornfully refused. The Sibyl then retired, and having burnt three other books, again returned, asking the same price for the remaining three. The king, much amazed, demanded of the augurs what he should do. They said that he had acted im wisely in refusing them, and commanded him by all means to purchase the remaining books. The sacred volumes were put into a stone chest, which was deposited under ground in the Capitol, and two persons, called the guardians of the sacred books, were appointed in charge of them. Soon after this, Tarqui- nius being desirous of forcing into the Latin league the town of Gabii, laid siege to it. Gabii, however, offered so vigorous a resistance, that, unable to take the town by open force, Tarquinius was compelled to have recourse to stratagem. His son Sextus, therefore, pretendmg to have been iH treated by his father, and covered with bloody stripes, fled to Gabii. His plausible tale was beheved, and at length so much confidence did the inhabitants repose in him, that they gave him the command of their troops. Sextus now sent a messenger to his father for further instructions. On his arrival, it happened that the king was walking in his garden. To the inquiries of the envoy, the king made no reply; but continued striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his stick, and then bade the messenger relate to his son what he had seen him do. Sextus comprehended his father's meaning. On false charges he either banished or put to death all the principal men of the city, and the people, thus bereft of their leaders, soon submitted to the power of his father. Tarquinius ruled with policy the state which he had so craftily gained. He gave to the people of Gabii the rights of Eoman citizenship, and secured the same privilege for his own people in the city of Gabii, which now held firmly by the league. By these means Tarquinius became a great and mighty king, but he scorned every observance of moderation towards the plebeians. Such tyranny could not long endure, and his fall, foreshown by many prodigies, happened soon after. The glory of expelling fi:'om Eome this dreaded tyrant fell to the lot of Lucins Junius Brutus, with whose noble career the remainder of the life of Tarquinius is closely connected. CHAP. I.] CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 33 [Head of Minerva— /rom an Ancient Roman Coin.^ CONDITION OE THE ROMAN PEOPLE AT THIS EPOCH. We must now pause for a short time from the contemplation of legendary lays, which formed the boast of a proud city, and covered with their gorgeous colouring many a bitter defeat and many a deep humiliation, — ^what indubitable history is to be extracted from even such documents of the national vanity of Eome, has been shown by the researches of the immortal Niebuhr. Dr. Arnold after presenting these lays in a connected and singularly simple form, being desirous not altogether to omit legends so famous, yet anxious, by his very style of narration, to distinguish them from the trustworthy char- acter and dignified position of history, makes the following important remarks. " But what is the real history, in the place of which we have so long admired the tales of Eomulus and Numa? This is a question which cannot be satisfactorily answered We know that for all points of detail, and for keeping a correct account of time, tradition is worthless. It is very possible that ah Etruscan rites came in with the Tarquinii, and were falsely carried back to an earlier period. But the mixture of the Sabines with the original people of the Palatine HjII cannot be doubted ; and the stories of the asylum, and of the violence done to the Sabine women, seem to show that the first settlers of the Palatine were a mixed race, in which other blood was largely mingled than that of the Latins. We may conceive of this earher people of Mamers, as of the Mamertine of a more historical period: that they were a band of resolute adventurers from various parts, practised in arms, and little scrupii- lous how they used them. Thus the origin of the highest Eoman nobility may have greatly resembled that of the larger band of adventurers who followed the standard of William the Norman, and were the founders of the nobility of England." " The people or citizens of Eome were divided into the three tribes of the Eamnenses, Titienses, and Luceres,' to whatever races we may Researches of Niebuhr. Dr. Arnold's Remarks on the Roman Legends. Mixed population of the Palatine Hill. ProhaWe origin of the Roman Nohility 1 For full particulars of the goverament, tribes, religious rites and subdivisions of the people.of Rome, see " Eamsay's Roman Antiquities." [r. H.1 d 34 LEGEND AEY HISTOET OF EOME. [chap. Composition of the Legion Original population of Rome. The Pleheians. Theii- distressing position. Tai-quinius tries to raise their order. suppose them to belong, or at whatever time, or under whatever circumstances they may have become tmited. Each of these tribes was divided into ten smaller bodies called Curiae, so that the whole people consisted of thirty Curiae: these same divisions were in war represented by the thirty Centuries, which made up the legion, just as the three tribes were represented by the three centuries of l^orse- men, but that the soldiers of each century were exactly a hundred, is, apparently, as unfounded a conclusion as it would be u we were to argue in the same way as to the military force of one of our own Hundreds." Long previous to the time of Eomulus, if such a prince ever existed, there stood on the Palatine Hill a Pelasgian or Tyrrhenian town, around which on the neighbouring heights dwelt the Abori- gines. That the Sabines constituted a very considerable part of the population, is evident, from the many Sabine religious ceremonies intro- duced by Tatius. To the Sabines belonged the towns of CoUatia and Eegillum; and their arms were felt to a considerable distance along the course of the Tiber. An Etruscan population was equally a component of Rome, to which her rehgious rites and gorgeous insignia of power bear testimony. The much oppressed though important order of Plebeians existed as early as the time of Eomu- lus, and they have been occasionally confounded with the Chents. But the earUest distinct notice we have of the plebeians is in the character of conquered Albans, who were gradually incorporated with the Eoman population, though they did not obtaia civil power. They were excluded from the tribes — ^had no right of voting — could not take any part in the business of the State — could not hold any magistracy — nor contract any legal marriages with the privileged citizens. As a conquered race, — ^they had to shed their blood for a state by whom they were contemned, and for tyrannical patricians, with whom they maintained a persevering struggle for centuries — a struggle finally crowned with complete success. The Aventine Hill was more especially their habitation. In the reign of Ancus Martins the plebeians had been considerably increased ; yet, during the government of that prince, as well as of Tullus Hostilius, their entire body had been left without any decisive settlement of their position with respect to the patricians. Tarquinius, indeed, had formed a plan for ameliorating their condition; but the jealousy of the patricians thwarted his generous intentions, few only being raised to the dignity of their oppressors. At length Servius Tullius, essentially the " Commons' King," gave to the plebeians an indepen- dent organization. The worthier part of them was classed with the twenty-six country tribes, who were engaged in agriculture ; with the early Eomans an honourable occupation ; while the supposed less dignified position of trade and manufactures embraced all the members of the city tribes. CHAP. I.] CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 35 To caxry out a complete system, Servius created a property Property standard as the means of attaining rank, and thus secured to the lemS* "' plebeians an influence in legislation, and in the election of their TuUuis. magistrates. Until the time of Servius, the king, senate, and assembly of the Curise divided among them the powers of govern- ment; — the monarchy was elective, and though the sons of the later kings claimed a right of succession, that right was never acknowledged. — The king was the commander-in-chief, principal judge, and the national high priest. His insignia were the fasces insignia of or bundle of axes, the curule chair, and the Toga Prsetexta, **"= ''"s- while his income was derived from the public land, and his share of the spoils of war. But whatever had been the tyranny or Patridan rapacity of the kings of Eome, they were far surpassed in both pas- "^"""y- sions by the whole body of the patricians, who, when Tarquinius was expelled, crushed most cruelly the unfortunate body of the ple- beians. A vivid picture of their distresses, under their unrelenting task-masters, is presented to us by Dr. Arnold. After contrasting the benevolent objects contemplated for the Israehte by the year of Jubilee, he observes, " A far different fate awaited the plebeian landovmer at Eome. When he found himself involved in a debt which he could not pay, his best resource was to sell himself to his creditor, on the condition that unless the debt were previ- ously discharged, the creditor, at the expiration of a stated term should enter into possession of his purchase. This was called in the language of the Eoman law the entering into a nexum, and The Nexum. the person who had thus conditionally sold himself, was said to be nexus. When the da,y came, the creditor claimed possession, and the magistrate awarded it ; and the debtor, thus given over to his purchaser, addictus, passed, with all that belonged to him, into his power ; and as the sons were considered the father's property, they also, unless previously emancipated, were included in the sale, and went into slavery together with their father. Or if a man. Perilous resolved not by his own act to sacrifice his own and his children's the"Nexus." Hberty, refused thus to seU himself, or, in the Eoman language, to enter into a nexum, and determined to abide in his own person the consequences of his own debt, then he risked a fate stiU more fearful. If no one offered to be his security, he was given over to his creditor, and kept by him in private custody, bound with a chain of fifleen pounds weight, and fed with a pound of com daily. On the third market day, if no friend appeared, he was either to be put to death, or sold as a slave into a foreign land His tembie beyond the Tiber, that is, into Etruria, where there was as yet no ^™^ ''' interchange of franchise vrith Eome, amidst a people of a different language. Or, if there were several creditors, they might actually hew his body in pieces, and whether a creditor cut off a greater or 36 LEGENDAKT HISTOKT OF EOME. [chap. I. Struggle of the Plebeians, for freedom. The position of the Plebeians analagous to that of the Saxons under the Normans. smaller piece than in proportion to his debt, he incurred no penalty."^ Such was the terrible position of the descendants of a vanquished race. That position, however, gradually yielded to the indomitable vigour of men urged on to the recovery of their lawful rights, by the double force of their own sufferings, and the spectacle of Patricians luxuriating in the Ucentious exercise of uncontrolled authority. The complete emancipation, however, of the crushed and detested Ple- beians was not eiFected but by many long years of unmitigated toil and fierce struggles for the rights of iireemen. Alternately trampled on, soothed, cajoled, or destroyed by the artifices of the Patricians, their position presents a striking analogy to that of the Saxons under the cruel sway of their Norman con- querors. Like them they followed in the ranks of their conquerors, to make new conquests, of which they were allowed to reap no substantial rewards. Like them, they could not hope to attain any dignity or office of the state ; and whUe their sinews were tasked to the uttermost in unrequited toU, their blood was lavished only to maintain the supremacy of their tyrants. Such episodes in historical legend, as those of " the good king Servius TuUius," "Brutus," "Virginia," and many others, demon- strate, on the one hand, the paucity of their early political privileges, and on the other, the avidity with which every incident was made a stepping stone to the temple of freedom. 1 History of Eome, Vol. I. [The Curula Chair and Faaces.] Brulus condemning his Sons — drau/n by Sabgent, from, a Painting by Guillon Lbihiebe in the Luxenibourg.l CHAPTER II. LUCIUS JUNIUS BEUTUS. FLOURISHED ABOUT B.C. 509. In tracing the illustrious career of Lucius Junius Brutus, B.C. 509. we have to contemplate the mighty change in the government of Rome, from the regal to the consular state, in which he took so striking and heroic a share. The qualities of the Roman citizen, which had now assumed a marked distinctiveness of character, would scarcely have suffered a longer duration of the kingly power, even though it had not been tyrannically exerted. The stern and savage virtue of the early Romans would have prompted them, at no distant period, to require a larger share in the direction of their coimtry, for whose glory alone they were contented to hve, and in whose defence they thought it happiness to die. The oppressions, however, of Tarquin and his sons, precipitated the great revolution which the fierce and warlike spirit of the people had been silently preparing. Lucius Junius Brutus, who was destined to awaken his country- ms famUy men to a sense of their injuries and their rights, was descended from ™sfortmieB. an ancient and noble family. His father, Marcus Junius, was one of the most distinguished of the patricians, for his ample estate and his personal virtues, and had been honoured with the hand of a 38 LUCIUS JUNIUS BEUTUS. [CHAP. U. B.C. 509. daughter of the elder Tarqiiin. These circumstances rendered him peculiajcly obnoxious to the haughty monarch, who obtained the throne by the murder of Servius, and who, conscious of the atrocity of the deed by which he won it, thought it could be only rendered secure by the removal of aU the chief men in the state whose virtues might silently reproach him. Excited by this apprehension, and anxious to secure the princely fortunes of his victim, Tarquin caused ]\Iarcus Junius to be assassinated, together with one of his sons. Lucius Junius would, doubtless, have shared the fate of his father and his coimterfeits brother, had he not counterfeited idiocy, and thus procured himself """'''■ to be regarded as harmless, while he cherished in secret the purpose of revenging, on the first favourable occasion, the death of his mur- dered relations. In the mean time, the king enjoyed the patrimonial estate of Lucius Junius, who, from his apparent deficiency ia understanding, received the appellation of Brutus, and was sirfFered to become a companion of the princes. While Tarquin was engaged in com- pleting the great pubHc works at Eome, and in sending colonies to Segnia and Circseimi, a dreadfiil pestilence broke out in the city, and a serpent was observed to glide from a wooden piUar, and spread Accompanies terror throughout the palace. Alarmed at these events, the mon- Sm*to^'^ arch despatched his sons, Titus and Aruns, to the oracle at Delphi, ransait the ^q order that they might inquire the proper mode of appeasing the Delphi. anger of heaven. On this long and perilous expedition they were attended by Brutus, from whose idiocy they expected to gather materials for laughter. Like his companions, he carried with him an offering to Apollo, which appearing to be nothing but a common staff of wood, excited imiversal derision. In reality, however, he had concealed a piece of gold within it, so that the derided present was not only of intrinsic value, but an expressive symbol of the donor's condition, who possessed a high and noble mind beneath a contemptible exterior. On their arrival at the shrine, the youths having fulfilled their commission, inquired of the oracle which of them should succeed to the crown, and received for answer, that he should have supreme authority in Rome who should first kiss his mother. Titus and Aruns, understanding the reply hterally, deter- mined to conceal it from their brother Sextus, and agreed either to cast lots which of them should fulfil the oracle, or to embrace the queen at the same moment on their return home, that they might reign jointly on the death of their father. But Brutus, conceiving the meaning of the response to be allegorical, pretended to fell by accident as he left the shrine, and kissed the earth, the common mother of aU things. The incident, if true, serves to prove that, dur- ing the whole of his assumed idiocy, he meditated the revenge of his own private injuries and the deliverance of his country fi'om oppres- CHAP. II.J LUCIUS JUNIUS BEUTUS. 39 A new outrage, committed by one of the royal house, soon B.C. 509. afforded a fit occasion for the accomplishment of these designs. Finding his treasury almost exhausted by the erection of magnificent edifices, and the people discontented with the long drudgery of mechanical labour, Taxquin resolved to lead his forces against Axdea, a city of the EutuU, about twenty miles from Kome, where a rich siege nt booty might be expected. He fcst attempted to take the place by ^^'^'"'' storm, but, meeting with a Tigorous resistance, he was compelled to blockade it. As the siege was protracted, he was obhged to lay fresh imposts on the citizens to provide for the expenses of the army, instead of regaining their affections by a division of plunder, and thus caused their minds, already inflamed, to be still more alienated from him. The young princes and patrician officers who were engaged in the siege spent much of their time in reveUing. On one of these festive occasions, a dispute arose in the tent of Sextus Tarquinius between the sons of the king and CoUatinus, the grandson of Egerius, who was nephew to the elder Taxquin, respecting the comparative merits of their consorts. Inflamed by wine, they resolved to settle the contest by instantly riding to their homes, and discovering how their wives were employed during their absence. In pursuance of this intention, they first proceeded to The pinces Eome, where they found the ladies of the princes engaged in festal housS amusements, and little pleased at the sudden return of their hus- Lucretiu bands. But when they arrived at CoUatia, the residence of the family of Collatinus, they found his wife Lucretia spinning among her maidens, and ready to give them, notwithstanding the lateness of the visit, a pohte and cheerful reception. Her beauty, rendered more attractive by the softness of her manners, incited in Sextus the determination to seduce her, which, although he could not execute on this occasion, he did not resign. A few days aflef this visit, the prince took an opportunity of leaving the camp before Ardea, unknown to his comrades, and arrived at CoUatia, attended only by a single slave. There he was hospitably entertained by the unsus- pecting Lucretia as the friend of her husband, and in the evening conducted to his chamber. Hence he stole, in the dead of the night. Outrage on to the apartment of his victim, with his sword drawn, and awakened her by placing his hand on her bosom, and declaring that he would instantly put her to death if she dared to cry out for succour. He then declared his passion to the astonished lady, and mingling the most terrible threats with the most vehement entreaties, strove alter- nately by flattery and terror to influence her to yield to his desires. Finding at last, that none of these arts had the least power to shake her resolution, he declared, that if she continued her resistance he would not only kUl her, but despatch one of her slaves, and place him beside her on the couch, that it might be believed he had put them to death to revenge the injured honour of her husband. The 40 LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS. [chap. B.C her husband and father Their interview with Lucretia. 509. dread of infamy prevailed ever a mind upon wMcli the fear of death had no power ; and Lucretia yielded. In the morning the ravisher left her for the camp, exulting in his guilty triumph. Innocent as Lucretia had been in intention, she was unable to survive the indignity she had been compelled to endure. The stern prejudices of her Eoman education prevented her from justly dis- criminating between physical and moral pollution. She wrote She wi-ites to immediately to her husband and father, entreating them to hasten to her, with a few chosen friends, as she had a terrible misfortune to relate. She then dressed herself in mourning, and, according to Dionysius of Halioarnassus, proceeded to Eome; although Livyinforms us that she awaited at Collatia the arrival of those to whom she had despatched her summons. Her request was immediately comphed with ; and her father, CoUatinus, with Lucius Publicola, and other illustrious patricians, assembled vsdth great anxiety to hear her complaint. They found her sitting pensively in her chamber, and observed her burst into tears on their arrival, on which her husband eagerly demanded if all was well. "Oh no!" she passionately exclaimed; "for what can be well with her whose chastity is gone? A stranger, my dear husband, has defiled your nuptial couch! But this body alone has been violated, my soul is unspotted, as my death shall testify. Give me your hands in solemn pledge that this crime shall not be unrevenged. It was Sextus Tarquinius who last night violated the sanctities of hospitality, and by force obtained the grati- fication of his lust — a deed fatal to me — and to himself also, if ye dare to act hie men ! " All present immediately phghted their faith to avenge the wrong, but strove to console her by assurances that she was herself guiltless, and ought yet to hve to see justice overtake the author of her sorrows. Their consolations and remonstrances were in vain. " I leave you," she replied, " to visit the crime on Sextus; for myself, although I am free from the guilt, I will not avoid the consequences of my fall ; no woman, in future times, shall ever survive her chastity, and point to Lucretia as her example." With these words she suddenly drew a poignaxd from beneath her robe, which she plunged into her bosom, and fell lifeless amidst the astonished assembly. The father and husband of the heroic lady immediately gave way to the bitterest affliction. But Brutus, finding that the moment of retribution so long waited for, had arrived, seized the dagger from the mortal wound, and solemnly raising it to heaven, exclaimed, " I swear by this blood, most chaste till defiled by royal infamy, and call you, gods! to bear witness, that I wiU pursue Taxquin, his accursed wife, and all his polluted family vrith fire, sword, and every instrument of vengeance ; and that I will never suffer them or any other person to wear the crown of Eome!" He then delivered the bloody dagger to CoUatinus, Lucretius, Valerius, and all who were present. Character of Bmtus developed. CHAP, n.j LUCIUS JUNIUS BEUTDS. 41 who bound themselves by the same oath, amazed to find Brutus, B.C. 509. hitherto regarded as an idiot, inspired by so noble an energy. Like him, they changed their grief into an aspira- tion for revenge, and followed him as their leader in the great enterprise of destroying the regal power. By his direction, the body of Lucretia was brought into the forum,, where, by virtue of his authority of tribune, or master of the horse, which office Tarquia had bestowed on him, because he supposed it impossible that he should use it against the royal authority, he ordered the Comitia to be assembled. The people naturally ran in crowds to see the melancholy spectacle, which aroused in their minds not only , „ , , -, , , ■' [Lucius Junius Brutus.] sympathy tor the departed, but the remem- brance of those individual wrongs which each attributed to the house of Tarquin. On Brutus they looked with amazement, as on one inspired by the gods, and on the venerable and childless father with burning grief, which nothing but revenge could subdue. By consent of the latter, whom the king had left; governor of the city, the gates were shut, and a guard placed upon them, that no intelligence might be conveyed to the camp of the tumults at Eome. Brutus, in the mean time, standing beside the corpse, addressed the Brutus people in a passionate speech, calculated to inflame them against the pe^f^^ ' *^ monarch and his family. He not only set forth, in glowing colours, the atrocious outrage which had caused the lamentable tragedy before them, but glanced rapidly at all the tyrannous acts of the king, from the murder of Servius ; set before them the inhuman barbarity of TuUia, who drove, to meet her husband, over her father's corpse; dwelt on the oppression which had degraded the conquerors of ah their foreign enemies to the low drudgery of mechanics; and incited them, by vivid pictures of the various deeds of injustice imputed to the reigning family, to root out their name and their power for ever from among them. This discourse was received with acclamations and demands for arms; and a decree, hastily passed by the senate, was solemnly confirmed by the people, which deprived the king of his authority, declared him and his family perpetual exiles, and pronounced a dreadful curse against any Eoman who should, by word or action, attempt to recall them. Tdlia, finding that it was in vain to oppose the poptdar excite- Tuiiia quits ment, left the palace in dismay, and fled through the city, without ^'^^^' experiencing any personal violence, but followed by umversal execrations. Brutus now gave arms to a number of noble youths, who oifered their services in the cause of freedom, and, leaving Eome to the 42 Lucras juntos brutus. [chap. ii. B.C. 509. government of Lucretius, marched witli them for Ardea, in order to incite the army to join liim. The king having, in the mean time, heard of the transactions at Eome, set out for that city, in order to suppress the tumult ; so that, according to Livy, Brutus passed him on the road, having turned aside to avoid an encounter. On his arrival before Rome, he found the gates shut against him, and learning that himself and his family were condemned to exHe, retired, without endeavouring by force to obtain an entrance. Brutus, meanwhile, was received in the camp with the most hvely expres- sions of joy, and the sons of the king were compelled to fly, while the troops united in the work of fireedom with their feUow-citizens. Bratus Thus did Brutus, by a single stroke, and without the least efiiision theexpiiision °^ blood, put an end to the monarchy of Eome, after it had subsisted of the for two hundred and forty-three years. The revolution appears to aiqmns. }jayg taken place precisely at the most favourable juncture for the rising grandeur of the state. In the earlier times, the citizens being collected from various regions, and unused to social regulations, would have been incapable of joining in the domestic contentions incident to a repubhc, without producing the total disorganization of the state, and returning to a barbarous condition. Beneath the fostering influence of the regal power they became gradually united, and those common feehngs grew up among them which all the tumults of party were unable to destroy. That ardent and exclusive patriotism which ultimately became the means of subduing the world, had gathered strength in successfal wars and in glorious peace, till it became an impulse so grand and inspiring, that those who cherished it had too lofty a consciousness of their own personal worth to endure the yoke of a sovereign. Had the Eomans now- learned to repose beneath a pacific monarchy, and to rest satisfied with their conquests, the energy which aimed at universal sway must have perished, and Eome have remained one of the smallest kingdoms of Italy. Of the oppressive acts of Tarquin and his sons, which were the immediate causes of the revolution, we can scarcely judge with impartiality, from the colouring thrown over them by the Eoman historians. These writers, though they flourished when the lib- erties of their country had decayed, seem to have written with quenchless ardour respecting their origin ; and to have given vent to the feelings they dared not express on present transactions, in Character of dwelling on the glories of the past. Even from their representations, arqmn. Jiowevcr, it IS manifest that Tarquin was not destitute of great talents, or of spirit to employ them in magnificent designs. " His conduct," observes Montesquieu, "before his calamities, which it is evident he foresaw, his gentleness and humanity towards the conquered, his beneficence to the soldiers, the arts by which he engaged such numbers to attempt his preservation, the edifices he CHAP. n.J LUCIUS JUNnJS BEUTUS. 43 raised for the public use, his courage in the field, the constancy and B.C. 509. patience with which he bore his misfortunes, a twenty years' war, which he either carried on, or caused to be carried on, against the Eomans, though deprived of his kingdom, and in great poverty — these things, and the resources he perpetually found, prove mani- festly that he was no contemptible person." The family of Tarquin being expelled from the city, the Eomans were called on to choose the form of government by which they would be ruled. In this important choice they appear to have been determined by the wisdom of Brutus. He proposed that two per- sons should jointly be intrusted with the supreme power, that they might check injustice and ambition in each other, and that, still further to prevent the abuse of their authority, the office should last only for a year. This proposition was adopted by the people New form of assembled by curias ; the new governors were caUed Consuls ; the f^op™"™' term Kingdom was changed to Bepublic ; and the title of King, no longer bestowed on a temporal magistrate, was given to a priest of high rank, who was termed Bex Sacrorum, and enjoyed dignity inferior only to the Pontifex Maximus. As the kings had been accustomed to perform some of the public ceremonies of religion, this officer was appointed to discharge that part of the regai duties, and to preserve the venerable name which had been consecrated at the foundation of the city, without being permitted to interfere with the civil rights of the people. Indeed, so jealous were the Eomans of the title which their prejudices would not suffer them whoUy to abolish, that they absolutely prohibited the individual who bore it from all interference with the public concerns, so that in the Comitia of the people, where he presided at the opening sacrifice, he was compelled to withdraw the moment that solemnity was concluded. The form of government thiis fixed, Lucretius, who had governed the city during the interregnum, caused the people to be summoned to the Campus Martius, to the first election of Consuls. On his proposition, Brutus, andCoUatinus the husband of Lucretia, were chosen to the new dignity, and immediately entered on its exer- cise. They are said, by Livy, to have possessed all the powers, and to have been surrounded by aU the ensigns of authority which had been assumed by the kings, [A Liolor.] 44 LUCIUS JUMUS BRUTUS. [chap. Brutus Consul Laws of Servius TuUus restored. B.C. 509. excepting that only one of them was attended by tlie lictors with the fasces at a time, an honour which they enjoyed alternately for a month during their consulate. As Brutus had been most active in abolishing the kingly power, his colleague readily conceded to him the right of being first attended by the lictors. In the mean time, Titus Herminius and Marcus Horatius, who had taken the command of the army before Ardea on the expulsion of Tarquin and his sons, made a truce for fifteen years with the inhabitants of that city, and led the troops to Eome to take part in the solemnities by which their coimtrymen sought to secure and to consecrate their freedom. On their arrival, Brutus and CoUatinus again convened the people, by centuries, in the Campus Martins, exhorted them to union, and procured the confirmation of that decree by which, a few days before, Tarquin and his family had been condemned to exile. Still further to bind all orders of men to the lasting exclusion of royalty, they, on this occasion, took solemn oaths before the altars that they would never recall the Tarquins, or invest any one with the kingly office; and their example was followed by the senators and the people. At this assembly, the first Rex Sacrorum was also elected, and the citizens were gratified by the restoration of the laws of Servius TuUus, of which they had been deprived by the ambition of the exiled sovereign. Brutus appears next to have directed his attention to the suppljdng of those vacancies in the senate which had been occasioned by the jealousies of Tarquin. Considerable difference of opinion has existed on the question whether these renovations were directed by the will of the consuls, or the votes of the people in centuries, the chief magistrates merely advising and superintending the election. Some have contended that, even during the regal state, the senators were always elected by the citizens — first in the curise, and afterwards in centuries, as directed by the institutions of Servius. Others suppose that the senate was always fiEed up by the monarch, and that this authority being transferred to the consuls, was exerted by them on this occasion. The words of Livy, taken literally, imply the latter ; and those of Dionysius of Halicamassus, though not so express, do not contradict this hypothesis, which, on the whole, appears the more probable. In after-times, indeed, when the ranks of the senate were filled, for the most part, from those who had passed through the series of offices from qusestor to consul, the people might be said virtually to choose those who attained senatorial power ; but as no historian of this period has given any account of a popular election, it seems most likely that, as yet, in the infancy of freedom, the ruling spirits of the time assumed the right of making those arrangements which they thought necessary for the peace and welfare of the new repubhc. The senators now added to the body were selected from the equestrian order, and called conscripti, in conr CHAP. II.J LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS. 45 tradistinction to the elder members, who were originally denominated B.C. 509. patres; whence the apellation Patres Conscripti was subsequently- employed to designate both classes of senators. Dionysius, indeed, applies the epithet to the first senate of Eomxdus, but he is, in this respect, at variance both with Plutarch and Livy. It is, however. The by no means certain whether the term comcripti was given to those '^™'™P''- who were added by Tatius, the Sabine king, and to those who were created by Tarquin the elder, or was first apphed, on the establish- ment of the republic, to the elders who were supplied from the choice of the people or the nomination of Brutus. WMle these important arrangements were being made in the city, Tarquin was not inactive. According to Livy, he first retired with two of his sons to Csere, a city of Etruria, while Sextus, the imme- diate author of his family's ruin, endeavouring to find a retreat at Gabii, of which he had once treacherously become master, fell a victim to the vengeance of the people. Other authors represent the father as seeking refuge among the Gabini, and as retiring thence into Etruria, in the hopes of finding the friends of his mother's relations ready to espouse his cause. Dionysius speaks of Sextus as surviving the expulsion of his family fourteen years, and falling, at the end of that time, in the battle of Eegillus. We shall leave, however, these contradictory statements, and pass over the incon- sistencies of the historians respecting the number and fates of the exUed princes, to relate the formidable conspiracy at Rome in favour of the Tarquins, which gave occasion to that triumph of stem patriotism over paternal love in the conduct of Brutus, which his- torians, painters, and poets have delighted to celebrate. The austerity of the new government, under which nothing but Conspiracy virtue could hope for distinction, was naturally felt by many of the the TSquins. patrician youths as an intolerable evil. The distinctions of rank and fortime commanded respect no longer. Failings which royal favour had been well contented to pardon, while they rendered the monarchy more secure, could obtain no indulgence from the repubhc. The young men, who were addicted to pleasure, remem- bered with affection their princely companions who were doomed to exile, from whom they had received those courtesies which the station of their patrons rendered peculiarly grateful. Aware of the existence of these feelings, Tarquin sent ambassadors to Eome, who were apparently charged with the moderate request that he might be permitted to enjoy his patrimonial fortunes. But while the senate were hesitating as to their reply to this demand, which they at length referred to the people, by whom it was granted, the emissaries of the king found means to engage some of the noblest youths of Eome, among whom were three noblemen of the Aquilian family, nephews of Collatnius, two nephews of ViteUius, and Titus The sons ot and Tiberius, the sons of Brutus, in a conspiracy to restore the aS^in it 46 LtrCIDS JTINIUS BRUTUS. [CHAP. II. B.C. 509. Tarquins. These met together in the house of one of the conspira- tors, and bound themselves to fidelity by a dreadful oath, confirmed by touching the entrails of a man newly slain, and drinking his blood. At one of their meetings, however, a slave, named Vindi- cius, overheard the whole of their discourse, and hastened to give information of the discovery he had made — according to Livy, to the consuls ; but, as others assert, to Valerius, as he feared the ties of natural affection would induce the chief magistrates to spare the traitors. Certain it is that they were immediately seized, the letters which they had given the ambassadors for Tarquin secured, and preparations made for their trial. Early on the following day, the culprits were brought before Brutus and Collatinus, who were seated on the tribunal. The sons of the former were first arraigned, and their guilt proved by the testimony of Vindicius and the pro- duction of their letters. With unbroken firmness, Brutus three times demanded if they had any defence to offer, but they replied only by their tears. AU the spectators were moved by commisera- tion for their inexperienced youth, and called upon the father to spare them ; but he, rising from his seat with the same unshaken He sentences constancy, directed the lictors to perform their office. Upon this deS.'° dreadfiil command, the youths, in the fervour of agony, implored their judge to save them, and the people joined their entreaties ; he alone remained unmoved, and saw his children scourged and beheaded without a sigh. But Collatinus was little prepared to foUow his example. He made an effort to save his nephews, which appears to have been frustrated by the firmness of his colleague, though the historians differ considerably respecting the circumstances under which his merciful intentions were defeated. Vindicius was rewarded with a sum of money, his emancipation from slavery, and the privileges of a citizen of Eome. The ambassadors were dis- missed from reverence to the sacred character which they bore, though they had forfeited their claim to its protection; and the property of the king, now confiscated for his treachery, was divided among the people, who were thus bound by an additional motive to resist aU attempts for his return. The Campus Martins alone was reserved for the pubhc use ; and having been consecrated to Mars, was devoted to those exercises by which the Eoman youths were prepared for victory. Livy relates, that as the people thought it unlawful to use the com reaped from this field, they threw it in bundles into the Tiber, where it floated in the shallows, and, miag- Hng with other substances, became the foundation of an island, which, in after times, was covered with temples. Procures tiie The zeal of Brutus for the complete abolition of all relics of the Collatinus. Tarquin race, seems to have become a passion which not only over- came his dearest affections, but perverted his sense of individual justice. He was unable to endure the continuance of his colleague CHAP. II.J LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS. 47 in the supreme power, who bore that name which he desired that B.C. 509. all should hold accursed. The people, indeed, were not destitute of similar feelings, and murmured against CoUatinus as favouring the exiled king. Observing these emotions in the populace, Brutus convened a public assembly, in which he read the oath taken by the people against the recall of their late sovereign, and called on them scrupulously to guard those hberties which they had confirmed by so august a sanction. He observed, that he addressed them with grief on account of CoUatinus, to whom he referred, and that nothing but the love he owed to his country should have induced him to break silence. But the people felt that while one of the race of Tarquin remained, and held high ofiice, they were unable completely to enjoy their fi'eeedom. Then, addressing himself to his astonished colleague, he exclaimed, " Of your own accord, Lucitis Tarquin, remove these inquietudes from us ; we have not forgotten that you cast out the tyrants ; complete your claim on our gratitude ; dehver us from the name of the kings we have rejected. I wiU advise the citizens not only to leave you aU your possessions, but if needftil, liberally to augment them. Depart in amity and peace ; dehver your country even from groundless fears. We shaU feel that we are free indeed, when the last member of Tarquin's house has departed from us." At this address CoUatinus was bewUdered with surprise, whUe the chief men in the city pressed around him and entreated him to retire. At last, on the entreaties of Lucretius, the father of his heroic wife, he resigned the consular dignity, and retired to Coiiatmus Lavinium, where he died, after a peaceftd. life, at an advanced age. *"*' ^°™'' Livy places this incident before, and Dionysius after, the exhibition of the inflexibility of Brutus on the punishment of his sons. The latter historian relates the circumstances ia fuUer detail, and represents the conduct of Brutus in stiU harsher colouring. He puts into his mouth a vehement harangue against the object of popular resent- ment, and makes him declare that Rome might select between himself and CoUatinus, as both of them should never continue consuls. According to this authority, the people were so incited by the ftirious discourse of the popular orator, that they were about to depose CoUatinus with ignominy, when Lucretius interposed, entreated his son-in-law voluntarily to retire, and besought his adversaries not to heap disgraces upon him. There is a great inconsistency in the latter part of the statement of this historian. He informs us that the iQustrious exUe retired, calling on the gods to witness the ingratitude of his friends, and immediately after represents him as accepting twenty talents from the pubUc treasury, and five from the private fortunes of Brutus. The account of Livy, which we have followed, appears the most consistent with itself, and the least unworthy of the parties to whom it relates. From the Uttle we can gather respecting CoUatiQUS, his virtues seem to have 48 LUCIUS JUNIUS BBUTUS. [CHAP. II. B.C. 509. been of too gentle a cast for the stern republicanism of Eome. He doubtless made a happy exchange of the turbulence of contending factions for the repose in which he spent his age. It is greatly to his honour that he never united with the enemies of his country, like Coriolanus in after times, in order to revenge his private wrongs. He left, if not a glorious, at least an unspotted name. If, in the banishment of GoUatinus, Brutus had manifested an indifference to private feeling, his subsequent conduct at least proved that he was not instigated by personal ambition. He immediately convened the people for the election of a consul, who might rule jointly with him in the room of the exUe. On this occasion they Puuuus voted in centuries, and their choice fell on Publius Valerius, whose I™ Cmsttf subsequent conduct in extending the rights of the people procured for him the name of Pubhcola. He was a man of great eloquence, generosity, and benevolence, addicted, from the earliest age, to the studies of philosophy, and fiUed with a deep sense of the rights arising from the common humanity of all. He was no sooner chosen, than a general amnesty was decreed to all who had followed the fortunes of the exiled prince, on condition that they should, within twenty days, retm-n to the city. This prudent measure caused many noble patricians to join the republic, who had at first retired from the behef that the revolt against the Tarquins would shortly be dissolved, and bring ruin on those who had assisted in its progress. But Tarquin, though deserted by most of his friends, did not resign his hopes of regaining his throne. He forgot his sorrow for the defeat of his schemes in the fervent desire of vengeance ; and, resigning all plans for subverting the commonwealth by treachery, resolved to attack it in open war. In order to procure the means for this contest, he appeared as a supphant in the cities of Etruria, and urgently besought the Veientes and Tarquinienses to assist in Exertions of his restoration. He besought them, with the most pathetic en- fo?^his°"" treaties, not to suffer a king, united to them by ties of blood, after restoration, enjoying such a kingdom, to linger in poverty and exile, and to see his children perishing around him in the blossom of their youth. He reminded them, that while others had been sent for from foreign regions to fiU the kingly office at Rome, he had been driven thence by an accursed conspiracy of his relatives, in the midst of his exer- tions to adorn the city ; contended that the supreme power had been divided because no one was found worthy to enjoy it, and that his goods had been distributed among the people that aU might partici- pate ia the injustice and the crime ; and declared his resolution to recover his throne, and take vengeance on the ungrateftd citizens. He fiirther incited them to join him, by calling them to revenge, at the same time, their individual wrongs, the defeats of their armies, and the loss of their territories, of which Eoman cupidity had deprived them. His exertions were successful ; the Veientes joined CHAP. II.J LUCIUS JUNIUS BKUTUS. 49 him in the hope of recovering the lands they had been compelled to b.c. 509. resign in former wars, and the Tarquinienses from affection to a is joined by family sprimg from among them, and the ambition of seeing one Vei. " exercising supreme power at Eome with whom they could claim kindred. The combined forces of these states speedily entered the territories of the repubhc, and the consuls, at the head of the troops, advanced to give them battle. The cavalry were under the direc- tion of Brutus, and the infantry, dra^vn up in a square battalion, were commanded by Valerius, his colleague. As Brutus was pro- ceeding, Aruns, the son of Tarquin, who was at the head of the horse soldiers of the roj-al army, observed him, surrounded with the lictors, and exclaimed -^vith ftiry, "There is the man who has driven us forth to exile! There is he, proudly decked in those ensigns of dignity of which he has spoiled us! O gods! the avengers of injured kings, assist me!" With these words, he set spurs to his horse, and rode fiercely to attack the consul. Brutus, inflamed with equal animosity, rushed to meet him. Both combatants were inspired by so terrible an ardour, that each lost all thought of self-defence in the eager hope of destroying his adversary, and thus each desperately rushed on the spear of his foe, and both feU at the same instant. Death of The issue of the battle which was followed was at first doubtful ; the ^™"^ Veientes were overcome by the Romans, and the Romans opposed to the Tarquinienses were defeated. The latter, however, speedily retired, and left the field to their foes. According to Livy, they were panic-struck, by hearing, in the night, a voice which was thought to be that of Silvanus, come from a wood, shouting that the Etrurians had lost one man in the battle more than the Romans, and, therefore, that the latter were victorious. The body of the fallen hero was brought with the spoils to Rome, and there honoured with as splendid a ftmeral as could be prepared in those rude and simple times. Valerius dehvered an oration in his praise over his remains ; whence the custom arose at Rome of paying this tribute of respect to departed greatness. But the most touching mark of lamentation for his death was afforded by the matrons, who wore mourning for him a whole year, in gratitude for the vengeance he had exacted for an outrage on female honour. Thus fell Brutus, at the moment when he seemed to have attained Character of his utmost desires. His pubhc Ufe, from the hour when he threw jts miiuencj. off the appearance of an idiot, was but a few months in duration ; but his conduct during that period decided the fortunes of his country, and affected the condition of the civilized world for ages. Not only was he the instrument of effecting a mighty change in the institutions of Rome, but he stamped for ever on her character that stem and savage grandeur to which every adversary was compelled to yield. He had seen his aged father and his brother slain, his estate confiscated, and himself treated as a mark for derision ; and [r. h.] e 50 LUCIDS jnNIUS BEUTUS. [CHAP. II. B.C. 509. during years of contumely and disgrace, lie liad existed but for vengeance. One emotion — a burning hatred to tyranny took entire possession of bis soul. His tender affections, all_ his loves, but for his insulted country, withered and died away within him. His course, therefore, was as decided as his energy was subhme. As he was placed in the most conspicuous point of the Eoman armals, his sacrifice of all human emotions to his country's freedom became the model which a nation of warriors delighted to imitate. From his example the impulse was given to that illustrious succes- sion of heroes who were " lavish of their mighty souls " in the service of a state resolved on universal empire. [Insula Tiberina in its present 3tate.] [Horatius Cocles, /riwH tlie Museum Florentinum.] CHAPTEE III. WAS. WITH PORSENNA. B.C. 508. Soon after the last battle witli the Eomans, Tarquinius had taken B.C. 508. refuge with Porsenna, the Lax or great chieftain of Clusium in Etruria. This prince, at the instigation of the exiled king, led a formid- able force against the republic, and the danger became so pressing, that the patricians were compelled to exert themselves to the utmost to gain the popular favour, since they could only withstand this powerful foe by the aid of the great body of the people. Notwith- standing all resistance, the Janiculum was soon taken, and its garrison driven into the city, on which the Etruscans were rapidly advancing, when they foimd their way barred at the Pons Subhcius, or the Horatius wooden bridge, by Horatius Codes, Sp. Lartius, and Titus Her- minius. The two latter at the command of Codes returned to the city, while he alone continued to resist the enemy. The bridge was torn down by the Eomans, the advance of the Etruscans cut off, and Codes swam in safety to the other side of the Tiber. Not- withstanding this act of heroism, Rome was soon so closely block- aded by the Etruscans, that a famine ensued ; but another act of fierce valouragain saved the city. Caius Mucins, a noble youth, having Tale of Caius detei-mihed to slay Porsenna, swam across the Tiber. He advanced to s^°"fa the royal tent, but mistaking the king's secretary for the king himself, slew him, and attempting to force his way back again through the Codes defends the "Pons Sul)liems." 52 B.C. WAE WITH POESENNA. [chap. HI. 508. surrounding troops, was seized and brought before tbe king. Mucins dauntlessly declared his intention, and by way of repJymg to a threat of torture by &e, thrust his right hand into the flame Peace with Porsenna. Dr. Arnold on the Story uf Poreenna. [Caius Mucius Scaevola. — Musturti Florentmv.m.'] which was then burning on the altar. Mucius then informed Porsenna that three hundred young Romans had sworn his destruc- tion. The Etruscan king, alarmed at this, proposed terms of peace, which, after some time, were agreed to. The Eomans consented to surrender to the people of Vei the districts which they had taken from them, but would hearken to no terms for the restoration of Tarquinius. In the year B.C. 501, an important war broke out with the Latins, which was distinguished by the memorable battle of Lake Eegillus, B.C. 499, in which the exiled king Tarquinius was present Li this great battle the popu- lar lays of Rome represent Castor and PoUux (the Dios- curi) as appearing in the fight, under the form of two gigan- tic youths mounted on white horses,andfightingin theEoma ranks. With this battle ends the mythical period of Eome. It is the opinion of the best critics, that notwithstanding the legendary acts of heroism connected with this war, Eome was com- pletely subdued by the Etruscan king. Dr. Arnold observes: " That war which has been given in its poetical version as the war with Porsenna, was reaUy a great outbreak of the Etruscan power [The Dioscuri, /rom a Deruirius o the Gens Pcstumia.'] CHAP. III.] WAE WITH PORSENNA. 53 upon the nations southward of Etruria, in the very front of whom b.c. 508. lay the Romans. In the very next year after the expulsion of the king, according to the common story, and certainly at some time within the period with which we are now concerned, the Etruscans fell upon Rome. The result of the war is, indeed, as strangely disguised in the poetical story, as Charlemagne's invasion of Spain is in the romance. Rome was completely conquered : aU the territory which the kings had won on the right bank of the Tiber was now Subjection of lost. Rome itself was surrendered to the Etruscan conqueror ; his ^°™^ sovereignty was fiiUy acknowledged; the Romans gave up their arms and recovered their city and territory, on condition of renouncing the use of iron, except for instruments of agriculture. Defeat of the But this bondage did not last long ; the Etruscan power was broken |^e™re^"^ by a great defeat sustained before Aricia; for after the fall of Rome Aridn. the conquerors attacked Latium, and while besieging Aricia, the united force of the Latin cities, aided by the Greeks of Cuma;, succeeded in destroying their army, and in confining their power to their own side of the Tiber. Still, however, the Romans did not recover their territory on the right bank of the river, and the number of their tribes, as has been already noticed, was consequently lessened by one third, being reduced from thirty to twenty. Thus, within a short time after the banishment of the last king, the Romans lost aJl their territory on the Etruscan side of the Tiber, and aJl their dominion over Latium." [Part of the Servian WalL— ffcK'j Topography of Bcme^'i ^t::^\ [Roman Triumph, from an aaicient Painting found in PompeiL—Eeal Mttseo Borbonieo ] CHAPTER IV. CAIUS MAECIUS COEIOLAKUS. FLOUEISHED A30tJT B.C. 490. B.C. 490. The family of Cains Maroius was one of the noblest and most venerable in Rome. He was descended from Ancus Martins, the fourth of the Roman hings, and numbered many illustrious patricians among his ancestors. He lost his father ia his early childhood ; but this misfortune was amply compensated by the care of his mother Volumnia, who not only devoted her Hfe to his education, but strove to inspire him with that martial ardour which alone could lead to the highest distiactions. He returned her love with the most respectful yet devoted affection ; and the hope of adding to her joys was the strongest impulse which animated him in Ms career of victory. He learned early to excel in aU. the robust exercises which were preparatory to the exploits of the field ; and acquired in these so great an excellence, that scarcely any one of the youths of his own age dared to enter into competition with him. From this decided superiority, so early recognised, it is probable that that imbending pride and stern spirit of defiance had their origin, which threw so dark a shadow over his character in maturer years. Marcius was early permitted by his heroic mother to encounter CHAP. IV.J CAIUS MARCruS CORIOLANUS. 55 the dangers of battle. His first opportunity of displaying those b.c. 490. great qualities with which he was endowed, was in the fiercest engagement in which Eome had yet conflicted for the preservation of her freedom. Tarquin, unsubdued by his numerous misfortunes, prevailed on the Latins to espouse his cause; and, although far advanced in age, marched with the army, which was commanded by Mamilius. The Eomans, under the conduct of Posthumius, the dictator, hastened to meet them, and hearing that the exiled king and his sons were among the hostile forces, rushed with ferocious ardour to give their enemies battle, and met them on the borders of the lake EegiUus. Here a combat the most sanguinary ensued, in Coriolanus which the generals, carried away by their ardour, fought hand to of Ke^uui^ hand among the soldiers. Tarquin himself, feeble with age, con- centrating all his energy for a single effort, spurred his horse to attack the dictator, but received a wound in his progress, and was borne from the field by his allies. Mamilius and Valerius were both killed, after performing the most astonishing feats of valour. At length, the Eoman fortune prevailed, and the Latins fled, after a resistance in which scarcely a soldier escaped unwounded. In this His early remarkable contest the prowess of young Marcius was conspicuous. ™'°"- As he saw one of his comrades struck down at a little distance from him, he rushed between his coxmtryman and his foe, and maintained the combat tiU he slew the aggressor. For this exploit, Posthumius crowned him with an oaken garland — ^the reward of him who pre- - served a citizen. On his return to Eome, after this success, he married, but continued to reside, together with his wife and family, in the house of his revered and beloved mother. It would have been well for Marcius had his mind been devoted entirely to the acquirement of additional fame in defending the state in foreign warfare, and the enjoyment of those domestic pleasures, in the intervals of combat, of which he was so well deserving ; but the high-bom pride of his spirit, and his disdain of the populace, were unfortunately developed in the contests between the senate and the people, by which the commonwealth was now distracted. It wiU be proper to take a concise view of the origin of these struggles, in which he took a share so ruinous to his happiness and injiuious to his honoirrable fame. When the regal government was abohshed at Eome, its place was supplied by an aristocracy, which allowed but a small share in the direction of the state to the people. This, however, was not the principal grievance of which they had to complain. The l^'"' p*^j°J ^j^^j respecting debtors, which allowed the creditor to treat the insolvent creditor, as a slave, and even to whip and torture him, pressed on them most severely ; especially as wealth was distributed with great inequahty, and the most exorbitant interest was exacted for the loans which extreme poverty often compelled them to request of the patricians. 56 CAIUS MAECIXJS CORIOLANUS. [CHAP. IV. B.C. 490. Their sense of this oppressive regulation was arousedby tlie appear- ance of an aged man in the forum, covered with bruises, and in the most piteous condition, who related the story of his wrongs and his sufferings. He alleged, that while fighting the battles of his country, he had lost aU his httle stores by the incursion of the foe ; had been forced to borrow money to pay the taxes imposed on him ; had given up his paternal estate to satisfy the enormous demands of Lis creditor ; and, after all, had been seized, in his age and sorrow, and Disputes tortured in a dungeon. Moved by this tale and the miserable diSoTamf appearance of the speaker, the people ran tumultuously through the creditors at city, and when the consuls, Appius Claudius and P. ServiHus, ^°"^^ attempted to appease them, burst forth into expressions of vehement indignation against their oppressors. They demanded that the senate should immediately assemble to redress their wrongs, and when they found the greater part of that body absent from terror, they became stiU more incensed and tumultuous. At length the senators, thinking it safer to meet the danger than to neglect it, repaired to the place of deUberation, as the populace had required. But here the opinions were faa- from imanimous as to the course it would be proper to take in this important crisis. Some, with Appius, recommended the seizure of the most active in order to terrify the rest into submission; while others, with Servilius, were inchned to soothe and conciUate the unruly. In the midst of the discussion, news arrived that an army of the Volscians were advanc- ing to besiege the city, which the people received with joy. The commons now determined to obtain revenge for their wrongs by totally refusing their services. This course decided the senate to lay aside their animosities for the present, and to empower Servilius to forbid the detention of any citizen in prison or in chains, so as to prevent him firom joining the consular levies, and to prohibit the seizure of the lands or arrest of the famihes of any who should take up arms during their absence. This measure had the effect desired, since a great number of debtors availed themselves of the protection offered, and, in the battle which ensued, exerted them- selves with more energy, as if inspired by the ruin of their fortunes. The truce between the contending parties of the state was occupied Tiie by a brilliant succession of victories. The Volscians, after an routeT"^ ineffectual attempt on the Eoman encampments, were completely routed, and the city of Suessa Pometia, to which the fugitives from the battle escaped, taken and given up to plunder. An army of the Sabines, which had suddenly advanced to ravage the open country, was overtaken, and cut to pieces in a single day. The Aruncians, who had sent deputies to demand that the Romans should withdraw from the Volscian territories, and whose legions, at the same time, set out to enforce the negotiation, were arrested by bands who rushed forth eagerly to destroy them ; and before the senate could CHAP. IV.J CATOS MAKCIUS CORIOLAlfCS. J* O^ 58 CAIUS MAECITJS COEIOLANUS. [CHAP. IV. B.C. 490. be regularly consulted, or an answer given to the ambassadors, the army was defeated, and the war terminated by the Eoman prowess. The Ecetrans also, terrified by the successes of the Romans, sent an embassy to sue for peace, which was only granted on the cession of their lands. The people, whose valour had gained these signal triumphs, naturally expected that the return of peace would bring them a solemn investigation and redress of their grievances. They were, therefore, indignant when they found, not only that this duty was entirely neglected by the senate, but that the old laws respecting debtors were enforced even against those who had been protected from the grasp of their creditors when the danger of the repubhc required that they should be at hberty to hazard their Uves in its service. Those who fought under the banners of Servilius, when they were seized, applied to him to assist them and redeem his plighted faith, accused the hardness of their fate, and displayed the Cruel wounds they had received when supporting him in battle. The thfDebtors. consul, although he was disposed to render them justice, remained irresolute, through fear of Appius and the senators, who were deter- mined to resist all the demands of the people. Thus he so lost their affections, that when it was referred to the commons to nominate a person who should have the honour of dedicating a temple to Mer- cury, they elected M. Latorius, the first centurion of a legion, for the purpose of irritating Appius, whom they had cause to hate, and ServUius, whom they began to despise. After this conduct of the plebeians, the breach between the higher and lowers orders continued rapidly to widen. When a debtor was arrested, he was resciied by force, and the consuls' decrees were prevented from being heard or obeyed, by clamour and tumultuous riotings. While this state of disturbance continued, the Sabines threatened the city with war, and the people, remembering the rewards of their former exertions, refused to shed their blood for the defence of those who had shown themselves ungrateftd. At this juncture, the year of Appius and Servihus expired, and A. Virginius and T. Volusius were appointed to the consular dignity. The new magistrates, urged by the senate to violent measures, ordered one of the leaders of a tumultuous assembly to be apprehended, but not only saw their hctors repulsed by the people, but encountered a struggle, which, although not deadly in itself, was of a nature to excite the most serious alarm. The senate immediately assembled in great confusion, and it was long before the consuls could restore that order which was necessary even to the appearance of deliberation among the members. Three opinions were then asserted with great zeal ; Virginius, the consul, proposed that effect should be given to the promises of Servilius, and all those soldiers released who had fought imder him. Titus Laxcius urged the justice and expediency of a total abrogation of debts, as CHAP. IV.J CAIUS MAECIUS COElOLANUS. 59 the only mode of healing the divisions; and Appius violently B.C. 490. insisted that the sedition arose not from oppression, but too much freedom, which the right of appeal secured, and that the only mode by which the senate could preserve its dignity, was the adoption of firm proceedings and the appointment of a dictator. The latter recommendation was adopted ; but, happily for the peace of Rome, the author of the measure was not chosen to that oflSce, on which the salvation of the state depended. The choice of the senators was vaieriua prudently fixed on M. Valerius, brother of the man who had assisted 'i''^'^*"!'- in expelling the house of Tarquin, and who had given to the people those laws by which all those rights were secured that they were yet allowed to enjoy. As the memory of his relative was still dear to them, they hstened to his promises, when he made them the same ofiers as those by which ServOius had beguiled them ; and enlisted in such nmnbers that an army of ten legions was raised, being a greater force than the Eomans had ever yet been able to embody. All their troops were, however, needed; for three powerful foes appeared at once in arms — the JEqui, the Volsci, and the Sabines ; all probably expecting to find great advantage in the intestine divisions of Rome. The first had made incursions on the territories of the Latines, who entreated the Eomans either to protect them, or allow them to arm against their invaders ; and as the former course was judged the most prudent, Vetusius, the consul, was sent to their assistance, and soon drove their foes into the fastnesses of the moun- tains. The other consul marched to attack the Volsci, whom he found ardently desirous of a battle, as, from their superior numbers, they were confident of obtaining the victory. As they rushed forward with shouts and acclamation, the Eomans waited in silence to receive their charge ; and then, being fresh and unfatigued, returned the attack vrith so much vigour, that the Volsci, exhausted Defeat of tue with the anticipations of success, fled in great disorder. The victors ^°'^'"- followed them closely, drove them from their camp to the- city of Vehtra3, and entered that place, together with the defeated battalions. After great carnage, the few who survived threw down their arms, and received the mercy of the conquerors. The dictator, in the mean time, obtained a great victory over the Sabines, who were the most formidable enemies of Eome. And the consul Vetusius, being incited by the clamours of his army to the bold attempt of dislodging the jEqui from their mountainous position, struck so great a terror into the foe by the boldness of the act, that when they might have attacked him with every probabflity of success, they deserted their camp and fled into the valleys. A rich booty was thus obtained without effusion of blood, and the army returned in triumph. Immediately on the return of the soldiers, Valerius, anxious to redeem the pledge he had given, proposed- a law for the relief of those who were insolvent. The proposition was unhappily rejected, 60 CAIUS MAECIUS CORIOLANUS. [chap. IV. Conduct of JIarcius in these disputes. B.C. 490. and the virtuous dictator retired from office in disdain, amidst the acclamations of the people whom he had vainly endeavoured to serve. Marcius now appears to have taken a decided part against the popular requisitions. He contended that the grievances respect- ing debtors were the mere pretexts of a seditious spirit, which must be crushed by resolution in its infancy, or it would totally destroy the rights of the senate and patricians. These councils, however, were frustrated by a new mode which the people adopted to make the nobility feel how much they were dependent on those whom they affected to despise. Conducted by Sicinius, they left their employments, and peaceably entrenched themselves, according to some authors, on the banks of the Anio, and to others, on the Aven- tine hiU, taking nothing but those things which were necessary for the supply of their immediate wants. Tliis measure struck more dismay into the hearts of the patricians than they had felt in the most violent tumults, and soon produced a resolution to concede any thing which might induce the people to return. For this purpose, Menenius Agrippa, a man of excellent character, and endowed with that rude species of humour which is always acceptable to the popu- lace, was sent to treat with them ; and, in order to show the folly of their secession, related to them the celebrated fable of a sedition by the members of the body against the stomach, in which, though they succeeded in starving the object of their aversion, they found that, in then- success, they lost all their own energy, and were brought near to destruction. The adaptation of this happy idea to the state of parties among the Romans, had its desired effect, and the seceders The tribunes agreed to treat for a reunion. At length they consented to return, on condition of being allowed five tribunes, to be chosen from their own body, who were to protect them against the powers of the senate and consuls, whose persons were to be esteemed sacred, and who were to be allowed a solemn veto on every proposition, before it became a law to bind their constituents. These officers had, how- ever, no voice in the senate, no share in the administration of justice, and no splendid or august habit to distmguish them from their fellow citizens. But, shortly after their appointment, they obtaiaed the consent of the senate to the appointment of two functionaries, to be their assistants, who, in subsequent times, were called plebeian ajdiles, and had the care of the public buildings, and many other duties confided to them. Sicmius and Brutus, two of the most vehement opponents of the patrician encroachments, were among the first number of tribunes. Marcius witnessed these concessions with regret, but saw that it was in vain to oppose them. He shortly found a more congenial sphere for the development of his energies, in the war against the Volsci, who seem to have risen from every defeat with unabated resolution and prowess. He attended the consul Cominius to the [Roman Hastatus — Miiseiirn Floi entinum ] CHAP, rv.] CAIUS MARCIUS COEIOLANnS. 61 field, against these formidable adversaries, and having shared in B.C. 490. defeating the Antiates, and capturing Longula and Polusca, pro- ceeded to assist in the siege of Corioli, a strongly fortified town, vrhich the enemy regarded as their capital. Animated by the danger of their principal city, the Volsci collected a large force, with which they resolved on attacking the be- siegers from, the rear, in the hope of com- pelling them to retire. To meet this de- tachment, Cominius drew off a great part of his forces, and left Titus Larcius to command those which still lay before the town, among whom was Caius Marcius. On this movement, the troops within the city sallied forth on the diminished bat- talions, and drove them to their entrench- ments. At this critical moment, the spirit of Marcius burst forth to save and conquer ; while he desperately opposed himself to the pursuers, he called to the Eomans, with a voice like thunder, to turn on them, and roused their courage, while he struck dismay into the ^^^.^.^ troops which had hitherto been victorious. Not satisfied -with t^jn^uct repulsing the foe, he hastily followed them ; now struggling vrith at Corioii.' the enemy, now animating his own battalions, and calling out to them that Corioh was theirs. With astonishiag enterprise, followed oply by a few soldiers, he burst with the fugitives into the city, and rushed through the streets, putting hosts of enemies to flight, who were so confounded at his surprising valour, that they thought not of cutting off his retreat, or of steadily opposing his progress. While he thus seemed to burst like hghtning through the city, Larcius had time to enter without opposition, and to secure the conquest which Marcius had achieved, almost as swift as thought, by the might of his single arm. The soldiers immediately began to disperse themselves throughout the city, for the purposes of plrmder. But Marcius, sternly rebuking them, called to them to follow him instantly to the assistance of Cominius, who might even then be strugghng with hosts of their foes. A few noble spirits only obeyed him, and with these he hastened, without a moment's pause, to join the consul. He arrived at the very moment when the armies were jojng the about to engage ; scarcely told the issue of his exploits, and covered gjjfi°?j5 already with dust and with blood, seized eagerly on the post of the greatest danger, carried defeat and terror wherever he moved, and forced the Volsci, vrith great loss, to retire. Even yet he refused to listen to the entreaties of those who besought him to take repose. As if gifled with more than mortal powers, he led on the pursuit of 62 CAIOS MAECIITS COEIOLANUS. [chap. H'. B.C. Derives his surname from the place. .\ public funeral decreed to Menenius Agi-ippa. 490. the fugitives, and never stopped till all the troops were routed and the camp of the Volsci taken. On the day after these wonderful successes, Cominius, after giving thanks to the gods, rapturously eulogized Marcius, attributing all the glory to him alone, and entreated him to accept a noble horse, and to choose a tenth part of the spoils. The hero received the praises bestowed on him with graceful modesty, accepted only the horse offered by the consul, and declining any share of the booty, requested only, as his reward, that i» Volscian who had once hospitably entertained him, might be allowed his freedom. This moderation and generosity gave a finish- ing grace to his triumph. The assembly, as he refused all the more substantial gifts they desired to shower upon him, unanimously gave him the surname of Coriolanus, in testimony of his astonishing valour. At Eome he was received with the warmest admiration, as the consul, with eminent magnanimity and justice, gave him the whole merit of the war, and dehghted to set forth his praises. The peace which ensued, however, was dangerous to Rome, and fatal to the glory of Coriolanus. At first, indeed, all animosities seemed buried in the common joy; a new treaty of peace was made, with the people of Latium, and a third day added to the Feriae Latinse, in commemoration of the happy reunion of the senate and the plebeians. But the death of Menenius Agrippa, whose quahties ensured him the respect of aU, removed one great support of the public harmony. This excellent person died without leaving sufii- cient property to defray the costs of a pubhc burial. As his rela- tives were about to inter his remains in privacy, the people, to whom he had greatly endeared himself, raised a fund, by the pay- ment of a sextans each, for the purpose of bestowing on him splen- did obsequies. When the senate heard of this intention, they refused to allow so noble a patrician to be buried at the cost of the plebeians, and decreed him a magnificent funeral from the public treasury. The people, however, refused to take again their sub- scriptions, but presented them to the children of Menenius, to com- fort theni in their poverty, and stimulate them to the cultivation of virtue. Soon after the death of this popular senator, a famine, which arose from the want of tillage during the secession of the people, occasioned fresh commotions at Eome. The people, with that misdirected passion which their extreme misery alone could excuse, reviled the senate as the authors of the scarcity, which manifestly originated from natural causes. AU the exertions used by this body to purchase corn, having afforded only temporary rehef, they were disposed to assent to a request from the citizens of Vehtra, to send a colony thither to replace the greater number of its inhabitants who had lately been cut off by a terrible pestilence. When, however, they directed a number of the common people to set out for the desolate town, the tribimes, Sicinius and Brutus, CHAP. IV.J CAIUS MAECIBS CORIOLANUS. 63 incited the latter to great discontent, by affirming that the place was B.C. 490. infected, and that the patricians only sent them there as to a linger- ing grave. On this occasion, Coriolanus was unable to repress his Disputes feelings of disgust, and openly inveighed against the tribunes, and Jvttmes. the spirit they succeeded in arousing. In this instance the senate prevailed, and despatched colonies both to VeUtres and Norva, a city of Latium, but were entirely disappointed in the hope that this measure would render the city tranquil. The tumults continued under the direction of Sicinius and Brutus, who took advantage of the general distress to procure a law forbidding any one to interrupt the tri- bunes while speaking, under grievous penalties. The senate and the people continued to act in pohtical opposition, each refusing to confirm or acquiesce in the decrees and resolutions passed in the assembhes of the other, and many accepted the invitations of neigh- boitting states, and emigrated from Eome. At length the fathers resolved on sending an army against the Volsci, in order to employ and unite the turbulent and miserable citizens. But they followed the advice of the tribunes, and refused to take arms. On this, Coriolanus, indignant, set forth on the expedition, attended only by his own dependants, a few noble patrician youths, and a small number of plebeians, who joined him when they observed the spirit with which he was actually departing. This enterprising party advanced to the gates of Antium, collected large spoils, with abun- dance of cattle and food, and returned with the booty, which the generous leader divided, without reserve, among his followers. After this excxirsion, Coriolanus became candidate for the office of consul. At first the people were inclined to forget his opposition to their cause, in his noble qualities and splendid success, but the senate supported him with so iojudicious a warmth, that they with- drew their suffrages from him, and chose Minucius and Sempronius coriolanus is to his exclusion. Conscious of his own merits, he deeply felt, and f^^^^^ "^ bitterly resented this injury ; and he had, unfortunately, too soon an occasion for displaying the rancour which he condescended to cherish. Corn arrived from various quarters, nearly at the same time, for the relief of the disti^esses in Eome. Not only had considerable stores been purchased in Italy, but the fleet which had been des- patched to Sicily returned heavily laden with grain, half of which had been purchased on low terms, and half freely presented to the state by Gelo, the king of Syracuse. As these timely provisions were at the disposal of the senate, the question was earnestly agi- tated in that body whether they should be gratuitously distributed among the people, or on what terms they should be allowed to enjoy them. On this occasion, Coriolanus took the opportunity vehemently to inveigh against the plebeians and the tribunitial power, and intimated that the exigencies of the time should be improved to 64 CAICS KAECIUS COEIOLANUS. [chap. IV. threaten Coriolanus. B.C. 490. abolish those privileges which had been so unwisely conceded. Many of the young and haughty patricians, who felt an insuperable distate to the vulgar harangues of the popular orators, strongly sup- ported these declarations ; but the more mild and aged of the sena- tors opposed them, sensible either of the impohcy of provoking a tumult, or of the want of generosity which would be shown ia com- pelling the people to resign their privileges in order to obtain the means of satisfying hunger. WhUe the matter was eagerly debated, the tribunes, who were present, burst into the most severe invectives The ti-ibunes agaiast Coriolanus, calling out on. the fathers to condemn him to death or exile, and threatenmg that, m case they renised, they themselves would wreak their vengeance upon him. Unappalled by these denunciations, Coriolanus defied their power, and threatened, unless they desisted, himself to chastise their insolence. As they found the majority of the senate inclined to support the object of their hatred, they hastened to the assembly of the people, whom they alarmed by apprehensions that the abolition of the tribuneship was intended, and persuaded them to send into the senate-house for Coriolanus to come and be arraigned in their presence. The mes- senger was dismissed with scorn. At length the tribunes, with a body of their most resolute supporters, surrounded the doors of the senate-house, in order to seize their great adversary, at the close of the discussions. When, therefore, he appeared, attended with many noble youths, who greatly admired him, the sedUes were ordered to seize him ; a fierce contest ensued, which the consuls were scarcely able to appease. Both parties, at length, quietly departed, and Coriolanus returned home in safety. Early the next morning, the tribunes assembled the people, and the city was disturbed, in every part, by tumultuous proceedings. The senate, after long debate, resolved on conciliatory measures, and desired the consuls to sooth the people, and entreat them to carry their animosities against Coriolanus no further, whom the patricians seemed determined not to resign. With these views, Mnucius made a long and very judicious speech, in which he assured the assembly that there was not the slightest intention of depriving them of any of their privileges, or of withholding from them the corn which had been procured for the rehef of their distresses, and proved to them the injustice of their desiring to call a senator to account as a criminal for advice he had given in his legislative character. He even implored them, that, if they thought they had powers to try Coriolanus, or a disposition to punish him, they would pardon him in consideration of his gallant services, or as a favour to the patri- cians. This address inspired gentler thoughts in the people ; but the tribunes insisted on hearing Coriolanus make his own defence and apology, before they would consent to absolve him. He came for- ward, therefore, to speak, and was received with deep attention. Formidaljle attacks against him. CHAP, rv.] CAITJS MAECinS COBIOLANUS. 65 Instead, however, of pursuing the course which Minucius had B.C. 490. marked out for him, he refused to submit to be questioned by the f "meanour plebeians, and sternly inveighed against the whole policy of his of accusers. This bold and imprudent course secured to the tribunes °"° '"""^' all the advantage they were on the point of losing, and caused the fiercest uproar. Sicinius availed himself of the popular rage, con- demned the accused to death, and ordered the sedUes to seize and cast him from the Tarpeian rock. He stood unmoved, stUl breath- ing forth defiance and contempt on his judges. His friends pro- tected him, and the whole body of the nobles threw themselves among the crowd, and resisted the execution of the sentence. In this commotion the consuls interfered, and so great was the venera- tion which their presence inspired, that the contending parties retired, and Coriolanus was once more rescued from the foes whose malice, but for his pride and fierce demeanour, must have been weak as it was pitifiil. Although the immediate danger was thus appeased, the tribunes The tribunes insisted on the appointment of a day for the trial of Coriolanus },"Sfg™ ''"" by the people. The senate hoped, at first, that an incursion of the ?™!?'?' Antiates would have diverted the popular attention, tiU animosities had, in some degree, subsided, but in this they were disappointed, as peace was restored before the time which had been named for the formal accusation of the illustrious senator. Earnest debates took place among the fathers whether they should suffer the proceeding ; Appius Claudius strenuously urging them peremptorily to forbid it^ and Valerius as forcibly entreating them to yield. During the dis- cussion, Coriolanus demanded of the tribunes of what they intended to accuse him ; and as they were afi:aid in the senate-house to allege against him the speech which he had made ■within its walls, they rephed, that they charged him with aiming at tyranny. Conscious of his own integrity on this point, he consented to yield to the investigation required, on condition that his accusers should confine themselves to this single accusation. Livy, indeed, is totally silent on this consent, as well as on aU the circumstances alleged by Dionysius and Plutarch to have taken place between this period and the retirement of Coriolanus from Eome ; and, on the contrary, affirms that he altogether refused to acknowledge the authority of those who presumed to try him, and was condemned to banishment in his absence. This account seems far most probable, from his character ; and there are several inconsistencies in the statements of the more minute historians, which incline us to give credit to Livy. We shall, however, state the substance of the particulars which Plutarch and Dionysius have related. When the time appointed for the trial arrived, a fresh dispute arose, whether the people should give their votes by centuries or tribes ; a highly important question, because, if the voices of the [e. h.] f 66 CAIDS MAECIUS COEIOLANUS. [chap. IV. B.C. 490. people were collected by the first means, the patricians were certain of success ; whereas, if the latter mode were agreed to, they were reduced to their numerical strength, having no more votes than the lowest of the plebeians. After a fierce contention, this point was also conceded to the tribimes ; and, when the senate acquiesced in the demand, the cause was virtually decided. The patricians, indeed, condescended to entreat and to supplicate the people in behalf of the man whom they either wanted the courage or the power to defend ; and seem still to have entertained hopes that their prayers, and the memory of his own noble actions, would secure for Day of trial, him an acquittal. At length the expected day arrived, and immense multitudes were collected in the forum, in anxious expectation of the issue. Minucius first addressed the assembly, entreating them to waive the trial as a boon conceded to the entreaties of the senate ; and, finding that he could not obtain this favour, reminded them that they were bound to confine their allegations to the support of the charge of tyranny. If, however, the tribunes did not in terms rehnquish this accusation, they continued in their harangues, to bring forward all the pohtical offences of Coriolanus as proof of a constructive treason. After they had apparently exhausted all their invectives, the party accused, with a noble assurance, presented himself to the crowd ; and scarcely condescending to notice the par- ticular complaints brought forward by his foes, recounted his exploits in the service of the state, even from his boyhood ; dis- played the crowns which he had won by his astonishing valour, especially in preserving the hves of the citizens, and uncovered the wounds which he had received in battle ; and then triumphantly appealed to the audience, whether he could have intended in peace to destroy those for the preservation of whose lives he had a thou- sand times perilled his own ? The people, who came resolved to condemn, felt abashed before him, and cried out for his acquittal. But Decius, one of the tribunes, now brought forward a new charge, which was totally imexpected, that he had divided the spoils he had taken among his soldiers, to conciliate their affections, instead of bringing them to the pubhc treasury. It is said that Coriolanus was unprepared to reply to his accusation, which was calculated to rouse the animosities of those who had envied the troops those riches which they had dearly won. Pursuing their advantage, the tribunes collected the sufl&-ages, and Coriolanus was condemned to exile by a majority of three votes, twelve having voted against him, and only nine in his favom*. AH these proceedings wear, however, the appearance of historic fiction. It is not probable that, on such an occasion, the senate would resign aU material distinction between themselves and the people, by abandoning the ancient right of voting in centuries; it is unlikely that Coriolanus would con- sent to recognise what he regarded as insolent encroachments, and Appeal of Coriolanus to the people. His banishment decreed. CHAP. IV.J CAIUS MAKCIUS COEIOLANUS. 67 submit to be tried by the people, merely becatise lie thought his B.C. 490. adversaries had taken a ground which they could not maintain ; still less is it to be believed that he would condescend to exhibit his scars and his trophies before those whom he held in inexpressible disdain ; or that he should be confounded by a charge which he might have so readily turned on his accusers. Certain, indeed, it is, that he was condemned to perpetual exile ; but it seems most probable that the people were exasperated to this injustice by his steady refusal to appear before them. As soon as the result was known, the patricians were struck with the deepest sorrow. Coriolanus alone betrayed no symptom of regret ; but the injury sunk into his inmost sotd. He embraced his wife and children, and the mother whom he had so tenderly revered, and, after exhorting them to bear their distresses with constancy, left Eome, attended by a few clients only, who resolved to share lus misfortunes. Many of the senators followed him to the gates, but he received the expressions of their grief with a haughty silence. After a few unquiet days spent in the country, during which he was divided between his love for Eome and his desires of vengeance, the feelings of resentment assumed the complete mastery. In pursuance of his determination to make his enemies feel his power, he resolved to throw himself into the arms of the Volsci, in whose defeat he had seeks refuge obtained the most signal renown. For this purpose, he covered y^'^^to himself with a habit which disguised him, and proceeded, in the ^^ evening, to the house of Attius TuUus, the most celebrated of the Volsdan generals, whom he had repeatedly overthrown in battle, and whom, therefore, he supposed to cherish a great animosity towards him. He entered the haU of his rival without being dis- covered, and placed himself on the hearth sacred to the household gods, which all the states of Italy feared to violate. The servants, awe-struck by the grandeur of his form, and the majesty of his deportment, hastened to call their master, who was at table, that he might question the mysterious stranger. Tullus immediately Hisinteraew °i^i IT iiiii- J with Tulliis. entered the room, and demanded to know his name and purpose ; when Coriolanus, throwing off his disguise, rephed, " If you remem- ber me not, I must declare to you that my name is Caius Marcius — the bitterest foe of the Volsci — to which my surname, Coriolanus, would witness. That is all which is left me now. The envy of the people, and the cowardice of the senate, have banished me from Eome, and forced me to become a supphcant here — ^not for life — ^but for vengeance. If you will accept my services against my ungrate- ftd country, this affliction of mine may become the means of your triumph ; if not, I desire to hve no longer. My fate is in your hands; destroy one who, if you receive him not into friendship, can- not exist but at your peril." Astonished at his magnanimity, Tullus gave him his hand in pledge of faith, assured him that he would 68 CAIUS MAECIUS COEIOLANUS. [CHAP. IV. B.C. 490. receive the highest respect from the people among whom he had sought refuge ; and conducted him into the inner apartments, where he was hospitably entertained, and consulted as to the best means of renewing the war with Eome, in which he might satisiy his desires of revenge. In the mean time, the Romans were engrossed in superstitious observances, little suspecting the danger preparing for them. An old man, having procured himself to be conveyed in a couch to the senate, declared that Jupiter had appeared to him in a dream, and signified his displeasure at the person who had danced before the pubUc games, and that these must be celebrated afresh, or the repubhc must dread the anger of heaven. He added, that he had at &st neglected this intimation, and in consequence, by disobedience, had lost one of his sons, whUe his sleep had been haunted by the same vision, threatening him with further evils if he refrained from making the disclosure. He alErmed, that whUe he still hesitated, he was seized with a severe distemper, and lost the use of his Umbs, so that he could only be brought to the senate-house in a litter. While he dehvered this discourse, it is said, that he gradually recovered his strength, and, at its conclusion, walked home, leaving the senate astonished at the prodigy. On inquiry, they found that a slave had been whipped by his master through the forum, on the morning of the games, which they presumed had given offence to the gods ; and having set a fine on the oiFender, they prepared with great magnificence again to celebrate the festival. War between Tullus resolved to take advantage of this occasion, to inflame his La Eome. countrymen against the Eomans, especially as the consuls chosen for the ensuing year, by the influence of the plebeians, were known to be men of no talents for war. For this purpose, he encouraged a number of the Volsci to repair to Rome, to witness the approaching solemnities ; and then gave secret intimation to the senate that he expected some disorder would ensue from their presence. On receiving this communication, the fathers ordered all the Volsci to depart from the city, who were met on their journey home by the treacherous instigator of their dismissal, and incited to regard it as an, imparalleled outrage. The Volsci, however, on the advice of Coriolanus, sought a more plausible reason for breaking the truce then subsisting between the nations, and sent deputies to Rome to demand the restoration of the cities and the land which had been wrested from them. To this demand the senate indignantly replied, that if the Volsci would be the first to take up arms, they woiid be the last to lay them down. As the Volsci expected this answer, they were prepared to act on it, and having chosen Coriolanus and Tullus to command the forces, immediately took the field. The army was divided into two portions, each of which was led ■ by one of the generals. Tullus, with his battalions, invaded ■ the CHAP. IV.] CAIUS MAECIUS CORIOLANDS. 69 territories of the Latins, to prevent them from affording succour to b.c. 490. their allies ; while Coriolanus burst immediately into the Roman corioianus domains, and acquired great spoils. The former having also taken K™an ""^ considerable booty near Latium, remained to guard the frontiers, territory. while the latter advanced to meet the consuls. These magistrates did not, however, seem eager to contend with their injured country- man, who continued to ravage the country without opposition, enter- ing Circseum without resistance, and retaking not only Satricum, Longula, Polusca, and CorioU, which he had so mainly contributed to subdue, but a number of cities belonging to the Latins, who in vain suppHcated the assistance of their usual protectors. In his progress, he spared the estates of the patricians, either from old friendship, or a desire to raise jealousies between that order and the plebeians. Such was, at all events, the consequence of his forbear- ance; and the senate were even charged with having secretly encouraged the exile to make war, for the abolition of the tribunitial power. All was confiision within the city, as the parties distrusted constema- each other, and feared both the abilities of their foe and the inca- ^oma pacity of the consuls. Li the mean, time, Coriolanus was rapidly advancing, and having taken Lavinitim, pitched his camp at the Cluilian trenches, within five miles of the city. The people, who had doomed him to exile, now in terror besought the senate to meet him ; but, with a truly Eoinan spirit, they reftised to sue to him as a master, whom they had strenuously defended as an equal. When, however, they fotmd that he had broken up his camp, and was actually preparing to invest the city, they consented to send deputies to him, to negotiate for peace. Minucius, Cominius, and three a Deputation other senators of consular dignity, were appointed to conduct this pe^e*" *" important mission. They entreated him by the memory of their former love, to forget the past, and to return to the city, which would be most joyM to receive him. He replied, with austerity, that he would grant peace only on condition that the senate would, restore all the possessions they had taken from the Volsci, and grant to that people the same rights of citizenship which they had con- , ferred upon the Latins. For himself, he expressed his astonish- ment that he should be requested to return to a people, who had so injuriously treated him, and against whose future vengeance he cotdd never be secure. He granted, however, a truce of thirty days, that they might have time to consider the offers he made them, as general of the Volsci ; and, in the mean time, drew off his troops from the city, and employed them in taking possession of several other towns in the territories of Latium. Although the greatest apprehension prevailed at Eome, the senate resolved never to submit to the terms proposed by the invader. At the close of the period allowed them for deliberation, they sent ten of their number to Coriolanus, charged to assure hiin that the 70 CAIUS MARCIUS COKIOLANUS. [chap. IV. B.C. Haughty conduct of Coriolanus. His mother aud family go out to conciUate him. 490. Romans would never yield to demands thus enforced, and, at the same time, to entreat him to withdraw his troops, and afterwards to negotiate for a union. On hearing the speeches of these deputies, he rephed, that the senate had no alternative but restitution or war ; and though as general of the Volsci, he had no other answer to return ; as one of the citizens of Eome, he would advise them to ask no longer, terms to which he could never hsten. He yet allowed them three days to decide on the course they would finally adopt, Their resolution, however, on this point seems never to have wavered, though they were afraid even to send forth an army to oppose the enemy's progress. StiU hoping to move Coriolanus to a comphance with their wishes, they despatched the priests and ministers of reh- gion, in their sacred vestments, to conjure him to retire. He heard their entreaties, and without relaxing his determination, dismissed them. As a last hope, aU now exerted themselves to the utmost, to prepare for that siege which was instantly to be expected. The women ran distractedly about the forum, chnging to the statues of the gods, and the sacred altars, and imploring in agony the assist- ance of heaven. Suddenly, Valeria, the sister of Valerius, ascended the steps of the temple of Jupiter, in the capitol, and called these wretched supphants around her, as if inspired with a divine energy for their reUef. She assured them that one hope of saving their country yet remained through their means, and exhorted them to entreat the mother of Coriolanus, who had devoted her life to his happiness, to join with them in a last effort to prevail on her hitherto inexorable son. Having persuaded them to accede to this proposal, she con- ducted them to the house of Volumnia, whom she found in the deepest affliction, and earnestly entreated her assistance. The noble matron, after expressing her fear that nothing could divert her son from his purpose, agreed to make the attempt if the senate would afford it their sanction. After some opposition from those who feared that Coriolanus would detain the ladies in his camp, the opinion of those who knew that they were secure in the honour of his character, prevailed, and the train set forth, in mourning habits, without any guard, in chariots provided by the consuls. Coriolanus observing the melancholy procession, sent to inquire its meaning. When he heard that his mother, wife, and children, with the noblest of Roman matrons, were coming towards the camp, he resolved to deny their request with as firm a resolution as he had done that of less moving embassies, and called the chief of the Vol- scian officers around him to witness his firmness ; but when they came into his presence, the feelings of nature, in spite of his deter- mination, rushed back upon his heart, and he was melted to tears. He first embraced and supported his mother, then fondly revived the spirits of his wife, and caressed his children. Volumnia then took CHAP, rv.] CAIUS MARCIUS COEIOLANUS. 71 advantage of this moment of tenderness to iirge her request. She B.C. 490. entreated him, by the most sacred considerations — ^by his duty to that land where he had been nurtured in childhood — and by his gratitude for her maternal care, to withdraw his troops, and grant a peace for a year, during which period a solemn treaty might be agreed on and ratified. She assured him that if he would persist in ravaging and destroying the temples of his country, she would never live to be reproached with having given him birth, but he should pass to his unnatural triumph over the corpse of her who had borne and nourished him. He listened to this speech in silence, torn by con- tending emotions. At length Volumnia, perceiving that he was moved, added still more urgent supplications, besought him to recompense all her love by one sacrifice, which would, indeed, save him irom eternal reproach, and breaking off with passionate sorrow, threw herself at his feet, together with his wife and sons. Affection consents to then became triumphant: he raised his mother, and pressing her ^'^^g"**"^ hand, said, in a solemn tone, " Oh, my mother ! you have gained a victory, indeed, for your country, but it is to the ruin of your son ! " He then took them apart, and after consenting to all that they required, suffered them to return. The news of their success was received at Eome with unbounded joy. Crowds came out to meet and conduct them to their houses ; and the people were at a loss to find adequate expressions of their delight and gratitude. The temples were all thrown open as on a splendid victory. When the senate offered to their deliverers any recompense they would demand, they only requested permission to erect a temple to female fortune, which should afterwards be provided with sacrifices and priests firom the pubHc treasury. This modest request was readUy granted, but the fathers insisted on defiraying the whole expense from the national fiinds; upon which the ladies added a statue at their own cost, which was beheved, by the superstitious, to have uttered an exclama- tion expressive of their heroic virtue. Plutarch, after a laborious investigation of this prodigy, rejects it as beyond belief; for, though he thinks the deities might suffer statues to perspire, or drop blood, m manifestation of their wiU, he cannot think they could make them utter articulate sounds without organs to pronounce them. The day after the interview with his relatives, Coriolanus retired coiioianus with his forces. Although he liberally divided all his spoils among ^^ the soldiers, it soon appeared that the apprehensions he had ex- pressed to Volumnia, when he granted her request, were not ittafounded. Tullus, who had long since been led to repent of his generosity towards him, by envy of his superior fame, was resolved to make this abandonment of the siege the occasion of his downfal. When, therefore, Coriolanus arrived with the army at Antium, he charged him with treason against the people who had succoured him, and required him to resign his command preparatory to his 72 CAItrS MAKCnJS COEIOLANUS. [chap. it. B.C. 490. trial. He replied that lie was willing to lay all his conduct before the general assembly of the nation, from whom he had receiTed his powers, but refused to yield to the sentence of the Antiates alone, over whom he knew that his rival had peculiar influence. At length, Tullus, not chooskig to wait the legal decision even of his own countrymen, sent a summons to Coriolanus to appear in the public assembly and make his defence, and procured a number of his par- tizans to assassinate him before he could be heard. On the day appointed, the accuser set forth the charges against Coriolanus in glowing colours, and tried by every art to rouse the passions of the auditors against him. When he rose to reply, the greater num- ber, however, were disposed to hear him with respect ; but the friends of Tullus rushed forward to prevent him, exclaimiag that he Assassinated was a traitor, and overwhelmed him with stones till he fell. No TOscfans sooner was it discovered that he had expired, than all present, even those who had contrived his destruction, were touched with the remembrance of his noble qualities, and filled with remorse for his murder. The Volsci honoured him with a splendid ftmeral, and built a magnificent tomb over his remains. Dionysius affirms, that on the arrival of the news of this catastrophe at Eome, all the people put on mourning ; but Plutarch describes the Eomans as receiving the intelligence without any indication either of sorrow or joy, but, granting the request of the women that they might wear mourning for the space of ten months, in token of regret for one whose death had been occasioned by yielding to their entreaties. Although both Dionysius and Plutaich represent Coriolanus as having thus fallen, on his return to Antium, Livy appears to have entertained a different opinion respecting his fate. He quotes Fabius, whom he speaks of as by far the most ancient of the Eoman historians, as affirming that this hero hved to old age, and, in his declining years, as accustomed to complain that exile, always grievous, was most oppressive to the aged. From an expression of Cicero, in L^lius, it appears to have been his opinion that Coriolanus terminated his days by his own hand. There is no hero of ancient Eome who fiUs so large a space in our imaginations as he whose life we have traced. He seems to have been cast in nature's grandest mould. The effects of his power in rallying defeated armies, striking panic into his foes, rushing from battle to battle, and carrying victory for ever with him, give us an impression of a form, voice, and energies, more than mortal. Nor are his moral quaUties — ^his contempt for wealth — ^his generosity in rewarding his soldiers — his noble frankness and unshaken resolve, less worthy of admiration than his physical resources. To all these elements of a sublime character he added a filial reverence and a conjugal love, which seem to give the finishing grace to his more brilliant virtues. One fatal defect he had, which not only obscured His character. CHAP. IV.J CAIUS MAHCIUS CORIOLANUS. 73 the lustare of his rare endowments and heroic deeds, but rendered B.C. 490. them the instruments of his ruin. He wanted that genial wisdom which sees the excuses which exist for the deficiencies of less noble natures, and traces out the good and kindly feelings which are blended with the errors and the vices of men ; — and the absence of this sweetener of greatness destroyed him. A man of less intellectual grandeur could better have afforded to be destitute of this nice lack of humanity. Qualities hke his, required more than ordinary gentleness towards the failings of others, to prevent them from seeming to place him beyond the sphere in which men could claim kindred with their possessor. Holding the populace in contempt, he felt compelled, by his noble openness, to express his emotion, which they were unable to forgive. He was exempted, at least, from the faults of an ordinary ambition. He acted from the simple impulses which he never chose to disguise ; careless of any approba- tion but that of his own thoughts, and almost rejecting any other, as if no one but himself and his mother were worthy even to applaud him. He was " himself alone." He would have been the greatest and most perfect hero of antiquity, had he only learned to love and respect his species. [Rome seated on the Seven Hills.— /Vwn a large Brasa of Vespasiau.} '^ f . [Mount Palatine, East. — Overbeke, Us Rest^ dc V cmicierme Rome.1 CHAPTER V. STRUGGLE FOR ASCENDANCY BETWEEN THE PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS. B.C. 488 to B.C. 463. B.C. 488. N0TWITHSTANDIN& Coriolanus had drawn off Ms troops, the ^qui and Volsci are said to have re-entered the Roman dominions, and nothing but a vehement quarrel between these two nations, saved the Eomans from a dangerous war. A league was concluded with the Hemicans, B.C. 486, in the third consulship of Sp. Cassius, one of the most distinguished men of that age ; and for a consider- Tripie able period from this date the triple confederacy of Romans, Latins, ofthe**'""'' and Hemicans acted together ia the field, and divided proportion- Romans, ately the plunder and conquered lands. HernSans. In the year B.C. 485, the jealousy of the patricians caused the B.C. 485. impeachment of Sp. Cassius, the proposer of the Agrarian law, before the assembly of the Curiae ; he was beheaded, and his house destroyed. This law, by which a fair division of the conquered lands had been proposed, was stUl (B.C. 481) evaded by the patricians. CHAP. V.j STRUGGLE BETWEEN PATEICIANS AND PLEBEIANS. 75 From time to time the tribunes vainly attempted to carry it into B.C. 485. effect ; and tte plebeians also equally failed in arraigning the consuls for opposing their wishes. The year B.C. 477 is remarkable for the complete destruction of the Destruction whole family of the Fabii and their dependants, who perished by pliita.*^™^ an ambuscade of the Etruscans, with the exception of one son, B.C. 477. who, from his tender age, had been left at Rome. This noble family had offered to carry on the war against Veii, at their own expense. Their offer was gladly accepted by the senate, and the Fabii, three hundred and six in number, with a band of chents four thousand strong, took post upon the banks of the Cremera. Here, rendered rash by repeated victories, they fell into the snares of the Etruscans. The latter following up this success, shortly afterwards defeated the Consul Titus Menenius, who had been sent against them, and got possession of the Janiculum ; part of them even crossed the Tiber, and pillaged the whole of the Eoman territory on the left bank of the river ; but after repeated conflicts, attended with varied success, they were at last hemmed in by the Eoman troops and entirely cut off. The struggle between the patricians and plebeians for political increasing power, still continued as fiercely as ever. The latter had been ^^uJe^s^""* obstinately and gradually working their way to considerable influ- ence. Impeachments by the tribunes were occurring every year. In B.C. 475, Caius Servihus was arraigned for carelessly sacrificing b.c. 475. the lives of the citizens in the attack on the Janiculum. Unable to check the spirit of investigation, the patricians basely attempted to B.C. 473. intimidate their opponents by acts of violence, and scrupled not to cause the assassination of the tribune Genucius, for legitimately exercising his official power. The tribunes being by this deed awed into submission, a proclamation was forthwith issued for a levy of soldiers. According to some, it was the intention of the patricians to enlist the most iQustrious plebeians, and to execute them in the field, or let them fall a prey to the enemy. While the levy was proceeding, lictors were sent by the consuls to seize a distinguished plebeian of the name of Volero Publihus, who had insisted that, having been a centurion, he could not be compelled to enlist as a common soldier. Publilius resisted, and drove back the Hctors, and then throwing himself among a crowd of plebeians, called upon the tribimes for help. The tribunes continuing sOent, he next turned to those of his own order, who, responding to his appeal, kept the lictors at bay. The young patricians hastened to the spot, and a rencounter between them and the plebeians took place, in which the former, after a short time, were driven from the forum. In the following year, (b.c. 472,) Volero, in spite of the great opposi- voiero tion of the patricians, was elected tribune. He forthwith promul- tJi-J^n^ gated an address to the people, declaring that they had a right to b.c. 472. 76 STRUGGLE BETWEEN PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS. [CHAP. T. deliberate on matters of state, on the motion of a tribune; and, moreover, tliat the tribunes ought no longer to be elected by the centuries, but by the tribes. These propositions were calculated to diminish materially the influence of the patrician order. The tribunes continued doggedly for the next four years to struggle on against the deep-seated abuses of the patricians ; and the indig- B.c. 468. nant plebeians, (b.c. 468,) defeated in their purpose to carry into eifect the Agrarian law of Cassius, scorned to take part in the election of the consuls, who in this year were chosen by the patricians. The B.C. 465. year B.C. 465, is memorable for the third campaign of the Eomans Ecetra against the iEqui. In the following year the town of Ecetra declared dedares w^, ^^^ against the Eomans, who at this time suffered fearfolly from ' scantiness of provisions and a crowded population, as vast numbers of the country people had taken refdge within the city walls. This, with the summer heats, and the multitude of beasts driven into the city, brought on a pestilence, which carried off thousands of B.C. 463. the population (b.c. 463). The virulence of this plague appears to *^t^i?' ^^^^ have been great, for no active military operations are recorded during the two following years. To revive the glory of the Eoman name was reserved for Cincin- natus, whose exploits and virtues will now be the subject of our narrative. [Gincmnatus summoned from the Plough. — Eossi, Gemme j^ntiehe.'] CHAPTEE VI. LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS. FLODBISHED AEOTTT B. C. 460. Lucius Qurnnus CnsrciuNATus, who, of all the ancient Romans, B.C. 460. has left behind him the most spotless fame, does not appear to have taken any prominent part ia the affairs of the state nntil past the meriian of hfe. We do not find him mentioned in the repeated disputes respecting the Agrarian laws, which Cassius had first en- kindled, and which were not extinguished by the violent death to which they brought their author. Equally passive does he appear to have been, during the violent contests respecting the conduct of the consuls to Volero, and the law for substituting the Comitia Tri- hita for the Comitia Guriata, in the choice of popular officers proposed by that spirited plebeian. During ah the eaxher struggles between the senate and the people, he seems to have declined taking a decided part, although believed to favour the patricians. From the nature of his influence, when afterwards called to active exertion in the service of his country, it appears that his daily life and deport- ment were distinguished by excellences which all parties agreed in revering. 78 LUCIUS Quorrrus cincinnatus. [chap. vi. B.C. 460. While the consuls were absent from Rome on an expedition against the Mqm and Volsci, whom they completely overthrew, a most important proposal was made by Terentillus, one of the tri- bunes : he complained, in the assemblies of the people, that the rights of individuals were protected by no certain laws, since, with the exception of a few sacred books, to which none but the patricians had access, no written regulations existed, but all depended on the judgment of the consuls. He therefore demanded that five men, the most worthy of the office, should be chosen to frame a code, in pursuance of which the magistrates shoidd be compelled to administer justice. The senate, feefing that the adoption of this measure would greatly hmit the powers they at present exercised, vehemently opposed it, and, by the address of Q. Fabius, the tribunes were pre- vailed on to defer its discussion till the return of the consuls. When, however, Lucretius and Veturius had enjoyed their triumph, and their successors, P. Volumnius and S. Sulpicius, had entered on the discharge of their duties, the tribunes unanimously pressed for the speedy compiktion of settled laws, and required that ten of the most venerable citizens should be deputed to frame them. The patricians seem to have resorted to superstition in order to terrify the people from their design, as strange prodigies are said to have intervened ; and, when these failed of success, they pretended that the Mqui and Volsci were about to invade the territories of Eome, at which the tribunes did not conceal their derision. Violent contests frequently took place in the public assembfies, where the most daring of the patrician youth, with no small degree of pride and imprudence, op- Conduct of posed the plebeians. The most distinguished of these was Csso, son CinctaSm of Cincinnatus, a man of great corporal strength, courage, and elo- quence, who exerted aU these faculties with equal zeal in opposition to the tribunes. By his acts of violence, he rendered hiinself so obnoxious to the populace, that they insisted on his being brought to trial. Upon the day appointed for the investigation, he was defended by his uncle, F. Quintius, and his father, neither of whom attempted either to deny or excuse the acts of impetuosity of which he was accused ; but the former attempted to procure his pardon by setting forth his noble quafities and early prowess in the field, and the latter by imploring the people to treat the errors of youth with compassion, and to absolve his son as a favour to him, whom none of them had reason to accuse. The assembly, who felt the deepest respect for the virtues of Cincinnatus, were inclined by these entrea- ties to acquit his son ; but VirgLnius rephed, that he had no douht the father was himself ignorant of the atrocities of the man for whom he was pleading, which were only heightened by his having disre- garded the example of such a parent. He then called on a person in attendance, named Volscius, who affirmed that Cseso, returning from an entertainment with riotous companions, insulted his brother ; and, CHAP. VI.J LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS. 79 receiving a merited retort, proceeded to strike him to the gromid, B.C. 460. and so bruised him, when in a state of imperfect recovery from the disease then prevalent, that his death was the consequence of his injuries. On hearing this charge, the people rushed on the party accused, to kiU him, without hearing his defence, but were restrained by the interposition of the consuls. Virginius demanded that he should be secured in prison till he could be brought to trial on this accusation, which affected his life ; but the other tribunes proposed, that on giving security for his appearance, he should be suiFered to remain at large during the interval. Ten sureties were required, and the senate fixed the sum for which each should be bound at 3,000 asses. This security being given, on the first occasion such a Patemai proceeding took place at Eome, Caeso withdrew, and the same even- ciMtanatus. ing retired into Etruria, not choosing to hazard the event of a trial. As the sureties were then called on for the sums which they had engaged to pay in case he refiised to appear, Cincinnatus resolved they should not suffer for their kindness to his son, sold the chief part of his little estate, and retired, with virtuous constancy, to a small cottage on the banks of the Tiber, where, with his own hands, he cultivated the small plot of ground which this act of justice had left him. While Cincinnatus continued in this honourable retirement, con- tentions still divided the city. The tribunes continued vehemently to demand the laws which should define the rights of the people and the limits of the judicial power, and were resolutely opposed by the young patricians, whom the exile of Caeso seemed rather to inflame than to terrify. Thus bafiied, the popular officers had recourse to various stratagems to effect their purpose ; they affirmed, that Cseso was actually concealed in the city, ready to strike some blow against their rights, and even, according to Dionysius, forged a letter, warn- ing them of a plot by some of the Roman senators and knights, to murder all who had exerted themselves in behalf of the commons, and sought, by this absurd device, to procure a decree from the senate, giving them judicial powers against the conspirators. This last incident, however, is not alluded to by Livy, and has all the appearance of fiction. While the contentions between the orders of the state remained unappeased, the senate were thrown into the greatest alarm, by the bold and sudden seizure of the capitol by a Sabine, named Herdonius, at the head of a numerous band of out- Enterprise of laws and slaves. This desperate chieitain, having put to the sword ^ "'""''■ all who refiised to join him, except a few who escaped to give the alarm, marched into the city, proclaiming liberty to the slaves, demanding the recall of the exiles, and threatening to bring the Sabines and Veientes to assist him, in case the Eomans should oppose the execution of his purposes. The patricians were struck with dis- may, since, on the one hand, they dared not arm the populace, and, 80 LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCDJNATUS. [CHAP. VI. B.C. 460. on the other, expected the states who yet smarted beneath their defeats, woiild. take this opportunity to obtain vengeance. A rising among the slaves, who had often too much cause for retaliation, was also to be expected. In the mean time the tribunes increased the confusion, by loudly declaring the whole invasion an artifice projected by the senate, in order to prevent the people from obtaining the laws which they were determined to exact. In this exigency, the consul Valerius rushed into the forum, and passionately conjured the people to forget their intestine divisions until the temples of the gods and the sanctuaries of their fathers were recovered from the foe; and solemnly demanded that they should follow him to this sacred enter- prise, on pain of being treated as the open enemies of Eome. To all these remonstrances, they at first answered only by repeating their demand. At length the earnest persuasions of the consuls pre- vailed, and the citizens agreed to enlist for the recovery of the cita- del, on the promises of Valerius that he would never interfere with the popular assembhes. Before, however, the great eiFort was made to expel the sacrilegious intruders, an army from Tusculum appeared in the city to aid the Eomans in their perU, and joined the ranks of the citizens. The combined forces then with great ardour forced their way up the ascent, and after a sanguinary struggle, in which • Valerius was slain, retook the capitol by storm. Herdonius fell in the contest, the Tusculans received the thanks of their allies, and the temples were purified by solemn lustrations. After the dehverance of the state from this danger, the contests between the senate and the people were revived, as Claudius seemed unwilling to perform the engagements of his late colleague, and suffer the proposition of the Agrarian law. The patricians earnestly desired that Cincinnatus should be chosen to the consulate in the room of Valerius, and, by great exertions, succeeded. The new consul, rely- ing on the veneration felt for the austere simphcity of his character, began his administration with vigour. He reproached, with equal freedom, the irresolution of the senate and the turbulence of the people. " It is your fault, fathers!" exclaimed he, ia addressing the senate, " that the same tribunes, year after year, bear absolute sway over the distracted city, as in a house given up to ruin, by their speeches and their crimes. With my son Csbso, all valour, sJl con- stancy, all the qualities which can adorn youth in war or in peace, have been utterly banished from Eome. You suffer the most hollow and seditious talkers, for a second and a third year, by the basest arts, to rule with the authority of kings. What ! does A. Virginius deserve less punishment for not being in the capitol, than Herdonius for seizing it? If we look upon his conduct rightly, he merits severer vengeance. Herdonius was, at least, an open foe, who warned you to take up arms, whilst the tribune took away our weapons, and exposed us naked and defenceless to exUes and slaves. Why — with Cincinnatus is cliosen consul. Speech of Cincinnatus. CHAP. VI.j LUCIBS QUINTIUS dNCDTOATUS. 81 reverence for Claudius and the deceased Valerius I ask it — why did b.c. 460. you march to expel your foes from the capitol before you had driven those bitterer enemies from the forum ? How are we disgraced before earth and heaven, that when a leader of exiles and slaves was in the citadel, when the sanctuaries of Jove were polluted, when all things dear and sacred were given up to profanation, the Tusculans should have been aroused before us ! — that it should be matter of doubt whe- ther a Tusculan general or the Eoman consuls wrested our citadel from the invaders ! — that we, who once would not suffer the Latins to arm in their own defence, should now, but for the spontaneous assist- ance of these Latins, have been taken captive and blotted out from nations ! Is this, tribimes, the succour you afford the people, to give them up unarmed to be slaughtered by their foes ? What ! if one of the lowest of your plebeians — of those whom you have broken off from the rest of the commonwealth, and formed into a distinct order — ^if one of these should tell you that his house was surrounded by an armed force, you would instantly afford him help : and yet, when Jupiter, the first and best of beings, was encircled with troops of the basest slaves, you thought him unworthy of your assistance ! You would surround your own persons with an inviolable sanctity, which you deny to the Gods. And do you think, immersed as you are in crimes against man and God, that you shall this year obtain the law you would extort ? If this could be endured, accursed would be the day on which I was made consul ; more accursed and calamitous than that on which Valerius fell. No ! my colleague and I wiU lead our forces against the ^qui and the Volsoi, since, from what cause I laiow not, the deities are more propitious to us in war than in peace. We had better have merely to imagine what we should have endured from these nations, had they known that our capitol was in the pos- session of a desperate band, than actually to feel it." The senate began to take courage at this display of firm resolution Effect of in the consul; but the tribunes treated him with derision, and asked i^'s *Mi'<*ss. whence the soldiers would be procured for the campaign, since they were resolved to prevent a levy. " We need none," was the prompt reply of Cincinnatus; "the troops who enlisted under Valerius for the recovery of the capitol, are bound by a solemn oath to assemble at the command of the consuls, and never to lay down their arms without their permission. On the obligation of this oath, we command every soldier by whom it was taken to meet us to-morrow at the lake EegiUus." This line of conduct on the part of the consuls threw the tribunes into confusion, though they endeavoured to prevail on the people to evade the oath, by contending that, as Cincinnatus was not consul at the time when it was taken, it could not bind them to obey his orders. The consciences of the people Assemwesa were not, however, thus to be satisfied ; and so great was the respect l™f^ with which they regarded the sanctity of an oath, that they aban- [e. h.] g- 82 LUCirs QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS. [chap. VI. B.C. 460. doned all thought of setting aside the orders of the consuls by any other means than that of prevailing on them by concession, not to force them to a winter campaign. At length a compromise was agreed to, whereby the tribunes waived the proposition of their law for the year, and the consuls laid aside their design of calling the • army to the field. After this, the tribunes, notwithstanding the- remonstrances of the senate, who passed a decree, declaring it inconsistent with the public welfare that the same individuals should, year after year, fill magisterial ofSces, were re-elected by the people. The patricians then, that they might stand on an equality with the commons, proposed to continue Cincinnatus in the Refuses to consukr authority for another year. But this the virtuous senator Consuf °''*^* i'^^^*^' ""'i*'^ expressions of indignation and disdain. "Can I wonder," said he, " that your authority is set at nought by the people, when you yourselves destroy it? What! because the commons have broken your decree by continuing their magistrates in office, must you set it at defiance, that you may not be outdone in temerity? It is more pitiable folly to trifle with your own laws than those made by others. You, conscript fathers, are imitating the inconstant mob that you despise, and following, instead of setting an example. But, for myself, I will not stoop to mimic the tribunes, nor suffer myself a second time to be chosen. And I admonish you, G. Claudius, to drive away this licentious spirit from Eome ; and rest assured that, so far from offending me by opposing my nomination, you will truly increase my renown, and preserve me from that envy which I must endtire, were I to be re-elected consul." The senate, convinced by this address, immediately decreed that no one should nominate Cincinnatus on the approaching election for the consulate, and that, if any one persisted in offering his suffiage in his favour, the vote should be rejected. Cincinnatus then once more retired into private life, after having, by the firm consistency of his actions, obtained the esteem even of those against whom his efforts were directed. In the succeeding oonsrdate of Q. Fabius Vibulanus and L. Cornelius Maluginensis, war again broke out between the ^qui and Volsoi and the Romans. While Fabius with an army, of which one-third only were Eomans and two-thirds Hemici and Latias, completely defeated the main army of the foe near Antium, a detachment of the ^qui took possession of the Tusculan citadel by surprise. This incident caused the war to be protracted for several months ; but, at length, famine compelled the besieged to submit, who were forced to pass under the yoke, and were afterwards cut off by Fabius. The other consul, who had remained at Eome, then marched into the enemy's country, and both he and his colleague returned laden with spoils. After these escapes, a treaty was concluded with the JEqyd, by which they were left in possession of CHAP. VI.J LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCIKNATUS. 83 tkeir cities, on condition of paying tribute to tlieir conquerors, and b.c. 460. furnishing them with troops when they should require their services. During this time, the tribunes did not openly bring forward tlieir measure, but procured themselves to be a foiu-th time elected to the office. In the next year, when L. Minucius and C. Nautius were consuls, they resolved to propose the Agrarian law, but consented to allow two months to the consuls, during which period they might state fairly to the people the objections they entertained against it. Before this interval had expired, the Mqvd revolted, and tlie Sabines invaded the territories of the repubhc at the head of a numerous army. Nautius marched against the latter, and not only compelled them to retire, but followed them into their own domains, and obtained considerable plunder. But his colleague, Minucius, who Disasters of was sent to oppose the ^qui, met with very different success. "''^ i"™anB. Either from terror, or rashness, he suffered himself to be completely surrounded by the enemy, so that he had no means of escaping or of obtaining provisions, and anticipated nothing but an unconditional surrender. When the news of his critical situa- tion arrived at Kome, the senate resolved on the appointment of a dictator, who might take such strong and decided measures as the exigency of the case demanded. Nautius, who had been sent for on the news, immediately proposed that Cincinna- tus should be chosen for this arduous service, and his nomina- tion was confirmed with ardour by the unanimous voice of the senators. The man thus selected to the absolute control of the state was, at Cincinnatus this time, engaged in cultivating with his own hands, the httle ^is farm™ remnant of his patrimonial estate. When the deputies, sent to S'.'^, ^ . . ,. p,-^,.. p. ., ^■r•^ ^ Dictatorship. apprise nim oi the decision oi the senate, arrived at bis farm beyond the Tiber, they found him either following the plough, or digging a ditch with a spade, and covered with perspiration occasioned by toU. After the common salutations had passed, they requested him to put on his toga and hear their commission, which they prayed might be attended with favourable auspices. Having eagerly inquired whether all was well in the city, he desired his wife Eacilia, to bring his toga from the cottage; and, after wiping the dust from his face, attended to their errand. They informed him of the peril into which the army of Minucius had fallen, saluted him dictator, and entreated him immediately to accompany them to Rome, and prepare for the execution of his high functions. He yielded directly to their wishes, and was conveyed across the river in a vessel despatched by the senate to receive him. On landing upon the opposite shore, he was received with great joy by his three sons, his intimate friends, and a long train of patricians, and preceded by four-and-twenty hctors to his abode. The commons ran in crowds to see him, but scarcely looked on him with cordial affection, as they B.C. Repairs to the Foruii]. Marches to the reUef of the Consul. His victory over the Equi. B.C. 458. 84 LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS. [CHAP. VI. 460. remembered his former sternness towards them, though they were awe-stricken by the majesty of his virtues. Early in the morning the new dictator repaired to the forum, and with characteristic discrimination, appointed for his master of the horse a patrician named L. Tarquitius, who was esteemed the bravest of the Roman youths, though from his great poverty, he had always served as a foot soldier. With this associate, he mounted the rostrum, commanded a suspension of aU business, and of all judicial proceedings throughout the citv, and ordered all who were capable of bearing arms to attend him before sun-set in the Campus Martins, each with provisions for five days, ready dressed, and twelve stakes for a pahsade. He also directed every man whose age rendered him iacapable of active service, to prepare the food for the soldier who lived nearest to him, while he employed the interval in procuring stakes and completing his armour. These commands were implicitly obeyed, and the Eoman youths having taken stakes wherever they could be found, without requiring permission, met the dictator at the place appointed, in the evening. The arrange- ments for the hurried march were soon made, and the troops, completely equipped, left the city in good order, commanded by Cincinnatus and Tarquitius. One general desire to dehver their fellow citizens, and obtain vengeance on their foes, animated the whole. The leaders incited the troops to hasten on, by reminding them that a Eoman consul and his army were in a state of siege, that they had been three days invested, and that a night, even an hoiu-, might determine their fate beyond the power of redemption. The soldiers, at the same time, called on the ensigns to proceed faster, and incited their comrades to follow them. By these exer- tions they arrived, by midnight, at the Algidus, within a small distance from the enemy. _ Cincinnatus having desired his army to halt, and taken the best view of the camp of the iEqui which the darkness of the night permitted, drew up the hnes so as to enclose the trenches of the foes, in the same manner as they had done those of Minuoius. The soldiers, then, by his commands, raised a loud shout, and, in good order, began to dig a trench, and raise up a palKsade before them. The iEqui, finding a new enemy had arrived, and were endeavouring to protect themselves by fortifications, hastened to prevent them from completing the work, and hoped to fall on them in confusion. But, in the mean time, the shout of the dictator's forces had reached the camp of Minucius, where it was not only heard with joy, as the signal of approaching dehverance, but was considered as the cry of actual battle. Encouraged, therefore, by the behef that his country- men were charging the besiegers from the other side, the consul hastened, on his part, to attack them, and thus kept them engaged during the night, while the entrenchments of the dictator were CHAP. VI.] LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS. 85 completed. At day break, Cincinnatus led his forces from the Hnes B.C. 458. to actual combat, while the consular army continued to harass the foe. The ^qui, finding themselves entirely surrounded, threw down their arms and entreated the conquerors to spare them. Cincinnatus, after ordering them to evacuate the city of Corbio, and to send him their general, Gracchus Clajiius, and their chief officers, in chains, informed them that he had no desire to take their lives, but would suffer them to depart after passing under the yoke, in token of their subjection. To this hard condition they assented, and two spears being fixed in the ground, and a third laid across them, the whole army passed beneath this symbol of disgrace, and retired without further injury. When the dictator met the troops whose deliverance he had thus happily accomplished, he reproved them in severe terms for suffering themselves to be thus encircled, and addressed their leader in terms of peculiar severity. He gave all the booty to his own soldiers, absolutely refusing to the consular bands any share of the spoils, and commanded Minucius to abdicate the authority of consul, of which he had shown himself unworthy, and remain with the legions in the capacity of Heutenant-general. This command seems to have been obeyed without a murmur, and Quintus Fabius soon after arrived from Kome, to supply the place of the imfortunate consul. Indeed, so great was the influence of the character of Cincinnatus, and so deep the sense of his justice as weU as valour, that the battalions whom he had reproved and excluded fi-om all share in the plunder, presented him with a crown of gold, and, on his departure, saluted him with the title of Preserver. On his return to the city, a triumph is decreed a was decreed him, which was celebrated with aU the rude magnifi- ™"^ ' cence of that early period. His chariot was preceded by the mUitary standards and the captive chiefs, and foUowed by his victorious army, laden with their spoils. AH the citizens gave themselves up to joy; in the streets were spread entertainments which were gladdened by festive songs, and concluded with dancing. On the same day Mamihus, the Tusculan general, who had so nobly assisted in recovering the capitol from Herdonius, was presented with the freedom of Eome. According to Livy, before Cincinnatus resigned his office, he caused Volscius, the accuser of his son Ckso, to be brought to trial for perjury, when he was convicted and banished to Lanuvium; but this circumstance seems contrary to the tenor of other historians. Certain it is, that though the dictator had been chosen for six months, he laid down his authority at the AgainreWres termination of sixteen days, and hastened to resume his daily labours ,1%^ " in the cultivation of his httle farm, from which he had been taken. After the acts of this short dictatorship, we find no mention of Cincinnatus in the Roman story for nearly twenty years. Although this period was eventful, comprising fresh contests between the 86 LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATOS. [CHAP. VI. B.C. 458. senate and the people— the appointment of the Decemviri — ^the estabhshment of the laws of the twelve tables — ^the tyranny of Appius Claudius and its tragical close, on the death of Virginia by the hand of her father — the estabhshment of military tribunes — and the appointment of a censorship, he does not appear to have taken any active share, either in foreign or domestic pohtics. Age stole on him in his retreat, without impairing his energies or diminishing the veneration and gratitude of his country. At length, he was once more called from his farm to assist the state by a last effort of his decision and virtue. B.C. 439. In the year B.C. 439, when Proculus Geganius Macerinus and Lucius Menenius Lanatus were consuls, Eome was afflicted with a terrible famine. Each party of the state accused the other of having given occasion to this calamity ; the people attributing it to neghgence in the consuls, and want of foresight in the senate ; and the patricians imputing it to the indolence of the people, who chose rather to spend their time in reveUing and listening to the inflammatory harangues of the tribunes, than in tilling the lands. At length Lucius Minu- oius, a, man of great integrity and zeal, was appointed, by the con- sent of both parties, to procure and superintend the distribution of provisions for the rehef of the distressed citizens. His endeavours for a long time appeared fruitless. The misery which had been a little relieved by a small supply of corn from Etruxia, appeared daily to increase. Many of the people, in despair, threw themselves into the Tiber, in order to avoid the horrors of a lingering death by hunger. Soon, however, the cause which had frustrated the efforts AiDbitious of Minucius became apparent. Spurius Melius, a Eoman of great wealth, of the equestrian order, had conceived the idea of raising himself, by means of the distresses of his country, to the supreme power. For this purpose, at the beginning of the scarcity, he had bought up all the grain he could procure in the neighbeuring pro- vinces, and, when the wants of the people were the most urgent, distributed his stores, with great profusion, to those whom he thought likely to favour his designs. At first he appears only to have aimed at the consulate ; but, as he found that he could not obtain this dignity, except in open defiance of the patricians, he resolved on aspiring at once to be absolute master of the state, which he thought would require scarcely greater energies, or a more daring spirit of enter- prise. When, therefore, the elections for the new consuls arrived, he does not appear pubhcly to have advanced his pretensions, and Titus Quintius Capitolinus, brother of Cincinnatus, and Agrippa ^lenenius, were chosen. Msehus continuing to acquire fresh popu- larity by his largesses, prepared for exerting his influence to attain his object, by collecting arms at his house, and holding frequent assemblies there of all on whom he could prevail to favour his pur- poses. At this time Minucius, who had long watched his proceed- aims of CHAI'. YI.J LDCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATUS. 87 ings, for which the nature of his office afforded him opportunities, u.c. 438. acquainted the senate with his conspiracy, and even charged the tribunes of the people with having been bribed to assist him m reducing his country to bondage. On this disclosure, the senate began to censure the consuls of the past year, and those who were then in office, for their remissness in permitting a plot of so danger- ous a kind to assume so formidable a character before its suppres- sion. To this reproach Quintius rephed, that the blame ought not to be attached to the magistrates, but to the laws, which limited their power, smce any steps they could take against a popular traitor might be frustrated by an appeal to the people. He, therefore, earnestly recommended the appointment of a dictator, who would have power to dispense with the laws, as the only means by which the plans of Msehus could be overthrown, and the offender brought to justice, and advised the election of his brother Cincinnatus, as the senator best fitted to meet and overcome the danger. Universal is again approbation followed this proposal ; biit, when the wishes of the DiStor* senate were communicated to Cincinnatus, he entreated that he might be allowed to decline the office, as being now past eighty years of age, he feared he should prove too feeble for the perform- ance of his duties. When, however, he was assured that the citizens had far more confidence in his wisdom and courage than in that of all other patriots, he consented to give them his services; and having implored the gods that they would not permit the commonwealth to suffer through the infirmities of her guardian, once more left his cottage and appeared at Eome. No sooner was he appointed dictator, that he chose C. Servilius Ahala, as his master of the horse, and actively prepared to crush the designs of Maslius. He placed guards in all parts of the city, as if he expected the invasion of a foreign enemy. In the morning he repaired to the forum and while the people were inquiring with astonishment, what new danger had caused the appointment of a dictator, and called forth a man in extreme old age, to direct the state, he ordered his master of the horse to send to Mselius, and command him to appear in his presence. Struck with terror at the idea of confronting the virtuous dictator, Maslius entreated the pro- tection of his friends to cover his retreat, and when an officer laid hold on him to compel his obedience, they rescued him by force from his hands. He then ran through the forum, entreating the people to defend him, who was persecuted by a senatorial conspiracy because he had relieved the wants of the commons in their greatest need. While he spoke these words, Servilius Ahala rushed on him, jiajUus and slew him ; and then, returning to the tribunal of Cincinnatus, ^l^^^^ sprinkled with the blood of the slain, he reported that Meehus, having ^ ^ ^gg refused to obey the stimmons, and attempted to raise an insurrection, he had summarily executed justice upon him. " You have done 88 LUCIUS QUINTIUS CmCIMIATUS. [CHAP. VI, B.C. 438. bravely Sendlius ; you have saved the state," was the prompt reply of the dictator. As some of the people murmured at the sudden destruction of Msehus, Cincinnatus convened a public assembly, and there developed the treasons of the slain, and justified the conduct of his officer. He affirmed, that even had Mashus been innocent of the offences imputed to him, he would have been justly kiUed for setting at nought the august authority by which he was commanded to appear at a tribunal, where he would have met with an impartial trial. He set before the people, in glowing colours, the offence of which the traitor had been guilty, in attempting to enslave a city which had forcibly banished its kings ; which had seen the sons of its first deUverer put ignomi- niously to death, for conspiring to restore the regal authority, and had sent CoUatinus into exile merely because he bore the name of the family who had occupied the throne. He reminded them of the faU of Cassius, and the Decemviri, for striving to establish tyranny, and represented the deeper dye of his offence, who, without the pre- tensions of birth, or high exploits, and from the mere recommenda- tion of wealth, hoped to obtain absolute power. He declared the crime to be of so aggravated and monstrous a kind, that nothing which had been used to accomphsh it, ought to be permitted to survive : and therefore decreed, that the house where the conspirators had assembled, should be destroyed, and the goods which had been amassed to purchase empire, forfeited. This order was carried into prompt execution. The house of Mashus was levelled with the ground, his goods sold, and the proceeds given to the treasury ; while the corn found on his premises was sold to the people at a very low price by Minucius. This officer, who had contributed so much to the destruction of the conspiracy, was rewarded, according to some writers, with an ox with gilded horns, and to others, with a statue. His duty thus performed, Cincinnatus once more laid down his powers, and retired to spend his few remaining days in honourable Death and repose. We are unacquainted with the particulars of his death, CiSnatas. which was probably gentle. His vigour, both of body and mind, preserved by a course of healthful labour and an unsuUied con- science, seems to have been undiminished till his long life was nearly concluded. If he inoliaed too decidedly to the senatorial party against the plebeians, he erred only from honest principle. His character, if somewhat hard, inflexible, and severe, stands ahnost alone in ancient annals for venerable simplicity, calm decision, and an energy of virtue, which alone had power to inspire the despairing with confidence, or abash the most resolute in their crimes. [Death of Virginia. — From a Picture by Fuger o / V'ienna.'\ CHAPTER VII. APPIUS CLAUDIUS. B c. 461—447. Appius Claudius. We have now to survey Rome under the government of a Decern- B.C. virate, or " the board of ten," in which the plebeians insisted that their order shoidd be represented by five. To this proposal, however, the patricians would not consent ; the decemvirs were, therefore, taken exclusively fi:om the latter body. What abuse they made of their power, will be seen in the history of Appius Claudius, which we now proceed to relate. Appius Claudius, the decemvir, was the son of that Appius Clau- dius whose hostiUty to the power of the tribimes made him a favour- ite with the senate, and odious to the populace. His son, after having constantly maintained a firm attachment to the patrician interests, and a resistance to popular encroachment as severe and unbending as that by which his father and grandfather were distinguished, seemed suddenly to abandon the principles of his family, and to court popu- larity by promoting a measure for which the popular party was then extremely urgent. This was the nomination of ten magistrates, called, from their number, decemviri. 451. 90 APPIUS CLAUDIUS. B.C. 451. Nomination of the Decemnri, opposed by the Patricians, promoted by tlie Constds elect, Appius Claudius and nine others appointed, [chap. -vii. About ten years before the period of which we are now speaking, Cains Terentillus Arsa, one of the tribiones of the people, had pro- posed, after a vehement declamation against the despotic power of the consuls, to commission jive men of unexceptionable character, to draw up a code of laws by which the consuls should in future be obhgedto regulate their decisions. This proposition, which seemed the more unobjectionable, as the tribunes only demanded that a por- tion of " the legislative body" should be chosen from the plebeians, gave great umbrage to the patricians. Tlie younger part of that body even proceeded to acts of violence, and led on by Ckso, son of Cincinnatus, dispersed the assembly of the people, when on the point of passing the law. A variety of favourable circumstances, however, concurred to strengthen the popular caiise, and after many ineffectual attempts on the part of the plebeians to carry their point, and many struggles on the part of the patricians to frustrate the design, it was at length finally agreed, that commissioners, to be chosen by the senate, should be deputed to Athens, for the purpose of selecting such of the laws and institutions of that celebrated repubhc, as might appear fitted for the adoption of the Eomans. Upon the return of these commissioners, the people were naturally clamorous for the nomination of the magistrates who were to draw up the code that was to be compiled from the materials thus collected. The consuls, however, stiU resisted ; and the tribunes, in consequence, appealed to the consuls elect, Appius Claudius, our present subject, and Titus Genucius. To their surprise, no less than to that of the patrician body, the former immediately stood forward, a strenuous advocate for the measure. Genucius likewise declared himself in its favour, though not so zealously as Appius, and by their joint entreaties they prevailed upon one of the consuls to assemble the senate for the pm- pose of nominating the decemvirs. Notwithstanding a considerable opposition, the eloquence or intrigues of Appius prevailed, and the senate passed a decree for the appointment of ten magistrates who were to be invested, for one whole year, with the supreme power, and supersede all the ordinary magistracies. During the reign of the decemvirs, the authority of the consuls, tribunes, sediles, and quEestors was to cease ; and an almost unlimited power was vested in those newly created legislators. But the senate, when the time fixed for the election of the decemvirs had arrived, successfully resisted a demand of the tribunes, for the admission of candidates from among the plebeians ; and of the ten who were chosen in a full assembly of the people, the first was Appius himself, now a great favourite with the people, as might easily be conjectured from the active part which he had taken in promoting this measure. At the commencement of their reign, the decemvirs conciliated the affection of their fellow citizens, by the utmost moderation and com:- teousness ; and none of them more than Appius, whose former seve- CHAr. VII.J APPIUS CLAUDIUS. 91 rity and reserve were favourably contrasted with his present mildness b.c. 451. and affability. Before the year had expired, the work for which these magistrates had been appointed was completed. Their laws were engraved on ten tables of oak, fixed up in the forum for the inspection of aU, and ratified by the unanimous assent of the whole Roman people. But as it was thought by many leading men in the state, that laws sufficient to fill two more tables ought to be added ; the government of the decemvirs was continued for another year, and senators ordinarily most hostile to the pretensions of the people, condescended on this occasion to court their favour by every artifice, in hopes of being chosen at the election of decemvirs for the ensuing year. Appius did this so openly, that he excited the jealousy of his colleagues ; they appointed him in consequence president of the Comitia, or Assembly of the people, who were to elect the new magistrates, with the intention of excluding him from the number of candidates. But by boldly taking a step upon which they supposed he would not venture, he effected the purpose which they were anxious to frustrate. Contrary to every rtde of decency, according to the sentiments of of the Romans, he named himself as the first candidate, and imme- diately obtained the suSrages of the people. He went, also, stiU ana further; and. in contradiction to the known principles of his family, '''="'^'*<^*'"'- and almost of the whole body of patricians, named three candidates from among the plebeians. So far from being defeated by the scheme of his adversaries, it only served to increase his power and influence ; for he artfully availed himself of his right as president to nominate the candidates, not only for the purpose of introducing his friends, but of excluding all those whom he could not control. The conse- quences of his success were soon felt. The new decemvirs, as soon as they entered upon their office, assumed the authority and ensigns of royalty. Their administration was now as unjust and oppressive as that of their immediate predecessors had been equitable and liberal ; and the people, to whom these tyrants owed their power of doing mischief, were the marked objects of their contempt and hatred. When the period for which they had been elected had expired, Decemvirs instead of assembling the people, and proceeding to a new election, th™TaWes of they produced the two additional tables, which, added to the others, tiie Laws, completed the twelve, which were ever after held in such estima- tion by the Romans, as to be considered by them as the basis of all their jurisprudence. The decemvirs now threw off the mask, and and become boldly retained the power intrusted to them, in defiance both of the opprassive. people and the senate. The discontent prevailing in Rome raised the hopes of its enemies; B.C. 449. the Sabines and the iEqui seized the opportunity to make an incur- sion upon the Roman territory. It was therefore necessary to assemble an army ; but the more respectable members of the senate. 92 Appius CLAUDins. [chap. vn. B.C. 449. when convened by the decemvirs, in order to decree a levy of the troops, refused to accede to their proposal, tUl the consular govern- ment should be restored. The arts and creatures of Claudius, how- ever, succeeded in silencing his opponents. A levy was at length made, and this new triumph only increased the insolence and Conduct of audacity of the decemvirs. Appius himself more especially de- ciandius. nounced those who retired from the city, in order to be no longer witnesses of his tyranny, as enemies of the repubhc, and enriched his own partisans by the confiscation of their property. B.C. 448. The war against the ..^qui was carried on with no advantage; for the troops, who had been levied by the sole authority of the decem- virs, were so ill-disposed to their leaders and to the persons in power, that they made no serious resistance to the enemy. Appius, in the mean while, who remained with another of his colleagues to overawe the city, was at length hurried by his imcon- His vices the trolled appetites into one of those excesses, which at length drew sSquen? down Upon him the vengeance which his tyranny had long merited. ■'™'- He conceived a voilent passion for a very beautiful girl, whom he story of had casually seen. Her name was Virginia ; her father, Virginius, ngmia. -^^ distinguished himself in the army on several occasions ; and had promised his daughter to IcUius, who had been one of the tribunes of the people. Appius was unable to gratify his passion by a legiti- mate union, not merely because he was married, and had not a suffi- cient plea for divorcing his wife ; but also because Virginia was a plebeian, and he had himself passed a law prohibiting amy alliance between noble and ignoble families. Thwarted by these obstacles, he devised a scheme the most atro- cious ; he employed one of his clients, M. Claudius, to seize upon Virginia, and claimed her as a daughter of one of his slaves, and therefore his property. The populace, roused by her shrieks, rescued her from the hands of M. Claudius and his abandoned followers ; but when cited to appeax before the tribunal of the de- cemvir, which she could not refuse, Appius, who was alone upon the bench, would have immediately adjudged her to the claimant, had not the people cried out with one voice, that her relations ou^t first to be heard. The decemvir dared not openly to resist compliance, but, by an artful evasion of the acknowledged law, contrived to place her in the hands of his own creature tiU her reputed father could return from the camp to make his claims good. The object of this evasion was too manifest to escape observation. The women present sur- rounded Virginia, and seemed resolved to shield her from the decemvir, when IcUius, to whom she was promised, rushing forward, threw his arms round her and called upon the gods to protect her innocence. It was in vain that Appius ordered his hctors to seize upon IcUius. Finding it inexpedient to attempt force, he had recourse to artifice — resigned Virginia to the care of her friends and CHAP. Vn.J APPIUS CLAUDIUS. 93 rdations, and made Icilius give security for her appearance before B.C. 448. the tribunal on the following day. It was then that Virginius, with all the dignity of conscious and injured innocence, appealed to his feUow citizens against the claim of his adversary. Icihus inveighed, with all the vehemence which a tumult of passion could inspire, against the tyrannical proceedings of the decemvir; and the sUent tears of the women who accompanied Virginia, contributed more than even the powerful eloquence of her father and her lover, to move the compassion and rouse the indignant feelings of the multitude. Appius on entering the forum, was astonished to find VirginiiTS there, for he had spared no pains to prevent the possibility of his appearance at the appointed time. His project, however, was too weU prepared to be easily disconcerted. The evidence of the false •ivitnesses, suborned by Claudius, was completely parried by the unexceptionable testimony adduced by Virginius ; but when the virginius spectators were looking for a decree in his favour, the decemvir claim, ^ '^ declared that, as guardian of Claudius, he had long known the facts alleged by him, but had suppressed the mention of them, as tmneces- sary, unless his ward should wish to put in his claim. He therefore, on that ground, set aside the evidence produced by Virginius, and adjudged his daughter to the other claimant. Her father again made an appeal to the multitude, whose cries and shouts showed their willingness to serve him ; but the imperious authoritative tone of the judge, and perhaps the number of his known adherents, over- awed them. Virginia was left alone, abandoned, as it seemed, to the worst designs of her enemy. Her father, as his last and only resource, assuming a milder tone, entreated the decemvir at least to allow him to question her nurse in presence of his supposed daughter, that he might be completely undeceived as to her birth. This request Appius readily granted, and Virginius, taking the woman aside to a shop in the neighbour- hood, seized a butcher's knife, as he passed along, and plunging it andsaci-fflces into Virginia's bosom — " Eeceive," he said, "thy liberty, my i^i^ daughter, daughter, by this the only method by which I can now ensure it to thee !" and turning towards the tribunal, he added — " By this blood, Appius, I devote thy head to the infernal deities ! " He repelled the hctors, who endeavoured to seize him, with the weapon reeking with his daughter's blood, and rushing through the crowd, made his way to the camp. The other friends and relations of Virginia remained near her body, and excited the sympathy of the multitude. This tragic event led shortly afterwards to the subversion of the decemviral usurpation ; for the troops, animated by the heroism of Virginius, and already irritated against their oppressive rulers, seized their ensigns, and having marched back in a body to Rome, entrenched themselves on the Aventine hill, declaring that they Decemvirate would not lay down their arms till the decemvirate was abolished. aioUsiiea. 94 ApnuS CLAUDIUS. [chap. VII. Consitl> restored. Appius accused by Virginius. B.C. 448. They were soon joined by the remainder of the army, and elected out of their o"\vn body twenty military tribunes, under whose orders they placed themselves. The senators, xmwilling to abolish the decemvirate, occupied themselves in useless debates. The army, in the mean time, retreated to its favourite post the sacred hill, and was joined by such numbers, that the decemvirs themselves at length offered to resign their authority as soon as consuls should have been elected. This offer enabled the senators who had departed to the army, to make a proposition which was soon accepted. The senate issued a decree abohshing the decemvirate. These magistrates formally laid down their authority, and, after an interval of three years, the consular government was restored. The tribunate was revived on the re-election of consuls ; and the father, uncle, and lover of Virginia were the first upon whom the choice of the people fell. It was not to be supposed that Virginius B.C. 447. would fail to use the opportunity, which now presented itself, of avenging the memory of his injured daughter. He lost no time in bringing Appius to trial for infringing upon the liberty of a iree- born and gmltless woman. He threatened him with immediate imprisonment, if the charge were not directly repelled. " I appeal," said Appius, " to the Roman people, who will not forget the many services they have received from the Claudian family; the many which they owe to me ; the zeal for the pubKc good which I have invariably shown, and most particularly the excellent laws of the Twelve Tables, in the compilation of which I had so great a share. I claim the protection of the laws ; and appeal from the sentence of the tribune, to the assembly of the people." Virginius could not resist this appeal, which was founded upon a law passed by the newly elected consuls, but he refused to admit him to bail, and caused him to be confined in a prison erected by his own orders. The friends and family of Appius left no means untried to appease the indignation of the people : but before the day appointed for his trial had arrived, Appius was no more. He was found dead in his prison, whether by his own hand, as asserted by the tribunes, or by secret orders from them, it is impossible to determine : though from the conduct and character of the man, the former is, on the whole, the most probable supposition. Appius Claudius seems to have inherited the prejudices and vices of his family, with some of their good qualities ; and though his crimes and atrocities cannot be recorded without exciting detestation and disgust, the more favourable parts of his character, and the real services which he did to the Roman state, should not be passed over unnoticed. In the first year of the decemvirate, before he wa« intoxicated by success, his conduct was temperate and popular. His talents, which were great and various, were diligently exerted in the performance of his official duties ; and he might justly appeal and character CHAP. VII.J APPJUS CLAUDIUS. 95 to the laws of the Twelve Tables, as a lasting monument of the care B.C. 447. and judgment with which he and his colleagues had used the materials brought to them from Greece. That celebrated compilation, which is praised by Cicero as contain- Laws of tiie ing the substance of all legislative wisdom, was small in compass, TaWe? but comprehended all the great objects for which laws ought to be instituted. 1. It provided the mode of bringing offenders to trial, and laid down the rules by which impartial justice should be ahke administered, both to plaintiffs and defendants. 2. Contained the law against theffa and robberies. 3. Limited the power of creditors over their debtors. 4. The power of parents over their children. 5. Prescribed rules for the regulation of inheritances and guardian- ships. 6. Defined the limits of property of every kind. 7. Guarded against the commission of damage and trespass. 8. Made their regulations for the security of property beyond the walls of the city. '"^'"' ™"*' 9. Secured the rights of the great body of the people. 10. Prescribed the legal mode of interment. 1 1 . The rites and ceremonies of reUgion. And 12, secured the sanctity of marriage and the rights arising from the married state. The publication of these laws may justly be con- sidered as an era in the Eoman state. The mutual rights and rela- tions of the different classes of society were from that time strictly defined : the weak and inferior citizens ^ere not only more secure against encroachments from the higher and more powerful members of the commonwealth, but against arbitrary or tmjust decisions of the magistrates themselves. The Tables throughout, insufiicient when the territory and population, and with them the various relations of society, had increased, were an excellent foundation for that noble superstructure which has survived the wreck of ages ; and is, vpith some modifications, to this day, the dispenser of justice and equity to a very large portion of the civilized world.^ We have now to contemplate the Romans engaged in a long and severe struggle with the city of Veil, whose magnitude, wealth, and influence, made her a formidable competitor for the headship of any league that might be formed in Etruria. The history of Eoman success in the capture of Veil, is best studied in connection with the fife of the Ulustrious Camillus. ' The Eoman law is more or less embodied in the codes at present used in Hol- land, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, and Poland. It is also the foundation of our own civil and ecclesiastical law. Liv. Hist. 9. 68. iii. 58. Dion. Hal. x. p. 652-684. xi. p. 684-727. Flor. i. 24. [Rome Orerthrown by the Gauls.— Overbeke.'] CHAPTER VIII. MARCUS FURIUS CAMILLUS. B. C. 446-363 B.C. Maecus Fueius CAmLLUS was born of a patrician family of Eome, 44 6-3 63 . about tte middle of the fifth century before the Christian era ; and soon after the commencement of the fourth after the bxailding of the city, according to the calculation of Varro. None of his ancestors had ever distinguished themselves so as to render their house illustrious ; but it was his fortune to give promise of his future greatness, at a very early age. When serving under the dictator Posthumius Tubertus, in his celebrated defeat of the ^qui and Volsci, Camillus, who was not more than seventeen years old, though severely wounded in his thigh by a javelin, dehberately plucked it out and continued in the foremost ranks of the combatants. A youth of patrician rank, who could thus early give proof of such undaunted resolution, could not fail to be esteemed by his countrymen ; and accordingly we find that at a later period of his life, the highest honours of the state were not so much obtained by him, as forced upon his acceptance, by the admiration and confidence of his feUow citizens. It may be remarked, however, that CamUlus never enjoyed the honours of the consulate, because soon after the period of his birth, the functions of that magis- tracy had been transferred to the military tribunes. The causes which led to the suspension of the consular authority in Rome, at the period of which we are now speaking, were few and simple. As their numbers increased, the people of Rome gradually became more conscious of their own strength ; and fi'om resisting the unjust Suspension of the Consular power. CHAP. Till.] MARCUS FUBTOS CAMILLUS. 97 encroachments of the patricians, proceeded to trench upon their legi- B.C. 446. timate privileges. Concessions had been made to the plebeians from time to time, and as is always the case in concessions wrung by fear or necessity, from a party unwilling to grant them, they only led to further demands and bolder advances. The dispute between the adverse parties seemed, at last, to threaten a commotion ; when one of the Claudian famUy proposed, in order to rescue the consular office from the indignity of being filled by plebeians, to substitute for the consuls three magistrates, chosen partly from either class of citizens, B.C. 444. and called " military tribunes," invested with consular authority. This proposition was received with applause by both parties : it increased the power of the one, without requiring the sacrifice of any exclusive privilege from the other : and an important change in the form of the Eoman government was thus efiected without a struggle. Nearly a century elapsed before the office of consuls was again filled, B.C. 366. and that is precisely the period in which Camillus flourished. Of all the measures which tend to produce a gradual and silent revolution in the pohtical condition of a nation emerging from a state of barbarism, none is more powerful than the commutation of personal service in the army for the performance of military duties by a hired substitute. It at once releases a large portion of the population from an oppressive burden, promotes the discipHne and efficiency of the army itself; and gives the executive government a power which it never before possessed. That measure was adopted by the senate and approved by the Eoman people, when Camillus was in the vig- our of his age, and contributed indirectly to prepare the way for some of his great exploits : for when the senate foimd that they had no B.C. 406. longer reason to apprehend any difficulty, in continuing the war, from the want of new levies or an tmwilHngness in the troops to keep the field, they resolved at once to extend the dominion of the republic over some of the neighbouring states ; and to commence operations by attacking the Veii, whom they justly regarded as their most dangerous rival. The capital of this people, which bore the same name, was placed Wartetween in a commanding situation on the summit of a rocky hiU, extremely anaveientes. difficult of access. It was, as Plutarch informs us, considered as the bulwark of Etruria, and was not inferior in power and resources to Rome itself In the earlier periods of the repubhc, the Veientes had contended for supremacy with the Romans ; but now, humbled by many severe defeats, they rehed upon the natural strength of their position, and the fortffications by which that advantage had been greatly improved. They filled their magazines with an abundant supply of stores and ammunition, and fearlessly sustained the attacks of the Eoman armies. As long, indeed, as their enemy was obhged to quit the field at the commencement of winter, the people of Veii were not liable to aU the evils of a regular siege ; but after the senate [k. H.l H 98 MARCUS PUEIUS CAMILLUS. [CHAP. VIU. B.C. 406. had acquired a more absolute command of their troops, by making them, in fact, stipendiaries, the Eoman army was required to pass the winter as weU. as the summer in the enemy's country. B.C. 39b. Towards the close of the seventh year of the war, so little progress had been made against the enemy, that the commanders were much censured, and the senate recalled them ; and with the concurrence of the people, required them to resign their offices of military tribunes before the usual time. Among those who were elected to Camiuus succeed them was Camillus, who then the second ^ time received that Tribime distinguished honour. It was his lot during this year to command the expedition against the Capenates, whose principal town lay between Veii and the Tiber, and consequently enabled them to make powerful diversions in favour of the Veientes. Camillus attacked them with so much vigour, that they dared no longer stir beyond their walls. In the same year the lake of Alba, m the midst of a pecuharly dry season, rose above the rising grounds by which it had been previously confined, and descended in a torrent towards the sea. -This singular phenomenon appeared wholly imaccountable, and was universally spoken of; when an Etruscan soothsayer, who had formed an acquaintance with one of the soldiers encamped before Veii, inti- mated that, if properly understood, it might secure the success of the Eoman arms. The soldier imperceptibly drew his friend beyond the reach of his towns-people, took him up in his arms and carried him into the Eoman camp. He there made the same declaration ; adding, that if the Eomans should give a right course to the waters of the lake, it would be fatal to his native city. The senate not trusting The Senate entirely to this interpreter of the prodigy, sent a deputation to Delphi, Delphi. who, after having consulted the oracle, returned the following year, bringing a highly encouraging answer, commanding them to prevent the waters of the lake from uniting with the sea ; to continue the siege of Veii with the greatest resolution, and after the termination of the war, to present an ample offering at the shrine of ApoUo. In obedience to this command of the god, the people immediately set about diverting the course of the waters from the lake, and formed that remarkable subterranean canal, which stiU attests their obedience to the injunction of the oracle.^ When the fall of Veii had been thus prepared by comphance with the prescribed condition, the senate determined to commit the com- pletion of their great design to one on whom they could place imphcit 1 The third according to Livy ; who dates these events one year later than the Capitoline Tables, which we have followed. ^ It was called the Emissarium, and extends for nearly two mUes. It is stiU per- fectly entire. The bed of the lake itself appears to be the crater of an extinct volcano, and the collapse of some of its internal caverns, will readily account for the prodigy recorded by the ancient historians. See Riccy, Memorie storiche di Alba Lanffa e deW Albano Moderno, Eoma, 1737. CHAP. VIII.J MAKCUS FDEIUS CAMILLUS. 99 reliance, and to invest him -with such authority as should prevent B.C. 398. any error that could arise from competition. They therefore appointed CamiUus dictator. Before he left Eome, he offered up solemn vows to the gods, entreating them to give prosperity to his arms, and engaging to celebrate games, and consecrate a temple in their honour, if he should return a victor. He then marched against B.C. 396. Falerii, and routed the people of that place, together with their allies the Capenates. Having thus secured himself against the danger of a diversion, he turned his whole force against Veii, and finding it impracticable to take that city by assault, he commenced a blockade, tiis capture opened his works, and caused a mine to be carried on under such a cover as completely concealed it from the enemy. It was a work of the greatest magnitude and labour ; but by apportioning the time during which each man was employed, with rigid impartiality and exactness, Camillus was enabled to keep his men at work day and night, till they made their way into the citadel itself. When every thing was prepared, the army from without made a furious assault at the very time that the miners from within secretly made their way into the temple of Juno, which was in the citadel. The inhabitants thus unexpectedly assailed on all sides, and from a quarter where they least expected it, could not long or effectually resist ; and the Eomans, rushing from the citadel, were soon able to throw open the gates to their comrades. The slaughter was necessarily great, but it was checked by the dictator as soon as all danger of resistance was past. The Etruscans were a more civilized and commercial people than the Eomans, and far exceeded them in wealth. Camillus was B.C. 395. so struck when he beheld from the citadel, the treasures which his troops were everywhere collecting, that he burst into tears ; and, when congratulated by his friends on his success, lifting up his hands to heaven, uttered this prayer, — "Jove, most high ! and ve gods who Prayer of are the observers of our good and evil actions, ye can bear witness for us, that we have not attacked this city unjustly, but through necessity and in our own defence, against men who were our foes, and had broken their engagements. But if this success must be compensated by some reverse of fortune, let the severity of it, I beseech you, fall upon my head : but let the people and army of Eome be spared." The conduct of Camillus, soon afterwards, was not worthy of the patriotic and disinterested spirit of this prayer. The splendour of his triumph gave offence to the people ; his having driven through the city in a chariot drawn by four white horses, a distinction previously reserved for " the sovereign and father of the gods" alone, was considered as highly unbecoming. But probably the more imm«diate cause of the displeasure which he at that time inciu-red, was the part which he took in thwarting a proposal of the tribunes of the people, to transfer one half of the inhabitants of Eome to Veii ; 100 MAECUS PURIUS CAMILLUS. B.C. 395. Camillus breaks his vow. and displeases the soldiers. B.C. 394. Falerii attacked. Treachery of the School- master of Falerii. [chap. vni. a proposal strongly condemned by the senate, and checked by the delays and evasions of Camillus. The real foundation of his unpopularity at this period was, how- ever, his conduct with regard to the division of the plunder. He had, on his march to Veil, made a vow that he would, if victorious, dedicate the tenths to ApoUo ; but, either forgetting this vow, or unwiULng to disappoint his troops, he had, in the sequel, suffered them to carry off the whole. The senate, when the case was laid before them, decreed that each soldier should declare upon oath the value of what he had seized, and produce a tenth of the amount. This decree was warmly resented by the soldiery, who justly con- sidered it as a peculiar hardship to be deprived of so large a portion of their prize, and that at a time when many of them had already spent the fruit of their hard-earned toils. Camillus, distressed by their complaints, had recourse to apology, declaring that he had forgotten his vow. The tenths were however collected ; and it was decreed that a vase of massy gold should be sent as an offering at the shrine of Delphi. The Roman women gave up their golden ornaments, in order to enable the government to execute this decree, and were, in consequence, indulged with the privilege of iising chariots on great and solemn festivals. A deputation of three from the first patrician families, was sent to bear the sacred offering to Delphi. The Falisci were stiU at war with the Romans, and the command of the army sent against that town was intrusted to CamiUus, who had again been elected one of the military tribunes. He immediately marched his forces into the enemy's country, and laid siege to Falerii their capital, well aware that it was likely to occupy him for a con- siderable time. It was indeed the constant policy of the Roman government to engage the people in long and arduous enterprises, in order to prevent them from caballing together, and raising those internal tumults which had sometimes threatened the subversion of the commonwealth. The inhabitants of Falerii, who, hke the rest of the Etruscans, were further advanced in civilization than the Romans, and there- fore felt the importance of education, had adopted the Grecian custom of sending their children to one common school, where all might, from their earliest years, be accustomed to the same disciphne, associate with the same companions, and form attachments and intimacies' which would accompany them through hfe. The master to whose care these children had been confided, accustomed them to exercise and amuse themselves outside the town, at no great distance from the Roman out-posts. By degrees he led them further and further, till at length he seized an opportunity of dehvering them up in a body to the advanced guard, in order that they might be conducted to Camillus. When carried into his presence, he told the Roman general, that preferring his favoxu- to the interest of CHAP. VIII.] MARCUS FURIUS CAMILLUS. 101 these children, lie had brought them to him, and by them, delivered B.C. 394. the city of Falerii into his hands. Camillus was astonished when he heard this declaration, and turning to those around him, observed that war is indeed cruel and productive of much violence and injustice ; but that men of honour acknowledge some laws even in war, and victory is not to be purchased at the expense of what is base or unprincipled; that a great general builds his hope of success upon his own courage, not upon the baseness of others. He then How ordered his attendants to strip the traitor, tie his hands behind him, ty'clmmus. and then having furnished his boys with rods and scourges leave them to inflict punishment on him by driving him back into the city. Its inhabitants had already discovered the treachery, and the waJls and gates were crowded with men and women of rank, who were bewailing their loss, Uke persons distracted; when the boys were seen returning, flogging and driving their naked master before them, and calling Camillus their deliverer, their god, their father! This spectacle filled all the inhabitants of Falerii with admiration ; The FaUsci and, assembling together immediately, they sent a deputation to <»P't^'>ti^- CamiUus, ofiering to give up themselves and their city to his clemency and justice. Pie sent the deputies on to Eome, and, when presented to the senate, they declared that the Romans, by shovring that they esteemed justice more than victory, had taught them to consider subjection as preferable to independence : though they did not consider themselves so much their inferiors in power as in virtue. The arrangement of the terms on which the peace was to be concluded, was left by the senate entirely to Camillus, who withdrew from their territory, after having received an indemnifica- tion for the expenses of the war, and concluded a treaty of alliance with all the FaUsci. The common soldiers were not inspired with the equity and magnanimity of their commander; they had calculated upon the plunder of Falerii, and were therefore disappointed at thus returning empty-handed. They made no scruple to charge CamiUus with designs hostUe to the people, and a desire to prevent the poor from having their condition improved. Their feelings were exasperated by his strenuous opposition to the proposal for transferring half of the inhabitants of Eome to Veil. That measure was now renewed B.C. 393. by the tribunes of the people, and when put to the vote in an assembly of the people, thrown out by a majority of one tribe only: a result as gratifying to the patricians as it was displeasing to the leaders of the plebeian party ; and considered by both as in great measure due to the vehement and persevering opposition of Camillus. So strong was the irritation of the people against him at this time, camuius that a severe domestic affliction with which he was then visited, the ^^^ "« loss of one of his sons by a natural death, did not at aU naitigate their clamour and hostility. The mildness and goodness of his disposition 102 MAECDS FDRIUS CAMILLUS. [chap. -piii. B.C. 391. Accused by the Romans. B.C. 392. also prevented him from bearing up against liis affliction with Roman fortitude; and instead of appearing in public to counteract the designs of his enemies who had brought an impeachment against him, he shut himself up in his house with the women of his family, abandoning himself to his affliction. The crime laid to his charge was the embezzlement of a part of the Tuscan spoils : particularly some brazen gates, a part of those spoils, which were said to have been found in his possession. The exasperation of the populace was such, that it was plain they would seize upon any pretext for his condemnation. He assembled his friends, and besought them to use all their exertions and influence to save him from becoming the victim of the false accusations and rancour of his enemies. After due dehberation they declared that they had no hope of succeeding, but promised to assist him in paying the fine to which he might be condemned. Indignant at the thoughts of such treatment, he resolved to withdraw and go into a voluntary exile. After embracing his vriie and children, he went in silence from his house to the gate of the city; but stopping there and turning round, exclaimed, as he stretched forth his arms to the Capitol, " Grant, ye gods! if I am driven out, not by any miscon- duct On my part, but by the passion and jealousy of the Eoman people, that they may soon repent, and make it manifest to all the world that they have need of Camillus and are anxious for his return ! " This prayer might well be considered by the Eomans as having been favourably received by the gods ; for in less than two years they suffered the greatest calamity and disgrace which ever befell their country : the invasion and capture of the city by the Gauls. That nation, like the other free and hardy tribes who inhabited the northern parts of Europe, was well calculated by its warlike habits and overflowing population to prove more than a match for the more civilized, but less robust and enduring people of the South: B.C. 387. and as soon as they had once passed the barrier of the Alps, swarms from the Southern or Celtic Gauls poured down hke a resistless torrent over the fertile plains of Italy : tribe after tribe coming to dispossess the Etrurians, who had long been established in the country on each side of the Po, and from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian sea. One of these tribes, the Senones, who at this time occupied the country upon the Adriatic between Eavenna and B.C. 388. Ancona, laid siege to Clusium, one of the chief cities in Etniria, anciently the residence of Porsenna, and barely 100 miles to the north of Eome. The appearance of the Gauls, remarkable for their size, light hair, and fair complexions, so unlilte the swarthy nations of Greece and Italy; the ferocity of their manners, and strangeness of the weapons with which they were armed; but more especially their vast numbers and the report of their successes against the Etruscan Description of the Gauls. CH.\P. Vin.j MAECtJS FUBIUS CAMILLUS. 103 troops, all contributed to fill the people of Cliisium with alarm. B.C. 388. Though unconnected with Eome by any former tie of friendship or alliance, and having no claim iipon the good will of the Romans, except from their perfect neutrality with respect to their countrymen the Veientes, the Clusini sent an embassy to Rome, entreating its aid against the Gauls. The Romans were willing to act as media- tors, though they had no intention to send any men to the assistance of their new friends. The three sons of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, a man of one of the most distinguished families, were despatched to hold a communication with the Gauls, and put an end to the war if possible, by negotiation. The strangers, when the Roman envoys had dehvered then- message, rephed, that all they desired was a portion of the waste lands belonging to Glusium, upon which they might settle : if that were granted, they would immediately make peace ; but if it were refused, they would endeavour to show by their exploits how much the Gauls surpassed all other nations in valour. The Etrurians were highly displeased with this reqiiest, and the conference served only to exasperate each party. An engagement immediately ensued ; The Roman and the Roman envoys, in violation of the common law of nations, 4™e ams""* took arms in favour of the Etrurians. A principal chieftain among against the the Gauls was killed by the hand of one of them; and when ambas- sadors were sent by the barbarians to Rome to demand satisfaction for this unprovoked attack, the intrigue and influence of the Fabian family, together with the perverseness of the people, completely prevented any concession from being made; the Gauls therefore returned to their camp breathing nothing but vengeance and exter- mination. The councils of Rome might weU seem to the ancients to be influenced by an unhappy fatality at this momentous period; for corruption in the different classes of citizens, ambition and family interest in the higher, tiu-bulence and faction in the lower ranks, had driven able and deserving men from the posts of trust and distinction, and the management of the impending war was left to those very persons whose rashness had drawn this new and formid- able enemy on their country. The three envoys to Glusium were b.c. 390. elected miUtary tribunes, before the Gallic messengers returned to their camp ; and stiU no extraordinary preparation was made for a war, which to any who were not blinded by their passions must have appeared to threaten no ordinary degree of danger. They had often on former occasions, when engaged with a much less formid- able enemy, appointed a dictator to give that vigour and efficiency in the conducting of the war which cannot be obtained under a divided command. On this, the guidance and direction of the troops were inefficiency on the contrary intrusted to a greater number of generals than coimsds.""™ usual, and unanimity in their councils was therefore rendered highly 104 MARCUS FDEI0S CAMILLUS. [CHAP. VIU. B.C. 390. improbable. But the greatest evil of all, was the' absence and disgrace of that very man who alone, perhaps, was able to save the city from the impending ruin. B.C. 389. The honours lavished upon those of whose conduct the Gauls thought they had so much reason to complain, turned their arms immediately against Eome itself. They advanced with a rapidity which hardly allowed the Eomans time to prepare for their own defence ; and it was only with a very hasty and irregular levy that they could meet them near the eleventh mile stone, at a short distance above the confluence of the Allia and the Tiber. The numbers of the enemy greatly surpassed those of the Eomans; their wild songs, discordant shouts and savage appearance contributed not a little to spread dismay through the army, iU quahfied by experience and disciphne, or the prudence of its leaders, to make up for the disadvantages under which it then laboured. The defeat was so complete, that the left wing was entirely destroyed; the centre, which fled under cover of the night to Veil, suffered severely; and the right vring, which retired to the hiUs at the begianing of the contest, was the only part of the Eoman army which escaped Battle of vrithout very great loss. The day of the Alha was ever afterwards ^""'' marked by the Eomans in their calendars as one of the most unfor- tunate days in the whole year. The consternation of the Eomans was such as would have made Eome an easy prey to the Gauls, had they immediately followed up their success, but with the improvidence natural to savages they stopped to revel in the plunder of the Eoman camp, and allowed their enemy time to fortify his strong-holds, and prepare for a steady resistance. The city was not in a condition to be defended against the invaders; the axmy therefore retired to the Capitol, fortifying it as strongly, and replenishing its stores and ammunition as much as was possible. Almost all the other inhabitants fled for safety to the surrounding country; but the oldest and most distinguished among those of senatorial and consular rank resolved, if we may beheve Plutarch, rather to die than quit the sacred city. Clothed in their oflScial robes, and seated in their ivory curule chairs in the formn, they waited calmly the arrival of the enemy. On the day after the battle, the barbarians reached the city, and finding the CoUina Gate open and unguarded, entered without any resistance. Every thing was silent and deserted; the very sohtude of the place terrified them ; and when they came into the forum and saw so many men sitting each in the vestibule of his house, and bearing, from his age, his_ aspect, and his dress, the impression of more than human majesty, they took these venerable men for statues of the gods ; nor were they undeceived tiH Marcus Papirius by striking of one of the The Senators Gauls with his ivory sceptre, provoked the anger of the savage, and GaSs*^*® immediately, with his colleagues, fell a sacrifice to their fury. The CHAP. YIII.J MARCUS FUEIUS CAMILLUS. 105 slaughter of the senators was the signal for universal pillage, murder, B.C. 389. and devastation. The conflagration of their houses, the cries and shrieks of the wounded and dying, the desolation of their temples, of every thing which they held dear or sacred, took place immediately, under the eyes of the Roman army and its commanders, who were shut up in the Capitol: their position was so strong by nature, and so well fortified by art, that the Gauls had no means of dislodging them, as long as their stock of provisions held out. The niunbers of the invading army, and the small space occupied by the Capitol, enabled Brennus, the Gallic chief, to keep up a rigorous blockade ; and had his followers been more provident, they would perhaps have for ever extinguished the Eoman name ; but, elated by then: success, and vmused to provide for future contingencies, they trusted to their foraging parties for supplies, and diminished their strength by sending out detachments in many different directions. One of these happened to go towards Ardea, a town of Latium, in alliance with Eome, about twenty miles to the south. There it was that CamiUus was hving in great retirement, "more afflicted," as the historian says, "by the calamities of his country than by his own;" and only anxious to seize some opportmiity of raising it again from its fallen condition. When he found that the inhabitants had called an assembly to deliberate upon the best mode of repelling the Gauls, whose approach had created the greatest alarm, he went thither, and entreating them not to give way to their fears, proposed to attack the enemy by night, when they would be overcome by sleep and wine, the fruits of their plunder, and would fall an easy prey to a resolute and vigUant foe. The reasonableness of this plan, as well as the character of him who proposed it, caused its immediate adoption. As soon as night came on they silently marched out, camfflns under the command of Camillus, and found the camp of the Gauls camp^/Sfe exactly as he had predicted, entirely open and unprotected ; no Gauis. sentinels at their posts — all drowned in sleep and intoxication. The slaughter was unbounded; and a large portion of the few who escaped fled into the territory of Antium, and were cut to pieces by the people of that town. Tie Eomans had now, more than ever, reason to exult in their conquest of the city of Veil. The Gauls, in their eagerness to attack Eome itself, left the Tuscan cities on their way unattempted ; this, therefore, now afforded a refuge and a place of rendezvous to B.C. 388. most of the Eomans who had retired before the arrival of the enemy. Their numbers were recruited by volunteers continually coming in from the neighbouring states, whose lands were plundered by the foraging parties from Eome. All were eager to make a diversion in favour of the party blockaded in the Capitol, and endeavour at least to dislodge the enemy ; but they had no leader on whose judgment 106 MAKCUS FURIUS CASnXLIJS. B.C. 388. Pontius reaches the Capitol. Catnillus recalled by the Senate. The Capitol preserved hy the cackling of geese. From Ides of July B.C. 389 to Ides of Feb. B.C. 388. [chap, vni. and authority they could rely. The very place in which they were, was calculated to remind them of Camillus : and they resolved to send a deputation to him, to entreat him to take them under his com- mand, and lead them, as they were confident he would, to victory. He refused, unless recalled by the members of the senate, shut up in the Capitol, for he considered them as the legal representatives of the government, and did not think himself justified in resuming his rights as a citizen without their sanction. Tliis answer to their request threw them into the greatest per- plexity, till Pontius Cominius, a youth of humble rank, but of an en- terprising spirit, ofiered to make his way into the Capitol, and com- municate their wishes to the senators who occupied it. Supporting himself on a piece of cork, he was carried dovra the Tiber by the stream, to the foot of the Capitoline Hill; and landing at a place where the rock was almost perpendicular, and therefore not watched by the enemy, he succeeded in clambering up to the summit ; was recognized by the sentinels, admitted into the fortress, and carried to the magistrates, to whom he declared the object of his mission. The senate immediately issued a decree, authorising an assembly of the people, for the purpose of recalling Camillus from banishment, and appointing him dictator. Cominius had the good fortune to return, as he had approached, unobserved : messengers were instantly despatched to CamiUus at Ardea, and he returned with them to resume the command of those who had so lately treated him with such base ingratitude. The Gauls, in the meantime, were gaining possession of the last strong-hold of Eome, the Capitol itself; for having discovered a path not before tried, perhaps that near the Carmental Gate, by which Cominius had ascended, they scaled it in the dead of a dark night, without alarming the dogs, usually so vigilant, or being discovered by the sentinels, who were buried m sleep, and had nearly got a finn footing on the summit of the rock, when the geese, consecrated to Juno, whose hunger had increased their vigilance, heard their steps, and taking alarm, began to cackle and clap their wings. This, fortunately, waked Marcus MarJius, who had been consul three years before, and was distinguished by his military prowess. He seized his arms, roused his companions, and just reached the rampart in time to thrust a Gaul, who had mounted it, headlong down. This man carried those immediately behind along with himself in his fall ; and before the rest of his party could recover, the whole garrison of the Capitol was assaihng them with missiles from above, so that the Gauls had much difficulty in making good their retreat. This was but the beginning of their disasters : the putrid effluvia from heaps of dead bodies, the exhalations from the marshes near Eome, the heat of the climate to which the Gauls were unused, and their indulgence in the luxuries of Italy, all contributed to bring on CHAP. VIII.J MARCUS PUEIDS CAMILLDS. 107 a pestilential disease, which swept away great numbers; while the B.C. 388. activity and vigilance of CamiUus cut off their supphes, and reduced them to great scarcity of provisions. But the besieged were not in a better condition : threatened with absolute famine from within, and ignorant of the success of their friends without, their spirit was at length broken down, and they began to think of capitulation. The siege had already been continued more than six months, and Distress of the besiegers were not imwiUino- to come to terms ; so that a conven- the tesjegers tion was soon made between the two parties, by which the Gauls engaged to evacuate the city on receiving solid gold to the weight of a thousand pounds. This was not the only humiliation which the Romans had to suffer ; for when they complained that the weights used by the Gauls had been purposely falsified, in order to give their scale the preponderance, Brennus insultingly threw in his sword, adding, when asked what it meant — " What can it mean but woe to the conquered ! " The Eomans were so indignant at this fresh insult, that, distressed as they were, they felt inclined to break off all further intercoiirse with thefr enemies ; and were debating the point among themselves, when CamUlus most opportunely appeared Legend of at the gate of Eome ; ordered the conference to be immediately SiTGauis""^ closed, and declared, that a convention made without his authority was illegal, and that, as dictator, he now annulled it. Brennus resented this interference on the part of the Eoman general in the warmest manner ; a skirmish ensued on the spot ; but as streets From encumbered with ruins were ill adapted to the movements of an ^^"t^ °'/qq^ axmy, Brennus withdrew his forces in the ensuing night, and ' \g encamped about eight miles to the east of Eome on the road to Gabii. Hes of Feb. Camillus came up with him early on the following morning, and ^'^^ "°°' routed his troops after a short conflict. Many of the fugitives were killed in the pursuit, and many who escaped the swords of the vie- Camiiins tors were slain by the inhabitants of the towns and villages in the Brennus. neighbourhood. Camillus returned to the city in triumph, amid the shouts of his soldiers, haUing him, not without reason, as the father of his country and second founder of Eome.' After offering up costly sacrifices to the gods, in gratitude for their assistance, and the restoration of their temples, Camillus urged the people to commence the rebuilding of the city. The vastness of the undertaking, the recollection of what they had suffered from the Gaids, which was recalled by the very sight of Eome, the despon- 1 The appearance of Camillus precisely at the moment when his presence might save the honour of Eome, to say nothing of the improbability of his riskmg the salvation of his country upon a mere point of form — a decree of the senate — which there was so little prospect of obtaining — has so much the appearance of romance, that the truth of this part of the Eoman history might justly be suspected, even if we had not something very like an express testimony on the part of Polybius that the Gauls retired unmolested, with the ransom of Eome in their hands. Polyb. Proem. 108 MAECUS PUEIUS CAMILLUS. [chap. Tin. B.C. 388. deuce whicli so complete a humiliation would naturally occasion, all Tiie people combined to make the people disinclined to begin that great work, quitting and willing to listen to their factious leaders, who took this oppor- preventea'by tunity of again persuading them to insist upon being removed to CamiUus. Veil. But that measure was thought so fatal by the senate, that they would not allow the dictator to lay down his office, at the ter- mination of the half-year, as all his predecessors had done : and while they secured themselves against the intrigues of demagogues, by extending the period of his absolute authority, they left nothing undone to reconcile the populace to the laborious task which they had now to perform, and to offer every possible alleviation of their sufferings. Camillus, finding the people so extremely averse to the undertaking, assembled the senate in order to have the question dehberately put to the vote ; and entreated his countrymen, by every thing that was sacred, not to desert the spot where the ashes of their forefathers reposed, the favourite abode of their gods, the site which had been marked by prodigies as the head of their dominions. Just as they were about to give their votes on the question, while it was yet extremely dubious which opinion would preponderate, a cen- turion marching a body of soldiers by the house where the senate was assembled, called out to his ensign — " Fix your colours here ; this is the best place for us to remain in." The omen was instantly hailed by the senate, and the people willingly assented to a decision sanctioned, as their superstition taught them, by an authority from heaven. The senate granted permission to cut wood and work the quarries, without paying the usual charges, to all who would engage to finish their houses in the course of the year ; but they neglected to prescribe any rules for the place of the buildings, so that the new city bore lasting marks of the haste and precipitation with which it was built. The tribunes of the people, probably in this year, commenced an impeachment which was far more deserving of praise than were most of their suits against the agents of government ; it was a charge against Q. Fabius for his breach of the law of nations in taking up arms against the Gauls, who were not at war with the repubhc. The crime was too notorious to be denied, and the consequences of it had been too serious to leave any hope of an indulgent sentence from the people : it may therefore be reasonably supposed, that the criminal preferred a private and voluntary to a pubhc and ignoc minious death ; for before the day fixed for his trial had come on, his friends announced that he had been carried off by a short and sudden illness. To the Eomans, who looked upon suicide as no crime, and especially to a member of a haughty patrician famUy Hke the Fabii, such a termination of life appeared far preferable to the disgrace of a condemnation by the people. Soon afler these events, the nations who lived on the confines of Impeach- ment of Fabius. His death. CHAP. Vni.] MABCUS FUEIUS CAMILHTS. 109 the Roman territory seemed as if actuated by one common spirit of B.C. 388. hostility, and resolved to crush the republic while rising from her ashes. The jSlqui, Volsci, and Latini invaded them from the east Romans and south, almost at the same time that the Tuscans laid siege to l^^^^ ^^ Sutrium, a town in alliance with Eome, on the north-west. The ?f's„*H™' Eoman camp, near Lanuvium, was surrounded by the Latins, and the mihtary tribunes who had the command there, sent to Eome for immediate succours, to extricate them from the imminent peril in which they were placed. CamUlus was, on this occasion, a third time appointed dictator. He immediately made a new levy, and divided his army into three parts, one of which, under Manlius CapitoUnus, was encamped before the city, another, under the command of iEnulius Mamercinus, was sent against the Etruscans, and the third, led by Camillus himself, marched against the Volsci. They had flattered themselves that aU the youth of Eome had perished under the swords of the Gauls, but the very name of CamiUus filled them with terror ; they therefore barricadoed their entrenchments with trunks of trees heaped up, to prevent the passage of the enemy. Camillus, perceiving this, ordered burning torches to be thrown upon their works, and as there was fortunately a very high wind at the time blowing directly on the enemy's quarters, the Volsci were so alarmed and overcome by the flames and smoke, and crackling of the green timber, that the Eomans had less difficulty in scaling the rampart and entering the camp, than they who are had previously experienced in crossing the enclosure already con- g™^^*^ sumed by the fire. The Volsci were completely routed, their camp was taken, their fugitives were pursued, their country was laid waste, and Volsci, their capital town, given up. The JEiqvi, their neighbours, immediately afterwards experienced a similar fate ; they were defeated by CamiUus at Boise, and their town, as well as their camp, were taken at the first onset. The successes of the repubHc in the south and east were counter- balanced for a time by the misfortunes of their aUies at Sutrium. Sutnum They had been compelled by the superior numbers of their enemy, '^"' the fatigues and losses sustained in a close siege, and the failure of their resources, to evacuate their town on capitulation, and the hard condition of retiring in search of another place of abode with nothing more than the clothes upon their backs. CanuHus met them, on his march to Sutrium, going in this wretched condition towards Eome. b.c. 387. The whole multitude threw themselves at his feet, bathed in tears, and representing to him in the most moving language the misery to which they were reduced. He desired them not to despair, but to return with him, and they should be avenged upon their enemies. He marched onwards with such expedition, that he took the Etrus- cans, as he expected, completely by surprise. The gates of Sutrium and were open, there were no sentinels at the outposts, every one was bl^camiuns. 110 MARCUS FURIUS CAMILLHS. [CHAP. VHI. B.C. 387. intent upon rifling the houses of the inhabitants who had just been ' expelled. The victors had no time to rally, they everywhere fell into the hands of their unexpected foes, and had scarcely leisure to seize their arms, much less to unite and form themselves uato a body which could have made some resistance. Thus was Sutrium taken and retalien in the same day : and CamiUus, by a wise precaution, having ordered his men to close the gates as soon as they had entered, completely cut off the retreat of the Etruscans, while by guaranteeing the lives of all who should lay down their arms, he humanely prevented the bloodshed which a contest within the town must have occasioned. The town was restored before the night, to its former possessors. Insurrection The valour, promptitude, and judgment of CamiUus were so at Antium. decidedly the chief causes of the success which attended his arms in these three expeditions, that the malevolence of his enemies was for once silenced, and never was a triumph more unanimously hailed with acclamations than this, the third which he had the honour of celebrating. He seems to have enjoyed his well earned honours with less interruption from the jealousy and envy of his detractors, at this than at any previous period. But his quiet was soon dis- tiu-bed by an insurrection among the people of Antium, a city of the B.C. 384. Volsci, the old and obstinate enemies of Rome. He happened to be then one of the military tribunes, and such was the confidence inspired by his character and exploits, that his colleagues voluntarily resigned the supreme power to him, giving him the authority, though not the title of dictator. When the army had reached Satricum, a colony of the Antiates, they found a much larger force prepared to receive them than they had expected. It was not merely the youth of Antium, but a vast body of Latins and Hernici, whose numbers had been recruited by a long period of peace, and who were encour- aged by that circumstance, to throw off their allegiance to Rome. The soldiers were much discouraged on perceiving the strength of the enemy, but CamiUus, seizing the nearest standard-bearer by the hand, rushed with him upon the enemy : when his men saw this, they instantly foUowed him, ashamed of showing less vigour and alertness than their general, whose age might have excused him from taking so active a part in the contest. The Antiates, who were in the foremost rank, were unable to stand the shock, and the panic was rapidly communicated to their allies. The very name and presence of CamiUus struck the Volsci with terror: and when they had nearly turned his left wing, his coming suddenly up, though ill mounted and insufficiently armed, gave his own men courage to rally, and turned the fortune of the day against the enemy. The battle, or rather, the carnage, was at length stopped in the evening by a heavy storm, and the next day the Latins and Hernici returned home, leaving the Volsci to bring the wax to a close, in the best CHAP. \^I1.] MARCUS FURIUS CAMILLUS. Ill manner they could, without their aid. They, therefore, shut them- b.c. 384. selves up within the walls of Satricum ; and as they made no effort to interrupt the works carried on by Camillus in order to establish an effectual blockade, he judged that they would not have spirit enough to repel a more direct attack. He, therefore, ordered his men to scale the walls on all sides, and took the city by storm, without any extraordinary loss. On his return to Eome, immediately after the capture of Satricum, he proposed to the senate to lay siege to Antium itself, the capital of the Volsci ; but when they were on the point of acceding to his proposal, intelligence was received from Sutrium and Nepete, of then- having been attacked by the Etruscans, and immediate want of a powerful succour from Eome. He was therefore obliged to abandon his plan for the present, and repair immediately to the towns on the confines of Etruria, which had made such a pressing application for aid. Those towns were considered as the gates and keys of Etruria, and were therefore the first objects of both the Eomans and Etrus- cans, whenever they had designs of invading each other's territories. The latter had already got possession of Nepete and a part of Sutrium, before Camillus and his colleague Valerius came to the assistance of their inhabitants. By a judicious distribution of his camiiius troops, Camillus soon drove the Etruscans out of Sutrium, and sut°.J^^ pursued them till night with great slaughter. Nepete, which was entirely in the power of the Etruscans, was taken by assault, and the tribunes led back their victorious army to Eome, with the glory of having recovered from the enemy two cities in alliance with the repubhc. That turbulence and ambition were vices not confined to one class of the Eoman people, was clearly proved by a conspiracy against the state, soon afterwards discovered. It originated from a quarter whence it was least expected — a man of patrician famUy and distin- guished patriotism, M. Manlius CapitoKnus ; who, while he held the other leading statesmen in contempt, was envious of one who, hke Camillus, was rendered illustrious by his virtues as well as by his honours. ManUus, by estimating his own merits too highly, was led Maniiu.s to depreciate those of CamiUus ; and not finding the senate willing Capitoiinus to favour his pretensions, began to pay court to the multitude, and ingratiated hioaself with them by arts unworthy of his rank and character. The expenses in which the destruction of the city had involved the poorer citizens, had increased the burden of their debts to an extraordinary degree ; and the oppressive power with which the Eoman laws invested the creditor, was consequently more than ever felt by the great body of the people. ManUus, therefore, by defending the cause of plebeians who had been seized for their debts, and by taking an active part in all the popular assembhes, promoted, by his vehement harangues, the factious measures of the dema- 112 MABCUS FUKIUS CAMILLUS. [chap. VIII. B.C. A Dictator created. Manlius excites tlie popular discontent 384. gogues, and obtained an almost unparalleled share of popularity, wMch gave such umbrage to the senate, that they thought it expe- dient to create a dictator. Aulus Cornelius Cossus was the person chosen for that high office, and he appointed T. Quinctius CapitoHnus his master of the horse. The Volsci who, though checked by the victories of CamiUus, were far from subued, were again in arms; the first act of the new dictator, therefore, was an engagement with them, in which they were completely defeated and their camp taken; most of the many captives taken on this occasion were Latins and Hernici, and it appeared from the rank of the prisoners, and the confessions extorted from them, that their countrymen had certainly entered into a secret alliance with the enemies of Rome. Cossus, therefore, remained in the field, expecting instructions from the senate, directing him to make war on those states ; but a danger nearer home soon called him back to the capital. Manlius had proceeded so far as to excite a tumult, and encourage the populace in releasing a debtor from the officers of justice, who were carrying him to prison ; and he was continually setting on foot reports of the senate's having embezzled the gold recovered from the Gauls. The passions of the multitude had been so inflamed by the violence of his harangues, and their leaders so emboldened by his daring attack on the ministers of justice, that every thing seemed ripe for an open insurrection. In this emergency, the senate recalled the dictator ; and the next day, in the place where the popular assembfies were held, the senate being assembled, he cited ManUus to appear before him. He came, accompanied by a crowd of his adherents, to whom he had given a clear intimation that they ought to prepare for a contest. The dictator told him, in a few words, that it was currently reported, that he charged some of the senators with having embezzled a sum sufficient to release the Eoman people from the burden of their debts. " So far from wishing to throw obstacles in your way, M. Manlius," continued the dictator, " if you can make such a charge good, I earnestly exhort you to produce your proofs immediately. But if you fail to produce them, or it appear that you were yourself an accompHce, I shall immediately commit you to prison, and not suffer the Eoman people to be any longer deluded by your faUacious promises." Manhus, instead of directly producing his evidence, or even engaging to do so, evaded the main point, and dwelt upon all those circumstances which gave the appearance of truth to his assertion ; that the war against the Volsci was merely a specious pretence, and that the dictator had been, in reality, appointed solely to keep the people in subjection. Cossus again called upon him to come directly to the point, and prove the charge which he had made ; to which he replied, that he should not enter into any proofs where his enemies were to be the judges of their validity. On this, CHAP. VIII.J MAECUS FUEIU3 CAMILLUS. 113 the dictator ordered his officer to carry him immediately to prison ; B.C. 382. and such was the awe in which that magistrate was held, that not a murmur was heard or an angry look seen. Yet so completely was Manlius become the idol of the people, that a very large number assumed the garb of mourning, and crowded round his prison with every demonstration of grief. The popvdar irritation was now too violent to be calmed even by concessions ; little eifect was produced by a division of some of the public lands among them, and the establishment of .a colony of two thousand citizens at Sutrium : but soon after the dictatorship of Cornehus Cossus had terminated, Manlius was liberated by order of the senate, and again became, as might be expected, the leader of the disaffected. At the close of that year, Camillus was again, for the sixth time, chosen one of the military tribunes, invested with consular authority. The liberation of Manlius had so increased his audacity, that he now B.C. 381. openly exhorted the people to vindicate their invaded rights, to level the different magistracies with the ground, and establish the supre- macy of the people beyond the possibility of its being violated. He would be their adviser and leader, and the more dignified the title with which they should honour him, the more effectually should he be able to obtain what they desired. This language was too plain to leave any doubt of the intentions of ManUus, and justly alarmed aU those who had any regard for the constitution of the Republic ; so much so, that even the tribunes of the people felt the necessity of MaiiUus checking such seditious proceedings, and two of them entered a '"'"^'"^ "* charge of sedition against him, appointing a day for hearing his defence. His gmlt was so apparent, that even his own family and nearest relations did not assume the habit of mom-ning, or make any effort to obtain a favourable sentence. When brought to trial, he made such a powerful appeal to the great actions by which his life had been distinguished, the many most essential services for which his country was indebted to him, and most especially the salvation of the Capitol, which was solely due to his courage and vigilance, that the tribunes felt it would be impossible for any judges to pronounce sentence against him, while that fortress was in siglit. They, therefore, adjourned his trial to a future day, and fixed on a grove near the Nomen- tane gate, from whence the Capitol was not visible, where the people, unable to doubt a crime proved by incontrovertible evidence, gave a tardy and reluctant vote for his condemnation. He was thrown by the tribunes from the Tarpeian ana con- rock, and the same place became an eternal monumentboth of his glory ' ™"<' ■ [r. h.] I [Tarpeian Rock. 114 MAECUS rUEIUS CAMILLUS. [CHAP. VIII. B.C. 381 . and his disgrace. His house was rased with the ground, and a decree was passed that no patrician should in future inhabit the Capitol. The Manlii were likewise forbidden to give the name of Marcus to any of their children. The people soon began to regret the sentence which a sense of justice had wrung from them ; and ascribed a pestUenoe, which raged some time afterwards, to the wrath of the gods, who were indignant at seeing his blood shed, who had saved the Capitol, and snatched their temples out of the hands of the enemy. The fidelity of the Latian States had long been suspected by the Eoman government, and in the years immediately following the events just related, even some of their colonies in that quarter showed a manifest inchnation to join their enemies ; particularly Velitree, whose inhabitants made head against a Eoman army, and were supported by their neighbours, the people of Prseneste. The Eoman generals abstained from stonning a town which was a Eoman colony, but declared war, against the Prjenestini, who next year, in conjunction with the Volsci, took Satricum, another colony, by storm, and treated the captives with great barbarity. This demanded a prompt and severe chastisement ; and Camillus was for that reason not only chosen a mUitary tribune, for the seventh time, but appointed, out of the regular order, commander of the troops CamiUus Sent against the Volsci. He had already reached the age which theVote?^' exempted him from the necessity of undertaking such services, and would have availed himself of that circumstance, had not the people strongly pressed him to take the command. His colleague was Lucius Furius, a member of the same family, but very inferior in character and ability, as soon afterwards appeared. They marched on the following day to Satricum, where the enemy awaited with a considerably larger force, so confident of success from superiority of numbers, that they used every stratagem to draw the Eomans into an immediate engagement. The soldiers became extremely impa- tient of delay ; and Furius, who was deficient in judgment and self- command, at the same time that he was rsish and daring, increased the discontent of his men, by blaming the dUatoriness of his col- league. At length he urged him to consent to their attacking the enemy, and not to oppose his single wiU to the united wishes of all the others. Camillus replied with the firmness and dignity which became his years, and a gentleness and modesty, which reflect the brightest fight upon the great quafities by which he was so pectiharly His prudence distinguished. He said, that "he had never had reason to repent save'ttr™'^ of hi^ councils, or complaui of his fortune ; but his colleague had an Bom.-m equal authority with himself, and the advantage of youth and vigour ; with respect to the army, he was more used to command than to be commanded ; that he would not prevent his colleague from taking the lead, and hoped the gods would be propitious ; he only requested CHAP. Vin.J MAECTJS FUKIUS CAMILLUS. 115 that, from indulgence for his age, he might be excused from placing B.C. 381. himself in the front rank ; and he would not fail in those duties which might justly be required from a man of his advanced years." Furius willingly assented to this proposal, he led on the van, while Carmllus in the rear took charge of the reserve, placing it in a strong post in front of their camp, and taking a station for himself on a rising ground, whence he could be an attentive observer of the engage- ment. The enemy scarcely made a stand at all, but retreated pre- cipitately to their own camp ; the Eomans, elated with their success, pushed on heedlessly up a rising ground, when a strong reinforce- ment marched out of the enemy's camp, and joined by those who appealed to be flying, charged the troops of Furius with all the advantage of fresh men and a higher ground. The latter had been completely entrapped by the feint of the Volsci ; and were so con- founded by their unexpected return to the charge, that they were soon put to flight themselves, and endeavoured to regain their camp in the greatest haste and confusion. CamiUus desired his attendants to place him on his horse, the moment he saw the turn in the for- tune of the day, and, advancing with the reserve, hastened to meet the vanguard, and encourage them to rally. The sight of this venerable commander, rendered illustrious by so many triumphs, exposing himself in the foremost ranks, shunning neither labour nor peril, recalled the spirit and resolution of the soldiers, and filled them with shame for their disgraceful flight. Furius, who now gladly submitted to the superior judgment of his colleague — ^hastened, by his desire, to recover the cavalry from their panic, while Camil- lus, at the head of the infantry, sustained the charge of the enemy. The dismounted cavalry soon came to their assistance, and it was not long before the Volsci felt what the Eomans were capable of efiecting under such a general as CamUlus. The troops and their commanders seemed all resolved never to be surpassed in energy and valour ; and the Volsci, who had fled as a mere feint at the beginning of the contest, were completely routed at the close of it. Defeat of the Their loss was immense, their camp was stormed and taken by the " Eomans, and great as was the number of the slain, it was exceeded by the number of the captives.-^ Among them, there were found some natives of Tusculmn, and on inquiry, it appeared that the Tusculans had maintained a secret correspondence with the Volsci, and meditated a war with Eome. The danger from a foe thus near at hand, appeared to Camfllus so imminent, that he determined to return to Eome immediately with the captives, leaving his colleague in charge of the army. The senate were of opinion that war ought immediately to be commenced 1 Plutarch's account of this affair differs considerably from that of Livy, here followed as the more probable one. Camillua enters Tusculunv 116 MAECUS FtFEIUS CAMILLUS. [CHAP. VHI. B.C. 381. against Tusculum, and intrusted the conducting of it entirely to CamiUus ; he only asked to have one coadjutor in that service, and ■was allowed to choose one of his colleagues ; when, by naming, con- trary to the expectation of all, Lucius Furius ; he gave at once the most convincing proof of his own extreme moderation and candour ; and, by thus palliating the disgrace of his colleague, added a brighter lustre to his own glory. When he entered the territory of Tusculum, he found everything wearing the appearance of profoim.d peace ; the fields were fuU of husbandmen and shepherds, occupied in their ordinary labours ; the gates of the town were open, and many inhabitants of the higher classes came to show their respect to the generals ; supphes were sent very readily into the camp, both from the town and country. Camillus encamped his men before the gates of the town, and on entering it, found every thing in a similar state ; doors open, shops well filled with goods, tradesmen hard at work, children repeating their lessons aloud in the schools, women and lads going to and fi-o wherever their business called them ; not the shghtest indication of fear, or any thing that intimated a thought of war. Though not convinced of the sincerity of the Tusculans, Camillus was so well pleased with the care which they had taken to remove the impres- sion produced by their correspondence with the enemies of Eome, that he encouraged them to go in a body to deprecate the wrath of the senate. They lost no time in complying with his suggestion, and their appearance as suppliants, together with the humble strain in which they acknowledged their oflFence, had so powerful an eifect in appeasing the displeasure of the senate, that they were not only left unmolested for the present, but soon afterwards admitted to the privileges of Eoman citizens. The legions were then recalled from Tusculum ; and with the year the magistracy of Camillus terminated ; a magistracy in which his skUl and valour in the war against the Volsci, his happy success in the expedition against Tusculum, and his forbearance and moderation towards his colleague on all occa- sions, rendered him more than ever deserving of admiration. After the close of this war against the Tusculans, a very turbulent period ensued. The tribunes, who were ever stirring up the people to make some claim which they were sure the senate would refuse to grant, availed themselves of the distress occasioned by the pressure of the debts owing to the wealthy patricians, and exhorted the people not to serve in the army till some remedy had been found for the evils under which they laboured. The inhabitants of PrKneste, at the same time meditated an invasion of the Eoman state, and, when they learned that the people refused to enlist, that Eome was almost in a state of insurrection, they expedited their own levies, entered the Eoman territory, and carried their devastations to the very gates of Eome. A dictator, as was usual in such emergencies, B.C. 380. Home in a state of disquiet. War with Pvasneste. B.C. 378. CHAP. Vni.] MARCUS FUKIUS CAJULLUS. 117 was appointed, the populace did not dare to resist his authority; the B.C. 378. levies were completed ; the Praenestini defeated near the river AUia, eight of their towns taken, and their city given up. Titus Quinc- tius Cincinnatus, the dictator, returned in triumph. These successes served but for a short time to sHence the factious and disaffected. The old grievances, real or imaginary, were revived ; but a tem- porary expedient, exemption from the claims of the creditor while the debtor was in actual service, quieted the apprehensions of the poorer citizens for the present, gave them a motive for entering willingly into the service, and enabled the tribimes to lead a con- siderable force against the Volsci and Latins, again in arms against the Eepublic. The Romans, successfiil in this as in the preceding B.C. 377. wars, continued gradually, though slowly, to enlarge the bounds of their territory. But, though successful abroad, they were still disturbed by intestine tumults at home. A daughter of Marcus Fabius Ambustus, who was married to a B.C. 375. plebeian, happened to be visiting at the house of one of her sisters, whose husband was a mihtary tribune and a patrician, when, on his return from the forum, his lictor struck the door of his house with his rod, to announce his master's return. The noise alarmed the plebeian sister, unused to such thundering knocks, and ignorant of their meaning. The other laughed at her for being so ignorant : but "great events," it has been said, "often arise from trifling causes;" and that laughter threw Rome almost into a state of anarchy for several years. Her sister's ridicule sank so deeply into the mind of the one who had thus betrayed her plebeian habits, that, when she saw her father, she could not conceal her vexation from him. He consoled her by saying, that " she should soon have the satisfaction of enjoying all the honours which her sister could claim." Her husband, Caius Licinius Stolo, was next year elected one of the B.C. 374. tribunes of the people ; and, urged on by his father-in-law, he, in conjunction with an ambitious colleague, Lucius Sextius, proposed three laws, of which the sole object was depression of the higher and Laws in fx- elevation of the lower classes. These laws would, in fact, if once plebeians'^" established, have completely subverted the constitution of the proposed. republic. The first was, that the capital of every debt should be paid off by instalments in three years, the interest already paid having been first deducted from the original capital ; the second, that five hundred acres (jugera) should be the largest quantity of land which it shoidd be lawful for any individual to possess ; and the last, that no military tribunes shoidd. be in future created, but that one of the consuls should always be a plebeian. These three laws, in the opinion of the senators, struck at the very vitals of the constitution : they therefore persuaded the colleagues of Licinius and Sextius to put a veto on their proposition whenever it was brought forward. The latter, in their turn, threatened to use 118 MAECUS rUEIUS CAMILLUS. [CHAP. Till. B.C. 374. the same expedient for preventing the election of the magistrates; and for the next five years they reaJized their threats, by allowing none to be elected except the »diles and the tribunes of the people. The impediment which this resistance ofiered to the forming of the military levies was a very serious evil, which the military tribunes elected under an officer called interrex, were not able to stem : and it seemed to demand the interposition of a dictator, whose power was so absolute as to enable him instantly to check any symptoms of Camiiius disobedience to his orders. CamUlus was again fixed upon to fiU Dictator'^ that important office. B c 367. This was contrary to his own wish, as well as opposed to the inclinations of the people. He felt that he was considered as created merely to silence their demands ; and that those who had often followed him to conquest, could with truth affirm, that he was more indebted to their confidence and obedience in war, than to the support and concurrence of the patricians in peace. The jealousy of his enemies might also be secretly at work, endeavouring the more surely to effect his ruin, by placing him in so conspicuous and difficult a station, that it was scarcely possible for him to succeed in repressing the claims of the people without being gmity of great oppression ; and if he failed, he would plainly have no friends to save him, in either party. In order to disconcert the plans of the tribunes, he summoned aU the people to a general muster in the field, at the day and hour fixed for their assembling in the forum to vote upon these laws, threatening to punish disobedience to his orders with a hea^^y fine. But before that time had arrived, Camiiius He resigns, resigned his office, in consequence of an unfavourable appearance in the auspices. Pubhus Manhus, the succeeding dictator, appointed Lioinius Stolo his master of the horse ; and the second of the three objectionable laws, that which restricted the state of each individual to five hundred acres, was carried soon afterwards. It is remarkable that Stolo himself was afterwards convicted of transgressing his own law. But the great question respecting the election of consuls stiU remained undecided ; and the apprehensions of the senate had not been removed, when intelligence was received that the Gauls were B.C. 367. again advancing from the coasts of the Adriatic, with an immense force. They were desolating the country through which they passed, and many of the terrified inhabitants sought for refiige within the walls of the city. The alarm created by this unforeseen danger arrested the progress of internal dissensions, and some of the more popular senators having proposed CamUlus as dictator, he was irame- But is again diately created as it were by acclamation. Notwithstanding his approach of "^ great age, for he was now nearly eighty, years old, he did not hesitate danger. to undertake the office conferred upon him. He would not suffer any personal consideration to interfere vrith the claims of his CHAP. vni.J MAECUS FUEIUS CAMIIXUS. 119 country; and, without claiming any indulgence for the infirmities of B.C. 367. age, immediately made his levies, and entered upon his official duties. By helmets of polished iron, which would break a sword, or make it glance aside, and by a rim of brass round the shield, which would resist the cut of a sabre, by which the wood unarmed would have been cleaved, Camillus equipped his men with arms peculiarly adapted for warfare with the Gauls, who depended chiefly on their swords and the fury of the onset. He also armed his men with long pikes, which were calculated to check the effect of the enemy's swords, and prevent them from coming to such close quarters. The Gauls had reached the river Anio, and were only a few miles Advance of from Rome, when they first came in sight of the Eoman army. "''''^*"'^ Camillus had formed an encampment on a broken and rising groimd, where there were many ravines and recesses among the hiUs, which enabled him to conceal the greater part of his men; while the remainder was posted at the top of an easy ascent, as if afraid to descend into the lower ground and encounter the enemy. In this position the Romans could watch the motions of the enemy, and, by the dictator's command, remain quiet spectators of the depredations and carousals of the Gauls : and when he had observed that part of them were dispersed through the country in foraging parties, he sent out a body of hght-armed infantry, before the day had dawned, to harass the enemy, and prevent them from forming in a line ; and as soon as dayhght appeared, led his heavy-armed troops into the plain, and drew them up in battle array. The calctJations of Camillus, as might be expected from so cautious and experienced a commander, all proved correct. The desultory skirmishing of his hght-armed troops continually harassed the Gauls in different quarters, and compelled them to advance in great confusion; and when they rushed tumultuously upon the heavy-armed men, in the main body of the army, their swords were bent or broken by the resistance of the Eoman shields and helmets, and their targets pierced by the pikes. Finding their own weapons of so httle service, they endeavoured to seize those of the enemy ; but their naked bodies had no protection against the swords of the Romans, who therefore soon made great havock among them. The contest was not long continued : the Gauls fled precipitately over the Their defeat plain, (for the heights had been secured by Carmllus,) and left their camp, open and unguarded, a prey to their enemies. This victory was of importance to the Romans, not merely on accoimt of its immediate consequences, in removing their apprehension of being again over- whelmed by the barbarians ; but inasmuch as it taught them no longer to fear those dreaded hordes, and to rely more upon then- own superior skill and coolness. TiU. after this battle, they had considered the Grauls as almost invincible, and had ascribed their 120 MARCUS rURIUS CAMILLUS. [chap. Triumph of Camillus. B.C. 367. former successes to a prevailing sickness, or other accidental circum- stances injurious to the Gauls, rather than to any superiority of their own. A triumph for this victory was decreed to CamiUus by the mutual consent both of the senate and people ; but a contest awaited him at home which he was less prepared to engage in, than that which he had so happily brought to a termination abroad. The people, presuming upon their late services in the field, insisted more urgently than ever upon having one of the consuls chosen from among the plebeians. The senate was as obstinately resolved not to concede what it considered a violation of a fundamental principle in the constitution of the republic ; and, considering the atithority of the dictator as useful in repressing the turbulence of the people, they refused to permit Camillus to lay down his office. At length, as he was sitting at his tribunal in the forum, determining causes brought before him, an officer, sent by the tribunes of the people, summoned him to attend them, and laid his hand upon him as if about to carry him by force. This was resented by the patricians present as a most bare-faced insult: the populace vociferated against their driving away the tribunes' officer ; and the dictator, to allay the tumult, led the patricians away to the senate. On entering it, he turned towards the Capitol, and made a vow he would dedicate a temple to Concord, if the Gods should bring the prevaUing dissensions to a happy conclusion. After a long and warm debate, the patricians at length yielded to the wishes of the people ; and in return required their consent to the appointment of a supreme magistrate within the walls of the city — the praetor — who was always to be chosen from among the noble families. The people, when these decrees of the senate were communicated to them, received them with great satisfaction, and accompanied the dictator to his house with acclamations. Thus was concord at length re-established, after so long a period of endless contests ; and the prayers of Camillus seemed to have been favourably heard. The people passed a vote, fixing upon a spot opposite to the forum, where they held their assembhes, for the site of the temple to Concord, which the dictator had vowed to consecrate : and the senate decreed the celebration of most magnifi- cent games in honour of the Gods, who had, at length, granted internal as well as external peace to the republic. Camillus, in obedience to the decree of the Senate, called an assembly of the people for the election of consuls, after the long suspension of that office under the military tribunes invested with consular authority. The latter office was now finally laid aside ; two consuls were chosen, one of whom, Lucius Sextius, who had so long persevered in endeavouring to obtain a decree, by which persons of his rank should be rendered admissible to that honour, was the Temple of Concord erected. B.C. 366. One of the Cansuls chosen from thePIebeians' CHAP. VIII.J MARCUS rtmiUS CAmi,LDS. 121 first plebeian by whom it was enjoyed. This was the last public B.C. act of CamiUus ; for, in the following year, Rome being visited with a dreadful pestilence, which carried off most of the magistrates and 365. [Temple of Concord Bome— Fenud l iadiUtma'] multitudes of the people, he also fell a victim to the malady, not Death of the less sincerely regretted, though his death was so far from pre- <^''™'""»- mature. His loss was justly considered as irreparable : for he was indeed unrivalled, whether in prosperous or adverse fortune. Before his banishment, he had deserved the highest distinctions ; but after his exUe, he became still more illustrious, as well by the earnestness with which his countrymen besought him to return, as by the peculiar happiness of being, when returned, the restorer of his country. He not only attained higher honours, and a larger share of glory than almost any one before or since : but, what more rarely happens to those whose eminence and occupations peculiarly expose them to a reverse of fortune, enjoyed the esteem and admiration he so justly merited, through a long course of years ; and to the last period of his life, was enabled to exert his talents, virtues, and influence in the service of the state of which, even during his lifetime, he had the glory of being named the second founder. We have hitherto considered rather the pubhc than the private his character of CamiUus ; but the latter was such as has seldom been character. rivalled, and never surpassed. His boldness and intrepidity were not alloyed by obstinacy or rashness ; his magnanimity made him humble in prosperity, and patient under adverse fortune; his patriotism remained unshaJsen by the ingratitude of his countrymen; his generosity led him to conceal the failings of his opponents ; and his piety, though strongly marked, does not appear to have been tainted by superstition. Often placed in a trying position, where his own prejudices, and those of his friends and relations, were likely to give a bias to his judgment, he seems always to have kept 122 MAECUS FCEiaS CAMILLUS. [chap. Tin. B.C. 365. the middle path, and secured the rights of the patricians without ever oppressing the plebeians, whose intemperate conduct seemed almost to call for severity. His unbroken equanimity, moderation, and candour, added a brighter lustre to all his other great qualities, and commanded a degree of veneration from his contemporaries, which it has rarely been the lot even of the most virtuous statesmen to enjoy. During the whole of the long period throughout which Camillus had so large a part in the administration of the Eoman government, the pubhc peace was disturbed, either by external wars or internal tumults. He had the happiness before the close of his life, to usher in the commencement of a brighter era ; when mutual concessions allayed for a while the ferment of party spirit, and the republic, already recovered from the severe shock sustained by the Gallic invasion, was secure against the hostile schemes of the petty states around her. In the short period of two-and-twenty years after the death of CamUlus, so much had the fame and power of the Eomans B.C. 343. been augmented, that their alliance was courted by the Carthagi- nians ; and the people of Campania, placing themselves under their protection, became in fact the subjects of the republic.-' 1 Liv. v.— vii. 30. Plutarch in vita CamUl. Anc. Univ. Hist. x. 176—224. [Rome Triumphant -—Firimesi.] [Curtius Leaping into the Gulf.— From a Basso EeUevo at the Villa Btyrghese, Ttossi, RaecoUa di Statue. ] CHAPTER IX. THE SAMNITE WARS. B. C. 365-290 The great pestilence of whicli Camillus died continued to B.C. 365. rage ; to this calamity was added an oyerflow of the Tiber, which deluged the lower parts of the city. In cases of public calamity, the Etrurians, it was said, had averted the wrath of the gods, by driving a nail into the temple wall. To perform this ceremony, the Romans specially appointed Lucius Manlius dictator, who took advantage of his position to declare war against the Hernicans ; he was, however, obliged to resign his oiEce. (b.c. 363.) To this The Legend year is referred the famous legend of M. Curtius. An earth- cmti-as. quake had produced a deep gulf in the forum; and vain were all b.c. 363. the efforts of the people to fill it up. As the soothsayers had .declared, that to effect this, Eome must cast into the chasm the most precious thing she possessed; M. Curtius, a youth who had highly distinguished himself by his bravery on former occasions, declaring that there was nothing more precious than valour, mounted his war horse, and uttering a prayer to the infernal gods, plunged into the gulf, which instantly closed above him, and in its place arose the Curtian lake. Towards the closing years of the great Camillus, and for many 124 THE SAMNITE WAES. [chap. IX. B.C. 363. The Licmian Law. K.c. 356. B.C. 300. War with the Hemicans and Etruscans. B.C. 358. The Etruscan Army of Furies. B.C. 345. Roman vengeance on the Eti-uscans. Defeat of the Gauls. B.C. 349. The Legend of Valerius Corvus. years succeeding his death, the power of the plebeians gained rapid development. The Licinian law gave them the consulship in B.C. 367. In B.C. 356, C. Marcius Rutilus, a plebeian, was raised to the dictatorship; in 351, the same individual gained the censorship ; Q. Pubinius Philo, was the first plebeian prsetor, B.C. 337, whUe the high dignities of pontifex and augur were opened up to the plebeians, B.C. 300, by the Ogulnian laws. It was fortunate for Eome, that during several of these internal struggles, no powerfal enemy was in the field against her. A war, however, against the Hernicans and the Etruscans of Tarquinii spnmg up in the year B.C. 358, and the Gauls were soon after added to the number of their enemies. The latter were defeated by the dictator Sulpicius, and the former were finally reduced B.C. 306. The war with the Etruscans continued to rage for several years. The ingenuity of this people is apparent, from their having put to a practical purpose the terrors of the mythological world. In their campaign against Fabius Ambustus, their army assumed the appearance of the furies, carrying snakes and torches in their hands ; and so terrified were the Eomans at the apalling spectacle, that they took to flight on the first charge. But on their commander ridiculing their chUdish fears, they rallied, and repulsed their enemies. The Etruscans after this sustained several defeats, their camp was cap- tured, 8000 prisoners taken, and the rest killed or dispersed. The year B.C. 345, was signalized by the terrible vengeance of the Romans; vast numbers of the Etruscan captives were slaughtered, while three hundred and fifty-eight of the most distinguished, were selected, and hurried off to Eome, where they were scourged and beheaded in the forum. This act of retaliation the Eomans com- mitted, to revenge the slaughter of three hundred and seven of their soldiers, whom the Etruscans had taken prisoners and then butchered in cold blood. The G-aUic hordes had not yet made an end of their bold incursions into the Eoman territory. Once more did a vast band of these hardy marauders make their appearance in the vicinity of Eome. If driven from one encampment, even with loss, they speedily formed another, and from the mountains where they had taken up their winter quarters, poured down on the neighbouring plains, carrying oiF much booty. A check was finally put to their depredations by the consul Lucius Furius Camillus, who, with a combined force of Eomans and Latins, moved forward to the Pomptine lands, where he encountered and defeated them, B.C. 349. It was in this engage- ment that the legendary fame of M. Valerius was acquired. This young military tribune had accepted the challenge of a gigantic Gaul to single combat. In the conflict, it is said, that a raven settled upon the helmet of the Eoman chief, and by assailing the Gaul with his beak and wings, materially contributed to his victory, CHAP. IX.J FIEST SAMKITE WAR. 125 who thenceforth received the surname of Corvus, or " The B.C. 346. Raven." This young hero again distinguished himself greatly in a war against the Volscians, B.C. 346, in which, as commander-in- chief, he defeated their army, and stormed the town of Satricum, their stronghold, to which he set fire, after receiving the submission of a body of 4000 soldiers who had taken refuge in that place. FIRST SAMNITE WAR. It was fortunate for Eome, that she had now, by a continual B.C. 343. succession of wars, brought into action the great elements of her mUitary grandeur. Her native hardihood had proved itself from the earhest times ; the enemies she had encountered were not more various thati their modes of figiting, and four centuries of victories and reverses had been consoUdating her power, and building up her confidence. Her fullest energies were now to be tasked by a bold and warlike nation. The Samnites, who inhabited a large extent of Position of country, had colonised Lucania and Campania, and surpassed Eome samnitcs, in population and number of alHes. Four cantons formed their confederation, which was rendered stiU more powerful by its steady unity of action. The Sidicinians upon whom the Samnites had made war, had called in the aid of the luxurious Campanians, who being at once defeated in battle, retreated within the walls of Capua. The Samnites, after gaining a vast booty in this rich neighbourhood, and cutting off the best troops of the Campanians, returned homewards with their plunder. The Eomans, now called in by the Campanians, who offered to submit to the sovereignty of Eome, made their first appearance in the field B.C. 343. While the consul M. Valerius Corvus proceeded to Campania, A. Cornelius Advance of Cossus his colleague, advanced on Samnium. The treacherous *''^ Consuls defiles of the Appenines proved a perilous track for the army. Sud- denly the m.oimtain heights were crowned with the Samnite host, ready to rush down to the vaUey beneath, where there seemed no hope of escape for the Eomans ; and their whole force must have been annihilated, had not the devoted bravery of P. Decius Mus Bravery of and his heroic band held the Samnites in check, by obtaining pos- '""^ "^^ session of an important height which commanded their camp, and thus afforded the consul time to draw off his army to more advan- tageous ground. Decius and his gallant troops had the good fortune on the following day to rejoin the consul, by whom they were received in triumph. The armji of Campania, under Valerius Corvus, fought a still The action more important action with the Samnites. Corvus had encamped g^qtS™ upon Mount Gaurus, where the sovereignty of Italy was decided in favour of the Eomans. Notwithstanding the fall of thousands, the Samnites, with indomitable bravery still bore up against the practised hardihood of the Eomans till near the close of the day, when a 126 THE SAMNITE WARS. [CHAP. IX. B.C. 343. furious charge drove them back in disorder to their camp, which they deserted on the ensuing night. The eyes of the Romans, they said, seemed to dart fire, and their features were clothed with the fiiry of maniacs, an aspect so terrible, that they could not stand before it. The broken Samnite army feU back upon Suessula, and again, with recruited ranks, poured down upon the Campanian plains. It was in this neighbourhood that the two Roman armies, after forming a junction, fell upon the enemy while scattered over the country in Total defeat foraging parties. Resistance was vain, one vast rout was the result ; saranites. and 40,000 shields, and 170 standards, bore witness to the greatness of the Roman victory. The consuls were honoured with a triumph ; and to crown the glory of the state, ambassadors came from Carthage to congratulate the Romans on their victory, and to present them B.C. 342. with a golden crown in token of their valour. The year B.C. 342 Conspiracy was remarkable for a conspiracy of the Roman garrison of Campania, Romtn against the wealthy city of Capua, whose inhabitants they designed Army. ^o murder, and then to found a new state ; but happily their scheme was defeated by M. Valerius Corvus, who had been appointed to the office of dictator on this occasion. The whole resources of Rome were now to be called forth in a War against War against the Latins a nation speaking the same language, and the Latins, ij^ving the same discipline with herself, whose forces had often fought ■ side by side with her own. The Latins, while insisting upon enjoying the same senatorial privileges with the Romans, were, at the same time, desirous of avoiding hostilities by an amicable arrangement ; but the proposals of their ambassadors were scornfully rejected by the senate, and the consul Manhus was even heard to declare, that should the Romans suffer Latins to take part in the senatorial deli- berations, he himself would cut down the first of that nation whom he saw there. War declared The Romans, joined by the Samnites, who were now their alhes, litins' *'^° moved forward against the enemy. The Latin army had taken up a strong position near Mount Vesuviiis, and as not a few of their body were intimate vrith many of the Roman soldiers, the consuls, Manlius and Decius, apprehensive of some treachery, had strictly forbidden any single combat. It happened that a Tusculan officer had insulted and challenged Titus Manhus, the son of the consul, who was in command of a detachment of cavalry. For- getful of the consul's edict, he accepted the challenge, and in the encounter that followed, the haughty Tusculan chief fell before his lance, and the youthful Manlius laid the spoils at his father's feet. Manlius His reception was terrible. The consul, unmoved by paternal feel- death, i^g^i °^ t^6 generous bravery of the action, sternly condemned his son to death for this breach of mihtaxy discipline. The main armies soon afterwards joined battle. In the engagement, the superstitious spirit of the age was strongly exemplified. A vision, it was said. CHAP IX.] SECOND SAMNITE WAR. 127 LHoman Consul.^] had appeard to both consuls, who agreed, B.C. 340. that victory could not be secured without the sacrifice of that commander whose forces should first give way. In the heat of the engagement, the consul Decius seeing his troops waver, after solemnly devoting himself to the infernal gods, rushed amongst the Latins, and fell pierced with innrunerable wounds.' The Romans, inspirited by this patriotic devotion, gained a decisive vic- tory, in which scarcely a fourth part of the enemy escaped. The national resist- ance of the Latins, however, still continued by the isolated defence of their towns, till, in the year B.C. 338, their subjugation was completed, and their towns were occu- pied by Koman garrisons. SECOND SAMNITE WAR. Constant acts of faithlessness and overbearing authority had characterised the conduct of the Romans towards the Samnites, from the year B.C. 340 tiU B.C. 326, when, on the refusal of the latter to withdraw their garrison from the Greek town of Palsepolis, with which they had long been in alHance, the Romans declared war against them. The command of the army destined to act against Samnium, was imdertaken by the dictator, Lucius Papirius Cursor, whose master of the horse was Q. Fabius Maximus. During the absence of the dictator at Rome, Q. Fabius gained a bnlliant victory, the Sabines being defeated with the loss of 20,000 men. As Fabius had fought contrary to the express orders of the dictator, he would, but for the powerful defence of the whole army, senate, and people, have been condemned to suffer the extremity of mOitarv rigour. The Samnites now obtained a truce for one year; after which the war continued with results unfavourable to them, tUl the spring of the year B.C. 321, when Rome sufiered a terrible defeat in the vaUey of Caudium. The Samnites had completely surrounded the dangerous defiles of the neighbourhood with immense bodies of troops, and in the fearful engagement that ensued, the Romans too late discovered that there was no passage by which to escape. Half their number was cut to pieces on the spot, and the remainder compelled to capitulate to C. Pontius, the Samnite general. His conduct was worthy of his success. He made the most generous proposals, although he held the Romans completely in his power. The terms accepted by the consuls, who swore in the name of the B.C. 338. The Romans declare War against the Samnites, B.C. 326. The Romans defeated at the Candine Forks. L See Ramsay's Romam, Antiquities^ page 452. 128 THE S^VSINITE WAES. [chap. IX. B.C. 305. republic to make peace, were shamefiilly violated by the Eomans. A succession of hard won victories, and some severe occasional reverses, characterised the progress of the Eoman arms till the year B.C. 305, when the Samnites, now completely overpowered, acknow- ledged the supremacy of Kome, and dissolved their alliance with the nations on their frontier. The repubhc, after signalizing its arms by great victories over the Etruscans in the years B.C. 311- 312, granted a briUiant triumph to the great Fabius. The Samnites cnislied in the Second War. B.C. 298. The Romans insist upon the evacuation of Lucania. Powerful Etniscan Alliance. Decius sacritices himself for his country. TPIIRD SAKNITE V7AK. The Samnites had refrained from war solely because their resources were utterly exhausted, and now in the year B.C. 298, they made an attempt to recover the sovereignty of Lucania, and by proposing treaties of alhance with other nations, endeavoured to strengthen their power. They overran Lucania, and, after defeating the people of the country in several battles, were drawn into a war. with Eome. The chiefs of Lucania had placed themselves under the protection of the Eomans, who, by their ambassadors, insisted upon the evacuation of that country by the Samnites, and hence the declara- tion of war by that people. As there was now a truce with Etruria, the two consular armies were enabled to move simultaneously on Samnium B.C. 297, when Q. Fabius encountered the whole force of the Pentrian Samnites, who were defeated with the loss of 4,700 men, while Decius Mus, his colleague, gained an easy victory over the Apulians who had revolted. But the perils of Eome seemed to be ever increasing, only to be ever overcome. A dangerous alhance of the Umbrians and Etruscans, who had engaged in their service large bodies of Gallic mercenaries, and who were to be further assisted by the march of a Samnite army into their territory, rendered very perilous the situation of the Eoman army ; a favour- able battle, however, fought by the united forces of Appius Claudius and L. Volumnius, relieved the fears of the republic. After a series of minor, but hard-fought engagements, a great battle was fought in Umbria. Here the heroic example which had signalized Decius Mus in the war of the Latins, was successfully imitated by his son, who, under the guidance of the pontiff M. Livius, devoted himself to the infernal gods for the good of his country. The Eomans, animated by this heroism, utterly routed the crowded masses of. the Samnites. This great victory over Gauls and Sam- nites, of whom 25,000 lay dead on the field of battle, and 80,000 were taken prisoners, was purchased by the loss of 8,200 men. The power of the Samnites, though stubbornly exerted in defence of their country, was every year declining before the persevering attacks of Eome. Another great effort was made by them, under the command of their noble-hearted general, C. Pontius, who had so signally defeated the Eomans at the Caudine valley. C. CHAP. IX.J THE SAMOTTE WAES. 129 Pontius, though now an aged man, abated none of the prudence B.C. 298. in counsel or energy in the field, by which he had been so distin- guished. The army of Q. Fabius was disgraceMly defeated, and q. FaMus would have been utterly annihilated, had not the excessive caution PontiS ^^ of the victors weakened the efiect of their valour ; and Fabius would have been deprived of his command, but for the intercession of his iUustrious father, Q. Fabius Maximus. The last great struggle for Samnite independence was made under the eye of their noble general, C. Pontius. The Samnites fought with the fiiry of despair, and, but for the high military genius of the venerable Fabius, who served in the army of his son in the capacity of legate, must have been victorious. The Eoman reserve, under his command, advanced, and turned the fortunes of the day, at the very moment when the forces of the consul were overpowered. The slaughter of 20,000 Samnites, Defeat of the and the capture of 4,000, among whom was the heroic C. Pontius, f™°"^^' closed the Samnite war, although a desultory resistance continued execution during the two following years. Fabius triumphed B.C. 291, when g ^ 291 the noble C. Pontius was led in chains, and afterwards beheaded — a foul blot upon the character of the Eomans, and a base return for the generosity of Pontius towards the republican army at the peace of Caudium. The interval of peace which ensued after the close of the Samnite war, was soon broken in upon by the war with the Gauls and Etruscans, whose combined forces were defeated with vast slaughter neax Lake Vadino. Close upon these eventfid scenes, followed the wars with the Lucanians and Bruttians, which were Lucanian, closed only to make way for that with the Tarentines, by which the ana"'™' struggle was transferred from that luxurious people to the warlike Tarentine Pyrrhus, whose history we are about to relate. [Roman Quadrans.] [e. H.1 C II AFTER X. PYRRHCS. B. c. 320—272. Description of Epirus. The country which gave birth to this celebrated warrior, is formed by nature to be the land of heroes, though few of its natives have found a place in the page of history ; for the same physical causes, which rendered the inhabitants of Epirus Lardy and enterprising, made them turbulent and ferocious ; little disposed by position or habits, to peaceful arts and institutions. In such a country, civili- zation can only advance by slow degrees ; and, though it may produce many an Achilles, wiU. be long before it has a Homer to immortalize his exploits. The whole of Epirus, which stretched from the mountains of Illyricum to the Ambraoian gulf, and from the Ionian sea to the borders of Thessaly, is intersected by chains of lofty mountains and innumerable mountain-streams, some of which are considerable rivers, and all present barriers, that, even in modern days, would prove an almost insurmountable obstacle to an invading CHAP. X.J PTREHU8. 131 army. It was priucipally occupied by two Pelasgian tribes, the B.C. 320. Thesprotians and the Molossi. The former occupied the northern, the latter the southern, part of the country. Among the latter, Ancestors of according to ancient traditions, Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus, the son of PJ'"''"^ Achilles, established himself^ and the sovereigns of Epirus pretended to trace their genealogy up to him. Whatever might be their real origin, they appear to have been sunk in the deepest barbarism, till Arybas, the grandfather of him whose history we are now relating, introduced among his subjects the more polished customs, together with the laws and learning of Greece. Arybas B.C. 380. was succeeded by his son aEacidas, but the Molossi, it seems, gave the preference to the cousins of that prince, son of his paternal uncle Neoptolemus. They dispossessed .iEacidas, placed his nephews on the Design throne, and endeavoured to extirpate his branch of the royal family, ^e of They did not, however, succeed ; for some faithful adherents con- Pjirhns. veyed his infant son, Pyrrhus, with imminent peril and difficulty, to Megara, a town of Macedonia; and thence to the court of Glaucias, B.C. 31 ti. the king of Illyria, whose queen was of the family of the JEsbcidiX. The child, by kneeKng in a suppliant posttu^e before the king, and throwing its httle arms round the altar dedicated to the household gods, as if imploring their protection, softened the heart of that prince, and made him abandon the thought of giving up the fugitive to his enemies. On the contrary, he rejected an offer of two hundred talents from Cassander, one of the successors of Alexander, and a foe to the ^acidse, for the surrender of the child, ordered him to be brought up with his own children, and, when he was twelve years old, replaced him on the throne of his ancestors. But the life of Pyrrhus was a series of vicissitudes. Scarcely five years had elapsed after his restoration to the throne, when his turbident subjects taking advantage of his absence in Illyria, pillaged Dnven from his treasury, and proclaimed his former rival king. Having again '^ *''™oo-| to seek his fortune, Pyrrhus placed himself under the protection of ' ' his brother-in-law, Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, and fighting tmder his banners at the battle of Ipsus, showed proofs of courage and strength beyond his years. He remained faithful to Demetrius in his adverse fortune, and, in compliance with the treaty between that chief and Ptolemy, went as a hostage to Egypt. Here his many good qualities and powers both of body and mind, recommended him so strongly to Ptolemy and Berenice, his queen, that they gave their daughter Antigone in marriage to him, in preference to many other suitors. This marriage enabled him to recover his throne. -"'Mch he Through the interest and exertions of Antigone, he obtained resources, together with a force sufficient for a descent upon the coast of Epirus ; and when he had reached it, found his subjects ready to receive him with open arms ; for the tyrannical conduct of his rival, had made them desirous of changing masters. Pyrrhus, 132 PYRRHUS. [chap. X. ii.C, B.C. 297. who well knew the unsteady character of his countrymen, had too much prudence to trust entirely to their present zeal in his favour ; instead of endeavouring to expel Neoptolemus he_ made a treaty 295. with him, by which he associated him with himself in the kingdom. Their friendship, however, did not last long, — Pyrrhus discovered that Neoptolemus was secretly plotting his assassination, and being assured that the chief people in Epirus wished to see him sole regent, did not hesitate to despatch his rival at an entertainment to which he had incautiously come. [Gre^k Table aiTangedfor a feast — Bardon,] The removal of his colleague left Pyrrhus entire master of the power and resources of his kingdom, and a wider field soon presented B.C. 324. itself for the development of his ambitious views. At the division of the empire among his generals, after the death of Alexander,' Macedonia was assigned to Antipater, and his son Cassander suc- ceeded to the sovereignty about ten years after the death of his father, by vanquishing Polysperchon whom Antipater had appointed B.C. 311. his successor. His son Antipater, who succeeded him, put to death his mother, Thessalonica, sister of Alexander the Great, on account of her attachment to the interests of his brother Alexander, and drove that prince out of his kingdom. Alexander applied for B.C. 297. assistance to Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who was then sove- reign of the greater part of Asia Minor. Demetrius could not 1 Vide Life of Alexander in the History of Greece and Macedonia. CHAP. X.] PTERHTJS. 133 immediately give Mm the aid he wanted: he therefore turned to b.c. 296. Pyrrhus, who bargained for all the sea-coast of Macedonia, together conqnevs with Ambracia, Acamania, and Amphilochia ; the latter countries Ccedon. not origmaUy belonging to Macedon. Pyrrhus first secured those places, for the cession of which he had bargained, and then continued to drive Antipater before him, and put Alexander in possession of the conquered places. Lysimachus, to whom Thrace had been allotted in the division of the empke among the generals of Alex- ander, would willingly have aided Antipater, had his other engage- ments allowed it. He, however, forged letters from Ptolemy to Pyrrhus, urging hun to receive 300 talents, and evacuate Macedonia. The latter immediately detected the forgery, but hstened to the proposal. The princes met together to ratify the peace by a sacrifice ; but Pyrrhus refused to take the oath required, in conse- quence of the sudden death of one of the victims, which was interpreted by his diviners as foreteUing the death of the three sovereigns. This prediction was soon verified; for Demetrius, who had now leisure to attend to Alexander's request, came to offer the assistance no longer needed. His presence, therefore, created suspicion, instead of gratitude; and, after a few days had passed, the two chiefs began to devise schemes for the destruc- tion of each other: Demetrius was the most vigilant, or the most fortunate of the two, and anticipated the blow prepared for him, b.c. 29.5. by putting Alexander to death, and proclaiming himself king of Macedon. This was an unpropitious event for Pyrrhus, as he had claims on Attacks the gratitude of Alexander, but none on that of Demetrius, who was ''''nietrms. in other respects a formidable opponent, already provoked by his inroads into Thessaly. He was, indeed, the brother-in-law of Demetrius, and had in early life been his faithful adherent, but after the death of Deidamia, the sister of Pjrrrhus, the former bond of amity was broken, and Macedon, of which each claimed a part, was now the source of unceasing contention. They both set out with B.C. 291. the intention of attacking each other, but each inadvertently mistook his adversary's route ; and Pyrrhus, falling in with Pantauchus, a general left by Demetrius in command of his forces in -35toha, defeated him after a severe battle, in which the two commanders Battle with engaged in single combat, and Pyrrhus gained extraordinary P^"t*'«'''us. applause for his strength, skill, and resolution. Pantauchus, who was the most celebrated of all the ofiicers of Demetrius, would have fallen, had he not been rescued by his fiiends before Pyrrhus could strike the last blow. The subjects of the latter, or rather his soldiers, for they were the only subjects which such princes as Pyrrhus and most of his contemporaries took into account, were delighted by the spirit and enterprise of their sovereign ; and called him " an Eagle," in consequence of his victory over Pantauchus. 134 PYREHUS. [chap. X. Overruns Macedon. B.C. Takes Bersa. B.C. 291. He modestly answered, "If I am an eagle it is you who have made me one ; for it is on your wings that I have soared." A report of Demetrius's being dangerously ill, soon afterwards led Pyrrhus to overrun a great part of Macedon, but it was only a predatory incursion, and did not give him an opportunity of augmenting his territories. Demetrius, almost as soon as his enemy had retired within his own Hmits, concluded a peace with him, being anxious to turn his whole attention to the recovery of his hereditary dominions. But that unexpected measure, together with the vast preparations made by Demetrius, alarmed the princes whom he meant to attack, and they prevailed upon Pyrrhus to join them in the invasion of his territory. Ptolemy, by a powerful naval armament, made a diversion in the maritime states of Greece ; Lysi- machus invaded the northern part of Macedonia, from Thessaly: 290. and Pyrrhus having marched across the country to Bersea, took it and established his head-quarters there. When intelligence of these movements reached Demetrius, he found that a spirit of disaffection had crept into his army, and fearing to oppose a Macedonian chief of high reputation, such as Lysimachus was, he changed his course, and marching back to the south, prepared to attack the Epirotes: but the emissaries of Pyrrhus were already at work, and the Macedonian army showed a strong disposition to place itself under his orders. Demetrius, in short, after receiving some inteUigible hints of the fate which awaited him, thought it prudent to retire from his camp, concealed in a very humble disguise. His whole army immediately submitted to Pyrrhus without striking a single blow. But he did not long continue sole possessor of the kingdom of Macedon. Lysimachus, whose claims to the attachment of the Macedonians had been considered by Demetrius himself as stronger than those of Pyrrhus, was not disposed to waive them, merely because that prince had fled before he came up ; and Pyrrhus, who felt the very insecure tenure by which he held his newly-acquired dominions, did not venture to provoke the rivalry of such an oppo- nent. They, therefore, by mutual agreement, divided the kingdom of Macedon between them; and by that measure, for the present, avoided any rupture. Though, as Plutarch justly observes, it was B.C. 289. ijTjt a temporary expedient; and it was impossible for two men of such ungovernable and unrestrained ambition, to remain long, when near neighbours, without cause for mutual complaint and jealousy. Shortly after the division of Macedonia with Lysimachus, we find Pyi-rhus opposing the reviving power of Demetrius, and then soon afterwards concluding a peace with him ; when he had regained possession of a part of Macedon. But no sooner had he returned into Asia, than Pyrrhus, at the persuasion of Lysimachus, again seduced the Macedonians from their allegiance ; and continued in Divides Macedon witli Lysimachus. CHAP. X.J PYRRHUS. 135 possession of Thessaly till the final overtkrow of Demetrius in Syria, B.C. 289. enabled Lysimachus to turn his forces against the ally who had assisted him in depressing his rival. He found Pyrrhus encamped near Edessa ; distressed him by cutting off his supphes ; and soon prevailed on the Macedonians to transfer their allegiance from a prince who was a foreigner, to himself who had been the fiiend and companion of Alexander. Pyrrhus, having himself experienced the k.c. 286. wilUngness with which the Macedonians listened to such suggestions, withdrew in time with his Epirotes and auxiliaries, and lost Loses it to Macedonia exactly in the same manner as he had gained it not very ^'"""'^ '^• long before. He might now have cultivated the arts of peace ; but from those arts, fortune, habit, and disposition, had alike estranged him : and it must be acknowledged that the nature of the country, as well as the character of the people whom he was bom to govern, were not such as could be expected to suggest pacific views; and circumstances soon opened to him a sphere for the exercise of his warlike talents and inclinations, admirably suited to his enterprising character. In order to understand the events which we are now about to relate, it will be necessary to turn our eyes to Italy, and recapitulate the state of transactions which had intervened between the death of CamUlus '^ and the time upon which we are now entering. The Roman repub- lic, which a little more than a century before, had been nearly overwhelmed by the Gauls (see Camiilus), and had several times appeared to be on the point of sinking under intestine discord, had now become one of the most powerfiil of the Itahan states ; engaged as a neighbour or an ally, in war or amity, with the remotest of the numerous powers which occupied the peninsula. This sudden B.C. 290. rise of the republic from the narrow limits and contracted sphere to which her power and influence had been hitherto restricted, was caving, in a great measure, to the prudent concessions of the pa- tricians ; which strengthened the bonds by which the different orders in the state were united, reconciled the Eoman people to their magistrates, and by securing them against internal enemies, enabled them to turn all their energies against their foes from without, who soon yielded, one after another, to their victorious armies. But it B.C. 353. was particularly towards the south, that the territories and dominion of the repubhc were enlarged. Some of the towns in that quarter, voluntarily submitted to her authority ; and the Samnites sought her alliance. But eleven years afterwards, the people of Campania, having been defeated by the Samnites, their immediate neighbours, threw themselves on the protection of Rome : this dissolved the B.C. 342. former alliance between the Romans and the Samnites, and involved Samnite them in a war which was carried on at intervals for more than sixty years. It was at length terminated by the submission of the Samnites after the loss of Pontius, their able general, and repeated defeats. Saranites subdued. 136 PYEEHUS. [chap. X. B.C. 290. The terms upon whicli the Eomans granted the peace, which the Samnites sohcited, are not known ; but the character and condition of the parties, as well as the subsequent events in the south of Italy, clearly show that they were such as secured the preponderance of Kome. The country to the east of Samnium, was occupied by colonies from Greece ; and Taxentum, a city in lapygia, on the coast of what has been called the heel of Italy, was at that time in a very flourish- ing state. Its inhabitants were originally Spartans ; but not having adopted the rigorous laws of the mother country, they were attached to the arts and luxmes of the more polished states of Greece, and if the accounts of the Eoman writers are to be trusted, were immersed in the most wanton voluptuousness. The mountains of Apulia might have long been a sufficient protection to a state separated by them from Campania and the other countries to the west ; but the progress of the Eoman arms, and probably the severe character of the Eoman people, awakened the jealousy and hostility of the Tarentines. Before any direct cause of hostility had arisen, the people of Tarentum endeavoured, by secret intrigues, to involve the Eomans in a state of warfare with all their immediate neighbours ; and when the Eoman admiral accidentally appeared with a fleet before the entrance of their harbour, they attacked him without any provocation, took several of his ships, and made a great slaughter, the admiral himself being among those who fell. The Eomans immediately sent a deputation to demand satisfaction for this impro- voked injury; but the Tarentines received them, or rather dismissed 281. them, unheard, with the grossest insults. Posthumius, the head of the Eoman deputation, withdrew, uttering these indignant words, " Laugh on now, inhabitants of Tarentum, the time will soon come when your laughter wUl be changed into tears. It is not a few drops of blood which will suflS.ce to wash away these insults." Con- scious of their own inability to avert the vengeance of Eome, the Tarentines sent an embassy to ask the assistance of P3rrrhus, and finding him disengaged by any war at home, they readily obtained what they hardly dared to expect. Cineas, the Thessahan orator, a disciple of Demosthenes, not unworthy of his master, was despatched by Pyrrhus to Tarentum, with three thousand infantry under his command; and twenty thousand more, together with three thousand cavalry, two thousand archers, five hundred slingers, and twenty elephants, were soon afterwards embarked on board a large fleet of transports sent by he Tarentines to receive them. This vast armament was dispersed in the mid-channel by a violent gale of wind from the north. The vessel which carried Pyrrhus himself, with great difliculty made the Itahan shores ; but was met by an adverse breeze firom the land, as she stood in, and was in imminent danger of being again driven out Aggression of tile Tarentines. B.C. Apply to Pyn'liub. CHAP. X.J PYEEHUS. 137 to sea. Pyrrhus, impatient of being thus thwarted, boldly threw B.C. 281. himself overboard, and very narrowly escaped, in a stormy sea, on a dark tempestuous night. By break of day, however, he and his friends reached the shore, where they were assisted by the Messa- pians, inhabitants of that coast, and joined by the crews of a few of his ships, so that he was enabled to march on to Tarentum at the Pyrrhus at head of a small force, about two thousand foot, some cavalry, and a tarentum. couple of elephants. Cineas, who had not been idle while waiting for his master, but had prevailed upon the Tarentines to give him possession of their citadel and the supreme command of their troops, marched out, as soon as he heard of the approach of Pyrrhus, to meet him. The Tarentines, though rejoiced to receive their great ally, were little incHned to make any considerable sacrifice in order to ensure success in the war ; and instead of troubling themselves more about it, were contented with declaiming against the enemy in their popular assemblies or their public walks, leaving the whole management and labour of the campaign to Pyrrhus and his generals. As soon as his scattered ships were pretty well re-assembled, and most of his troops had been safely landed, he began to assume a severer tone with his new friends, whose good will he had hitherto cultivated by an entire acquiescence in their wishes ; and finding that they would Supineness never be brought to a serious attention to the state of their affairs, Tarentines. so long as they could indulge ia the luxurious pleasures to which they were devoted, he caused the public places of amusement to be closed, and even abridged their hours of private relaxation. Musters and reviews were substituted for spectacles and banquets ; and the Tarentines fotmd that the orders of the king must be impHcitly obeyed. So httle were they accustomed to such a rigorous system, that many of them abandoned the place, considering such an abridgment of their habitual indulgences as a most intolerable slavery. The Komans, in the meantime, were preparing to punish the Activity of insolence and temerity of these Grecian colonists. The consul, ° om^s- Lsevinus, marched at the head of a large army into Lucania, desolat- ing the country through which he passed. The Tarentines had promised, when they asked for the assistance of Pyrrhus, to collect an army of more than three hundred thousand men ; but they seemed little likely to realize these splendid promises. Few, if any, of their confederates appeared ; nevertheless, he determined to take the field with the small force he had, rather than suffer the Eomans to advance. But before he commenced hostilities, he sent a herald with a letter to the consul, offering, in haughty terms, to act as mediator between the citizens of Eome and Tarentum. Lsevinus B.C. 280. answered, that the Eomans neither accepted his mediation, nor feared his hostility. Pyrrhus, therefore, advanced immediately, and 138 PTEEHUS. [chap. X. Battle near the Siris. B.C. 279. B.C. 21S1, cantoned his army on tbe plains which extend obliquely across the peninsula, from Heraclea on the eastern to Pandosia on the western sea. The Komans were not far off, stationed on the other side of the river Siris ; and when Pyrrhus reconnoitred their camp, he expressed his surprise to Megacles, one of his generals who accom- panied him, observing, that " the order of these barbarians was far from barbarous ; but," he added, " we shall soon know what they are indeed." He now perceived that it would be necessary to wait for his allies, and stationed outposts on the river, to prevent the Eomans from effecting a passage. This, however, they succeeded in doing, and the outposts of the army were obliged to retreat upon their main body, in order to avoid being cut off. Pyrrhus, when informed of this, advanced with his cavalry, in number about three thousand, hoping to surprise the Eomans before they had recovered from the disorder occasioned by their passage over the river : but when he beheld their shields ghttering in the sun above the surface of the water, and their cavalry passing the stream in regular order, as if on land, he discovered his error, and immediately commenced the attack. His cavalry was probably inferior in numbers to that of the Eomans, and though he himself was in the heat of the engagement, encouraging his men by extraordinary acts of valour and presence of mind, yet his troops began at length to give way. On this he sent orders for his infantry to advance : and after a very long and dubious struggle, having been victorious and repulsed seven times, they turned the fortune of the day against the Eomans. They were indebted, in all probability, more to the confusion and alarm occasioned by their elephants, which the horses of the Eoman cavaby could not be brought to face, than to any superiority of valour, skill, or numbers. With respect to the latter, Pyrrhus had probably, as was before observed, the disadvantage ; and that supposition is corroborated by the accounts of the numbers who fell in this action, where the excess on the side of the Eomans, according to all accounts, is very great, and such as could scarcely have arisen, in so hard fought a battle, had not their forces been much the most numerous at the onset. Pyrrhus, on this occasion, gave abundant proofs of that coolness and intrepidity for which he has been so much celebrated. Though constantly in the hottest of the engagement, he never lost his presence of mind, but gave his orders and changed his station as deliberately as if he were merely a spectator of the action. The splendour and peculiar beauty of his armour rendered him extremely conspicuous, and in the earher part of the battle, he had many narrow escapes. Leonatus, the Macedonian, having observed one of the Itahans very intent upon his master, always watching his movements, following him wherever he went, and letting every one else pass unnoticed — came up to Pyrrhus, and entreated him to be Coolness of Pyrrhus. CHAP. X.J PYRBHDS. 139 on his guard against this man : and while he was cautioning the B.C. 279. king, the Eoman spurring his horse, and coming towards them at full speed, threw a spear, which missed Pyrrhus, but struck his horse: Leonatus, at that very instant struck the horse of the Eoman, and both horses fell at the same time. Pyrrhus was immediately removed by his friends, and his opponent hewn in pieces. This imminent peril rendered Pyrrhus somewhat more cautious, and he exchanged his armour and accoutrements with Megacles, one of his favourite generals. The latter now became the great object at which most of the Eomans aimed, and it was not long before he was brought to the ground. His robe and helmet were immediately carried to the consul, who had them passed along the ranks, as in triumph. The Eoman army was fiUed with exulta- tion, the Epirotes with consternation and grief, tiU Pyrrhus, informed of their alarm, rode about uncovered, calling out to his soldiers, and encouraging them by the well-known sound of his voice. The Eomans were obhged to abandon their camp, and make an Romans immediate retreat ; many of their confederates went over to the '■'''"■"*^*- enemy, or were plundered by his victorious army ; and he advanced to Proeneste, within forty miles of Eome ; but it was a dear-bought victory, for he lost many of his best troops and most able generals, a loss which he could never replace. Besides this irreparable injury, he was now removed to a distance from the coast, and surrounded by aUies on whom little dependence could be placed. The Eoman government, on the other hand, was not at all dismayed by this reverse of fortune, but made fresh levies with renewed alacrity, and assumed even a more menacing tone. Pyrrhus, there- fore, was more inclined to terminate the war by a peace, creditable to himself, such as it was likely the Eomans would, at the present conjuncture, grant, than to attempt their subjugation, for which his army and actual resources were not adequate. In consequence of these views, he commissioned Cineas to proceed, as his ambassador Mission at to Eome, and empowered him to enter into a negotiation with the "^'"^' Senate. The terms he offered were extremely favourable : the release of all his prisoners without ransom, and his assistance to the Eomans in the conquest of Italy, on condition of obtaining their friendship for himself, and security for the Tarentines. The speciousness of these terms inchned many of the senators to listen to Eomans them favourably ; the more so, as several of the southern states of favourably Italy had already joined Pyrrhus, and his success was likely to t''i'y>^''"s. increase the number of his adherents : but the question was decided by the firmness and energy of one man, Appius Claudius. His family and character placed him high in the estimation of his fellow citizens; but his great age and loss of sight had caused him to withdraw from attendance on pubUc business : his appearance, therefore, in the Senate, into which he was led by his children, 140 PYERHUS. [chap. X. ii.c. 27'J. Hnmans ix'proved by Appius Claudius. Mission of Fabricius Second Mission of Cineas B.C. 278. raised an anxious expectation in tlie whole body, who listened with eager attention to the sentiments which he uttered. He told them that " he should rejoice, were he now as deaf as he was blind, and unable to hear the shameful reports of their intended measures, so destructive of the glory of Kome. That it was now in vain for them to boast that, had Alexander invaded Italy instead of Asia, his career would have terminated in disgrace, since they were panic- struck by Chaonians and Molossians, who had always been van- quished by the Macedonians. That it was equally vain to hope for advantage from an alliance with this man, who could not keep even a part of Macedon by the aid of that force, with which he now talked of conquering Italy. — Nothing, therefore, could be expected from an alliance "with Pyrrhus except insult and contempt ; for who would not despise Eome, if she suffered him to escape unpunished for his insolence, and gave up to him the Samnites and Tarentines as a compensation for his audacity ! " This spirited appeal had an instantaneous effect, and produced an unanimous vote for the continuance of the war ; Cineas was desired to tell his master " that if he wished to obtain the friendship of the Romans, he ■ must first quit Italy ; but that he would be opposed vrith all their force, as long as he continued there in arms, though he should defeat ten thousand Lsevinus's." Soon after the dismissal of Cineas, they sent Fabricius to treat with Pyrrhus for the ransom and exchange of prisoners : such was his confidence in the honour of his enemies, that he allowed his captives to accompany the envoy back to Rome, on condition that they should return after having celebrated the Satumaha, if the Senate still refused to enter into terms with him. They proved themselves worthy of his confidence, and subsequently owed their final hberation to that generous disdain of a secret and treacherous warfare, which distinguished the Romans of those days so advantageously from their more pohshed neighbours the Greeks. Fabricius, soon afterwards, returning from his mission to Pyrrhus, was made consul, and, while in office, sent a letter to that prince, enclosing one from his physician, offering to rid them of their enemy by administering a dose of poison to him, if a suitable compensation should be made. Pyrrhus, who was not wanting either in generosity or gratitude, was now, more than ever, desirous of making peace with the Romans ; and again despatched Cineas to make a fresh proposition to the Senate. He also dehvered up all his prisoners without requiring any ransom. The Senate still refiised to listen to any terms tiU the Greek troops had been with- drawn from Italy, and Pyrrhus had returned to Epirus ; but to show their unwillingness to receive a reward for a mere act of integrity, sent back an equal number of Samnites and Tarentines in exchange for the Romans whom he had hberated. There is no period, perhaps, in the whole of their history, when CHAP. X.J PTREHDS. 141 the excelleQces of the Roman character were more strikingly exem- B.C. 278. plified than that in which these events took place ; and to a prince Hke Pyrrhus, who was animated by a congenial spirit, those admir- able qualities must have shone with a stUl brighter lustre, when contrasted with the vices which almost universally disgraced the Grecian courts established on the ruins of the Macedonian empire. Policy, as well as curiosity, prompted him to vrish for an intimate acquaintance with the government and manners of the Eomans ; his envoy, Cineas, was commissioned to seize every opportunity of obtaining information on those points, and his report only increased the surprise and admiration of his master. " The Senate," ■ said Cineas, " appears like an assemblage of kings : and the men capable of military service are so numerous, that the consul has already on foot an army twice as large as that which you defeated, and leaves multitudes behind him capable of making up for any loss." But the fearlessness and disinterestedness of Fabricius, stiU further increased the esteem which Pyrrhus felt for the national character of his adversaries. He had been told by Cineas, that this illustrious Eoman was as poor as he was intrepid and upright. The king, therefore, hoped to gratify him by the offer of large sums, " as a pledge," he said, "of his regard, not with any sinister design." But Fabricius, proud of his poverty, rejected the offer. On the following Magnanimity day, Pyrrhus, at a conference held with the Eoman envoy, caused "' i'^'»'i<=i"^ his largest elephant, concealed behind a curtain, to be suddenly disclosed completely armed, and caused by its keeper to roar, as it waved its trunk over the head of Fabricius. Though he had never before seen one of those huge animals, neither the suddenness nor the novelty of the sight occasioned any emotion, but turning to Pjrrrhus, who was aware of the predicament in which he was placed, said, with a smile, "Your gold could not move me yesterday, nor can your beast to-day ! " Pyrrhus was so much struck with the judgment and integrity of his guest, that he privately urged him to come, after having concluded the treaty, and settle in Epirus, promising to give him the first command in his army, and make him his most confidential friend. To this Fabricius very calmly rephed, " But this would be of no advantage to you, O king ; for when they, who now honour and admire you, had known me by experience, they would rather have me than you to reign over them." Pyrrhus received this answer as became a man of a great mind, without the paltry resentment or mortification which a tyrant would have felt, and related it to his friends as a fresh proof of the exalted sentiments of Fabricius. When it is considered in what courts Pyrrhus received his education, and what examples he had continually before his eyes, his own temper and magnanimity in listening (without impatience) to such truths, are hardly less worthy of our admiration than the sublimer virtues of Fabricius himself. 142 PTERHUS. [chap. X. B.C. Battle of Aseulum. Invited to Sicilj'. 278. The consuls to whose lot it fell to carry on the war against Pyrrhus, found him encamped near a small town in Apulia, called Aseulum. As each party was equally wiUing to try their fortune, it was not long before an engagement took place ; but historians differ so much in their accounts of this battle, that nothing respecting it can be ascertained with certainty, except its having been nearly a drawn battle, fought with great obstinacy on both sides, but terminated rather in favour of Pyrrhus than of the Eomans. His final success in this as well as the former engagement, has been ascribed to the terrors with which his elephants struck the horses of the Eoman cavalry. He had not however much cause for exultation, and, when congratulated by his officers on his success, exclaimed, "Another such victory and we are undone ! " He had, indeed, a far less cheering prospect before him, than that which consoled the Romans for their defeat. His confederates were cold and heartless; his faithful soldiers and adherents, with the exception of a small number, had fallen ; and he was far from his ovm kingdom, which alone could replace Ms losses : while the Eomans were backed by all the vast resources of the repubUc, and seemed only to gather fresh strength and ardour from every disaster. A battle so doubtful in its results afforded no encouragement to either party, and both seemed inclined, for a time at least, to suspend hostilities. At that conjuncture, Pyrrhus received an invitation from Sicily, to assist in driving the Carthaginians out of that island : a pro- posal flattering to him in every respect, and the more gratifying, as it would give him a plea for attacking the Carthagi- nians, whose subjugation, on the first favourable opportunity, he had long projected. He received, at the same time, accounts of the death of Ptolemy Ceraunus, who fell in a battle against the Gauls, and of the defenceless state of Macedonia under the successors of that prince. Sound pohcy would certainly have prompted Pyrrhus to return immediately to P^pirus, where he might have indulged his thirst for glory and power, by adding Macedonia to his hereditary dominions : he could thus have obtained a territory of considerable extent, and far more capable of being preserved entire, than any conquests at a distance from Greece. But his ambition was of too vast and enterprising a character to be checked by considerations of prudence and expe- dience ; he therefore, not without hesitation, and much regret at [Coin of Sicily— £ruwtejn/M! Jf"s« CHAP. X.J PTREHUS. 143 being unable to engage in both enterprises at once, gave the pre- b c. ''78 terence to Sicily; despatched Cineas to prepare the Sicilians for his reception,_ and set sail after placing a strong garrison in Tarentum, much against the will of the citizens, who had now discovered their lolly m calling m the assistance of a prince perpetually engaged in schemes of conquest and ambition. Syracuse, the capital of the island, Agrigentum, midway between b.c. 277. Its southern and western extremities, and the city of the Leontines state of a httle to the north of Syracuse, had been ofiered to Pyrrhus by ^'"'^^ the ambassadors sent to invite him over from Italy The remaining places not possessed by Carthage, submitted to him with little difficulty, and he was soon at the head of an armament consisting of thuty thousand infantry, two thousand five hundred cavalry, and a fleet of two hundred sail. With this powerful force he was enabled [Ancient War Fort and Battering Ram, aftiv JBardcm.l to drive the enemy before him, and resolved to storm Eryx, the strongest fortress which the Carthaginians possessed in the island. When the scaling ladders were fixed, he was the first who mounted, Eiyx t,:ft'ifl Vase.] [Cave of Dion, (Dionysius's Ear.) Cavern in the Lautumiae of Neapolis.— I' Univers pittoresqae.} CHAPTER XL DIONYSIUS THE ELDER. From b.c. 427 to B.C. 365. The island Omotliermon, originally peopled by the enterprising b.c. 427. voyagers of PhcEnicia, and subsequently by a migration of tbe Siculi from soutbem Italy, was colonized from Corinth, under the auspices of Archias, of the Heraclean family, and received the name, by which it is well known in history, of Ortygia, the island of the Quail, or of Latona. This island, lying close to the main land, and extending itself haJf way across the great bay into which the river Anapus discharges itself, forms two of the finest and most commodious har- bours in the world ; an advantage highly appreciated by a maritime people, as the immediate source of pohtical importance and com- mercial prosperity. The colony founded in so favourable a situation rapidly extended itself to the main land, where another and a larger town Achradina, and soon afterwards a third named Tycha, was built; and in a subsequent age, Neapolis was added to them. These four towns constituted the great city of TetrapoHs, or Syracuse, (so 156 DIONYSIDS THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 427. called from the rich fen pastures in its vicinity,) which, with the fortifications of Epipolse, erected by the great Dionysius, covered an area twenty-two miles in circumference, and contained a popula- tion of about three hundred thousand free citizens, which, at a very moderate computation, would make the whole number of its inhabi- tants little less than two millions.-' Syracuse was doubtless indebted for much of its internal prosperity and foreign influence to the policy and virtue of the patriotic Gelo ; and for much of its beauty to the taste and magnificence of the Olympic conqueror Hiero ; nor must it be forgotten how highly the honour of the national character was advanced by the incorruptible virtue, and the extraordinary talents, of the brave, though unfortu- nate, Hermocrates. But it was during the administration of the elder Dionysius, that the Syracusans attained that height of power and splendour which excited the admiration of surrounding nations, and has appeared incredible to some modern historians. Opinions Of the real character and conduct of this illustrious prince, it is thecharacter ^7 ^° means easy to form a decided and accurate judgment. The of Dionysius. greater part of those writers to whom we are indebted for the scanty and scattered materials of his biography, were warm advocates of the Ciceronian doctrine, that the whole genus of tyrants ought to be extirpated from the earth, and held up to universal execration ; and tyrannicides are seldom scrupulous respecting the means of effecting either object. Yet amidst aU the misrepresentation and fiction, to which the extravagant violence of the democratic spirit pushed the party writers of Greece and Rome, the substantial truth of history sur- vives ; and a moderate share of industry and discernment has served to strip such patriots as Harmodius and Dion of their ill-earned popularity, and to wipe off many stains from the great objects of their ferocious hostility. But whilst we make all due allowances for the effect of repubHcaa zeal in most ancient authors, and of republican dishonesty in not a few ; and find a generous pleasure in detecting the inconsistencies and absurdities of those preposterous stories of folly, and wickedness, and cruelty, which are related by them of almost all princes, whom they indiscriminately denominated tyrants ; it is the duty of the historian to avoid espousing the cause even of the calumniated with too much eagerness ; and to remember that he is not to become the advocate of any party, though that party may have been injuriously treated, but to adhere with strictness to the impartiality of his judicial character. The One of the greatest modem authorities upon subjects connected historian's ^ '' duty. 1 Diodorus says that at Agrigentum the free population was only one-tenth of the whole. CHAP. XI. J DIONYSIUS THE ELDEK. 157 with Grecian history, appears occasionally to deviate from this u.c. 427. obvious line of duty. In his laudable zeal to vindicate the character of great and good princes, and the administration of monarchical or aristocratical governments from unmerited obloquy, Mitford has exercised his peculiar acuteness and uncommon learning in casting discredit upon almost every authority which records their vices and mismanage- ment ; whilst he has adopted, with somewhat more eagerness than might have been expected from his soundness of judgment, the slightest testimonies in their favour : so that in availing ourselves of his able assistance to lift up the dusky veU of political prejudice, it wUI be well to remember that he who thus displays the picture, throws upon it, from his own lamp, the lights which he esteems most advantageous. Of this disposition the most striking example occurs in the history of Sicily during the reign of the great Diony- sius, whom Diodorus and Plutarch, and other ancient writers, concur in representing as an unprincipled usurper, governing an unwilling people in the most arbitrary manner, by the most oppressive means, and stained with almost every vice of which human nature is capable : but who has been represented as the popular leader of a common- wealth, brave, politic, and eminently virtuous ; obtaining his autho- rity by steps perfectly unexceptionable, retaining it solely through the affection and confidence of the people, and exercising it with unprecedented wisdom, mildness, and generosity. An impartial review of facts admitted on all sides, will lead us to a conclusion more probable than either, supported by a brief, but masterly sketch of the character of Dionysius, from the pen of ComeHus Nepos. " The first Dionysius of Sicily was conspi- cuous for personal prowess and military sHU ; and, what is rare in a tyrant, he was by no means profligate ; neither was he luxurious nor avaricious ; covetous, in short, of nothing, imless of monarchical and permanent power, and only in pursuit of that object cruel. For in the maintenance of his government he spared the life of no man whom he supposed to entertain designs of treachery against him. He obtained the direction of affairs by his merit, and kept it with peculiar good fortune to the end of his life."^ With his political career, indeed, the history of his life commences, Eai-iy life, for Diodorus tells us nothing but that he was the son of Hermocra- tes,^ and other authorities axe equally silent respecting his family and early life. It may be gleaned, however, from some casual hints, principally of the orators who have attacked or panegyrized ^ This passage is quoted by Mitford, who allows due credit to the impartiality of Cornelius Nepos. 2 Some copies have Thermocrates. Dionysius having married the daughter of Sermoarates may not improbably have been called by Diodorus i 'm^cxfaTii through inadvertence. Yet Wesseling believes that there were two persons of the same name, one the father, the other father-in-law, of Dionysius. 158 DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 427. him, that his birth was in no way remarkable, either for elevation or meanness. But that his fortune was ample, his education that of a young man of distinction, and his connections the first in the state, are facts not denied even by those who would impute to him as a reproach the mediocrity of his hereditary rank. The political party to which he was attached in early life may be inferred from his having been severely wounded, and left for dead, in the tumult, when the virtuous and gallant Hermocrates lost his life, as well as from his intimacy with Philistus the historian, and with the other opponents of Diodes, and of the democratic faction. Designs After the untimely death of Hermocrates, there remained no man Carthagi- who had the ability, if indeed any of the seditious party, then suc- si™ °" cessful, had the wish, to provide for the safety of all Sicily, by uniting its numerous independent Grecian settlements, in a com- mon confederacy against the ambitious designs of the Carthaginians, who, partly by negotiation, and partly by arms, never ceased to aim at the subjugation of the whole island, tOl the overwhelming power of Rome laid both countries in the dust. No sooner was an opening offered, by the temporary triumph of the faction of Diodes, than a vast armament, naval and military, was intrusted to the command of Hannibal, to be employed in reducing Sicily to what was termed the alliance of Carthage ; and in order to combine the vigour of matvirity with the experience of age, HamUcar, the son of Hanno, was appointed to act vrith them. Agrigentum. Tliesc preparations, though their destination was sufficiently understood, were met by no corresponding activity on the part of the Sicilian Greeks, distracted by factions, and discouraged by disasters. The Syracusans tried negotiation, and failed; the other states made no united nor effectual efforts to avert the storm ; the African army landed without material opposition, and commenced at once a regular siege and blockade of Agrigentum, at that time second only to S)rracuse in power and greatness, and scarcely its inferior in wealth and population. The Agrigentines had long ceased, however, to dispute the supremacy of the rival city, and a friendly aUiance was maintained between them till the period of the assassination of Hermocrates, when the prevalence of the democratic party in Syracuse occasioned a coolness between the government in that city and the ruling powers at Agrigentum, who were in the Lacedaemonian, that is, in the aristocratic or oligarchical interest. But the alliance, though no longer cordial, remained unbroken; and the Syracusan leaders, at length awakened to the greatness of their danger, determined on sending prompt and effectual relief to the besieged. They accordingly summoned their other allies in SicUy and Italy to furnish troops, and despatched Daphnseus with a collective force of thirty thousand foot, and five thousand horse. The operations of the siege had fortunately been delayed by the CHAP. XI.j DIONTSIUS THE ELDEH. 159 prevalence of sickness in the Carthaginian army, and by the death of Hannibal ; and Daphnseus arriving at this juncture, engaged the enemy, and obtained a decisive advantage. But in Agrigentum, as in most Grecian towns, the opposition of B.C. 406. parties was too nearly balanced to admit of any thing resembling consistency in public measures. The people rendered unruly by the prospect of deliverance, rose upon their generals and murdered them ; democratic influence was once more re-established, and pro- duced its usual consequences ; so that although the zeal of their Syracusan allies was sharpened by the revolution which had been effected, no due advantage was taken of the favourable circumstances which occurred ; and after a siege of eight months, Hamilcar became HamUcar master of Agrigentum. _ __ i°^gentun,. This event caused the utmost consternation throughout Sicily. Many took refiige within the walls of Syracuse ; and some embarked for Italy, carrying with them their families and fortunes. The Agri- gentines who had escaped from their city murmured loudly against the conduct of the Syracusan leaders ; and a general discontent pre- vailed among the Sicilian Greeks, that men so unfit should have been appointed to the admistration of affairs. A popular assembly being held at Syracuse, and no one, in the general dissatisfaction, venturing to make any specific proposal, Dionysius, who had acquired great popularity by his courage and activity under Daphnteus against the Carthaginians, boldly accused the generals of corruption, and moved that the people should not await the period of their command appointed by law, (when their conduct would regularly come under consideration,) but should inflict instant punishment upon their venahty. The government, in return, declared Dionysius guilty of sedition, Election ot and proceeded to impose a fine upon him ; but the influence (or to'tSr™^ according Diodorus, the suretiship) of his friend, the historian PhU- ^^IJ"" istus, procured for him a second hearing ; and he urged the popular topics of invective against the men in power with so much effect, that the administration were compelled to resign, and Dionysius himself, as he probably anticipated, was elected among their succes- sors, at the age of twenty-four. From this moment he became, in fact, the autocrat of Syracuse ; for his colleagues in office, whether willing to intrust the whole power of the state in his hands, or wanting the talents and popularity to oppose his measures, appear to have taken little part in the government, or in the mihtary arrangements which followed ; and it seems probable that an ambitious young man would not be tmwil- ing that they should quietly sink into insignificance. His first care was to recall the citizens who had been exiled, or who had fled from their country, at the period of the banishment of Hermocrates; and this being obviously a measure of sound 160 DIONYSIUS THE ELDER. [chap. XI. Dionysius proceeds to Gela. B.C. 406. policy, in the present exigencies of the state, as well as of justice and humanity, it was in vain objected by a few, who already dreaded the establishment of a tyranny, that Dionysius would thus surround himself with a powerful body of men wholly devoted to his interest, and of principles confessedly hostile to an unlimited democracy. About this time, despatches arrived from Gela, soliciting an augmentation of the force sent for its defence against Hamilcar ; and Dionysius went thither in person, with two thousand foot and four hundred horse. He foimd the town, as was usual, distracted by dissensions between the aristocratic and popular factions ; and Dexippus, the LacedEemonian, who commanded the auxiliary forces, unable to procure the stipulated payment for his troops : an assembly of the people took place, and order was restored by the condemna- tion to death of some of the most seditious among the wealthier citizens ; and Dionysius had influence enough to procure a decree, that the funds arising from the confiscation of their property, should be applied to discharge the arrears due to Dexippus ; at the same time, to secure the fidelity of the troops he had brought with him, he promised them that he would, at his own cost, double their pay. The Geloans, thus restored to order, were profuse in their gratitude, and sent ambassadors to Syracuse to report their satisfaction with the conduct of Dionysius, upon whom they had conferred peculiar marks of honour, entreating him to continue among them till the apprehended danger from the Carthaginians should be over. Dion- ysius, however, had a more important charge at home ; and prom- ising the Geloans to watch over their safety, he departed for Syracuse. On his arrival, it happened that the people were coming from the theatre, and a crowd was immediately collected about him, eagerly inquiring for news respecting the enemy. He took occa- sion to reproach them with their supineness and indifference in being occupied in festivities, while Hamilcar was actively engaged in preparing for the siege of their city ; and he annoimced his own intention to resign his command on account of the incapacity and corruption of his colleagues, who, he insinuated, had been tampered with by HamUcai, and with whom he should, in consequence, decline to act any longer. It is probable that Dionysius had reserved this bold measure till he felt his own popularity sufficiently estabhshed to overwhelm any opposition which could be raised to liim, either by the friends of the accused, or by the democratic party, who were always hostile to power in the hands of a single person, especially if that person were eminent for ability and virtue; and the result fuUy answered his expectations. So rapidly was the report spread of the approach of the enemy, and the treachery of the generals, and so universal was the panic excited by it, that upon his calling an assembly of the Returns to Syracuse. CHAP. XI.J DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. 161 people the next morning, his colleagues were denounced as traitors B.C. 40fi. to their country ; were deprived of their office ; and the consideration of their punishment reserved for a special meeting : the example of Gela, and the dread of sharing the fate of Agrigentum, sufficing to induce the people to commit the whole power of the state to Dion- ysius, with the title of general autocrator; an office, it should seem, less absolute, but more permanent than that of dictator at Rome, comprising all the duties and authorities of a governor-general and commander-in-chief. Plutarch asserts that Hipparinus, a man of the is associated highest rank and largest fortune in Syracuse, was associated with HiifparinuB. Dionysius in power ; and the assertion appears to derive confirmation from the manner iu which Aristotle speaks of their joint authority ; but if it were so, Hipparinus played the part of the slave in a Eoman triumph. Et sibi consul Ne placeat, curru servus portatur eodem.' The responsibiUty and the power belonged to Dionysius ; his col- league served only to remind him that he was not a monarch ; nor is the period of his death noticed in any extant history. To secure himself in this invidious station, the favour of the populace, and especially of the army, was indispensable ; and accord- ingly he began by proposing to double the pay of the soldiers ; assuring the assembly that the revenue of the state could well aiFord it. Of the wisdom of this measure, on public grounds, it is difficult to form an opinion, in the imcertainty in which we are left respect- ing the sources and amount of the public income, and the sum received by the soldiers ; but it is not improbable that at Syracuse, as at Athens and other Grecian states, in proportion as the military system became more regular, and the service consequently more completely interrupted ordinary employments, the small stipend originally allowed, was found insufficient for the soldier's comfort. His next measure appears more exceptionable : having imitated Raises a Pericles in his manner of ingratiating himself with the military, he ^"''^ ^'"■''■ adopted the artifice of Pisistratus to obtain, for his personal security, the invidious protection of a body guard ; which though, perhaps, rendered necessary by the unusual mildness and liberality of his administration, which permitted his political adversaries to five unmo- lested in the city, was universally reprobated throughout Greece, as the badge and support of arbitrary power, and imposed upon him the unpopular appellation of tyrant ; a word, in its origin, of no oppro- brious signification, and simply denoting a chief ;^ but degraded by the democratic prepossessions of Greece and Rome, (as villain has 1 Lest the consul should feel too much self-satisfaction, a slave rides in the same triumphal car. 2 Thus Jupiter, without any irreverence, was called tyrant of heaven. [r. H.] M 162 DIONYSITJS THE ELDEE. [chap. XI. K.C. Preparation for a Viir with Cartbagc. 406. been by an opposite prejudice in modem Europe,) to become a term of reproach. Having ordered all the troops under forty years of age to prepare a month's provision for a march to Leontium, which, though an independent ally, was garrisoned by Syracusan refugees and other foreigners, he encamped for the night in the fields : in the dusk, a violent tumult arose ; and the domestics of the general crying out, that he had been treacherously attacked, he fled with all expedition to the citadel of Leontium, where he called to arms, and kept up watch-fires till the morning ; when an assembly of the people being convened, voted him a guard of six hundred men, to be selected by himself from among the soldiers most devoted to his person. His enemies, of course, treated the whole affair as the contrivance of Dionysius, and represented him as having called an assembly of the people at Leontium, in order that it might be composed more of his own creatures than of the respectable inhabitants of Syracuse ; but though it is not unlikely that he wished to give his enemies an opportunity of attacking him, and for that purpose thought proper to pass a night on the road, it appears that Daphnseus and Demar- chus, and some other leaders of the party in opposition, were, at this time, actually imphcated in a treasonable plot against him ; and the two former suffered death by the laws of their country. The Lacedasmonian Dexippus, labouring under strong suspicion of having shared in their crime, was ordered to quit the city. Dionysius certainly neglected no means of strengthening his authority, or of conciliating popularity ; and he applied himself diligently in preparations for the expected contest with Hamilcar. The democratic writers, as usual, attribute every measure which his mihtary skill and foresight adopted, (even the necessary expedient of engaging a mercenary force, and the advantageous position which he selected for his camp,) to his determination of establishing him- self in absolute power. But if his bold and active spirit was not insensible to the allurements of ambition, nor his virtue always proof against its temptations, there is, at least, abundant proof in his whole conduct, that his ambition was that of a great and generous mind, and was uniformly directed to promote the safety, the glory, and the prosperity of his country ; all of which, in a great measure, depended upon his retaining the reins of government. To confirm his connection with the noblest and most popular famihes of Syra- cuse, he married, about this time, (b.c. 405,) Arete, the daughter of that enlightened patriot, Hermocrates ; and he bestowed the hand of his own sister, Theste, upon another relative of the same family. Hamilcar, meanwhile, having wintered his army in Agrigentum, continued to make great preparations for the reduction of Gela in the spring ; and Dionysius was neither deceived in his object, nor remiss in his endeavours to obviate it. He enrolled every Syracusan CHAP. XI. J DIONTSIUS THE ELDEK. 163 capable of bearing arms; lie called out the contingent forces of the B.C. IDC. Sicilian aUies ; and obtained succours from the Greek states in Italy ; and still further, he augmented his army by engaging mercenary troops ; the whole amounting, according to the most probable account, to thirty thousand foot, a thousand horse, and a fleet of fifty ships. With this force he marched to the relief of Gela ; and on his arrival, pitching his camp near the sea, in order to maintain a communication with the fleet, he endeavoured to intercept the supphes of the Carthaginians by sea and land, and to reduce them to the necessity of abandoning their hues. And with this view he remained quietly in his position for twenty days. But the temper and constitution of a Grecian army, trained in His army republican principles, and accustomed to submit to control only in g^^nm^ active service, was iU adapted to protracted operations ; and Diony- sius became sensible that it was absolutely necessary to lead his men into action with as little delay as possible. Watching his oppor- timity, therefore, he formed his infantry in three divisions, who were to advance by different routes, and to commence an attack on the three points of the camp at once ; the cavalry had orders to act as a reserve, and the fleet to assist in forcing the Hnes next the shore. But although the plan was ably arranged, either the dLs- tances had been miscalculated, or some disaffection among the troops occasioned a defect of communication, for the Italian allies, after conducting themselves with great gallantry, being imsupported, were repulsed with severe loss, and were only preserved from entfre destruction by the protection of the fleet ; the Sicilians, overpowered by numbers, retreated into the town, leaving sis hundred slain on the field; and Dionysius himself, met with so many unexpected obstructions in advancing through the streets with the division imder his immediate command, that he arrived only in time to witness the defeat of his army, and to retire within the walls. A council of war was immediately held, and in order to gain Dionysius time, a herald was sent to Hamilcar, with a request that the Greeks artm™ might be permitted to bury their dead. During the cessation of hostilities which this occasioned, Dionysius prepared to evacuate the town, now no longer deemed defensible ; and leaving two thousand light troops to kindle the fires, and keep up other appearances of habitation, he withdrew the whole population of Gela during the night, and sent them forward in safety towards Syracuse. He himself, meanwhile, went to Camarina, and directed all the citizens, with their wives, children, and moveable property, to prepare for an immediate removal ; and so convinced were they of the necessity of the measure, that the greatest promptness was manifested in obeying his orders ; and in a few hours they also were on the road to the only place which now appeared to offer any security from the invading army. 164 DIONYSIUS THE ELDEE. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 406. But Dionysius was not exempt from the usual consequences of failure, though the measures which he adopted to save the inhabi- tants of the two cities from total ruin and destruction, were undeni- ably well planned and ably executed. Some few, from age or sickness, or obstinacy, were left behind, and their complaints produced a strong sensation of pity, not unmingled with indignation; others, whose feebleness was ill calculated for a march, necessarily rapid, were overcome by fatigue and vexation ; and there were not wanting disaffected persons in the army to inflame these natural discontents, and to represent the whole transaction as a scheme of the general for increasing the population of his own city, and establishing a despotic power over Sicily, by means of the Cartha- ginians. The Italian allies, fired at the idea that their exposure to extreme danger had been preconcerted, immediately crossed the island and returned home ; and the Sjrracusan cavalry, by whose inactivity or treachery, the defeat at Gela seems partly to have been occasioned, and most of whom were of the violent democratic party, would have murdered Dionysius on the march, had not his body The cavalry guard been vigilant and faithful. Failing in this design, they esert. deserted and hastened to Syracuse, where forging a tale which suited their purpose, and asserting that the whole army had con- spired against the tyrant, they obtained ready admission within the fortifications ; and proceeding (with such friends to their cause as they could collect) to the house of Dionysius, not only pillaged and destroyed his property, but wreaked their vengeance on his iimocent wife, the hapless Arete, who, hke another Lucretia, disdained to survive her involuntary shame. The general, meanwhile, informed of the desertion of so large a body of cavalry, and suspecting it to be their intention to raise a sedition against him, resolved, if possible, to anticipate their arrival in the city. Taking with him his body guard of six hundred infantry, and one hundred horse, on whose attachment he could rely, he marched fifty miles with extraordinary speed, and arrived about midnight at one of the gates of Acradina. Finding it closed against him, he set fire to it by means of some ftiel which accidentally lay near, and while this was doing, collected together such of his followers as had been unable to keep up with him. The gate at length giving way, he rushed through Acradina, and finding a party of his principal enemies collected in the forum, and the people in general not disposed to interfere, he put them all to the sword ; and passing immediately through the city, he executed, or forced into exile, the partisans of the atrocious conspiracy. Early in the morning the remainder of the mercenary troops, and aU the SicUian allies, arrived in good order at Syracuse ; biit the Geloan and Camarinean emigrants, alarmed by the suggestions of the disaffected, had turned aside to take refiige among the Leontines. CHAP. XI. J DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. 165 Syracuse, thus weakened and distracted, appeared to offer an easy B.C. 406. prey to the victorious army of Hamilcar ; but untoward circum- ^'^'^^ stances, among which was the spread of a pestilential disorder among with the his troops, induced the Carthaginian general to send a flag of truce anr*""^'"'' to Dionysius, reminding him that the conqueror was making over- tures to the conquered. His proposals were gladly received ; and it being equally the interest of both parties to put an end to the war, a treaty was soon concluded, the terms of which considerably extended the dominion of Carthage in Sicily, whilst it deprived Syracuse of all her dependencies. The prisoners and ships taken in the course of the war, were exchanged ; and Hamilcar immediately conducted home the remainder of his army, diminished, according to Diodorus, by half its number ; carrying with him an infection which spread rapidly in Africa, and not only wasted the territory of Carthage, but depopulated the neighbouring states ; and for many years weakened the power of the empire. Dionysius thus freed from the pressure of a foreign enemy, employed all the activity of his extraordinary genius in consohdating his government, and in augmenting the resources and power of his country ; and in the measures which he adopted to secure these objects, he displayed that poUtical sagacity and patriotic hberality, which led Scipio to rank him among the first of statesmen and commanders, and Isocrates to recommend his conduct for the imitation of PhiHp of Macedon. With a noble and enhghtened Dionysins ambition, he endeavoured to render himself master of Syracuse and S?^^!'^" of Sicily, by making himself necessary to its glory and prosperity ; and it appears clearly, even in the accounts handed down to us by writers devoted to the adverse faction, that he triumphed over them rather by means of a majority who were sensible of the advantages of his government, than by the vigour with which he repressed the designs of the disaffected, and pimished those who could neither be gained by moderation, nor trusted with safety. Though he is accused of employing foreign influence to estabhsh his despotic power, the charge is whoUy unsupported by evidence, and is satis- factorily refuted by the hne of conduct which he invariably pursued towards foreign powers, as well as by the system which he followed at home ; the very reverse of that narrow and selfish pohcy, gener- ally adopted by tyrants in Greece, who were afraid of encouraging among their people a spirit of enterprise, lest it should be employed in the recovery of their liberties ; and who sacrificed the honour and welfare of the state, to the maintenance of arbitrary power. The ascendancy of Syracuse over the other states of Sicily, and Fortifications its safety from the invasion of the continental nations, obviously ^j^^^cj depended, chiefly, upon its marine, which Dionysius determined to place immediately upon a footing of unprecedented strength and magnificence. Surrounding the island of Ortygia, which separates 166 DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. V..C. 406. the great and lesser harbours, with prodigiously strong and lofty walls surmounted by numerous turrets ; he fortified both entrances to the Laccian port, which was shut in by gates, admitting no more than one ship at a time ; the interior was adapted for receiving sixty ships of war, and boat-houses were erected to shelter them from the weather. The entrance on the land side was protected by a strong citadel, (called Pentapyle, or Five Gates,) surrounded by splendid porticoes, calculated for the accommodation of a large army, in a climate where sudden transitions from the heat of the afternoon sun, to the chilling damps of the evening, are particularly injurious to men exposed to the open air. It is even said, that the bottom of the harbour was paved with large flat stones, and an aqueduct laid under it, which supplied the fortress with fresh water; but this story, as its authority seems questionable, and the utility ' of the design doubtful, is scarcely deserving of credit. The whole fortifica- tion and naval arsenal were certainly so complete as to be impregnable by any arts of v/ar then known ; though, being commanded by higher ground in the district of Achradina, it has yielded to modern ^ improvements in science. The younger Dionysius maintained him- self vsdthin it, at a later period, long after the other divisions of the city were occupied by different enemies, each more popular and powerful than himself, and capitulated at last on favourable terms ; and even the all-conquering Roman arms, under the conduct of the great Marcellus, having gained possession of the other parts of Syracuse, were indebted to treachery for the reduction of the citadel ; and when once master of it, the prstor became so sensible of its strength and importance, that he compelled all the natives to remove to the other quarters of the town. Prucienceof Haviog thus provided for the security of his navy, Dionysius administra- employed a number of workmen in ship building ; and to increase """■ his own popularity, as well as the strength and population of the place, he divided the land which had escheated to the state ^ among all classes of freemen, including resident foreigners, and manumitted slaves, whom he admitted to the rights of citizens, under the appella- tion of Neapohtes ; and it is probable that this class of persons principally inhabited the district of Neapolis, which appears scarcely to have existed at the time of the Athenian, siege,* but grew into a large and handsome town under the auspices of Dionysius. In this division of land, as was natural, and by no means repre- hensible, Diodorus asserts, that those who had been faithful and active in the service of the governor-general obtained the fairest 1 There are fresh springs in the island. 2 It was taken by the Spaniards, a.d. 1735. 3 There seems nothing in history to warrant the idea that any thing lilte an Agrarian law, or any invasion of private property took place. <01. 91. insmTectiuii. CHAP. XI. J DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. 167 portions; and that in assigning the habitations of the new citizens, B.C. 406. he took care to people with his most steady adherents the strong fortress of the island, which he made his own residence, and decorated with beautiful sculpture and magnificent gardens ; where his son afterwards erected a splendid monument to his memory. These peaceful occupations, congenial to the taste and talents of Mmtan- Dionysius, were interrupted by a renewal of that factious spirit which ' so unhappily blighted the prosperity of almost every Grecian State. A detachment, which had been sent against a marauding party of native Sicihans, having murdered their commanding officer, sent to the Syracusan refugees, whom the moderation of Dionysius had permitted to establish themselves in the garrison of ^tna, on the south side of the mountains, for a ti-oop of cavalry ; and having readily obtained what, in all likelihood, had previously been promised, they marched back to Syracuse under the conduct of the assassins, with the intention of efiecting a revolution. In the meanwhile they sohcited firom Ehegium, in Italy, and fi:om ]Messena, (now, though an oligarchical state, brought over to the seditious party,) a naval force to co-operate in the recovery of their liberty ; and a hundred and twenty ships of war were despatched to their assistance. The land force immediately seized Epipolse, a craggy and precipitous eminence, commanding great part of the city ; and the measures of the rebels were conducted with so much promptitude and ability, that Dionysius thought it prudent to retire within the fortifications of the island, to which he thus early became indebted for the pre- servation, not merely of his power, but of his life. A large reward was proclaimed for his head, and every inducement was offered to his troops to desert him, and, if we may beheve the democratic historian, not without effect. Blockaded now by sea and land, the battering engines planted against his walls, and all communication with his own party in the other quarters of the city being cut off, the governor-general held a council ^ of war, the result of which was, a proposal made to the rebels that he should surrender the citadel, on condition of being permitted to quit Sicily with as manyof his followers, and as much of his property, as could be conveyed in five ships of the Une. His real object, however, appears to have been to gain time, stratagem of and to open the means of intercourse with his friends in the city, and Dionysics, with his Sicilian partisans. By this artifice he contrived to introduce reinforcements into the island ; and very shortly succeeded in expelling the insurgents from the remaining parts of Syracuse, and in completely re-estabhshing his authority. In the tumult which unavoidably accompanied this counter- revolution, Diodorus himself admits that Dionysius rode up and down restraiiiing his troops from bloodshed, and that he bestowed 1 The accounts of what passed in the council bear strong marks of fiction. 168 DIONTSIUS THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 406. the honourable burial of citizens indiscriminately upon aU who fell of both parties ; an act of piety and generosity, as well as of hberal policy, which repubhcan gratitude rewarded by praying that " his opponents might speedily have an opportunity of returning the favour." The governor-general, however, persisted in his en- deavours to conciliate the people, offering free pardon to all who would return to their homes, and receiving such as availed themselves of his clemency with every mark of favour. Dionysius thus restored to power, and apparently confirmed in it, was regarded by all the commonwealths of Greece with an eye of jealousy ; and Aristus was depatched as ambassador from Sparta, with instructions, as it appears from the sequel, to engage the stronger party in the Lacedsemonian interest. With this view he at once flattered the court, and tampered with the people; till finding that the influence of Nicoteles, a secret agent of the Corinthian government, prevailed over his own among the disaffected party, he entered warmly into the views of Dionysius, assisted in detecting an extensive conspiracy which was forming with the sanction of Corinth, and denoimced Nicoteles as a traitor. The measures which followed partook strongly of Spartan severity ; and though apparently called for by the dangerous spirit of the times, were rather submitted to than willingly embraced by the liberal temper of the governor-general. Nicoteles was condemned to death ; several of the most violent par- tisans of sedition were banished ; and, during the ensuing harvest, the people were deprived of their armour. Most of the Grecian settlements, like some of our own colonies, were destitute of country habitations ; and a system of tillage, imperfect indeed, but sufficient, in the fertile System of soil and genial climate of Sicily, to produce an abundant crop, was carried on by the inhabitants of fortified towns, who, except during harvest, seldom slept in the fields. But at that season, booths and arbours supphed the place of more durable shelter, and the whole labouring population evacuated the cities, and lived for a time in the open air. Advantage was taken of this custom to search the houses for arms, and thus to give a secure ascendancy to a mOitaxy govern- ment. The exiles taking refuge in .^tna rendered that place so populous and so formidable, that no permanent tranquflhty could be expected, whUst an inveterate enemy should continue to hold a post every way calculated for the encouragement of plots and conspiracies in Syracuse. It was therefore resolved to level it with the ground, and to disperse the inhabitants. Most of them, it is supposed, found a welcome reception amongst the Ehegians, who persevered to the last B.C. 404. in their hostility against Dionysius. These vigorous measures produced a temporary cessation of war and sedition, and allowed leisure for the advancement of the extensive plans formed by the genius of Dionysius for the CHAP. XI. J DIONYSIUS THE ELDER. 169 aggrandisement of his native city, in prosecution of his favourite B.C. 404. object to make Syracuse the metropolis of Sicily, and the rival of Carthage. That powerful state had been so weakened by the extensive deso- lation of the pestilence which drove HamUcar from Sicily, as to be incapable, at this period, of interfering with effect in foreign affairs ; and Dionysius eagerly availed himself of the opportunity, thus unex- pectedly afforded, to bring many of the smaller Grecian and Sicilian towns again into alliance with Syracuse, and even to extend his influence among the independent states in Italy ; and so rapid was the growth of his political power and commercial prosperity, as to excite the envy and astonishment of cotemporary nations, and the incredulity of modem critics. It could not, however, escape the sagacity of the governor-general, that the supineness of the Carthaginians was not hkely to continue long ; and that the fame of his success must speedily rouse them to avenge his infraction of the treaty, and his contempt of their authority. He was perfectly aware that the storm was not to be averted by concession, nor to be resisted by any thing short of the most exten- sive and complete preparations. Profiting by past experience, he determined to fortify the commanding site of Epipote, (which had repeatedly been the source of danger to the town,) and convert it into a fortress for its defence. The rock is precipitous, and nearly inaccessible on the north side; Fortifies and the plan adopted was to crown it with a strong citadel, and by ^i"p°''"- a long wall, surmounted with towers, to connect it with the walls of the town ; an extent of building, altogether, of above thirty furlongs, (about four miles,) the remains of which are still reckoned the finest existing specimen of ancient military architecture. " We were quite astonished," observes an intelligent English tourist, " at the magni- tude of the subterranean passages,- from whence both infantry and cavalry might make their sallies, and retreat again under protection of the fort. We admired the huge square towers of solid masonry ; the excellent contrivance of its gateways for every purpose of defence ; the vast blocks of its parapets, which lay upon the ground, bored with grooves, by which melted pitch or lead were poured down upon the assailants. Nor did the art and judgment fail to strike us with which the walls were built. Constituted of immense blocks, without cement, they varied in thickness, as the situa- tion required : where nature herself had assisted in forming the rampart, they measured from seven to nine feet in breadth ; but in more unguarded situations, they were fifteen, of that species of building which the ancients called, emplecton."^ In order to accom- plish this great work with as little delay as possible, Dionysius 1 Hughes's Travels in SioDy, &c. vol. i. 170 DI0NYSIU8 THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 404. engaged sixty thousand citizens to labour unremittingly in building, exclusive of an immense number of artists of various descriptions, employed in squaring tbe stones, and fitting tbe materials, and a multitude of labourers at work in the quarries.' Six thousand oxen were required to draw the huge stones of which the wall was con- structed ; and it has ingeniously been conjectured, that the materials of the great works thrown up near this spot by Nicias during the Athenian invasion, contributed to facilitate the present undertaking. The new fortress obtained the name of Hexapyle, (Six Gates,) and, though it does not appear to have been inhabited, occasioned the name TetrapoHs to be exchanged for Pentapolis. From the eminence of EpipoIsB, Dionysius must have enjoyed a noble prospect of the whole city, with all its palaces, and temples, and gardens, its impregnable fortresses, and magnificent harbours, fiUed with the preparations for war, and the occupations of peace ; and it is easy to conceive the exultation of spirit with which he viewed the scene of splendour and prosperity before him, so much the work of his own generosity and genius. In this enjoyment he passed much of his time during the building of the Hexapyle, minghng freely with all classes of the people, encouraging industry, rewarding talent, assisting personally on any emergency, and laying aside, hke the great czar Peter, not only the guards and attendance, but the manner of royalty, to render his instructions to the workmen more famihar, and his design more popular ; and so great was the zeal mth which his people worked by night as well as by day, that the undertaking was completed in three weeks. Fictions of It is obviously impossible to reconcile the accounts of the conduct refated"^ of the governor-general on this and similar occasions, mth the stories related by Plutaa-ch, and even by Diodorus, of his arbitrary violence, despotic system of government, and excessive dread of popular fury or private revenge. It is quite clear that he who could thus trust himself imarmed and unattended among nearly an hundred thousand of the people indiscrimately assembled, must have felt assured, that they were neither dissatisfied with his admin- istration, nor aggrieved by private vrrong; and it is not to be beheved that a man so secure in the midst of the populace, could be cruel and suspicious at home. We are justified, therefore, in rejecting the anecdotes told of his having his hair and beard trimmed with a five coal, lest his barber should cut his throat ; of his obhg- ing all who approached him to strip and change their clothes in the vestibule of his apartment, lest they should have concealed some weapon in their dress ; of his rage against his own brother for 1 These lautumiffi were excavated so regularly as to form magnificent and secure prisons, (as the Athenians found to their cost,) and excited the great admiration of Cicero, who calls them opus vere regium — a truly royal work. They are open at top, and are now laid out into gardens and pleasure grounds. CHAP. XI.J DIONYSIUS THE ELDEE. 171 raising a spear to point out a distant object ; and a number of B.C. 404. similar tales, which repubhcan bitterness delighted to heap upon a great and successM tyrant, not a few of wliich have been related of others besides Dionysius. To him alone, however, belongs the cele- brated story of the feast of Damocles, which, if true, implies nothing more than that Dionysius, by a practical allegory, conveyed an important lesson on the troubles and dangers of royalty to a man who ignorantly envied the splendour and luxuries of the palace. It Dionysius's is certainly difficult to conjecture °^'' the design of that extraordinary cavern in the lautumite of Neapohs, generally known by the name of the Ear of Dionysius, and vulgarly believed to have been made by him for the purpose of listening to the conversation of the numerous pri- soners confined in it by his jealous timidity ; but there is no authority for referring its construction to the [oaveofDion.-i'K.ive« ?;«<»•«.»»«.] time of the excavation of the lau- tumise ; and although the cavern possesses some amusing properties for the conveyance of sound, it is incapable of answering the pur- pose for which the tyrant is said to have designed it. There were, undoubtedly, some periods of his life when the violence and treachery of the republican faction must have rendered extreme caution indispensably necessary; and when an enormous reward was offered for his assassination, common prudence would obhge him to be circumspect in admitting strangers to his presence. But these precautions, whatever they might be, ceased with the occasions that gave rise to them; and Dionysius hved more un- guardedly among the citizens of Syracuse than is usual with popular princes in limited monarchies. After a short season of unexampled tranquillity and prosperity B.C. 399. in Sjrracuse, when faction everywhere paused from its continual agitations, as if to become a spectator of the bold undertaking of Cyrus, and the wonderful return of his Grecian army, the Rhegian people — the staunch promoters of revolution, urged by the Syra- cusan exiles who had taken refuge among them, affecting to com- miserate the fate of their kindred, the inhabitants of Naxos and Catana, who had entered into the alliance of Dionysius, — ^fitted out me a fleet of fifty ships of war, and embarked an army of six thousand gt'^out'a'fleet infantry, and six hundred cavalry, in what was then, as now, deno- minated by the cant of party, "the sacred cause of Hberty;" but in reahty for the overthrow of an established, peaceful, and flourish- ing state, by means of stimulating the worst passions of the lowest people. 172 DIONYSIUS THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 399. The Ehegians contrived to engage in this attempt the ohgarchical administration of Messena, who sent them a reinforcement of four thousand foot, four hundred horse, and thirty ships of the line ; but the government of Syracuse was at this time so popular in Sicily, that the Messenian soldiers, on learning the object of the expedition, refused to obey their generals ; and the Italians, deprived of their assistance, and unable alone to meet the forces which Dionysius had led out to oppose them, were glad to obtain peace on easy terms. The consequence of this ill-conducted scheme was the extension of the Syracusan empire, (for so the Greek historians are accus- tomed to term the supremacy of the first state in a confederacy,) not merely in Sicily, but in several of the Greek settlements in Italy ; so that Dionysius, from this period, was not unusually called " the tyrant of Sicily and Italy," being at the head of the Greek nation, both in the island and on the adjoining continent. Nor did he remit his exertions to strengthen his interest, and to combine the whole Grecian name in one league against the Carthaginian domin- ion in Sicily. Architectu- He had now leisure to resume those prodigious preparations Monystai' against invasion which have excited the admiration of aU succeed- ing ages, and of which the native historian observes, that each of his numerous undertakings appears sufficient to have absorbed the whole resources of the state. By what means he raised such enormous sums, without any apparent diminution of individual wealth among the citizens, any oppression of the alhes, or any known opportunity for considerable plunder, no ancient writer now extant has left us a satisfactory account. We learn, however, that^ one source of revenue was a kind of poU-tax, the origin of which is deserving of notice. Dionysius, foreseeing that he might probably want large supphes of money on some future emergency, when his credit and popularity might be less productive, gave out that it was necessary to raise an immediate and general contribution for a secret service, the nature of which could not, consistently with its object, be disclosed. The tax was readily granted, and paid ; and soon afterwards pubUc notice was given, that circumstances having occurred to prevent the execution of the projected plan, the money which had been raised would be repaid on application at the treasury. So great was the confidence gained by this artifice, in the integrity of the administration, that, when the real necessity arose, the supply was obtained without any difficulty. Such, indeed, was the universal popiilarity of the scheme for driving the Carthaginians out of Sicily, that the government received frequent voluntary contributions of labour, materials, and money. ^ It is also mentioned by Aristotle, that Dionysius endeavoured to establish a composition for the tithe of cattle as due to the state ; but that the measure was too unpopular to be very productive. CHAP. XI. J DIONYSIUS THE ELDER. 173 In the last essential supply Dionysius seems to have abounded, b.c. 399. He not ordy paid the numerous artisans whom he engaged from all quarters of the world in the most liberal manner, but stimulated their activity, and rewarded their ingenuity, by giving splendid prizes to the best executed designs. By these means he drew to Syracuse all who possessed either skill or industry in mechanical operations, and he displayed the most consummate genius in directing and superintendiiig the works. The existing fleet of a siciUannavy. hundred and ten ships was speedily put into complete repair, and two hundred additional vessels were built, some of which were upon a new construction, and on a larger scale than any yet known, and having two more banks of oars than the ordinary trireme, obtained the name of quinqueremes. To secure this powerful navy from the effects of the weather, the number of boat-houses in the harbour was doubled, and many of them made capable of containing two ships. While, with a pohcy utterly irreconcilable with the despotic system attributed to him, Dionysius used aU his influence to engage the citizens of Syracuse in the naval service, and actually succeeded in half manning his fleet with a class of sailors whom no tjrrant, ruling against the will of the people, could have trusted within the walls of the arsenal. Diodorus asserts, that the battery (to xaraa-eXTixoV) was at this [Catapulta for discharging Stonea —Calmet.l period first invented at Syracuse ; meaning, not the art of battermg Battery of fortifications by a variety of engines, which had been practised long Dionysius. before in Greece, and was carried to great perfection in Africa, but the contrivance of annoying a naval force by machines planted upon 174 DIOKTSIUS THE ELDER. [CHAP. XI. B.C. 399. the walls of a fortress, and dischargmg huge blocks of stone, and beams of wood, headed with masses of iron, which Archimedes after- wards improved, to the great discomfiture of the Eomans, under MarceUus. The most ingenious mechanics were assiduously employed in the construction of these batteries for the protection of the port ; while an incredible number of armoiirers filled every vacant space in the city with their forges and workshops ; and so eager were the citizens in forwarding the wishes of the governor-general, that multi- tudes voluntarily contributed their personal labour in the fabrication of arms ; and upwards of a hundred and forty thousand suits of armour were soon ready for service. Confederacy Pursuing his view of uniting in one confederacy against Carthage cUiei*""''™ the whole Grecian name in Sicily and Italy, Dionysius was particu- larly anxious to conciliate the hostile parties at Messena and Rhe- gium, who were more than suspected of inclining to take part with the enemy in the event of war. The former he secured by conceding to them a considerable tract of border land which had been the subject of dispute ; and to the latter he made a proposal, contrary indeed to the narrow policy of the democratic states of Greece (which forbade aUiance by marriage with any other repubho,) but perfectly accordant with the more hberal notions which he had early imbibed irom the exceUent Hermocrates. He oiFered to grant the Rhegians an increase of territory ^ adjoining their borders, and to provide for the commercial interests of their city, upon receiving ia marriage the daughter of a Ehegian citizen. Eepubhcan prejudio^, however, prevailed ; the proposed alliance was rejected by an assem- bly of the people ; and, according to a report not apparently well authenticated, but by no means improbable, the refusal was accom- panied with a vulgar insult. Persevering in his design, he instructed his ambassadors to make a similar oifer at Locri, where it was well received, and Doris, the daughter of Xenetus, the most illustrious citizen of Locri, was espoused to him : one of the newly-built quin- queremes, richly fitted up with gold and sUver furniture, conveyed her to Syracuse; and she became the mother of the second Dionysius. It is stated by Diodorus, Plutarch, and jEhan, that on the same day the governor-general married Aristomache, (or Aristsenete, as the last mentioned author calls her,) the daughter of his colleague Hip- parinus ; and that he conducted her to the palace in an equipage no less splendid than the galley of Doris. It is even added, that both ladies were perfectly happy in his impartial kindness, one enjoying the advantage of being his countrywoman, and the other of blessing him with a son ; and Plutarch affirms, that the mother of Doris, who had accompanied her daughter to Syracuse, being suspected of administering potions to Aristomache to render her barren, was put 1 It is nowhere stated by what means Dionysius had the disposal of this land. CHAP. XI.J DIONTSIUS THE ELDEE. 175 to death by Dionysius; after whicli the birth of the younger Hip- B.C. 399. pariuus completed the felicity of the family. The whole of this accoxmt has been rejected, simply on the ground of its improbability ; it is conjectured that Doris died soon after the birth of her son, and upon her death the connection took place with the daughter of Hipparinus. However this may be, the governor- general took the opportunity of his nuptials to ingratiate himself with the people by splendid entertainments, and by the most engag- ing familiarity and clemency ; so that even those historians who generally represent him as an odious tyrant, maintaining himself in power by a mercenary force, are compelled to acknowledge that he was at this period extremely popular; though Diodorus, with singular inconsistency, attributes at the same time to the Syracusans a violent desire for a revolution. His vast preparations being now completed, Dionysius was unwil- Declares wai- ling to afford time to Carthage for recovering from the ravages of clrSage. the plague; and assembling the people, highly dehghted with the B.C. 39iS. nuptial shows and banquets, he addressed them at great length in favour of an immediate war ; a topic already popular, which he took care to enforce, by holding out such immediate as well as contingent advantages, that the measure was carried without hesitation ; and an instant confiscation, or rather pillage, followed, of all the Cartha- ginian property in the town and harbour : the example was quickly adopted by the other SicUian towns, not without some violence to the persons of the unfortunate Carthaginian traders ; and in the towns which were subject to Carthage, the populace rising upon the garrisons, exercised upon them the most cruel revenge for the former plunder of their houses by HamUcar. In the beginning of B.C. 397. the succeeding year, Dionysius sent a formal embassy to Carthage, declaring war, unless, upon condition, that the Carthagiaians should evacuate all the Grecian towns in Sicily. The letter containing this alternative was read to the senate and people ; and although the previous conduct of Dionysius must amply have prepared them to expect such a result, the declaration of it appears to have occasioned general alarm. No idea of concession, however, was entertained; and the dismissal of the herald was the signal for the commencement of actual hostilities. The governor-general lost no time in effecting a junction with the aUied forces of the Agrigentine, Geloan, and other Grecian states, amounting, with his own army, to eighty thousand infantry, and between three and four thousand cavalry, attended by a fleet of nearly two hundred ships of war; about five hundred transports followed, conveying some of his newly invented batteries, and abundance of naval and military stores. Most of the cities in the Carthaginian interest, unsupported against so overwhelming a force, hastened to submit to Dionysius ; but the inhabitants of Motya, 176 rao^^rs^JS the eldee. [chap. xi. B.C. 397. always faithful to Carthage, and on that account entitled to expect little moderation from the Syracusans, made vigorous preparations for defence, hoping to protract the siege till the arrival of succours from Africa. Five other towns followed the example; and the governor-general, leaving his brother Leptines to prosecute the operations against Motya, hastened to plunder their territories, and laid vigorous siege to j33gesta and EnteUa. Hamiicar In the mean time, Hamiloar was again appointed at Carthage to w'to^SicUy. take the command in Sicily ; and in the pressing circumstances of ' the Sicilian alUes, he resolved immediately to attempt a diversion for their relief Despatching a squadron of only ten fast sailing vessels, he directed them to enter the harbour of Syracuse by night, and to destroy the ships of war remaining there. His orders were executed with little difficulty, and the adventurous squadron returned in safety. But although the damage was considerable to the Syracusan navy, the plan did not operate to the advantage of the Motyans; on the contrary, raising the siege of the two inferior places, Dionysius applied his whole force to the reduction of Motya, trusting to the vigilance of the garrison m Ortygia to prevent a repetition of the surprise at the arsenal. Hamiicar, thus disappointed, and destitute of means for openly opposing the powerful fleet and army of the Greeks, employed all the resources of his active and enterprising genius to supply the deficiency. Collecting a hundred ships, he sailed by night, and doubling the LUybsean cape, hove in sight suddenly off Motya, at daybreak. Attacking the guard-ships, which were afloat without the harbour, he burnt and sunk most of them ; and passed on into the fort before Dionysius had time to man his fleet, which was drawn up on the beach, or to push a single ship into the water. Perceiving at once the extent of the danger, and the disadvantage to which his vessels would be exposed in a naval action, from the narrowness of the channel, the Syracusan general instantly ordered his men to draw the ships over the mole into the sea, on the other side ; and covering the pier with his land forces and portable batteries, he did such execution, and spread so much alarm among the Africans, to whom these engines were new and strange, that Hamiicar found it necessary to retire to Africa, and leave Motya to its fate. Capture of The siege was consequently pressed on every side ; and though Jiotya. ^jjg ]\Jo(;yans made a most gallant defence, and fought to the last with desperate valour, they were in a few days overwhelmed by superior numbers, aided by the extraordinary machinery and military stratagems of Dionysius. The slaughter was immense ; and the inhabitants would in all probability have been exterminated, had not the general sent a herald to proclaim that they might take sanctuary in the temples of the gods worshipped by the Greeks : an CHAP. XI.J DIONYSnjS THE ELDER. 177 act of humanity whicli the prejudiced historian attributes to the B.C. 397. most sordid motives. The city was given up to plunder ; and aR the inhabitants who had escaped from the sword were sold into slavery : a Greek named Daemenes, and some others of the same nation who had sided with the Carthaginians, suffered crucifixion, as traitors to the country ; which, under all the circumstances of the case, must be deemed a cruel pohcy. The governor-general, leaving a fleet of a hundred and twenty ships, under the orders of his brother Leptines, to guard the coast, and to keep in check the people of ^gesta and Entella, and having garrisoned Motya with Syracusan and native ' SicUian troops, returned home with the main body of the army. Early in the following spring, Dionysius marched to the scene of Success of action, and having accepted the submission of the Haliceans, he g'™'' ggg opened the campaign by investing iEgesta, and laying waste its territory where he met with no opposition. But the .Slgestans, warned by the fate of Motya, resolutely defended their town, and sallying by night, surprised and set fire to the camp of the besiegers. A smSl party hastening to extinguish the flames were cut ofi; and the conflagration spreading rapidly, destroyed a number of horses.^ This check was followed by intelligence which could not surprise Dionysius ; but which, afl;er success so little correspondiug with his own great preparations, and with the comparatively defenceless condition of the enemy, at the commencement of hostilities, must have occasioned him serious alarm. The Carthaginian government, resolved to vindicate its dominion in Sicily by a great effort, collected an army (according to the most credible authority,') of a hundred thousand men well equipped, who were joined, as soon as they landed, by thirty thousand Sicilian aUies, and a.fleetof four hundred ships of war, and six hundred transports. The armament was commanded by Hamilcar, who was on this occasion raised to the rank of BaaiJi.iv;, or commander-in-chief: an officer, under the ancient constitution of Carthage, invested with unhmited civil and military powers during the continuance of his command, but accountable, at its termination, for his conduct to the senate and people. The Carthaginian fleet sailed with a fair wind, the_ commander of each vessel bearing sealed orders from Hamilcar, which were not to be opened tiU they should be under weigh. According to these orders, the ships of war coasted along shore, whUe the transports 1 'S,ixi\oi. Sicilian Greeks, 2;«e^/<«t«/. . , . 2 Wesseling renders ,^■• was obliged to concede to what was well understood to be the object of Rome : and not only was Sardinia given up, but twelve hundred talents were paid, in addition to the sums stipulated by the treaty of peace, as a sort of bribe to the Romans, not at present to renew hostilities. This conduct on the part of Rome was every way cal- culated to excite deep resentment in a mind like HamUcar's. It betrayed not only an alarming, but an insulting and ungenerous ambition ; and plainly showed that the late war had left behind it, in one party at least, feehngs of rivalry which were not likely to be soon forgotten. From henceforward HamUcar, it is said, determined^ steadily to pursue the object of obtaining for his country such resources, as should enable her at no distant period to renew the contest with her adversary. It was no common spirit of poKcy by which he was actuated, but a principle of hatred to Rome, which he intended to carry with him to his grave, and to instil with great strength into his children. His own eminent services, aided by his great family interest, and political sentiments, for it appears he favoured the popular party in Carthage, which was every day becoming more powerful, all contributed to give him an influence over the direction of affairs almost unhmited ; and the same causes continuing afterwards to operate in behalf of his son, the whole administration of Carthage appears for many years to have been in the hands of his party, and its foreign pohcy almost to have been left at the sole disposal of himself, his son-in-law Hasdrubal, and his son Hannibal. Excluded from SicUy and Sardinia, Hamilcar turned his attention Hamiicar to Spain. There the Romans had not yet pretended to control his aSentton to movements : and there the mines of the country would abundantly Spain, supply him with money, and its bold and numerous population with soldiers, for carrying into effect his ultimate views. Immediately, 1 Polyb. lib. i. u 88. 2 Polyb. lib. ii. i;. 1 ; lib. iii. c. 10. [r. h.] r 242 HAJMILCAR BAECA. — FIRST PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. Xin. B.C. 238. therefore, on the conclusioQ of the war in Africa, he prepared to cross the straits of Gibraltar with an army. A solemn sacrifice was performed, as usual at the commencement of an expedition, to pro- pitiate the favours of heaven ; and towards the close of the ceremony, Hamilcar desired all the assistants to withdraw a little, and called to Oath of him his son Hannibal, then a child of only nine years of age. He Hannibal. ^^^^^ asked him, whether he should like to go with him to the armyV and when the boy seemed delighted at the offer, and begged that he might be allowed to go, his father led him to the altar, and bade him swear, with his hand upon the sacrifice, that he would never bear a good will to the Eomans. This story Hannibal himself related at the court of Antiochus, as a security for his unchanged attach- ment to all the enemies of Eome ; and it strongly marks the feeling that was most powerful in Hamilcar's mind ; and that whilst he was going to carry on war in Spain, his heart was already in Italy. Of his subsequent operations nothing is recorded in detail ; we are only told ^ that partly by arms, and partly by conciliation, he reduced a great number of the native tribes under the Carthaginian dominion. At last, in the tenth year of his command, he was engaged in battle with one of the fiercest and most powerfiil people in Spain, and finding it needful to set an example of personal daring, so exposed himself, that he was killed on the spot. His son-in-law, Hasdrubal, who had for some time served under him, succeeded him in the command of the army, and in the prosecution of his designs for rendering the whole peninsula a valuable province of Carthage. The character of Hamilcar can only be gathered from his public Character of Conduct ; as nothing is known of his private life and manners. As a HamUcar. statesman and soldier, his abihties appear to have been of the highest order, and his ascendancy must have been generally acknowledged, since it could excite such an enthusiastic admiration in the young Numidian chief, Narava, and lead him to abandon a cause generally popular amongst his countrymen, from his respect for the personal merit of the Carthaginian general. It would be difiicult to find any single family, which in only two generations produced three such men as Hamilcar and his sons Hannibal and Hasdrubal; if his son- in-law Hasdrubal be added to the number, the talent concentrated in the house of one man may be well considered unparalleled. 1 Polyb. lib. ii. c. 1. [Hannibal. — Visconti. — Iconogr. Ch-ec.] CHAPTEE XIV. HANNIBAL.— SECOND PUNIC WAR. Feom B.C. 218 TO B.C. 202. Theee are very few instances in whicli biography so closely B.C. 218. unites itself with general history, as in the life of Hannibal. If we were to profess to relate the story of the age in which he lived, his actions and character so influenced the affairs of the civilized world, that we should find oiurselves forced to make him the prominent figure in our narrative, to which aU others must be drawn as more or less subservient. While on the other hand, the biographer couTd not possibly convey a just notion of his genius, without a full descrip- tion of the state of things in which he was called to perform a part so extraordinary. Under the eye of his father, Hannibal had for nine years been trained to all the duties of a soldier ; and when his brother-in-law, Hasdrubal, succeeded to the command, he was between eighteen and nineteen years of age, and was soon able to render himself equally the admiration and the love of the general and the soldiers. During eight years more he had abundant opportunity to perfect himself in all the qualifications of a subordinate officer, and to learn those which were required of a general-in-chief, as well as of a poHtician and statesman. Hasdrubal ' extended the power of Carthage chiefly by his talent of 1 Polyb. lib. ii. c. 13, 36. of New Carthaffe. 244 HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 218. conciliating the native princes of the Spaniards ; he endeavoured DescripHon also to provide for its security by founding the city of New Carthage, " ""'" the situation of which was chosen with excellent judgment. This town, which in its present name of Carthagena still retains the memory of its founders, commands ' the best, and for the purposes of ancient seamanship almost the only harbour that was to be found on the eastern coast of Spain. It was a deep bay, whose entrance looked towards the south, and was protected from the open sea, by a small island which lay across it. In the centre of this bay, there ran out a bold tongue of land, falling down its southern extremity to a flat shore, but terminating in steep and lofty cliffs on the east and west, and on the north side where it joins the main land, presenting a chain of three rocky and rugged eminences ; each bearing its own distinct appellation. The southern and eastern sides of this pro- montory were washed by the sea : between its western side and the opposite coast of the bay, there was a large extent of shallow and nearly stagnant water, such as is not uncommon in sheltered and land locked recesses of the Mediterranean, and which may he particularly remarked in the lagune of Venice. From this there was an artifical cut made through the isthmus to the sea on the east ; a bridge forming the communication between the peninsula and the adjoining country. Thus the town, which was built on the southern part of the point of land above described, in the hollow between the hills, combined the double advantages of security and an excellent harbour, most favourably situated for communicating with Africa. The foundation of this place, and the growing influence of Hasdrubal among the natives of Spain, so alarmed the Romans, that they accused themselves of great neglect in not having interfered sooner; and being unable at present to go to war, because an invasion of the Gauls gave them full employment at home, they tried to gain their ends by negotiation, and concluded a treaty with Hasdrubal, by which he engaged not to carry his arms beyond the Ebro. To this they trusted for the present, hoping soon to be able to oppose a barrier more substantial than any stipulation, to the increasing power of their rivals. About one-and-twenty years had now elapsed since the conclusion of the first Punic war ; Hannibal had completed his twenty-sixth year ; and Hasdrubal had for eight years been successfoUy advancing the interests of his country, and the great designs of his family, when he was assassinated by night in his own quarters by a Gaul, whom he had exasperated by some personal injury. Great as such a loss was in itself, it was materially lessened by the prospect of a successor such as Hannibal. It appears that at this period the Carthaginian armies were often consulted^ in the appointment of generals, and 1 Polyb. lib. X. o. 8, 10. 2 ibid. lib. i. >;. 82 ; lib. iii. c. 1. CHAP. XIV.J HANOTBAL. — SECOKD PUNIC WAR. 245 had an important share in their nomination. On the present occasion b.c. 221 . the voice of the soldiers instantly bestowed the command on Hannibal Hannibal; and the influence of his party, and the general animosity Gmerai.' against Rome, that now prevailed in the public mind, easily procured the ratification of this appointment from the popular assembly at home. The new general, in the vigour of youth, and already all accomplished in the experience of a soldier's life, resolved to delay his great design no longer, but at once strike a blow which should announce to the world in thunder the ripeness of his family's long meditated plans of vengeance. At this period, on the eve of commencing the history of the second Punic war, it seems a proper opportunity to suspend for a while the course of our narrative, and to give a sketch of the situation of the principal countries, which, in the sequel, became involved in this wide spreading contest. Our first attention in this survey will be naturally directed to Italy. It is weU known that the Romans appropriated that name in strictness only, to so much of the peninsula as extended southwards, beyond Ravenna on the Adriatic, and the eastern limit of the late republic of Genoa, on the Mediterranean. All the coimtry between these boundaries and the Alps, with the exception of the Genoese territory, which was still possessed by the native Ligurians, and of a small territory around the head of the Adriatic, where the Veneti continued to maintain themselves, had been overrun at different periods by successive hordes of Gauls from beyond the Alps, and was generally known to the Romans by the name of Cisalpine Gaul. Having expelled the Tuscans, who are mentioned as the earliest occupants' of this region, the Gauls gradually pushed further 'and further southwards : assailed the Tuscans, even in that more southern part of their dominion, which still retains their name, and were in the course of their incursions brought into contact with the Romans, and in their first war with that people, had well nigh destroyed them for ever. For many years after their famous occupation of the city Hostue of Rome, they renewed at intervals their invasions of its territory : the Gafiis. at first the Romans dared not oppose them in the field ; but in process of time they learned not only to meet them on equal terms, but to vanquish them ; and at length they became the invaders in their turn, and gradually ' began to expel the Gauls from the most southerly of their settlements, and to occupy the ground with Roman colonies. The more northern tribes, fearful of experiencing the same fate, procured large assistance from their countrymen beyond the Alps, and during the period that Hasdrubal commanded in Spain, made a most formidable attack on the Roman dominion. But being entirely cut off in this attempt, the consuls for several 1 Polyb. lib..ii. c. 17. 2 ibid. lib. ii. c. 19. Position of Italy 246 HAKNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. [CHAP. XIV. ii.c. 221. succeeding years, extended their conquests over the Cisalpine tribes, and immediately before the arrival of Hannibal in Italy, the Eoman ' colonies of Placentia and Cremona were founded on the banks of the Po ; whilst the natives, though so often defeated, stiU kept up an incessant harassing warfare against the new settlers. The north of Italy, then, in the modern extent of the word, although nominally forming part of the Eoman dominion, was yet likely m fact to give the most zealous support to the first invader who should hold out hopes of deliverance from its yoke. Etruria or Tuscany, Umbria, and Picenum, contained some Eoman colonies, but their population and their cities appear to have been inconsiderable, in Poiitiiai comparison with the more southern provinces. The main strength of Eome lay in the numbers and courage of its own citizens, and its Latin allies, whose fidelity might be depended on to the last extremity, and whose population, of an age to bear arms, amounted, together with that of Eome, to about three hundred and sixty ^ thousand men. Further to the south the mountain districts of the Apennines in the interior, and the coasts of Campania, Lucania, and Apulia, in ordinary times, fitrnished the Eomans with multitudes of hardy soldiers, or supplies of corn and money. But the allegiance of these provinces was less certain, in case a victorious enemy should tempt them with a favourable opportunity of revolting ; they had been more recently conquered, and some of them retained the recollection of long and obstinate struggles which they had sustained against Eome in defence of their hberty; whilst others, as the Campanians, and the Greek cities on the south-eastern coast, proud of their wealth and refinement, felt the hard service to which the Eomans compelled them, at once galling and degrading. Accord- ingly, when Hannibal was absolute master of the field in Italy, it was in the south that he received the warmest support, and was enabled, after many disappointments, to maintain himself so long against all the efforts of the enemy. Of Sicily. Sicily, since the last war with Carthage, was divided between the Eomans and their firm ally Hiero, king of Syracuse ; so that all the resources of that fertile island were in fact destined to strengthen the Eoman power. To the eastward of the Ionian gulf, we find in the account of Polybius, a state of things very different irom that which Xenophon, the next oldest in point of time of all the remaining contemporary Greek historians, presents to us. Names, which in his narrative scarcely find a place, in the days of Polybius were become the most eminent in Greece. The Macedonian kingdom, though greatly shrunk from its meridian greatness, was still very considerable ; and embraced not only the ancient dominions of Perdiccas and Archekus, 1 Polyb. lib. iii. u. 40. 2 Ibid. lib. ii. c. 24. CHAP. XIT.J HAIfNIBAl. — SECOND PtINIC WAE. 247 but in addition, the whole of Thessaly and the coast of the ^gean b.c. 221. as far as the Hellespont ; with an authority and influence, still more difficult to be exactly defined, either in geographical extent or in degree, over the adjacent country of Epirus, and the tribes of the neighbouring Thracians. It possessed besides the important position of the citadel of Corinth, which enabled it to command the entrance iuto Peloponnesus, and the island of Euboea, the most valua,ble of all the dependencies of Athens in the days of Athenian greatness. The ofMacedon. throne of Macedon was now occupied by Philip, son of Demetrius, who had just succeeded Antigonus, the regent of the kingdom, and the conqueror of Cleomenes at Sellasia. Next to Macedonia, the iEtoUans seem to have held the second rank. In the days of Thucydides, they were httle better than savages, living in scattered villages, and destitute of any political union ; but now, although they still retained the plundering, cruel, and faithless character of barbarians, they were greatly changed in power and importance. Naupactus, so long held by the Athenians, and Ambracia, a Corin- thian colony, and since the capital of Pyrrhus, were now held by the ^tohans ; and their ambition was continually Ionising out for occasions of aggrandizing themselves in Peloponnesus. The third principal power in Greece was one which had been equally incon- siderable in earher times, the Achaian league or confederacy. The Achaians were the old inhabitants of Sparta and Argos, and were driven fi-om thence by the Dorians, at the time of the return of the HerachdsB to Peloponnesus. In their turn they expelled the lonians from the north-western coast of the Peloponnesus, and settled them- selves in twelve towns, aU of which were bound to one another by a federal union, while none was of sufficient importance to form, hke Athens, the acknowledged head of the whole nation. They preserved this form of government down to the age of Alexander, when the Macedonian powers influencing more or less every state in Greece, the Achaian union was dissolved ; and some of its towns were garrisoned by Macedonian soldiers, and others were subjected to tyrants from among their own citizens. But some years afterwards, a Httle before the first Punic war, the league began to be renewed, and at first subsisted between four towns only ; others, however, gradually joined it, and not only from Achaia, but from many other parts of Peloponnesus. Its principal members, at the period of which Achaian we are now speaking, appear to have been, in addition to the cities ^^^"■ of Achaia itself, Sicyon, Argos, Megalopolis, Phhus, and Corinth ; although the citadel of Corinth was in the hands of the kings of Macedon. It was the object of the Achaians to extend their union over the. whole of Peloponnesus, but to this scheme there were two states strongly opposed, Elis and Lacedsmon. The Eleans claimed to be of .iEtolian extraction : their country, in the great revolution caused 24:8 HAUNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAK. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 221. by tlie return of the Heraclidas, having been possessed by Oxylus, an jEtolian prince, who assisted the Dorians, and the followers of Heracles in their enterprise. This circumstance would lead them to a friendly connection with the ^toUans, and combined with the jealousy which nations usually entertain towards their nearest neighbours, will account for their having both the will and the Of power to refuse their accession to the Achaian union. Lacedsemon, LacedMrnim. accustomed of old to the sovereignty of all Peloponnesus, and being still the mistress of a considerable territory, could not be prevailed upon to sink its name and independence, by becoming a single member of a confederacy whose united strength she could more than equal: on the contrary, aspiring always to regain her ancient dominion, and regarding the Achaians as her most formidable rivals, she naturally became connected with their enemies ; and thus -iEtoha, Elis, and Lacedasmon formed one party in Greece, whose pohcy was in decided opposition to Macedon in the north and the Achaian union in the south. On the other hand, the Macedonian princes being constantly embroiled with the ^tolians, who were their most formidable neighbours, were glad to conciliate the friendship of the Achaians, who, like themselves, were the enemies of iEtoha ; and the Achaians on their part found in Macedon, their best protection against iEtolia on one side, and Elis and Lacedfemon on the other. Of Athens. The fame of Athens must awaken our interest, even in the lowest decline of her pohtical importance. Her navy and her foreign dominion had long been no more ; in the ebb, however, of the Macedonian power she had recovered her independence ; and her situation lying remote from the usual seat of war between Macedon, ^tolia, and the states of Peloponnesus, she appears to have taken little or no part in their contests. The glory of her eloquence and philosophy still procured a value for any honours bestowed by the people of Athens ; but this tribute of respect was abused to serve the purposes of interested flattery ; and those kings whose friendship or enmity the Athenians most prized or feared, were courted by complimentary decrees, conferring on them extravagant titles, and admitting them to the stiU proud distinction of becoming citizens of Athens. Historical The mention of the eastern kings leads us to describe the state of Sketcii. ^jjjj^ large portion of the ancient world which, in the days of Thucy- dides and Xenophon, composed the Persian empire ; and which after- wards formed the principal part of the eastern empire of Eome. It was, at the beginning of the second Punic war, divided chiefly between the kings of Syria and Egypt. Of these, Antiochus, the younger son of Seleucus Callinicus, had lately succeeded his elder brother Seleucus on the throne of Syria. His kingdom, the most extensive of all those which Alexander's successors had divided amongst them, CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAX. — SECOND PUNIC WAV.. 249 [Athens Bestored.— «. F. Bargent.] embraced the provinces of Persia, Media, Mesopotamia, Armenia, B.C. 221. and Syria, together with the greater part of the peninsula of Asia Miaor. On the coast of this latter district, indeed, there were one or two independent sovereignties, whose influence upon the trans- actions that followed was often considerable. Attains, king of Per- gamus, possessed many towns in Ionia and ^olia, as well as a naval power of some eminence. On the north was the kingdom of Bithynia, held by Prusias ; and that of the maritime Cappadocia, or Pontns ; which was stiU in the hands of its native prince, Mithri- dates. He was descended, according to the boast of the family, from that Mithridates who had been one of the seven Persian noble- men engaged ia the conspiracy against Smerdis the magian ; but his name owes it renown, in modem ears, to his great descendant, who maintained so long and obstinate a struggle against the Romans. On the northern side of Asia Minor, a Uttle removed from the sea of the coast, numerous hordes of Gauls had lately settled themselves, and Eesources given the name of Galatia to their new country ; being a part of one of those immense swarms from the north, which, even at this early period, had alarmed and ovemm the civilized countries of the south ; and whilst one division had been mostly cut off in Greece, 250 HAKNIBAL. — SECOND PTINIC WAR. [CHAP. XTV. Of the Members. Of ancient Govern- ments. B.C. 221. Others of them had found an establishment in the nighbourhood of Byzantium, and others on the opposite coast of Asia. To the south of Asia Minor, the island of Rhodes was celebrated for the wisdom of its government ; and, in the decayed state of the Greek republics, was deemed to possess a considerable navy. Finally, the most noted towns and harbours along the whole coast of Asia Minor, from Pamphylia to the Hellespont, formed part of the dominions of Egypt. That famous country, which at this time shared the empire of the east with the kingdom of Syria, after having remained nearly two hundred years under the power of the kings of Persia, and after having been conquered from them, after the victory of Issus, by Alexander the Great, had been erected into an independent king- dom, after his death, by Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, one of his generals. Since that period, the kings of Egypt had been among the most fortunate combatants in the various wars that had arisen between the successors of Alexander. Their territories ex- tended along the north coast of Africa, till they reached the hmits of the Carthaginian dominion ; including the once independent and flourishing city of Gyrene. They possessed the island of Cyprus ; the most valuable stations on the southern and western coasts of Asia Minor, as already mentioned; and the towns of JEnos and Maronea, with some others on the northern shore of the jEgean sea. On the side of Asia, they were masters of Palestine, and of the district called Ccelfe Syria, or the vale or basin of Syria ; a tract of country lying immediately to the north of Galilee. This the kings of Syria claimed as their own ; and at the time of which we are now speaking, a war was about to commence between Antiochus and Ptolemy, to determine the possession of it. With the names of Syria and Palestine, that of Judsea is closely associated. But the liistory of the Jews, from their return from Babylon to the time of their resistance to the persecution of Antio- chus Epiphanes, is almost a blank. They followed the revolutions of the great empires around them, but stUl enjoyed their own law, and the free exercise of their worship. Possibly their long subjec- tion to the Persians, who were themselves so zealous against the itse of images, may have confirmed them in that abhorrence of idolatry which their law inculcates, and from which, after their return from the captivity, they are never known to have departed. But though they were thus firm in their outward obedience to God, yet they were never farther from ftdfiUing the spirit of the commandments, to love God and their neighbours ; nor were they at any period less fitted to perform one great end for which they had been separated from the rest of the world — the showing forth in their hves the proper fruits of their knowledge of their Maker and of his will, and thus, by the excellency of their example, leading other nations to aspire after the same means of imitating it in themselves. CHAP. XIT.J HAiraiBAL. SECOND PCMC WAE. 251 This sketch, imperfect as it is, will still serve to give the reader B.C. 221. some knowledge of the state of the principal countries bordering on the Mediterranean, at the time when Hannibal first took the com- mand of the Carthaginian army. That event seems to have taken place in the middle of the season for military operations; and Hannibal resolved immediately to attempt some enterpi'ise of im- portance. He accordingly attacked and ' subdued the tribe or nation of the Olcades ; and returning to New Carthage to pass the winter, he availed himself of the spoil gained in the campaign to pay his soldiers ; and accompanying this payment with promises for the future, he put his army into high spirits, and established himself in their regard. The next season was marked by successes stiU more brilliant ; insomuch that the whole peninsula within the Ebro, excepting only the city of Saguntum, was so far reduced as to be incapable of offering Hannibal any disturbance while he should be engaged in his expedition to Italy. After this second campaign, he again returned to New Carthage, and put his troops into winter quarters. Here he found an embassy fi-om Rome, which had been sent, on The Koman the repeated solicitations of the Saguntines, to provide for their atNew^ safety, and to watch over the Roman interest in Spain. The ambas- Carthage, sadors charged Hannibal not to attack the Saguntines, for they were allies of the Romans, and were consequently included in the article of the treaty made with HamUcar, which forbade either party to molest the aiUes of the other. They also warned him not to carry his arms beyond the Ebro, as he would by so doing violate the more recent treaty concluded with his brother-in-law, Hasdrubal. With regard to crossing the Ebro, Hannibal made no answer; as for Saguntum, the Romans, he said, had unjustly interfered in its domestic affairs, had put to death some members of the goverment, and had invested a party of their own with the supreme authority. It had ever been the practice of the Carthaginians to right the oppressed ; and he could not, therefore, tamely pass over such an act of tyranny. At the same time he complained to his own govern- ment at home, that the Saguntines, emboldened by their alliance with Rome, were committing acts of aggression on the subjects of Carthage ; and he desired to be instructed what he should do. It is too plain that Hannibal, on this occasion, sought to justify, by frivolous excuses, a measure which could only rest its defence on very different grounds. He could not attack Sagimtum without injustice, unless he should first openly declare war againt Rome and her aUies ; and this he might have done with fairness, if the Romans had reflised to restore Sardinia, to Carthage, which they had only wrested from her by shamelessly availing themselves of her inabihty to resist them. 1 Polyb. Ub. iii. u. 13, &c. B.C. They proceed to Carthage. Siege and Captui'e of Saguntum. B.C. 211 252 HAUNIBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAR. [CIIAP. XIV. 221. On receiving Hannibal's answer, the Roman embassy proceeded to Carthage, in the hope of meeting there with a more favourable reception. But as no overt act of hostility had yet been committed, the ambassadors could only caution the Carthaginians as to the future, and had at present nothing to complain of Meantime, with the return of spring, Hannibal attacked Saguntum. That city is said to have been a Greek colony from the island of Zacynthus ; ' but with the original settlers there had been mixed, in process of time, a multitude of inhabitants from different nations, so that little of the Greek character remained, except the tendency to internal pohtical quarrels, which 'had led them to caU in the Eomans as mediators in some of their differences, and thus rendered themselves the allies, or rather the dependents of Eome. Being attacked by the Carthaginians, they defended themselves vigorously for eight months ; tiU the town was at last taken by assault. Their brave defence had engrossed the whole attention of Hannibal for one entire campaign, and thus delayed till another year his march into Italy : but the valuable plunder of ail sorts which he found in the place, enabled him at once to gratify his army by liberal distribu- tion ; to captivate the public mind at Carthage by the splendid spoOs which he sent home ; and to provide himself with a large supply of money for his own intended expedition. [Morvedro, the ancient Saguntum.] 1 Strabo, lib. iii. 8. p. 168. Edit. Xyland. CHAP. X7V.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND FUNIC WAR. 253 During the siege of Saguntum, the Romans had been employed in b.c. 219. a war with Demetrius of Pharos, the sovereign of some strong fortresses on the coast of lUja-ia. Their arms were, as usual, triumphant ; and the consul, L. iEmihus, gained the honour of a triumph for his victories. But they had lost time irrecoverably, and had suffered their only ally of any importance in Spain to be destroyed ; and their most powerful enemy to begin a new war against them with all the reputation and advantage that attend a first and brilliant success. They now sent to Carthage with a denunciation of immediate war, unless Hannibal and his principal officers should be surrendered to them for punishment. The council of Carthage, still wishing to gain time, endeavoured to justify the conduct of their general, and to avoid the alternative proposed to them ; till at last, the chief member of the embassy, taking up a fold of his gown, exclaimed, " that here he brought them peace and war; and he would shake out and leave them whichever they bade him." The head of the council desired him to shake out which he pleased ; and on his replying, " that he shook out war," several voices at once cried out, " that they embraced the war present which he gave them." The ambassadors then left Carthage, and returned to Eome. It does not appear that Hannibal's measures were in the least affected by the event of this embassy. 'He had long been carrying on his designs, secure of the support of his government, and well aware that the actual declaration of hostOities would neither retard or quicken the course of his great attempt. After the fall of Saguntum he had again marched back to New Carthage ; and there the winter was passed in making various preparations for the approaching war. He first allowed the Spaniards of his army to return to their several homes during the winter, attaching them the more firmly to his service by this attention to their natural wishes. The security of Spain was next provided for, by sending over from Airica an army of about fourteen thousand men, and intrusting the command of it to his brother Hasdrubal, whom, at the same time, he fiimished with ample instructions for his general conduct. Then, lest Africa itself should be left defenceless, a Spanish army of about fifteen thoxisand men was appointed to serve in the provinces, and in Carthage itself; and this interchange of their respective troops, secured at once the allegiance and safety of the Carthaginian dominions, both in Spain and Airica. Hannibal now only waited to receive his expected reports of the nature of the country, and the dispositions of the inhabitants, both in the Alps themselves, and in Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul. To the tribes of this latter country in particidar he looked for zealous co-operation, so soon as he should have crossed the Alps ; and this hope, probably, was one of his chief reasons for determining to make his first attack on the north of 254 HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 219. Italy. The Gauls in that quarter were exasperated against the Eomans by the successive extermination of so many tribes of their countrymen, and particularly by the attempt now actually in progress, to plant Roman colonies even on the banks of the Po. Their territory then, as now, was eminently fertile, and likely to offer abundant supplies to a friendly army. Their forces were strong in numbers, and tinder the command of an able general, might acquire the discipline and perseverance which at present tliey most wanted. Allies Hannibal, therefore, had sent repeatedly to the chiefs of the Alpine the'eauJs! and Cisalpine tribes, and had made them liberal promises, in order to secure their friendship. It was towards the end of the winter that he received their answers, reporting that they were expecting and wishing for his arrival amongst them ; and that the passage of the Alps, though laborious and difficult, was, yet, not to be con- sidered impracticable. He communicated to his army the encourag- ing tidings of the friendly dispositions of the Gauls ; he extolled the fertility of the country into which he was going to march; he represented the indignity offered them by the Eomans, in demanding that himself and his principal ofScers should be surrendered up to them ; and finding the temper of his soldiers to be in accordance ■with his views, he finally named a day, on which he desired them all to hold themselves in readiness, to begin the march. Hannibal It was late in the spring of the year of Eome five hundred and It™™*' °'^ thirty-five, about two hundred and eighteen years before the chris- B.c. 218. tian era, that Hannibal set out from New Carthage with an army' of ninety thousand infantry, and twelve thousand cavalry, and actually commenced the second Punic war. As far as the Ebro he marched in peace ; from thence to the Pyrenees he had to fight his way, and subdued successively the intermediate tribes, though not without sustaining severe losses in these operations. Before he crossed the Pyrenees, he left Hanno with a detachment from his army, amounting to eleven thousand men, to retain possession of his late conquests ; and in his care he left the heavy baggage of the troops who were to march with himself into Italy. He dismissed an equal number of his Spanish soldiers to their own homes, con- sidering such a diminution of his numbers of no importance, when compared with the advantages of conciliating the Spanish tribes on the eve of his departure, and of giving the rest of his troops ground to hope that they also would be released from their service, so soon as their general could safely dispense with their assistance. In this manner, together with the losses sustained in battle, the army, when it passed the Pyrenees, consisted of no more than fifty thousand infantry, and nine thousand cavalry. The Eomans, meanwhile, so soon as they learned that the council 1 Polyb. lib. iii. o. 35, &c. CHAP. XrV.J HAITOIBAI. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. 255 of Carthage had rejected their demands, and that war had been, in e.g. 218. consequence, declared by their ambassadors, prepared to carry Military hostilities, as usual, into the enemy's country, and assigned Spain otEome. and AfHca as the provinces for the new consuls, P. Comehus Scipio, and T. Sempronius Longus. Each of these oiEcers was to have under his command two Roman legions, amounting to eight thou- sand infantry, and six hundred cavaby, besides a large force of the Latin allies; but about the time that these troops were ready to take the field, intelligence arrived in Eome of the revolt of the Boii and Insubrians, two of the most powerfiil tribes of Cisalpine Gaul, with the addition that the new Eoman settlers had been driven in great alarm to Mutina, and that M. Manlius, the prsetor, who had attempted to protect them, had been himself beaten, and was actually blockaded by the Gauls in the village to which he had retreated. This danger seemed so pressing, that Scipio's army was immediately transferred to the command of one of the prastors, and sent off to Cisalpine Gaul ; whilst the consul was detained at Eome till his troops could be replaced by new levies. At last he set out, and sailing from Pisa to the eastern mouth of the Ehone in five days, he there landed his soldiers; being aware that Hannibal had reached the Pyrenees, but calculating that his farther progress would be greatly impeded by the resistance he would meet with from the Gauls. In this hope, however, he was disappointed : Hannibal won his way partly by force, and partly by dint of presents, with aston - ishing rapidity ; and before P. Scipio had recruited his troops after the effects of a sea voyage, he learned that the enemy was preparing to cross the Ehone. Even then, so strong was his sense of the danger of leading an army into the field before they had recovered the tossing ^ and confinement of a passage in transports, he himself remained quiet ; and only sent forward a body of cavalry, guided and supported by some Gauls in the pay of the city of MarseiUes, to reconnoitre the position of his antagonist. Meantime Hannibal had Hannibal on arrived on the Ehone, near the site of the modern village^ of Eoque- ""^ Khone. maure, between the towns of Orange and Avignon. He hired of the natives all the boats and small vessels which they used in their ordinary traffic down the river ; and from these, added to a great number of hastily formed canoes, constructed by the soldiers them- selves out of the trees of the adjacent country, he supplied himself in two days with abundant means of transporting his army. But the inhabitants of the opposite bank were assembled to oppose the passage : and it appears that Hannibal had not the means of per- suading or bribing them to disperse, as he had so often done on his march from the Pyrenees. During the night, therefore, that followed the second day from his arrival upon the Ehone, Hannibal sent off 1 Conf. M. Matthieu Dnmas, Campagne de 1799. 2 Vide " Dissertation on the Passage of Hannibal," &c. Oxford, 1820. 256 HAiraiBAI.. — SECOKD PUNIC 'WAE. [CHAP. XIY. B.C. 218. a detaclmient to ascend the right bank of the river, and cross wherever they could find an opportunity ; Hanno, who commanded this detachment, after marching about three-and-twenty miles, found a spot where the stream was divided by an island; and having halted, and constructed with all expedition a sufficient number of boats and rafts from the materials that he found growing near at hand, he crossed without opposition, and halted his troops for the remainder of the day in a strong position which he found on the left bank. At night they were again put in motion, and began to descend the river towards the point where the enemy were encamped. Their approach was announced to Hannibal early in the morning, by a smoke which they raised as a signal ; and he immediately, having his army in complete readiness, began to effect his passage. Passage of The Gaids left their tents, and crowded do^vn to the edge of the the River, riygr to obstruct the landing ; when Hanno suddenly appeared, and at once began to set fire to their camp, and to attack their line in the river. Then the first divisions of the main army rapidly threw themselves on the opposite bank, and attacked the enemy in front : so that the Gauls, confused and disordered, presently fled, and all the infantry of the army passed over without any further difficulty. It was on the day following that on which the passage had been effected, whUe Hannibal was still remaining near the river in order to bring over his elephants, that Scipio's party of cavalry met, within a short distance of the Carthaginian camp, a body of Numidian horse, who had been detached by Hannibal on a similar service with themselves. A warm skirmish ensued, and the Numidians were worsted, and chased back to their camp ; after which the Eomans hastened back to their general, to inform him of the situation in which they had found the enemy. Immediately Scipio, having sent his heavy baggage on board the fleet, commenced his march up the left bank of the Ehone, in hopes of bringing his antagonist to an Hannibal engagement. But Hannibal, on the very day after the skirmisli, eludes Scipio. ^^^ gg^j forward his infantry, still ascending by the left bank of the Khone, while he waited with the cavalry to cover the passage of his elephants ; and as soon as that operation was effected, he set off to overtake the fine of march, the cavalry and elephants now serving to protect its rear. In this manner Scipio's hopes were disappointed. With all the exertions he could make, he did not reach the scene of Hannibal's passage tfll three days after the Carthaginians had re- sumed their march, and despairing any longer to overtake them, he returned to his fleet ; and having intrusted the bulk of his army to his brother, Cneus Scipio, and sent him off" to Spain to carry on the war in that country against Hasdrubal, he himsef sailed back to Pisa. There he landed, and set off through Tuscany, to to take the command of the legions which were employed under the prators Manhus and AttiUus, in opposing the Cisalpine Gauls ; and CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. 257 with this army he advanced to the Po, ready to meet Hannibal as B.C. 218. soon as he should begin to descend from the Alps into the plains of Lombardy. On the day of the skirmish between the Numidian and Eoman cavalry, Hannibal had assembled his army, and had introduced some chiefs of the tribes of Cisalpine Gaul, who had just arrived with fuller assurances of the support of their countrymen ; and who engaged to guide the Carthagioians in their march over the Alps. This being reported to the soldiers by Hannibal, and its effect heightened by some further encouragement from himself, the army resumed their march, as we have already mentioned, in high spirits. After four days they crossed the Isere, at its confluence with the Ehone ; and in the plains between the two rivers, they found two brothers engaged in a contest with one another for the sovereignty of the country. Hannibal was pressed by the elder of them to espouse his cause ; and his assistance speedily decided the quarrel. In return for this service, the prince, whom he had placed on the throne, supplied him abundantly with provisions, with arms, and with clothing, particularly with shoes, a most important article for their approaching marches through the snow. Besides this, he himself escorted the Carthaginian army for several days, tiU they reached the point where the mountains begin to bound the course of the Ehone, a httle to the north of Les Echelles ; and by his presence entii-ely secured them from any attacks which the petty chiefs of the country would otherwise have made on them. At their entrance upon the mountains, at the confluence of the Eoute of Uttle river Ouiers Vif with the Ehone, the Gaulish prince left them, JverTiw ' and returned home : and from this point the passage of the Alps ^'p^- may properly be said to commence. The rout of the army, which has been so often disputed, has been at last fixed with certainty by the researches of General Melville, M. de Luc, and the author of " A Dissertation on the Passage of Hannibal over the Alps," pub- lished at Oxford in 1820. This last work has been closely followed in the present narrative ; and no authority can be more satisfactory, from the union of aouteness, sound sense, scholarship, and personal knowledge of the scenes described, by which it is distinguished. It appears then, that Hannibal, after crossing the Mont du Chat at the little viUage of Chevelu, descended to the edge of the lake Bourguet, and passing through Chamberri, came upon the vaUey of the Isere at Montmeillan. From thence he regularly ascended the right bank of the Isere, tUl he arrived at the Little St. Bernard, at which place he crossed the central ridge of the Alps. He immediately descended into the valley of the Dorea Baltea, under mount Cramont, and followed the course of that river by Aosta to Ivrea ; at which place he found himself in the territory of the Insubrian Gauls, and arrived completely at the end of his march over the mountains. In accom- [b. h.] s 258 HANNIBAL. SECOND FUNIC WAR. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 218. plishing this passage, about eighteen or nineteen days were employed ; during some of which, however, the army halted ; either to refresh itself, and to wait for stragglers, or to overcome the difficulties of the road. On two occasions, great loss had been sustained from the attacks of the natives ; and immediately under mount Cramont, on the descent from the Little St. Bernard, a most formidable natural obstacle presented itself. The road ran along the side of the mountain, above the river Dorea Baltea ; and for a distance of about three hundred yards, it had been totally carried away by avalanches from the mountain above. To find any circuitous route by which the army could pass, was impracticable: it was the latter end of October, and a recent fall of snow had so filled the torrent beds and Diffifuities of hollows, as to render them impassable. It happened also that the tiip Passage. ^^^^ ^|- ^-^^ preceding winter had remained unmelted through the summer, and had now the hardness and shpperiness of ice ; so that many men, in attempting to walk over it, fell, and being imable to stop themselves, were carried down precipices ; and many of the beasts of burden, being heavily laden, broke through the ice partially, when they fell, or in their struggles to rise, were there held fast, and could not be extricated, or enabled to rise again on their legs. The troops therefore were obhged to halt and repair the road ; and this was soon done sufficiently to allow the cavalry and beasts cf burden to pass ; but three days elapsed before it could be made safe for the elephants ; and in this interval those animals suffered greatly from hunger, there being nothing capable of yielding them subsistence in that high and icy region. Indeed the whole army had found hunger one of their greatest evils : they had not the means of transport for such a stock of provisions as might have supphed them sufficiently during their march over the Alps : and much of what they had carried with them had been lost at different times with the beasts of burthen : nor ought we to imagine that the temperature and fertility of the Alpine vaUies in the days of Hannibal were at all such as they now are. They were habitable, it is true ; and produced, it is probable, pasture for cattle ; but the cattle would be most hkely driven away at the approach of an enemy : and the plimder of such dwelhngs as might be met with near the central ridge of the mountains, would afford but a poor support to a numerous ai'my. Losses of In short, Hannibal estimated his whole loss, from the time he crossed the Ehone to his arrival amongst the Insubrians, at eighteen thousand foot, and two thousand horse ; and adding to this nearly thirteen thousand men, whom he professed to have lost between the Pyrenees and the Rhone, his army, when he entered Italy, amounted, by his own account, to no more than twenty thousand foot, and six thousand horse. The Koman writers, as was natural, rated the numbers with which he began the campaign on the Po, at an amount considerably greater ; and we think that Hannibal's statement does appear some- Haunibal. CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. 259 what exaggerated; and that a loss of thirty-three thousand men i'..c. 218. between the Pyrenees and the Po is much more than the details of his march can satisfactorily account for. There is another circumstance, also, in the history of this first year of the war, which appears extraordinary. Hannibal, we are told, arrived among the Insubrians at the very latter end of October, such being the period assigned by Dr. Maskelyne to the setting of the Pleiades, the date given by Polybius. It appears, also, that his whole march from New Carthage, had occupied about five months ; so that he could not have opened the campaign at the earliest, before the latter end of May. Allowing then for the length of time that must necessarily have passed in his wars with the Spanish tribes, between the Ebro aiid the Pyrenees, we cannot suppose that he could have entered Gaul earlier than the latter end of July. And yet it was not tiU after that time that the Eoman consul reached the mouth of the Ehone to oppose him. It is true that the army which he was originally intended to command, was taken from him and sent into Cisalpine Gaul ; and he was thus obUged to wait till two other legions were raised. Yet when we consider that the consuls went into office about the middle of March, and that the enlistment of soldiers was usually one of their first duties, and was a business that was soon completed ; it certainly does appear, that with a little exertion, a Roman army might have reached Spain in time to support their aUies the Bargusians, and possibly to prevent Hannibal from ever crossing the Pyrenees. At least it must be acknowledged, that the Romans were scarcely, on any other occasion, so late in bringing their troops into the field, as they were now, when unusual activity was so highly needful to them. After his passage of the Alps, Hannibal halted for some time ' Halts among amongst the Insubrians to recruit his army; and as soon as he was insubrians. in a condition to move, he attacked the Taurini, a neighbouring tribe of Gauls, who were at variance with the Insubrians, and not well affected to himself; and in three days stormed their principal town, Turin, and put the defenders to the sword. This exploit presently led to the submission of the neighbouring people : but the majority of the Cisalpine Gauls, though anxious to join him as they had promised, were so overawed by the Roman army under P. Scipio, which was now in the heart of their territory, that they dared not make any movement ; and some were even forced to serve in the consul's army. It became necessary, therefore, for Hannibal to lose no time in marching towards the enemy ; and as Scipio was equally desirous to stop his progress, the two armies first approached one another in the angle formed by the junction of the river Ticinus with the Po ; the Romans having just crossed the Ticinus in their march 1 Polyb. lib. iii. c. 60, &c. 260 HAKNIBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 218. to the westward, ascending the left bank of the Po. Here an action took place between the fight troops of both parties, in which the Romans were defeated and the consul wounded. It was thus proved that the Eomans could not maintain themselves with advantage in the flat country, near the Po, against the superior cavaby of the enemy; they hastily, therefore, fell back, recrossed the Ticinus, descended the left bank of the Po, and having passed that river also, took up a position in the neighbourhood of Placentia. Han- nibal pursued them as far as the Ticinus ; but there finding that they had broken down the bridge behind them, he despaired of overtaking them; and retracing his steps up the Po, he found a spot where he could throw a bridge of boats across the river, by which he passed over his soldiers; then, descending rapidly along the right bank, he soon appeared in sight of the Eomans, and took up a position within six miles of theirs. The retreat of the consul immediately emboldened all the Gauls to offer their services to the Carthaginians ; and to assist them both %vith men and provisions. So general, indeed, was this disposition amongst them, that two thousand of them who were serving in the Roman army, went over to Hannibal by night, after having killed and wounded a number of the Eomans who were quartered near them. This so alarmed Scipio, that he was anxious to provide for the security of his soldiers by taking up a stronger position. He therefore left the neighbourhood of the Po, and abandoned his com- munications with Placentia; and retreating to the southward, he halted on some strong ground sitiiated apparently on the southern, or right bank of the river Trebia, not far from the modern town of Bobbio, and probably where the last hiUs of the Apennines begin to sink down into the plain of the Po. He was followed by Hannibal as far as the Trebia, and his rear sustained some loss in effecting its retreat ; but the main army ha'sdng reached its intended position, the Carthaginians halted on the north side of the river, and en- camped at the distance of about five miles from their opponents. In this situation, Hannibal was supphed with every thing in abundance by the Gauls, and he found them ready to give him a zealous support in all his enterprises. Meantime, on the very first intelligence that Hannibal was arrived in Cisalpine Gaul, the Eoman government had recalled Sempronius from SioUy, where he was preparing to carry the war into Africa, and ordered him to join his colleague on the Po. He despatched the fleet to Eome mthout delay ; but, in order to avoid the expense of transporting the army, he dismissed the soldiers, binding them by oath to meet him again at Arkninum, on a day that he appointed. In this manner it became their business to provide themselves with a passage, and to maintain themselves on the maxch ; but so strict were their notions of military duty, that in forty days after they left CHAP. XIV.] HAiraiBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. 261 Lilybfeum, they assembled, according to their oath, at Ariminum, b.c. 21S. and from hence were immediately led by Sempronius to join the army of his colleague on the Trebia. About this time the town of Clastidiimi, where the Romans had a ciastiaium magazine of provisions, was surrendered to Hannibal by its governor, ^ HTJmibai. a native of Brundusium. This was a welcome event, as it gave him hopes that the cause of the Eomans would not be considered that of the Itahans in general ; he therefore conferred signal rewards on the Bnmdusian officer, and treated the garrison, which consisted, probably, of Brundusian soldiers, with great humanity. Still he could not, with safety, rest contented with his present advantages. The moment that he paused in his advance, the Gauls began to doubt his ultimate success ; and some of them, though in alliance with him, kept up also, he found, a communication with the Eomans. He chastised this double dealing by a severe mihtary execution on their territory ; and the Eoman cavalry being ordered to protect them, some skirmishes ensued, which ended rather to his disadvantage ; although their result, by heightening the ardour of Sempronius to venture a battle, proved highly favourable to him. It was now the very end of December, or beginning of January ; and in addition to the natural wish of a Eoman general not to appear afraid of his enemy, Sempronius was anxious to finish the war before the new consuls should supersede him in his command. His colleague was not yet recovered of his wound, and could, there- fore, take no active part ; and this too he regarded as a fortunate circumstance, thinking that he should thus enjoy the undivided glory of the victory, which he doubted not soon to gain. The ground between the Trebia and the Carthaginian camp was Battle oj flat and open, but intersected in one point by a small streamlet, ^I'ebi.i. whose banks were steep and overgrown with brushwood. Here Hannibal concealed about two thousand of his best soldiers in the night ; and early the next morning, he sent his light cavaby across the Trebia, with orders to insult the Eomans in their lines, and provoke them, if possible, to foUow them ; when, in pursuance of their instructions, they should re-cross the river, as if in flight. Meantime, his infantry were ordered to take their usual meal in their tents, to get ready their horses, and to arm themselves by the fireside. The Eomans, on the contrary, no sooner saw the Numi- dian cavahy approach, than their own horse first salhed out to engage them; and then the whole army was hastily formed, and, without waiting to take any food, began to ford the Trebia, in order to attack the enemy. The day was cold and snowy, and the river so swollen by the rain of the preceding night, as to be up to the breasts of the soldiers ; they arrived, therefore, on the opposite bank drenched and chilled with the cold, and began, moreover, soon to feel weak from their want of food. In this state they encountered 262 HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. [CHAP. XIT. B.C. 218. the CartliagmiaDS, who were in full strength and spirits, and who had not left their tents tiU the Eomans had effected their passage of the river. StiU their courage and their great superiority in num- bers, (for the Romans had six-and-thirty thousand infantry to oppose to not more than twenty thousand,) enabled them to main- tain the contest for some time ; till their cavalry being chased off the field, and themselves attacked in flank by Hannibal's victorious horse, and in the rear by the detachment that he had concealed in ambush, their two wings were put to flight, and driven back to the Trebia. Ten thousand men, who formed the centre, cut their way through the enemy, and escaped to Placentia ; and the greater part of the cavalry, and those of the infanty who got off the field, joined them, and fled to the same place of refuge ; but the largest portion Defeat ot riie of the army was cut to pieces ; for it had snowed and rained so Jj^Jy" incessantly during the day, that to recross the Trebia was impos- sible ; and the fugitives were slaughtered on the banks by the Car- thaginian cavalry and elephants. The loss of the conquerors in the action was inconsiderable, and fell chiefly upon the Gauls, who were the least valued part of the army ; but the severity of the weather, while it hindered the flight of the Eomans, was heavily felt, also, by the Carthaginians ; for many men and horses perished from the cold, and of the elephants, one only ramained fit for service after the battle. Thus did Hannibal triumphantly conclude his first campaign in Italy. The whole resources of Cisalpine Gaul were now secured to him ; and the remains of the Roman army were shut up in some of the towns on the Po, deriving all their supphes by water from the sea. This state of things convinced the senate of the greatness of their defeat, which the consul, in his despatches, had endeavoured to conceal. Efforts were instantly made proportionate to the danger; the newly elected consuls, Cnasus Servihus and C. Flaminius, were busily engaged in raising soldiers, and magazines were formed at Ariminum and in Tuscany, on the two sides of the Apennines, where the two consular armies were destined respectively to act. Nor were the other parts of the empire neglected; on the contrary, troops were sent to Sardinia, Sicily, and Tarentum, that the enemy might find no point unguarded, if he should attempt a diversion in Hiero assists favour of his main enterprise. Assistance, moreover, was apphed the Romans, f^^,^ ^^^ obtained, from long Hiero ; and a fleet of sixty ships was got ready to maintain that naval superiority which, since the event of the last war with Carthage, the Romans had enjoyed without interruption. Hannibal, on his part, rested for a short time in Cisalpine Gaul ; and in pursuance of his plan of distinguishing between the Romans and their Italian alhes, he detained all his Roman prisoners in con- finement, and kept them on a moderate allowance of food ; while to CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. 263 tie Italians be showed all possible kindness, and sent them away b.c. 218. wthout ransom ; assuring them that he was come into Italy as their deliverer, and that he hoped that they would not fail to join their arms with his, to assert their freedom. He was anxious to open the campaign with the least possibly delay; for the Gauls were impatient to remove the seat of war out of their own country into that of the enemy, and it was not his interest to disoblige them. The consuls were moving to their respective stations, Servilius to Ariminum, and Flaminius to Arretium ; and Hannibal had resolved, first to turn his arms against the latter. But here again the direct way into Tuscany presented great natural difficulties. The numerous streams that flow from the Apennines towards the Po, were an insufficient drain for all the water which descended from the mountains ; and before it was carried ofi' by the artificial channels which in later times were formed for its reception, it used to stagnate, and spread over a large tract of country. This marshy region, however, was Hannibal not only the nearest way into Tuscany, but that by which he should w™throu^'ii be most likely to surprise his enemj- ; so that Hannibal, whose army S'-^(?.!''P''^' was accustomed to overcome every obstacle, determined to penetrate b.c. 217. through it. The operation could not be completed in less than four days and three nights; in wliich the soldiers suiTered dreadfbUy from want of sleep ; for aU around them was water or bog, and they could only sometimes snatch a partial rest, by throwing themselves down upon the beasts of burden, which having fallen with their load, and being rmable to rise, were the only objects appearing above the level of the marsh. Hannibal himself rode on the only remaining elephant ; but the damp air produced an inflammation in one of his eyes, which, as he had neither leisure nor means to pay it proper attention, terminated in the entire loss of the sight of it. At length he reached the Apennines, and halted for a time in the neigh- bourhood of F^sulse, partly to rest his troops, and partly to make himself more ftilly acquainted with the nature of the country before him, and the character of the enemy's general. C. Flaminius, who commanded the Roman army in Tuscany, might, in an ordinary war, have ended his consulship with a triumph, like so many other Eoman consuls whose talents were no way superior to his, but who were more fortunate in their antagonists. He had been consul six years before, and had, in fact, then obtained a signal victory over the Insubrians in Cisalpine Gaul; the excellence of the Eoman military system supplying the want of ability in the general in a struggle with such an enemy. Since that time he had been censor, and distinguished himself by making the road from Rome to Ariminum, which was long celebrated under the name of the Flaminian way. He seems to have been a rash and headstrong man, and in his former consulship had incurred the censure of the senate for his contemptuous disregard of the religious ordinances of 264 HAKNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAK. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 21; Battle of Thrasy- menus. Defeat of Flaminius. , of the commonwealtli. This aiFront made him espouse the popular party with more violence than ever ; for before this he had been known as the proposer of an Agrarian law, when the Senones were dispossessed of their settlements in Picenum by the Eomans. Alone, of all the senate, he supported a law which was to debar the senators from engaging ■" in commerce ; and in his present consulship, he had left Eome in an irregular manner, without having performed the ceremonies which were required by law ; and had since shghted the orders of the senate when they had sent to recall him from the army. Hannibal, having become acquainted with his character, did not doubt that he should soon provoke him into the commission of some gross error ; and, therefore, as soon as he could put his army in motion, he advanced boldly through Tuscany, left the Eoman camp behind him, as if in contempt, and pursued his march towards Rome, laying waste the country around him Avith fire and sword. Flami- nius, as he expected, immediately set out to foUow him ; regardless of all the cautions of his officers, and only anxious to overtake and engage the enemy. Hannibal, meantime, passed by Cortona on his left, and the lake Thrasymenus on his right ; and then entered on a deep valley, which extended some way from the lake into the sur- rounding hills, and was at last closed by their meeting each other at the upper end of it. On these hUls which bounded the head of the valley, Hannibal took post with his African and Spanish infantry; while the Gauls, the light-armed troops, and the cavafry, were con- cealed behind the hills on both sides of the defile, and reached as far as its junction with the lake. These positions he had occupied dur- ing the night ; and at day-break the next morning, Flaminius having passed unmolested along the whole length of the lake, entered the vaUey at the end of it, by which he supposed the Carthaginians had emerged to the higher grounds, on their march to Eome. A thick fog hung upon the hills, and more effectually concealed the move- ments of the enemy. AU at once he found himself attacked on every side, and after such a resistance as could be made under circumstances so unfavourable, he himself fell, and almost the whole of his army were either kiUed or made prisoners. This second victory cost Hannibal no more than fifteen hundred men, of whom the greater part, as before, were Grauls. In his treatment of his prisoners also, he observed the same distinction as after the battle of the Trebia ; again dismissing the Italians without ransom, and repeating that his cause was the same as theirs. Nor did his good fortune end here ; for within two or three days of the battle, his cavalry and light troops cut off' an entire detachment of Eoman horse, amounting to four thousand men, whom Cn. Servilius had sent from his own army to strengthen his colleague. His pros- 1 Livy, lib. xxi. c. 63. CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. 265 pects seemed most encouraging, and, after some consultation with b.c. 217, liis ofBcers, and a short halt to refresh his troops, he began more ftdly to commence that system of -warfare which was best calculated to bring the war to a triumphant issue. It consisted in overrunning the richest countries of Italy, enriching his army with the plunder, and weakening the resources of his enemy : above aU, in thus giving an opportunity to those Itahan nations who were disposed to join him, of doing it with safety. For it should ever be remembered, that the question to be tried was, not whether an army of thirty thousand men could conquer Italy, for that would have been the hope of a madman ; but whether it could so stagger the power of Rome, by one or two vigorous blows, as to enable the nations of Italy to resume their old struggle for independence, and to place Carthage instead of Eome at the head of the Italian confederacy. With this view, Hannibal marched through Umbria and Picenum to the shores of the Adriatic, ravaging the country as he passed, and putting every Eomau that he found on Ms way to the sword. Whien he had reached the coast, he moved on slowly to the southward, making long and frequent halts, that both the men and horses of his army might recover all the effects of their past hardships in the abundance and comfortable quarters which they now enjoyed. Here Hannibal too he paid a high compliment to the excellence of the Eoman manner loS-^with of arming the soldier ; for he availed himself of the vast quantities ^^^°™™ of arms taken in the preceding battle, to equip his African troops with the large shield and stabbing sword used by the Eoman infantry. He took advantage also of his neighbourhood to the sea, to send despatches to Carthage ; where the news of his victories determined the government to make every exertion to carry on the wax with vigour. At length, after having laid waste successively the lands of the Prstutii, the Hadriani, Marrucini and Frentani, he entered Apulia, and was beginning the same devastations there, when the new Eoman general appeared in the field, and took up a position within a short distance of the Carthaginian camp, in the neighboiir- hood of Mca, and Arpi. This new antagonist was the famous Q. Fabius Maximus, whom the Eomans after their defeat at the lake Thrasymenus had appointed dictator. — Attributing the disasters of Flaminius to his contempt for the religion of his country, Fabius was careful before all other things to order such sacrifices, and vows, and solemn ceremonies, as might lead the people to hope for the favour of heaven. Wben this duty was discharged, he took the field with M. Minucius, his master of the'i^orse, at the head of four Eoman legions, and the usual contin- gent from the Itahan alhes. This army consisted of two legions newly i^sed, and two which had been under the command of the consul SetyUius at Ariminum, for that officer after the defeat of his colleague, had fallen back upon Eome in order to cover the capital ; 266 HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAH. [CHAP. XIV. Fabius in command. Successes of Hannibal. B.C. 217. and his authority being now superseded by the appointment of a dictator, his legions were transferred to Fabius, and he himself was sent to command the naval force in the neighbourhood of Rome, with a general commission to oppose any attempts of the enemy to annoy the republic by sea. The campaign that followed has been often related, as displaying the wise caution of Fabius, the rashness of Muiucius, the magna- nimity with which the dictator rescued his rival from destruction, and the liberality with which the master of the horse acknowledged his own inferiority, and the wisdom of that system which he had hitherto condemned. Considered m a military point of view, it was highly advantageous to the Romans in giving them a respite from defeat, and in teaching them to regain in some measure their confidence in themselves. Yet Hannibal was able to pursue his plan of warfare without interruption. From Apulia he crossed the Apennines; laid waste the Samnite territory, took the town of Venusia; and then descended into the rich plains of Campania, which he overran and plundered without opposition. Here he provided himself with abundant stores for the maintenance of his army during the winter ; and retreated with his plunder in defiance of aU the endeavours of Fabius to intercept him. He returned to his former quarters in Apulia, and having taken the small town of Geronium, he fortified it as his principal magazine for the winter ; and as it was now the season of harvest, his formidable cavalry were daily bringing in the corn of the surrounding country. And although some of these foraging parties were occasionally cut off by the Romans, yet the supphes they collected were amply sufficient to support the Carthaginian army through the winter in a state of plenty. In one great point, indeed, Hannibal had hitherto been unsuccessful ; none of the Italian states had as yet joined him ; but the last campaign had showed that the Romans were unable to protect the territory of their allies ; and a continuance of his system of ravage, with the manifest inability of the enemy to prevent it, might at once urge and encourage those who suffered from it, to unite themselves to his cause as the line of conduct most favourable, both to their present and fdture interests. During the latter end of the autumn, and through the whole of the vrinter, the Roman army had been commanded by Servilius, who had left the fleet in Sicily, and M. Attihus Regulus, who had been chosen consul in the room of Flaminius, to act when the six months, the usual term of the dictator's ofiice, should be expired. But the change of commanders made no difference in the state of affairs ; ServUius and Attilius followed the system of Fabius, and the season of the year forbade any active operations. Early in spring, however, Hannibal opened the campaign by the capture of the post of Cannae, where the Romans had laid up their principal Capture 'of Cannffi. CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PDNIC WAR. 267 supplies of provisions. The distress to which their troops would B.C. 217. thus be subjected, and the effect which Hannibal's unchecked successes were likely to produce upon the minds of their allies, urged the Roman generals to consult the senate as to the measures they were to pursue. It was deemed advisable to risk a general engagement ; but in order to ensure a favourable issue, the Eoman army of four legions, now in the field, was to be doubled by the addition of four new legions, to be raised by the new consuls, L. ^milius Paulus, and C. Terentius Varro. Meantime ServiUus and Attilius were ordered to remain on the defensive, tiU they should be joined by the intended reinforcements, and the new consuls should arrive to take the command. When the whole army^ was united on the banks of the Aufidus, opposed to Hannibal, it presented the most formidable force that Rome had ever sent out on one single service. There were eight Eoman legions, at their full complement ; amounting to forty thousand foot, and two thousand four hundred horse ; and of these one half were well acquainted with the enemy, as having been actively employed against him during the whole of the preceding year. The Italian allies amounted to an equal number of infantry, and to nearly four thousand cavalry ; half of these also, as well as of the Romans, having been practised by the last year's service ; of the generals, one, indeed, Terentius Varro, is represented as a man of The Roman low birth, rash, ignorant, and self-willed: but ^mihus was an y™™^*"' officer of approved ability, and Servilius and AttiUus, who still ^miiius. acted as lieutenants imder the consuls, were both men of good reputation. It was hoped, therefore, that whilst the caution of iEmUius would secure the army from any sucli acts of ignorant rashness as had before proved so fatal, the courage of the Romans when engaged in the open field, and with numbers nearly double those of the enemy, would not fail of obtaining its usual result, a complete and decisive victory. The inconvenience, however, of a divided command, and the folly of Varro, marred all these fair prospects. J^lmilius instantly perceived that the open country near the Aufidus was a field of battle ill-suited to the Romans, whUe the enemy possessed so great a superiority in cavalry. He wished therefore to remove to more uneven ground; but the command was held by the two consuls alternately, day by day ; and when Varro commanded, he brought the army to a position so near that of Hannibal, that to retreat without fighting was henceforth impracticable. At length after a few days, Varro's impatience, which was fiilly shared by his soldiers, could no longer be restrained ; and when it came to his turn to be the acting general, he crossed the Aufidus, and formed his troops in 1 Polyb. lib. iil. o. 107, &c. 268 HA^;^^BAL. — second funic wae. [chap. xiv. B.C. 217. order of battle on tlie right bank of the river, fronting southwards; the infantry being drawn up in a single line of unusual depth, and Rattle of the cavalry covering the two wings. Hannibal was not slow in canna;.^^ crossuig the river to oppose them. He too stationed his cavalry on ' the wings ; the Gauls and Spaniards on his left, and the Numidians on his right : but his infantry, instead of presenting a straight line, formed a cresent, whose convex side was towards the enemy ; and of this crescent the central and more advanced troops consisted of (Jauls and Spaniards, while its extremities, which fell back almost behind the centre, were composed of Africans, who were now armed with the sword and shield of the Eoman legionary soldiers. After some skirmishing of the hght troops, the cavalry on both sides engaged : and the Gauls and Spaniards, having soon defeated the Eoman horse opposed to them, moved round to the right, and decided the contest which was going on there, between the Numidians and the Italian allies. Meantime the Eoman infantry advanced to the attack, and although their front was already too narrow in pro- portion to their numbers, yet the zeal of the soldiers on the right and left narrowed it still more ; for finding themselves -nith no enemy immediately in front of them, owing to the faUing back of the extremities of Hannibal's line ; they crowded upon their own centre in order to share in the contest with the Gauls and Spaniards, the only part of the Carthaginian infantry that was hitherto engaged. Thus the Eoman army became one solid and unmanageable column ; which broke through the Gauls and Spaniards by the mere weight of its charge, but pressing forward by the impulse given by the rearmost soldiers to those in the front, it was attacked on both flanks by the Africans, who were armed hke the Eomans, and who were fresh and in perfect order. Every one knows the utter destruction to which an attacking column of infantry is exposed, when it is itself assailed on the flank. Such was now the condition of the Eomans : and their numbers only served to cramp their movements, and to Slaughter expose them to slaughter without defence. Still the battle was Me^t'ofthe obstinately maintamed, till the Gaulish and Spanish horse, having Eomans. already achieved two victories in the course of the day, now came up and fell upon the rear of the Eoman infantry. Then followed a slaughter of which modern warfare can give no adequate notions. Whether the vanquished scorned to ask for quarter, or the victors refused to give it, the whole mass of the Eoman and allied foot that were in the field, to the amount of seventy thousand, were cut to pieces, with the exception of three thousand, who escaped to some of the adjacent towns. Ten thousand men had been left by the consul jEnuiius in his camp, with orders to surprise if possible the camp of the enemy, during the action. They found, however, that Hannibal had provided for it a sufficient defence ; and they spent the day in fruitless efforts to take it, till the battle was decided, and the approach CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PrNIC WAE. 269 of the victorious army obliged them to fly to their own camp for b.c. 216. safety. There they were presently attacked by Hannibal, and were soon obhged to surrender themselves as prisoners. The destruction of the cavalry was hardly less complete ; only seventy men escaping with Varro to Venusia ; and about three hundred of the allied horse getting safe to the different towns in the neighboTurhood. Of the officers, one of the consuls, L. iEmilius, the two consuls of the preceding year, ServiJius and AttiUus, and, according to Livy, Minucius, the late master of the horse, were among the slain. Nor was so great a victory purchased by a heavy loss on the part of the conquerors; four thousand Gauls, fifteen hundred Spaniards and Africans, and two hundred of the cavalry, were all that fell ; so that the army was not incapacitated from prosecuting its success imme- diately. Some of the states of Italy afler the battle of Cannaj began to Revolt of tiie incline to the cause of the conqueror, and to look out for oppor- cmes't™ tunities of surrendering their towns to him. Campania, and most Hamibai. of the Greek cities of the south of Italy, shortly after revolted from Eome, and actively assisted Hannibal. But the predominant feeling, especially amongst the higher ranks, was an aversion to an army made up of Africans, Gauls, and Spaniards ; and a disposition, partly from love and partly from fear, to maintain their old connection with Rome. Besides there were^ no fewer than thirty cities in Italy which were Roman colonies : and their support might be depended upon by the senate, almost as surely, as any of the governments of modern Europe could rely upon the inhabitants of their provincial towns. It should be considered also, that the ancient system of warfare gave a security to citizens in defending their walls, which the use of cannon and mortars has totally destroyed. A besieging army by means of a bombardment could in a few days inflict such misery on a large and wealthy city, as the firmest courage could scarcely withstand : whereas any of the populous towns of Italy had nothing to fear from Hannibal, but the slow process of a blockade, or the seducing some of their own citizens to open the gates to him. It may be readily understood, then, how utterly fruitless would have been the attempt to besiege Eome itself, while the Roman fleets commanded the seas ; whUst so many Roman colonies were scattered over the adjacent country ; and whilst the Carthaginian army could not have formed the blockade of so large a city without exposing itself to be overwhelmed by superior niunbers, on whatever quarter the Romans should think proper to make a sally. But in thus stating the means of resistance which Eome had still in her power, we must not forget to do justice to her firmness, in resolving to use them all to the utmost. Few nations have ever 1 Livy, lib. xxvii. c. 9, 10. 270 HANNIBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAR. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 216. exhausted all the resources which they possessed: they have Constancy of generally hesitated to risk their last stake, and have availed them- selves of the chances yet remaining in their favour to procure more tolerable terms from then- enemy. This pohcy the Eomans utterly scorned; they seem on all occasions to have abhorred nothing so much as giving their own consent to the diminution of their empire : they knew no alternative between a peace whose terms they could dictate, and a war of extermination. Other nations would have thought, that although they might make a successful resistance, yet the evils they must inevitably suffer in the course of it, more than counterbalanced the sacrifices to be made in a disadvantageous treaty : they would have judged the dehverance of Italy from the scourge of Hannibal's army, cheaply purchased by the cession of Spain, or Sardinia, or Sicily. Or at any rate, they would have abandoned those distant possessions for the present, and concentrated all their forces in the defence of their own country. But the judg- ment of the Eomans being never warped by fear, they steadily saw how small a force was indispensable for the preservation of their city, and they did not waste upon that object a single superfluous soldier. They saw that it was possible to protect Eome, and at the same time to maintain their foreign possessions ; and being possible, they boldly determined to attempt it. They therefore finally triumphed : — for it rarely happens that men do every thing for themselves which is within possibility, without finding such honest and resolute exertion rewarded mth success. PoUcy of the This undaunted spirit was of great service to the Eomans on two Romans. occasions which shortly followed : the defection of their alhes tie Syracusans, and the confederacy formed between Hannibal and the king of Macedon. Had the Eoman legions been recalled from Sicily after the battle of Cannae, the Carthaginians, aided by then- party which was now predominant in Syracuse, might have recovered the whole island to their dominion, and from thence have been able to co-operate with the army of Hannibal in the south of Italy. But Reduction of from having the ordinary military establishment of a province ready Syracuse. ^^ ^]^g gp^^ ^^ check the first symptoms of revolt among the Sicilian cities, the Eomans, under the command of M. Mar- ceUus, were able to act on the oiFensive, and by the reduction of Syracuse^ itself, secured to themselves a more absolute Q 1 This celebrated city withstood a siege of tliree years, being defended chiefly by the contrivances of the celebrated mathematioan, Archimedes, who, on the taking of the town, to the great regret of Marcellus, was slain through the care- lessness of a Eoman soldier, while intently study- [Archimedes.] ing a mathematical problem. CHAP. XIV.J HAOTnBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAK. 271 mastery over the whole of Sicily than they had ever possessed B.C. 216. before. In like manner, they no sooner were informed of the hostile intentions of the king of Macedon, than they began to organize a coalition against him in his own neighbourhood, and even assisted it with a force of their own, which, though small, was still a sufficient warrant for their ear- nest interest in the war, and served to keep their name and power con- tinually in the minds of their allies. And thus they hindered Hannibal from ever deriving any assistance from the Macedonians; and amused Philip with a desultory and inde- cisive hostility, till hav- ing finished their con- test with Carthage, they had ample means to take vengeance on him for his iU-timed interference in the quarrel. The reader will perceive that our narrative is no longer given in the same detail as it was up to the battle of Cannee. The fact is, that owing to the loss of the greater part of the history of Polybius, we are left without any regular account, worthy of credit, of the subsequent years of the war. It is a mere waste of time to copy Livy, and Appian, and Plutarch, through all the inconsistencies, and improbabihties, and idle tales, which their utter ignorance of military affairs, their want of judgment, and their carelessness, have heaped together for the entertainment of children, and the provoking dis- appointment of sensible men. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with giving only such a sketch of the remainder of the war, as may illustrate, to the best of our power, the causes of its final issue. After the violence of grief and consternation had subsided, the y^K°i™Sj,^^ Roman senate began to take the necessary measures for the safety of Republic, the commonwealth. Troops were raised from among the youngest citizens arrived at the mihtary age ; from the Latins and the other Italian allies ; and even from slaves and criminals ; and thus an army [Marcus Mavcellus. — Eosai, Raccalta di Btaiue Antiche,'] 272 HANOTBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 21 6. was provided Tvithout recalling any of the legions from the provinces. To pay and equip these soldiers, the direct taxes of the state were for one year doubled; but such an expedient could only be temporarj'; and it appears that the expenses of the war were in general defrayed by the ordinary taxes, assisted by large loans from wealthy individuals, chiefly from those who had amassed large fortunes by undertaking the government contracts' on former occasions ; and who were now called upon to assist the state with some of that money which they had gained at its expense. Three companies, consisting of nineteen individuals each, were accordingly formed, and continued to provide the armies of the repubHc with all the articles which they required; on condition that while thus employed, they should be exempted from mihtary service, and that if any of the stores furnished by them should be taken or lost at sea, the government should ensure them from being the sufferers. Some supphes also of com and money were given on one occasion by king Hiero, for the support of the troops in Sicily ; and by the cities of Sardinia ^ for the legion stated in that island. This deserves notice, as it explains the manner in which the Eomans could keep up their armies in the provinces, even when their treasury was in such extreme distress. "With that ample discretion which was so generally given to the Eoman magistrates, the pro-consuls and prators applied the resources of their province without scruple to the support of their troops, whenever the government at home could not con- veniently assist them. Besides the supplies of com which were regularly brought in to head-quarters, and sold at a certain price atExed by the Eoman officer, the means were not wanting to draw large sums from the wealthy provincials, by representing to them the absolute necessity of pajdng the troops, in order to prevent such disorders as a needy soldiery would unavoidably commit ; and some- times, it appears, men were demanded as well as money. It is tme, the inhabitants of a country thus oppressed, might carry their complaints to Eome ; but if it appeared that their oppressor had been actuated by no personal motives, he was sure to find not only pardon but favour, for the vigour witla which he had promoted the service of the repubhc. Admitting, however, that the legions in the provinces were maintained at little expense to the government at home, stUl the armies that were employed in Italy, and the fleets which were required to protect the coast from the ravages of the enemy, rendered, as we know, a heavy burthen of taxation necessary ; and it becomes a curious question, how individuals were enabled to support it ; or in other words, from what sources the Eomans at this period derived the wealth. Their chief resource doubtless was agriculture; and this might be carried on in Tuscany, Umbria, Its Commis- sariat and Pecuniary means. 1 Livy, lib. xxiii. c. 48, 49. 2 Ibid. c. 21. CHAP. XIV.] HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. 273 Picenum, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome itself, with B.C. 216. little direct interruption from the plundering parties of the enemy. Some commerce there was, but it was not very considerable ; nor does it appear what return the Eomans could have made, under so severe a pressure of war, for the commodities of other nations. However, there were no means of bringing into the country a Pecimiaiy sufficient supply of specie to meet the constant demands of the war ; ^ome!"^ '" and therefore the copper currency ^ which was the standard of all payments, was depreciated to a prodigious amount: the poimd of copper, which since the first Punic war had been coined into six asses, being now coined into twelve ; and the denarius, a silver coin visually equivalent to ten asses, passing now in [Roman Dsnarius.] ordinary dealings for sixteen : although in the government payments of all sums reckoned by denarii, it was still rated at its nominal value. After all, the want of money was so great, that ^ six years after the battle of Cannse, the higher ranks contributed all their plate, and almost all their personal ornaments of gold or silver, for the service of the state ; so that had not the war about that period began to take a more favourable turn, and the capture of New Carthage brought some of the resources ot the Spanish mines into the treasury, it is difficult to conceive how the armies could have been paid for the future. In considering the great efforts made by the Romans, we must recollect, in order to render them credible, what immense sacrifices were required to make them. There is scarcely any hmit to the military exertions of a people, when they will consent to give up every luxury and almost all the conveniences of hfe ; and require to retain nothing but food, habitation, and clothing. The term " ruin," as apphed to the finances of a nation in modem times, denotes a state of comparative affluence to that which existed in Rome, during Hannibal's invasion ; and the amount of capital in the poorest and most devastated country of modem Europe, has always far exceeded that which the Roman repubhc possessed at the moment of some of its most brilliant victories. In commencing, as it were, a new act of the war, after the battle of Cannse, it was above all things important, that the Eomans should not again risk the loss of so large a portion of their population, as had lately been cut off by the enemy. Their system, for the fature, system of consisted in defending vigorously the several towns that adhered to ^°™™ their interests : and whilst they stiQ kept an army in the field to 1 Pliuii Historia Natural, lib. xxxiii. c. 3. Livy, lib. xxvi. c. 36. [R. H.] T 274 HAIfNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. XIV. r,.c. 2 1 6. watcli Hannibal's motions, they took care that it should never expose itself, by venturing into the plains, to the certainty of defeat, from the superiority of the Carthaginian cavalry.' For it seems, so high a confidence was stUl placed in the excellence of the Roman infantry, that they had no apprehensions of being attacked in positions where cavalry could not act ; and still less of being forced in their camps or intrenchments. Yet, unless they could employ a force so superior in point of nnuibers, that while one part of it was watching Hannibal, another might be acting elsewhere, supporting the faithful, and chastising the revolted, allies of the republic, they could not hope for final success. Happily for Rome, the successful resistance of some small towns which Hannibal besieged soon after his victory at CannsB, disposed the Italians in general to think more favourably of the Roman cause, and contributed to prevent the other allies from following the example of the Campanians. Thus the Romans were soon in the condition of a nation contending against an army, which though not without partisans, yet found them only an inconsiderable minority of the whole people. Thenceforward Hannibal's move- ments were often cramped by the necessity of providing for the subsistence of his own army ; when the country immediately around him was purposely laid waste by the enemy ; and his communica- tions with more remote quarters were rendered almost impracticable by the numerous armies or garrisons with which he was on every side surrounded. It may here be reasonably asked, why the government of Car- thage did not make every effort to reinforce their general, and enable him to carry on one operation without necessarily neglecting every other. The want of a cotemporary Carthaginian historian, prevents us from giving any satisfactory account of the domestic pohtics of Carthage : but we may conjecture, that for a long time after the battle of Cannse, the government, in their admiration of Hannibal's talents, imagined that he could do every thing for himself; and that their attention was more needed in other quarters, in Spain, in Sicily, or Sardinia, where their affairs were not conducted by men of the same extraordinary ability. And, indeed, in spite of all his diffi- culties, Hannibal continued for so many years to gain such frequent advantages, that all on his side might have seemed secure ; and thus the temptation might have been greater to endeavour to turn the scale in other parts of the contest, where defeat might be considered as an event less impossible. At last, when the sudden restoration of the Roman aifairs in Spain by P. Scipio rendered the Carthaginians more doubtful than ever of speedy success in that country, Hasdru- bal, another son of HamUcar, set out from Spain, following the track of his brother, and designing to lead an army that might co-operate Hasdrubal marches to join Hannibal. 1 Polyb. lib. ix. u. 3, i. CHAP. XIV.] HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAR. 275 with him into Italy. Hannibal was prepared to expect him, and B.C. 207 was not likely to disconcert their joint plans by any failure of exer- tion on his part. But it appears that the speed with which Hasdru- bal crossed the Alps, and arrived in Italy, was quite unlocked for by his brother ; who, recollecting the delays of his own march, had thought it impossible that Hasdrubal could accomplish his passage before the season was considerably advanced. The natives, how- ever, now aware that they were not the object of attack, had listened to Hasdrubal's professions of peace, and had allowed him to pass unmolested ; so that it is said he performed in two months the same march which had occupied Hannibal during five. Livy adds, that he lost much of the time which he had thus gained, in a fi-uitless siege of Placentia ; and that Hannibal, having heard that he was thus occupied, delayed setting out to join him, from an expectation that he would not soon be able to take the town. Be this as it may, the Eomans succeeded in intercepting some messengers whom Hasdrubal had sent to apprise his brother of his movements ; and thus it was that C. Claudius Nero, the Eoman consul who was opposed to Hannibal in Bruttium, formed the bold design of march- ing secretly with a part of his army to join his colleague in the north of Italy, and of thus overwhelming Hasdrubal with his united forces. So ably was this operation effected, that Hannibal's vigilance was completely eluded, and Nero, unknown to him, carried with him from the camp in Bruttium seven thousand men, who being rein- forced by other troops on the road, brought to the consul M. Livius an overpowering accession of force. The two consuls then attacked is defeated Hasdrubal on the banks of the little river Metaurus, in the country S ^'"" °" of Sena Galhca, and succeeded in destroying him and his army. Metaurus. This severe blow reduced Hannibal to the necessity of acting entirely on the defensive. It had been for some time evident, that his single army could not overthrow the supremacy of Rome in Italy; stiU, while the fate of the war was balanced in Spain and Sicily, and while he was looking forward to the arrival of his brother to co-operate with him, he might be justified in making himself as troublesome as possible to the enemy, even though he might sometimes by so doing incur the danger of some loss to him- self. But now his pohcy was altered : to maintain his ground in Italy, till another efibrt could be made by his government to sup- port him, was now his most important duty. He was obUged to abandon several towns which had revolted to him from the Eomans ; and the inhabitants of others he forced to desert their cities, and to retire with him into the remotest part of Bruttium. The superiority of his personal character was so great, that the Eomans never dared to attack him ; and thus he might repose himself, as it were, for a while, watching for the first favourable opportunity of issuing from his retreat, and attempting once more to accomphsh the design with 276 HAJOTIBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAR. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 207. which he had originally invaded Italy. The death of Hasdrubal Diversion of had not extinguished aU his hopes : Mago, another of his brothers, Italy"™ ^fter the total wreck of the Carthaginian interest in Spain, was ordered to attempt a diversion in Italy ; and he, transporting with him, by sea, a small force, landed in Liguria, and surprised the town^ of Genoa. The name of his family urged the Gauls and Ligurians to flock to his standard ; and his growing strength excited much alarm among the Eomans, and obliged them to keep a large army in the north of Italy to watch his movements. The details of his adventures are unknown ; nor are we informed what cause pre- vented him from attempting to penetrate into Tuscany. We only find that he became so formidable an enemy, as to maintain an obstinate contest against an army of four Roman legions, a very few weeks before the final evacuation of Italy by Hannibal ; nor were the Romans certain of victory till Mago was mortally wounded, and obhged to leave the field. From the scene of the battle, which is said to have been in the country of the Insubrian Gauls, he re- treated, with as much expedition as his wound would allow, to the coast of Liguria ; and there he found orders from Carthage, that he should immediately return to Africa, to oppose the alarming pro- gress of P. Scipio. He accordingly embarked with his troops, and Mago dies of commenced his voyage homewards : but his exertions and anxiety off Sardinia, of mind had proved too great for his strength ; and he had scarcely passed the coast of Sardinia, when he expired. So unwearied was the zeal, and so great the ability, with which the sons of Hamilcar maintained, almost solely by their personal eiForts, the cause of their country, against the overbearing resources and energy of the whole Roman people. When the Carthaginian government sent for Mago from Italy, they also recalled Hannibal. We have already said, that there exists no satisfactory account of his operations after the battle of Cannte ; but this applies, with peculiar force, to the three or four years that immediately preceded his return to Africa. The Roman writers have transmitted to us some reports of victories obtained over him in Italy, too audacious in falsehood, for even themselves to Formidable believe. But in truth, the terror with which he continued to Hannihai." inspire his enemies, after his career of success was closed, is even more wonderful than his first briUiant triumphs. For four years after the death of Hasdrubal, he remained in undisputed possession of Bruttium, when the Eomans had re-conquered all the rest of Italy. Here he maintained his army without receiving any supphes from home, and with no other naval force at his disposal, than such vessels as he could himself build from the Bruttian forests, and man with the sailors of the country. Here, too, he seems to have looked ^ Livy, lib. xxviii. c. 46 ; lib. xxx, i;. 18. CHAP. XlV.j HAKNIBAL. — SECOHD PUNIC WAR. 277 forward to tlie renown -wliich awaited him in after times ; and, as if B.C. 207. foreseeing the eager interest with which posterity would follow his progress in his unequalled enterprise, he recorded many minute' particulars of his campaigns on monumental columns, erected at Lacinium, a town situated in that corner of Italy, which was so long like a new country acquired, by conquest, for himself and his soldiers. It is said, also, that he retained one or two Greeks in his army, for the purpose of preserving a fuU detail of his exploits in that, which was the universal language of the civilized world. At length, when it was plain that no new diversion could be effected in his favour, and when the dangerous situation of his country called for his Embarks for presence, as the last hope of Carthage, he embarked his troops with- withouP out the sHghtest interruption from the Eomans, and moved only by opposition. the disasters of others, while his own army was unbroken and un- ^'^' beaten, he abandoned Italy fifteen years after he had first entered it, having ravaged it with fire and sword from one extremity to the other, and having never seen his multiplied victories chequered by a single defeat. It is now necessary to trace the circumstances which enabled the Eomans to carry the war into Africa, whilst Hannibal still remained unvanquished in Italy. When P. Cornehus Scipio, him- self hastening to meet the Carthaginians on the Po, after their descent from the Alps, despatched the greater part of his army to Spain, to restore the interests of the Eomans there, he paved the way, by this wise and vigorous step, for the future victories of his son, and the final triumph of his country. Had Spain been resigned to the Carthaginians vsdthout a struggle, Hasdrubal would have followed his brother into Italy after an interval, not of years, but of a few months ; and a succession of armies, raised with the utmost ease from the numerous and warUke population of Spain, would have been poured across the Alps, and crowned the utmost wishes of Hannibal. But the resolution of P. Scipio obliged the enemy to contend for the possession of Spain, instead of marching into Italy ; and in the long and varied struggle that ensued, the great superi- ority of the Roman military discipline, and the unyielding vigour of their policy, obtained for them, in the end, complete success. It would be most unjust, however, not to attribute the rapidity vpith ■which the conquest of Spain was at last achieved, to the great per- Scipio's sonal qualities of the Eoman general, the famous P. Scipio Afri- gpa™^' '" canus. With every allowance for the favourable disposition with which his character and actions are described, not by the Eoman writers only, but even by Polybius himself, fi:om his connection with the younger Scipio, it is still evident that his merit far sur- passed that of aU his own countrymen of his time, and rendered him 1 Polvb. lib. iii. c. 33, 66. 278 HAKNIBAL. — SECOND PIXNIC WAR. fCHAP. XIV. B.C. [Scipio AfricanuB.] Scipio crosses over to Africa. B.C. 205. 207. no unworthy antagonist of Hannibal. He took the command in Spain ^ at an early age, and when the defeat and death of his father and uncle, after an able, and for the most part, a prosperous career of six years, had almost destroyed the hopes of the Eomans in the peninsula. In these circumstances, his first step gave evidence of the most masterly judgment, and the most decisive vigour. Avaihng himself of the dispersion of the enemy's armies, he marched immediately against New Car- thage, and carried that important place be- fore the Carthaginian generals were aware of its danger. He found in it, besides a great variety of military stores, the hos- tages whom the Carthaginians had taken from the principal Spanish tribes, as securities for their allegiance. These he sent to their respective homes, having given them each some present out of the plunder of the city ; and, in this manner, he greatly inclined the Spaniards to come over to the side of the Eomans. And being afterwards delivered from his ablest antagonist, by the march of Hasdrubal into Italy, he so completely defeated the other Carthaginian gene- rals, that in five years after his arrival in the province, he dispos- sessed the enemy of every town they had held in it, except the city and island of Gades, situate in its most remote extremity. After these important services he returned to Eome, hoping to be elected consul, and to be allowed to carry into execution the design which he had for some time conceived, of forcing Hannibal to leave Italy by attacking the Carthaginians in Africa. In both these points his wishes were fulfilled : but according to the invariable policy of Eome, he was desirous of securing the aid of some ally in the country which he was going to make the seat of war. For this end he had, during his command in Spain, opened a communication with Syphax, the most considerable of the Numidian princes ; and, according to Livy, had actually concluded a treaty with him. But Syphax was won over to the interests of Carthage by the charms of Sophonisba, the daughter of one of the noblest Carthaginians : and a short time before Scipio crossed over into Africa, he sent to inform him of his new connection, and to dissuade him from his intended expedition, as now, far from giving him assistance, he should be obliged to join the Carthaginians in opposing him. Scipio, how- ever, was not yet without the prospect of finding allies in Africa : Masinissa, another Numidian chief, had deserted the Carthaginian cause 1 Polyb. lib. X. .;. 2, &c. CHAP. XIV.] HANNIBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAR. 279 [MasiniBsa,] after its repeated disasters in Spain ; and had privately pledged b.c. 205. himself to support the Eomans on the first opportunity. Since that time, he had been deprived of his paternal dominions by the united efforts of Syphax and the Carthaginians ; but though his power was thus reduced, his zeal in the cause of Kome was likely to be the more heightened ; and as his per- sonal character was high amongst his countrymen, many of them might be expected to join him, when they saw him supported by a Eoman army. Ac- cordingly, he did unite himself' to Scipio, so soon as he had landed in Aitica : and his activity, and perfect familiarity with the country and its inhabitants, made him avery valuable auxiliary. The landing had been effected within a few miles of Carthage itself; and after some plunder, amongst which eight thousand prisoners to be sold for slaves are particularly specified, had been collected from the adjoining country, the army formed the siege of Utica, whilst a considerable fleet co-operated with it on the side of the sea. But the approach of Hasdrubal and Syphax at the head of two im- mense armies of Carthaginians and Numidians, induced Scipio to scipio raises raise the siege, and to remove his troops to a strong position near ^^ ^"'"'^ the sea, where he proposed to remain, as winter was fast approach- ing ; and secure of subsistence through the co-operation of his fleet, to wait for some favourable opportunity of striking a vigorous blow. His first hope was"^ to win over Syphax again to the Eoman cause ; and with this view his emissaries were continuaUy going and returning between the Eoman and Numidian camps. -Their tempta- tions to Syphax were ineffectual : but their report of the manner in which the Carthaginian and Numidian armies were quartered, suggested to Scipio the possibility of ensuring success by other means than negotiation. They related, that the Carthaginians were lodged in huts constructed of stakes or hurdles, and covered with leaves : and that the Numidian quarters were composed of similar materials, of reeds, thatch, and dried leaves. Upon this intelligence, Scipio conceived the plan of setting fire to both the camps of the enemy : and in order to gain a more perfect knowledge of their situation, and the approaches to them, he pretended to listen to the terms of peace that Syphax had before proposed to him in vain ; and, under pretence of negotiation, he was for some months in ' Livy, lib. xxix. u. 29. 2 Polyb. lib. xiv. o. 1, 280 HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. XIV. B.C. 205 Xumidian Encainp- nieiit set on tire. The Xumidian Array destroyed. The Carthaginian Forces are totally cut off. , constant correspondence with the Numidian king, and disguising some of his most intelligent soldiers in the dress of slaves, he procured them an easy entrance into the enemy's camp, as forming part of the suite of his officers who were employed in the negotiation. At last, when the season for military operations was returning, and his seemingly sincere desire of peace had thrown the enemy into a state of perfect security, he suddenly broke off all communication with them, declaring, that however disposed he himself was to agree to the proposed terms, the other members of the military council were fixed in rejecting them. This sudden rupture disappointed Syphax, but neither he nor the Carthaginian general had any suspicion of the real designs of Scipio ; when suddenly the Roman army marched out by night in two divisions, the one commanded by Scipio, and the other by Lselius, his second in command, and advanced against the camps of the enemy, which were not more than six miles from their own. Lselius, assisted by Masinissa, first silently approached the encampment of the Numidians, and set fire to the first tents that he met with. The flames spread so rapidly, that the Numidians were soon precluded from approaching the quarter where they had first broken out ; and having thus no suspicion that they had been kindled by the enemy, crowded together in the utmost disorder to effect their escape out of the camp. Isumbers were trampled to death in the confiision at the several outlets ; numbers were over- taken by the flames and burnt to death ; and the rest, on reaching the open country, found themselves intercepted by ilasinissa, who had posted his troops in the quarter to which he knew that the fugitives were most likely to direct their flight. In this manner the whole Numidian army, amounting to sixty thousand men, was, with the exception of Syphax himself and a few horsemen, completely destroyed or dispersed. Meanwhile the Carthaginians, when they first saw the camp of their allies on fire, not doubting that it was occasioned by accident, began partly to run with assistance to the Numidians, and the rest rushed hastily out of their tents, without their arms, and stood on the outside of the camp, contemplating with dismay the progress of this fearful conflagration. In this helpless state they found them- selves attacked by the enemy, under the command of Scipio in person ; some were instantly cut down ; and the rest driven back into their camp, and saw it presently set on fire by their pursuers. They then at once understood the whole extent of the calamity which had befallen their aUies and themselves ; but resistance and fhght were ahke impracticable ; the fire spread with fiiry to every quarter, and every avenue was choked up by a struggling crowd of men and horses, all with the same distracted efforts striving to effect their escape. In this attempt, Hasdrubal and a few followers alone succeeded : thirty thousand men, who had composed the Carthaginian CHAP. XIV.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PDNIC WAE. ^ 281 army, perished The annals of war contain no bloodier nor more b.c. 205. horrible tragedy. Hasdrubal, hopeless of delaying the progress of the enemy, con- tinued his flight to Carthage ; -while Syphax had retreated in the opposite direction, towards his owia dominions, and was endeavour- ing to rally the wrecks of his army. After much debate in the Car- thaginian supreme council, it was resolved that the fortune of war should be tried once more. Syphax was prevailed upon to join his troops to theirs, instead of confining himself to the defence of Numi- dia ; and the recent arrival of four thousand Spaniards, who had been enlisted by Carthaginian agents in Spain, encoiu'aged the two confederates to hope for a successful issue. Scipio was so engrossed with the siege of Utica, which he had pushed with additional vigour after his late victory, that he allowed the enemy to unite their forces, and appear again in the field with no fewer than thirty thousand men. But when he heard of their junction, he lost no time in advancing to meet them ; and engaging them a second time, The united in little more than a month after the destruction of their former Ai-mies of armies, he again totally defeated them ; and obHged their two again generals to fly once more, Syphax to Numidia, and Hasdrubal to *'*''''^''=''- Carthage. The victors now divided their forces ; Lsehus and Masinissa were despatched in pursuit of Syphax; and in a short time Masinissa recovered his father's kingdom ; and Syphax, having risked a third battle, was not only defeated as before, but was himself made prisoner, and his capital fell into the hands of the enemy. Scipio, meantime, overran tide country towards Carthage, receiving or forc- ing the submission of the surrounding towns, and enriching his soldiers with an immense accumulation of plunder. The chief part of this, in order to lighten his army, he sent back to his winter quarters before Utica ; and then he advanced as far as Tunis, and finding that important place abandoned by its garrison, he there posted himself, hoping by his presence in the immediate neighbour- hood of the capital, to terrify the Carthaginians into complete sub- mission. But they had not yet abandoned more resolute councils ; and instead of suing for peace, they determined to send messengers to Italy, to recall Hannibal and Mago, and, in the meantime, to make an attempt to raise the blockade of Utica, by destroying the Eoman fleet. The attempt was made, and was partly successful ; but this slight advantage was so far overbalanced by the defeat and capture of Syphax, intelligence of which reached Carthage about the same time, that the further prosecution of the war appeared desperate, and a deputation of some of the members of the council of elders was sent to Scipio to solicit terms of peace. It is said that these deputies forgot their own and their country's dignity in the humbleness of their entreaties : they moved Scipio, however, to dictate such con- 282 HAifNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC ■WAR. [CHAP. XIV. Submission of Carthage. B.C. 205. ditions as he might well deem a sufficient recompense of his victories; conditions which, by obhging the Carthaginians to evacuate Italy and Gaul ; to cede, finally, both Spain and all the islands between Italy and Africa; to give up all their ships of war, except twenty; and to pay an immense contribution of corn and money; sufficiently declared the complete triumph of the Koman arms. Hard as they were, the Carthaginians judged them sufficiently favourable to be accepted without difficulty. A truce was concluded with Scipio, and ambas- sadors were sent to Eome to procure, if possible, the ratification of the senate and people. With regard to the transactions that followed, we are more than ever obliged to regret the want of a Carthaginian historian. Wherever the family of Scipio is concerned, the impartiality of Polybius becomes doubtful ; and besides, we have only fragments of this part of his narrative, so that we cannot fix exactly the dates of the several events, a point which here becomes of considerable importance. According to our only existing authorities, the Car- thaginians, emboldened by the arrival of Hannibal, or, according to Livy, by the mere expectation of his arrival, wantonly broke the truce subsisting between them and Scipio, by detaining some Eoman transports which had been driven by a storm into the bay of Car- thage ; and then denied satisfaction to the officers whom Scipio sent to complain of this outrage ; and lastly, in defiance of the law of nations, endeavoured to seize the officers themselves on their way back to the Eoman camp at Utica. By such conduct the resent- ment of Scipio is described to have been very naturally provoked ; and the war was renewed with greater animosity than ever. This, no doubt, was Scipio's own report of these transactions, which Poly- bius, the intimate friend of his adopted grandson, and deriving his information, in part, at least, as we know, from Scipio's own associate, Lffilius, in all probability sincerely believed. But it is probable that a Carthaginian narrative of the war in Africa would so represent the matter, that posterity should esteem the behaviour of the Carthagi- nians, in breaking off the truce when it suited their purposes, as neither more nor less dishonourable than the conduct of Scipio him- self, when he set on fire the camps of Syphax and Hasdrubal ; and that although the success was different, yet that the treachery in both cases, whatever it may have been, was pretty nearly equal. Hannibal, we are told, landed ^ at Leptis, at what season of the year we know not ; and after refreshing his troops for some time at Adrumetum, he took the field, and advanced to the neighbourhood of Zama, a town situated, as Polybius describes it, about five days' journey from Carthage, towards the west. It seems that Scipio was. busied in overruning the country, and in subduing the several Hannibal lands at Leptis. 1 Livy, lib. xxx. u. 25, &o. Polyb. lib. xv. c. 1, &e. CHAP. XIT.J HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. 283 towns ; and he was interrupted in these operations by the approach B.C. 205. of the Carthaginian army. He is said to have detected some spies sent by Hannibal to observe his position ; and by causing them to be led carefully round his camp, and then sent back in safety to Hannibal, he so excited the admiration of his antagonist, as to make him solicit a personal interview, with the hope of thus effecting a termination of hostilities. The report of this conference, and of the speeches of the two generals, savours greatly of the style of Roman family memoirs ; the most unscrupulous in falsehood of any pre- tended records of facts that the world has yet seen. However, the meeting ended in nothing ; and the next day the two armies were led out into the field for the last and decisive struggle. The num- bers on each side we have no knowledge of; but probably neither was in this respect much superior. Masinissa, however, with four thousand Numidian cavalry, besides six thousand infantry, had joined Scipio a few days before the battle ; while Hannibal, who had so often been indebted to the services of Numidians, had now, on this great occasion, only two thousand horse of that nation to oppose to the numbers, and fortune, and activity of Masinissa. The account of the disposition of both armies, and of the events of the action, was probably drawn up by Polybius, from the information given him by Lsslius, and perhaps from the family records of the house of Scipio. And here we may admit its authority to be excel- lent. It states then, that the Eoman legions were dra,wn up in their Great battle usual order, except that the manipuli of every alternate hne did not ° """"^ cover the intervals in the line before them, but were placed one ^"*^' ' behind another, thus leaving avenues in several places through the whole depth of the army from front to rear. These avenues were loosely iilled by the Hght-armed troops, who had received orders to meet the charge of the elephants, and to draw them after them down the passages left between the manipuli, till they should be enticed entirely beyond the rear of the whole army. The cavalry, as usual, was stationed on the wings ; Masinissa, with his Numidians, on the right, and Lsehus, with the Italians, on the left. On the other side, Hannibal stationed his elephants, to the number of eighty, in the front of his whole hne. Next to these were placed the foreign troops in the service of Carthage, twelve thousand strong, consisting of Ligurians, Gauls, inhabitants of the Balearian islands, and Moors. The second line was composed of those Africans who were the immediate subjects of Carthage, and of the Carthagi- nians themselves; while Hannibal himself, with his own veteran soldiers, who had returned with him from Italy, formed a third hne, which was kept in reserve, at a Httle distance behind the other two. The Numidian cavalry were on the left, opposed to their own countrymen, under Masinissa ; and the Carthaginian horse on the right, opposed to Lsehus and the Italians. After some skirmishing 284 HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. [CHAP. XIV. n.c. 202. of the Numidians in the two armies, Hannibal's elephants advanced to the charge ; but being startled by the sound of the Roman trum- pets, and annoyed by the hght-armed troops of the enemy, some broke off to the right and left, and fell in amongst the cavalry of their own army on both the wings ; so that Lselius and Masinissa, avaihng themselves of this disorder, drove the Carthaginian horse speedily from the field. Others advanced against the enemy's line, and did much mischief; till at length, being frightened, and becoming ungovernable, they were enticed by the hght-armed troops of the Romans to follow them down the avenues which Scipio had pur- posely left open, and were thus drawn out of the action altogether. Meantime, the infantry on both sides met; and after a fierce contest, the foreign troops in Hannibal's army, not being properly supported by the soldiers of the second line, were forced to give ground ; and in resentment for this desertion, they fell upon the Africans and Carthaginians, and cut them down as enemies ; so that these troops, at once assaulted by their feUow soldiers, and by the pursuing enemy, were also, after a brave resistance, defeated and dispersed. Hannibal, with his reserve, kept off the fugitives, by presenting spears to them, and obliging them to escape in a different direction ; and he then prepared to meet the enemy, trusting that they would ill be able to resist the shock of a fresh body of veterans, after having already been engaged in a long and obstinate struggle. Scipio, after having extricated his troops from the heaps of dead which lay between him and Hannibal, commenced a second, and a tar more serious contest. The soldiers on both sides were perfect in courage and in discipfine ; and as the battle went on, they fell in the ranks where they fought, and their places were supphed by their comrades with unabated zeal. At last LseUus and Masinissa returned from their pursuit of the enemy's beaten cavalry, and fell, in a critical moment, upon the rear of Hannibal's army. Then his veterans, surrounded and overpowered, stiU maintained their high reputation ; and most of them were cut down where they stood, resisting to the last. Fhght indeed was not easy, for the country was a plain, and the Roman and Numidian horse were active in Total defeat pursuit ; yet Hannibal, when he saw the battle totally lost, with a of Hannibal, nobler fortitude than his brother had shown at the Metaurus, escaped from the field to Adrumetum. He knew that his country would now more than ever need his assistance ; and as he had been in so great a degree the promoter of the war, it iU became him to shrink from bearmg his fuU share of the weight of its disastrous issue. The battle of Marengo forms, in many points, an exact parallel with that of Zama. The Austrians having routed the advanced divisions of the French army, commenced an entirely new action with the reserve, which Bonaparte, like Hannibal, had kept at a CHAP. XIV.J HAJOaBAL. — SECOND PCNIC "WAR. 285 distance from the scene of the first engagement. The struggle, B.C. 202. which was obstinately maintained, was decided, as at Zama, by a timely charge of cavalry on the flank of the enemy's infantry ; but the victorious cavalry in the two battles did not belong to the armies whose situations correspond mth one another ; for at Zama the reserve was defeated by the charge of Lajlius ; while it was victorious at Marengo, owing to the attack made by Kellerman.' On the plains of Zama twenty thousand of the Carthaginian army were slain, and an equal number taken prisoners ; but the conse- quences of the battle far exceeded the greatness of the immediate victory. It was not the mere destruction of an army; but the final conquest of the only power who seemed able to combat with Eome on equal terms. In the state of the ancient world, with so few nations really great and powerful, and so little of a common feehng pervading them, there was neither the disposition nor the materials for forming a general confederacy against the power of Eome ; and the single efforts of Macedonia, of Syria, and of Carthage herself, after the fatal event of the second Punic war, were of no other use than to provoke their own ruin. The defeat of Hannibal ensured, in fact, the empire of the ancient civilized world. The only hope of the Carthaginians now rested in the forbearance of Scipio ; and they again sent deputies to him, with a full confession of the injustice of their conduct in the first origin of the war, and stiU more in their recent violation of the truce ; and with a renewal of their supplications for peace. The conqueror, telling them that he was moved solely by considerations of the dignity of Eome, and the uncertainty of all human greatness, and in no degree by any pity for misfortunes which were so well deserved, presented to them the terms on which alone they could hope for mercy. "They were to Terms make amends for the injuries done to the Eomans during the truce : ^ tSe'car- to restore all prisoners and deserters : to give up all their ships of thaginmns. war, except ten, and aU their elephants : to engage in no war at all ' ' out of Africa, nor in Africa, vdthout the consent of the Eomans : to restore to Masinissa all that had belonged to him or any of his ancestors ; to feed the Eoman army for three months, and pay it till it shoidd be recalled home : to pay a contribution of ten thousand Euboic talents, at the rate of two hundred talents a year, for fifty years : and to give a hundred hostages, between the ages of fourteen and thirty, to be selected at the pleasure of the Eoman general." At this price the Carthaginians were allowed to hold their former dominion in Africa, and to enjoy their independence, till it should seem convenient to the Eomans to complete their destruction. Yet Hannibal strongly urged that the terms should be accepted ; and 1 Vide Gen. Matthieu Dumas, Campagne de 1800, and Victoires et Conquetes des Fran^ais, tome xiii. 286 HAiralBAL. SECOND PUNIC WAE. [OHAP. XIV. Conduct of Hannibal at Carthage. B.C. 201. even rudely interrupted/ it is said, a member of the supreme council at Carthage, who was speaking against them. He probably felt, a,s his father had done under circumstances nearly similar, that for the present resistance was vain ; but that by purchasing peace at any price, and by a wise management of their internal resources, his countrymen might again, at some future period, find an opportunity to recover their losses. Peace, accordingly, was signed ; the Eoman army returned to Italy; and Hannibal, at the age of forty-five, having seen the schemes of his whole life utterly ruined, was now beginning, with equal patience and resolution, to lay the foundation for them once again. From the scanty notices that we possess of the succeeding years of his fife, we learn that his conduct, as a citizen, displayed great wisdom and great integrity. He is said to have reduced the exorbitant ^ power of an order of perpetual judges, whose authority was very extensive, and had been greatly abused. He turned his attention also to the employment of the pubhc revenue, much of which he found to be embezzled by persons in office, while the people at large were heavily taxed to raise the yearly contributions due to the Romans by the last treaty. When a man of such high character raised his voice against an abuse so gross, there was yet vigour enough in the popular part of the Carthaginian constitution to give him efiectual support ; and it appears that the evil was removed, and the public revenue henceforward was apphed to public purposes. Hannibal, however, as was natural, had thus created to himself many powerful enemies ; and they found, ere long, an opportunity of gratifying their hatred. The war between Eome and Macedonia had been lately concluded ; and the success of the Romans, and their commanding interfei-ence in the affairs of Greece, awakened the fears and jealousy of Antiochus, king of Syria, whose kingdom was the greatest ever possessed by any of the successors of Alexander. He seemed disposed to take up the contest which Phihp, king of Macedonia, had been compelled to resign ; and the Romans were either informed, or fancied, that Hannibal was using all his influence at Carthage to persuade his countrymen to join him. Accordingly, a commission was sent to the Carthaginian government, requiring them to punish Hannibal, as a disturber of the peace between the two nations. Hannibal knowing that he should be unable to resist the efforts of his domestic enemies, when thus supported by the influence of Rome, seems at last to have surrendered his long cherished hopes of restoring his country to her ancient great- ness. He found means to escape from Carthage, and procured a vessel to transport him to Tyre, where he was received with all the honours due to a man who had shed such glory on the Phce- nioian name, and from whence he easily reached the court of 1 Polyb. lib. XV. c. 19. ^ Livy, lib. xxxiii. u. 45, 46, &c. He escapes to Tyre. CHAP. XIV.J HAKNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. 287 Antiochus, at Antioch. Finding that the king was already set out B.C. 19G. on his way tow^ards Greece, he followed after him, and overtook him at Ephesus ; and being cordially re- ceived by him, he contributed power- -sf'^^^^^^'^^^^ fully to fix him in his determination to declare wax on the Romans, and was retained near his person, as one of his most valuable counsellors. The ability of Hannibal was displayed again on this new occasion, by the plans which he recommended for the prose- cution of the wax. He first and most strongly urged that he should be sent ' with an army into Italy; there, he ^^yroi said, the Eomaas were most vulnerable; and an attack made upon their own country, might distract their councils, and at least lessen their means of carrying on hostilities in Greece or Asia. When this measure was finally abandoned, owing, pians recom as it is said, to the king's jealousy of the glory which Hannibal would HlSnfbai!'*^ gain by its success, his next proposal was,^ that the alliance of PhiHp, king of Macedon, should be purchased at any price. Macedon was a power strong enough to take a substantial part in the war, and would be too important to escape, as the little second or third-rate states might do, by forsaking its ally so soon as he should experience any reverses. This counsel was also neglected, and Philip united himself with the Eomans against Antiochus; so that Hannibal, employed only in a subordinate naval command, a duty for which his experience had no way fitted him, could render the king no essential service ; and in a short time, when the Eomans had brought the war to a triumphant end, he was obhged to seek another asylum, as Antiochus had agreed, by one of the articles ' of the treaty of Eome, to surrender him up to the Eoman government. His last refuge was the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia. With that prince he remained about five years ; and it is mentioned by Cornelius Nepos, that he gained a victory, while commanding his fleet, over his old enemy Eumenes, king of Pergamus. AU his own prospects had been long since utterly ruined ; and the condition of such a man, reduced to the state of a dependent exile, under the protection of so humble a sovereign as Prusias, might have satisfied the most violent hatred of the Eomans. But it seems they could not be free from uneasiness while Hannibal hved; and on the occasion of a Eoman embassy being sent to the court of Prusias, that king, whether spontaneously, or at the sohcitation of the ambassadors, promised to put their great enemy into their hands. His treachery, 1 Livj', lib. xxxiv. c. 60. '^ Ibid. lib. xxxvi. u. 7. 3 Polyb. lib. xxi. u. 14. 288 HAKNIBAL. SECOND PTOTIC WAR. [CHAP. XIV. Hannibal dies by Poison, to escape the Roman power. B.C. 196. however, wa.s suspected by Hannibal; and wben he found the avenues to his house secured by the king's guards, he is said to have destroyed himself by a poison which he had long carried about with him for such an emergency. Some particulars are added by Livy and Plutarch, which not being credibly attested, nor likely to have become pubhcly known, it is needless to insert here. It is sufficient to say, that Hannibal died by his oivn hand, to avoid falling into the power of the Romans, at Nicomedia, in Bithynia ; and, as nearly as we can ascertain, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. If the characters of men be estimated according to the steadiness with which they have followed the true principle of action, we cannot assign a high place to Hannibal. But if patriotism were indeed the greatest of virtues, and a resolute devotion to the interests of his country were aU the duty that a pubhc inan can be expected to fulfil, he would then deserve the most lavish praise. Nothing can be more unjust than the ridicule with which Juvenal has treated his motives, as if he had been actuated merely by a romantic desire of glory. On the contrary, his whole conduct displays the loftiest genius, and the boldest spirit of enterprise, happily subdued, and directed by a cool judgment to the furtherance of the honour and interests of his country ; and his sacrifice of selfish pride and passion, when, after the battle of Zama, he urged the acceptance of peace, and hved to support the disgrace of Carthage, with the patient hope of one day repairing it, affords a strong contrast to the cowardly despair with which some of the best of the Eomans deprived their country of their services by suicide. Of the extent of his abilities, the history of his ciiaracter of life is the best evidence : as a general, his conduct remains uncharged Hannibal. ^(.j^ g^ single error ; for the idle censure which Livy presumes to pass on him for not marching to Rome after the battle of Cannae, is founded on such mere ignorance, that it does not deserve any serious notice. His knowledge of human nature, and his ascendency over men's minds, are shown by the uninterrupted authority which he exercised ahke in his prosperity and adversity over an army composed of so many various and discordant materials, and which had no other bond than the personal character of the leader. As a statesman, he was at once manly, disinterested, and sensible : a real reformer of abuses in his domestic pohcy ; and in his measures, with respect to foreign enemies, keeping the just limit between weakness and blind obstinacy. He stands reproached, however, with covetousness by the Carthaginians; and with cruelty by the Romans. The fii'st charge is sustained by no facts that have been transmitted to us ; and it is a curious circumstance, that the very same vice was long imputed by party violence to the great duke of Marlborough, and that the imputation has been lately proved by his biographer to have been utterly calumnious. Of cruelty, indeed, according to modem principles, he cannot be acquitted ; and his putting to death aH the High Political CHAP. XIV.] HANNIBAL. — SECOND PUNIC WAE. 289 Eomans whom he found on his march through Italy, after the battle B.C. 196. of the lake Thrasymenus, was a savage excess of hostility. Yet mauy instances of courtesy are recorded of him, even by his enemies, in his treatment of the bodies of those generals who fell in action against him ; and certainly, if compared with the ordinary proceedings of Roman commanders, his actions deserve no peculiar brand of barbarity. Still, it is Httle to his honour, that he was not more careless of human suffering than Marcellus or Scipio ; nor can the urgency of his circumstances, or the evil influence of his friends, to both which Polybius attributes much of the cruelty ascribed to him, be justly admitted as a defence. It is the prevailing crime of men in high station to be forgetful of individual misery, so long as it forwards their grand objects ; and it is most important, that our admiration of great public talents and brilliant successes, should not lead us to tolerate an indifference of human suffering. We know nothing of Hannibal's private character as a son, a friend, or a companion ; nor have we any memorials of his temper . or conversation. Here, therefore, we shall close our account of his life, which contains also the most memorable period in the course of the several contests by which the Eomans acquired their dominion. A brief sketch will suffice to describe their wars with Macedonia and Syria, the third Punic war, and generally, their transactions with foreign nations, till the time of their first engagements with the Parthians. Our principal attention wiU be directed to their internal affairs ; and chiefly we shall endeavour to illustrate the growth of those parties and principles which were opposed to one another in the civil wars ; and the condition of society, and the state of morals and of knowledge in the age immediately preceding the first preaching of the Gospel. The materials for our inquiry are in many respects so imperfect, and are often to be sought for in detached passages of so many different authors, that the indulgence of the reader may be craved for the defects and omissions which doubtless he will find in our narrative. Te. h. 1 [Fountain at Zagli«an near Carthage — F.-vm < ISk-'fch by Sir Grenville Temple ] CHAPTER XV. SKETCH OF THE EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, FROM THE END OF THE SECOND PUNIC WAR TO THE INVASION OF THE CIMBRI. From b. c. 201 to b. o. 102. B.C. 201. There are certain portions of the history of mankind, in which military operations assume a character of such predominant impor- tance, that the historian is bound to assign to them the principal place in his narrative. At other times there may be long and bloody wars, by which great changes have been produced in the state of the world, which yet deserves no more than the most cursory notice ; whilst our main attention is bestowed on the progress of society, the rise of literature, or the origin and struggles of domestic factions. The period to be comprised in this sketch belongs to this latter class: it was full of wars ; it was marked by decisive victories and exten- sive conquests ; yet its military history is totally uninteresting, irom the great inequahty of force between the Romans and their several enemies ; and from the scarcity of those signal displays of valour and ability, which have, on other occasions, thrown lustre on the resist- ance of the humblest power. Besides, except the Fragments of Polybius, we have no political nor military history of these times, the authority of which can be relied on with any satisfaction for the detail of events. No more then wiU be here attempted, than briefly CHAP. XV.] EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 291 to trace the succession of the Roman conquests, and to notice the B.C. 201. causes which rendered them so unbroken and so universal. No sooner was the second Punic war ended than the senate of Eome determined to crush the power of Philip, king of Macedon. He had joined Hannibal in the most critical period of the late war, First when the destruction of Eome seemed inevitable ; he was the most yf'^^^ considerable potentate in the countries neighbouring to Italy on the east ; and the fame of his armies, derived from the conquests of Alexander, was not yet extinguished. These were considerations sufficient to point him out as the next object of hostility to the Roman arms; and, although peace had been concluded with him two or three years before, yet the grounds of a new quarrel were soon discovered. He ' was accused of having attacked the Athenians and some others of the allies of Eome ; and of having sent some Macedonian soldiers to the assistance of Hannibal in Africa. A Eoman army was instantly sent over into Greece, and a Eoman fleet co-operated with the naval force of Attalus, king of Pergamus, and the Ehodians ; these powers, together with the iEtolians, being con- stantly enemies to Macedon, and the present wax being undertaken by the Romans chiefly, as was pretended, on their account. The bar- barous^ tribes on the north and west of Macedonia were also led by the temptation of plunder, to join the confederacy ; and their irrup- tions served to distract the councils and the forces of Philip. Yet, under all these disadvantages, he maintained the contest with great vigour for three years ; tih being defeated in a general action at Cyno- Battle of cephale in Thessaly, and his whole country, exhausted as it already p;JSe"' was by the war, being now exposed to invasion, he was reduced to b.c. 1!")7 accept peace on such terms as the Romans thought proper to dictate. These, as usual, tended to cripple the power of the vanquished party, and at the same time to increase the reputation of the Eomans, by- appearing more favourable to their aDies than to themselves. Philip was' obliged to give up every .,^^_^^^^ Greek city that he possessed be- narius^oisr: yond the limits of Macedonia, both [Denarms, b.o. i . in Europe and in Asia ; a stipulation which deprived him of Thes- saly, Ach»a, Phthiotis, Perrhaebia, and Magnesia, and particularly of the three important towns of Corinth, Chalcis, and Demetrias, which he used to caU the fetters of Greece. All these states were declared free and independent; unless that the Romans (pretending that Antiochus, king of Syria, threatened the safety of Greece) retained, for the present, the strong places of Chalcis and Demetnas 1 Liw, lib. XXX. c. 42. lib. xxxi o. 5. ^ Livy. lib. xxxi. c. 28, 38, 41, &c. 3 Polybius, Kb. xviii. c. 27, et seq. c. 17. and lib. xvii. c. ^. 292 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF EOME. [CHAl'. XV. B.C. War with Antiodnis the Great. 197. in their own hands. Philip was forced also to satisfy the several demands of Attains, of the Ehodians, and of the other allies of Eome, except those of the JEtolians, whom it was now the pohcy of the Romans to humble ; as the depression of Philip had left them the principal power in Greece. In addition to these sacrifices, he was to surrender almost the whole of his navy, and to pay to Eome a thousand talents. Immediately'' after the conclusion of this treaty followed the memorable scene at the Isthmian games, where it was announced to all the multitude assembled on that occasion, that the Eomans bestowed entire freedom upon all those states of Greece which had been subject to the kings of Macedon. The Greeks, unable to read the future, and having as yet had no experience of the ambition of Eome, received this act with the warmest gratitude ; and seemed to acknowledge the Eomans in the character which they assumed, of protectors and deUverers of Greece. The kingdom of Macedon being now humbled, there was no one in a condition to dispute the power of the Eomans in Greece, except Antiochus, king of Syria. This prince had lately^ enlarged his dominions by reducing those cities on the coast of Asia Minor, which, in the course of the many wars between the successors of Alexander, had been gained by the kings of Egypt. He now pro- fessed his intention of crossing into Europe, and reuniting to his empire those cities and parts of Thrace which had been conquered from Lysimachns by one of his predecessors; and which had since been wrested from the crown of Syria by the kings of Egypt and Macedon. But the Eomans having now brought their war with Phihp to an end, resolved at once to stop the progress of Antiochus ; and their ambassadors, who found him at Lysimachia, required him to restore every place that he had taken from Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and to leave those cities independent, which hav- ing lately belonged to Philip, were now destined by the Eomans to enjoy their liberty. Antiochus replied, that the Eomans had no more concern in the affairs of Asia than he had in those of Italy : and the ambassadors departed without gaining their demands. In this state of things, the [Antiochus.] 1 Polyb. lib. xviii. o. 29, et seq. 2 Ibid. lib. xviii. c. 32, 33, and Livy, lib. xxxiii. c. 19, 38. CHAP. XV. J EXTEENAl ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 293 ^tolians,^ who were now totally alienated from the Eomans, in con- b.c. 197. sequence of the neglect with which they had been treated in arrang- ing the terms of the peace with Philip, eagerly solicited the king of Syria to enter Greece, encouraging him to hope, that with their assistance, he might destroy the influence of Rome in that country altogether. He accordingly crossed over with a smaU force, and was admitted, through the intrigues of the -Sltohans, and the in- clination of the inhabitants, into several places of importance ; but ^ the Achseans, and Eumenes, who had lately succeeded Attains on the throne of Pergamus, declared against him, and their forces occupied Chalcis in Eubcea, to secure it from his attacks. Philip, king of Macedon, also decided on taking part with the Eomans ; yet, notwithstanding, Antiochus succeeded in reducing Chalcis, and the whole of Euboea, and won besides several cities in Thessaly, whence he returned to Chalcis to pass the winter. The consiil Manius Acihus Glabrio arrived in Epirus in the ensuing spring ; and having marched thence into Macedonia to concert measures with Philip, and afterwards advancing into Thessaly, Antiochus took post at the famous pass of Thermopylae to oppose his farther progress. He was easUy dislodged, however, by the Romans ; and that with Antiochus such severe loss, that he thought it prudent at once to abandon ftom*^'^'^ Greece, and to return to Asia by sea from Chalcis, leaving the Thermopyia'. iEtohans to bear, as they best could, the whole weight of the Roman vengeance. They were accordingly attacked by the consul, Manius Acilius,^ and after seeing some of their towns tal^en, they implored and obtained an armistice for a certain period, in order to allow them time to send ambassadors to Rome. But the demands of the senate being more exorbitant than they could yet bring themselves to accept, the war was again renewed, and Manius * was actively em- ployed in besieging Amphissa, when the arrival of his successor, L. Cornehus Scipio, afforded the jEtolians another respite. The new consul, who was wholly bent on crossing over into Asia, to finish the war with Antiochus, was easily persuaded to grant the ^tohans a truce for sis months : and their affiirs were in so desperate a state, that even this doubtful favour seemed to them most acceptable. Having thus freed himself from the possible danger of leaving an enemy in his rear, L. Scipio set forward for the Hellespont,* accom- panied by his brother, the famous Scipio Africanus, who acted under him as his lieutenant. The march of the army was facilitated to the utmost by Philip, king of Macedon; who seems vainly to have hoped that by a faithful and zealous observance of the treaty of peace, he 1 Livy, lib. xxxv. c. 12, 33, 43, &c. 2 Ibid. lib. xxxY. c. 50, 51. lib. xxxvi. c. 14, et seq. s Ibid. lib. xxxvi. c. 22—35. * Polyb. lib. xxi. c. 1, 2, &c. ^ Livy, lib. xxxvii. c. 1, 7. 294 EXTERNAL ADTANCEMENT OF EOME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. [Thyatira.] 197. might soften the remorseless ambition of the Romans.' A naval victory, won by the Roman fleet, ensured the safety of the passage into Asia; and Antiochus, distrusting his own strength, abandoned the sea coast, and con- ^sm^^^^ centrated his army near Magnesia and Thyatira. Here he was attacked by the Romans, and totally defeated. Sardis and several other places sur- rendered immediately after the battle ; and Antiochus, completely^ panic struck, sent ambassadors to the consul and his brother, soliciting peace on their own terms. He was ordered accordingly to resign his pretensions to any dominion whatever in Europe, and to cede every thing that he pos- sessed in Asia westward of Mount Taurus: to pay fifteen thousand talents to the Romans within twelve years, to reimbiorse them for the expenses of the war: to pay to Eumenes, king of Pergamus, four hundred talents in money, and a certain quantity of com, which he had engaged by treaty to pay to the late king Attalus : to give up Hannibal and some other indi- viduals who were obnoxious to the Romans : and to give twenty hostages immediately as a pledge of his sin- cerity, to be selected at the pleasure of the consul. These terms were accep- ted by Antiochus, and hostilities ceased, therefore, on both sides. Ambassadors were then sent to Rome by Antio- chus, to procure a ratification of the peace from the senate and people; and by Eumenes, the Rhodians, and almost every state withia the limits ceded by the vanquished king, to court the favour of the new arbiters of the fate of Asia, and to gain for themselves large a share as possible of the spoils of the Syrian mon-^ After the several embassies had received an audience senate, the peace with Antiochus was ratified, and ten commissioners^ were appointed to settle all disputed points in Asia ; with these general instructions, that all the dominions ceded by the king of Syria to the Romans should be given to Eumenes, with the exception of Lycia and part of Caria, which were bestowed 1 Livy, lib. xxxvii. c. 30. 31, 33, et eeq. ^ Polyb. lib. xxi. c. 13, &c. 3 Ibid. lib. xxii. c. 7. [Sardis-l Conditions of arcbv. Peace offered „y« ,i ^ by the 01 "^e Romans to Antiochus. CHAP. XV. ] EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF KOJIE. 295 on the Ehodians; and those Greek cities which had paid tribute to b.c. 197. Aiitiochus, and which were now declared independent. But before these commissioners arrived in Asia, the Eoman arms had been employed in another successful war. Cn. Manhus ' Vulso, who suc- ceeded L. Scipio in the consulship, and in the command of the army in Asia Minor, anxious to distinguish himself by some conquest, had attacked the Galatians, or Asiatic Gauls, on the pretence that they had furnished assistance to Antiochus ; and, after several engage- Defeat of the ments, had obliged the different tribes to sue for peace. Their Galatians. , ambassadors came to him, towards the close of the winter, to receive his answer ; and, about the same time, Eumenes and the ten com- missioners arrived from Eome. A definitive treaty of peace was then concluded with Antiochus, in which, besides the concessions formerly mentioned, he agreed to give up almost the whole of his navy, and all his elephants, and not to make war in Europe, or in the islands of the .iEgean. The Galatians, having been already plundered to the utmost during the war, were only warned to confine themselves within their own limits, and not to molest the kingdom of Eumenes ; and Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, who had also given assistance to Antiochus, was obUged to deprecate the anger of Kome by the payment of six hundred talents ; half of which, however, was after- wards remitted to him at the intercession of Eumenes. This last Prince received a great increase of territory, both in Asia and in Europe ; and, together with the commonwealth of Ehodes, was in appearance the greatest gainer from the victory of the Eomans. However, in the mere act of giving away kingdoms at her discretion, Eome plainly declared the pre-eminence of her own power : and she soon after showed, that she could resume her gifts as easily as she had made them, whenever the conduct of her allies began to excite her jealousy. It has been already mentioned, that L. Scipio, when marching conquest of towards Asia, granted a truce for six months to the jEtolians ; ^ but ^'°^'a- as they could not yet be induced to surrender at discretion to the mercy of the Eomans, the war was again renewed, and M. Fulvius Nobilior, the colleague of Cn. Manlius in the consulship, crossed over into Greece to complete their subjugation. He first laid siege to Ambracia, which was vigorously defended ; but the jEtolians, now convinced of their inability to maintain the contest, sued for peace through the intercession of the Ehodians and Athenians ; and terms were at length granted them, which besides diminishing their territory, and obliging them to pay a sum of money, reduced them to a state of entire dependence on Eome, by obHging them to follow the Eomans in all their wars, and to acknowledge and obey the ' Polyb, lib. xxii. o. 16, 24, et seq.; Livy, lib. xxxviii. c. 12, et seq, 2 Livy, lib. xxxvii. c. 49. lib. xxxviii. c. 3, et seq. ; Polyb. lib. xxii. o. 9, et seq. 296 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [CHAP. XV B.C. 197. power and sovereignty of Eome. Their fate excites the less com- passion, when we remember that they first invited the Eomans into Greece, and that their faithless and ambitious policy had makdy contributed to prevent the union of the Greeks in one powerful state, which might have been able long to maintain its independence against every enemy. Intrigues Eleven years had not passed since the conclusion of the last war of Phihii. ^^-^ Macedon, when it became apparent that another was hkely to commence. In the late war vsdth Antiochus, PhUip, as has been seen, sided with the Eomans ; and thus took from the king of Syria the towns of jEnus and Maronea, and some other towns and fortresses on the coast of Tlirace ; and from the .^tolians several cities which they had occupied in Thessaly and Perrhfebia. All these places, at the conclusion of the vv^ar, he proposed to retain in his possession ; but on one side, Eumenes laid claim ' to the towns of Thrace, insisting that the Eomans had given to him that portion of the territories conquered from Antiochus ; and on the other, the Thessalians and Perrhajbians demanded the restoration of the cities taken possession of by Philip in their country ; urging that the Jiitolians had unjustly seized them, and that on their expulsion they ought to revert to their original and rightftd owners. The senate, as usual, appointed commissioners to hear and to decide on this question ; and sentence was given, as might have been expected, against the pretensions of Philip. He had no intention, however, to yield without resistance ; but not being yet prepared for war, he sought to gain time by sending his son Demetrius ^ to Eome to plead his cause. This prince had formerly been one of the hostages given by his father for his faithful execution of the terms of the last treaty with the Eomans ; and he had then so won the favour of many of the Eoman nobihty, that Phihp trusted much to the influence he might possess on the present occasion. Nor was he disappointed ; for Demetrius was sent back with renewed expressions of the kind- ness entertained for him by the senate ; and ^ with a promise, that out of regard for him, a fresh commission should be appointed to reconsider the points in dispute between Philip and his opponents. Yet the new commission confirmed the judgment of the former one, and Phihp was obliged to withdraw his garrisons from all the con- tested towns both in Thrace and Thessaly : nor did the favour shown by the Eomans to Demetrius produce any other result than his destruction. A suspicion arose that he aspired to succeed to the throne, through their support, to the exclusion of his elder brother Tragical end Perseus. This produced an open enmity between the brothers ; and DemVius. after many mutual accusations of each other, Philip, it is said,* was 1 Polyb. lib. xxiii. c. 6, 11 ; Livy, lib. xxxix. c. 23 et seq. 2 Polyb. lib. xxiil. c. 14. 3 Ibid. lib. xxiv. c. 2, 6. 1 Livy, lib. xL o. 24, 55, 56. [Denarius of Lepidus M. JSmilius,] CHAP. XV.] EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT 01' EOME. 297 induced to order the death of Demetrius by poison; but accord- B.C. 197. ing to the Roman writers, bemg afterwards convinced of his in- nocence, he intended to deprive Perseus of the succession, in abhorrence of his treachery towards his brother. He died, how- ever, before his intentions could be carried into effect, and Per- seus ascended the throne without difficulty. This account of the private affairs of the royal famUy of MacedoQ, as it relates to matters not likely to be known with Accession'ot certainty by the pubUc, and as it comes to us from writers disposed ^ ^ -j^yg to believe every calumny against Perseus, merits very little atten- tion. It is only known, that the Eomans were disposed, from the very beginning of his reign, to regard the new king of Macedon with aversion ; and that he, foreseeing that a war in defence of the inde- pendence of his crown would soon be inevitable, took every method of rendering himself popular in Greece, and of strengthening the internal resources of his kingdom. The Eomans aUeged^ as the causes of then- quarrel with Perseus, second that he had made war on some of their allies; that he endeavoured to draw away others to a con- nection with himself, incompatible with their duty to Kome ; and that he had hired assassins to make an attempt on the life of king Eumenes, when returning from Rome, whither he had gone to instigate the senate to declare wax against Macedon. In answer ^ to these charges, Perseus replied, that his hostilities with the allies of Rome were purely defensive : and the charge of intended assassination he strongly and flatly denied. With regard to his endeavouring to seduce the alhes of Rome from their fideUty, he is [peraeua.] made by Livy to refer to a former justifica- tion of himself on that point, which is not at present to be found in Livy's history. However, it is evident that the Romans were deter- mined on war, and that the king of Macedon took every step, consistent with the independence of his crown, to avoid it. Although the Romans = had accused hun of making great mihtary preparations in time of peace, and he was, in fact, in a far better condition to commence immediate hostUities than they were, yet he lost the opportunity thus afforded him from his anxious desire to negotiate ■u„j Macedonian ^^'J War. 1 Livy, lib. xlii. i;. 30, 40. ^ ibia. lib. xlii. c. 41. ^ ibid. lib. xlii. o. 43. 298 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP ROME. [CHAP. XV. Reflections on the War policy of Kome. B.C. 17'J. with the enemy ; and when he was actually driven to take up arms, and had gained some advantage over the consul Licinius, he instantly renewed his ' oiFers of peace, consenting to the same terms which his father had only submitted to after his total defeat at Cynocephale. The most open and unprincipled ambition in modern times, would hardly dare to avow such an answer as that made by the Eoman general to a proposal so concihatory. He replied,^ that Perseus must submit himself to the discretion of the senate, and allow it to decide on the state of Macedon, as it should think proper. In other words, the time was now come, when the Romans, in their career of conquest, had reached the kingdom of Philip and Alexander, and nothing could induce them to delay, far less to renounce, their resolution of sacrificing it to their lawless and systematic ambition. This refusal to negotiate after a defeat, was a general maxim of Eoman policy, and has often been extolled as a proof of heroic magnanimity. It should rather be considered as a direct outrage on the honour and independence of all other nations, which ought, in justice, to have put the people, who professed it, out of the pale of all friendly relations with mankind. In a moment of madness, the French convention, in 1794, passed a decree, that the garrisons of the four fortresses on the northern frontier, then in the possession of the aUies, should be put to the sword if they did not surrender within twenty-four hours after they were summoned. To this decree, a notice of which accompanied the summons of the besieging general, the Austrian governor of Le Quesnoy nobly replied, " No one nation has a right to decree the dishonour of another : I shall maintain my post so as to deserve the esteem of my master, and even that of the French people themselves." In like manner, a refusal to make peace, except on their submission, was to decree the dishonour of every other nation ; nor had Eome any right to insist, that what- ever were the events of a war, it should only be terminated on such conditions as should make her enemy the inferior party. Had other nations acted on the same principle, every war must necessarily have been a war of extermination ; and thus the pride of one people, would have multiphed infinitely the sufferings of the human race, and have reduced mankind to a state of worse than savage ferocity. The avowal of such a maxim, in short, placed Eome in a condition of actual hostility with the whole world ; and would have justified all nations in uniting together for the purpose of forcing a solemn and practical renunciation of it ; or, in case of a refusal, of extirpating utterly the Eoman people, as the common enemies of the peace and honour of mankind. After the refusal of the consul Licinius to negotiate with Perseus, the war was protracted for two years more without any decisive ' Polyb. lib. xxTii. u. 8. 2 Ibid. lib. xxvii. o. 28. CHAP. XV.j EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 299 success ; the Roman officers who were employed in it displaying little b.c. 179. ability or enterprise, and disgracing themselves by flagrant ' acts of extortion and oppression towards their allies. At last L. jSDmilius Paulus, son of the consul who was killed at Canna3, and himself inheriting his father's reputation for wisdom and valour, was chosen consul ; and the province of Macedonia falling to his share, he took every method to bring the war to a successful issue. Great care was ^ observed in the appointment of the officers who were to serve under him ; and when he arrived in Greece and took the command, he greatly reformed the discipline of the army, and brought it into a high state of order and activity. His exertions were soon rewarded Battle of by the battle of Pydna, of the details of which we have only the ^ "'^ account of Plutarch, but the event is abundantly known. The End of the JIacedonian army was totally destroyed, the cities of the kingdom Macldo" °' successively surrendered to the conquerors, and Perseus himself b.c. 168. shortly afber gave himself up to the consul's mercy. He was taken to Rome with his family to adorn the triimiph of ^milius ; and, according to Paterculus, died about four years afterwards at Alba,' which was assigned as the place of his confinement. His principal nobility, and every man * who had ever held any office under him, were ordered to transport themselves into Italy on pain of death ; lest they should disturb the new settlement of their country. Macedonia was then divided into four districts ; each of which was to be under a republican government. Half the tribute formerly paid to the king was henceforward to be paid to the Romans, who also appropriated to themselves the produce of all the gold and silver mines of the kingdom. The inhabitants were forbidden to fell timber for ship-building ; and aU intermarriages and sales of land between the people of the several districts were forbidden. With these marks of real slavery, they were left, for the present, nominally free ; and Macedonia was not yet reduced to the form of a Roman province. It is curious to observe how, after every successive conquest, the condactof Romans altered their behaviour to those allies who had aided them ^^^V" ^'^^ to gain it, and whose friendship or enmity was now become indiffer- ent to them. Thus, after their first war with Philip, they sHghted the jEtolians ; after they had vanquished Antiochus, they readily 1 Livy. lib. xliii. c. 4, 5, 6, &o. Ibid, lib xliv. c. 21, 34. 3 Vid. Veil. Patercul. lib. i.— But it would be nearer the truth to say, that Perseus was murdered by the Romans ; for after having suffered such cruel treatment in the dungeon to which he was at first consigned, that jEmllius Paullus complained of it in the Senate as a national disgrace, he was removed to a less miserable prison; and there having ofiended the soldiers who guarded him, they, in revenge, harassed him night and day, and never allowed him to sleep, till he expired under their persecutions. — Vid. Fragment. Diodor. Sicul. lib. xxxi. p. 893, edit. Ehodom : — and Mithridatis JSpistolam, apud Fragm. Sallust. * Livy, lib. xlv. c. 32. 29. 300 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 168. listened to complaints against Philip; and now the destruction of Macedon enabled them to use the language of sovereigns rather than of allies to their oldest and most faithful friends, Eumenes, the Ehodians, and the Achssans. The' senate first tampered with Attains, the brother of Eumenes, hoping that he might be persuaded to accuse his brother, and to petition for a share of his dominions; but when they found him deaf to their temptations, they retracted some promises which they had before made him, in the hope that he would listen to them. Afterwards, when Eumenes himself landed in Italy, on ^ his way to Eome, with the view of remo-ving the suspicions entertained against him, the senate, aware of his purpose, issued an order, that no king should be allowed to come to Eome ; and despatched one of the qusestors to announce it to him at Brundusium, and to command him to leave Italy immediately. Offence of The Ehodians had offended by declaring, openly, " that they' were Eifodiars. tired of the war with Perseus ; that he, as well as the Eomans, was the friend of their commonwealth ; that they should wish to see the contending parties reconciled; and that they would themselves declare against those whose obstinacy should be an impediment to peace." This declaration, which was received at Eome most indig- nantly, had been privately recommended by Q. Marcius, the Eoman consul, to one of the Ehodian ambassadors, who had visited him in his camp, in Macedonia, during the preceding year : and Polybius * reasonably conjectures, that Marcius, confident of a speedy victory over Perseus, gave this advice to the Ehodians, with the treacherous purpose of furnishing the senate with a future pretence of hostility against them. However, their fault was punished by the loss of Lycia and Caria,^ which the senate now declared independent ; and the individuals who were accused of favouring Perseus were given up to the Eomans,^ or, at the instigation of Eoman officers, were put to death by the Ehodian government. Nor should it be ' omitted, that a general inquiry was instituted throughout Greece into the conduct of the principal men in the several states during the late war. Those who were accused by their countrymen, of the Eoman party, of having favoured Perseus, were summoned to Eome to plead their cause as criminals ; and some were even put to death. But if the mere opinions and inchnations of individuals were thus punished, the states which had actually taken part with Macedon met with a still heavier destiny. Let it be for ever remembered, that by a decree ^ of the senate, seventy towns of Epirus were given 1 Polyb. lib. XXX. o. 1, et seq. 2 Ibid. o. 17. 3 Ibid. lib. xxix. o. 7; Livy, lib. xliv. c. 14. * Ibid. )ib. xxviii. o. 15. * Ibid. lib. XXX. c. 6. 8 Livy, lib. xlv. c. 10. ' Ibid. Ub. xlv. c. 32. 8 Polyb. lib. XXX. o, 15 ; Livy, Ub. xlv. c. 34 ; Plutarch, in Vita ^milii PauUi, c. 29. CHAP. XV.J EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 301 up to be plundered by the Roman army, after all bostilities were at b.c. 168. an end ; that falsehood and deceit were used to prevent resistance or escape ; and that, in one day and one hour, seventy towns were sacked and destroyed, and one hundred and fifty thousand human beings sold for slaves. The instrument employed on this occasion craeity of was L. iEmUius Paullus, the conqueror of Macedon, and one of *•"= ^""'"^ those whom we are taught to regard as models of Eoman virtue. There is no reason to doubt his sincere affection for his country, his indifference to money, and his respectability as a citizen, husband, son, and father. But it is useful to see what dreadful actions the best men of ancient times were led unhesitatingly to commit, from the utter absence of a just law of nations, and the fatal habit of making their country the supreme object of their duty. Nor is it possible that these evils should be prevented, unless truer notions have insensibly established themselves in the minds of men, even of those who are least grateful to the source from which they have derived them ; and if modern Europe be guided by purer principles, the christian historian cannot forget from what cause this better and happier condition has arisen. It remains now that we speak of the conduct of the Romans The ^ Achaeans. [view of Achaia, afUr Williame, by Sargmt-I 302 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 168. towards the Achseans. The early history of the Achsean league, and the leaning of its councils towards a friendly connection with Macedon, has been already noticed. In the war between the Romans and Philip, however, the Achseans were persuaded to join with the former ; a step which Polybius ' describes as absolutely necessary for their safety; whether it were altogether equally honourable, we have hardly the means of deciding. But their new connection, whatever may be thought of its origin, was ever after- wards faithfiiUy observed: insomuch, that the Romans, though sufficiently adroit in finding matter of complaint, when they were disposed to do so, and though oflFended by the free and independent tone which the Achaean government always maintained towards them, coidd yet obtain no tolerable pretext for attacking them. There was, however, a traitor amongst the Achseans named Calli- crates,^ who, jealous of the popularity of the ruling party in the councils of his country, endeavoured to supplant them through the influence of Rome ; and to ingratiate himself with the senate, by representing his opponents as despisers of the Roman authority, which he and his friends vainly endeavoured to uphold. After the Macedonian war, his intrigues' were carried to a greater extent than ever. He accused a great number of the most eminent of his countrymen of having favoured the cause of Perseus; and al- though the conduct of the Achsean government towards Rome had been perfectly blameless, and nothing was found among the papers of the king of Macedon which confirmed the charge, even against any of its individual citizens, yet, on the demand of the Romans, 1000 arrested more than a thousand of the most eminent men in the common- iteiy!^° ° wealth were arrested and sent into Italy, under pretence that they B.C. 167. should be tried for theii conduct at Rome. On their arrival in Italy, they were confined in the different cities of Tuscany, and there remained nearly seventeen years. The senate repeatedly refused the petition of the Achajan government, that they might either be released, or else be brought to trial. It is added, that whoever among them were at any time detected in endeavouring to escape, were invariably put to death. At last,* after most of them had died in captivity, the influence of Cato the censor was exerted in behalf of the survivors, at the request of Scipio Jimilianus ; who was anxious to serve one of their number, his own familiar fHend, the historian Polybius. But the manner in which Cato pleaded their cause deserves to be recorded. He represented the Achaean prisoners as unworthy of the notice of the senate of Rome : " We sit here all day," said he, " as if we had nothing to do, debating about the fate of a few wretched old Greeks, whether the under- ' Pdy. lib. xvii. c. 13. 2 Ibid, lib xxvi. c. 1, et seq. 3 Ibni. lib. XXX. c. 10 ; Pansanias, Achsea, c. 10. * Polyb. lib. XXXV. c. 6. CHAP. XV.j EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 303 takers of Eome or Achsea are to have the burying of them." We b.o. 1C7. have dwelt the more fuUy on this treatment of the Achseans, because it sets in the clearest light, the character of the Roman government ; and enables us to appreciate the state of the world under the Koman dominion, when such men as Polybius were subject to the worst oppression and insolence, from a nation which boasted of Cato the censor as one of its greatest ornaments. Hitherto, however, Achsea and the rest of Greece still enjoyed a importance nominal independence, notwithstanding the real supremacy of the ^ p°''']Tq' Koman power. But within little more than twenty years from the overthrow of Perseus, even these poor remains of freedom were destroyed. A man' of low condition, named Andriscus, availing himself of his personal resemblance to the royal family of Macedon, assumed the name of Philip, and pretending that he was the son of Perseus, was joyfully received by the Macedonians. After a short contest, he was defeated and led prisoner to Eome by Q. Csecilius ^Metellus ; and from henceforward Macedon was placed entirely on the footing of a Roman province. The fall of Achasa followed almost at the same time. It appears^ that a party had lately acquired an Aohican ascendency in the Achsan councils, warmly inclined to throw off ^'*''' the control of Eome ; but without the wisdom or integrity which had enabled Philopoemen and Lycortas to command respect from the Romans, wliile they avoided giving them the slightest pretence for attacking their independence. The party now in power, on the contrary, seemed bent upon provoking a war with Rome. They attacked Lacedsemon,* which, although obliged to become a member of the Achaean confederacy, was on all occasions ready to break off its connection ; and when the Lacedaemonians appealed to Rome, and commissioners were sent as usual to give their judgment, the Achajan government treated them with the utmost indifference, and took the most violent measures for exciting popular feeling through- out Greece against the arbitrary iaterference of the Romans. The ferment was at its height when the commissioners, who had arrived at Corinth,* pronounced it to be the pleasure of the senate, that not only Lacedasmon, but Corinth also, and Argos, and several other states which had been united with the AcWans, should now be separated from them, because they had originally formed no part of Achffia. Nothing can be said in excuse of this decision, which was alike insolent and unjust ; yet, where resistance is so evidently hopeless, as it was at this time in Greece, it must ever be condemned as a useless aggravation of a people's sufferings. The whole frame of society was loosened by the Achsean leaders ; and great immediate evils were occasioned with no reasonable prospect of their leading 1 Livy, Epitom. lib. xlix. 1 ; Floras, lib. ii. u. 14 ; Jornand. lib. i. 2 Polyb. lib. xxxviii. c. 1, &c. 3 Pansanias, Acbaica, o. 8, et seq. * Pausanias, Achaica, c. 14. 304 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [CHAP. XV. li.c. 148. to permanent good. Slaves' were set at liberty, and enlisted, to swell the Achaean army ; debtors were protected from their creditors; and heavy requisitions were laid on all individuals, male and female, to contribute to the wants of the commonwealth. But there was no correspondmg spirit in the people ; and these strong measures which, if adopted voluntarily, often produce effects so wonderful, were considered vexatious and oppressive, when enforced by an unpopular government. Metellus, at this time, commanded in Macedonia; and wishing to win the double glory of being the pacificator of Macedon and Achsa, he was anxious to persuade the Achseans to submit before Mummius the consul should arrive to take the com- mand against them. His advances were slighted, because they were attributed to fear ; and an Achaean army^ marched towards Thermopylee to oppose his march into Greece. But so totally unequal were the Greeks to the maintenance of this contest, that they abandoned their ground on the first approach of Metellus; and, being overtaken on their retreat, were immediately and completely routed. Metellus then advanced towards Corinth, having reduced Thebes and Megara on his march ; and his offers of peace being again rejected, he was obhged to surrender the task of finally subju- gating Greece to L. Mummius, who about this time arrived fi'om Italy. The new commander finished the war in a single battle, Capture of under the walls of Corinth. Diseus, the Achsean general, fled to ';°™"'; , /> MegalopoUs, and there destroyed himself by poison ; the Corinthi- ' ans, for the most part, abandoned their city, and Mummius entered it with little or no resistance. But every horror that follows the most hardly won capture of a town by storm, was practised with dehberate cruelty. Most of the citizens were slain ; the women and children were sold for slaves ; the temples and houses were alike ransacked; and Corinth, finally, was burnt to the ground. The Ach»an league was then dissolved, and Greece was henceforward treated as a province, was subjected to tribute, and was governed by a Koman Proconsul or Prsetor. We have thus related the final overthrow of Grecian independence, somewhat more particularly than the difficulty of the conquest or its particular importance might seem to demand. Something, however, is due to the memory of illustrious names ; and interested as we are from our childhood in the fortunes of Greece, the story of its fall cannot be read without attention. It now remains that we turn to a scene in itself far more striking, and presenting a stiU more painfiil picture of misery and atrocious ambition, the third Punic war, and the destruction of Carthage. Statft of Since the time at which Hannibal was obhged to abandon his Carthage. cotmtry, by the animosity of those whose corruptions he had exposed 1 Polyb. lib. xi c. 2. lib. xxxviii. c. 3. 2 Pausanias, Achaica, c. 15, 16. CHAP. XV.] EXTERNAL ADVAlfCEMENT OF KOME. 305 and checked, and by the jealousy of the Romans, Carthage seems to B.C. 149. have rested quietly in the state of humUiation to which the event of the second Pimic war had reduced her. Forbidden as she was, by the terms of the treaty of peace, to take up arms against the aUies of the Eoman people, she was obliged to suffer repeated aggressions on the part of Masinissa, King of Numidia; and when, as her only resource, she apphed to Eome ' for protection, she found a tardy and insuiEcient redress. She observed, however, faithiully, the conditions of her submission ; and Carthaginian ships formed a part of the Eoman fleet, in the wars with Antiochus and %vith Perseus. But when some years had elapsed after the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy, the Eomans, having no other enemy to attract their attention, felt their hatred of Carthage revive ; and it was openly professed by some members of the senate, that the very existence of that commonwealth ^ ought no longer to be permitted. The resistance which the Carthaginians had been at last driven to make to the continued encroachments and hostUities of Masinissa, furnished the Eomans with a pretext for declaring war ; and the two consuls, with two consular armies and a large fleet, were despatched to Sicily, in order to cross over from that island into Africa as soon as possible. The Carthaginians had tried every means of pacifying the Eomans, ^^J^™j"'"" without throwing themselves entirely upon their mercy ; but when they found that an army was actually on its way to attack them, and that Utica,' the most important of all their dependencies in Africa, had already offered an entire submission to the Eomans, the danger seemed too great for any further hesitation ; and their ambassadors at Eome announced to the senate, that Carthage yielded herself up entirely to its disposal In return, they were promised the enjoyment of their laws and hberty, and the uninterrupted possession of their lands and moveable property, on condition that they should send over to Lilybseum, within thirty days, three hundred children, of the first fanulies in Carthage, as hostages, and that they should obediently receive the commands which the consuls should deliver to them on their arrival in Africa. A vague suspicion of the fate that awaited them possessed the Carthaginians on the return of their ambassadors ; still they resolved to persevere in their submissions. The hostages were sent to LUybEeum, and then were despatched to Eome ; and a deputation waited on the consuls soon after their landing at Utica, to know the final pleasure of the senate, and to express the readiness of Carthage to obey it. The consuls commanded that all arms, offensive and defensive, and all engines of war, should be surrendered to them ; and even this was complied with.* A number of members of the supreme council, of priests, and of other individuals of the ' Appian, Punica, c. 68, 69. - Livy, lib. xxxvi. o. 42. lib. xlii c. 56. " Appian, Panioa, c. 69, et seq. ; Polyb. lib. xxxvi. c. 1, et seq. * Appian, Punica, c. 80, et $eq. [r. H.] X 306 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [chap. XV. B.C. Cmel decision of Censorinus. Ttiird Punic war. 149. greatest distmction in Carthage, followed the long train of waggons in which the arms were carried to the Eoman camp. They hoped to move compassion, by the sight of all that was most noble and most venerable in their country reduced to the condition of sup- pliants. But one of the consiils, L. Marcius Censorinus, having arisen, and composed his countenance, says Appian, to an expression ' of sternness, briefly told them, "That they must abandon Carthage, and remove to any place more inland, that should be about nine or ten miles distant from the sea ; for Carthage," said he, " we are resolved to raze to the ground." This declaration was received by the Carthaginians who heard it, with the most lively emotions of rage and despair ; they vented curses against the Romans, as if wishing to provoke them to forget the sacred character which they bore. To this burst of passion the deepest grief succeeded ; they bewailed the fate of their country with such agony of sorrow, that it is said even the Romans were moved to tears ; and they attempted even yet to obtain from the consuls a mitigation of their sentence. But when Censorinus repeated that the orders of the senate must be performed, and that immediately, and when the hctors began to drive the deputation from the consuls' presence, they begged to be heard again for a few moments ; and then said, that they only entreated the Romans to advance with their fleet instantly to the city, to prevent the people from provoking their utter destruction by some act of despair. Censorinus accordingly moved forward with twenty ships, and remained off the mouth of the harbour, while the Cartha- ginians brought back the report of their doom to Carthage. The tidings were received with one common feeling of indignation by the supreme council and by the people. Generals were chosen immediately ; and when the consuls reftised to grant a truce for thirty days, in order that ambassadors might be sent to Rome, war was at once resolved on ; and the whole population, men and women alike, began to labour night and day in the fabrication of arms, to supply the place of those which they had surrendered. The consuls, after waiting some days, to see if the ferment would subside, at length marched towards Carthage, and the operations of the siege com- menced. But such was the strength of the fortifications, and such the spirit of their defenders, that, notwithstanding their want of arms, they repulsed every attempt of the enemy ; and the Roman army, baffled by the Carthaginians, and suffering from sickness, saw the year draw to a close without having obtained any other success than such as the extreme vackedness of the cause deserved.^ Nor were the consuls of the following year more fortunate ; and the spirits of the Carthaginians, encouraged by their long resistance, began to anticipate a final dehverance. Masinissa, the old ally of 1 Appian, Punica, u. 80. 2 Ibid. c. 105, et seq. CHAP. XY.J EXTEENAJL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 307 Eome, was lately dead ; and his sons, among whom his dominions B.C. 149. were divided, whilst promising succours to the Roman army, evidently showed no real disposition to assist it. But in the third year of the war, P. Scipio .^Emilianus, the son of ^milius Paullus, but adopted into the family of Scipio by the son of the famous Africanus, was elected consul, and appointed to the command in Africa by an especial vote of the people. He had greatly distinguished himself under the former consuls, when serving as a military tribune ; and there was besides a superstitious persuasion among the people in his favour, that the Scipios were destined to be the conquerors of Carthage. On Ms succeeding to Scipio heads the command, his first care was to restore the discipUne of the army, Amy? which had suffered greatly from the misconduct of the last consul ; and by his ability in this respect, as well as by his skill in the conduct of the war, he soon destroyed all the hopes of the Cartha- ginians. The situation of Carthage, from this time, began to resemble the picture left us of the miseries of Jerusalem in its last siege by Titus. Numbers died of famine through the strictness of the blockade ; numbers deserted to the enemy ; while Hasdrubal, who commanded the principal military force in the town,' was himself rioting in luxury, and exercising the greatest tyranny over his countrymen ; his conduct as a general, at the same time, being totally destitute of courage and wisdom, and marked only by savage cruelty towards the prisoners who fell into his power. Yet ^ the city continued to hold out during the year of Scipio's consulship ; and the winter was employed by him successfully in reducing the strong-holds which still remained in the power of the Carthaginians in the neighbouring country. In the following spring, his command being still continued, he resumed the siege with vigour ; and, by a combination of assaults, succeeded in forcing Ms way into one of the quarters of the city, when famine had enfeebled the bodies and the spirits of its defenders. But the Byrsa or Citadel still remained imtaken ; and six days were consumed in a horrible struggle from street to street, and from house to house ; in the course of wMch, fire and the sword, and the ruin of falling buildings, combined to carry on the work of destruction to the uttermost. At last the Capture remnant of the inhabitants sued for mercy, and it was granted them ; such mercy as was practised in ancient times, when hopeless slavery, without distinction of sex or age, was the lot of aU whom the sword had spared. Fifty thousand individuals were thus made prisoners, to enrich their conquerors by the price to be paid for them in the slave market at Eome ; and the victorious army was then allowed to plunder the city for several days. Shortly after, a commission ' of ten senators was sent itom Eome, as usual, to determine the future 1 Polyb. lib. xxxix. o. 2. ^ Appian, Punica, o. 126, et seg. 3 Appian, Fnnica, u. 135, et sej. 308 EXTEENAL ADVANCEMENT OF KOME. [CHAP. XV. And destruction of Carthage, B.C. July, 146. Profrreas of the Roman amis In Spain. T^.c. 149. condition of the conquered country. By their orders, whatever part of the buildings of Carthage had survived the siege, was now levelled with the ground ; and curses were imprecated on any man who should hereafter attempt to build on the spot. The territory was subjected to a tribute, and governed henceforth as a Eoman province ; with the exception of certain portions which were given to the people of Utica and Hippo, as a reward for their timely desertion of the Carthaginian cause. Thus was the great rival of Kome totally destroyed, only a few months before the final conquest of Greece, in the year of Eome 608, and about a hundred and forty- six years before the Christian era. It will now, perhaps, be most advisable to trace the progress of the Roman arms in Spain and Gaul ; then to notice the accessions to their empire gained in Africa by the conquest of Jugurtha ; and to conclude with a general view of the extent of their dominion at the period which forms the limit of the present sketch. The end of the second Punic war had left the Eomans no other enemies in Spain to contend with than the natives themselves : but these were of so stubborn and warlike a temper, that it was not easy to effect their subjugation. It may be asked, what claim of right could be advanced by the Eomans in attempting this conquest ; and no answer can be given, except that a civilized nation, in its intercourse with an uncivilized one, easily finds grounds of quarrel, while it exacts from men, ignorant of all law, an obsei^ance of those rules which men, in a more advanced state of society, have agreed to call the law of nations. Those Spanish tribes that had been subject to Carthage were treated by the Eomans, on the defeat of the Carthaginians, as a conquered people, were subjected to a tribute, and governed with the usual arbitrary authority of the Eoman provincial magistrates. If they attempted to shake off the yoke, it was not unnatural that some warriors of those tribes, which were yet independent, should join the armies of their countrymen : and this afforded the Eomans a pretext sometimes for demanding hostages from the people whose citizens had been found in arms against them ; or, sometimes, for requiring the surrender of their arms ; conditions which, since in their eyes they imphed degradation, were generally refused, and thus gave occasion to war. If, on the contrary, they were acceded to, the Eomans would proceed to exercise some acts of sovereignty which would provoke the tribe to take up arms; or the mere detention of their hostages was a continual irritation to their minds, which at last would break out in open hostility. Or, if this pretence [Denarius, b o. 144.] Political and Military- system of Eome. CHAP. XV.J EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP ROME. 309 failed, tliere was another wloicli could scarcely ever be wanting. Kb.C. 146. the vanquished soldiers of any tribe engaged in war with Eome received from their countrymen the ordinary succours of humanity, if they were entertained or sheltered, this was called assisting the enemies of the Eepublic, and was supposed to justify a Eoman general in demanding satisfaction from those who had been guilty of it. This was the original cause of the quarrel between Rome and Numantia." Thirdly, if there were any tribes whose situation or whose caution had preserved them from any sort of connection with the enemies of the Romans, some dispute amongst themselves was likely, sooner or later, to arise; and the vanquished party was always sure to find in the Romans willing and effectual supporters. The Roman" generals instantly interfered as arbiters ; and if their decision was not submitted to, they presently proceeded to enforce it by arms. A system hke this steadily pursued amongst a warlike and independent people, naturally furnished the Romans with an occasion of attacking, in their turn, the inhabitants of every part of the Peninsula. Of all these, the most obstinate and successftil in their resistance were the Lusitanians and Numantians. The first, Lusitanian under^ the command of Viriathus, a chief of remarkable enterprise ^'"'^ ™*' and ability, maintained the contest for several years, and defeated several of the Roman officers ; tUl their leader was assassinated by three of his followers, at the instigation of ServUius Caepio, the B.C. 140. Eoman general, then commanding against him. Numantia has Nvimantian acquired still greater fame, by the disgraces which its inhabitants ^'^^' inflicted on the Eoman arms, and the desperation of their final defence. They obHged a Eoman consul,* C. Hostihus Mancinus, to purchase the safety of his army by an unfavourable treaty ; and when the senate, in contempt of the public faith, refused to ratify the terms, and ordered Mancinus to be given up to the enemy to expiate his act with his own life, the Numantians refiised to accept him : and the Eoman writers record, without a blush, this contrast between the honour of the barbarians and their own perfidy. At last Scipio ■tEmilianus, the conqueror of Carthage, was elected consul, on pur- pose to carry on the war with Numantia. With an army of sixty thousand men, he blockaded the city, the male population of which had never exceeded ^ eight thousand ; and fearing to encounter the despair of the inhabitants, he hemmed them in with fines of circum- vallation, and waited patiently tiU famine should do his work for him. without danger to himself The Numantines tried to obtain tolerable conditions; but they had been too formidable to find mercy from an enemy like the Romans, who never had any sympathy with ^ Floras, lib. ii. c. 18. ^ Appian, Hispanica, o. 61. 3 Appian, Hispanica, c. 61, et sea. ; Floras, lib. ii. c. 17 ; Veil. PatercvJus, lib. iL ■* Appian, Hispanica, c. 80, 83 ; Veil. Paterculns, lib. ii. ; Floras, lib. ii. c. 18. s Appian, Hispan. c. 97. Floras makes them only four thousand, lib. ii. c. 18. 310 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 133. courage from whicli they themselves had suffered. Findmg that Destruction they had no hope left, the besieged mostly destroyed themselves and their relations, and a few only surrendered alive to the conqueror. He selected ' fifty of their number to adorn his triumph, the rest he sold for slaves, and then levelled Numantia to the ground ; and for such a victory, so hardly won, over an enemy so inferior in numbers and resources, he was extoUed with the highest praises at Eome, and received the surname of Numantinus. Still, even after the destruction of Numantia, the Spaniards continued, at various times, to maintain the struggle for liberty ; nor were they fully reduced to obedience tiU a much later period than that with which we are now concerned. In Gaul, The Romans were first led to carry their arms into Transalpine Gaul, by an application from the people of the Greek colony of Mar- seilles, to protect them against the assaults of some of the native tribes in their neighbourhood. An embassy to this effect remains recorded in one of the "Fragments"^ of Polybius, and appears to have taken place as early as the year of Rome, 600 ; but no impor- tant consequences seemed to have foUowed from it immediately. About twenty-eight years afterwards, however, on a new complaint from the people of Marseilles, a Roman army attacked and conquered the Salyes,' a tribe of Transalpine Gauls ; and after then- defeat, the AUobroges and Arverni, their neighbours, were accused of having given them assistance, and of having offered injuries also to the -iEdui, another Gaulish tribe, which had before obtained the friend- ship of Rome. Several victories were gained over these new enemies, and one or two colonies were founded in Gaul ; such as * Aquae Sextise, or Aix, in Provence, planted by C. Sextius, and Narbo,' or Narbonne, the origin of which is fixed a little later. By these means, the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, on both sides of the Rhone, from the Alps to the Pyrenees, and extending inland as far as the Jura* and the mountains of Auvergne, were reduced to the form of a Roman province, about the year of Rome, 632. Sketch of the While the repubhc was thus extending its dominion in Spain and Ju^rtha ^aul, its empire in Africa received an important addition in the conquest of Numidia. After the destruction of Carthage, the prin- cipal part of the territories of that commonwealth were at once subjected to the Roman government ; and thus the Romans were brought into close contact with the kings of Numidia; whose dominions lay to the west and south-west of Carthage, and stretched ■along the coast of the Mediterranean, tiU. they were bounded by the 1 Appian, Hispan. c. 98. 2 Polyb. lib. xxxiii. c. 4. 3 Floras, lib. iii. o. 2 ; Livy, Epifcom. lib. Ix. Ixi. ; Appian, Gallioa, o. 12. * Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixi. — Cassiodori Chronioon. 5 Veil. Patercul. lib. i. e Pliay, Histor. Natural, lib. iii. c. 4. CHAP. XV. J EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP EOME. 311 confines of Mauritania. The name of Numidians, borrowed from B.C. 133. the Greek term Nomades, signifies a people who live by pasturage ; and has accidentally become the peculiar appellation of the native tribes in the west of Africa ; although, under the government of Syphax, Masiaissa, and Micipsa, they seemed to have been, in many respects, advanced far above a mere pastoral life. Micipsa,' the son of Masinissa, divided his kingdom between his sons Hiempsal and Adherbal, and his nephew Jugurtha; but on his death, Jugurtha, who was much older than his cousins, and who had acquired military experience and high distinction, by serving in the Roman army at the siege of Numantia, at once proceeded to assassinate Hiemp- sal, and then openly invaded the domin- ions of the surviving prince, Adherbal. He easily overcame him, stripped him of his territories, and obliged him to fly to Rome for reftige and redress. But dreading lest the Romans should avail themselves of so fair a pretext to seize upon the kingdom of Numidia for them- selves, he strove to deprecate their enmity by employing bribery, to a large extent, among the mem- bers of the senate ; and thus nothing was done in favour of Adher- bal, except the sending a commission of ten senators to Africa, to divide the kingdom between him and Jugurtha. It is said,^ how- ever, that this commission was also corrupted by Jugurtha, and thus was induced to assign to him by far the most valuable share of Micipsa's inheritance. Of this he took advantage, and in a short time he again attacked Adherbal, defeated him, shut him up in the strong town of Cista, and there besieged him for some months ; tiU the Italian soldiers, who formed the most effective part of the garri- son, persuaded Adherbal to surrender himself to his rival, and, stipulating only for his hfe, to rely for every thing else on the inter- position of Rome. But no sooner had he given himself up, than Adheibai put Jugurtha ordered him to be put to death in torments. *° **"'• Sahust, the warm partisan of Caesar, and anxious, therefore, to viUify to the utmost the character of the senate, asserts,* that even this flagrant crime would have been passed over with impunity, owing to the influence which Jugurtha had obtained, by his bribes, among the nobility, had not one of the tribunes roused the feehngs of the people, and denounced the scandalous motives to which, as he said, the senators were sacrificing the honour of their country. [Jugyrtha.] Sallust, Bell. Jugurthin. c. 9, et seq. 2 n,i(j. e. 16. 3 Ibid. c. 27. 312 EXTEKNAL ADVANCEMENT OP ROME. [chap. XV. BC. 111. Jugurthine war. Metellus restores the Roman discipline. However this be, war was declared against Jugurtha ; and L. Bestia Calphurnius, one of the consuls, was sent over to Africa to com- mence hostilities against him. Still, we are told,' Juguitha con- tinued to employ his usual arts : and the consul, after suffering the campaign to be protracted in fruitless negotiations, at last granted his enemy peace, on condition of his laying down his arms, and submitting himself and his kingdom to the Eomans. But only a small part of Jugurtha's resources were in fact surrendered; and the consul returning to Eome to preside at the elections for the ensuing year, the war was as far from conclusion as ever. The suc- ceeding season was equally unproductive of any decisive event ; but towards the close of it, when the consul Sp. Albinus had, as usual, returned to Eome, the army which he left under the command of his brother sustained a severe defeat from the enemy, and was reduced to such diiEculties, as to purchase its retreat by a promise of evacuating Numidia within ten days ; and, it is added, by con- cluding a treaty of peace. But Jugurtha, who had served at Numantia, must have remembered how hghtly the senate could violate the stipulations made by its officers ; and he could not, reasonably, calculate on gaining any other advantage from his agreement, than the getting rid of the Eoman army for the present. The treaty, as he might have expected, was immediately disavowed at Eome ; and the new consul, Q. Csecilius MeteUus, was likely to prove a far more formidable adversary than those whom he had hitherto encountered. Metellus was bent on prosecuting the war in earnest. He reformed the discipline of the army, which is always described as faulty, when the usual career of Eoman victory was delayed or interrupted ; but he did not scruple, at the same time, to tamper^ with the several officers whom Jugurtha sent to him to propose terms of peace, and to tempt them to betray, or even to assassinate their master. He evaded giving any decisive answer to the offers made to him, but continued to advance into the heart of Jugurtha's comitry ; and had deprived him of a large portion of his resources, before the Numidian perceived that his enemy was merely amusing him, and that he had nothing but the sword to trust to. In the course of the campaign, Metellus gained some advantages, but he received also several severe checks from the activity of Jugurtha, who turned to the best account his own perfect knowledge of the country, and the pecuhar excellence of his subjects in desultory warfare. Experience, however, taught Metellus to guard more completely against this kind of annoyance ; and his intrigues were so successful with the principal officers of his enemy, that Jugurtha found those whom he had most trusted engaged in a conspiracy against his fife ; and although he escaped the immediate danger by 1 Bell. Jugurthin. u. 29. 2 Ibid. 0. 46. [Caius Marius.] CHAP. XV.J EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 313 putting them to deatli, his prospects for the future were overcast B.r. 111. with fear, and he regarded every one about him with suspicion. itiseofCaius Meantime the famous Caius Maritis/ who Manus. had served with distinction under Metel- lus, as his second in command, impatient of holding an inferior station, and coveting to himself the glory of conquering Jugur- tha, had obtained leave to go to Rome, and offer himself as a candidate for the consulship. He was a man of low birth, and totally illiterate ; but active and able, with power sufficient to make him feared by the nobility, and with an inveterate hatred against them, because their scorn of his mean condition galled his pride, and impeded his way to greatness. By depre- ciating^ Metellus, and promising soon to end the war if the command were in his own hands, he won the favour of the multitude ; for invectives against high birth and station, joined to an unabashed self-assurance, are powerful pleaders with the low and the ignorant ; and he was elected for the first time his first to that office which he afterwards filled more frequently than any Consulship. other Eoman ; and in which he was the author of as signal military services, and as great domestic injuries, as any one individual has ever been known to bring upon his country. Marius, soon after his election, received from the people, in spite He is of a contrary resolution of the senate, the command of the army in command *" Numidia, and the conduct of the war with Jueurtha. On his arrival '^"''"ll m Ainca, he found that some of the most miportant towns m Numi- b_c_ 107. dia had been taken by Metellus, and that Jugurtha had implored and obtained the assistance of Bocchus, king of Mauritania, so that he had an additional enemy to encounter. But Bocchus, having no direct interest in the quarrel, did not refuse to hsten to the overtures of the Eoman general ; and promised himself, if the fortune of war should prove adverse, to secure his own interests, by surrendering Jugurtha to his enemies. However, for the present, the two kings were in close alliance with each other; and Marius, in hopes of bringing them to action, employed himself in besieging some of the most valuable towns and fortresses in the Numidian dominions. It is worthy of notice, that at Capsa,' a strong place in one of the remotest parts of the country, after it had been surrendered, the whole male population was massacred, the women and children were sold for slaves, and the city was plundered and burnt ; for no other reason than because the place was inconvenient for the Eomans to garrison. 1 Bell. Jugurth. c. 63, 64, &c. 2 Sallust, c. 64. 3 Ibid. c. 91. 314 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP EOME. [CHAP. XV, B.C. 107. and the people were not thought trustworthy. If we remember how strong a sensation has been excited in our own times, by the massacre of the Turkish prisoners at JaiFa, and then observe how Sallust excuses ^ the conduct of Marius at Capsa, we shall somewhat understand how dreadful were the atrocities of Eoman warfare, and how degraded the condition of Eoman morality. The loss of these towns drove Jugurtha and Bocchus, as Marius had hoped, to try their fortune in the field ; and he defeated them in two battles with severe loss. This disposed the king of Mauri- tania to open a communication with the Romans ; the management of which, was intrusted by Marius ^ to L. Cornelius Sylla, his quajs- tor ; and after much debate, Bocchus consented to win the favour of Betrayal of Rome, by betraying Jugurtha. Accordingly, having allured both BocSm" ^ Sylla and Jugurtha with the hope that he was going to deliver their enemy into their hands, he proposed that they should have a meet- ing mth each other, to discuss the possibility of concluding a peace ; and when the appointed time came, he ordered Jugurtha to be seized, and delivered him bound to Sylla. He was by him taken to the head-quarters of Marius, and from thence conducted to Rome, led in triumph ' with his two sons before the chariot of the conqueror. Death of and then put to death in prison. His own crimes had well deserved ugurtha. j^j^g punishment; but they in no way lessen the iniquity of the ■ Romans in inflicting it, by no other right than that of conquest. Extent of By the event of this war, Numidia was added to the list of Roman domtaion. provinces. It was not till a somewhat later period that the Republic acquired Gyrene and its dependencies, by the bequest of their king, Ptolemy Appion ; and Egypt and Mauritania remained unconquered till the times of the Csesars. In the year of Rome 652, the date at which the present narrative closes, the dominions, formerly subject to Carthage and the kingdom of Numidia, were all that the Romans possessed in Africa ; and these extended, to speak generally, along the coast of the Mediterranean from the greater Syrtis ^ to the river Ampsaga, or the town of Sardis, corresponding nearly with the hmit between the modern governments of Tunis and Algiers. Their limit, towards the interior, it is impossible precisely to ascertain ; and indeed, in fixing the extent of the Eoman empire at any one period, minute accuracy, if attainable at all, would not repay the labour of arriving at it : because, our materials for the history of Rome are by no means full and uninterrupted ; and many countries were at one time given away to some ally, and then again united to the empire, and thus are sometimes included amongst the provinces, and some- 1 Id facinus, contra jus belli, non avarita neque scelere Consulis admissum : sed quia locus Jugurtli^ opportunus, nobis aditu difficilis : genus hominum mobile, infidum, neqiie beneficcio neque metu ooer citvun. c. 91. 3 Sallust, 0. 102, et seq. s Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixvii. 4 Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. v. c. 2, 3 ; Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 972. edit. Xyland. CHAP. XV.] EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 315 tunes spoken of as independent. Again, in some parts, as for example, B.C. 106, in the countries between Macedonia and the Danube, continual warfare was carried on for ages between the Romans and the natives ; and whilst a victory would nominally extend the bounds of the empire, by leading to the submission of various tribes, any change of circumstances would presently contract them, by exciting the new subjects to revolt. Besides, the imperfect state of ancient, and we may add, of modem geography, makes it difficult, if not impossible, with regard to many quarters of the Roman empire, to fix the limits of provinces or of countries loosely inhabited by barbarian tribes; and even where there is any great natural division spoken of as the boundary, such as the Rhine and the Danube, at a later period, or the chain of Mount Taurus, after the war with Antiochiis, there might be natural fastnessess, and wild districts, even within the general frontier, which defied the Roman authority, and ftu-nished the provincial officers with occasions of victories and triumphs. These considerations may excuse the imperfections, or even the inaccuracies, of that sketch of the extent of the empire, which we now propose to offer. What has been abeady said in the course of the narrative, wiU sufficiently show the nature and extent of the Roman power in Africa, Spain, and Gaul. The Balearian ^ islands were conquered Baiearian by Q. Metellus about the year 630, complaint having been made JoDquerea. that the inhabitants infested the sea with piracies. Sardinia and Sicily had been gained from Carthage, as has been mentioned in a former part of this history, before the second Punic war ; and Corsica had been conquered at the same time with Sardinia, but it seems to have been considered of little importance ; and there is no mention of any attempt having been made on it, by either party, during the war with Hannibal. Mehta, or Malta, of which we speak only on account of its modem celebrity, was first taken, according to Livy,° in the very first year of the second Punic war ; and at the end of that war, was finally ceded by the Carthaginians, together with their other islands in the Mediterranean. The whole of Italy, in the view of the modem sense of the term, was already subject to the Romans ; Jo^aests although the Ligurians and Istrians were still probably in a state of imperfect obedience. To the eastward, the countries between the Danube and Greece offer, as we have said, the most indistinctly marked portion of the empire. A part of the eastern coast of the Adriatic had been conquered, even before the second Punic war ; or rather underwent the first introduction to conquest, in becoming' allied to the Romans. In the second Macedonian war, Gentius, a king * of a large part of lUyria, having allied himself with Perseus, 1 Strabo, lib. iii. p. 177. edit. Xyland ; Floras, lib. 3. c. 8. 2 Livy, lib. xxi. o. 51. ' Polyb. lib. ii. o. 11 ; lib. iii. c. 16. * Appian, Hlyrica, o. 9. 316 EXTEKNAL ADVANCEMENT OP ROME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 106. pa-id the penalty of losing all Ms dominions. Dalmatia, to the north-west of Illyria, skirting the eastern coast of the Adriatic, had [Malta, the ancient Melita.] been first attacked and partially subdued by C. Marcius Pigulus^ and P. Scipio Nasica, in the years of Rome 597 and 598 ; but triumphs continued to be earned, by victories in Dalmatia, even down to the time of Augustus : and the same may be said of Thrace, and the other countries to the north of Macedonia, which remained so long in a wild and unsettled state, that we read of revolts in Thrace ^ even in the reign of Tiberius Csesar. K we turn to the southward, Macedonia,' Thessaly, and Epirus, are said to have been reduced at one time to the form of a province, at the end of the third Macedonian war, in the year of Rome 608. The southern states of Greece were also subjected to the government of a Roman Prstor, by the decree of the ten commissioners, who, as usual, were sent to determine * the future condition of the country, after the destruction 1 Appian, lUyrica, o. 11 ; Livy, Epitom. lib. xlvii. 2 Tacitus, Annal. lib. ii. c. 64 ; lib. iv. c. 46, et seq. 3 Eiiftis Festus. Jomandes. * Pausanias, Achaica, c. CHAP. XV. J EXTEENAX ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. 317 of Corinth. By tteir decision, the popular assemblies were every- B.C. 106. ■where abolished, and the local administration was made strictly oUgarchical ; but afterwards, the old assemblies were restored, when the power of Eome was so securely established, that such empty shows of liberty might be granted witliout danger. By the termination of the war with Antiochus, Eome, as we have seen, gained to herself, nominally, no dominion in Asia. But as she claimed ' the right of resuming at pleasure such gifts of territory as she awarded to her allies, she may thus be considered the actual sovereign of Lycia and Caria, which she bestowed on the Ehodians, and of Phrygia, Lydia, and several other provinces, which were given to the king of Pergamus. The first actual province,^ how- ever, which the Eomans formed in Asia, consisted of the dominions of their oldest allies ; of those very kings of Pergamus who had given them such useful aid in all their wars with the Greek princes and commonwealths, from the first contest with Philip, king of Macedon, to the final overthrow of the Achsean confederacy.' Attains, the son of Eumenes, dying in the year of Eome 620, left his dominions by will to the Eoman people. But Aristonicus, a natural brother, as some say, of the late king, endeavoured to obtain the kingdom for himself, and at first met with some success; but was afterwards defeated and taken, and, according to the usual practice of the Eomans, was led ia triumph, and afterwards put to death.* It is mentioned by Floras,* that Manius AquUius, by whom this war was brought to an end, did not hesitate to poison the wells, in order to reduce some of the revolted cities to submission; nor does it appear that for so dreadftil a crime, his conduct was ever called in question by his government. In this manner, by the overthrow of Aristonicus, the kingdom of Pergamus was reduced into the form of a province, which was called peculiarly the province of Asia. Along the southern shore of the Euxine, the kingdoms of Bythinia, Cappa- docia, and Pontus, stUl subsisted under their native sovereigns ; and from the last of the three was soon to arise an enemy, only second to Hannibal in the abilities and obstinacy with which he so long com- bated the Eomans — the famous Mithridates. To the south of the province of Asia, the countries of Lycia, Pamphyha, and Cilicia, were not yet formally annexed to the empire; although Lycia and Pamphyha, having been among the districts ceded by Antiochus, enjoyed their Kberty only as a gift from Eome. Further to the eastward, the Eomans, as yet, had made no advances : Crete and Cyprus were untouched; and Ehodes, taught^ by the treatment it 1 Appian, Numidica, sect. 3, edit. Schweigh^user. 2 Jomandes, lib. i. ; Floras, lib. ii. c 20. . . 3 Strabo, lib. xiii. p. 721, and lib. xiv. p. 744, edit. Xyl. Livy, Epit. lib. lix. * Pateroulus, lib. ii. ; Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 744; Orosius, apud Sigomum, Comment, in Fest. et Triumph. Eomanorum. « Floras, lib. ii. c. 20. " Ruflis Festus. Jornandes. 318 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP ROME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 106. received after the war with Perseus, had been since careful to pur- chase its municipal independence by the utmost deference to the will of the senate and its officers. Causes of the Great as was the empire which the Romans had by this time coiiquests. acquired, none of their conquests, since the end of the second Punic war, were such as can at all surprise us. The ascendency of a well constituted army, and a good system of mUitary policy, over the utmost perfection of rude courage or individual ability, is so well known, that the gradual reduction of Spain, of Gaul, of Thrace, and of lUyricum, as well as the subjugation of Numidia, may be con- sidered as matters of course. Carthage, at the time of its final struggle, was hardly more than a single city; and the long disuse of arms had taken away aU the opportunities by which good officers, and an efficient mihtary system are created; to which, we may add, that the Carthaginians helped their own ruin, by the surrender of their arms and engines of war, at the very moment when they were most needed. Antiochus was a prince of httle abihty or courage, and the event of the first general battle frightened him into sub- mission; nor can the issue of that battle in itself appear wonderful, when we remember how little skill and discipline have ever been found in the organization of Asiatic armies ; and that the kings of Syria were, by this time, fully infected with the ignorance and weak- ness of Asia. It is only in Greece and in Macedon that we might have expected a longer and a more doubtfiil contest. The country which first sent forth regular armies to war, and the infantry of which had long maintained so complete a superiority over the soldiers of all other nations, ought not, we may think, to have bowed beneath the yoke of Rome, without signalizing its fall by some heroic eifort, and yielding to its enemy a dearly purchased victory. The posterity of Xenophon, of Epaminondas, and of Alexander, might surely have inflicted on Rome a second CannsB, before they suffered defeats more humiliating than that of Zama. But, in fact, the circumstances of the Macedonian and Achaean wars abundantly explain the easiness with which the Romans Over Philip, obtained their successes. In their first contest with Philip, they hemmed him in on every side with enemies, and the resources of Macedon were exhausted by the plundering parties of the ^tolians and Dardanians on one side, and, on the other, by the united fleets of Rome, Pergamus, and Rhodes, which infested the coasts ; and by the main consular army, the ranks of which were swelled by the contingents of half the states of Greece. The battle of Cynocephale was the only regular action in the whole war ; and its result laid open to the victorious army the whole of Thessaly, and the entrance into Macedon itseE As for the event of that battle, there is no reason to dispute the judgment of Polybius, who pronoimces the Macedonian tactics to have been unable to compete with the Roman; CHAP. XV. J EXTEENAl ADVANCEMENT OP EOME. 319 and Hannibal's authority ought to have determined all other com- b.c. 106. manders to oppose the Roman legion with troops armed and organised in the same manner. Neither Philip nor Perseus were able generals ; and the monarchy of Macedon was so rudely constituted, that all depended on the personal character of the sovereign ; nor could the king have seen, without jealousy, and probably without danger, the actual control of his armies in the hands of a subject, whose ability might supply his own deficiencies. Had Hannibal been the general of the Macedonians, his genius would probably have so modified the Grecian tactics, as, without forfeiting their own peculiar advantages, to have given them some of the improvements of the system of their enemies, and thus he might have changed the fortune of particular battles ; but, where the force of the two contending powers was so unequal, he could scarcely have hoped to alter the event of the war. With regard to the Greek repubhcs, in addition to the inferiority Over the of their tactics, which they shared in common with the Macedonians, Eepuwics. they laboured under a defect peculiar to themselves, and arising naturally from their inconsiderable extent and power, and the insig- nificant scale on which they had been used to see military operations conducted. Though much individual courage existed amongst the generals and soldiers, yet war had assumed a character of less horror, from the balanced strength of the several commonwealths, the habit of avoiding extreme measures on either side, and the comparatively little slaughter with which their battles were accompanied. The Eomans, on the contrary, made it a part of their policy to give war its most terrible aspect. Their battles were decisive and bloody ; the very wounds which were inflicted by their favourite weapon — a heavy sword, equally calculated for stabbing or for cutting — wore an appearance of pecuhar ghastliness ; and in the storming' of towns, they added to the usual horror of such scenes, by dehberately lopping the limbs ofi" the dogs and other animals which fell in their way, on purpose to exaggerate the impression of the destruction occasioned by their arms. A large army of twenty or thirty thou- sand men, conducting a campaign on this system, and regarded, besides, with that terror which civilized nations usually feel towards those whom they consider barbarians, filled the minds of the Greeks with fearful imaginations of its superior strength and ferocity; exactly in the same manner, and from the same causes, as the httle states of Italy, in the fifteenth century, trembled before the impetu- ous^courage of the French ; when they found that the field of battle was made the scene of actual and terrible slaughter, and not, as in their own insignificant encounters, a mere stage for the display of their arms and their manoeuvres. Thus victorious over every enemy, and removed, as it might have 1 Polyb. Ut. X. c. 15. 320 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP BOMB. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 106. seemed, far above any apprehension of danger, the Roman republic Nation "'""* ^^^ suddenly obliged to struggle for its very existence; and amidst inhabiting aU its warlike population, could find one man alone to whose guid- fiuropl"' "^ ance it could venture to trust its armies in this alarming emergency. The reader wiLL perceive that we are alluding to the invasion of Italy by a vast swarm of barbarians from the north of Europe, known by the various names of Cimbri, Teutones, Ambrones, and Tigurini. And here we cannot but remark a strildng peculiarity in the state of the most civilized of the ancient nations, which widely distin- guishes them from the empires and kingdoms of modem Europe. The Greeks and Eomans saw almost before their eyes the limits of that world with which alone they were concerned, and beyond which they knew nothing. The Alps and the mountains of Thrace were like the enchanted barriers of romantic story, beset with so many various perUs, that the inhabitants of the region which they enclosed attempted not to surmount them. A few vague reports, brought by some enterprising trader, and collected amidst the difficulties of imperfectly understood dialects, from the fabling ignorance of bar- barians, were the only information which could be gained concern- ing those vast countries, which are now the seat of so many mighty empires, from the Danube to the Frozen Ocean, from China to the British Isles. Yet this unknown region was not like the sands of Africa, the unpeopled and impracticable wastes of which afford the countries, on which they border, their best security against the attacks of an enemy ; on the contrary, the north of Europe teemed with inhabitants, and might be hkened to a volcano, the inward workings of which cannot be seen, nor the causes of its eruptions traced ; but which, from time to time, pours forth upon the cities at its base a sudden and unforeseen destruction. In this manner the earliest Greek historian^ records the irruptions of Cimmerian and Scythian tribes into the more civilized parts of Asia, the dominions of Lydia and Media ; and the earhest memorials of Italy bear testi- mony to similar invasions of the Celts or Gauls, who sometimes over- ran, and sometimes permanently occupied, the countries to the south of the Alps. In process of time, as the Eoman power extended itself, Gaul became better known, and it was found that inroads from that quarter were no more to be dreaded ; for the Gauls were now become a settled people, and, instead of wandering forth to prey on others, had acquired those comforts which began to induce their more barbarous neighbours to prey upon them. But if Gaul had ceased to inspfre alarm, it was not so with the wide tract of country, which from the Rhine and the Alps extended eastward and northward, far beyond the knowledge, or even the reasonable conjectures of the Eomans. Amidst the forests with which Germany was then over- 1 Herodotus, Clio. c. xv. 103. CHAP. XV. ] EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OP EOME. 321 spread, there was nurtured a race of men, bold, strong, hardy, and B.C. 106. totally uncivilized, dehghting in war, and despising the confinement of a settled habitation ; numerous, from the unchecked instinct of population, where nothing more was coveted than a bare subsistence, yet stiU occasionally multiplying to such a point that even this could not readUy be found; and then pouring forth upon wealthier countries, to gain by their swords, in a manner to them most welcome, indulgences which not even the labour that they hated could have procured for them at home. We are now to record the first assault made by this people on the dominions of Kome ; from which period the Eomans, as their power increased, for a long suc- cession of years were in their turn the assailants, and advanced the hmits of their empire and their knowledge from the Alps to the Danube. Beyond that river they could never penetrate ; and soon after they had ceased to go forward with their conquests, the Ger- mans renewed their old incursions upon them, till the empire was totally dismembered, and Italy itself, together with its provinces, submitted to the sceptre and the laws of a northern conqueror. It was just at the close of the war with Jugurtha, that the alarm Tiie cimbri of the Cimbri and Teutones was at its height in Rome. They had Teutones. been first heard of about eight or nine years before, when they at- B.C. 101. tacked the province' of lUyricum, and there defeated Cn. Papirius Carbo, one of the consuls, with a consular army. After this victory they turned their course into another direction, and are said to have attacked several nations^ of Gaul, and even to have penetrated into Spain; but being repelled from that country, they presented them- selves on the frontiers of the Eoman province of Transalpine Gaul; and requested admittance, as settlers, into some part of the Eoman dominions, offering to employ their arms in the service of the Ee- pubhc, as a return for the lands which they should hold. On receiving a refusal, they proceeded to gain their ends by force; and in two successive years, they defeated two other Eoman consuls in Gaul; but with the caprice of barbarians, instead of following up their successes, they were allured in pursuit of some other objects, and left the Eomans for two years unmolested. But in the year of Eome 648, they again fell upon them, and defeated two con- sular' armies united, with such terrible slaughter, that the capital itself was filled with alarm, and all men concurred in raising Marius to the consulship, as the only commander capable of saving his country. Fortunately, perhaps, for his reputation, the Ger- mans again forbore to cross the Alps, and moved off into Spain; and being a second time driven back by the natives, they re- crossed the Pyrenees, and spent another year in wandering over 1 Appian, Gallica, c. 13; Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixiii. 2 Ceesar, Bell. Gallic, lib. vli.; Florus, lib. lii. c. 3. 3 Sallust. Bell. Jugurth. c. 114 ; Livy, Epit. lib. Ixvii. [R. H.J T 322 EXTERNAL ADVANCEMENT OF ROME. [CHAP. XV. B.C. 101. Gaul; while Marius had been re-elected a third and a fourth time to the consulship, and had thus the rare advantage of becoming thoroughly acquainted with his army, and inuring them to exertion ' and implicit obedience by the strictest discipline, and by employing them in some of those laborioiis works, which afterwards became so familiar to the Eoman legions in aU parts of the empire. Thus when, in his fourth consulship, the Cimbri, reinforced by some other German hordes, attacked the Komans at once in Transalpine Gaul, and towards the north-eastern side of Italy, Marius not only completely destroyed the multitude by which he was assaulted in Gaul, but hastening immediately after his victory to the support of Lutatius Catulus, his colleague, engaged the other division of the enemy in conjunction with him, and gave them a second overthrow as complete as the first, in the neighbourhood of Verona. By these battles their force was entirely broken, and the alarms which had so long disturbed the minds of the Eomans were totally dispelled. Plere then this portion of our narrative closes. From the period at which we are now arrived, ten years only elapsed before the beginning of the war between Eome and the states of Italy, and thirteen before the first expulsion of Marius, and the commencement of the civil war. These transactions, together with some of an earlier date, such as the seditions of the Gracchi, and the revolt of the slaves in Sicily, will form a fit introduction to that history of the domestic affairs of the EepubKc, upon which we now propose to enter. ■ Plutarch, in Mario, c. 13, et seq. [Roman Legionary.— J"i'(»n Trojan's Cobtmn.] [Roman Citizens, Rich and Poow—Bardon.'] CHAPTER XVI. TIBERIUS GRACCHUS. B.C. 133. There are few portions of history more deserving our attention B.C. 133. than that to which we now return, the civil wars of the Eomans. The origin of these wars arose from the conflict between the inter- ests of the two great divisions of society — the rich and the poor. The characters and events which marked their progress, possess every quality most fitted to awaken a lively interest in the reader ; and their final issue, in establishing a monarchy as the government of the civilized world, may possibly have exercised an influence over the fate of Europe, which we feel even at this day. They are most remarkable also, as they exhibit the state of mankind at the period immediately preceding the promulgation of Christianity: when, therefore, if experience be the measure of knowledge, the world must have attained to the highest point in intellectual and moral discoveries which it has ever reached without the assistance of revelation. It will surely be no uninteresting inquiry to collect, so far as we can, the general amount of human virtue and happiness antecedently to the great revolution introduced by the preachers of the gospel ; in order that we may judge of the probable result of 324 TIBERIUS GRACCHUS. [CHAP. XVI. B.C. 133. the destruction of Christianity, which some avowedly, and many indirectly, consider as desirable. The Civil The period, then, of the civil wars of Eome. which comprises lame"' somewhat more than a hundred years, from the tribuneship of Tiberius Gracchus to the final estabhshment of monarchy, in the person of Octavius Cassar, divides itself naturally into two portions. The first of these, ends at the death of Sylla, and the ascendency of the aristocratical party, which was effected by his government. And it is upon this first division that we now prepare to enter. At Eome, as in many other countries, the original distinctions between the different ranks of society were wholly arbitrary. The patricians and plebeians were two separate castes, between which insurmountable barriers existed. No wealth, nor talents, nor virtues, could raise a plebeian to the rank and privileges of a patrician ; and as all intermarriages between the two classes were unlawful, the government was a hereditary oligarchy, from which the bulk of the nation, with their posterity for ever, were by law utterly excluded. The details of the particular events by which this system was overthrown, belong to the unknown period of Eoman history. Before the Punic wars, however, it was entirely subverted ; aH offices of state were laid open to the plebeians, whUe the tribuneship was stiU, as before, exclusively their own : and a more liberal aristocracy was formed, in which nobihty began to be derived from the possession of high political dignities, instead of being the necessary previous quahfication for obtaining them. But a third caste in the commonwealth stUl subsisted, composed of those per- sons who, either by birth, or by captivity in war, or by the violence of regular slave traders, were doomed to the condition of slavery. The fortune of this caste was not so totally without hope as that of the old plebeians, because a slave might be enfranchised; and when once a freeman, the course of time, or extraordinary personal merit, might remove the taint of slavery from his blood, and raise his pos- terity to honours and power. But so long as he remained a slave, his degradation was complete; he was not considered as a member of the commonwealth; he could hold no property except by his master's sufferance; and his protection from the extremity of per- sonal violence was little better than nugatory. The little notice which the ancient writers have paid to this class of men, has perhaps prevented us from sufficiently estimating their effect on the state of society. We cannot, however form a correct notion of the relative situations of the rich and the poor at Eome, without keeping in mind the existence of so large a proportion of the whole popiilation in the Va.st number condition of slavery. The numbers of slaves increased greatly with of Slaves. ^j^^ increasing dominion of the republic; we have already seen how many were carried off from Africa, in the descents made on that coast in the two first Punic wars; fifty thousand more are mentioned CHAJP. XVI.J TIBEEICS GRACCHUS. 325 as having been taken at one time in the destruction of Carthage; and b.c. 133. no fewer than a hundred and fifty thousand were sold for the benefit of the army that had defeated Perseus, collected from the sack of seventy towns in Epirus. These were purchased iu large m^iltitudes, and probably at a low price, by the great landed proprietors of Italy ; and generally superseded the use of free labourers, as their work was much cheaper, and could be exacted with greater severity. In con- sequence of this, the lower orders of freemen were reduced to great distress, and their numbers were rapidly diminished; insomuch, that in process of time, there was no such thing as a free peasantry to be found in some parts of Italy; slaves being used almost exclusively as agricultural labourers, and forming probably by much the largest proportion of those employed in trade or manufactures. At the same time, the legions were filled with none but freemen; and they whose swords gained the republic her conquests, were impatient at seeing the fruits of their victories pass into the hands of others, while their own condition was absolutely rendered worse by the conse- quences of their own valour. For we must not attribute our own notions on pubhc matters to the citizens of the ancient common- wealths. The states of antiquity being for the most part only single cities, political association was regarded very much in the light of a commercial partnership, of which national property formed as it were the stock; and any acquisitions made by the national arms, were looked upon as the profits of the trade, in which every partner ought to share. Thus, when territory was gained in war, the bulk of the people wished to have an immediate division of it made amongst them; whUst the government, or managing partners, were anxious that it should still be employed in advancing the joint interests of the whole body, instead of enriching the individual share- holders. In other words, they wished it to be sold to the highest bidder, and the price to be thrown into the treasury to supply the usual wants of the pubhc service. This in fact was the system usually adopted at Eome; and thus large landed estates came into the hands of the rich, whUst the poor fancied that they did not gain in their due proportion from the growing greatness of their country. To remedy the evil, a popular tribune in the early ages of the Licinian repubhc, C. Licioius, had proposed and carried the famous law which ^''^''■ bears his name; and which limited the amount of land which any citizen might possess, to 500 jugera, calculated by Arbuthnot as equal to 330 Enghsh acres. But this law was sometimes evaded, by land being held for the proprietor under other names ; ' and was sometimes openly disregarded. During the second Punic war, how- ever, and the period that followed it for several years, the nobility enlarged their estates vrithout opposition ; partly, perhaps, because 1 Plutarch, Vita Tib. Gracchi, u. 8. 326 TIBERIUS GEACCHCS. [CHAP. XVI. B.C. 133. the aristocratioal interest was at this time all-powerful; and partly, because as the lands were alienated by regular sale, so long as the former owners could find employment as tenants or labourers, and were not superseded by the general substitution of slaves, the change in their condition was patiently borne. But when they found them- selves everywhere supplanted by a class of men whom they so thoroughly despised, they either saw themselves debarred altogether from rearing a family, or they were forced to migrate to Eome, and swell the multitude of needy citizens in that city. The temptation thus offered to them to disturb the existing order of things, was peculiarly strong. As individuals, the poor often suffered from the grasping and oppressive spirit of the rich: yet, as members of the popular assembly, they formed a part of the sovereign power in the state, and might amply retaliate on the higher orders for the losses they had suffered. And here it becomes an exceedingly curious question, what was the general character of the popular party at Rome; what was their station in society, and what were their moral and intellectual attainments ; as it is on a knowledge of these points that our judgment of the disputes which so long distracted the com- monwealth must mainly depend. For if the Comitia were no better than an ignorant and profligate rabble, no true friend to liberty can possibly sympathize with their cause : but if they consisted of men, industrious though poor, of men whose views were directed towards a reasonable and definite object, whose private morals were fair, and who respected law and order, we shall then not brand them with the name of anarchists, merely because the reform which they proposed to effect, could in our days be attempted by none but the most des- perate enemies of the peace of society. Roman The Roman plebeians, or all those citizens not of patrician extrac- tion, whose property did not entitle them to be ranked among the equestrian order, may be divided into two classes ; those who hved habitually in Rome, and those who were settled as small landed pro- prietors, as tenants of national property, or as labourers, in different parts of Italy. The former were natui'aUy those who chiefly com- posed the popular assemblies, and they consisted of shopkeepers and mechanics, and of that lowest description of populace by which great towns in a genial chmate are especially infested ; where shelter and fuel and clothing being less important, they can more easily live without regular employment, as having fewer wants to provide for ; and where even the food required is of a lighter quality, and consists of articles procurable at the cheapest rate, such as fiTiit, vegetables, oU, and the hght wiae of the country. These men would have all the qualities fitted to make them mischievous : idleness, improvi- dence, a total absence of all the feelings of horiest independence, and a great sense of their own importance, both as freemen, while so many who enjoyed far more personal comforts were slaves, and as CHAP. XVI.] TIBEEIUS GRACCHUS. 327 members of a body whose power was the greatest in the world. B.C. 133. Nor must we at all judge of the shopkeepers at Eome by those of London or Paris. The sale for their goods would lie chiefly among shop- the common people, because the rich supphed themselves with most Rom™ "' of the articles they consumed, from the produce of their lands and the labour of their slaves. Their profits, therefore, were not likely to be very considerable, and their rank in society would be propor- tionably low. If we then remember the illiterate state of the Roman people in general at the period of which we are now speaking ; and if we reflect besides, that whatever hterature did exist, must have been confined almost exclusively to the higher orders from the expensiveness of books ; we cannot ascribe much general or pohtical information to the plebeians of the city. Last of all, we know what the morals of the lower classes in large cities are at this day, when their opportunities of being rightly taught are far greater than could possibly have been enjoyed at Eome. Without descending to the mere idle and dissolute populace, we should probably have found in the bulk of the plebeian inhabitants, a sense of their own interest generally predominant, a violent and cruel spirit towards those whom they looked upon as their opponents, and an obstinacy in maintain- ing blindly their own notions, mixed at the same time with many kind and generous affections towards their families and friends, and an attachment to the name and institutions of their country, which was liable indeed to be misled or overpowered for a time, but which was in the main strong and sincere. The plebeians of the country are generally spoken of by Eoman writers, as a more respect- able class than those of the city. They were more steadily industrious, as having less to call off their attention from their own employment: they were more domestic in their habits, and not only less apt for pohtical contests from their manner of living, but in their houses and fields they possessed a property which they were less vnlhng to hazard in civil commotions. The beauti- Singular fill picture which Virgil gives of the simphcity and happiness of jju^fj^j^^ the small landed proprietors of Italy, although of course highly embellished, was doubtless not altogether imaginary; and it may be added, that the hard-heartedness to the general welfare of the poor, which is so often the fault of our farmers, was less called into action among the Eomans ; in whose country there were no poor rates nor parochial offices to excite a continual soreness in an uneducated mind ; and where the farmer had scarcely any connec- tion with more than his own household and labourers ; a class of people whom it is most natural and obvious to treat with kindness and familiarity. Yet the agricultural plebeians must have been ignorant, and were hkely to inherit the violence and obstinacy by which ignorance is ever accompanied. They must have entertained, too, a peculiar jealousy of the great nobility, by whom their own 328 TIBERIUS GKACCHUS. fCHAP. XVI. Popular party in the time of Gracclius. B.C. 133. rank in society had been in so many instances overwhelmed; and when they came to the Comitia in the city, they were incapable of resisting the eloquence of popular orators, ever ready to encoiu'age their angry feelings against the rich, to flatter their self-importance, and to persuade them that their interests were the same with the public good. Above all, the nature of mankind is such, that even the best and most highly educated individuals, when assembled together in a numerous body, are apt to be more swayed by passion and less by principle, than if they were deliberating alone, or in a small society. Much more is this the case when the inhabitants of a great city are promiscuously crowded together ; for then the evil predominates with a fearful ascendency, and a physical and moral excitement is created, which destroys the exercise of the judgment, and drowns the voice of moderation and self-restraint ; leaving the mind open to any unreasonable impression that may be produced, whether of ridicule, of indignation, of compassion, or of pride. It results then, from this view of the state of the plebeians, that the popular party in the times of Tiberius Gracchus was made up of very heterogenous elements ; that one division of it, the mere city populace, was thoroughly worthless ; but that others were composed of industrious and often well-meaning men, whose great misfortune it was to have a power placed in their hands collectively, far more than proportioned to their knowledge. On the other hand, the aristocratical party consisted of materials not less discordant. Among those who had engrossed the landed estates of Italy, there were many who in the command of armies or in the government of provinces, had given the utmost proofs of cruelty and rapacity, and who dis- played the same temper to their poorer countrymen at home. Others again sought merely to gratify the pride of nobility by the enjoyment of a large fortune and influence : these were men whose selfishness was passive, so long as it was indulged to the utmost, but who could behave with the most unscrupulous cruelty towards any who should attempt to restrain it. A third class consisted of those whose minds were loftier, and whose ambition was of a nobler character : men who delighted in conducting the councils or heading the armies of the state ; who wished to promote the greatness of their country, perhaps without being conscious to themselves how far a love of their own individual greatness mingled in the wish ; and who felt the besetting vice of great abilities, contempt for the ordinary race of mankind. Such persons, hke the magnanimous man of Aristotle's philosophy, having done the state great service, thought it just that their station in it should be pre-eminent ; and scorned the thought of admitting the lower classes of the people to a participation in their grandeur, as an outrage on the majesty of Eome. So comphcated are the motives by which we are actuated, and so hard is it where our own welfare coincides with what we deem the public good, to CHAP. XVI.J TIBERIUS GRACCHUS. 329 decide how much of a selfish bias determined us in forming our B.C. 133. opinion. There yet remained a fourth description of supporters of the aristocracy, in those who by their own merit had raised them- selves to a fair and honourable affluence ; those who had inherited, or acqiured by commerce, a respectable but not an OTergrown fortune ; those who content with little had obtained consideration by their eloquence, their military services, or their tried integrity ; and those of the nobility themselves, who though poor were without covetousness, and were more aristocratioal from the influence of birth and connections, than inchned to take the popular side from their poverty. Amongst this last class were numbered the majority of the equestrian order ; and some of the most eminent individuals in Eoman history ; Scipio ^milianus, in the times of the Gracchi, and at a later period M. Cicero and M. Cato. Many years had now passed since Eome had been disturbed by civil dissensions. We are told indeed, that when the senate, im- mediately on the conclusion of the second Punic war, proposed to begin a fresh contest with the king of Macedon, the people were strongly disinclined to the measure,^ and complained that the nobihty sought to involve the nation in perpetual hostilities, for the gratifica- tion of their own ambition. But when the seat of war was removed far away from Italy, and an uninterrupted succession of conquests flattered at once the national vanity, and often enriched the soldiers by the plunder which it threw into their hands, the popular aversion to war probably subsided. It was hkely to be changed into fond- ness for it, from the period that the acquisition of the revenues of Macedon, added to the large income derived from other provinces, reheved the citizens of Eome from taxation altogether. Those changes m changes indeed in the state of property, which were afterwards to property,"* occasion such fatal quarrels, were in the meanwhile silently being gradual, effected ; but they were not yet so great as to call off the pubhc attention from subjects of more immediate interest ; and it has ever been the case, that the gradual approach of financial troubles has been unheeded, tOl the moment when the clouds have covered the whole face of the sky, and the storm has burst in thunder. It has been already mentioned when speaking of the war with Numantia, that C. Mancinus, one of the consuls employed in that service, was obliged to purchase the safety of his army by an imfavouxable treaty ; that the senate violated the agreement thus made, and ordered the general who had concluded it to be dehvered up to the enemy, as if the perfidy of the government could be so atoned for. The officer who had been particularly employed hi drawing up this obnoxious treaty, was the consul's qusestor,^ Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus ; and it was said that the Numantines 1 Livy, lib. xxxi. c. 6. Plutarcli, Vita. Tib. Gracchi, u. 5. 330 TIBERIUS GEACCHUS. [CHAP. XTI. B.C. 133. were chiefly induced to treat, from their respect to his name: his father having served in Spain, and by his honourable conduct having won the esteem and regard of the natives. When then the senate resolved to sxirrender to the Numantines not only the consul but aU his principal officers, the popular assembly interfered ; and considering that Gracchus had done no more than save the lives of many thousand citizens, when the consul's misconduct had exposed them to destruc- tion, it determined that all the other officers should be exempted, and that Manoinus should be given up alone. The different treatment which Gracchus on this occasion received from the senate and from the people, is said to have predisposed him to thwart the one, and to enlist on the side of the other. About three years afterwards, in the year of Eome 621, he was elected one of the tribunes of the people. Gracchus The great accumulation of slaves in Italy, and the consequent acmmula-*'' dearth of free labourers, was now become a serious evil. Gracchus tion of Slaves i^a^ been struck with it, we are told, as he passed through Tuscany on his way home from Spain ; observing, that the visible population consisted for the most part of foreign slaves, who were working in fetters under their taskmasters. The dangers of this system had been also made manifest by an insurrection which had lately broken out among the slaves iu Sicily ; for the immense estates possessed in that island by Roman or Latia citizens,-' were, like those in Italy, cultivated entirely by slaves, whose numbers became so formidable, that being roused to arms by one of their body, they maintained a long and bloody war with the Roman government, spread devasta- tion over the whole island, and defeated no fewer than four Roman prsetors, who were sent against them. Plutarch tells us besides, that Gracchus being known as a young man of enterprise and ability, was called upon in many addresses written upon the walls in different parts of the city, to stand up in the cause of the poor, and to recover for them the public lands which the rich had monopohzed. Thus instigated at once by the pressing evils of the existing system, by personal predilections, and by the allurements of an evident popularity, Tiberius Gracchus entered on his unfortunate career. Remedial The remedy which he proposed for the growing distresses of the Gracchus."* poor, consisted in a revival of the Licinian law, with certain modifica- tions : that is to say,^ he allowed a father of a family to hold five hundred jugera of pubhc or conquered land in his own right, and two hundred and fifty more in right of each of his sons : but any man who possessed more than this amount, was to restore it to the nation on receiving a price for it from the treasury. To this pro- position was added, that the lands thus recovered, should be divided among the poorer citizens, and that it should he unlawful at any 1 Floras, lib. iii. c. 19. 2 Plutarch, Vita Gracchi, c. 9 ; Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 9, 10. CHAP. XVI.j TIBERIUS GRACCHUS. 331 time that any of these allotments should be sold : and finally, in b.c. 133. order to provide for the execution of the law, three commissioners were to be appointed annually, with powers to see it duly carried into effect, and its enactments observed- unbroken. It is said by Plutarch, that in proposing these measures Gracchus acted with the con- currence of some individiials of distinguished rank, and of great legal knowledge ; such as P. Crassus, then Pontifex Maximus, and P. Mucins Scffivola, one of the consuls; both of whom are often mentioned by Cicero ' as eminent for their acquaintance with the civil law, as well as for their general eloquence and ability. If this be true, it is a proof that the mischievous tendency of an Agrarian law was not so palpable to the Romans as it is to us, and the apparent extravagance of Gracchus's conduct is much lessened. Indeed we should remember, that he only professed to enforce, even in mitigated severity, an actually existing law ; and that though time had seemed to sanction the encroachments of the rich, he might yet not un- naturally think that the people could never lose their rights by mere disuse ; and that his proposed indulgences to the holders of national property, abundantly compensated for any wrong they might sustain by the sudden revival of a long dormant claim. It is not possible that we, vdth the added experience and knowledge of more than nineteen centuries, can hesitate to condemn his scheme as pernicious and impracticable ; nor indeed did it appear otherwise to calm and sensible men at that very time ; for C. Lselius, known by the name of the Wise, endeavoured in his tribuneship a few years before, to remedy the evils arising from the accumulation of estates ; but finding that they could not be removed without greater mischief, he abandoned the attempt altogether. But stiU, although the conduct of Gracchus was violent and unwise, it does not imply in him such a degree of profligacy or folly, as would be justly imputed to a similar proposal now. The aristocracy in general warmly opposed the projected law ; opposition of and Gracchus, impatient of any opposition to a scheme which he ^stocracy. deemed so beneficial, at once lost his temper; and dropping the more conciliatory clauses, proposed merely that the holders of national lands beyond the legal amount, should be obliged to give them up immediately.^ This only added to the vehemence of the opposition against it ; and the question being one of such universal interest, great crowds of people flocked to Eome from all quarters of Italy, to take part with the friends or enemies of the law.' But the aristocratical party, well knowing how the tribes were likely to vote if it were left to their decision, had secured the negative of M. Octavius, one of the tribunes : and this being resolutely interposed, whenever the measure was brought forward, it was impossible for ' De Claris Orator, c. 26 ; De Oratore, Kb. i. c. 50, 56 ; De Offioiis, lib. il. c. 13. 2 Plutarch, Vita Gracchi, o. 10. ^ Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 10. 332 TIBEEIUS GRACCHUS. [chap. XVI. B.C. 133. Gracchus, according to the forms of the constitution, to carry his point. He too, however, avaOed himself of his power as tribune to embarrass his opponents ; for he suspended by his negative the functions of every officer in the state,^ and sealed up the doors of the treasury ; thus stopping aU issues or receipts of money for the public service. So strange was the extent of the tribunitian authority, that Gracchus in these violent proceedings was acting agreeably to law ; and the nobility, unable to resist him, went into mourning to show their sense of the distressed and dangerous state of the republic. Still, while Octavius persisted in bis opposition, the law could not be carried.^ Gracchus, therefore, resolving to overbear every obstacle, and having endeavoured to win over his colleague by entreaty, as he was personally well known to him, and by the utmost efforts of his eloquence ; at last finding him immoveable, openly declared, that two men so opposed to one another ought not to continue in office together : that either Octavius or himself ought therefore to be forced by the people to lay down the tribuneship. And with a mockery of fairness, he desired Octavius first to submit to the Comitia the question, that Tiberius Gracchus should be no longer tribune. When this was declined, he announced his own intention of proposing a similar resolution on the following day with regard to Octavius. Accordingly, when the assembly met, Gracchus, afler another personal appeal to his colleague, entreating him to yield to the wishes of the people, and finding him still resolute in his refusal, proposed to the tribes the sentence of degradation. Seventeen successively voted for it; and as the total number of the tribes was M. Octavius thirty-five, the votes of one more would constitute a maiority. At from the this pomt, then, Gracchus paused, and once more conjured Octavius Tribunate, to spare him the necessity.^of proceeding to such a painful extremity. Octavius, it is said, was staggered ; but the sight of the nobility, who anxiously watched his behaviour, and the shame of being intimidated by personal considerations, gave him fresh firmness : and he told Gracchus to do whatever he thought proper. The eighteenth tribe then gave their votes for his degradation ; and the measure being carried, Gracchus sent one of his officers to drag Octavius down from the seat which he occupied as tribune. When this had been done, and Octavius had been thrust out among the people, the mob immediately fell upon him ; and although Gracchus tried to check them, he found that a demagogue has httle power in restrain- ing his followers from violence ; and Octavius with difficulty escaped [Denarius of the Gens Hostilia.] 1 Plutarch, Vita GraccM, o. 10. 2 itja. g. n^ 12 ; Appian, u. 12. CHAP. XVI.J TIBEEIUS GHACCHUS. 333 from their fury, by the efforts of the nobOity, and the zeal of his B.C. 133. own slaves, one of whom lost his eyes in defending his master. Afler such an example, no tribune ventured any more to impede the progress of the law ; which was passed immediately without difficulty. But it appears that Crassus and Mucius were either disgusted at the late conduct of Gracchus, or that he began now to throw himself entirely into the arms of the common people; for neither their names, nor those of any other distinguished senator unconnected with the tribune, were to be found among the commis- sioners appointed to carry the law into effect. The list consisted of TheCom- Gracchus himself,' of his younger brother Caius, a youth of only ™'^">"<>'''^ twenty years of age, and at this time serving under Scipio in Spain, and of his father- in-law Appius Claudius. It was evident that the real power of the commission would rest solely with Tiberius Grac- chus ; and this circumstance was likely to embitter still more the feehngs of the senate towards him. Their hatred betrayed itself in a manner at once impohtic and mean ; for they refused him the usual allowance granted to a public commissioner,^ and reduced it to a denarius and a-half, or about one shilKng a-day. Both parties were full of suspicion against each other; a friend of Tiberius happen - ing to die suddenly, the appearance exhibited by his body was attributed to the effects of poison ; and Tiberius himself, as if afraid for his own life, put on mourning, and with his young children in his hand, went round among the people, recommending his family to their protection, in case he himself should fall a victim to his enemies. On the other hand Gracchus began to incur the imputa- tion which had proved so often fatal to former demagogues, that of aspiring to make himself tyrant of Eome.' Attalus, the last king of Pergamus, ^Yas lately dead ; and one of his ministers had arrived in Eome with his wUl, by which he bequeathed his dominions and treasures to the Koman people. Gracchus immediately proposed a law, that the treastire should be divided among those citizens who should receive allotments of land under the new commission, in order to enable them to stock their farms ; and that the disposal and management of the kingdom should be lodged exclusively with the popular assembly. Under the odium which such conduct excited, charges any accusation against him was readily hstened to ; and a senator, gf J™(.hus. whose house was next to that of Gracchus, stood up in the senate, and asserted on his own knowledge, that the minister of the late king of Pergamus had presented Gracchus with a diadem and a scarlet robe, preparatory, as he insinuated, to his usurping the regal state of which those decorations were the insignia. But his conduct towards Octavius afforded his enemies a surer ground of censure. Even many of the people, it is said, were struck 1 Appiau and Plutarch, ubi supra. 2 Plutarch, Vita GraccM, lib. xiii. ' Plutarch, iM supra. VeU. Patercul. lib. ii. 334 TIBEEinS GRACCHUS. [CHAP. XVI. B.C. 133. witli tlie unprecedented violence of that measure ; and Gracchus thought proper to justify himself at some length, and endeavoured to show that the sacredness of the tribunitian oiEce was destroyed, when a tribune turned his power to the injury of that part of the people whose interests he was especially appointed to g-uard. What effect his arguments produced on the minds of his hearers cannot be Imown ; but in the judgment of posterity his conduct has appeared indefensible. The negative of the tribunes was their peculiar and constitutional privilege ; and it had often been exerted in defence of individuals against popular violence, as well as in behalf of the interests of the commons collectively against the encroachments of the aristocracy. To set it aside whenever it opposed the incUnations of a majority of the Comitia, and far more to degrade the tribune who interposed it, was a direct injury to the personal liberty of every citizen, and left him absolutely without defence against the wildest tyranny which the popular assembly might be excited by its orators to commit. It was a violation of the letter of the constitution, not on the plea of necessity, but merely of expediency; and it furnished a pretence for the more flagrant violation of it, of which the opposite party, in their turn, were soon proceeding to be guilty. Meanwhile the crowds who had flocked to Eome, during the discussion of the Agrarian law, had left the city and returned to their homes, elated with their triumph.^ It was possible that Gracchus might not always be able to command a majority in the Comitia ; and in that case, he had the prospect before his eyes of impeachment, condemnation, and exile. Aims at the He resolved, therefore, to avail himself of his present popularity, for rntunate. ^j^g purpose of being re-elected tribune for the following year ; and he trusted that his supporters from the country would re-assemble on such an occasion, and would secure his election. To win stiU more the favour of the multitude, he allured them with the hope of a number of popular measures, which he proposed to carry in his next tribuneship : the term of military service,^ to which every citizen was bound by law, was to be shortened ; the judicial power in ordinary criminal causes, which had hitherto been confined to senators, was to be shared with the equestrian order ; and Pater- cuius adds, that he promised to procure the freedom of Eome for aU the inhabitants of Italy. These were indeed the proceedings of a dangerous demagogue; but it is impossible to decide whether Gracchus desired a second tribuneship as a defensive or an offensive measure ; whether he wished it only as a protection for himself, or 1 Appiau, c. 13. 2 Plutarch, o. 13, seems to speak of these laws as actually proposed by Tiberius Gracchus; but as the one which regards the judicial power is ascribed, both by Paterculus and Appian, to his brother Caius, and no one mentions any of these measures among the actual offences of Tiberius, I have thought it most probable that they were only talked of by him, and were never carried into effect. CI-IAP. XVI.] TIBERIUS GEACCHTJS. 335 whether he meditated plans still more subversive of all good govern- B.C. 133. ment than those which he had already avowed. But fear has been justly numbered among the causes which led them into injustice ; and acts which he might have deemed necessary to his own safety, might have been of a nature no less violent than such as the most deliberate treason against his country would have dictated. The season of election was now approaching;' and the friends of the aristocracy insisted, that the same person could not legally be appointed tribune two years successively. Accordingly, on the day of election, a demur on this point was made by the tribune who presided at the Comitia, and who accepted or refused the votes of the citizens. He was requested to resign his office to Mucins or Mummius, a warm partizan of Gracchus, and the man who had been lately elected to fill the place of Octavius. But the other tribunes objected to this arrangement, and a dispute ensuing, the friends of Gracchtis perceived that the result was likely to be -unfavourable to them, and contrived to protract the discussion to so late an hour, that the assembly was obhged to be adjourned to the foUowing day. During the remainder of the afternoon and evening, Gracchus again Gracchns went about in mourning with his children, appealing to the com- ^l *° passion of the people; and so strong a sentiment was excited in his compassion behalf, that a great crowd watched through the night around his People. house, in order to secure him from the violence which he affected to dread. He himself meanwhile was concerting with his friends the measures to be pursued on the morrow; and a signal was agreed upon amongst them,^ to be used in case it should be necessary for them to employ force. The capitol was occupied by his party while it was yet dark; and in the morning he left his house to join them, and was received with the loudest acclamations; a crowd of his friends ranging themselves around his person, in order that no one on whom they could not depend might approach too near him. From this point the relations of Plutarch and Appian vary; nor have we any contemporary account which might teach us how to reconcile them with each other, or assist us in judging which of the two we ought to follow. We shall attempt to compose such a state- ment as may be probable in itself, and not inconsistent with either of our authorities. At the first outset, the tribunes who were op- posed to Gracchus,' and the partizans of the nobihty, endeavoured to interrupt the election, on the ground which had been urged on the preceding day, that a tribune could not be re-elected for the following year. A disturbance thus arose among the multitude;* and at the same moment, Fulvius Flaccus, a senator attached to the popular party, arrived in haste from the senate ; and making signs that he wished to speak to Gracchus, obtained a passage through the crowd. 1 Plutarcli and Appian, ubi supra. ^ Appian, o. 15. 8 Plutarch and Appian. * Plutarch, c. 18. 336 TIBERIUS GEACCHUS. [CHAP. XVI. B.C. 133. He brought information that the nobility, being unable to procure the sanction of the consul, were preparing of themselves to attack the Comitia ; and had armed for this purpose a considerable body of their friends and of their slaves. The popular faction, already in a high state of agitation, were roused to the utmost by these tidings. They tucked up their gowns to prepare for action, seized the staves from the hands of the ordinary officers who kept order in the Comitia ; broke them and distributed the fragments amongst their own party; and when Gracchus gave the concerted signal,^ by raising his hand to his head, they at once fell upon the tribunes who had opposed them, and on the rest of the supporters of the Tumult at senate, and drove them from the place of assembly. All now Rome. became tumult ; the priests of Jupiter shut the gates of the temple in the capitol; and a thousand vague and exaggerated rumours were carried to the senate : some saying that Gracchus was deposing the other tribunes from their office ; others, that he was nominating himself to a second tribuneship, without waiting for the votes of the people ; while a third set, who had from a distance seen him raise his hand to his head, affirmed that he was instantly to be appointed king, and that he actually signified his desire to receive from the people a crown. These several reports reached the senators who were assembled in the Temple of Faith. P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, a man of the highest nobility, of great landed property, and of a stern and deter- mined temper,^ called upon P. Mucins, the consul, to take instant and vigorous measures for the destruction of the tyrant. To this Mucius answered, that he would not set the example of shedding blood, nor destroy any citizen without trial ; but if the people were seduced or terrified by Gracchus into any illegal resolutions, he should consider such resolution to be of no authority. Nasica then exclaimed, " The consul deserts the republic ; let those who wish to preserve it follow me." At once the senators arose, wrapped their gowns around their left arms as a shield, and proceeded in a body towards the capitol. Nasica led them, with a fold of his robe thrown over his head ; and the train was swelled by the friends and slaves of the senators, who had provided themselves beforehand with clubs and sticks. On the approach of this band, consisting of all the nobility of Eome, the people made way before them, and fled in all directions. The sena- tors seized the staves which their opponents dropped in their flight, or armed themselves with the fragments of the benches which had been broken down in the confusion of the crowd. With these weapons they attacked all who feU in their way ; and Gracchus him- self endeavouring to escape, and stumbling over those who had abeady fallen, was killed by repeated blows on the head. About ^ Appian, c. 15. 2 Cicero, de Officiis, lib. i. c. 30. De Claris Orator, c. 28. CHAP. XVI.J TIBEEIUS GRACCHUS. 337 three hundred of his friends shared his fate, being all kUled by clubs b.c. 133. or bludgeons, which were the only weapons employed. The bodies Gmcchus of all the slain, including Gracchus himself, were ordered to be adherents thro-vvn into the Tiber ; and the senate following up their victory, ^''""■ put to death aftewards several of the partisans of the late tribune ; some of them, it is said,' with circumstances of atrocious cruelty. It throws a remarkable light on the notions entertained by the cicei-o's Eomans on poHtical justice, that Cicero, a man whose moral prin- twraS."" ciples were far purer than those of his countrymen in general, speaks more than once of the murder of Gracchus in terms of the warmest praise.^ So accustomed were the Eomans to have recourse to the plea of necessity or public utility, to justify the violation of the existing laws of the commonwealth. Now, as it is obvious that these abstract principles are of a far more pHable nature than written forms of law can be, all parties, in turn, might appeal to such an excuse with plausibility, when the laws, if duly observed, would have passed on each a just condemnation. No doubt there is an extreme on the other side ; and a blind devotion to the letter and forms of the constitution on all occasions, may really com- promise those great interests for the sake of which alone forms are valuable. But there cannot be a question that the adherence to rules, and the respect for particular institutions, which remarkably distinguish our English lawyers, are a most valuable security to per- sonal liberty, and that they serve to subject the fury of contending factions to one impartial and unimpassioned decision. At Eome, public expediency was successfully appealed to, to justify the degra- dation of Octavius and the death of Gracchus; whereas a truer knowledge of the interests of justice and liberty would have taught them to abhor both those actions as illegal and tyrannical ; the last, as is usual in cases of retaliation, far exceeding the former, by which it was provoked, in violence and atrocity. I Plutarch, Vita Tib. Gracch. c. 20. 2 De Offioiis, Kb. i. c, 22, [Denarius of the Gens Didia, with representation of the Villa Publica.] [e. h,"' [Caius Sempronius Uracchus. — Museum Flm'cntinum.l CHAPTER XVII. CAIUS GRACCHUS. FKOM B.C. 133 TO B.C. 121. B.C. 133. The murder of Tiberius Gracchus was so mucli a sudden and isolated act, that it did not at all interrupt the execution of those laws which he had proposed and carried in his tribuneship. His death occasioned a vacancy among the commissioners for carrying into effect his Agrarian law ; and P. Licinius Crassus/ who was nominated to succeed him, perishing shortly after in the war against Aristonicus,^ in Pergamus ; and Appius Claudius,' another of the original commissioners, dying also about the same time, the com- mission finally was composed of C. Gracchus, the younger brother of Tiberius, C. Papirius Carbo, and M. Fulvius Flaccus. But the extreme youth of C. Gracchus, and possibly the impression produced on his mind by the fate of his brother, prevented him from immedi- ately taking an active part in public aifairs. His colleagues, however, were well disposed to make up for his absence ; and they proceeded to fulfil the duties of their appointment in that summary and absolute manner which was so famiUar to the magistrates of Eome. They readiLy received accusations against any persons who were charged with holding national lands ; * and decided on all these cases by their Commission. Q.ypjj ^\q authority. It often happened that property alleged to be public was intermixed with estates lawfully belonging to the inhabitants of the allied states of Italy ; and now the present Inquiries of the Tiibunitian 1 Plutarch, in Tib. Graoch. o. 21. ' Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 18. 2 Livy, Epitom. Ub. 59. * Ibid. CHAP. XTII.J CAIDS GEACCHUS. 339 commission extended its inquiries to the titles by wHch these estates B.C. 133. were held ; and their owners were called upon to show how they had acquired them ; and to produce either the deeds of the purchase or the grants by which they had received them from the Eoman government. Sometimes these documents were not to be found ; and then the commissioners decided at their discretion upon the property of the land ; and removed at pleasure from their estates men who had peaceably inherited them from a remote period. It appears, also, that for the encouragement of agriculture, permission had been given to individuals on former occasions, to enclose and cultivate the waste lands in their neighbourhood, on the payment probably of a rent, scarcely more than nominal, to the treasury. In process of time, the distinction between the freehold and rented parts of an estate was forgotten ; the boundaries between the two were removed ; and the whole was looked upon as held by the same tenure. But no prescription was any security against the new commissioners ; all public land whatever was to be recovered out of private hands, and to be divided amongst the poorer citizens, according to the provisions of the Sempronian law. Nor was the distribution of the lots to be thus assigned less arbitrary.' The law allowed an individual to hold five hundred jugera of national property ; but it seems that the commissioners might allot them to him in whatever part of Italy they thought proper. Many persons, therefore, were deprived of the lands which they held adjoining to their own estates ; and received in exchange an allotment often less valuable in itself, and generally far less conveniently situated. Men obnoxious to the commissioners, either on pohtical or personal grounds, were thus subjected to numberless vexations ; while their partisans, their creatures, and their friends, might be most unduly favoured. It is probable, indeed, that the most industrious and peaceable among the poorer citizens would be by no means the greatest gainers from the distribution of land ; ^ but that the opportunity would be seized to reward the most violent supporters of the democratical party in the popular assembly ; and to encourage the riotous and seditious for the future, with the hope of earning for themselves a similar prize, by an active and unscrupulous obedience to the prevailing demagogues of the day. It strongly marks the character of the Eoman constitution, that at the very time when a commission so favourable to the wildest claims of the democratical party was actually in existence ; the consuls,^ P. Popilius and P. Eupilius were proceeding to inflict the penalty of banishment on several of the partisans of Tiberius Gracchus, by no other authority than a vote of the senate, and in 1 Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 18. 2 Conf. Cicero, de Lege Agraria contra RuUum ; Orat. ii. c, 29, 31. s Velleius Pateroul. lib. ii. Plutarch, in C. Gracoh. o. i. 340 CAIUS GEACCHUS. [chap. xvn. m: 133 opposes the Commission- ers of the Agrarian B.C. 131. B.C. 130. Death of P. Scipio, manifest contempt of the Valerian law. This, as was natural, was on a future occasion strongly resented by the popular party ; and thus in the tyrannical powers which both sides in turn allowed themselves to exercise, there never were wanting to either pretences of retaliation, whenever they could gain the ascendency. Meantime the proceedings of the Agrarian commissioners excited a general indignation amongst the inhabitants of the provinces of Italy,^ many of whom had been dispossessed of estates to make room for some of the poor citizens of Kome. In looking out for a man who might espouse their cause vsdth effect, they were led to fix their eyes on P. Cornelius Scipio jEmihanus, who was distinguished for his military services, and had lately returned to Eome, after having effected the destruction of Numantia. Scipio had become acquainted vrith many of the Italians, when serving under him as aUies in the Roman army, and was well able to appreciate their value ; he was inclined also of himself to oppose the popular party ; and he came forward therefore with complaints of the excessive power vested in the hands of the commissoners ; and proposed that all points in dispute between them and the occupiers of land, should be decided, not by themselves, but by a more impartial jurisdiction. This seemed so fair, that it was acceded to ; and C. Sempronius Tuditanus, one of the consuls, was appointed judge of all appeals against the measures of the commissioners. But this officer, disgusted with the difficulties of the office, soon resigned it, and departed to his province of lUyricum ; whilst as no one acted in his place, the commissioners again were enabled to defy all opposition. The attempt however to lessen their power had rendered Scipio odious to their party ; nor was this the only way in which he offended them ; for he had on a former occasion procured the rejection of a law brought forward by Carbo,^ and supported by Gracchus, to allow the same person to be re-elected tribune, as often as the people should choose. He did not abate in his oppo.sition to their power as commissioners, tiU on the night preceding the day on which he was going to address the people fuUy on the subject, he died suddenly in his bed : * and his death was attributed by the violence of party to the contrivances of Carbo and Gracchus. But the general and the most probable account was, that his death was natural ; '' nor indeed is secret assassination a crime consistent with that which we know of the character of the Eoman political quarrels at this period of the republic. The Agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus, which had arisen immedi- ately out of the relative situation of the rich and poor citizens of Eome, began now in its operation to affect other interests, and to 1 Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. o. 19. ^ Livy, Epitora. lib. lix. Cicero, de Amicit. c. 25. 3 Appian. c. 20. Veil. Patercul. lib. ii. Livy, Epitom. lib. lix. * Vid. Patercul. CHAP. XYII.] CAIUS GEACCHUS. 341 bring forward new claims, and new changes. It has been mentioned, b.c. 130. that the landholders among the allied states of Italy felt themselves particularly aggrieved by it, and that they had appHed to Scipio to undertake the defence of their cause. After his death they continued their opposition to it,' in conjunction with the aristocratical party at Kome ; and thus the execution of the law was delayed and impeded, and its supporters might have despaired of ever carrying it into full effect, while there were such powerful interests arrayed against it. Upon this a scheme was devised, which should at once conciliate one The popular part of the opponents of the laws, and set them at variance with the e^cmate other part. Hopes were held out to the Itahan allies, that they Italian should be admitted to aU the privileges of Roman citizens ; and in hijjfe o"7 """ return for so splendid a gift, it was expected that they would re- tjg^jf'jjg ^f nounce their opposition to the Agrarian law. Besides, the popular Roman leaders might probably calculate on making the strength of their '^'''^'^'"^■ party irresistible ; if so many thousand members, indebted to them for their right of voting, should be added to the popular assembly ; and as the number of citizens would then be so great, that an actual meeting of the whole people in one place would be impracticable ; the Comitia were likely to consist of an assemblage of the idlest and most worthless of the community ; to be more than ever incapable of reason, and more than ever liable to become instruments of mischief in the bands of their favourite orators. However, the proposed grant of citizenship completely answered the views of the popular leaders: the Italians, forgetting the Agrarian law in the seducing prospect now opened to them, crowded to Rome to witness the decision of the question, and to influence it in their favour by every means in their power. While on the other hand, the senate considering this new measvire as more dangerous than even the division of the national lands, prepared vigorously to oppose it ; and M. Junius Pennus,^ one of the tribunes, brought forward a law under their authority, commanding all aliens to depart from Eome, and prohibiting them generally from access to it. The law was carried. The scheme and the success of the senate in this previous struggle deterred, as it the^senate^ seems, the popular leaders from bringing on the main question for the present. At this time also they lost one of their number, C. B.C. 127. Gracchus ; who having been elected qusestor, was sent into Sardinia with L. Aurelius Orestes ' one of the consuls, to quell some disturb- ances in that island. In the succeeding year M. Fulvius Flaccus, one of the commis- B.C. 12i'i. sioners of the Agrarian law, was elected consul ; and availing Eenewedim- himself of the power of his office, he threatened to bring the question lyM^rffiis concerning the Italian allies to an issue. The senate conjured him, Fiaccus. 1 Appian, de Bell. Civa. lib. i. o. 21. 2 Vid. Ciceron, de Claris Orator, c. 28. De OfEciis, lib, iii. c. 11. " Plutarcb, in C. Graccho, c. 1. 342 CAIUS .GRACCHUS. [chap. XTII. K.c. 126. it is said,'' to desist from his purpose; and finding that he treated them with contempt, they averted the evil for the time by sending Fulvius on foreign service ; " availing themselves of the opportunity afibrded by the Salyes, a tribe of Transalpine Gaul, who attacked the dominions of the city of Marseilles, an aUy of the republic. But the hopes which his proposed measures had excited in the minds of the Italians could not be at once forgotten ; and some among them were disposed to assert their claims by force, mthout depending on their friends at Eome. The people of FregeUse are mentioned as having revolted from the Eomans ; and Cicero goes so far as to speak of the " war with FregeUs." ' But the war which a single city could maintain against the Eoman empire could not have been very serious. Fregellte was betrayed by one of its citizens ; * and the prastor, L. Opimius, who was employed on this occasion, after having killed so many of the inhabitants as to encourage him to claim a triumph,^ received the submission of the survivors, * and razed their city to the ground. It was late in the succeeding year when C. Gracchus, after an absence of about two years, returned from Sardinia, -without the permission of his general, intending at the ensuing elections to offer himself as a candidate for the tribuneship.' His conduct in thus leaving his province was complained of, and was noticed by the censors; but he defended himself successfully both on this and on other occasions, when he was accused of having been concerned in the revolt of Fregellte. He obtained also the office of tribune which he desired, but was so vigorously opposed by the senatorian party, that he could only obtain the fourth place in the list. He was now about thirty years of age, and possessed all the qualifications requi- site in a popular leader. His eloquence was of a very high order,' at once sensible and commanding; his education' had begun early under the care of his mother Cornelia, and exceeded that of most of his contemporaries: his activity and dihgence were great, and the fate of his brother, as well as the circumstances of his early pohtical life, marked him out as a determined enemy of the senate, and partizan of the popular cause. Accordingly, his tribuneship was marked by a succession of acts, all prompted evidently by party views, and which appear to have originated far less in honest feelings of compassion for the sufferings of the poor, than the laws of Ms brother Tiberius. The truth is, that there were now two parties in the state more distinctly formed: and men rmder such circumstances First Tribiinesliip and character of C. Gracchus. 1 Valerius, Maximus, lib. ix. c. 5. 2 Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 34. ^ De Lege Agraria, lib. ii. c. 33. " Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. c. 8. ^ Plutarch, in C. Gracoho, c. 2. 8 Cicero, De Claris Orator, c. 33, 58. Livy, Epitom. lib. Ix. * Cicero, De Finibus, lib. v. c. 22. * Livy, Epitom. lib. Ix. 9 Ibid. CHAP. XVn.J CAIUS GRACCHUS. 343 are too apt to believe that the good of their country can only be B.C. 126. promoted through the medium of the ascendency of their party. In the accounts which we are now to give of the measures pur- sketch of tiie sued by C. Gracchus, the want of a good contemporary historian ^jt^^part whom we may follow with confidence, will be severely felt. And ot Roman here it may not be improper, once for all, to acquaint the English '* °'^' reader with the nature of those materials from which our knowledge of this part of Eoman history is derived: for this is not made suffi- ciently clear by the generality of modern compilers, and their narra- tive proceeds with as little hesitation, as if they were copying from the fullest and most respectable authorities. The most detailed account of the times with which we are now engaged, is to be found in Plutarch's Life of Gains Gracchus. Now, from whom Plutarch chiefly copied, he does not inform us; and neither his knowledge of the Eoman laws and forms, nor his general accuracy, nor even his object in writing, are such as to render him a valuable guide in stating the provisions of particular statutes with exactness, or the order in which they were proposed. Appian, who has written more briefly, is equally silent as to the authorities for his history, and quotes the enactments of the different laws too vaguely. It is to be observed, that he relates several facts in a different order from that followed by Plutarch. "We should remember, then, that the writers whom we must chiefly consult were two foreigners, who hved more than two hundred years later than the period for which we refer to them — in whose times a totally new order of things had succeeded to the old government, and who appear to have had a very super- ficial knowledge of the laws and constitution of the republic. In addition to Plutarch and Appian, we have the sketch of Koman history drawn by VeUeius Paterculus, in which the acts of Gracchus are eniunerated all together without any detail of circumstances: we have the epitomes of the lost books of Livy, which are also a mere sketch, and compiled by an uncertain author, and we have the meagre outlines of the life of Gracchus given by Floras and Aurelius Victor. When these writers differ from one another, we know not to whose statements we ought most to listen, unless the point be determined incidentally by some allusion to it in an earher writer ; or unless we venture to decide by internal probability. The volu- minous works of Cicero do indeed often throw light on the affairs of the times preceding his own; and his legal and constitutional know- ledge make his authority highly valuable. But it is easy to under- stand, how very insufficient such scattered fragments of information must be towards giving a full and connected history of any transac- tion. We proceed then, but with hesitation and doubt, to offer the best account in our power of a period which well deserves to have been commemorated by able and more careful historians. According to Plutarch, C. Gracchus commenced his career as 344 CAIDS 6EACCHDS. [chap. xvn. Gracchus, Leges Semproniffi. B.C. 124. tribune, by inflammatory addresses to the people, in whicli he Laws of c. bewailed continually the fate of his brother, and painted the iniquity of his murder. He then brought forward two laws, the one, to disqualify any magistrate who had been deprived of his office by the people, from being afterwards appointed to any other post of autho- rity; the other, making it a crime cognizable by the popular assembly, if any magistrate banished a Eoman citizen without trial. The former of these was merely a fresh mark of the hatred of the popular leaders towards M. Octavius, who had been degraded from the tribuneship, as has been already mentioned, for hia opposition to the Agrarian law when first proposed by Tiberius Gracchus : and the unworthy feelings in which the measure originated were so evident, that C. Gracchus himself was persuaded by his mother to procure its rejection. The second law was particularly directed against P. Popihus, who, as we have seen, had, during his consulship exercised the vengeance of the senate against several of the partisans of Tiberius Gracchus. Popilius, fearful of being brought to trial, withdrew from Eome ; and Gracchus then carried a law,^ by which he was forbidden the use of fire and water in Italy, the usual form of passing a sentence of banishment. After these preparatory acts, intended, perhaps, to intimidate the friends of the aristocracy, Gracchus brought forward such measures as, by gratifying the common people, were likely to bind them to support him in all his future proceedings. The Agrarian law, passed during the tribuneship of his brother, Tiberius, was again confirmed ; ^ and some provisions were probably made to ensure its execution. By another law it was ordered,^ that the soldiers should be provided with clothing without deducting from their pay the money thus expended ; and that no one should enlist under seventeen years of age. A third enacted, that com should be distributed monthly to the people,* at the price of five-sixths of an as for the modius or peck ; which would make the value of the quarter nearly Is. 8d. of our money. What quantity was thus to be given to every citizen, we have not been able to find : but whether it were much or httle, the injustice and impracticability of this Roman poor-law are equally striking ; for its operation would, in the end, have fed the Eoman people at the expense of the subject provinces ; and, by discouraging industry and encouraging population, wotdd have fiUed Rome with a mere multitude of idle paupers, incapable of government, and so completely worthless, that the rest of the world would not long have endured their dominion, or their existence. This law was warmly opposed by the aristocratical party, and, amongst the rest. Com Law Lex Fru- mentaria. ' Cicero, pro Domo sua, c. 31. 2 Livy, Epitom. lib. Ix.; Plutarch, in C. Graccho, c. 5. 3 Plutarch, in C. Graccho, o. 5. * Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. o. 21 ; Livy, Epitom. lib. Ix. CHAP. XVn.] CAIUS GRACCHUS. 345 by L. Calpumius Piso/ who had been consul during the year in B.C. 124. which Tiberius Gracchus was killed. It passed, however, in spite of their opposition, and soon after Piso was seen amongst the crowd of poor citizens, who came to receive their portion of com. Grac- chus observing him, charged him with inconsistency, for taking the benefit of a law which he had so strongly opposed ; to which Piso replied, — "I should very much object to your giving away my property amongst the people ; but if you were to do it, I should certainly try to get my share of it." In addition to all these acts, another was passed to gratify the Itahans,^ by granting them the right of votiQg in the assembhes at Eome ; but without communi- cating to them the other privileges of Eoman citizenship. But the most formidable attack upon the senate stUl remained to be made : the judges who sat with the prsetors, for the ordinary trial of crimi- nal causes, had hitherto consisted of senators alone : ' and in the i^w strong party feeling which bound the members of the different thoSicili orders of the republic to the support of each other, a senator when ^™^''- tried by senators was likely to meet with more favour than justice. This was particularly the case when officers of high rank were tried for corruption or misconduct in the provinces : and instances of partiaUty had lately occurred in the acquittal of L. Aurehus Cotta and Marcius AquDius, the former of whom had been accused by P. Scipio TRmihanus,^ and had been brought before the court eight successive times ; and the latter may be weU judged capable of any crime, since he has been already mentioned as guilty of poison- ing the wells, when engaged in the war against Aristonicus in Asia. The odium excited by these cases favoured the wishes of Gracchus ; and he succeeded in introducing a most important change in the constitution, by transferring the judicial power from the senate to the equestrian order; either by ordering that the judges should henceforth be appointed solely from the latter ; or, as the account of Livy's " Epitomizer " leads us to suppose, by providing, that for every senator among the judges there should be henceforth named, in addition, two equites or knights, thus giving a decided majority to their order. Plutarch here gives us an instance of his ignorance respecting the simplest facts in the history of the Eoman constitu- tion. For he tells us, that whereas there were before three hundred judges, aU senators ; by the law of Gracchus, three hiondred from the equestrian orders were added to them, so that the influence of the two orders in judicial proceedings was henceforward equal. He confounds the Sempronian law with the laws of Plotius and Lirius, which were passed on purpose to alter its provisions. Of the effects 1 Cicero, Tusculan. Disputat. lib. iii. c. 20. '^ Plutarch, lu C. Graccho, c. 5 ; Appian, e. 23. 3 Appian, o. 22 ; Velleius Patercnl. lib ii. * Cicero, Divinatio in Csecil, c. 21 ; Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. u. 1. 346 CAItrS GEACCHUS. [chap. xvn. B.C. 124. of this alteration it is difficult to judge: Appian asserts, that the judges of the equestrian order soon became as corrupt as the senators,' and were as unjustly severe towards all senators who were tried before them, as the former judges had been imduly partial. Whereas, Cicero declares,^ that during the whole period of nearly fifty years, in which the law of Gracchus continued in force, there had never arisen even the sKghtest suspicion against the integrity of any of the judges. It should be remembered, however, that this is said in the course of his pleadings as an advocate ; and on such occasions the greatest allowance must be made for the wide devia- tions from truth, continually prac- tisediboth by the orators of Greece and Eome, These popular acts raised Grac- chus to a height of influence and consideration among the people, such as rendered him almost abso- lute. To increase the number of his dependents at the same time that he was throwing lustre upon his administration, he brought in several laws for making roads,^ constructing bridges, erecting storehouses for the corn that was to be distributed among the people, and executing various other works Gracchus of ornament and utility. As Gracchus, from his present popularity, promotes • j 4.1. V • i' ,i r r r Jl many PuiiUc enjoyed the power oi appomtmg the persons who were to be employed in these undertakings, he was constantly surrounded by a crowd of contractors, artificers, engineers, public officers, men of science, and workmen of various descriptions, all courting his patronage, soHciting his judgment on their several proposals, and ready to support him, meanwhUe, in all his enterprises. The activity of his mind, and the versatility of his talents, enabled him to enter into the views of all ; the depth of a statesman's knowledge on scientific or common subjects is not very strictly scrutinized by those who are flattered with his attention in noticing them at all ; and thus Gracchus obtained the character of a man of universal information, who could at once understand and feel interested in those humbler pursuits, which persons in high power and station are generally suspected of despising. The year was meanwhile drawing towards its close, and the law [ The Esquiline Gate.] Works. 1 Appian, lib. i. c. 22. 2 Cicero, in Verrem, actio pi-ima, u. 13. 3 Plutaroli, in C. Gracclio, c. 6 ; Appian, lib. i. 23. CHAP. XVII.J CAIUS GEACCHtrS. 347 as it now stood prevented Gracchus from offering himself a second B.C. 124. time as a candidate for the tribuneship. But it appears from Appian/ ^^u^^ship that the force of this law was partly rendered null, by the people of Gracchus, possessing the power of an unlimited choice, in case fewer than ten candidates should offer themselves. It happened on the present occasion that the requisite niimber of candidates did not come forward: the strong tide of popular feeling towards Gracchus deterring perhaps many from attempting to exclude him ; and thus he was again elected, although his own mother, in a letter still extant,^ dissuaded him most forcibly from taking the office. His B.C. 123. career continued to be the same as before : he now moved that colonies of poor Roman citizens should be planted in several parts of Italy,' and that the Latins should be admitted to all the civil rights of Roman citizenship. Finding it hopeless to oppose him ia a direct manner, the senate engaged Livius Drusus, another of the tribunes, to bring in measures still more popular under the sanction of the aristocracy, hoping thus to rival the credit of Gracchus, and to concihate the affections of the multitude to themselves. Drusus proposed to send out no fewer than twelve colonies, a number much exceeding that mentioned by Gracchus ; and the colonists were to be exempted from the rent usually paid by them to the treasury for the lands assigned to them.* This liberality, which Drusus ascribed entirely to the concern felt by the senate for the welfare of the common people, so far won the gratitude of the multitude, that he ventured boldly to interpose his negative on the other mea,sure brought forward by Gracchus, respecting the grant of citizenship to the Latins.* Besides, Drusus carefully avoided assigning to himself any office in the new colonies ; and kept himself clear from any suspicion of desiring places of patronage or emolument ; thus offer- ing his own conduct as a strong contrast to that of Gracchus, who had taken so large a part in the direction of all the pubhc works 1 Appian, lib. 1. c. 21. The words are these, tk 9n lii^'! xizCfan, El Kii,a,(Tc>^ iv^Ui •rati; ^ot^ecyyikiats, rov i^f^ov la tTKVTav l?ri\sy£/r8ut. We have nO doubt that Sohweighseuser in his note on this passage has given the true interpretation of it, which we have expressed in the text ; but, at the same time, we are ignorant what law it is that Appian alludes to, or at what period it was enacted. 2 Vid. Epistolas Cornelise, apud Fragmenta Cornelii Nepotis. 3 Appian, lib. i. o. 23. Plutarch, in C. Graccho, c. 8. Patercul. lib. ii. 4 Plutarch, in 0. Graccho, c. 9. /. -j ,,1 « Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 23. One concession, however, of considerable importance was made to the Latins by a law of Drusus, to which the senate gave their support ; and which enacted that the Latins when servmg in the Roman army, should be exempted from flogging on ordinary occasions. So says Plutarch, m O. Graccho, c. 9. We have added the words " on ordinary occasions, because other- wise the statement is untrue; for it appears from Sallust, that Metellus ordered one of his officers to be scourged and put to death, which he might do, because, says Sallust, " the man was a citizen of Latium." "Vid. Sallust, Bell. Jugurth. c. 69. But we are by no means clear that Plutarch has not again mistaken a law passed by another Livius Drusus, u.c. 662, for one passed by his namesake, the opponent of Gracchus. 348 CAIUS GEACCHUS. [CHAP. XTH. B.C. 123. executed in compliance with his laws. Thus the credit of Gracchus was somewhat lessened, and to prevent him from regaining his influence by popular speeches, or by any new popular laws, the senate contrived to procure his nomination as one of the commis- sioners for planting a colony in Africa, near the site of Carthage ; for in the present emulation among the tribunes, which should go farthest in gratifying the people, one of them, named Eubrius,' had carried a law, by which this new addition was made to the number of colonies already to be founded under the acts of Gracchus and Drusus. During the absence of Gracchus, his opponents were enabled, as they had hoped, to supersede him more and more in the affections of the people ; and they found also a way to attack his measures, by representing it as impious to build again the walls of Carthage, which Scipio had solemnly devoted to perpetual desola- tion. It was reported also, that several supernatural accidents had delayed the progress of the work ; and on these grounds the party of the senate having gained a zealous and active leader in L. Opimius, B.C. 122. the new consul, determined to propose to the people. That the law of Eubrius for planting a colony on the site of Carthage should be repealed.^ Gracchus had returned to Eome some httle time before ; and the year of his tribuneship having expired, he was reduced to the condition of a private citizen. What course his own inclinations might have led him to follow, is doubtful ; but unfortunately for Cabals of himself, he chose to associate himself in the counsels of M. Fulvius wiaiMrius B'laccus, one of the commissioners for the execution of the Agrarian Fiaocus. law, and a man whose character was respected by no party in the repubUc. The reputation of Gracchus had already suffered from his connection with Fulvius ; and now he took part with him in designs which can be considered as nothing less than treasonable. Charging the senate with spreading false reports in order to alarm the rehgious scruples of the people, the two popular leaders assembled a numer- ous body of their partisans armed with daggers ; and being thus prepared for .violence they proceeded to the capitol, where the people were to meet in order to decide on the repeal of the law of Eubrius. Here,^ before the business of the day was yet begun, a private citizen, who happened to be engaged in offering a sacrifice, was murdered by the partisans of Fulvius and Gracchus, for some words or gestures which they considered as insulting. This outrage excited a general alarm ; the assembly broke up in consternation ; and the popular leaders, after trying in vain to gain a hearing from the people, while they disclaimed the violence committed by their followers, had no other course left than to withdraw to their own houses. There they concerted plans of resistance, which, however they might believe them to be justified on the plea of self-defence, ' Plutarch, ia C. Graccho, o. 10. 2 Appian, lib. i. c. 24. s Appian, c. 25. Plutarch, in C. Graccho, c. 13. CHAP. X-sqi.] CAITJS GRACCHUS. 349 were justly considered by the bulk of the people as an open rebeUioh b.c. 122. against the government of their country. The consul,' exaggerating They openly perhaps the alarm which he felt from the late outrage, hastily sum- authority of moned the senate together ; the body of the murdered man was Government, exposed to the view of the people, and the capitol was secared by break of day with an armed force. The senate being informed by Opimius of the state of affairs, proceeded to invest him with absolute power to act in defence of the commonwealth, in the usual form of a resolution, " That the consul should provide for the safety of the republic." At the same time Gracchus and Fidvius were summoned to appear before the senate, to answer for the murder laid to their charge. Instead of obeying, they occupied the Aventine Hill with a body of their partisans in arms, and iavited the slaves to join them, promising them their Uberty. They sent the son of Fulvius, a youth under eighteen years of age, to the consul with proposals of negotia- tion ; but were answered, that they must first lay down their arms ; and tin they did so, the senate would hold no intercourse with them. The son of Fulvius, however, was sent back once more in the hope of better success; but Opimius arrested him, as having come in defiance of the declaration of the senate ; and then without further delay proceeded to attack the rebels. He was followed by the sena- tors and the members of the equestrian order, who, with their dependents, had armed themselves by his order ; and he had also with him a body of regular soldiers, amongst whom some Cretan archers are particularly noticed.^ In the meantime the behaviour of G-racchus was that of a man irresolute in the course which he pur- sued, and with too much regard for his country to engage heartily in the criminal attempt into which he had suffered himself to be drawn. He had lefb his house, it is said,' in his ordinary dress ; he had been urgent with Fulvius to propose terms of accommodation to the senate, and now when the Aventine was attacked, he took per- sonally no part in the action. The contest indeed was soon over ; the rebels were presently dispersed ; Fulvius was dragged fi-om the But are place to which he had fled for refuge, and was put to death ; while puuo^deaS* Gracchus, finding himself closely pursued, fled across the Tiber, and ^f q^'-^™^'^ taking shelter in a grove sacred to the Furies, was killed at his own desire by a single servant who had accompanied his flight. His head, together with that of Fulvius, was cut off and carried to the consul, in order to obtain the price which had been set upon both by a proclamation issued at the beginning of the engagement ; and the bodies, as well as those of all who perished on the same side, were thrown into the river. In addition to this the houses of Gracchus and Fulvius were given up to plunder, their property was con- fiscated, and even the wife of Gracchus was deprived of her own ' Appian, c. 25. Plutarch, 1. 14. 2 Plutarch, in C. Graccho, o. 16. s Ibid. c. 15. 350 CAIUS GEACCHUS. [CHAP. XVII. B.C. 122. jointure. But a yet more atrocious cruelty disgraced the victorious party ; for Opimius ordered the son of Fulvius/ whom he had detained in custody, to be put to death ; an act of party vengeance as unjust as it was inhuman. , It is said that in this sedition there perished altogether of the partisans of the popular leaders about three thousand, partly in the action, and partly by summary execu- tions afterwards, under the consul's orders. The career of the two Gracchi was in many respects so similar, and the circumstances of their deaths bore so much resemblance to each other, that it is not wonderful that historians should have com- prehended both the brothers under one common judgment, and have pronounced in common their acquittal or their condemnation. But the conduct of Caius admits of far less excuse than that of Tiberius ; and his death was the deserved punishment of rebelhon, while that of his brother was an unjustifiable murder. It is true, the aristocratical party were likely to overturn all the measures which he had carried in his two tribuneships ; but the ascendency which they had suddenly gained, was the fruit of no illegal acts or violence ; it arose simply out of the natural revolutions of popular feeling, and from the conciliatory laws which the senate had of late been forward to encourage. If the popular assembly was disposed to take part vidth the consul Opimius ; if not even a single tribune could be found to interpose his negative against the proposed repeal Reflections of the law of Eubrius ; by what pretence of right could Gracchus cSiKchi. ^^^ Fulvius appear in the capitol at the head of an armed body of partisans ? and stOl more, when a murder had been committed by some of their friends, and they were called before the supreme coimcil of the state to answer for their violence ; by what right could two private citizens defy the authority of their government, and take up a military position with an armed force in the heart of the capital to maintain their disobedience? Under such circum- stances, although there is much in the character of Gracchus to awaken compassion for his fate, he yet only paid the just penalty for conduct which was treasonable m fact, and which on the most favourable construction of his motives, was criminally rash and intemperate. Still, however, the triumph of the senate was more that of an enraged party than of a firm and impartial government : the execution of the son of Fulvius was an act of gratuitous cruelty ; and the severities exercised after the sedition was over, were con- ducted without any forms of law, and had no other limit than the inclination of the aristocratical leaders. So bad indeed was the constitution of Eome, that the laws for the punishment of state criminals were uncertain and inadequate; and necessity was thus supposed to allow the correction of an evil by summary and illegal 1 Velleius Patercul. lib. ii. Appian, o. 2G. Plutarch, c. 17. CHAP. XVII.] CAIUS GRACCHUS. 351 means, because the legal means could not always be depended upon. B.C. 122. It may be safely pronounced, that there is no surer criterion of an ill-framed and barbarian government, than the admission of irregular acts of violence by any party on the plea of the public safety. It is an important inquiry, to find what effect was permanently The Laws of produced on the condition of the poor by the laws of the two aremmtiy' Gracchi ; or how long any of their measures were allowed to survive ^''"^^^ ™" their authors. The Agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus was indirectly subverted by a law which permitted the poor to sell the shares of land allotted to them ; ^ and which thus exposed them to the temptations of the high prices which the rich could afford to offer them, or of the various vexations by which a powerful neighbour might drive them to give up the land he coveted. But who was the proposer of this law, or at what precise period it passed, we have no information ; we can only suppose that it was carried soon after the death of C. Gracchus, when the power of the aristocracy was likely to be most predominant. By two subsequent laws^ the state of property was restored nearly to what it was before Tiberius Gracchus commenced his career ; the first, forbidding any further division of lands, and securing the actual possessors in the enjoyment of the estates which they held ; but transferring the rent which they had been accustomed to pay to the treasury, and ordering that it should henceforth be distributed among the poorer citizens: the second, reversing this last provision, and depriving the poor of all share either in the property or income of the national lands. There is great difficulty in settling the precise date of these two laws ; but we may suppose them to have been carried before the year of Eome 649, when a new Agrarian law ^ was proposed, but soon given up, by L. Maicius Philippus ; at which time he asserted in one of his speeches, that there were not two thousand individuals in the commonwealth who were worth any property. The duration of the act of C. Gracchus for the distribution of com appears to have been much longer ; though it is hardly possible to conceive that it was always fully executed. It was repealed by M. Octavius ; * and, as far as can be made out from the scanty information remaining to us, the repeal took place about the year of Eome 678 ; * the new law still providing 1 Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 27. ^ Appian, Loco citato. 3 Cicero, de Officiis, Ub. ii. c. 21. * Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, c. 60. 5 Vide Maroi Licimi Oration, apud Fragm. Sallust. However, whether the law alluded to in that speech be the Octavian law or not, is certainly a mere matter of conjecture. But Ferguson must be wrong in fixing the Octavian law in the year immediately following the death of Gracchus ; for Cicero expressly ranks Octavius with Cotta, Sulpicius, Curio, and others, who flourished after the sedition of Satur- ninus, u.c. 653, and continued to be distinguished as orators down to a much later period. In Plutarch's Life of Marius, it is said that Marius, when tribune, u.c. 634, opposed with success a law for the distribution of com among the people. But Plutarch is so little to be trusted for accuracy in such matters, that nothing can be concluded from his statement. Possibly the attempt which Marius resisted was 352 CAIUS GRACCHUS. [chap. xvii. B.C. 122. that some support should be given to the poor at the public expense, but reducing it to a much smaller amount. But it is probable, that the law of Gracchus had long ere this become obsolete ; and that the act of Octavius, although far less liberal in its grants, was welcomed as a popular measure; inasmuch as it substituted an actual distribution of corn for one which had been long since abandoned as impracticable. In short it appears that the reforms proposed by the Gracchi were in the issue most injurious to the interests of the common people ; for we are told that ^ for some years after the death of C. Gracchus the oppression and corruption of the aristocracy prevailed to a greater extent than ever ; insomuch that the liberties of the people were well nigh extinguished ; and allowing something for the prejudices of the writer from whom this statement is taken, it is yet too consonant to the usual revolutions of parties to be in the main rejected. one to confirm and enforce the corn law of C. Graechus ; in the same manner as Gracchus had brought in a law to confirm and enforce the Agrarian law of his brother Tiberius, although it had never been repealed smce its enactment. ' Oratio 0. Memmii, apud Sallust. Bell. Jugurth. c. 31. [Jupiter, ,^hmo, and Minerva, in an ancient style of ai-t, from a baa relief in tlie Capitol.] [Remains of the Capitol.] CHAPTER XVIII. SKETCH OF THE INTERNAL STATE OF ROME FROM THE DEATH OF CAIUS GRACCHUS TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SOCIAL WAR. B.C. 92. FROM B. C. 121 I'O B. C. 92. The ascendency acquired by the party of the senate after the B.C. 121 death of C. Gracchus is marked by a striking fact. C. Papirius Carbo, one of the commissioners under the Agrarian law, and formerly so distinguished as a popular leader, deserted his former friends, and was chosen one of the consuls for the ensuing year. During his consulship he undertook the defence of his predecessor in office, L. Opimius, who was impeached by one of the tribunes ^ for punishing citizens in the late tumults in an Ulegal manner. The trial came on before the people ; and Carbo, in the defence of his chent, maintained that the resolution of the senate by which the consul had been charged to provide for the safety of the repubhc,^ 1 Liw, Epitome, lib. Ixi. [k. h.] 2 a 2 Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii. c. 31, 32. 354: STATE OF EOME FEOM CAIDS GKACCHDS [CHAP. XVni B.C. 121. fully justified him in dispensing witli all the usual forms of law ™f.^ And this dispensing power in the senate was so far recognised bi ■n'^i i ^^ assembly, either from conviction or fear, that Opimius wai onjoysa acquitted. Carbo, however,' was accused soon afterwards by L ascendency. Crassus, then a very young man; and was charged by him witl insincerity in defending Opimius, while the manner in which he hac constantly lamented the fate of Tiberius Gracchus, the pernioioui laws which he had brought forward in his tribuneship, and above al his share in the murder of Scipio, sufficiently demonstrated his rea principles. For what particular crime he was accused, we cannoi discover ; but he was condemned, and destroyed himself in order tc escape sentence. It is remarkable also that Crassus might ventun to charge Mm with the murder of Scipio ; although no inquiry hac ever been instituted respecting that event, nor was it ever provec that Scipio was murdered at all. Character of During the few years which elapsed between the death of C. Nobii% at Gracchus and the war with Jugurtha, the Eoman nobility appear tc this period, have been plunged in a state of extreme corruption. The govern- ment of the empire was in their hands, and there were no circum- stances of peculiar difficulty to render great public virtues necessary, or to tempt ambitious men in the hope of distinguishing themselves tc relinquish the pursuit of selfish enjoyments. Commands in the pro- vinces were sought for as a means of acquiring wealth, either bj direct extortion and oppression, or by provoking a war with some neighbouring tribe of barbarians, and acquiring plunder and spoil, together with some military renown. At home the rich nobles stood aloof from the bulk of their countrymen, being separated froDO them by the immense disparity of their fortunes ; and having httle occasion for their services, whUe their own numerous slaves supplied them with labourers, tradesmen, stewards, agents, nay, even witb instructors for their children. In such a state of things it mattered httle, that the people as a body could exercise the most absolute power, and sometimes could enact laws which were very injurious to the interests of the rich. Their force when united was but i poor compensation for their individual weakness : and many a mem- ber of the sovereign assembly, when he had left the forum, and became no more than a single poor citizen, was treated by the ricli with a pride and oppression, from which the humblest labourer ii England is secure. The causes of this are to be found in the wani of a graduated scale of society, and of an enhghtened public opinion, The diiferent parts of the commonwealth were too distinct and toe dissimilar to blend together ; and too many of the intermediate links in the chain were wanting. And there being thus nothing to answei to that which is with us so emphatically called " the pubHc," public ' Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii- c. 39. CHAP. XYIII.J TO THE SOCIAL WAR. 355 opinion could scarcely exist ; and at a distance from the capital it B.C. 121. had no means of making itself heard, nor of gaining the information to by which alone it can itself be formed. This, it -wUl be observed, ^-^^ ^■^• is exactly the state of society fitted to breed violent revolutions. A people smarting under individual degradation, ignorant of the true means of dehvering themselves from it, and possessing as a body the most sovereign power, were likely, when roused by some active leader, to exert their strength in blind and furious acts of vengeance. An aristocracy, on the other hand, equally ignorant of the real evils of the existing order of things, and seeing nothing but the dangerous violence of the tribunitian seditions, were anxious to keep the people quiet, sometimes by bribes, sometimes by flattery, and some- times by coercion, that so they might preserve their own ascendency, and maintain the actual constitution of the repubhc. Selfishness on both sides, an habitual famiharity with bloodshed, and a general absence of a pure morality with sufficient sanctions, easily gave to the civil wars that ensued, that character of ferocity and rapacity which marks them so peculiarly. The indifference shown by the nobility towards the crimes of Jugurtha, an indifference ascribed by the people to the effect of his bribes, first interrupted that ascendency which the axistocratical party had enjoyed since the death of Gracchus. An active tribune,' C. Memmius, availed himself of the favourable opportunity ; the people. The popular roused by his invectives against the corruption of the nobility, began to recove?" to re-assume their share in the management of affairs ; their voice *^" forced the senate to declare war against Jugurtha ; and the miscon- ^' „ duct of the generals employed in the first campaigns giving addi- " '^^ tional strength to their complaints of corruption, a formidable court b.c. 111. of inquiry, consisting of three members, was instituted,^ with a general commission to investigate all cases of public delinquency. The inquisitors conducted themselves with the utmost rigour ; and five persons of the highest rank,^ amongst whom was L. Opimius, were on this occasion found guilty of corrupt practices, and were either condemned to pay heavy fines or were banished.* Soon after Q. Csecilius MeteUus, a man of spotless reputation, was appointed to take the command in Africa; and by his ability, and that of his successor C. Marius, the war with Jugurtha, as has been mentioned in a former part of this work, was brought to a triumphant end. But we must not omit to notice here a memorable change intro- Harms duced by Marius, when consul, in the constitution of the Eoman "Saracter'of army. Hitherto the old aristocratical principle, so universal among the Army, the commonwealths of Greece, had been carefully observed ; and none were admitted to serve in the regular infantry of the legions, 1 SaUust, Bell. JugurtK c. 27. 30, 31. 2 Ibid. <=. 40. 5 Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, o. 34. * Opimius was banished, as appears from Cicero, in Pisonem, u. 40. 356 STATE OF EOME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVin. B.C. 112. except they possessed a certain amount of property;^ the poorest ™ citizens, unless under circumstances of urgent necessity, were only B.C. -111. employed in the naval service. But Marius,^ when raising soldiers to accompany him into Africa, disregarded the usual practice alto- gether ; and enlisted into the legions citizens of the lowest and most indigent classes of society. His motives for this unprecedented measure are variously stated ; but it may be, most probably, im- puted to a mingled feeling of personal ambition, and of hatred towards all those who were any way distinguished for birth or fortune. Himself sprung from the lowest of the people, and having forced his way to the high station which he filled amidst the scorn and aversion of the nobUity, it was his dehght to be the consul of the populace, and as he had risen by their favour, to show that he cared for the support of no order in the state besides. He knew, moreover, that an army formed out of those who have no property to lose, becomes the ready instrument of its general's ambition, and easUy transfers to him the duty and affection which it owes to its country and its government. Marius stands conspicuous among those who have risen to greatness by favouring the en'sy and hatred of the dregs of the community towards all above them, and who have purchased the forgiveness of the multitude for their crimes and their tyranny, because every thing most noble, most exalted, and most sacred, has been especially the object of their persecution. B.C. 107. About the end of the Jugurthine war, Q. ServUius CKpio, being Q. Ciepio then consul,'' procured an alteration of that law of C. Gracchus, which alters the,, .'* t-.t,, .' Law of nad committed the whole judicial power to the equestrian order. conccrnirig ^J ^^^ ^^w law, the judges were to be chosen joiatly from the Powe?'^''^'^' senate and the knights. The character of Caspio seems to render it probable, that the tribunals as at that time constituted, were very strict in the punishment of corrupt and oppressive magistrates ; and that he wished, by restoring a share of the judicial authority to the senate, to secure a greater chance of impunity for such offenders. At least, it is remarkable, that during his command in Gaul,* where he was stationed to oppose the expected invasion of the Cimbri, he committed a robbery of the sacred treasm-e belonging to a temple at Toulouse, which was held by the inhabitants in particular vener- B.C. 106. ation. Nor was his abihty as a general greater than his integrity; for he was accounted the principal cause of the bloody defeat sustained by the Eomans in the following year, when the united armies of himself and his successor in the consulship, Cn. Mahius, were overthrown by the Cimbri, with the loss of eighty thousand men. The popular cry was loud against him, and he was accused 1 Pol.vbius, lib. vi. o. 19. 2 Sallust, Bell. Jugurth. c. 86. 3 Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, c. 43 ; De Oratore, lib. ii. e. 49 ; Cassiodorus, Chronicon. * Strabo, lib. iv. p. 204. Edit. Xyland. CHAP. XVIILJ TO THE SOCIAL WAR. 357 sometime_ afterwards by C. Norbanus one of the tribunes;' but the B.C. 106. aristocratical party made a strong eiFort to save him, and his con- demnation was only procured by actual violence. It appears that his trial was attended by a furious riot, in which M. Jjlmilius Scaurus, the first on the roll of the senate, was wounded by a stone ; and two of the tribunes, who were preparing to interpose their negative on the proceedings of the judges, were driven by the populace from the court. In this manner Ofepio was condemned and banished ; and it is said that his sentence was accompanied by the unusual disgrace of having his property confiscated by order of the people.^ The -war with the Cimbri and the other northern tribes was not cimerof l. yet finished, when the most profligate of demagogues, L. Appuleius fSmlms. Saturninus, made himself for the first time conspicuous. His animosity to the senate is attributed by Cicero to a personal shght which he received when he was qusestor ; " for at a period of scarcity, the charge of superintending the supply of the markets was taken away from him, and given to M. ^milius Scaurus, one of the most distinguished of the nobility. He had been one of the tribunes for the year of Eome 650, and in the following year Q. Metellus,* who was then censor, noticed him for the infamy of his general life, and would have degraded him from his rank by virtue of his censorial power, if his colleague in the censorship had not refused to concur with him in the sentence. In the year next succeeding, when Marius was in his fifth consulship, Satui-ninus declared himself a second time candidate for the tribuneship ; but finding himself rejected, he waylaid one of the successful candidates, A. Nonnius, on his way home from the place of election ; drove him into an adjoining tavern, and their by the aid of an armed rabble murdered him. His partisan.s, availing themselves of the general consternation, assembled early on the following morning, and elected him tribune without opposition ; and such was the state of things at Eome, that this mockery of all law was submitted to, and Saturninus was recognised in the character which he had usurped by murder. He was not however without associates ; they were C. ServiUus Glaucia, who was at this time one of the pr^tors, and C. Marius, who, stUl unsatisfied with the honours he had gained, was now aspiring to a sixth consul- ship ; and was glad to acquire the support of a man so popular with the multitude as Saturninus. It is said that Marius gained his election as little from the unbiassed choice of the people as his friend Appuleius had done : ^ but that bribery was unscrupulously used, and that his old soldiers at the same time were introduced into the city to overawe by their ttmults the decisions of the Comitia. In ' Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii. u. 49. ^ Livy, Epitome, lib. 67. 2 Cicero, pro Sextio, c. 17. * Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. o. 28. 5 Plutarch, in Mario, c. 28. 358 STATE OF ROME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVIII. B.C. 306. this manner the cause of the factious and worthless part of the people obtained an unusual triumph, and might well anticipate the gratifica- tion of its wildest hopes, when Eome beheld at the same moment C. Marius a consul, C. Servihus Glaucia a prsetor, and L. Appuleius Saturninus a tribtme of the people. B.C. 102. The proceedings of the following year seem hardly consistent ivith Trfbuneshin ^^^ faintest shadow of regular government ; for both parties in turn and Policy, had recourse without hesitation to measures of open Tiolence. But we may observe that Saturninus did not tread in the steps of the Gracchi, nor was it the interest of the poor citizens of Rome that he professed to espouse. He seems to have adopted a pohcy yet more mischievous, and to have framed his laws to enrich the needy soldiery who had served under Marius in his successive con- sulships, and who might easily be induced to raise their favourite general to the utmost height of his ambition. He proposed an Agrarian law,^ for the division of certain districts in Gaul, which, having been overrun by the Cimbri, had after their defeat fallen into the hands of the Romans : and he added to the law a clause, by which the senators were bound to swear obedience to it, within five days after it should have passed the assembly of the people. But it was apprehended that the soldiers of Marius were Ukely to be the only gainers from the projected allotment of lands : and among these there was a large proportion of citizens of the allied states of Italy, and also of the agricultural labourers ; a class of men which oifered an excellent supply of hardy soldiers ; and of which Marius had largely availed himself, enlisting, we are told,^ slaves as weU as free- men. Many of these men had received, from their general, admission to the rank of Roman citizens,' for their gallant behaviour in the late war : for example, he had at one time conferred this reward on a thousand soldiers * of Gamerinum and its district, and had defended himself, when charged with having acted illegally, by saying that the din of arms had prevented him from hearing the stOl voice of the laws. So that the party of Marius and Saturninus consisted not so much of the citizens of the capital, as of a country and provincial interest : and in the disturbances that followed, the inhabitants of Eome espoused generally the side of the aristocracy ; as feeling that the projects of the three associates were as httle favourable to them as to the senate itself On the other hand a multitude of citizens,* or of men who hoped to become such, flocked in from the country to support the proposed laws of Saturninus ; and as force seemed likely to be more employed than any legal methods, many came to Rome on this occasion, who, although they could not vote in a lawftil assembly, were yet able to give their party a powerful support by 1 Appiau, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. o. 29. 2 Plutarch, in Mario, c. 9. 3 Cicero, pro Balbo, c, 20. i Plutarch, in Mario, c. 28. ^ Appian, lib. i. c. 29. CHAP. XV1II.J TO THE SOCIAL WAR. 359 clamour and violence. It was by these arms indeed that Saturninus b.c. 102. triumphed. Bsbius,^ one of his colleagues, who interposed his negative on the Agrarian law, was driven from the place of meeting by showers of stones ; and when some of the aristocratical party exclaimed, " that they heard thunder," a sound which according to the custom of the Eomans should at once have broken up the assembly, Saturninus replied, "that it would hail presently, if they were not quiet." The people of the city, incensed at this open violence, endeavoured to maintain their ground by force, but they were overpowered by the armed mob at the disposal of Saturninus, and being obhged to abandon the field, the law was passed amidst The the shouts of the victorious party. Other laws in the same spirit Lfw^Sed were carried in the same manner ; one, decreeing a division of lands in Africa to the veteran soldiers, and assigning a hundred jugera to each man ; another, ordering that colonies should be planted in various parts of Sicily and Greece ; and a third, appropriating the treasure plundered at Toulouse by Q. Caspio for the purchase of lands to be distributed amongst the poor. To these laws, as already mentioned, the senate was ordered to swear obedience within five days ; a step concerted by Marius and his associates to pro- cure the destruction of Q. MeteUus, whose undaunted integrity they knew would never allow him to consent to a measixre which he deemed mischievous, or to submit to a usurped and unlawfiil authority. Saturninus and Glaucia hated him, because he had noticed them both when he was censor for the infamy of their lives. Marius had been patronised by him and his family in early youth,^ and had since deprived him of the honour of finishing the war with Jugurtha by his intrigues and calumnies. A vile nature hates none so much as those from whom it has received kindness, and whose kindness it has recompensed with injury; there was enough, therefore, besides the constant antipathy which evil bears to good, to make Marius the determined enemy of MeteUus. As soon as the law was passed, Marius,^ in his quality of consul, expressed his indignation against it in the senate, and declared that he would never submit to take the oath required. MeteUus made a s imilar declaration, and the senate, applauding their firmness, was prepared to offer a unanimous resistance to the oath. But on the evening of the fifth day, Marius hastUy called the senate together, and told them, that it was too dangerous openly to oppose the wUl of the people ; he judged it expedient, therefore, to take the oath with a qualification, swearing to obey the law so far as it was lawful. They would thus pacify the people for the moment, and when the multitude of citizens from the country should have returned to their homes, it would be easy to show, that the law had 1 Auotor de Viris Ulustribus, in Vita Saturnini. 2 Plutarch, in Mario, o. 4. ^ Appian, lib. i. u. 30. 360 STATE OP ROME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVIII. B.C. 102. not passed legally, the assembly having continued to vote after thunder had been heard ; and thus the obligation of the oath would be null and void. Confounded by this display of the consul's treachery, at a moment when there was no time left to concert any new plan of proceeding, the sen,ators hstened to him in silence ; and he, without giving them leisure to recover themselves, led them out instantly to the temple of Saturn, and there was himself amongst the first to take the oath. The rest of the senate followed his example, no man being willing to expose himself, as an individual, to the fury of the multitude, with the single exception of MeteDus. With admirable firmness, that excellent citizen resisted all the arguments and entreaties of his friends, and persisted in his refusal to swear ; saying to those around him,' " that a good man was distinguished by his adherence to what was right in defiance of personal danger." On the following day Saturninus exhorted his followers,^ who now usurped the functions of the Roman people, to Banishment pass an act of banishment against Metellus, and to order, that the I). Metellus. consuls, by a public proclamation, should interdict him from the use of fire and water within the limits of Italy. The citizens of the capital wished to make another attempt on this occasion to shake off the tyranny under which they were labouring ; and offered Metellus to oppose, to the utmost, the sentence that was to be proposed agaiast him. But he, rightly judging it the duty of a good subject to submit peaceably to physical force, as much as it had been to refuse active obedience to an illegal command, dechned their prof- fered assistance ; and telling them, " that he never would permit the safety of his country to be endangered on his account," with- drew quietly from Rome. The law of banishment passed without opposition, and Marius had the gratification to proclaim it, and to utter the usual prohibition of the use of fire and water. It is mentioned that Saturninus, amongst his other laws,' pro- posed also to confirm the corn law of C. Gracchus, by which corn was to be distributed monthly to the people at five-sixths of an as for the modius or peck. This sufficiently shows that the law of Gracchus had tacitly become obsolete. Its renewal was resisted strongly by the aristocratical party, and some of the colleagues of Saturninus interposed their negative upon it. But he, disregarding all legal impediments, proceeded to put it to the vote; when Q. Servilius Csepio, one of the qu^stors, and son to the consul who had fallen a victim to the indignation of the people, on account of his ill success against the Cimbri, made an attack upon the assembly, at the head of a body of citizens attached to the senate, overthrew the balloting urns, dispersed the multitude, and prevented the pass- ing of the law. So wretched was the condition of Rome, that those 1 Plutarch, in Mario, c. 29. 2 Appian, lib. i. c. 31. 2 Khetorica ad Herennium. lib. i. c. 12. CHAP. XVIU.J TO THE SOCIAL WAR. 361 who called themselves the friends of order, were driven to support b.c. 102. the constitution by acts of illegal violence. Another law, as is probable,^ was proposed and carried by C. Servilius Glaucia, to repeal the late act of the consul Q. Csepio, and to restore the judicial power entirely to the equestrian order, according to the law of C. Gracchus. The knights were thus won over to favour the pretensions which Glaucia was now making to the consulship ; and their support, together with that of the popular party, was likely to decide the election in his favour. Saturninus also intended to offer himself a third time as a candidate for the office of tribune ; and together with himself he brought forward a man of the lowest rank, named Equitius,^ who professed to be a younger brother of Tiberius and C. Gracchus; and although his claim had been utterly rejected by the family, it yet won him some favour with the people, who regarded the name of Gracchus with great affection. When the elections came on, Saturninus and Equitius were chosen tribunes ; but the hopes of Glaucia were in danger of being disappointed, for M. Antonius, so famous for his eloquence, easily obtained his nomination as one of the consuls, and and C. Memmius was a formidable competitor for the place of the other. But Saturninus had committed so many outrages with impunity, that he seemed now to bid defiance to the laws ; and an armed party, acting under his orders, assaulted and murdered Memmius in the midst of the election, and at once dispersed the people from the Comitia in consternation at this new crime. But this last violence awakened the senate, and M. jEmilius Scaurus,' the first on the roll of the senators, and the same person who twelve years before had moved that the consul Opimius should defend the republic against the party of Gracchus, now again persuaded the senate to commit the same authority to the consuls Marius and Valerius Flaccus, and to give them the usual solemn charge to provide for the safety of the commonwealth. Alarmed at this Eebeiiion of resolution, Saturninus, Glaucia, Equitius, and a body of their fol- lowers in arms, seized the capitol, and declared themselves in open rebellion. Marius, their old associate, and still secretly their friend, could not however avoid acting upon the orders of the senate, and summoned every citizen to maintain the cause of the republic. All 1 Cicero says in his treatise, De Claris Oratoribus, o. 61, that Glaucia had attached to himself the equestrian order by the law which he had carried in their favour; "Equestrem Ordinem beneficio Legis devinxerat." It is supposed that this law was a repeal of that lately passed, u.c. 647, by Q. Caspio; because it appears from Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii. c. 49, that the equestrian order were again in possession of the judicial power at the trial of C. Norbanus, which must have taken place within four or five years of the prsetorship of Glaucia ; and Livius Dnisus, u.c. 662, attempted once more to give the senate a place among the judges, which in his time they did not enjoy. 3 Valerius Maximus, lib. iii. c. 8, 5, 6 ; Appian, lib. i. o. 32. 3 Auotor de Viris illustribus, in Vita M. Jlmilii Scauri. 362 STATE 01? ROME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVIII. B.C. 102. the tribunes/ except Saturninus ; all the praators, except Glaiicia ; all the senators, all the equestrian order, and all the most respectable citizens in Eome, assembled at the consul's call, and formed a force so formidable, that Marius was reduced to the condition of an unwilhrig instrument in their hands, employed by them against a party with which in his heart he entirely sympathized. The rebels, however, resisted for some time, till Marius cut off the pipes by which the capitol was supplied with water,^ and thus obliged them to surrender. They submitted themselves to him with no great reluctance, relying on his known dispositions in their favour ; and he, anxious to save their lives, promised them their safety,^ without the authority of the senate, and restraining the indignation of his LEtmains of the Curia Hostilia.] followers, shut them up in the Curia Hostilia,* the building originally appropriated for the meetings of the senate, under pretence of reserving them for an impartial trial hereafter. But the armed citizens under his command, mistrusting the lenity of the consul, assaulted the place of their confinement, and mounting upon the roof of the building, they took off the tUing,^ and destroyed with missile weapons the whole of the defenceless prisoners below. It is almost peculiar to Eoman history, that .the vengeance finally inflicted even on so great a criminal as Saturninus, should more resemble a murder than a legal execution. The late popular leaders were by no means regretted by the people as the Gracchi had been ; for not only was their conduct so desperate as to have disgusted all but the most profligate, but their measures, as has been observed, had been less immediately directed His Memory to the advantages of the citizens of Eome. It appears rather that Saturninus was generally regarded as an enemy to his country; He and his Partizans are put to Death. is held in detestation. 1 Cicero, pro Eabirio, o. 7. * Appian, lib. i. c. 32. 2 Ibid. c. 11. 3 Ibid. o. 10. * Velleius Paterculus, lib.ii. CHAP. XVIII.J TO THE SOCIAL WAE. 363 and two remarkable instances of this feeling are recorded, whioli B.C. 102. deserve to be noticed as illustrative of the arbitrary and violent spirit by which the administration of justice at Eome was character- ised. C. Decianus,' a man, it is said, of the utmost respectability, was accusing P. Furius, of whom more will be added presently, before the people. In the course of his speech, he happened to complain of the manner in which Saturninus had been put to death; and for this oifence he not only lost his cause, although Furius was notoriously a man of most infamous hfe, but was himself brought to trial and condemned, whether to a fine or to banishment is not stated. Sex. Titus also was tried and condemned,^ for having a statue of Saturninus in his house. Now it is obvious that there could have been no law by which either of these acts was made a crime, and they were punished merely on the principle, that a man might be found guilty for any thing which his judges chose to consider as criminal, whether it were an offence defined by law or not. The fate of Furius, who escaped, owing to the imprudent speech of his accuser, was, according to Appian,^ in itself sufficiently extraordinary. He was one of the tribunes for the year which followed the sixth consulship of Marius : and when after the death of Saturninus attempts were made to procure the recall of MeteUus from banishment, he interposed his negative tipon them all. The son of MeteUus threw himself at his feet in vain before the assembled people, and with tears entreated him to relent. But the people, we Recau of are told, affected by this scene, decreed that MeteUus should return * Meteiius. in spite of the tribune's opposition ; and felt so much indignation against Furius, that when he was accused before them for his resist- ance to their wUl, the multitude without waiting to hear his defence, feU upon him and tore him to pieces. This story, however, is only related by Appian, and does not seem altogether probable. So unusual a burst of popular fury is not likely to have been excited by such a cause, when the lapse of some months must have effaced the impression at first produced by the sight of the treatment shown to the prayers of a son in behalf of his father. But here, as in so many other instances in Roman history, the want of good authority, and the imperfection of aU existingreports of the times, render it impos- sible to attain to a knowledge of the truth. About this time, Marcus Aquilius, who commanded in SicUy as proconsid, concluded a bloody war which had long devastated that island. We speak of the insurrection of the slaves, to which we have before briefly aUuded, and which may here deserve to be noticed somewhat more particularly. The termination of the second Punic war had left the whole of Eevoitof the SicUy in the quiet possession of the Eomans. The inhabitants, |}Ji5^' " ' Cicero, pro EatMo, o. 9 ; Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. o. 1. 2 Cicero and Valerius Maximus, ubi supra. ' De Bell. Civil, lib. i. u. 33. 364 STATE OF ROME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVIII. B.C. 102. when the immediate evils of the contest were over, were on the whole mildly treated. Some of them had indeed adhered throughout to the cause of the Romans; and even in those states which had most vigorously opposed them, there were several considerations which might move the conquerors to forbearance. They had long been the zealous alhes of Rome during the reign of Hiero ; their revolt had been of short duration, and the bulk of the people had been either deceived or forced into taking a part in it ; besides that the importance of the island to Rome, and its neighbourhood to Carthage, rendered it expedient to conciliate the inhabitants as much as possible to the Roman government. Accordingly, whOst some of the Sicilian states were exempt from all taxes whatsoever,' the great majority were subject only to the same burthen which they had supported under their native princes; the payment namely of a tenth part of the produce of the soil ; and the collection of this tax was so well regulated by law, that the farmer was fully protected from paying more than a just tenth, or from suffering any thing vexatious in the manner of payment. Land, thus comparatively unincumbered, and enjoying the highest reputation for fertility, became a desirable object of purchase to the wealthy citizens of Rome and Latium : large estates were accordingly bought up by them,^ and were stocked with vast numbers of slaves ; the use of whom at this time, as we have already noticed, began almost entirely to supersede that of free labourers. In order to derive from them the greatest possible profit,^ they were miserably fed and clothed ; and were thus driven to support themselves by robbery; their manner of life as shepherds, in which service a large proportion of them was employed, afibrding them great facihties m the practice of plunder. It is said, moreover, that the governors of the island were deterred from punishing these offenders by the wealth and influence of their masters, who were well pleased that their slaves should provide for their own wants at the expense of the pubKc. First revolt In this State of things,* the slaves began to entertain projects of a Enira^ ^^ general insurrection, and a leader was not long wanting to call them forth into action. Eunus, a Syrian by birth, was the slave of a citizen of Enna named Antigenes ; and had acqioired great influence amongst his companions in bondage by pretending to divine inspira- tion, and particularly to a knowledge of the fature. Amongst many guesses into futurity, some were Ukely to be verified by the event, and these established his reputation; so that at last he professed himself to be favoured with constant communication from heaven ; ^ Cicero, in Verrem, lib. iii. c. 6. 2 Floras, lib. iii. c. 19 ; Diodonis Siculus, lib. xsxiv. Eologa secimda Edit. Ebo- doman. ■'* Diodorus Siculus, lib. xxxiv. Eel. 2. * Ibid, vii supra. CHAP. XVIII.J TO THE SOCIAL WAE. 365 [Castro Giovanni, tlie anuietit i:unLi, J and it is said that he used to secrete in his mouth some lighted B.C. 102. combustible substance, and thus amazed the vulgar by seeming to breathe forth smoke and fire, as if imder the immediate im- pulse of the god who spoke from within him. The beUef in his miraculous en- dowments was so general, that the slaves of another ci- tizen of Enna, named Damophilus, unable to bear the cruelty with which they were treated both by their master and his wife, and bent on revenging themselves, apphed first to Eunus, and inquired of him if the gods would grant success to their attempts. He eagerly caught at the opportunity thus offered him ; assured them of the favour of heaven, and exhorted them to execute their purpose without delay.-' The slaves employed on the several estates in the neighbourhood of Enna, were excited by the call of the slaves of Damophilus ; a body of four hundred men was collected ; and they entered the town under the command of Eunus himself, whose trick of breathing fire is said to have produced a great impression on the minds of his followers. The insurgents were instantly joined by the slaves in the town ; and an indiscriminate massacre of the free inhabitants followed, in which men, women, and children, were treated with equal cruelty. Damophilus and his mfe were seized at their country house, dragged in triumph to Enna, and there murdered ; but their daughter was saved by the slaves, in gratitude for the kindnesses which they had always met with at her hands. Meantime, Eunus spared out of the general slaughter such of the citizens of Enna as understood the manufacture of arms, and compelled them to labour in order to supply his followers with weapons. He also took to himself the title and the ensigns of a king, while he bestowed those of queen on the female slave who Hved with him : and he formed a council consisting of those of his associates most eminent for their courage or ability. In three days he was at the head of six thou- sand men tolerably armed, besides a great multitude provided only ■vfith. hatchets, spits, or any other weapons which they could find : and the number of the insurgents daily increasing, he was enabled to overrun the country, and several times to encounter with success 1 Diodorus Siculus, lib. xxxiv. Eel. 2. 366 STATE OF E03IE FEOM CAIUS GEACCHDS [CHAP. X-^all. B.C. 102. the Roman forces which attempted to oppose him. The example presently became contagious : a CiUcian slave, named Cleon, took up arms in another part of the island ; and far from attempting to rival Eunus, he immediately acknowledged him as king, and acted in every thing by his orders. L. Hypssus, one of the prastors, who arrived from Rome about a month after the commencement of the revolt, brought a regular army of eight thousand men against the insurgents, but was outnumbered by them and defeated. Several other Roman officers met with the same bad fortune ; and the slaves made themselves masters of many of the towns of that island. Their career was first checked by M. Perpena, one of the prastors,' and The revolt afterwards finally stopped by the consul P. RupUius,^ who has been REupiiius. already noticed as the author of measures of extreme severity against the partizans of Tiberius Gracchus. This officer first recovered the town of Taurominium, after a long blockade, in which the slaves were reduced to the utmost extremities of famine ; and having put to death all those who fell into his hands, he proceeded to besiege Enna, the first scene of the revolt, and the principal strong-hold of the insurgents. The sure process of blockade rendered the condition of the besieged desperate ; Cleon was killed in a sally ; and the place was in a short time betrayed to the Romans. Eunus escaped from the town ; but was soon afterwards taken, and died, it is said, in prison of a loathsome disease ; after which RupOius proceeded to regulate the state of the island, and ten commissioners were sent from Rome to assist in the settlement,' exactly in the manner which we have seen regularly practised by the senate after the conclusion of its wars with Antiochus, Perseus, Achaia, and Carthage. The revolt was thus apparently suppressed ; but the cause of the insurgents found everywhere so many who sympathized with it, that similar attempts were made within a few years in several other parts of the empire. One of these deserve notice from its singularity, A Roman knight of the name of T. Minuoius,* having incurred a debt beyond his means, and being pressed for the payment of it, purchased five hundred suits of armour, and having conveyed them secretly into the country, employed them in arming his slaves; and then usurping the style and dignity of a kmg, invited the slaves in general to join him, and murdered his creditors, whom he contrived to get into his power. Ridiculous as this leader was, he assembled round him above three thousand followers, and was not reduced by the prsetor who was sent against him without maintaining an obstinate Second revolt struggle. But a far more serious disturbance soon broke out for Atheiiio!'^ the second time in Sicily. When C. Marius was looking for troops in every quarter to oppose the invasion of the Cimbri,' a decreee of ' Floras, lib. iii. c. 19. ^ Diodoras, lib. xxxiv. Eel. 2. Livy, Epitom. lib. lix. ' Cicero, in VeiTem, lib. ii. c. 13, 16. * Diodorus Siculus, lib. xxxvi. Eel. 1. 5 Ibid. lib. xxxvi. Eel. 1. CHAP. XVm.J TO THE SOCIAL WAK. 367 the senate empowered Mm to demand assistance from the more dis- B.C. 102. tant allies of the republic ; and he sent accordingly to Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, requiring of him a certain contingent of soldiers. Nicomedes excused himself by saying that so large a portion of his subjects had been carried off and sold for slaves, in different parts of the empire, that he was unable to raise the force demanded of him. Upon this the senate issued an order, that no freebom native of any state in alliance with Rome, should be kept as a slave in any of the Eoman provinces ; and the provincial magistrates were desired to institute inquiries, and to liberate within their several jurisdictions all those who came within the terms of the senate's decree. Licinius Nerva, the prsetor of Sicily, began accordingly to set at hberty above eight hundred slaves within a few days ; but he was soon persuaded by the rich slave-owners in the island to suspend his proceedings, and he in future referred all those who apphed to him for their liberty to the decision of their own masters. The slaves thus suddenly disappointed of the hopes which they had felt themselves encouraged by the senate itself to entertain,' resolved to obtain their freedom for themselves : insurrections broke out in several parts of the island, and although at first partially suppressed, revived again with redoubled fury. Sabrius and Athenio were two of the chief insurgents : and the latter displayed considerable mihtaxy talents, paying more regard to the quahty than to the numbers of his army, and accustoming his men to regular discipline. He also, Hke Eunus, appealed to the superstition of his followers ; and declared that the stars had foretold that he should be king over all Sicily. Several Eoman prsetors were defeated with loss in successive attempts to reduce the revolters; and the whole of Sicily became a scene of plunder and destruction ; many free inhabitants of the poorer class availmg themselves of the general conftision, and carrying on an organized system of devastation throughout the country. At length Marcus Aquilius, the colleague QgeUeaty of Marius in his fifth consulship, was sent against this obstinate AquUim enemy. He followed the example of Eupilius, by shutting the insur- gents up in their strong-holds, and surrounding them with lines of circumvallation till famine obHged them to surrender. Many, how- ever, had fallen by the sword in several previous engagements ; and those who at last submitted were sent to Eome, and destined there to afford sport for the populace by being exposed to fight with beasts in the amphitheatre. But it is said that they preserved their fierce- ness to the last, and instead of combating with the beasts, turned their swords against one another, and shed their blood upon the altars appointed for the sacrifices usually performed at the games, 1 Diodoras Siculus, lib. xxxvi. Eel. 1. It may be observed that the testimony of Diodorus is more than usually valuable in his account of these transactions from his being himself a Sioihan, and always showing a Uvely mterest m events that happened in his own country. 368 STATE OF ROME FEOM CAIUS GEACCHDS [CHAP. XVIII. B.C. 102. the last survivor completing the slaughter by killing himself. The peace of the island thus with difficulty restored, was maintained for the future by regulations of extreme severity. No slave was allowed to carry a weapon ;^ and on one occasion when a boar of remarkable size had been sent as a present to L. Domitius, at that time praetor of the island, he inquired who had killed it ; and finding that it was a slave employed as a shepherd, he summoned the man before him, and asked him how he had contrived to destroy so large an anunal. The shepherd replied, that he had killed it with a boar spear ; upon which Domitius ordered him immediately to be crucified for having used a weapon in defiance of the law. In consequence of this arbi- trary system, we read of no more revolts of the slaves in Sicily for a very long period. Tiiaianii But whatever were the military services of Manius Aquilius, in I'qiiiiia's. " subduing the insurgent slaves, his conduct as a man too much B.C. 100. resembled that of his father whom we have seen poisoning the wells in Asia, and afterwards tried for his cori-uption and oppression. His son was in like manner brought to trial on a similar charge ; and it appears that his guUt could not be denied; for M. Autonius, the orator, who acted as his advocate, could only save him by a violent appeal to the feelings of the judges.^ He contrasted the former honoui's of the accused with his present condition ; and at last he tore open the dress of his client, and exposed the wounds which he had received in the course of his services as a soldier. So httle were the duties of a court of justice observed at Eome, that this most irrelevant mode of defence was completly successful ; and Aquilius escaped condemnation. How hard it is for good government and equal justice to exist among a people who allow their feehngs to influence them against their reason in the discharge of a solemn duty! B.C. 99. In the following year an attempt was made to check the violent amiDWiaJf" measures sometimes proposed by the tribunes, and which the people Law. were used to approve without due consideration. A law was passed which bears the names of both the consuls, Q. CsecUius Metellus Nepos, a cousin of Q. Metellus Numidicus, and T. Didius ; and by which it was enacted, that every law should be published on three successive market days,* before it could be submitted to the votes of the people; it was also provided that the people should not be obliged to accept or reject any clause of a law contrary to their v/ishes, as was often the case at present, when several enactments being contained in one law, and proposed to the votes of the assembly all together, it was necessary either to approve or to negative the whole without discrimination. 1 Cicero, in Verrem, lib. v. c. 3. - Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii. o. 48 ; In Verrem, lib. v. c. 1. 3 Ibid. Piiilipp. V. 0. 3. Pro Domo, c. 20. [Boman Chariot.— Pj-escrfjcd m the Valican,] CHAP. XVIII.j TO THE SOCIAL WAK. 369 The year of Rome 656 is marked by some discussions which b.c. 99. arose on the subject of sumptuary laws. In a constitution which onsin una permitted the magistrates to interfere with the private hfe of every sumptuaiy citizen to the extent practised by the censors, the expenses of the ^™^' table were not likely to escape the control of the law. We read of various statutes passed from time to time, with a view to restrain what was called luxury : in the year 538, only a year after the battle of Cannis, C. Oppius, one of the tribunes,' brought forward a law to regu- late the degree of ornament which might be allowed in female dress, and forbidding the ladies of Rome to use a carriage within the city, except in their attendance on the public sac- rifices. But after the end of the second Punic war, it was contended that such provisions were fitted only for a season of national distress, and the Oppian law was repealed. Of the laws directed particularly against the expenses of the table, the first in order of time is fixed about the year 571,^ and was proposed by Orchius, one of the tribunes, on the recommendation of the senate. It limited the number of guests at any entertainment, and ordered, as we are told, that the doors of the house should be left open during the meal to guard against any violation of its enactments. A httle more than twenty years after- wards, in the interval between the overthrow of Perseus and the third Punic war, the attention of the senate was again directed to the same subject. By a decree of that assembly,^ the principal citizens, who were in the habit of giving entertainments to one another, during the celebration of the games in honour of Cybele, were obhged to make oath before the consuls that they would not expend on any meal more than a hundred and twenty asses, or 7s. 9d. sterling, exclusive of the sum paid for bread, vegetables, and wine ; that they would use no other wine than that made in Italy, and that they would not have more than a hundred pounds weight of silver displayed at their table. Afterwards, in the same year, a law was passed bearing the name of C. Fannius,* one of the consuls, 1 Livy, lib. xxxiv. c. 1. 2 Macrobius, Saturn, lib. ii. o. 13 ; Apud Faociolati Lexicon, in Voce " Orchia." ' GeUius, lib. ii. apnd Sigonium, Commentar. in Fast, et Triumph. * Macrobius, SaturnaL lib. ii. c. 13; apud Facciolati Lexicon, in Voce " Fannia." [e. H.] 2 B 370 STATE OF EOME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVIIl. B.C. 99. Duronius expelled from the Senate Decree for tlie abolition of Human Sacrifices. which restrained the expense of meals stOl more. On the greatest festivals no man was allowed to exceed an hundred asses, 6s. 5^i. : on ten other days in every month he might go as high as thirty asses, or Is. lljd. ; and at all other times he was limited to no more than ten, about T^-d. of English money. By the same law,' also, the con- sumption of poultry and all kinds of birds was expressly forbidden, with the exception of a single hen at each table, and this, it was added, must not have been regularly fatted. This was repeated as a favourite clause in all future laws on the same subject ; and other articles of food were prohibited by successive enactments ; — as for example, M. jEmilius Scaurus, one of the consuls in the year 638, excluded dormice from the table,' which little animals the Eomans, it appears, were accustomed to catch in great numbers, and regarded them when fatted as a peculiar dehcacy. It is natural enough that men of small or moderate fortune, who could not indulge in the magnificence of splendid villas, numerous slaves, or costly furniture, should bear with great impatience these restrictions upon that peculiar gratification which was to them most accessible; besides that, they looked upon any interference in such matters, as an encroachment on their just liberty of doing what they chose with their own money. We find accordingly that M. Duronius, one of the tribunes,' procured the rejection of a new sumptuary law brought forward about the year of Eome 656, to enforce the provisions of the law of Fannius. For this action, Duronius was shortly after expelled from the senate by the censors M. Antonius and L. Flaccus ; and a sumptuary law was in fact carried by the consul P. Licinius Crassus,* Kmiting the quantity of meat which might be brought to table on ordinary occasions, but still permitting an unrestricted consumption of vegetables. There is in one of Cicero's letters,' testimony to show that these regulations remained in force for many years ; and that their intention was completely evaded by the arts of cookery, which found means to provide a luxurious and expensive meal out of the common productions of the garden. In the consulship of P. Licinius Crassus, and Cn. Lentulus, is also dated a decree of the senate for the abolition of human sacri- fices.^ When the republic was engaged in any dangerous war, the superstition of the Romans believed, that to bury alive, in the midst of Eome, an individual of the adverse nation, was a powerful charm to secure victory. This had been put in practice in the second Punic war ; and although now forbidden, was repeated afterwards, ' Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. x. i;. 50. ^ H|i(j_ ij^,_ yiii_ 3 Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. c. 9. * Aul. Gellius, lib. ii. c. 24 ; apud Facciolati in Voce " Licinius." ■'> Epistol. ad Familiares, lib. vii. ep. 26. " Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. xxx. c. 1. c. 57. CHAP. XVIII.J TO THE SOCIAL WAE. 871 on more than one occasion, till long after the first preaching ofB.c. 99. Christianity.' It is with pleasure that we are now called to contemplate two rare instances of integrity and humanity — Q. Mucius Scsevola, and P. Eutilius Eufus. Q. Scsevola filled the office of consul in the year of Eome 658, together with L. Licinius Crassus, so celebrated as an orator. On the expiration of the year, he was appointed as pro- consul to the government of the province of Asia ; ^ by which name the Romans meant to express those countries on the western side of Asia Minor, which had formerly composed the kingdom of Perga- mus. P. RutiUus attended him as his lieutenant,' and cordially co- Just operated vnth him in all his proceedings. He only held his com- ao"of'^''"' mand for nine months ;* but during that short period he so endeared Q- Mucins in himself to the people whom he governed, by the equity of his administration, and by the firmness with which he protected them against the oppressions of the farmers of the revenue, that a festival was instituted in commemoration of his goodness,^ and continued to be observed for many years afterwards in Asia ; whUe at Eome, his name became identified with that of an upright and merciful magis- trate,* and his conduct was long held up by the senate as a model which officers appointed to similar stations should diligently endeavour to copy. Q. Mucius was happy, moreover, in never being exposed to the mahce of those whose interests had suffered from his pure and incorrupt government. But his Ueutenant, P. Eutilius, was less fortuate. The judicial power, according to the law of C. Gracchus, (which, after a short interruption, had been lately put in force again by C. Servilius Glaucia,) was, as we have stated, vested entirely in the equestrian order. This class of men was closely connected with the farmers of the revenue, and entered warmly into their complaints of the treatment which they had received fi'om Mucius and Eutilius. Eutilius was accused of cor- ruption in his province, perhaps by some of those very individuals whose own corruption he had repressed ; and was brought to trial before a court consisting entirely of citizens of the equestrian order. His conduct on his trial was consistent with the high principles of his general life. He refused to employ any celebrated orator in his defence,' nor would he sufier any attempts to be made to work upon Tiiai of the feelings of the judges. His fiiend, Q. Mucius, spoke in his ^■i''^™™^- behalf, confining himself only to a clear and simple statement of the truth. But the tribunal which had so lately acquitted the guilty ' Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 2. 2 Livy, Epitom. lib. 70. Others place his government of Asia about four years earlier, and say that he obtained the province as proprsetor. 3 Livy, Epitom. lib. 70. * Cicero, ad Atticum, lib. v. ep. 17. ^ Ibid, in Verrem, lib. ii. c. 21. * Ibid, in Cfflciliura, o. 17 ; Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. c. 15. ' Cicero, de Oratore, lib. i. c. 63. 372 STATE OP ROME FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS [CHAP. XVHI. B.C. 99. Aquilius, when defended by an appeal to its passions, now con- demned a man of the most spotless innocence, who disdained any support but that of reason and justice. Eutilius was banished, and retired to Smyrna,' in the country which was the scene of his alleged corruption, but which was, in truth, the best witness of his virtue. The people whom he was accused of misgoverning, sent deputies from all their several towns to welcome his arrival once more amongst them ; nor did they show less respect to him in his exile than when invested with the authority of a Koman officer.^ The citizens of Smyrna gladly gave him the freedom of their city;' and in this adopted hom*, Eutilius spent in peace the remainder of his life ; nor could the solicitations of Sylla, when dictator, ever prevail with him to return to Italy. Censorship In the year of Eome, 661, some curious particulars are recorded of and crassus. the censorship of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and L. Licinius Crassus. The study of eloquence daily becoming more popular at Eome, there arose a number of persons who professed to teach it, and who opened schools for the instruction of young men in this accomplishment. Of these teachers some were Greeks, and if they only interpreted and expounded the works of some of their distinguished countrymen, they must have communicated to their hearers much new and valuable knowledge. An acquaintance with the rhetoric of Aristotle must have opened an unknown world to the mind of a young Eoman, and have furnished him with innumerable subjects of thought, whUe it led him to examine the motives of actions, and the causes of feelings ; while it embraced, with wonderful conciseness, the principles of almost every argument that could be used in all questions, judicial and poHtical ; and while with intuitive good sense it displayed the excellences to be aimed at, and the faults to be avoided, in the language and arrangement of a writer or an orator. But besides these Greek instructors, some of the Eomans themselves professed to open schools of rhetoric : and being for the most part men of Uttle education, and delivering their lessons probably on cheaper terms than the Greek teachers, their scholars consisted chiefly of the poorer class of citizens, and particularly, we may suppose, of those individuals, who wished to qualify themselves for the part of noisy and factious leaders of the populace. It was on these grounds, as Cicero makes Crassus himself affirm,* that the censors, in the exercise of their arbitrary power, thought proper to put a stop to the proceedings of the Latin teachers of eloquence : because, in the language of Cicero, " they could teach their pupils nothing but impudence." In the course of the year, the two censors are said to have had a very unbecoming quarrel with each other : the expensive habits in which- Crassus indulged in his manner of living, appearing to his colleague ' Cicero, de Republica, lib. i. o. 8. 2 Valerias Maximus, lib. ii. c. 10. 2 Tacitus, Annal. lib. iv. c. 43. * In the Dialogue, De Oratore, lib. iii. c. 24. CHAP. XTin.] TO THE SOCIAL WAE. 373 to be luiwortby of his censorian dignity. It appears that Crassus B.C. 99. had six date trees in his garden,' of remarkable size and beauty, which he valued very highly; and four pillars of the marble of Mount Hymettus in his house,^ a material which had not hitherto been used in any public building at Eome, and which, in a private house, was thought to argue excessive luxury. Another ridiculous charge was brought by Cn. Domitius against his colleague ; ' that he had gone into mourning on the death of a favourite fish, which was kept in one of his fish-ponds. Crassus, we are told, confessed the truth of the story, — saying, " that he had indeed wept at the loss of a fish ; but that Domitius had borne the loss of three wives without shedding a tear." The history of Eome presents us at once with instances of the strangest extravagance of conduct in some characters, combined with a most complete intolerance of every thing eccentric, in the general feelings of the magistrates and the spirit of the laws. The succeeding year, in which Sextus Julius Csesar and L. Marcius Philippus were consuls, witnessed the origin of the Italian war, But B.C. 91. as the parties formed on this occasion were not without their effect in the civil war that followed ; and as Sylla took a distinguished part in the contest maintained by Kome against her revolted allies, we shall include our account of these transactions in the narrative of that individual's life, which we are now preparing to lay before our readers. 1 Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. x™. c. 1. ^ Ibid. lib. xvii. c. 1. 3 Macrobius, Satnmal. lib. ii. c. 1. [Grecian Philosopher. Hope's Costume of the Ancients.} Mariua Sitting upon the Ruins oi Carthage.— Sar^en*, after a Fietur6 by Coignetj CHAPTER XIX. LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. From b.c. 13S to e.g. ■ B.C. 138 Antiquities of the Conielian family. The Cornelian family was one of the most ancient and honourable in Eome; and two of its branches, the houses of Scipio and Lentulus, furnished the commonwealth with a long list of distinguished officers, in the several departments of state. A third branch bore the sur- name of Eufinus ; but although its members occasionally appear on the lists of magistrates, none of them, tiU a much later period, rose to any high personal eminence. In the second Punic war, in the year of Rome 540, P. Cornelius Eufinus, being then prsetor, cele- brated for the first time ' the " Ludi Apollinares," or games in hon- our of Apollo, which the Sibylline books had directed the senate to institute ; and from this circumstance he is said to have changed his name of Eufinus, for that of Sibylla;^ which was afterwards cor- rupted into the shorter appellation of SyUa. His great grandson was L. Cornelius Sylla, the subject of our present narrative, who was born' about the year of Eome 616, in the consulship of M. I Lh-y, lib. xxv. o. 12. ^ Macrobius, apud Faooiolati Lexicon, in Voce " Sulla." 3 VeUeius Patercul. lib, ii. o. 17. CHAP. XIX.J LDCItJS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 375 JSmilius Lepidus, and G. Hostilius Mancinus, four years before the B.C. 138. death of Tiberius Gracchus. The father of Sylla did nothing to promote either the honour or the wealth of his family, and his sea was born with no very flatter- ing prospects either of rank or fortune. We know not by whom his education was superintended; but he acquired, either from his instructors, or by his own exertion in after life, an unusual portion of know- ledge ; and had the character of being very profoundly versed in the hterature ' of the Greeks. But intellectual superiority affords no security for the moral principles of its possessor : and Sylla, from his earliest youth,^ was notorious for gross sensuality, and for his keen enjoyment of low and profligate society. He is said to have lived [syiia.) in lodgings at Kome,' and to have rented one floor of a house, for which he paid 3000 nummi, or about £24 4s. 4Jd. a year: a style of livingwhich seems to have beenreckoned disgraceful to a man of patrician family, and to have inferred great indigence. For his first advancement in life, he was indebted to the character fondness of a prostitute, who had acquired a large sum of money, of^syiia!''""' and left it all to him by her will ; and he also inherited the property of his mother-in-law, who regarded him as her own son. He was chosen one of the quaestors in the year of Eome 646, and accom- pained Marius, then in his first consulship, into Africa ; where, as has been mentioned elsewhere, his services were very remarkable, and it was to him that Jugurtha was at last surrendered by Bocchus, king of Mauritania. This circumstance excited, as it is said, the jealousy of Marius : but Sylla * nevertheless acted under him as one of his lieutenants in the war with the Cimbri; where he again greatly distinguished himself. But finding the ill-wiU of his general daily increasing, he left him, and served in the army of Lutatius Catulus, the colleague ^ of Marius : and in this situation, being charged with the duty of supplying the soldiers with provisions, he performed it so well that the army of Catulus was in the midst of abundance, while that of Marius was labouring under severe privations. This stDl further inflamed the animosity with which Marius already regarded him. For some time after this period, Sylla seems to have lived in the mere enjoyment of his favourite pleasures of intellectual and sensual excitement. At length, in the year of Eome 657, he became a ' Sallust, Bell. Jugurth. o. 96. ^ piutaroh, in SyM, o. 2. s Ibid, in Sylia, o. 1. * Velleius Patercul. lib. ii. u. 17. ^ Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 4. 376 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [chap. XIX. B.C. 138. Sylla obtains the Prjetorship. His proceedings in his Province. Consulship ofL. Philippus, and Sex. Jul. Cifisar. B.C. 92. candidate for the office of prsetor, but without success. He attributed his failure, according to Plutarch,' to the disappointment of the people at his not first suing for the iEdileship ; it being a long- established custom that the iEdUes should exhibit shows of some kind or other for the amusement of the multitude, and Sylla's friendship with the king of Mauritania seemed to promise that he would procure from Afnca an unusual number of lions and other wild beasts, to be hunted in the amphitheatre. However, in the following year, Sylla was elected praetor, without the previous step of going through the office of sedile : and not to deprive the people of the gratification they expected, he exhibited no fewer than a hundred hons ; the first time, it is said, that the male Hon ^ was ever brought forward in the sports of the circus. On the expiration of his prsetorship, he obtained the province of CUicia ; ' and was commissioned to replace on his throne Ariobarzanes, Idng of Cappadocia, who had been lately expelled by Mithridates. This he easily effected ; for Mithridates was not yet prepared to encounter the power of Eome: and it is further mentioned, as a memorable circumstance in the hfe of Sylla, that while he was in Cappadocia, he received the first communication ever made to any Eoman officer by the sovereign of Parthda. Arsaces, king of that country, perceiv- ing that the Eomans extended their influence into his neighbourhood, sent an embassy to SyUa to solicit their alliance. In the interview between the Roman prtetor and the Parthian ambassador, SyUa* claimed the precedence in rank, with the usual arrogance of his countrymen ; and by this behaviour, in all probability, left no very friendly feeling in the mind of Arsaces ; and rather encouraged than lessened that jealousy of the Eoman power, which the Parthians, in the sequel, were often enabled to manifest with more success than any other nation since the time of Hannibal. On Sylla's return to Eome, he was threatened with a prosecution, for corrupt proceedings in his province,* but the matter was never brought to a trial. It is said also that Bocchus, Idng of Mauritania, presented to the Romans about this time a group of figures in gold, representing himself betraying Jugurtha into the hands of Sylla. This excited anew the jealousy of Marius, who is represented to' have attempted in vain to hinder the figures from beitig received and dedicated in the capitol. We axe now arrived at the memorable consulship of L. Marcius Phihppus and Sextus Julius Ctesar. Since the death of Satuminus the state of affairs at Eome had been generally tranquU ; and the accounts given of this period in ancient writers are proportionably 1 Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 5. 2 Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. viii. c. 16. 3 Auotor de Viris illustribns, in Vita Sylte. Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 5. Livv, Epit. 70. > J , J- 4 Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 5. » Ibid, in Sylla, c. 5, 6. CHAP. XIX.J LUCIUS COENELIUS SYLLA. 377 scanty. But to this calm a terrible storm was now to succeed, and b.c. 92. Rome, for the first time since the second Punic war, was to be engaged in a desperate contest in the very heart of Italy. It appears that the senate bore ' with impatence the great power enjoyed by the equestrian order in possessing the whole judicial authority in the commonwealth. To attack this formidable body it was necessary that the senate shoiild effect a coalition with the popular party, and court it by a series of popular enactments. M. Livius Drusus was Tribuneship at this time one of the tribunes ; the son of that M. Drusus who had ^,^1;^'™^ been one of the colleagues of C. Gracchus in his tribuneship, and who had greatly undermined the popularity of Gracchus, by propos- ing, with the authority of the senate, laws even more grateful to the multitude than his. His son was now prevailed upon to act a similar part, and to bribe the people at almost any price to assist in the meditated attack upon the equestrian order. But Drusus was not of a temper to be the mere instrument of the designs of others. He is described as a man of great talents and great pride : insomuch, that during his sedileship,^ when one of his colleagues suggested something as beneficial to the state, Drusus scornfully replied, " What business have you to interfere in the affairs of our commonwealth ? " and when he acted as qusestor in Asia, he disdained the usual insignia of the office, as if his own personal dignity needed not any external maiks of honour. In his tribuneship he was willing to promote the popularity of the senate, but not so as to resign to it all the credit that his measures might acquire : he rather aspired to be, as it were, the moderator of the republic, to balance the claims of contending factions, and to secure to himself the respect and gratitude of all. The imperfect accounts of these times which remain to us, do not allow us to arrange the order of his proceedings with exactness : but it appears that he at first attempted merely to restrain any abuse of power in those who filled the stations of judges,^ by making them responsible for their verdicts ; and liable to be tried, if there were any grounds for accusing them of corruption. Three of the most eminent individuals Laws of m. of the equestrian order, amongst whom we find the name of C. ^™^"«' Msecenas, an ancestor of the famous minister of Augustus, opposed the law of Drusus in behalf of the whole body to which they be- longed; anti their arguments, as recorded by Cicero,* are too remarkable to be omitted. They insisted that the Roman knights, in declining to sue for those offices which might have raised them to the rank of senators, had deliberately sacrificed their ambition to their love of security ; that the high dignities which a senator enjoyed, were fairly compensated by his greater liability to have his 1 Livy, Epitom. lib. 70. Veil. Paterculus, lib. ii. c. 13. 2 Aactor de Viris illustribus, in M. Dmso. s Cicero, pro Eabir. Posturao, o. 7. pro Cluentio, o. 56. 4 Pro Cluentio, c. 56. 378 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XIX. B.C. 92. conduct called in question: while, on the other hand, the equestrian order, which was obliged by law to undertake the office of judges, ought not to be exposed to prosecution for the manner in which they discharged it. Strange as this reasoning appears to us, it was admitted as just at Eome: the plebeians fuUy sympathized with the knights, and they succeeded in rejecting the proposed law, and in repelling all inquiry into the conduct of the judges, however great might be the iniquity of their decisions. Thus baffled, Drusus had recourse to a stronger measure, and proposed to restore the law of Q. Servilius Csepio, by which the judicial power had been divided between the senate and the equestrian order. By a curious coinci- dence, one of his warmest opponents was a son of the very man in Opposed ty whose steps he was treading, Q. Caepio.^ Common report assigned £.' Phmppus, a ridiculous cause to their mutual opposition, by tracing it back, ia the first instance, to a dispute at a public sale about a valuable gold ring, which each of them was eager to purchase. Personal motives may very possibly have added virulence to their pohtical diiFerences ; but Q. C^pio, as a member of the equestrian order, was naturally disposed to resist the measures of Drusus ; and the same vehemence of temper which induced him, on a former occasion, to defy the power of the tribune Satuminus, would lead him to take an equally prominent part on the side that he now espoused. The proposed law met with another powerful antagonist in the consul L. Phihppus. He seems to have been actuated by a settled feeling of opposition to the aristocracy ; as we have seen him, when tribune, eager to bring forward an Agrarian law ; and now, as consul, he continually, in his speeches to the people, inveighed against the senate^ with the utmost severity. On the other hand, Drusus pursued his schemes with the overbearing violence to which the piide of his nature prompted him : on one occasion he threatened Csepio,* that he would order him to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock ; at another time, when PhUippus was speaking against him in the forum, he caused him to be seized and dragged to prison ; and when, from the tightness with which the officer grappled him, the blood burst forth from his nostrils, Drusus exclaimed, in allusion to the supposed luxuriousness of his manner of hving, "that it was the pickle of his favourite fish." In order to further his views, he proposed a new corn law, and a law for the estabhshment of several new colonies, to conciliate the common people ; and to win the favour of the Itahan allies, he renewed the hopes formerly held out to them, by C. Gracchus and M. Fulvius Flaccus, of obtaining the privileges of Eoman citizens. The senate, for a long time, cor- dially supported him; and this circumstance gave occasion to 1 Cicero, pro Domo, u. 46 ; Floras, lib. iii. c. 17. 2 Cicero, de Oratore, lib. i. c. 7. 3 Auctor de Viris illustribus in M. Draso. CHAP. XlX.j LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 379 the violent speech of the consul, L. Philippus,' " That it was im- b.c. 92. possible for the repubUc to go on -with such a senate." But, at length, their zeal in his cause began to cool : while he professed to defend their dignity, he almost pretended to act as their patron ; and on one occasion,^ when they sent for him into the senate house, he replied, " That the senate should rather adjourn to the Curia HostUia," anciently used as the place of their meetiQgs, " that so they might be near him while he was addressing the people, if they wanted him." It is said that the senate actually compHed with his proposal ; but such an instance of his pride must have taught it, that it was possible to buy too dearly its deUverance from the arbitrary power of the equestrian order. Meanwhile the laws of But are Drusus were successively carried : the judicial power was to be Smled. divided between the senate and the equestrian order ; new colonies were to be planted ; corn was to be sold at the rate fixed by the Sempronian law ; all the several parties whom Drusus had courted, had received the benefits which he had promised them, excepting only the Italian alhes. To their admission to the rights of citizenship, all orders in Rome were equally averse ; and they seemed likely to meet the usual fate of strangers who interfere in domestic quarrels, and whose interests are sacrificed to promote the reconciliation of the contending parties. But finding that Drusus was unable ta satisfy their expectations, and that nothing was to be looked for from the freewill of the Eomans, they prepared to apply themselves to other measures. A conspiracy is said to have been formed by the Latins ^ to assassinate the consul, L. PhUippus, whom they con- sidered as one of their greatest enemies, while he was performing a sacrifice on the Alban Mount. Drusus, aware of their design, warned Philippus to provide for his own safety, and the plan was thus frustrated ; but the pubhc mind, throughout Italy, was in the highest state of agitation, and every thing seemed to presage an impending contest. It was at this time, when all parties were united in their invec- Dmsus is tives against Drusus, as the author of these disturbances, that one ™"<''="'''' day, when he was returning home from the Forum,* encircled by an immense crowd of his followers, he was murdered at the door of his own house by some unknown assassin, who stabbed him, and left the knife sticking in his side. He was carried in immediately, and soon after expired ; and such was the state of the times, that no inquiry was made to find out the murderer. But it was commonly asserted that Q. Varius Hybrida,^ a vehement enemy of the senate, was the perpetrator of the crime. 1 Cicero, de Oratore, lib. iii. c. 1. 2 Valerius Maximns, lib. ix. c. 5. 3 Auctor de Viris illustribus, in M. Draso. * Velleius Pateroulus, lib. ii. o. 14 ; Cicero, pro Milone, c. 7. 5 Cicero, de NaturS JJeorum, lib. iii. c. 33. 380 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XIX. repealed. B.C. 91. B.C. 92. After the death of Drusus, the general feehng ran so strongly And his Laws against his measures, from the sense entertained of his criminal rashness in encouraging the claims of the Italian allies, that the senate now concurred with the consul Phihppus in declaring all his laws invahd ; ' grounding this decision on the authority of the con- sul, who was also one of the augurs, and who alleged that they had been passed without due attention to the forms of religion in observing the auspices. It is remarkable, that the law for the regulation of the judicial power, which the senate had so strong an interest in maintaining, was. notwithstanding, annulled, together with the rest ; as if the aristocracy had not dared to retain any benefit from the sup- port of a man, who was now considered as an enemy to his country by all parties equally. The allies, however, had not yet broken out into open hostilities when the new consuls, L. Julius Csesax and P. Eutihus Eufus, entered upon their office. In the mean time the equestrian order having thus successfully repelled the attack made against it, resolved to follow up its victory, and to terrify its enemies by an unsparing exercise of that judicial power of which it had been vainly attempted to deprive it. A law was proposed and carried by Q. Varius Hybrida,^ the reputed assassin of Drusus, and now one of the tribunes of the people, that an inquiry should be set on foot in order to dis- cover what persons had given encouragement to the pretensions of the ItaUans, and that all who had done so should be held guilty of a treasonable offence. This was a favourite method of anno3dng the nobility ; and we have seen it practised already with success at the beginning of the war with Jugurtha. The knights promised them- selves the same results from it on the present occasion. Accusations were brought against M. .Slmilius Scaurus,' the first on the roU of the senate; against M. Antonius,* the famous orator, against C. Cotta,' Q. Pompeius, L. Memmius, and several others of the senators. But the majority of those whom we have named obtained their acquittal ; and the whole proceeding had little other effect than that of exasperating the Itahans stOl further, when they saw that to have shown any encouragement to their petitions was considered at Rome as a crime. Accordingly the different cities of Italy " entered into a secret league with each other, and began to make an interchange of hostages. Their intrigues were first discovered at Asculum, a town of Picenum ; and Q. Servilius, with proconsular authority, was sent thither to punish the offenders. But not being supported by a sufii- cient military force, he provoked the inhabitants to proceed at once to open violence; and they accordingly massacred him and his Confederacy amonff the Italian States, 1 Cicero, de Legibus, lib. ii. o. 6, 12. 2 Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. c. 6. Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c, 37. 3 Cicero, Fragm. Orat. pro M. Scauro. < Ibid. Tuscril. Disput. lib. ii. c. 24. * Ibid, de Claris Orator, c. 56, 89. 8 Appiaa, de Bell. Civili, lib. i, c. 38 CHAP. XIX.] LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 381 lieutenant Fonteius,' together witli all other Roman citizens who b.c. 91, happened to be found in Asculum. Immediately after the perpetra- Kev'jt of the tion of this outrage, the Italians with one consent flew to arms: the "''''^"''^"'^*- Marsi,= the Peligni, the Samnites, the Lucani, the Vestini, the Manucini, the Picentes, the Hirpini, and the Japygians; aknost every nation in Italy, except the Latins, Tuscans, and Umbrians, took part in the confederacy. They fixed upon Coriinium as their seat of government,' giving it the name of Itahcum ; and there a senate was formed out of the principal individuals in the several states ; and two officers were elected with the title of consuls to con- duct the operations of the war ; each, in imitation of the practice of the Eomans, having one half of Italy assigned him as his province, and six generals, with the title of lieutenants, to act under his com- mand. A deputation was sent to the Eoman senate, representing the reasonable claims of the Itahans to enjoy their share of the privileges of a city, whose greatness was in so large a proportion the work of their own courage and fidelity ; but an answer was returned with the usual spirit of the Eomans, that no proposals would be received until the Italians should express contrition for their rebel- Hon, and return to their obedience. Thus an end was put to aU negotiation, and the war was commenced on both sides with the utmost vigour and animosity. That the reader may more fully understand the nature of this of the nature quarrel, and of the connection which subsisted between Eome and syrtenrof""' the different nations of Italy, it vrill be proper to refer to the history ^^^"^ of an earher period, and to notice that system of alliance between stronger ana the stronger and weaker powers, which is one of the most peculiar powe?" points in the political relations of antiquity. Nothing can be imagined more miserable than the condition of the weaker states in those ages of barbarism which subsisted both in Greece and Italy long after the establishment of political societies or commonwealths. That superior power conferred a right of dominion, and that foreigners might be freely plundered, unless protected by some particular treaty, were two principles generally acted upon ; and which exposed all small communities to the double evils of oppression from their neighbours, and of kidnapping and robbery from any one who had the means of occasionally reaching them. Their only resource was to form a connection with some nation strong enough to defend them ; and the protection of which they purchased by binding themselves to serve it faithftilly in all its wars, or, in other words, by surrendering their national independence. Unhappily, the system of government which prevailed in those Keasons why- times led them to preserve their municipal independence, and OTefmedtS^ substituted the connection of alliance, for that of union under the a complete Union. 1 Cicero, pro Fonteio, e. 14. 2 Appian, lib. i. c. 39. Livy, Epitome, lib. 72. 3 Diodorus Siculus, Eolog. lib. 37. 382 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XIX. B.C. 91. same executive and legislative power. The origin of most of the cities of Greece and Italy resembled that of the European settlements in America; they were the colonies of a more civihzed people seating themselves in the country of barbarians ; and thus instead of freely naturalizing themselves and spreading over the face of the land, they advanced timidly and slowly beyond the walls of their first fortified habitation, and were accustomed to contract their feehngs of patriotism within the limits of a single city. The spirit of a town is naturally somewhat repubhcan ; men are thrown more completely together, they live in the sight of one another, and all are readily summoned together to consider on any thing that may affect the common interest. Thus the principle of representation does not suggest itself to their minds ; where aU can meet to consult for them- selves, they are not likelj to intrust others with the power of acting for them. In this manner, it came to be considered as an axiom amongst the political writers of antiquity, that where any portion of liberty was enjoyed, there some points at least must be subject to the decision of the collective body of the people ; and even where property was made a qualification, and the poorest citizens were excluded from the public assemblies, still those who had a voice in the commonwealth always exercised it in their own persons collec- tively, and not through the medium of representatives ; and thus the national councU, if so it might be called, was always a considerable portion of the whole population, and formed too large a body to be contained within the walls of a single building. This circumstance rendered it impossible for the dependent alhes of a state to become incorporated with it; the inhabitants of many towns could not habitually meet together in one common assembly, and the citizens of the capital or seat of government would then in effect hold in their hands an absolute sovereignty over all the rest of the nation. Whereas, by retaining a municipal independence, the allied cities still enjoyed an entire freedom in their internal government, hved under their own laws, held in their own hands the administration of justice, and confined to themselves all offices of civU honour and emolument. But at the same time their interests were thus kept distinct fi'om those of their protecting ally ; they were regarded always as subjects and not as fellow-citizens, and were liable to have their property taxed, their trade shackled, and their people called to serve as soldiers, whenever it suited the policy or pleasure of the sovereign state. Causeswhich The invaluable histories of Thucydides and Xenophon afford a itomans'S Complete picture of these alhances among the Greeks ; and it is fironi the head of these that we must derive our knowledge of the same system, as it was practised in Italy, We find that Eome,' so early as the first 1 Polybius, lib. iii. c. 22. CHAP. XIX.J LUCIDS COENEUUS SYLLA. 383 year of the commonwealth, was strong enough to act as the protect- b.c. 91. ing ally of several small adjacent cities, among which Ardea, Antimn, Laurentum, Circeii, and Tarracina, are particularly mentioned. They were thus secured against the descents which the Carthagini- ans often made on the coasts of Italy, for the purposes of plunder, and especially of carrying off the inhabitants as slaves ; for Eome being of importance enough to treat with Carthage, stipulated that all her own dependent allies should be secured from molestation : but -with regard to all the other cities of Latium, it was provided, that if the Carthaginians took any of them, they might carry off the people, and the moveable property, but might not convert the towns into establishments or garrisons for themselves. Thus they were allowed to plunder all who did not put themselves under the pro- tection of Eome ; and this permission was doubtless intended to exalt the benefits of the Roman alliance in the estimation of the neighbouring states. In process of time the Eomans found means Tiieir to include all the nations of Italy in the number of their aUies, and over their thus to place all the mihtaxy force of the peninsula at their own ^in\.„r disposal. They actually were preparing to call it into action when the Gauls invaded Italy between the first and second Punic wars ; they caused returns to be made to them of the whole number of citizens able to bear arms in the several states of their confederacy.' In every war, the troops of the Italian allies formed one half of the Eoman army ; they were levied by orders from the con- suls,^ who named the states fi-om which the contingents were to be drawn, the nmnber of them to be raised, and the time and place at which they were to be ready to put themselves imder the command of the Eoman generals. They had officers of their own,* and their own paymasters, but these were entirely sub- ordinate to generals appointed by the Eomans to command them, with the title of prefects of the allies. The prefects had the power of punishing by fine or by flogging ; and the consuls, as 'appears from a passage in Sallust, to which we referred on a former occasion, might even condemn any of the soldiers of the allies to death.* It is more difficult to state exactly what was the power of Eome over the Itahan nations in time of peace. Generally speaking, the Eoman .'. in peace, laws were not binding on the allies, unless they themselves chose to adopt them : " but a large reservation was made of all such things as the Eomans held to concern their dignity or prerogative, and in all these their decisions were of paramount authority to any municipal laws of their allies. For example, it was held that the senate or people of Eome, or that any of their generals, might confer the freedom of Eome on any meritorious individuals in the allied states ; ^ 1 Polybius, lib. ii. e. 23, 24. 2 ibid. ub. -rf. c. 21. ' Ibid. lib. vi. o. 21, 26, 34. * SaUust, BeU. Jugurth. e. 69. ^ Cicero, pro Cornelio Balbo, c. 8. " Ibid. c. 9. 384 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XIX. B.C. 91. although it seems that the Italians viewed the exercise of this power with some jealousy, probably because they thought that it gave the TiieAiiiesare Eomans too great an influence among them. But with whatever oSSta the reluctance they might see the rights of Eoman citizenship conferred privileges of on individuals amongst them by the patronage of Eoman magistrates, Citizenship, the allies had long entertained a wish to share universally in these rights, and to find the road open before them to the command of armies, to the administration of provinces, to a participation in short in all the dignities and emoluments so largely enjoyed by the citizens of Eome. The Latins, or at least some states among them, possessed indeed the right of voting in the Eoman assemblies ; but it appears that they were all comprehended in one of the Eoman tribes,' and could influence consequently no more than a thirty-fifth part of the whole number of voters ; so that there was httle inducement for them as a body to interest themselves in the business of the forum. The rest of the Italians did not enjoy even so much political con- sequence as this ; and both were alike incapable of being elected to any magistracy at Eome, or to any military command in the pro- vinces. It is no wonder therefore that they bore with impatience such a state of exclusion : and a modern reader may be surprised that their efforts were directed towards obtaining a closer union with Eome, rather than towards asserting their complete independence ; and he may think it strange also, that the Eomans should have risked the very existence of their commonwealth, rather than adopt a measure which promised to strengthen it by the accession of so large a number of citizens, whose interests would from henceforth have been identified with that of Eome. But the alKes on their part considered, that if they became independent, they would lose the fruits of all those conquests which they had so largely helped the Eomans to acquire. Instead of being a sovereign nation, exempted from taxes, and deriving a large accession of wealth every year fi'om its subject provinces, they would have relapsed into the condition of poor and petty repubhcs, none of which had any claim to become a centre of union to the rest, while their separate strength would have been utterly incompetent to withstand the power of Eome, by which, long before it had reached its present eminence, they had already been successively overwhelmed. On the other hand, the pride of the Eomans induced them to revolt at the notion of raising their inferiors to the rank of their equals. The senate, besides, by admit- ting so many new competitors, diminished each individual senator's prospects of obtaining honours and emoluments : the equestrian order dreaded lest their exclusive possession of the judicial power should be invaded, or their profits, as farmers of the taxes, wrested from them by the competition of some of the wealthy Italians : whilst the ' Livy, lib. xxv. c. 3. CHAP. XIX.J LUCIUS COENELIUS SYLLA. SS.'i bulk of the people were unwilling to lessen the value of their votes b.c. 91. in the pubUc assembly, by extending the right of suffrage so largely. All parties in the commonwealth trusting to the well known discipline of the Roman armies, to the superior experience of their generals, and to the usual dissensions and weaknesses of confederacies, resolved to hazard the issue of a war ; not without the hope perhaps of establishing their power over their alhes on a firmer basis, and silencing for ever all their claims to a participation in the rights of Roman citizenship. Accordingly, the two consuls, L. Julius Cassar and P. Rutilius Rufas, xhe itdiurr took the field ; having under them, as their lieutenants, all the |Fj officers of highest reputation in the commonwealth.' Under Rutilius camiuijin. were employed C. Marius, who seems to have rested in inactivity since the sedition of Saturninus ; On. Pompeius, the father of Pom- pey the great; Q. ServUius Caspio, who had made himself conspicuous by his opposition to M. Drusus during his late tribuneship ; C. Perpenna aad Valerius Messala. Under L. Csesar were Licinius Crassus, P. Lentulus, Titus Didius, and L. Sylla. These several officers acted in their different quarters against the generals of the confederate Italians ; but as we have no account of the war written by a contemporary, or by a military historian, we know not what were the plans for the campaign on either side ; and the reports which we possess contain little more than an unconnected list of battles and sieges, devoid alike of information and of interest. It is mentioned, that the consul, L. Csesar,^ was joined by an auxihary force of Gauls and Numidians ; b\it that the latter were rendered useless to him by an able expedient of the Italian commander, C. Papius. Oxyntas, a son of the famous Jugurtha, had been detained a prisoner in Italy since the death of his father ; and now falling into the hands of Papius, was by him invested with the ensigns of royalty, and studiously presented to the sight of his countrymen in the consul's army. Numbers of them immediately deserted to him, looking upon him as their king ; and L. Csesar, suspicious of those who remained, was obliged to send them back into Africa. In the first year of the war, the Romans' met with some severe losses : the consul P. Rutilius, and Q. Csepio, one of his heutenants, were, on separate occasions, defeated and slain. L. Postumius, one of the praetors, was killed at Nola ; and that town, which had been so faithful to Rome in the second Punic war, now fell into the hands of the Samnites. Several other cities were either taken by the Italians, or were encouraged to join their cause of their own accord ; and towards the close of the year the Umbri and the Tuscans showed evident signs of their intention to follow the general example. This last danger seemed so alarming, that the Romans were driven 1 Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. o. 40. ^ ibid. lib. i. o. 42. 3 Ibid. c. 43, 44 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxiii. [r. II.l 2c 386 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XIX. H.c. 91. to avert it by concession; and they passed a law, admitting all the Italians who had continued faithfiil to Rome to the rights of citizen- ship.' This fixed the Latins to their cause, and stopped the Tuscans from revolting as they had meditated ; the Umbri, however, probably not being aware of it in time, actually joined the confederates. Yet although Eome had thus been obliged to concede in some measure, her strength in the field had been too resolutely and successfully exerted to allow the enemy to calculate on the speedy attainment of his object by force of arms. Sylla and Marius had obtained a great victory over the Marsi;^ L. Caesar had defeated the Samnites, and Cn. Pompeius, having obtained some advantage over the Picentes, was enabled to lay siege to Asculum. On the other hand, the Eomans were so pressed for want of soldiers, that they enlisted even freedmen into the legions;' and as their victories had been fiiUy counterbalanced by defeats, it became evident that concessions must be made, and the difficulty consisted in disarming the resentment of the enemy without seeming to be actuated by fear ; to yield the point in dispute without sacrificing the national honour. Second The military events of the next campaign tended however in a 'jf™'""nn great degree to preserve the reputation of the Eomans ; and enabled them to extricate themselves without degradation from this alarming war. L. Porcius Cato, and Cn. Pompeius Strabo, were chosen consuls ; and the latter brought the siege of Asculum to a triumphant issue;* an event which was peculiarly welcome to the Eomans, as that town had set the first example of revolt, and had accompanied it with the massacre of two Eoman officers, and a number of Eoman citizens. Cn. Pompeius gained also a victory over the Marsi, and reduced that people, together with the Vestini, Peligni, and Marru- cini, to make a separate peace. Possibly some intimation was given them, that the object for which they were contending would he granted them on their submission ; for we find that the states which first withdrew from the confederacy, were rewarded by receiving the right of citizenship immediately. The seat of government of the Italians was now removed from Corfinirun to ^sconia,^ in the country of the Samnites ; that bold people resolving to continue the struggle as obstinately as their ancestors had done in the days of Pontius and Papirius Cursor. But they had to contend with one of the most formidable of the Eoman generals, in the person of Sylla ; whose exploits in this second campaign had raised him to the highest distinction. The forces under his command were increased early in the season,* by a mutiny which took place among the troops of A. 1 Appian, e. 49 ; Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. 2 Appian, de Bell. Civil, lib. i. c. 46 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxiii. Ixxiv. 3 Ibid. c. 49 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxiv. * Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxv. Ixxvi. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Eclog. lib. xsxvii. ^ Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxv. ; Plutarch, in Sylla, u. 6. CHAP. XIX.J LL'CIUS COENELITJS SYLLA. 887 Postumius Albinus, another of the consul's Heutenants. That officer, b.c. 90. being suspected of treason, was murdered by his own soldiers, who then joined themselves to the army of SyUa ; nor did he scruple to receive them, but observed, " that they would only fight the better, in order to atone for their crime." Thus strengthened, he took and destroyed the town of Stabiae,' in Campania, defeated a large army with immense loss near Nola, reduced the Hirpini to subjection, and then, invading Samnium, defeated the Samnite general, Papius Mutilius, with severe loss in the field, drove him into Mscoma,, and attacked and took the town of Bovianum. These successes en- couraged him to offer himself as a candidate for the consulship ; for which purpose, towards the end of the campaign, he returned to Rome. A circumstance, which is mentioned by Diodoras Siculus,^ served, Mithridates in all probability, as a powerful inducement to the Romans to reward iSui'e the submission of the Italians as early as possible with the privileges I'aians. which they so earnestly desired. It appears that the con- federates had applied for aid to Mithridates, king of Pontus, whose power and ambition were now disposing him to enter into a contest with the Romans. Either his pride, or his want of sufficient infor- mation, dictated to him his most ill-judged answer, and led him to commit a fault in pohcy which the ability and vigour of all his after life could never repair. He told the Italians that he would lead his armies into Italy as soon as he had secured the dominion of Asia Minor. But the fortune of his intended allies could brook no delay; and a bare suspicion of so formidable an accession to their enemy's force, would dispose the Romans to hasten their measures of concilia- tion. Accordingly the Italian war vanishes almost instantaneously End of the from our notice ; one state afl;er another submitted, and received in I'^'ii^n '*''"'■ return the gift of Roman citizenship ; and after the close of the second year of the contest we only find some faint sparks remaining of the vast conflagration which had so lately involved aU Italy. Nola stOl refused to yield,' and the relics of the Samnites and Luca- nians were yet in arms, either in their own country or in the extremity of Bruttium, almost in the same quarter where Hannibal had so long maintained himself under circumstances nearly similar. The war which we now have been recording was undertaken for its a definite and intelligible object, and naturally ended when that object ^1™*' '°° was attained. But as it had sprunar out of the internal dissensions suiisequent i-r. ■ -I ■ 1 ^ T/v • 1 ■ 1 eventsshould of Rome, so it was lost in them agam, and the different interests which be observed. had been engaged in it, although no longer the leading points in the civil wars that followed, yet became easily connected with the respective parties, and served to prolong and exasperate their quarrel. It is 1 Pliny, Historia Natural, lib. iii. c. 5 ; Appian, lib. i. c. 50, 51. 2 Eclog. lib. xxxvii. 3 Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. ; Diodorus SioiUus, Eclog. lib. xxxvii. 388 LUCICS CORNELIOS STLLA. [chap. XIX. B.C. 90. liere that we again deeply feel the want of a contemporary or a sensible historian to guide our researches. Reduced to connect, as weU as we can, the facts incidentally mentioned by the writers whom we are obhged to follow ; and forced to supply, often by conjectures, the chasms in their most unsatisfactory narratives, we can only hope at best to present our readers with an imperfect picture, and may be for- given if it be in some respects even an erroneous one. The name of Marius has scarcely occurred to our notice in the second campaign of the Itahan war ; whereas the services of Sylla were most eminent. We have seen that Sylla went to Eome to stand for the consulship, and the prospect of his attaining that dignity was most galling to the jealousy of Marius ; especially as a war with Mithridates now Sylla a appeared certain, and if a general of SyUa's reputation filled the canaitote for Qgjgg gf consul, his claims to the command of the army employed Consulship. B.C. 89. in the contest would prevail over aU others. C. Julius Csesar and Q. Pompeius were the two other candidates ; the former of whom could not legally offer himself,' as he had never gone through the previous office of praetor, and on this account his election was vigorously opposed by P. Antistius and P. Sulpicius, tribunes of the people. Sulpicius was one of the ablest orators of his time,^ and had Hved in habits of famUiarity with L, Crassus, with M. An- tonius, and particularly with the late tribune, M. Drusus. He is introduced by Cicero as one of the speakers in the dialogue, "De Oratore," and is said to have been regarded by the elder part of the nobility as a man likely to be one of the best supporters of the aristocratical cause. One of his first pubhc acts was the accusation of C. Norbanus,^ for a riot and sedition in his tribuneship, and this was considered as a favourable omen of his future attachment to the laws and to good order. His opposition to the illegal pretensions of C. Caesar gained him great popularity,* without any prejudice to his character in the proceedings opinions of the nobility ; but it appears that the favour with the mul- Triiinne titude, which he had thus honourably gained, accompanied perhaps Suipicms. ^^j^jj ^jj excessive confidence in his own talents as a speaker, excited in his mind a fatal ambition, and led him to tread in the steps , of the Gracchi, of Saturninus, and of his friend Drusus, in assuming the character of a popular tribune. Other circumstances may have contributed also to the same effect : he had a violent personal quarrel with Q. Pompeius,* who, together with Sylla, proved the successful 1 Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, c. 62. 2 Ibid. c. 49. 55 ; De Oratore, lib. i. c. 7. 21. 2 Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii. o. 21. 49. * Ibid, de Hauruspic. Eespons. c. 20. 5 Ibid, de Amicitia, c. 1. [Gaiua Sulpicius.] Rise, c'liavacter, and CHAP. XIX. J LUCIUS COENELIUS STLLA. 389 candidate in the consular election ; and he had, perhaps, already formed B.C. 89. that connection with Marius, which his subsequent conduct so clearly- discovered. The measure which he principally endeavoured to carry seems to have been a favourite one with all the popular leaders since the days of Tiberius Gracchus ; and Sulpicius, in the course of his intimacy with Drusus, probabty learned to regard it with peculiar attachment. This was an unlimited communication of the right of citizenship to all the inhabitants of Italy; a project essen- tially popular in its principle, as it tended to render the government less exclusive ; and which, though abhorred by the aristocracy, and viewed with jealousy by a large portion of the people at large, pos- sessed, notwithstanding, great attractions for the very lowest class of citizens,'' as well as for the turbulent and enthusiastic of all classes ; for not only was it recommended by being of a spirit entirely demo- cratical, but it was obvious that the indiscriminate admission of aU the Italians to the privilege of voting at Eome, would greatly lessen the influence of the richer class of Roman citizens, and by rendering the assembly of the people so immoderately numerous, would, in fact, reduce it to little better than a mere mob, the ready tool of an eloquent and ambitious leader. Nor had the late grant of citizenship to the allies entirely satisfied their wishes ; for in order to prevent them from esercising a power in the Comitia proportionate to their numbers, they had been all admitted into eight only of the thirty-five tribes;^ and as all questions were decided by a majority of tribes, and not of individual votes, their weight in the assembly was still much less than they thought themselves entitled to claim. Accordingly Sulpicius now pro- fessed himself the advocate of their complete equahty with the natives of Eome ; and proposed that they should be admitted into aU the tribes without distinction. Finding his project resisted by the aristocratical party, he became only more violent in his proceed- ings ; he knew that if it became a question of physical force, his partizaus were likely to prevail, provided only that he could give them organization as well as numbers, to prevent them from being seized with a panic in the time of danger, and leaving him personally ■1 The history of the Catholic question in our own times will greatly illustrate the account given in the text. The cause of the Catholics has been espoused by the popular party, boause the principle of ahohshing laws of exclusion, and rendering all men equally eligible to a share in the government, is in itself a popular one. Yet considerations of danger or loss to themselves from the consequences of the measure, have often strongly influenced the multitude to oppose it, and to inveigh against its supporters ; although, after the ferment was over, they have not liked their leaders the less for continuing to be its advocates. Thus Drusus may be said to have fallen a sacrifice to something like the outcry of "No Popery;" yet Sulpicius, only two years afterwards, could tread in his steps, not only without forfeiting the affections of the people, but as if the side of the question which he espoused, were the one which a popular leader would naturally adopt. 2 VeUeias Paterculns, lib. ii. 390 LUCIUS COEMELIUS STLLA. [CHAP. XIX. B.C. 89. exposed to the fate of the Gracchi and of Satuminus. He prepared, therefore, a body of three thousand gladiators,^ whom he kept always about him ; and he is said besides to have been attended by six hundred young men of the equestrian order, whom he called his Anti-Senate. While we start at such a systematic defiance of the forms of regular government, we should remember that acts of outrage and violence were not confined to the popular party ; for only two years before this time a riot had been excited by a class of men necessaxily removed far above the mere rabble,^ those who had large debts due to them ; who had assaulted and murdered A. Sempronius Asellio, one of the prastors, in open day, because, in his judicial capacity, he had issued some decrees for the protection of insolvent debtors. In the mean time news arrived that Mithridates had actually attacked and overrun the Roman dominions in Asia Minor. War was therefore declared against him at Eome, and Asia and Italy being named as the provinces of the consuls, the latter fell to the lot of Q. Pompeius,^ and the former to that of SyUa. The army which Sylla was to command was at this time employed near Nola, as that city still refused to submit to the Romans : but he himself remained in the city with his colleague, endeavouring to baffle the projects of Sulpicius, by proclaiming frequent hohdays, and ordering consequently a suspension of pubhc business. But Sulpicius,* on one of these occasions, attacked the consuls with his armed force, calling upon them to repeal their proclamation for the festival ; and on their refusal a riot ensued, in which Q. Pompeius . escaped with difficulty to a place of concealment, his son was killed, and Sylla finding himself in the power of his enemies, complied with their demands, and annulled his late edict. Then, unwilHng to expose himself to similar insults, he instantly left Eome to join the army. Sulpicius carried his favourite measure, and the Itahan allies were placed by law on a footing of perfect equahty with the Romans in the right of voting. Sulpicius Sylla had already shown that he possessed none of the virtuous cummimd'of courage of Metellus, who had preferred banishment to a comphance the Army, -with the illegal demands of the popular partv in the time of destined to n,- Ti , ^^t'^if-,, act against baturnmus. It was soon to appear that he resembled that excellent Mittadates, Qj^-i^en as little in the readiness with which he had sacrificed his from s'Tfa^to °'^'^ interests and dignity, rather than endanger the peace of his Marius. country. Marius was now to reap the advantage which he had proposed to himself from his connection with Sulpicius, and from the late triumph of the Itahan allies. It should be recollected that he had supported the interests of the Itahans in the tribuneship of 1 Plutarch, in Mario, e. 35, in Sylla, o. 8. 2 Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxiv. ; Appian, lib. i. c. 54. 8 Appian, c. 55. * Ibid, de Bello Civili, lib. i. v;. 56 ; Plutarch, in Sylla, o. 8. CHAP. XIX.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 391 Saturninus, and that lie in return relied upon their devotion to him b.c. 89. in promoting his views of ambition. His own low birth, his want of education, and the inherent coarseness of Ms character had prevented him from ever blending cordially with the aristocracy ; he was besides himself a native of a country town, Arpinum, and could have no invincible prejudices in favour of the exclusive possession of power by the inhabitants of Eome. Accordingly, soon after the admission of the ItaUans into aU the tribes, a law was passed in the Comitia, by which the people transferred the command of the army, destined to act against Mithridates, from Sylla to Marius ; ' and two military tribunes were sent to notify this change to Sylla. His soldiers are said to have been as indignant as himself at this decree : they had been fighting for two campaigns against the revolted Italians ; and now the enemy whom they had vanquished in the field had acquired an ascendency in the councUs of the state, and would probably deprive them, as well as their general, of the spoils and honours which all anticipated from an Asiatic war. The violence of the Comitia was imitated in the camp ; the two military tribunes were murdered,^ and the army, consisting of six legions, immediately broke up from its quarters, and began to move towards Eome. But Syiia it is said,' that almost all the superior officers, unwilling to fight to^^ards^ against their country, resigned their commands, and hastened to Bo™«- escape into the city. In retaliation for the murder of the two military tribunes, several of SyUa's friends were murdered by the popular party at Eome. The senate was completely overawed, and none of the many illustrious persons whom it contained, are recorded as making any attempt to meditate between the parties, or to prevent the violence that was impending. Sylla was joined meantime by his colleague Q. Pompeius, and the two consuls continued to advance, disregarding the repeated deputations that were sent to stay their march. At last, when they were already in the neighbourhood of Eome, they received a final address, entreating them, in the name of the senate, not to approach within four miles of the capitoL* SyUa pretended to comply, and gave the usual orders to measure out the ground for his camp on the spot on which the deputation had met him. But while his antagonists were thus thrown off their guard, he sent off a detachment to follow close after the returning deputies,* and to occupy one of the gates of the city. This was effected, and he and his colleague putting themselves instantly in motion with the main army, and stationing troops on several quarters of the town, pro- ceeded to force their way into the streets. Marius and Sulpicius, 1 Velleiiis Paterculus, lib. ii. ; Appian, c. S6. 2 Plutarch, in Sylla, c, 9. 3 Appian, t. 57. * Appian, c. 57 ; Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 9. * Plutarch, in SyllS., o. 9 ; Appian, c. 58. 392 LDCIDS COKNELIUS SYLLA. [chap. XIX. [Marlus and the i.Bsassin.— Sargent, aftei l>rtmai3. IJ I Picture by )!.c. 89. having in vain tried to strengthen their cause by inviting the slaves to join them, with a promise of freedom, attempted for a time to resist with such a force as they had been able to raise and arm, and with the aid of many of the inhabitants, who annoyed the assailants with stones and arrows from their houses. But Sylla without scruple ordered his men to set fire to the quarters from whence they were thus annoyed; and at the same time prepared to assail the city in an opposite direction, and at once to distract the plans of the defenders. Assaults and and to menace them with cutting off their retreat. Then it was fakes tne ^.]^^^ Marius, Sulpicius, and their principal friends, gave up the con- test, and consulted for their safety by flight ; whilst the conquerors, halting in the Sacred Way, took instant measures for securing their victory, punished severely some of their soldiers^ who were beginning to plunder, stationed guards in the most important positions, and were on the alert the whole night to prevent any new disorders, or any further hostile attempts on either side. On the following morning the Eomans, for the first time since the invasion of the Gauls, awoke to the sight of a victorious enemy in possession of their city. Sylla proceeded to assemble the senate, and proposed that Marius,^ Sulpicius, and their adherents should be jiaihis and declared public enemies, and a price set on their heads. A decree ijeeiared ""^ ^^ passed accordingly to that effect ; and Sulpicius being betrayed Traitors. by One of his slaves, was put to death by the consul's orders, and his head exposed upon the Eostra. Marius, after a series of romantic adventures, succeeded in escaping from his pursuers, and sought a refuge for the present in Africa ; so that the popular party, deprived of its leaders, and controlled by the presence of a military force, submitted without resistance to the storm. Wliat measures were ' Obliged to avoid, by fligbt, the revenge of his cruel adversary, Marius hid him- self in the marshes of MinturnEe, but being discovered, he was dragged to that town, and there shut up. A Cimbric soldier then undertook to kill him, to get the reward promised to whomsoever should bring the head of the proscribed warrior; According to Plutarch, he went forth with a drawn sword, and the spot where Marius was resting being very dark, it appeared to the man-at-arms that he saw two vivid flames flash froni the eyes of Marius, and he heard from that dismal place a voice, which said to him, " Now, man ! darest iliou kill Cains Marius ? " The bar- barian immediately left the chamber, and throwing away his sword, he fled, exclaiming, " / dare rtot Mil Manus" 2 Appian, lib. i. c. 59. 3 n,i,j. o_ gQ . Cicero, de Claris Oratore, c. 45. CHAP. XIX.J LUCIUS COENELIUS SYIXA. 393 taken by Sylla to secure the power of the aristocracy for the fiiture, B.C. 89. it is difficult to decide ; ^ nor is it material, for they were all reversed in the counter-revolution that immediately followed. The laws of Sulpicius were, as might be expected, declared invalid: and the Italians were thus again debarred admission into more than eight of the tribes. But the Epitomizer of Livy tells us,^ that Sylla at this time planted several colonies, in order as we may suppose to recon- cile some of the poorer citizens to his party ; and he so abstained from interfering in the elections, that L. Cornelius Cinna, a man Election of notoriously devoted to the popular interest, was chosen consul for the oSaTim to following year, together with Cn. Octavius, a partisan of the aristo- tfe cracy. It is said that he bound Cinna ^ by the most solemn oaths °™ *' not to disturb the order of things which he had estabUshed, a pre- caution so little likely to be of any avail, that we may almost wonder that Sylla should have adopted it. In fact, no sooner did Cinna come into office, than he began to declare his real sentiments ; and induced one of the tribunes to threaten Sylla with a prosecution for his late violent assault on the city, and usurpation of the govern- ment.* It is probable that Sylla now saw too late how incomplete and short-lived was the victory that he had gained ; still, secure of the attachment of his army, he trusted that the senate might be able to maintain their own cause tiU he should return in triumph from Asia; and to prevent all chance of again being deprived of his command, he at once left Eome, rejoined his soldiers whom he had some time before sent back to Campania, and then proceeded gyua jajig without delay to sail with them into Greece, there to check, if™''''''* , ATmy to possible, the alarming career of Mithridates. Greece. His colleague in the consulship, Q. Pompeius,'' had been also con- firmed by the senate in his appointment to the command of the army, which was still kept on foot to oppose the remnants of the Italian confederacy. He accordingly set out for the quarters of the troops, which were at this time in the country of the Marsi. But Cn. <3. Pompeius Pompeius, the general whom he was going to supersede, considered J,y™ls ^^'^ the possession of an army too valuable to be easily rehnquished ; and SoicUers. the soldiers, at his instigation, as is stated in all our accounts of these times, murdered their intended commander as soon as he arrived among them. Cn. Pompeius thus retaining his station, aspired perhaps to act the part of Sylla, and to become, like him, the defender ' Appian says, that he restored the old custom of voting by centuries instead of tribes ; that he revived the practice that nothing should *be submitted to the decision of the people, unless it had first passed the senate 5 and that the senate itself was swelled by the nomination of three hundred new members from the different orders of the state to be placed on its rolls. But the reality of such important changes must not be admitted on the sole authority of such a writer as Appian. 2 Epitome, lib. Ixxvii. 3 Plutarch, in SyUS,, c. 10. * Ibid, in Sylia, c. 10 ; Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, c. 48. ^ Appian, c. 63 ; Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxvii. 394 LtrCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XIX. B.C. 89. of the senate against the enemies who were preparing to assult it : but it was not decreed that his crime should be so successful ; and the author of an act, unexampled till now in the Eoman history, was not permitted even to reap that poor renown which attends on prosperous wickedness. We here suspend our narrative of the domestic transactions of Kome, in order to trace the fortunes of Mithridates, against whom Sylla now directed his arms. [ Eoman Inatrumonta of Torture.] [Fompey the Great-] CHAPTER XX. MITHRIDATES. FKOM B.C. 123 TO B. C. I The kingdom of Pontus, originally tributary to the crown of B.C. 123. Persia, but, after its recovery from the successors of Alexander, an a^^^^gJts independent sovereignty, descended, at the death of Mithridates the of Sixth, who had been the steady ally of Eome,' to his son of the same " " '*■■ name, a child then only eleven years of age. The family traced their origin to Artabazes," one of the seven noble Persians who con- spired to destroy the usurper Smerdis, and who received from Darius the government of Cappadocia and Pontus,' to be held as a fief of the empire. To the extraordinary abilities and endowments of the young Mithridates, distinguished by the surname of Eupator,* and usually called "the great," the Eoman historians bear ample testimony; nor could they do otherwise without reflecting discredit upon • Polyb. Excerpt, cxxxv. 2 Ibid. T. 43 ; Appian, de Bell. Mithrid. Gryph. p. ' Diod. Sic. xix. 45; Xen. Anab. Floras, iii. 5. * And Dionysius, Appian, p. 1084. 1082. 396 MITHRIDATES. [chap. XX. (Mithridates.J B.C. 123. the arms and councils of Rome, so often defeated and so long baffled by bis courage and policy : ' but if justice had been done to his talents, his enemies have laboured to compensate for this admission, by holding him up to the detestation of posterity as a monster of cruelty and treachery. A care- ful comparison of the slight sources from which the common notions respecting this accomplished prince have been drawn, will lead us to suspect that, according to the moral opinions of his time, he was as much distinguished for virtue and for his amiable and generous temper, as for wonderfial powers and acquirements both of body and mind. His birth, if we may believe the authority of Justin,'' and his accession to the throne, were indicated to the world by the appearance of a comet of prodigious magnitude and brUlianoy. But if any such phenomenon occurred at those periods, it was not regarded by the guardians of the youthftd prince as an unequivocal declaration of the peculiar favour and protection of heaven ; for his early years were passed in continual danger from their machinations against his life. Of the precise object of these treasonable practices, history affords us little intimation ; but if his mother followed the example of his grandmother Laodice,^ who is said to have destroyed five of her six children, in order to perpetuate her own power, it would account for the fact mentioned by Appian,* that he caused both his mother and brother to be put to death ; if indeed any credit is to be attached to the assertion of the historian who, in the same book, states that he came to the throne after the decease of both his parents. But whoever was the instigator of the various plots devised against the young prince, they appear to have been carried on with great cunning and perseverance, and to have been frustrated entirely by his prudence and intrepidity. And this is aU that can with any certainty be inferred, from the loose and contradictory accounts handed down to us of his early life. It is indeed related " that, vnth a view to his destruction, the guardians of his minority encouraged him to make use of dangerous weapons, mounted upon a high mettled and unbroken steed, but that in consequence of his extra- ordinary activity and skill in horsemanship, the plot miscarried. Such a report is likely enough to have arisen from the bold and enterprising temper of Mithridates, who, according to Appian," was Birth and Accession of Mithridates VII. Conspiracy against his Life during his Minority. 1 See Prideaux's Connect, part ii. book 5. ' Justin, loo. oit. * De rebus Mithridaticis. 2 Justin, xxxvii. 2. et seq. ^ Justin, loo. cit, 6 Eeb. Mith. CHAP. XX.J MITHRIDATES. 397 paxticiilarly addicted to equestrian exercises, and excelled all other B.C. 12:3. men in strength and agility : he could ride a hundred and twenty- five miles ia one day on horseback, and drive sixteen horses in his chariot, even when age had somewhat impaired his vigour ; and in the use of all the waxlike weapons of his time, but especially in throw- ing the javehn, he was singularly expert.' Having failed in these indirect practices, the conspirators attempted, it is said, to take him off by poison ; but the prmce suspecting the danger, had invented a celebrated antidote, or, as Phny affirms,^ a variety of antidotes, which he was in the daily habit of taking, and afterwards of swallow- ing active poisons, tiU his constitution became inured to the opera- tion of the most violent drugs. The antidote, called from him Mithridate, was in great repute in the days of Phny,' and is men- tioned by writers of all ages down to the present time. It has for some time been excluded from the Pharmacopceia, as being a need- less compound of a great variety of botanic extracts, and is said, by the highest medical authorities, to have been incapable of producing the effects attributed to it, which are altogether beyond the powers of medicine. The early Hfe of Mithridates was spent in the assiduous cultiva- Eai-iy tion of those talents and habits which rendered him, in the words of ?[ ^rte and Phny,* the greatest prince of his time, or, in the stronger language A.rms. of Cicero,* the greatest monarch that ever reigned. He accustomed himself at all seasons to he in the open air, and to depend upon his success in the chase for a precarious meal. He exposed himself to dangerous conflicts with the larger and fiercer wild animals, and exercised his speed and dexterity in pursuit of the smaller.* He studied profoundly the physics and philosophy of the age, and made himself master of aU the languages, or more properly perhaps of the dialects, spoken by the nations with whom he was likely to have any intercourse in peace or war, so that he could receive ambassadors, and issue despatches without the intervention of an interpreter.' The language of Pontus, in his time, had become a corrupt mixture of Greek and Getic ; and it is probable that different modifications of the same jargon formed the dialects of most of the neighbouring states: but though the vernacular tongue was thus barbarous, a purer Greek appears to have been the language of the court ; for the coins of Mithridates bear Greek inscriptions, and his " Treatise on Botany " was composed in Greek.^ Having spent seven years in these exercises, and having attamed Mithridate T J? 9 T-i Tnn ^^/^ C0ID6S to ir a growth much exceeding the common stature ot man, ne assumea Throne 1 Polyb. Excerpt. 2 Lib. xxv. 2. s Loc. cit. JJ^^'^- « LuouUus, sive Acad. Quaist. ii. " Justm, xxxvii. 2. _ ' Pliny, vii. 24. Mithridates duarum et viginti gentium rex, totidem linguis jura dixit, pro' concione singular sine interprets aflfatus. „ , ^,.^r. 8 Pliny, XXV. 2. ' Appian, Eeb. Mith. 398 MITHBIJJATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 123. the government of his dominions in his eighteenth year/ and immediately devoted his whole attention to improve and extend the interests of his country. It is difficult, in the dearth of accurate histories, to trace the progress of his conquests, or even to define his patrimonial dominions ; and still more so to vindicate his character from the improbable calumnies heaped upon him by the Eomans. Eutropius and Orosius^ speak of him as reigning over Armenia Minor, (now Aladulia,) the kingdom of his son-in-law Tigranes, and the whole tract of country bounded by the Euxine sea and the Bosphorus.. His complete subjugation of the Scythians, who had baffled the attempts of so many mighty monarchs, is noticed by Justin ^ as having enabled him to secure himself in the possession of " Pontus and Cappadocia," (the former of which he inherited from his father,) and it was probably therefore his first exploit. By what means he overcame the ferocity, and maintained the fidelity of that wild people, is left wholly to conjecture ; but we may conclude that he derived no small advantage from his own hardy habits and personal prowess in gaining the affections of the savage tribes of the north. We shortly afterwards find him engaged in the reduction of Sinope,* in which attempt he gave repeated proofs of his great talents, both as a diplomatist and as an engineer. The success of the siege was for a time prevented by succours supplied from Ehodes, and ■ Mithridates in vain endeavoured to gain the Ehodians to his party by presents and promises ; ' but the able disposition of his artillery finally prevailed, and Sinope,* reduced to obedience, became the principal residence of the king. MaiTies his It must have been about the same period that, according to the Laoaice. custom of many Oriental nations, he married his sister Laodice,' a name common to the females of his family ; but he did not long remain at home to enjoy the scanty dominion so little suited to his bold and aspiring genius. Disguising himself as a private person, he made the tour of Asia Minor, and retiirned through Bithynia, noting carefully, in every state, the means of defence which it possessed, and the facilities which were open for exciting disafiecljion towards the predominating power of Eome. He was met, on his arrival in his own country, with the welcome news that his wife had in his absence given birth to an heir ; but the festivities, with which he celebrated this completion of his wishes, were interrupted by the timely discovery of a plot to poison him, in which his queen and several of the principal officers of his household were implicated. It appeared, by 1 Justin, xxxvii. 3. 2 Lib. v. ; Orosius, vi. 1. 3 Lib. xxxvii. 3. * Polyb. iv. 56. « Polyb. v. 90. Sinope was first added to the kingdom of Pontus by Pharnaces, e.c. 183 ; See Strabo, lib. xii. ' Justin, xxxvii. 3. CHAP. XX.J MITHEIDATES. 399 the testimony of a faithful domestic, that Laodice, affecting to con- b.c. 123. elude from his prolonged absence that he was no longer aHve, had been guilty of infidelities so numerous and so notorious, as to leave her little hope of concealment ; and to prevent the consequences of discovery upon his return, the guilty parties had resolved on the death of the king. Their guilt being fully proved, the queen and her associates were put to death.^ The king now devoted his whole attention to politics, and endea- voured to form an alliance with every description of power which could be rendered available against Eome ; so that there was no kingdom, no repubhc, scarcely a band of robbers or pirates, from Pontus to the columns of Hercules, hostile to the Romans, which was not more or less connected with him.^ In the celebrated social war, the progress of which we have just traced,' the Marsians, as we have seen, sent ambassadors to treat with the king of Pontus, and to solicit a reinforcement of ships and men. The wary monarch received them in the most gracious manner, and assured them of his cordial good wishes ; but observed that " it could not consist with his safety to attack the Romans in Italy, till he should first have driven them ou.t of Asia ;" * and that he should best consult the interests of the allies, as weU. as his own, by creating a powerful diversion in the east. Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, who had married Laodice, another Restores his sister of Mithridates, died, not without suspicion of having been hi? ^^ " poisoned by his prime minister and illegitimate brother Gordius; Kingdom. and Justin, with strange inconsistency, imputes the contrivance of ' ' this murder to Mithridates ; who, as he relates the story,* employed the same wicked instrument to destroy the heirs to the throne, his own nephews ; although he admits that the sole object of the war which ensued with Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, who had married the widow and seized the vacant kingdom, was to assert the claim of the young Ariarathes to the dominions of his father. The truth appears to be, that Laodice, like her sister of the same name, was an imprincipled woman, and entered readily into the proposal of Nico- medes to unite the kingdoms of Cappadocia and Bithynia, to the exclusion of her own sons. Mithridates, shocked at such unnatural justice, and desirous that Cappadocia should not pass out of his family, raised a powerful army, and seizing all the strong places on the frontier, soon placed Ariarathes the Eighth in peaceable posses- sion of his paternal rights. The cause of the quarrel which ensued between the uncle and nephew, is involved in great obscurity.^ By Justin it is attributed to the arbitrary tone assumed by Mithridates in a negotiation for the pardon and restoration of Gordius, whose guilt was never proved, and whose experience and sagacity might 1 Justin imputes this act of justice to Mithridates as an atrocious crime ; Loco. cit. 2 Appian. Reb. Mith. ^ vide pp. 115—118. 4 Diodorus Sieulus, xxxvii. 1. ' Lib. xxx™i. 1. 400 MITHRIDATES. [chap. XX. Xicomedes brings forward a Pscudo- Ariarathes. B.C. 92. have proved highly valuable to the youthful Iting. But Ariarathes, suspicious of his uncle's views, resisted his wishes, and a war was the consequence, in which he was defeated and slain,-' The throne, thus again vacant, descended rightfully to the family of Mithridates, who gave it to his own son, now eight years of age, with the surname of , Ariarathes, and appointed Gordius regent during the minority. But the Cappadocians, attached to their own branch of the royal family, revolted from the bastard Gordius, and proclaimed another Ariarathes the Ninth, (the brother of the late king,) whose title they defended with great obstinacy, but with Httle success. The king of Pontus dispersed the forces of the insurgents, and the young pretender died, shortly afterwards, of a broken heart.^ Nicomedes, meanwhile, alarmed at the increasing power of his rival, prevailed upon his queen to forge a tale of a third son of her late husband, whom, for certain reasons of state, she had kept in concealment tiU the death of his two brothers ; but whose claim to the throne they now thought it their duty to lay before the senate of Eome; for which purpose Laodice in person accompanied the ambassadors, and boldly declared the pseudo-Ariaxathes to be her own son, and the legitimate heir of Cappadocia. Mithridates, un- willing to be drawn prematurely into hostilities with Rome, sent Gordius thither to defend the cause of his son, and to remind the senate that " he was the descendant of that Ariarathes who fell in battle defending the Romans against Aristonicus :" but aware that money would prevail among the senators more than gratitude or justice, he directed his envoy to make magnificent presents to all the leading men in the city.' It is probable that Nicomedes had not neglected the same precau- tion ; for the decree of the senate deprived Mithridates, or rather his son, of the kingdom of Cappadocia ; and, " to compensate for the loss," ^ took away Paphlagouia from Nicomedes, declaring both those countries free republics, and allies of Eome ; in plain terms, usurping them to themselves. But the Cappadocians, unwUhng to become dependent upon the caprices, and subject to the extortion of Roman governors, refused to accept their freedom, and blimtly declared that no nation could properly be said to exist without a king : upon which the senate, hoping to retain their influence in the country by means of a creature of their own, appointed Ariobar- zanes to be king.^ But Mithridates was far from acquiescing in a decree which tended so completely to disappoint his hopes of acquiring the empire 1 It is scarcely worth while to notice the preposterous and indecent storj- men- tioned by Justin, in which Mithridates is made to assassinate his nephew, xxxviii. 1. - Justin, xxxviii. 2. These are the same two princes whom Justin states to have been before murdered by Gordius. * Diodorus Siculus, Excerpt, xxxiv i Justin, loco citato. ' I'lutarch, Vit. Sylla;. Slithridates refuses to obey tliel Senate. CHAP. XX.J MITHEIDATES. 4.01 of the east. He had long cultivated a close alUance with Tigranes, B.C. 90. satrap of Armenia, who was, equally with himself, hostile to the insolent pretensions of Eome ; and he now induced him, by the offer of givuig him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, to make war upon the sluggish and cowardly monarch whom, for their own purposes, the senate had given to Cappadocia.^ Little resistance was made : Mithridates, in person, taking possession of the king- dom, mulcted the people in a heavy fine for their submission to Ariobaxzanes ; and, hearing that Nicomedes was dead, and that his son of the same name had succeeded to the throne of Bithynia, he advanced into that country, and expelUng the young king, made himself master of all that 'part of Asia, and laid the towns under tribute.^ The deposed kings, Ariobaxzanes and Mcomedes, imme- diately departed for Eome, and appeared in the form of supphants before the senate, who, proud of such illustrious suitors, and indig- nant that any monarch should presume to wage a war without their sanction, peremptorily decreed the restitiition of the exiled princes, and sent AquOius ^ and Manlius Maltinus * to see their decree carried into effect. The die was now cast. Mithridates, aware that he must either war uegun. lehnquish his acquisitions altogether, or boldly defend them against B.C. 88. the Eoman legates, received the commissioners with great haughti- ness, made an ostentatious display of his resources, and replied to their commands by complaints of the injustice and arbitrary pro- ceedings of the senate ; ° and though the two princes were formally restored to their dominions, he never suffered them to enjoy peace- able possession. Upon this the Eoman officers in Asia, without waiting for further instructions from home, collected aU the troops in the service of the republic throughout the provinces, and moved in three divisions to enforce obedience to their commands. The first division was commanded by L. Cassius, proconsul of Pergamus ; the second by Aqiulius; and the third by Q. Oppius, proconsul of Pamphylia.* Each di- vision consisted of about forty thousand men ; and a fleet of observation moved at the same time towards Pontus. With these forces they had to contend against a monarch who, [ligranes.] according to Appian,' was then master of four hundred ships of war, fifty thousand cavalry, and two hundred and fifi;y thousand infantry,^ all equipped in the most complete 1 Justin, xxxviii. 3. 2 Orosius. vi. 2. = Al. AoiUus, et AttUius. 4 Al. Altinus. ^ Dion. Cassius, Excerpt, xxxu. 6 Athenseus, v.; Memnon, xxxiii; Floras, iii. 5; Diod. Excerpt, f Reb ilithrid. ^ He elsewhere says 200,000. [r. H.] 2d 402 MITHEIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 88. manner, and accompanied by formidable trains of artillery ; and ■vvbo had at his command the powerful army of Tigranes/ and reinforcements from several others of the independent Asiatic princes. Nicomedea In the meantime, Nicomedes, reljdng upon the assistance of the PontS Eoman army, boldly invaded Pontus, and laid waste the whole country as far as Amastris, by which he acquired an immense booty. Mithridates, hoping that the senate might be induced, by this aggression on the part of the Bithynians, to withdraw its inter- ference, retired before the enemy, and sent an envoy to the legates, desiring that they would at least permit him to repel the invasion of his own territory. The legates, as Appian^ himself acknowledges, were ashamed to take part with Nicomedes ; and they returned an evasive answer, that " they neither wished Mith- ridates to be injured by Nicomedes, nor could they suffer Nicomedes to be overcome by Mithridates ; since it was against the interests of Eome." Upon receiving tljis reply, the king no longer hesitated to send his son, Ariarathes, with a strong force to take possession of Cappadooia ; at the same time, he once more despatched his envoy, Pelopidas, to excuse the necessity of this proceeding to the Eomans. But they peremptorily refused to listen to his expostulations, and ordered him to quit the camp and return no more.' Hostilities were now inevitable ; and a battle shortly afterwards took place near the river Amnias, in which Mithridates and Nicomedes com- manded in person : the victory was for some time doubtful, the Bithynians being very superior in numbers ; but the skill and courage of Mithridates finally prevailed, and a great booty, with a prodigious number of prisoners, most of whom were Eomans, fell into his hands. The king, willing to set an example of a humane and generous mode of warfare, set all the captives at liberty with- out ransom, and furnished them with provision for their journey home.* This decisive action was followed by a number of skirmishes, in all of which the Eomans suffered severely ; but, whenever they were taken prisoners, they were treated by the victor with the greatest hberahty: the same conduct was observed towards the Bithynians, and all the native Asiatics whom the fortime of war compelled to surrender themselves to the clemency of Mithridates ; whose name became so popular, that, wherever he advanced, the cities hastened to throw open their gates, and begged to be taken under his protection. The Eomans were universally detested in Asia for their avarice and cruelty ; and so eager were the natives to escape from their oppressive exactions, that Mithridates, without ' Justin, xxxviii. 3. 2 ^eb. Mithrid. 3 Ibid. eod. * Ibid, eod.; Diod. Sic. Excerpt, xxxvii. CHAP. XX.J MITHEIDATES. 403 further contest, became master of Phrygia, Mysia, Lycia, Pamphylia, b.c. 88. and all the country as far as Ionia. The Laodiceans, rising upon the proconsul Oppius, dehvered him bound to the king of Pontus, and a similar fate soon afterwards befell Aquilius. Mithridates would not refuse his new allies the pleasure of seeing Conduct of their tyrants paraded through their cities in a kind of mock totheEoman triumph ; and the populace everywhere pursued them with threats Generate, and execrations, till, in cruel derision of their insatiable avarice, Aquilius was put to death by pouring melted gold down his throat, and Oppius shared his punishment. Nothing can justify such severity of vengeance ; but Pliny and Velleius Paterculus, as well as other Roman writers,' admit that it was richly merited by the sufferers. " Ha3C paulatim exarsit rabie quadam, non jam avaritia sed fames auri . . . nee jam Quiritium aliquo, sed universe nomine Eomano infami, rex Mithridates AquUio duci capto aurum in os infudit."^ Having established satraps in the newly acquired provinces, the king advanced to Magnesia, Ephesus, and Mitylene, all of which joyfuUy submitted to him: the Ephesians, in testimony of their loyalty, broke dovm all the statues of the different Eoman generals in their city, for which offence, on the arrival of Sylla in Asia, a most barbarous revenge was inflicted upon them. Eetuming from Ionia, he took Stratonice, and laid the town under contribution : and here it was that he met with the beautiful and accomplished Hypsicratea,' whose romantic attachment to him indiiced her to undergo fatigues and perils so Uttle suited to her age and sex. At the same time the Cyclades, with the islands of Delos, Lesbos, and Eubcea * were given up to his lieutenant, Neoptolemus ; and Athens itself, by the treachery of the Athenian governor Ariston,^ fell into the hands of Archelaus, another of his generals, who shortly after contrived to draw over to his master's interest the greater part of Greece. In the meanwhile, Mithridates, perfectly aware that the senate Banishes aii would speedily make a powerful effort to recover their dominions in ^^S.™* ™™ Asia, saw the necessity of expelling from the countries now in his power that numerous body of Eoman citizens who were at any moment ready to act imder the orders of the repubhc." A decree ' Appiari, Diodorus, &o. 2 " Now by degrees, not merely avarice, but a species of ravenous appetite— a famishing eagerness for gold— inflamed Aquilius, the Eoman general ; infamous not merely in the opinion of any individual Koman, but of their whole body ; down this man's throat king Mithridates poured molten gold." Plin. xxxiii. 3 ; VeUeius Paterculus, ii. 18. 3 Valerius Maximus, lib. iv. c. 6, de amore oonjugali. * Florus iii. 5 ; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 18. « Eutropius V. ; Plutarch (SyUa) calls him Aristion. ' 6 This is the only probable account of the transaction ; and though the massacre is stated by most writers to have been expressly ordered by Mithridates, Appian, 404 MITHEIDATES. [chap. XX. B.C. 88. Seizes a Tveasnve at Coos. Siege of Rliodes. was accordingly framed, commanding all Eomans immediately to depart from Asia under pain of death, and rendering it penal for any persons to harbour or to conceal them : a reward was also offered l3y proclamation to such as should give intelligence against offenders. The Asiatics, burning with hatred and revenge against Eome, eagerly took the opportunity thus afforded to avenge the wrongs they had suffered, and a vast number of Italians, (eighty thousand according to some authors,' and one hundred and fifty thousand if we believe Plutarch,") perished in a few days. The Roman writers do not hesitate to impute this atrocious massacre to the express order of the king ; but upon comparing the different accounts which they have given us of it, and considering that which the exigency of the case, the character of Mithridates, and the state of public feeling at that period combine to render probable, we are forcibly led to the conclusion, that his intention did not exceed the necessary precaution of excluding the subjects of Eome from his newly-acquired dominions. Intelligence having been received that the Jews of Asia had remitted eight hundred talents^ (about £150,000) to Coos, in the way to Jerusalem, for security, Mithridates sailed thither, and seized not only that sum, but a considerable treasure in money and jewels, the property of Alexander, grandson to Cleopatra queen of Egypt ; the young prince also fell into the hands of the conqueror, who, with his accustomed generosity, treated his prisoner in a manner suitable to his rank, and bestowed on him an education truly royal.* While Mithridates was engaged at Coos, L. Cassius the proconsul, with a considerable body of the Italians who were exiled from Asia, had thrown himself into Ehodes, and prepared to defend the city with great vigour. The suburbs were razed, artillery was mounted on the walls, and the fleet was manned under the orders of Demagoras, who attempted to engage the royal squadron, com- manded by Mithridates in person, as it approached the harbour ; but being nearly surrounded by an able manoeuvure of the king, he retired into the port without loss, and in good order. A blockade was immediately formed; and the Ehodians, having obtained some advantage in a sally, were encouraged again to attempt a naval action, in which, though nothing of importance was effected, Demagoras gained great credit, and Mithridates became dissatisfied with his captains : so that a tempest shortly who gives a detailed history of it, acknowledges that it was occasioned by the hatred of the Asiatics to the Eomans: " Clarfe iiitueri liouit Asiam non tarn metu Mithridatis (juam odio in Eomanos sic impife cinideliterque dessevisse." Keb. Mith. 1 Appian, loc. cit. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 18. 2 gylla. 3 Josephus, xiv. 7. p. 165 vol. iii. of Whiston's translation. * Prideaux's Connection, part ii. [Rhodes.] CHAP. XX.J MITHEIDATES. 405 afterwards having destroyed part of his fleet, he resolved to b.c. press the siege of the city by land, and at the same time to attempt to force his way into the port. An enormous machine, called a sambuca, was erected upon two ships ; deserters were engaged to conduct a party with scaling-ladders to a low and practicable part of the wall ; and the two points were to be attacked simultaneously, upon a signal given from within by a few who were to ascend in silence with the deserters, and to display a light from the temple of Jupiter. But the Ehodians, hav- ing intimation of the design, coimterfeited the signal; and the attack, being prematurely made, miscarried. The sambuca, however, proved a most formidable assailant; ris- ing nearly to a level with the batteries, it discharged tremendous showers of darts and iron bolts, and having thus cleared the way of all opposition, it afforded a ready means for planting ladders and covering an escalade. The Ehodians, meanwhile, behaved with great gallantry, till, from the increased pressure, the huge machine at once gave way, and fell with a dreadful crash, burying hundreds in its ruins. The citizens attributed their deliver- ance to the miraculous intervention of Isis, who was said to have burnt the beams which supported the sambuca; and Mithridates, unwilhng to consume more time and men on a conquest so little important, retired to Patara, and is said to have forgotten for a time the cares of war in the society of his bewitching queen.^ SyUa being now appointed by the senate to conduct the Mithri- syua arrives datic war, arrived in Greece with five complete legions, and several " p'^^07 battalions and companies, amounting in the whole to about fifteen thousand foot,^ and fifteen hundred horse, and he was joined by a considerable body of the Italian refugees from Asia ; but with this reinforcement he was in no condition to meet Archelaus in the field, who, including the forces under the command of his brother TaxUes, is said to have had with him in Greece above two hundred thousand men ; and after the arrival of Dorylaus to his assistance, there had been altogether opposed to the Eomans three hundred and ten ^ Appian, Reb. Mith. ; According to Plutarch (SyUa) he was at Pergamns. 2 Prideaux, part ii. Athens. 406 MITHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. r..c. 87. thousand.' Sylla therefore resolved to commence the campaign with the siege of Athens ; and having, in his wdj thither, brought over to his party the unstable citizens of Thebes, he marched directly into Attica, and made active preparations for the speedy reduction of the city. siege of When Sylla surveyed the walls of the Pirsus, at which point he intended to press the seige, he was struck with admiration of their prodigious height and sohdity, and of the skill displayed in their construction ; but, with the undaunted perseverance of a Eoman, he was only stimulated to covet more earnestly the glory of taking so strong a place. Having in vain attempted the ordinary modes of scaling, and completely fatigued his men, he retired for a while to repose them at Eleusis and Megara, whilst he constructed new and vast machines, partly with materials brought from Thebes, and partly from the sacred groves of Academus, which resoimded to the military axe, instead of the honied accents of Plato. He employed himself also in collecting great quantities of earth, stones, and refuse timber, for the purpose of raising a mound to the height of the wall ; and he tampered with some of the profligate Athenian slaves to give him intelligence of all that passed in the city, by means of leaden epistles, folded up in the form of bullets, and shot into the lines from slings.^ By these means, when the works were in pro- gress, and Archelaus had planned a sally, his troops were trepanned into an ambush and suffered severely ; so that the workmen continued their operations without further interruption. The mound being now nearly level with the wall, Archelaus erected towers in opposition to it ; and expecting that the Eomans would attempt to take the fort by storm, he sent for reinforcements from Chalcis, and armed and trained his rowers ' to oppose them ; a precaution which appears to throw very considerable doubt upon the credibility of the historians, who have stated the regular troops under his command to have, so greatly exceeded in number the whole Eoman army ; indeed Appian expressly acknowledges that, at the beginning of the siege, the Eoman forces were more numerous than those of the enemy.* Finding himself now a match for the Eoman general, Archelaus^ made a sally by night, and succeeded in burning and destroying the greater part of the machinery erected upon the mound ; but Sylla having, in ten days time, repaired the damage, a turret was erected opposite to it upon the walls of the Pirsus, and Andromichates arriving with fresh succours from Mithridates, the general drew out his men in order of battle under the city wall. A smart action ' Appian, eod. In these numbers great allowance should doubtless be made for Roman exaggeration. 2 Appian Eeb. Mith. ; Plutarch, in Sylla. 3 Appian loo. cit. * Ibid eod. CHAP. XX.J MITHRIDATES. 407 ensued, in which the besieged had, at first, the advantage, and the b.c. 87. Eomans fled in some confusion ; but being ably rallied by Mursena, they returned to the charge, and drove the enemy, with loss, into the fort. Archelaus, who had exerted himself with distinguished courage throughout the day, in his anxiety at last to secure the safety of his rear, was shut out of the gates, and would certainly have been taken prisoner, had not the soldiers on the wall let dovm a rope, by which he drew himself up into the fortress. As the winter was now at hand,' Sylla made his head-quarters at Saiiyof Eleusis, and employed his men in connecting the outworks with the ^>'<^''<^'™«' sea, by an immense dyke. In this operation they were continually harassed by the enemy, who, by frequent sallies, and by discharges of missiles from the batteries, killed and wounded a great number of soldiers every day ; but Sylla,^ anxious at any price to complete his conquest, in order that he might return to take part in the dissensions at home, finding his success retarded by the want of a fleet to prevent the entrance of supplies into the harbour, sent to Rhodes for ships. The Ehodians, however, refused to part with their navy, lest Mithridates should return and seize their town ; and Sylla was obliged to despatch LucuUus to Egypt with orders to the difierent courts stiU adhering to the interests of Eome, to send all their fleets to Ehodes for the service of the republic. This mission was of no trifling danger and difiiculty, at a moment when all the seas of the Levant swarmed with the cruisers of Pontus ; but LucuUus performed it with admirable quickness and address. Meanwhile Munatius having fallen in with Neoptolemus near Munattus Chalcis, a battle ensued, in which the latter received a severe wound, NeopSiemus and his troops, disheartened by the fall of their general, were ^t Chaicis. defeated with the loss of fifteen hundred men. That such a result should have materially weakened the power of Neoptolemus, is a powerful confirmation of the suspicion already expressed, that the Eoman, like the Grecian historians, were in the habit of grossly overrating the numbers of their adversaries. SyUa, encouraged by this event, shortly afterwards made an attempt, by means of a portable bridge, to pass over by night from the battery upon his own mound, to the wall of the Pirseus ; and the Eomans crossed the passage with so much secrecy, that they surprised the guards, and created great alarm in the fortress ; but Archelaus hastening to the spot, the officer who commanded the storming party was killed, and his men hurled down from the wall. The besieged, instantly sally- ing from below, attacked the Eoman lines, and would have destroyed aU their works, had not the timely arrival of Sylla, with his whole army, compelled them to retire.^ The duty of watching the works became now extremely severe ' Appian. loc. ^ Plutarch, iu Sylla. ' Appian, in loco. 408 MITHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 87. upon the besiegers, and scarcity began to be no less pi'essing within the city, so that both parties were equally anxious to bring the contest to a conclusion. The plans of Archelaus ' for supplying the garrison with provisions, were generally rendered abortive by the intelligence which Sylla continued to receive in leaden bullets ; and one of the largest towers which the besieged had erected on the wall was thrown down, and a number of soldiers were killed by the superior weight of the Roman artillery. Ariarathes During these transactions, Ariarathes, or, according to others, Macedonia. -A-rcathias,^ a son of the king, invaded Macedonia with the hope of creating a diversion ; and having expelled all the Roman garrisons, and made himself master of the whole province, he was advancing to raise the siege of Athens, when he unhappily fell sick and died in a few days. The great defect of Oriential discipline, which even Mithridates did not correct, and which perhaps could not, con- sistently with Oriental maxims of policy, be corrected, was the dependence of the whole army, often of the whole conduct of the war, upon the life of one man. In this, as in a multitude of other instances, there was no second general upon whom the command of the army and the execution of the design could devolve ; and the fall of Athens, in all probabihty, was occasioned by the death of this prince. In order to increase the scarcity now prevailing in Athens,' Sylla became extremely vigilant to prevent any egress from the city, and Archelaus saw that no hope remained of being enabled to hold out much longer, unless, by some Adgorous effort, he could open a com- munication with the surrounding country. For this purpose he carried a tunnel from vrithin the fortress under the huge mound upon which Sylla had erected his batteries ; and, having sunk a pit beneath it, contrived to withdraw the temporary wood-work which supported the roof of his excavation, so that the mound suddenly sunk down, with all its machinery, to the inexpressible consternation of the Romans. But the confusion occasioned by this incident was greater than the mischief: the industry of the soldiers speedily raised the mound to its former height, and repaired the broken engines ; and Sylla, drawing a lesson from his enemies, began, in a similar manner, to undermine the walls of the fort. These operations were met by countermines on the part of the garrison, and frequent sub- terranean skirmishes took place in the dark, amid the falling in of earth and stones, and the thundering of cavalry above. A part of the wall, nearly opposite to the Roman works, having been shaken by these means, Sylla threw into the fortification such a quantity of fire- balls and heavy iron bolts, that he burnt the principal tower, erected by Archelaus, and effected a practicable breach. A body of picked ' Plutarch, in loco. ^ Appian in loco. 3 Ibid. cod. CHAP. XX.J MITHRIDATES. 409 mea were immediately ordered to advance, and, being cheered by B.C. 87. the general in person, they entered the breach, and for a time drove back the guards stationed to defend it ; but Archelaus coming up, and throwing himself into the thickest of the fight, the garrison renewed their efforts, and the assailants were repelled with loss, after an obstinate and bloody conflict. Sylla sounded the recall, and bestowed high commendations on the conduct and courage of his men, which could not but reflect still higher honour iTpon Archelaus and the garrison. In the course of the succeeding night the breach was so completely repaired, that SyUa, when he reconnoitred the field next morning, gave up aU hope of storming the Pirseus, and resolved to await the slower, but more safe and certain, effects of famine. The garrison was indeed rediiced to the last extremity : the horses Fau of and mules were all consumed ; the very saddles and harness had been boiled down; human flesh, and even more disgusting substances were resorted to in the extremity of hunger;' the soldiers became too weak to mount guard ; and Sylla having, either by treachery or by accident,^ learned that no sentinel was posted at a weak point of the city wall, entered without opposition. A most barbarous scene ensued. The garrison and the inhabitants, too weak either for resistance or flight, were massacred without regard to age or sex ; all the horrors of a captured city were fearfully enacted in every house ; many, to escape the cruelty of the Eomans, inflicted a volun- tary death upon themselves ; and whqn order was, in some measure, restored, scarcely a free person of any description was found alive. Sylla sold all the slaves, and, while he exerted himself to preserve the nobler edifices, he gave up all the property to pUlage. Aristo, in the meanwhile, with a few followers, escaped to the citadel, where he continued to hold out for several days ; but all his provisions being exhausted, and no hope appearing of relief, in the end he sur- rendered at discretion. T^isto, and the principal officers were put to death ; but SyUa, satiated with blood, suffered a few of the inferior soldiers to depart unmolested. The treasure fotmd in the citadel was immense, amounting to four hundred pounds weight of gold, and more than sis hundred of sUver.' It consisted principally of vessels of the most costly workmanship dedicated to Minerva ; but superstition afforded these no protection from the avarice of the Eoman general, already stained with the sacrilegious robbery of Delphi, and of almost every rich shrine in Greece.* The Pu-Eeus still remained defended by Archelaus, who erected such a succession of walls between the fortress and the city, that SyUa, after having battered down the first with considerable difficulty, 1 Appian, in loco. ^ Plutarch, in Sylia. ' Appian, in loco. * Plutarch, in SyUS,. His instrament in this business was the wretched Caphis, whose compnnction he treated with the most hardened contempt. 410 MITHEIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 87. was completely disheartened at the hydra, which grew faster than he could lop it. But Archelaus, finding that the possession of the fort served no other purpose than to fatigue his men, embarked them safely in the harbour, and evacuated the place. Then passing through Bceotia, he appointed his rendezvous at Thermopylse, where he was joined by the troops under Andromichates, by the army of the prince who died at Tydeus, and by fresh succours sent him from Asia ; and he employed himself in exercising and training the recruits, and in providing for the ensuing campaign; whilst SyUa, now undisputed master of the Pirseus, vented his rage upon that noble fortress, and destroyed all of it that could be consumed by fire, together with a vast accumulation of naval stores. B.C. 86. The Koman general having refreshed his cohorts, lost no time in following Archelaus, who, on his approach, advanced into Phocis at the head of a mixed army of a hundred and twenty thousand men.^ The numbers under SyUa, including the Greeks and barbarians, could hardly have amounted to half so many ; so that he thought proper to avoid an action, and await a more favourable opportunity. It is impossible to reconcile the different accounts given by the several historians who have related the circumstances of the action which followed. Plutarch, who professes to write with the com- mentaries of Sylla before him, has evidently no other view than to magnify the great actions of the Eoman general by exaggerating the difliculties which beset him, and the numbers opposed to him ; and, from the character of Sylla himself, we have httle reason to rely on the fidelity of the source from which the partial biographer professes to draw his materials. It is, however, admitted by all, that Archelaus exposed the Eoman general to great difficulties by the skilful manner in which he drew him on through a country exhausted of all supplies ; and that the Eoman legions were so much intimidated by the martial appearance and by the numbers of the enemy, that they could not for some time be prevailed on to take the field. SyUa, who felt the necessity of coming to a battle, and was impatient to finish the campaign, and who saw, with vexation, that Archelaus commanded the country, and sacked the neighbouring towns, whilst he was con- fined to his trenches, used every effort to bring on an engagement ; and his desire was but too well seconded by the rashness of the generals who commanded under Archelaus. Battle of The action commenced with an attempt, on the part of the Eomans, to seize an eminence which commanded the enemy's lines, and soon became general. It was fought vrith great obstinacy on both sides, and the Eoman army was, for a time, thrown into disorder, and compelled to give ground ; but Archelaus, having been 1 Appian, in loco. It has already beea observed, that little dependence can be placed on the accnraoy of these numbers. Plutarch asserts, that Taxiles had now joined Archelaus; but this contradicts the narrative of Appian. Chffironea. CHAP. XX. J MITHRIDATES. 411 deceived by the clouds of dust which arose, lost the opportunity of b.c. .S6. surroundiug the broken legions, and gave Sylla time to rally his men, and to make a desperate and effective charge. Axchelaus, who saw his men waver, hastily ordei-ed the entrance to his camp to be closed. [Clia3ronea.] and calling out to them that " they had no safety but in victory," rushed furiously among the enemy. The fight was, for a time, renewed ; but the steadiness of the Romans prevailed, and the royal army fled towards their trenches, where they were slain in great numbers. The general now opened the gates, and the broken remains of his army took refuge within their intrenchments. Mursna, meanwhile, who commanded on the left, was exposed to extreme danger by the distance to which Sylla pirrsued the main body of the enemy; and, had the right wing of the Asiatic army maintained its ground, he must have been cut off, and completely destroyed ; but, as has been before observed, the troops of the East depended almost entirely on the motions of their general in chief; and no sooner was the centre, under Archelaus, obhged to give way, than aU the rest, though actually at that moment victorious, fled in confusion. In this battle, so bravely, and, for some hours, so doubtfully contested, the Eoman writers have the hardihood to assert, that Sylla lost only twelve or fifteen men, whilst there fell of the barbarians a hundred and ten thousand.' If this statement, in any degree, resembled the truth, it would be worth while to inquire by what means Archelaus, with scarcely ten thousand men remaining, was enabled not only to embark in good order for Chalcis, in face of the victorious army of 1 Appian, in loco. Plutarch, in Sylla. Eutropius, v. situation of ilitliridates. 412 raTIlRIDATES. [chap. XX. B.C. 86. Sylla/ but, while he made his head-quarters in that city, to plunder all the islands near the coast, and to await, without any interruption from the Roman general, the arrival of a fresh army from Asia. Critical The intelligence of this disaster produced immediately, among the cities of Asia Minor, accustomed to change their masters and their political principles with every variation in the tide of success, the usual consequences of insubordination and revolution. Mithridates, anxious to lose no time in fitting out a fresh army against Sylla, found himself surrounded on every side with defections and conspir- acies : he steered through these difficult and embarrassing circum- stances with his customary ability, and, even by the admission of his adversaries, at least with a pohtic show of moderation and humanity. He first seized several teti-archs of Galatia,^ who had revolted on the news of the defeat of Archelaus, and having punished them as traitors, he appointed a satrap as governor-general ovej: a,U their tetrarchies; but this ofiicer had scarcely time to remit , the pubHc treasures to the king, before a general insurrection drove him from the country, which remained devoted to the Eoman interest. The Chians had laboured under a suspicion of disafiecticn ever since the naval action at Ehodes ; in which, as if accidentally, they had run foul of the flag-ship, which carried Mithridates himself It was only from the presence of mind and powerful exertions of the king that she was saved from destruction. They were, therefore, at the pre- sent juncture, to be watched with great caution ; and the king was strongly advised to make a severe example of them, since it was ascertained that several of the principal citizens had repaired to the camp of Sylla, in Greece, and that some Eoman officers had been seen at Chios.' But Mithridates, unwilling to act with precipitation, despatched Zenobius to take hostages for their fidelity, and to disarm all who were suspected of correspondence with the Eomans. This being efiected without opposition, and the hostages being sent to ErythrK,* Zenobius proceeded to call an assembly of the citizens, in which he read a letter from Mithridates, addressed to the Chians, complaining of their treachery, and informing them that the privy council had passed on them sentence of death, -whicli he was wilhng to commute for a fine of two thousand talents (about £387,500.) The fine being readily paid, the disaffected citizens were arrested, with their vrives and children, put on board, under a strong escort, and conducted to the king, who sent them to colonize a fertile district on the shores of the Euxine. Zenobius, in the meantime, returned to Ephesus, with orders to 1 Appian. 2 The Galatians, or Gallograci, were a mixed race, descended from the Gauls, who sacked Rome under Brennus; and who afterwards, passuig into Greece, and being there defeated by the Thracians, fled into Asia Minor, where they settled. Strabo, xii. ; Livy, xxxviii. 12, 40. 3 Now Scio. * A city of Ionia. Pau.sanias, x. 12. CHAP. XX.J SnTHEIDATES. 413 institnte a strict inqiirry into the conduct of its citizens, -who were b.c. 86. strongly suspected of fevouring the Eoman cause; but the Ephesians, Zenohinsput taking advantage of his urbanity, prevailed on him to enter the city EpiSS.^' wthout his guards, and instantly seizrng him, cast him into prison, and put him to death. The gates were, at the same time, closed against his followers, and the citizens were induced to declare for Sylla. This example was quickly followed by several of the neigh- bouring towns; but Mithridates, having punished some of the princi- pal agitators, put a stop, for the present, to the further progress of disaffection, by proclaiming independence to aU the Greek cities in Asia; at the same time ordaining a general remission of debts, {novas tabulas,) and the admission of metics (resident foreigners) and of freedmen ^ to the privileges of citizens. Order was scarcely restored among the dependencies, when a greater danger arose to the king from a conspiracy among his own officers, the leaders in which were Mini nn, Xeoptolemus, Chsthenes, and Asclepiodotus. The last of these, whether from the outset faithful to his master, or repenting of his treason, timely betrayed the plot to the king, and the traitors suffered the penalty due to their crime. Upon their trial circumstances appeared, which led to the detection of a very extensive confederacy ; and a strict inquiry being instituted,^ a great number of malecontents were executed. It deserves remark that Sylla afterwards seized all the persons within his reach who had given information against the conspirators, and put them to death in horrid tortures. These affairs being despatched, the king hastened the departure of Doryians Dorylaus to join the shattered remains of his forces in Greece ; and, ^"^^ according to the best authorities, the whole royal army, after the junction, amounted to about eighty thousand men, though others have stated it at more than double that number. Dorylaus ' assumed a very high tone in speaking of the late engagement, and declared that his only wish was to meet with Sylla as soon as possible ; but Archelaus, aware of the advantages which he possessed in the com- mand of the sea, exerted himself to moderate the ardour of his colleague; until Sylla, having moved his camp to the plain of Orchomenus in Bceotia, a situation remarkably favourable for the cavalry, in which the Asiatic army was very superior to the Komans,* the generals agreed to encamp on the opposite side of the plain, and to fortify their intrenchments as strongly as possible. Whilst the armies lay thus, in sight of each other, the Eoman soldiers were employed in cutting trenches across the plain, in order to interrupt ' Appian and Plutarch call these persons " slaves ;" but this must be understood as spoken invidiously of those who had been in slavery. 2 Appian says, " sixteen hundred ;" but this is wholly incredible. It is more likely that sixteen suffered death. 8 Plutarch, in Sylla. * Appian, in loco. Battle of Orehomenus. 414 MITHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 86. and break the charge of the Asiatic cavalry. Archelaus made repeated sallies from his camp with small bodies of horse, and cut to pieces the parties employed in this work ; and so great was the dread entertained by the Eomans of the royal horse-guards/ that they could not be brought up to cover their ovm labourers. At length Sylla, enraged at his frequent losses, seized a standard, and springing forward towards the enemy as they were cutting down the unarmed workmen, he called out to his soldiers in a voice hke thunder, "Go back, white-livered scoundrels, to Eome; and when you are asked, where you betrayed your general, reply, that you ran away, and left him among the enemy at Orehomenus." This artifice revived the spirit of honourable daring among the troops, and speedily brought on a general action. Both armies behaved with great gallantry, and suffered severely ; a body of archers in the royal army, being charged so home by two Eoman cohorts that they could not handle their bows, grasped their arrows in their hands, and using them like swords, forced the enemy to retire, leaving many of their number on the field.^ Diogenes, the king's son, who commanded on the right, displayed a strength, courage, and address worthy of his father ; and kept the whole left wing of the Eoman army in check, tin he fell covered with wounds : his fall proved the signal of retreat to the rest of the army, and they fled to their trenches with the loss, it is said, of twenty- five thousand men,' chiefly cavalry. It is probable that the loss of the Eomans was hkewise great ; for the number of killed and wounded is nowhere mentioned, and Sylla did not think it expedient to attempt to force the lines, but retired to refresh his men. The next day, apprehensive lest Archelaus should retire again to Chalcis, he began to draw a trench round the enemy's camp as if to prevent his escape ; the royal army immediately sallied to interrupt the work, and for several hours, as Appian acknowledges, "the noblest feats of valour were performed both by Eomans and by barbarians." The latter were at length driven in, after great mutual slaughter, and the Eomans, entering their lines at the same time, slew them in such multitudes, that the dikes and rivulets of the plain flowed with blood. Archelaus, firm and imdaunted in the midst of the confusion, provided for the safety of the survivors with a quickness and dexterity which won. the admiration even of Sylla ; and, embarking them in transports, retired to Chalcis. The Eoman general, seeing no further advantage to be gained tUl the arrival of a powerful fleet under Lucullus, having ravaged the whole of Bceotia, went into winter-quarters in Thessaly. FiaccQsgoes In the meanwhile, the faction at Eome, adverse to Sylla, sent Flaccus, who was consul with Cinna, into Asia>, at the head of two ^ This excessive terror could hardly have existed, unless the Eomans had suffered very severely from the Asiatic cavahy at Chseronea. 2 Plutarch, in Sylla. 3 Appian, in loco. CHAP. XX.] MITHEIDATES. 415 legions, and with a considerable fleet ; but the ships having been b.c. 86 driven ashore by a gale of wind, were burnt by some of the king's soldiers, and Flaccus, who was an indifferent oiEcer, and of a haughty and capricious temper, lost all control over his men, some of whom went over to Sylla in Thessaly, and the rest submitted to the orders of Fimbria, a private senator, who, without any commission from Eome, assumed the command, and barbarously murdered Flaccus. But, though a bad citizen. Fimbria was a good soldier, and having fallen in with the army under another son of Mithridates,' named B.C. 85. after his father, he pursued him from place to place, tiU he forced him into a defile, from which he with difficulty escaped by sea to Mitylene.^ These events disposed both parties to an accommodation. Mith- ridates, taught by experience to dread the Eoman arms, sent instruc- tions to Archelaus to treat for peace ; and Sylla, jealous of the intentions of Fimbria, who was committing atrocious ravages in Asia, and still more alarmed by news from Eome, was glad of an opportunity to escape from the Mithridatic war. An interview SyUa treats accordingly was concerted, at which Sylla^ proposed that Archelaus Archelaus. should place at his disposal, for the prosecution of the civil war which was impending, the army and navy under his command ; and that in return for this service he should be declared king of Pontus and aUy of Eome, in the room of his master, who was to be deposed and put to death. The brave Asiatic nobleman replied with becoming indignation, and bitterly reproached the Eoman with his double baseness ; but Sylla, hardened in guilt and treachery, only derided his scruples, and scoffed at the idea of fidelity to a barbarian and a king ; and Plutarch, who relates the story, appears to think that SyUa had the best of the argument. Archelaus, however, thought othervdse ; and the Eoman general Terms was obliged to propose terms less inconsistent with honour and P^Pfsed- loyalty.* These were, 1. That Mithridates should give up his fleet, consisting of seventy ships of the line, and all his prisoners. 2. That he should pay to Eome two thousand talents (£387,500) for the expenses of the war. 3. That he should confine himself to his hereditary dominions, ceding Asia Minor and Paphlagonia to the Eomans, Bithynia to Nicomedes, and Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes. 4. That he should be styled, as his father had been,^ the friend and ally of Eome.* Archelaus, unwilling to make such important concessions without 1 Appian and Orosius relate, that it was the king himself who fled from Fimbria. Plutarch also speaks of a skirmish at sea between Neoptolemus and LuouUus, in which the former was worsted. (Vita LucuUi.) Memnon, c. 36. 2 Appian, in loco. ^ Plutarch, in SyUa. 4 Appian says, that Archelaus fell afterwards under suspicion of " Eomanizing ;" but his account of the matter is neither probable nor consistent. See also Plutarch. « Polyb. Excerpt, cxxxv. ' Plutarch, m Sylla ; Appian, in loco. -116 MIXHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 85. consulting Mithridates, agreed to give up all the places which he held in Greece, and to conclude a truce till the pleasure of the king should be known. In the interval he scrupulously abstained from action of every kind ; while Sylla employed himself in plunder and exaction both in Greece and in Asia. At length the couriers who had been despatched to the king returned with his answer, agreeing to all the conditions proposed, except the cession of Paphlagonia ; and stating that he could have made much better terms with Fimbria, if he could have condescended to treat with so ambiguous a character. Sylla, upon this hint, took the alarm, and desired to have an interview with the king ; which accordingly took place on a plain between Pergamus and Cypselli, each party being accom- panied by a few faithful followers.' After some altercation, during which Sylla is said to have behaved with great heat and insolence, A Treaty Mithridates consented to all the conditions without reserve, and cunciudea. j-gt^pngij j^ peace to his narrowed dominions. The Koman general, on his return home, was allowed a magnificent triumph.^ It is judiciously observed by Florus,' that though Sylla formally concluded a peace with the king of Pontus, yet he left Asia under the influence of a conflagration, smothered, but not extinguished, and certain to break out afresh with increased violence. The renewal of hostilities is, by all the Eoman historians, unblushingly imputed to the perfidy of Mithridates;* although it appears, from their own admissions, that he took up arms in self-defence, after remonstrance and negotiation had failed to repel the unprovoked and unauthorized aggressions of Mursena. Renewal of A rebellion having broken out among the natives of Colchis* and ilom™^'"^ of the shores of the Bosphorus, Mithridates went in person to reduce them to order ; and finding that their discontents arose, not from disafiectioa to his family, but from a national pride which disdained dependence on the king of another country, he made his own son, Mithridates, king of Colchis, to the entire satisfaction of all parties. This young prince, however, forgetting the duty which he owed to his sovereign and his father, very soon began to aim at absolute independence ; and the king was obliged to recall him, and to keep him under his own eye.* The Colchians showing a disposition to resent this interference, a powerful standing army became necessary to preserve those wild districts in subordination ; and Mursena, affecting to consider this force as levied with a view to infringe the 1 Appian, in loco. Plutarch says, that they met at Dardanus, and that Mithri- dates was followed by a splendid train and a great army, and Sylla by four cohorts and two hundred horse. 2 Eutropius, V. syhfinem. 3 piorus, iii. v. * Vide Appian, Flonis, Orosius, Velleius Paterculus, &c., in loco. "■ Hodie MingreMa. 8 Appian relates, that the king chained his son with golden chains, and afterwards put him to death ; but it appears that he was alive many years afterwards. CHAP. XX.] mXHRIDATES. 417 terms of the treaty -with Eome, without any orders from the consuls B.C. 85. or the senate, and prompted by the insatiable and shameless avarice which was now the prevailing vice of the Koman character," entered the territories of the king, and marching to Cumse, a large trading seaport,^ not only plundered it of an immense quantity of merchan- dise, but, having slaughtered the horse-guards who opposed his sacrilegious attempt, carried off the treasures deposited in the temple, which was one of the richest in Asia. Mithridates, tmwiUing to involve himself in a war, despatched ministers to Sylla and to the senate, complaining of the violence of Muraena ; who, in the spring, renewed his ravages, and crossing the Halys, laid waste forty villages in the king's dominions, where no opposition was offered him, and returned loaded with booty into Galatia. The senate, however, were not disposed to interfere with effect, oordins scm and contented themselves with sending a message to the king, that ^^'^^ they regretted what had occurred, whilst they took no steps to b.c. 84. restrain Muraena from continuing his depredations. Mithridates, therefore, had no alternative but to defend himself agamst this free- booter by force ; and, hoping that the senate would not consider his defensive operations as any breach of the treaty with Sylla, he despatched Gordius, -nath such forces as could immediately be spared, to protect the frontier, whilst he himself prepared to follow with fresh levies. The two generals met at the river Halys, and encamped on each side of the stream ; and Gordius, observing that Mursna was occupied in fortifying his position, remained quiet till the king should come up to reinforce him. After the junction of the royal troops, ^Mithridates was still very inferior in numbers to the Eomans,' whose line was formed in the most advantageous manner, having one flank defended by a broad and rapid river, and the other by a fortified emiaence. But the king, perceiving that he could only hope for success from a coup de main, unexpec- tedly crossed the swollen stream with a chosen body of men, and took Mursena in flank, while the main body of his army, under Gordius, fording at a shallow place above, advanced to charge in front. The Eomans made a brave defence ; but being thrown into confiasion by the sudden attack of the royal guards, and by the extraordinary personal prowess of the kmg, which seemed to inspire his whole army, they were beaten from their entrenchments, and fled, with great loss, to the mountains, where many more perished amidst the trackless woods from cold and hunger. Mursena himself escaped, with difficulty, into Phrygia, and all his garrisons in Cap- padocia feU into the hands of Mithridates; who, thankful for so complete and glorious a victory, offered a sacrifice to the gods on such a scale, that it was impossible for some days to approach the I See Velleius Patercnlns, ii. SS. 2 Strabf, xiii. ' Appian, Re^. ?Tith. [K. H.l 2 B of hostilities. 418 MITHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 84. Tpjre. The flame was seen by night at the distance of above a hundred miles.' Suspension In the meanwhile Sylla, who was envious of the plunder collected by Mursena, wrote to him to abstain irom further hostilities, and sent Gabinius into Pontus to pacify the king. Mithridates received him with the most splendid and generous hospitality, accepted his apology, and readily laid down his arms, on a promise that Mureena should do the same. He had now leisure to turn his attention to the Colchians, who continued to demand a king of their own, though they were perfectly willing to be governed by a son of Mithridates. He accordingly sent his younger son, Machares, to take possession of the throne; and at the same time gave one of his children, a boy of four years old, as an hostage to Ariobarzanes, for the faithful performance of all the stipulations in the treaty : but that prince, dissatisfied with what had been done for him, sent legates to Kome to poison the ears of the senate with groundless jealousies and unfounded complaints against the king of Pontus. Mithridates, on his return from an expedition into the north, in which his army had sustained a severe loss from the effects of the climate, endeavoured to counteract the mischievous designs of his neighbour, by sending Gordius to Eome, to assure the senate that he had no intentions contrary to his promises, or their will. But the ambassador easily discovered that, under fair professions, the senate entertained a determination to crush the power of his master ; and on his return he completely satisfied the king that no depen- dence could be placed upon the friendship or the justice of Eome. He resolved, therefore, at all hazards, to prepare for the worst, and to strengthen himself against the impending danger ; and for this purpose he sent privately to his son-in-law, Tigranes, (who had recently assumed the diadem, and had named the metropohs of Armenia Tigranocerta, after himself,^) desiring that he would pre- pare for the invasion of Cappadooia. That prince accordingly col- lected an immense ^ army from every part of his dominions. At the same time he made overtures to Sertorius, now openly at war with the government, who undertook to assist him in the recovery of Asia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia,* and to con- firm him in the sovereignty of all these kingdoms. The remainder of the summer, and the whole vrinter, were consumed in buUdbg ships, and in providing magazines of arms, stores, and provisions. Mercenary troops, to the amount of a hundred and forty thousand infantry,** were engaged, not only in every part of Asia, but among several European nations. 1 Appian (Reb. Mith.) says a thousand stadia, viz., 125 miles at sea. 3 He was at this time also king of Syria. Appian, in Syriacis ; Justin, si. 1, 2. 2 Appian (Reb. Mith.) says three hundred thousand men. * Ibid. eod. " Ibid. Plutarch says a hundred and twenty thousand. (Vita Luculli.) CHAP. XX.] MITHEIDATES. 419 Early in the ensuing spring, the king marched into Bithynia. b.c. 84. Nicomedes was now dead : and his kingdom being declared a Mitimdates _^ . T 1 .-, 1 11' conquers Koman provmce, was governed by Cotta the prsetor ; who, bemg Bithynia. unable to resist the forces led against him, fled to Chalcis, without striking a blow. JSTudus, the admiral, attempting to make some resistance, was defeated, with the loss of three thousand men, while scarce twenty of the royal army were slain.' The whole kingdom immediately submitted to Mithridates ; Paphlagonia soon afterwards followed this example; and the whole province of Asia, wearied and exhausted by the exactions of the Roman usurers and pubhcans, revolted once more, and declared for the king.^ Lucullus, who had been severely censured in the former war for LuniUus refusing to co-operate with Fimbria," and thereby permitting the Suc?ttie° army of Mithridates to escape, when it might have been entirely ^'""'- destroyed, desirous of recovering his reputation, procured himself ^•*^' '''' to be appointed to the conduct of the war, and arrived in Asia, vsdth a powaful fleet and army, whilst Cotta was preparing to attack the king. This general, mortified at being superseded, and anxious to anticipate Lucullus in the glory of defeating the enemy, hastened his operations unadvisedly, and was defeated by Mithridates, with the loss of foxrr thousand Romans slain, and of nearly the whole of his fleet captured. The survivors escaped into ChaJcedon, where they were closely besieged by the enemy, and, but for the timely arrival of Lucullus, must have fallen into their hands. Mithridates immediately marched, with his whole army, to besiege siege of Cyzicus, a city on the Propontis, which formed the principal con- *'™"'^ nection* between Bithynia and the province of Asia, and the possession of which was consequently of the highest importance. It would be useless, and iudeed impracticable, to enter into any calcu- lation of the actual numbers of his army, or of the troops opposed to him under LucuUus ; for Appian and Plutarch not only contradict each other, but, ia their eagerness to amphfy the honour of their hero, perpetually convict themselves of exaggeration ; and there is no other existing history upon which we can rely for information. The probabUity seems to be, that both armies were numerous and well appointed ; and that there was no great disparity in any respect. The siege of Cyzicus was regularly formed, and the harbour was blockaded, when Lucullus arrived ; and so completely was the sui- rounding country occupied by the enemy, that the Roman general could find no means of conveying the intelligence of his arrival to the citizens, who, alarmed by the numbers of the besiegers, and by the effect of their artillery, after a few ineffectual efforts to dislodge the engines from the batteries and to bui-n the fleet, were ready to 1 Appian, in loco. 2 Appian. Plutaroli, in LuouUo. Epitome, Livii, lib. xciii. 3 Hutarch, in LuouUo. • Orosius, vi. 2. * Strabo, xii. ; Floras, in. 5. 420 MITHEIDATES. [chap. XX. B.C. 75. Mitliiidates raises tlie siem'. Disasters of Slitliridatea surrender their town. At length a person was found who undertook to swim upon bladders^ by night into the harbour, with letters to Pisistratus, the governor, and the Cy2dcenes were induced to hold out, in the hope of being shortly relieved. In the mean time, the arms of the king were everywhere crowned with success : Manius, or Marius,^ who had been sent to his succour by Sertorius, gained an advantage in a rencontre with Lucullus ; and Eumachus, his lieutenant in Phrygia, defeated the Romans with great slaughter, and drove them out of the country, while he daily extended on every side, the alliances and resources of his master. But Lucullus, aware of the difficulty which must arise to Mithri- dates in providing for so vast an army in a narrow territory, studiously protracted the operations of the campaign, till scarcity and its constant attendant pestilence began to be felt in the royal camp. The surrounding marshes also, exhaling unwholesome vapours, spread disease among the soldiers, and the necessity of changing quarters became every day more apparent. The king, disappointed by the obstinate resistance of the town, resolved to make one bold effort to storm the place before he would quit it ; but the garrison, having notice of his design, contrived to set fire to the principal battery upon Mount Dindymus, which commanded the fortifications ; and he was obliged to draw off his forces by night. This, however, was not effected without considerable loss : the Romans hung upon his rear, and severely galled his troops, already disheartened and exhausted, so that great numbers were slain, many were made prisoners, and most of the baggage and materiel was taken. The king, embarking for Parium, another town on the Propontis, sent his army overland to Lampsacus, whence he soon afterwards removed it, together with the inhabitants of the city, by sea, whilst he manned his fleet, under the command of Alexander and Dionysius, with twenty thousand picked men sent him by Sertorius.^ But fortune had once more changed sides, and nothing but disasters ensued. News arrived that Deiotarus, king, or rather tetrarch of Galatia, had attacked and defeated the several detach- ments of the royal army posted in his dominions :^ the fleet, which had sailed for Lemnos, was pursued thither by Lucullus, and, in two naval actions, was completely broken ; the two admirals and Manius were taken prisoners in a cave on the shore ; Dionysius swallowed poison, Manius was put to death as a traitor, and Alexander was reserved to grace the triumph of the Eoman general.' The king himself, in attempting to take advantage of the absence of Lucullus ' Orosius, loc. cit. 2 ^l Varius. 3 Appian, loc. cit. Prideaux, we know not on what authority, says ten thousand. Part ii, lib. vii. * Orosius, vii. 2. « Appian, in loco. Eutropius, vi. CHAP. XX.] MITHRIDATES. 421 to withdraw his fleet and army into Pontus, was overtaken by a b.c. 75. violent storm, in which most of his ships were lost or damaged. The flag-ship/ a vessel of unusual burden, became immanageable, and, not answering her helm, was in great danger of foundering at sea ; and ilithridates was obliged to haD. a privateer, which was fortunately in sight, and to intrust his person to the fidehty of a pirate, by whose assistance, after undergoing almost incredible dangers and hardships, he was landed at Heraclea, and thence made his way to Amisus, and subsequently to Sinope.^ But the spirit of Mithridates seemed even greater in adversity His activity than in the midst of success.' He scarcely gave himself a moment to exertions recover from his fatigues, before he commenced the reparation of his B.C. 72. losses. He sent immediately to Tigranes and to Machares, to levy all the troops they could command, and to march to his assistance ; at the same time he despatched ambassadors to the Parthians and to the Scythians, requiring reinforcements. Diodes, who was charged with a large sum of money, as a subsidy to the former nation, and with some hostages whom the king now thought it expedient to restore to them, converted the gold to his own use ; and, deserting to LucuUus, put the hostages into his hands. The levies meanwhile proceeded, and troops were continually arriving at head-quarters, so that in a short time the king once again had a formidable army * under his command, and was in a condition to offer battle to the Eoman general. Lucullus, however, was anxious to protract the war ; and though his encomiast, Plutarch, endeavours to make out a case in his favour, and represents him as defending his conduct in a council of war, with considerable ingenuity, we may gather, from several hints dropped by Appian ° and other writers, that he was not exempt from the reigning vice of his country, and was in this instance sacrificing the real interests of Eome to his own love of plunder. Accordingly, he marched his army into the richest districts, and besieged the most opulent towns ; nor woidd he suffer any of the cities to be taken by storm, lest the plunder should be destroyed or secreted by the soldiers. During this period, Amisus and Eupatoria (which latter place Mithridates had recently built, and had named after himself, intend- ing to transfer thither the seat of empire,) were rather watched than regularly beleaguered by the main body of the army under Lucullus; and Themiscyra, an important town on the river 1 Ibid. eod. Plutarch, in Lucnllo. Orosius makes the number of ships lost, eighty : Appian, sixty. 2 Orosius, loo. cit. » Floras, iii. 5 ; Appian, passun. * It is idle to inquire respecting numbers among conflictmg authorities ; each so continually contradicts the others and itself, that one makes the king lose three times as many men in a retreat as he is stated to have led into the field. Appian ; Plutarch, in Lucnllo, &c " De Pveb. Mith. Vide Memnon, cap. 45, 46, 47. 422 MITHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 72. Thermodon, was surrounded by a detachment commanded by Mursena, who pushed his operations with more vigour, though the workmen employed in throwing up the trenches were continually annoyed by wild beasts, let loose among them from the town, as well as by hives of bees flung over from the walls.' Battles Early in the spring, LucuUus, alarmed at the growing discontents LucuUus and of ^^^ Soldiers, advanced to meet Mithridates, who lay encamped Mithridates. behind the mountains. An attempt, on the part of the Eomans, to B.C. 71. g^jjj possession of the heights which command the passes through these wooded steeps, occasioned an action, in which LucuUus was defeated with great loss, and Pomponius, his master of the horse, was wounded and taken prisoner, while his troops fled with precipitation. This brave officer, being brought before the king, was asked " upon what terms he would serve Mithridates?" — "On condition that he serves Eome," replied the undaunted patriot. Some of the courtiers were disposed to resent this boldness ; but the king nobly observed, " Integrity is rendered more respectable by adversity," and instantly ordered him to be set at liberty. LucuUus, upon this defeat, retired beyond the mountains ; but, being distressed for want of provisions, he sent a strong escort, by a circuitous route, to convoy supplies from Cappadooia. The party, on its return, was descried by the king, who sent a troop to intercept it ; but the Eomans, making a more vigorous defence than was expected, repelled the assailants, and put them to flight. Mithridates immediately rushed from the eminence on which he was posted, and with loud shouts compelled his men to rally, and renew the charge ; and such, it is said, was the terror inspired by his tremendous voice, and the fierceness of his onset, that the Eomans fled in aU directions, and the whole convoy remained in the hands of the victors. The Eoman camp was now severely pressed by scarcity, as well as disheartened by defeat, and the men murmured loudly against their general, for having given the barba- rians time to collect and organize a force which could no longer be opposed ; while Mithridates, on the other hand, began to conceive hopes, by cutting off the suppUes of the enemy, to oblige him to retreat, without hazarding a battle ; a measure which would inevitably have led to the destruction of his army, amid the wilds of the country into which he had advanced.^ Total Rout of But in this expectation he was deceived by an unfortunate a™^?'"'^ accident. A troop of horse, which had been detatched to intercept some provisions going to the Eoman camp, was, through mismanage- ment, engaged in a narrow defile, in which it had not room to act, and was completely routed ; in consequence of this disaster, the right ' Appian, in loco. 2 No notice is necessary of an atsurd story related in this place ty Appian and Plutarch, (one of whom has manifestly borrowed it from the other,) respecting an attempt made by Mithridates to assassinate LuooUus. ClIAP. XX.J MITHKIDATES. 423 wing of the royal army became exposed to an attack in flank, and b.c. 71. the king was obliged to order a hasty retreat. The army, imagining that the Eomans were upon them, fled in the greatest confiision, without their baggage, and without waiting for orders of any kind ; so that the king, with a few of his principal oflicers, vainly attempt- ing to rally them, was left behind on foot, and Dorylaus was killed by the crowd, which he could neither stop nor reduce to order. LucuUus, astonished to see the enemy in fiiU retreat, when no one thought even of a serious skirmish, hastily pursued ; and the king would have been taken prisoner, had he not, with admirable presence of mind, driven back amongst the foremost of his pursuers a mrde, laden with gold and silver, and scattered aU the money and jewels he had about him on the road. Wliile the soldiers were gathering up these treasures, and fighting with each other for the greatest share, he had time to recover his horse, and to escape beyond their reach.' But the defeat, comparatively bloodless, was nevertheless com- pletely ruinous to the affairs of the king ; who now saw no resource but to collect his cavalry and Kght troops, and to retire, with all possible speed, into the dominions of his son-in-law Tigranes. Pre- viously to his departure, he sent Bacchides,^ the chief of his eunuchs, to inform the unfortunate ladies of his family of what had happened, and to recommend that they should rather die than fall into the hands of the enemy. One is said to have repined at this recom- Nobie mendation ; but the rest, thanking the eunuch for his courtesy, and ofTile''™ the king for his kind care of their honour, died by their own hands : Princesses. Hipsicratea alone mounted her horse, and by means of most wonder- ful exertions overtook the king, and accompanied him in his flight. Lucullus now took Cabira, in which he found abundance of trea- Successes sure, and advancing through Paphlagonia into Pontus, he received "f Lucuiius. the submission of the whole kingdom, except Amisus, which stiU held out for the Mng, under the command of the faithful and expe- rienced general, CaUimachus ; till, after a siege of nearly two years, the town was surprised by a stratagem while the garrison were at dinner. CalHmachus, in order to make good his retreat by sea, set fire to the houses, and embarking in haste escaped with all his men. The Eoman general, mortified to have occasioned the destruction of so fine a city, ordered his soldiers to extinguish the flames ; but they, in their eagerness to fly upon the spoil, paid no regard to the word of command ; and although he tried, by threats, promises, and even bribes, to gain their attention, they were so occupied in secur- ing their plunder, that Amisus was reduced to a heap of ashes.' ' In this place, Appian, after saying tliat the king lost nearly all his cavalry, makes him retreat into Armenia with the same number of horse which he had when he first took the field. 2 Al. Bacchus. 3 This city, and Sinope, which shared a similar fate, were afterwards rebuilt and restored by Lucullus. Vid. Appian, Mith. B.C. 71. Baseness of -Machares, Lucullus marches into Armenia- B.C. 70. 424 MITHKIDATES. [CHAP. XX. Lucullus being tbus undisputed master of aU the dominions of Mithridates, Machares, who had been made king of the Bosphorians by his indulgent father, provided for his o-vvn safety, by purchasing a separate peaoe,^ and was declared, as his grandfather had been, the friend and ally of Eome.^ The Roman general, unable imme- diately to prosecute a war with Tigranes, at that time the most powerful monarch in Asia, sent an ambassador ^ to demand that he should deliver up the king of Pontus, on pain of being deemed an enemy to the Roman state. Tigranes, who was engaged at the siege of Ptolemais,* in Palestine, on receiving this message, hastened to conclude a treaty with Queen Alexandra, on terms more favour- able than she had any reason to hope, in order that he might be at liberty to return to the defence of his own dominions; and he replied to the proposal of LucuUus with becoming indignation. His conduct on this, as on other occasions, sufficiently confutes the story related by Plutarch,^ and retailed by the learned Prideaux,^ that Mithridates met with a very cold reception in Armenia, and, through the insolent pride of his son-in-law, was not admitted to the presence for several months. The Roman general, meanwhile, having settled, to his satisfaction, the embarrassed affairs of the province of Asia Minor, and having also amassed vast wealth, collected all the troops he could muster in the East, and moved towards Armenia, leaving Sornatius with a strong division to keep Pontus quiet, and to watch Machares,' whose treachery to his father and benefactor precluded all rehance on his fidehty to his new engagements. Lucullus, advancing to the Euphrates, passed it in the midst of the rainy season, and plunder- ing all the country between that river and the Tigris, crossed the latter stream without opposition, nearly opposite to the royal city Tigranocerta.' Tigranes, informed, at length, of the arrival of the enemy so near his metropolis, despatched Metrobarzanes to observe his motions, and to prevent his laying waste the country ; but this brave and faithful statesman was an unskilftd general ; and Lucullus soon found an opportunity to surprise and cut him off, with the greater part of his army. The king was so much alarmed by his miscarriage, that he hastily quitted the capital, and took refuge in the strong-holds of Mount Taurus, leaving Mazeus to defend the palace and the city. The former, however, could not be maintained against the artillery of the Romans, directed by SextUius, and Mazeus was obhged to abandon it to be plundered, after having ' Appian, in loco. 2 Plutarch, in LueuUo. 3 Appins Clodius. * Josephus, xii. 24. * In LucuUo. * Part ii. book vi. ' Appian, ibid. 8 Tigranooerta was built on the east side of the Tigris, about two days' journey above the site of ancient Nineveh ; it was prodigiously strong, and erected with all that attention to splendid luxury which characterised the despots of the east. CHAP. XX.J MITHRIDATES. 425 conveyed the princesses and the ladies of the court into the citadel, b.c. in which he was closely besieged. LuouUus did not think fit to march in purstiit of the two Hngs, with so considerable a force in 70. _=r.^£. CFSflRRENT ' [Amasia — the Birth-place of Mitbridates.] his rear ; ' and he therefore awaited the reduction of Tigranocerta. In the mean time, the king felt great uneasiness respecting the Extraordi- situation of the princesses ; and he sent a chosen body of only six gSntry of thousand of his guards, who advanced fearlessly to the gates of the a^smau ^"'^v city, took the ladies imder their protection, fought their way back Armenians. through the whole Eoman army without material loss, and rejoined the royal camp in triumph. The siege continued to be closely pressed, it being the object of Luoullus to draw Tigranes to attack him on the plain, to which his anxiety for the safety of the city, and his natural impatience strongly inchned him. For a time he was restrained by the prudent advice of Mithridates, (who was now again recruiting in Pontus, and who entreated him, in every letter which he wrote, on no account to hazard a battle,) as well as by the representations of TaxUes, lately arrived at head-quarters with some reinforcements; but as his strength was daily augmented by the arrival of iresh troops to his assistance, and his anger was provoked by the harassing attacks of MurEena, who hung on his rear, and out 1 Dion Cassius, lib. xxxv. 426 MITHRIDATES. [chap. XX. B.C. 70. off his convoys, he resolved to raise his standard, and march at once to the rehef of Mazeus and the garrison. According to the despatch sent to the senate by LucuUus, the king of Armenia brought into the field a hundred and fifty thousand infantry, seventeen thousand heavy cavalry, thirty-eight thousand hght horse, and twenty thousand archers and slingers, besides an uncounted multitude of pioneers, artillerymen, and laboiu-ers. The Eoman general, not intimidated by the sight of so vast an army, left six thousand men, under Mursena, to maintain the blockade of the city, and advanced to meet the enemy with about ten thousand heavy-armed troops, and a thousand light infantry. Observing that Tigranes came on without precaution, he detached a troop of horse, by a circuitous route, to occupy an emienenoe ' in the rear of the royal army; and when, after a furious charge, the Romans gave way, and fled before the enemy's heavy horse, upon a concerted signal, the Eoman cavalry rushed from their post, and, attacking the victorious troops in the rear, occasioned so sudden a panic,^ that nothing was thought of but hasty flight; and LucuUus pursued them till nightfall with prodigious slaughter.^ Tigranes himself escaped with difficulty, and his royal diadem, with a great quantity of rich plunder, fell into the hands of the conquerors. The Grecian mercenaries in the city, perceiving what had happened, mutinied ; and, notwithstanding the exertions of Mazeus to disarm them, they overcame the native garrison, and opened the gates to the Romans.* The treasures found in Tigranocerta exceeded all the former spoils won by Lucullus, and in coined specie alone he is said to have taken eight thousand talents, nearly two miUions sterling.' The soldiers revelling in every kind of luxury, became corrupted and enervated ; and disciphne was so little regarded, that they openly censuired the measures of the general, and refused to obey such orders as did not meet their approbation. A few days only after this brUhant and decisive victory, Mithridates joined his son-in-law with the forces which he had been able to collect in his own dominions, where his levies had been greatly facilitated by the insubordination prevailing among the troops under Somatius, who were even more refractory than the main army. Tigranes, now fully convinced of the soundness of the advice which he had before disregarded, committed the whole conduct of the war to Mithridates, and made him commander-in-chief of the forces. The king of Pontus immediately prepared to recruit the army by reinforcements drawn from every quarter in which the court of Armenia retained any influence; but his principal anxiety was to engage in his cause Defeat of Tigranes, and capture of Tigrano- certa. Mithridates joins the Army. 1 Appian, loc. cit. 2 Plutarch, in Lucullo. 3 Memnon, 58, 59. Epitome Livii, 98. * Plutarch, in Lucullo. » Dion, XXXV. Appian, in loco. CHAP. XX. J MITHEIDATES. 427 Arsaces, king of PartHa,' who had formerly been defeated and b.c. 70. rendered tributaxy by Tigranes. That wily monarch, whilst he flattered the Armenians with fair promises, made overtiires at the same time to Luculhis, intending to aiford assistance to neither, but to profit by their mutual hostility.- The Roman general, however, saw through his duplicity ; and Jiutiny in aware that the neutrahty of Arsaces might eventually prove more a™^?"""" dangerous than his enmity, resolved to suspend, for the present, his operations against Mithridates, and to March into Parthia. With this design he sent orders to Sornatius to evacuate Pontus, and to join him with all the forces under his command ; but the soldiers there, insisting that the chastisement of the Parthian king was only a pretext for protracting the war, mutinied, and openly declared that they would return to Eome ; and the same disorder extending itself to head-quarters also, the general was compelled to forego his Parthian expedition. The delay occasioned by these events enabled Mithridates to Exertions collect an army of seventy thousand chosen men, whom he daily p^dence of exercised in the Eoman manner of fighting, and trained to the most Mithridates. exact discipline ; so that, by the middle of the summer, he was ^■^' ""• enabled to harass LucuUus with frequent skirmishes, and to cut off his foraging parties, whilst he carefully avoided a general action. The Roman commander, finding that he could not force him to a battle, made a demonstration upon Artaxata, where the princesses and the ladies of the court resided ; and the impatience of Tigranes once more prompted him to disregard the prudent suggestions of his father-in-law, and to march out with his whole army to their relief; but when he came up with the enemy near the river Arsamia, his cavalry fell short of his expectations, and the Romans obtained a decisive advantage. The three Asiatic sovereigns, Tigranes, Mithridates, and Darius, king of Media,' fled from the field;* and, if Plutarch may be believed, Mithridates himself evinced symptoms of cowardice little consistent with his accustomed fierce- ness and dauntless intrepidity. LucuUus, encouraged by this suc- cess, advanced in pursuit of the fugitives, who led him into the wild and bleak districts on the north of Armenia, in which, as the autumn advanced, his men suffered severely from the climate, as weU as from the hostility of the natives ; * till at length they unanimously refused to advance farther.^ Upon this he turned back, and, marching southward, passed Mount TaiUTis, and entered into Mesopotamia, where he sat down before Nisibis, one of the strongest fortifications in Asia, at that time well-garrisoned, and commanded by a brother 1 Sallust, Fragmenta, lib. W. ^ Dion, xxxv. 5 But Dion mentions Mithridates, prince of Media, lib. xxxv. * Mdeaux, ii. 6. * Dion, xxxv. 3 ; Appian, Mith. * Plutarch, in Lueullo ; Orosius, vi. 3. 428 MITHRIDATES. [chap. XX. Successes of ilitlmdates. n c. 68. ofTigranes.' The city held out against all the efforts of the Eomans for several months, but was at last taken by assault, during the darkness of a winter night, and rewarded the captors not only with abundance of prize-money, but with the comfort of excellent winter- quarters. Whilst LucuUus was thus occupied, Tigranes not only recovered the greater part of his hereditary dominions, but ventured also to make incursions into Cappadocia ; and Mithridates, having obtained from him four thousand of his own best soldiers, fell upon the Roman garrisons wherever he could find them, and put them to the sword almost without resistance. So great was the terror inspired by the rapidity of his movements and the suddenness of his attacks, that he laid waste a considerable portion of the Greater Armenia,^ and recovered most of the strong places which had been taken by the Eomans. But being at length wounded in the knee by a stone from a shng, and by an arrow under the eye,^ he was obliged to abstain from active exertion ; and he took the opportunity which offered of returning into his own country, where his subjects received him with the most enthusiastic joy.* His wounds soon healed under the skilful treatment of an Agrarian surgeon ; and he again eagerly took the field against the Roman generals commanding in Pontus. He had before defeated Fabius with considerable loss ; and he now so distressed Sornatius and Triarius, that they sent to LucuUus, earnestly entreating him to come to their assistance. The spring was now approaching, and the refractory army in Nisibis being with great difficulty prevailed on to quit their quarters, were so dilatory in their movements, that they arrived too late to be of any service to their comrades : for Mithridates, having driven Triarius into a defile, attacked him at advantage, and would have cut off his whole corps in a marsh, had not a Roman soldier, assuming the dress of a native who had fallen, approached the king, and whilst he pretended to give him some private information, stabbed him in the groin.^ The wound so unexpectedly inflicted, occasioned him to faint, and the army, alarmed for the safety of their king, suffered the enemy to escape. When Mithridates came to himself, he expressed his displeasure in strong terms against his officers;" and, notwithstanding his wound and his age, he prepared to renew the combat at daybreak the next morning. The contest was long and obstinate; but the courage and military skill of Mithridates prevailed, and Triarius was completely defeated, with the loss of seven thousand men slain on the field of battle, of whom a hundred and fifty were centurions, and twenty-four military tribunes.' This was the most fatal overthrow which the forces of the republic had Deteat of Triarius. B.C. 67. 1 Dion, loo oit. 3 Appian, in loco. 8 Dion Cassius, loc. cit. ^ Hodie Turcomania. * Dion, XXXV. « Appian, loc. cit. ' Appian, in loco. CHAP. XX.] inTHRIDATES. 42 it sustained for many years; and it succeeded, for the present, in B.C. 67. putting an end to the war, and in securing Mithridates in the trimnphant possession of his kingdom : for, when Lucullus arrived soon afterwards, and neglected to bury the slain,^ he lost even the shadow of authority over his army, which became so entirely dis- organized, that nothing more was attempted during that year.^ In the meanwhile, the alhes of the king were employed in Mithiidatra' expelling the Eoman garrisons from their several kingdoms ; and u^e Rom^ ilithridates the Mede,' son-in-law to Tigranes, having fallen in with Garrisons. a large detachment marching towards Pontus, routed it with great slaughter. The whole of Asia was now rapidly returning to the state in which Lucullus found it ; and the effect of his long cam- paigns appeared only in his enormous wealth, the splendid library * which he had collected, and in the improvements which Alithridates had introduced into his own tactics and the discipline of his troops from frequent observation of the Roman mihtary system. The affectionate loyalty with which this great prince was regarded throughout his dominions, enabled him to repair with imusual despatch the losses which he had sustained; and when Pompey arrived in Galatia, to supersede Lucullus in the command, the kingdom was not only completely reduced to order, but the treasury was replenished, and the king had taken the field at the head of an army, if not so numerous,' yet better calculated to meet the Eoman legions than any which he had before opposed to them. Phraates, having succeeded ^irsaces in the kingdom of Parthia, renewed his ancient friendship with Mithridates and offered to contract an aUiance offensive and defensive with him. But no Arrival of sooner did he learn that Pompey had taken the command of the ^^^ " Eoman army, than his courage failed him; and he sent privately B.C. 66. to assure the general that he would in all things obey the will of the senate. ^Mithridates, not aware of his perfidy, felt himself in a condition to refuse the humiliating terms proposed to him by Pompey; but soon afterwards, having received inteUigence of all that had passed, he despatched ambassadors to the camp, and desired to treat for peace. The conditions, however, insisted upon were such as he could not admit either with honour or safety ; for he was required, as a preliminary step, to disband his forces, and to dehver up all those persons iu his camp who had ever sided with Rome, whom Pompey designated by the term " deserters," sufficiently implying the fate which wovdd await them in his hands.* 1 Plutarch, in Pompeio. ^ Dion, loc. cit. ' See Dion Cassius, lib. xxxv. * Isidor. Orig. vi. 3. « Appian (IJith.) says, thirty-three thousand men. Plutarch (in Pompeio) says, that he lost ten thousand in the battle which followed; when, according to all the authorities, he was left nearly destitute of troops. This is only one among a thou- sand examples of the inaccuracy and inconsistency of these historians. Florus, iii. 5. ' Dion Gassins, lib. xxxvi. B.C. 66. Renewal of the Mithridatic War. iSO MITHEIDATES. [CHAP. XX. Negotiation having thus faUed, the king intrenched himself in a commanding situation, where it was not practicable to attack him, and endeavoured to draw out the time in harassing skirmishes with the foraging parties. By these Pompey was so much distressed,^ that he was obliged to withdraw his troops out of Pontus and Cappadocia into the Lesser Armenia for the convenience of suppHes. Mithridates, in great hope of driving him into the provinces by pursuing the same mode of warfare, followed the camp at a distance, till he found an eminence on which he could securely establish his head-quarters, and whence he might advantageously annoy the enemy. He was unable long to maintain this post from the scarcity of water, and he retired to a greater distance; upon which the Roman general immediately occupied the deserted encampment, and, avaihng himself of the superior science of his country, sunk weUs within his trenches, and procured an abundant supply.^ But the royal troops stUl continued to infest the outposts, and provisions were obtained with difficulty ; till at length Pompey, weary of such continual provocations and ashamed of his inaction, resolved to venture upon a general engagement. With this view he advanced towards the king's camp, who remained quietly behind his trenches, and suffered the Eomans to besiege him above six weeks without attempting a sally ; and when at last his provisions were exhausted, he succeeded in withdrawing through the enemy's lines by night without loss or interruption,^ and pitched his camp on the western bank of the Euphrates. When Pompey discovered that the army had escaped, he hastily followed, and encamped in front of their lines ; and being now severely pressed by famine, and afraid of being drawn on further into an exhausted country, if Mithridates should cross the river, he made an attempt to surprise him by night* In this he was prevented by the vigilance of the sentinels, who gave timely notice that the Eomans were in motion ; and the king, with his usual rapidity, had armed himself, and drawn up his men in order of battle, when the vanguard of the enemy approached the intrenchments. It was now too late to retreat, and Pompey unwil- Defeat-of lingly gave the word to charge.^ As the Romans advanced, the Mithndates. ^rchers and shngers of the royal army discharged clouds of light missiles, and when they came still nearer, the light infantry hurled their thonged javelins ; but the moon, which was near her setting. ' Eutroph. vi. ; Floras, iii. 5 ; Epitome Livii, lib. u. 2 Plutarch, in Pompeio ; Appiari, in Mithridaticis. 3 Plutarch (eod.) accuses the king of having ordered all his sick to be slain. But at that season there could not have been many sick in sis weeks ; nor was the retreat effected with such haste and trepidation as to render a few invalids anv considerable impediment. * Plutarch here gives us, according to his custom, a marvellous dream and a portent. ^ Appian, eod. ; Dion, xxxvi. CHAP. XX.J MITHRIDATES. 431 shone directly in the eyes of the king's troops, and so lengthened the B.C. 66. shadows of the enemy, that they entirely miscalculated theii" distance, and their weapons fell without effect. The heavy-armed legions of the Romans thus appeared as if invulnerable ; and the Asiatic troops, seeing not one man fallen amid so many missiles, were seized with a panic and fled ; but being intercepted by the river, most of them were either slain or drowned in attempting to escape. Mith- Escape of tiie ridates himself, after performing astonishing feats of strength and qj^fn™ valour, and having in vain used every endeavour to save his army, broke through the Roman legions at the head of his body-guard of eight hundred chosen warriors, and handled all who opposed him so severely that no one dared to pursue him. Among this vahant corps was the Queen Hipsicratea, armed like a man, and mounted on a Persian charger of extraordinary beauty. This faithful lady not only fought by the side of the king in his greatest danger, but when he had lost all his servants, she attended like a groom upon his person, and even bestowed her care upon his horse, which she fed and rubbed down at night, and accoutred in the morning. Her attachment was ardently returned by Mithridates, who made her the partner of his inmost counsels, and often declared that whilst he continued to possess Hypsicrates, (for so he playfuUy called her from her mascuUne courage,) he should never cease to be a king. Meanwhile, the Roman general pursued him so closely ' that he was compelled to dismiss the few troops which had escaped with him ; and, accompained only by the queen and two faithftd oflicers of his court, he reached the strong castle of Sinoria,^ which he had erected between the greater and lesser Armenia,^ and in which a considerable treasure was deposited. Hence taking with him six hundred talents, (about £120,000,) he hastened onward to the source of the Euphrates,* and directed his flight through Colchis towards the Bosporus. But fresh embarrassments awaited him : his son Machares, king of the Bosporians, was a zealous supporter of the Roman interests,' and showed no inclination to be involved in his father's danger; whilst Tigranes, profiting by past experience, not only refiised to embroil himself with Pompey, but is even said to have proclaimed a reward for the capture of Mithridates. It happened that the king of Armenia was, at this time, at war Conduct of ^ with his own son, (also named Tigranes,) the grandson of Mithridates. hifson." ™ This prince, being conquered by his father, fled for protection to his ' Orosius, vi. 4. o i. / u • t-t, 2 Plutarch calls this fortress Inora, and Appian Sinorega; but Stvabo, (who m lib. xii. gives an account of all the fortresses built by Mithridates upon this boundary,) names it Sinoria. 3 Hodie Turconaania and AladuUa. * Plutarch, m Pompeio. Prideaux, loco citato ; but Appian says, ad ostia Euphratis. 5 Dion Cassius xxxvi. Appian. 432 MITHRIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 66. grandfather, who was then encamped between the rivers Euphrates and Araxes, on the spot where Pompey defeated him ; ' but learning on the road the event of that action, he threw himself upon the mercy of the Eoman general. His father, alarmed lest Pompey should take part with him, sacrificed the cause of Mithridates to his fears, and hastened to lay his diadem in abject submission at the feet of the conqueror, making a merit of his unnatural conduct in offering a hundred talents (nearly £20,000) for the head of his father-in-law. Pompey effected a temporary reconciliation between the rival sup- pliants ; but the young Tigranes proved as refractory to his new master as he was undutiful to his father, and he was shortly after- wards arrested, and sent to Eome to be reserved for the day of triumph. Hardsiiips The king of Pontus, thus deserted by all upon whom he had been Mithridates accustomed to rely, continued his flight^ northwards, among the fierce nations who inhabited the countries near the Palus MsBotis, whom he found warmly attached to his cause, and ready to make every exertion that might impede the pursuit of Pompey. The Romans, passing near the great Caucasian range, arrived among the Albanians, w^hose king, Oraeses,* availing hunself of the Roman Saturnalia,* crossed the river Cyrus ^ with a powerftd army to attack the camp in the midst of the disorders occasioned by that disgusting festival. But a Eoman army under the great Pompey was not to be thus surprised by a barbarian chieftain ; and Orseses found a recep- tion so different from his expectations, that he was glad to sue for peace, and to offer the Romans the best winter-quarters his dominions would afford, with abundance of all kinds of provisions. B.C. 65. In the spring Pompey advanced against the Iberians, a warhke independent tribe, who boasted that they had never submitted to any foreign yoke, not even to Alexander of Macedon. These were zealously attached to the cause of Mithridates, or rather were exces- sively jealous of the encroaching power of Rome ; but, after some inconsiderable skirmishes, and frequent manoeuvring on both sides, they were defeated in a great battle, in which they lost nine thou- sand killed, and ten thousand prisoners.^ No sooner was this diffi- culty overcome than intelligence was received of the revolt of the Albanians ; and Pompey, not considering it prudent to advance any further with so powerful an enemy in his rear, marched back t» reduce them. But Cosis, the king's brother, who commanded in chief, guarded the banks of the Cyrus with so much vigilance, that he had great difliculty in crossing the river ; and his army suffered very much in the wide desert which lies between the Cyrus and the ' Orosius ; Appian. 2 Appian, in loco. ^ Dion Cassius, xxxvi. al. Orodes. ^ Plutarch, in Pompeio. " Strabo and Pliny write it Cyrus ; Plutarch and Dion Cyrnus. Hodie Xur. * Plutarch, in Pompeio. CHAP. XX.] MITHEIDATBS. 433 Abas,^ from the want of water. Having at length come up with the B.C. 65. numerous but ill-disciplined and worse-armed horde led by Cosis,'' a furious action ensued, in the course of which the Albanian chieftain had nearly concluded the war by a desperate blow aimed at Pompey [Temple of Minerva, where Pompey deposited his Eastern Spoils. — Overbeke.—Les Reates de VAncienne JSom«.] with a javelin, which pierced the folds of his breast-plate. But the Eoman general, recovering his seat in the saddle, thrust the barba- rian through the body witti his spear, and laid him dead at his feet. The Albanians fled, and their king was glad to purchase peace by submission, and by the payment of a heavy fine. But the diiSculties Difficulties to which Pompey was exposed were not yet exhausted. In an by°pompey* attempt to reach Hyrcania, by the shores of the Caspian, his army was so annoyed by venomous reptiles, that he changed his purpose, and advanced into the kingdom of Tigranes, where circmnstances occurred which detained him several months at a distance from Mithridates. It may here be worth while to notice the statement of Plutarch,^ respecting the private papers of Mithridates, said to have been found in the castle of Csenon, which contained a catalogue of the detestable yet childish enormities of his hfe. That any man should have pre- served such useless witnesses of his own secret crimes is, in itself, ^ This is the same stream called by Ptolemy the Albamis. 2 DioQ tells this story very differently. He makes Artooes, not Cosis, king of a different tribe of Albanians, "and says not a word respecting the monomachy with Pornpey, which is likely enough to be a fiction of Plutarch. * In Pompeio. [k. F T '^ ^ 434 MITHEIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 65. sufficiently improbable ; and that a great warlike prince, who was also a philosopher and an author, should have amused himself with transcribing his own hcentious love-letters, is at least equally difficult to be beheved. But the biographer himself heedlessly flings dis- credit upon the whole account, in his zeal to defend EutUius, who, according to Theophanes, was imphcated, by the evidence of one of these letters, in the pretended massacre of the Eomans in Asia Minor; for he alleges that this particular letter was probably an invention of Theophanes, if not of Pompey himself: a hint sufficiently explain- ing the origin of this absurd tale, which is only mentioned to show on what shght foundations the popular notions have been raised respecting the conduct and character of a prince who, whatever might be his faults, was not stained with the avarice, the treachery, the cruelty, and falsehood which so disgracefully characterise his enemies. WhUst Pompey was led into the south, in pursuit of the schemes which he had undertaken for the conquest of Arabia and Judsea, Mithridates continued his progress towards the Cimmerian Bosporus,' an object of respect and admiration even to his enemies, and of enthusiastic attachment to those who still adhered to him, and who daily witnessed the wonderful exertions of a spirit which fortune could not break, and of a frame which seemed proof against the infirmities of age. He had wintered at Dioscurias,^ a town on the Euxine sea, and had employed himself actively in raising recruits ; and, early in the next spring, he made his way through all the wild hordes of Scythians, which inhabited the country between that place and his son's dominions, partly by force and partly by persuasion. Machares, alarmed at his approach, sent ambassadors to entreat his pardon, and to represent that he had sided with Rome from necessity and not from choice ; but the king, despising his falsehood, and indignant at his unnatural rebellion, vouchsafed him no reply ; and the unhappy prince, finding his escape by sea precluded by his father's fleet, which blockaded all his ports, goaded by conscience, and distracted by fear, put an end to his own life.^ Gigantic Mithridates, taking possession of the kingdom with all its treasures Mithridates 3^^ resources, and finding his standard joined by large bodies of the warlike Scythians, formed the bold plan of marching through Thrace and Macedonia, by way of Pannonia, over the Trentine Alps, in order to carry the war into Italy itself, and extend the terror of his name to the gates of Kome, whUe the Eomans were engaged in reducing the fortresses which still held out for him in Pontus, and ' Hodie Crim Tartary. 2 Dioscurias was built upon the farthest part of the isthmus between the Euxine and Caspian seas. Strabo, xi. Pliny, vi. 28. 3 Appian, eod. Dion, eod. Orosius, vi. 5. GHAP. XX.] mTHElDATES. 435 in taking or destroying the younger branches of his family.' Had B.C. 65. he been enabled to execute this design, in the distracted and defence- less situation of Italy at that time, he might probably have proved a more formidable invader than Hannibal himself. But all his mea- Treason of sures were broken by the cowardice and treachery of his son Phar- pifaSlces. naces, the heir to the crown, who had neither talents to appreciate his father's pohcy, nor energy of character to support him in diffi- culties. He therefore tampered with the soldiers, and represented to them in glowing language, the dangers of a march over such a vast extent of unknown country, intersected by deep and rapid rivers, to attack a people at home, whose power extended to the hmits of the habitable world, and the least of whose generals was a match for the greatest of the Asiatic sovereigns.^ Actuated by such representations as these, some of the principal officers formed a plot to depose the king, and to proclaim Pharnaces in his room. The conspiracy was, however, speedily detected, and its authors were put to death ; but Mithridates, grieved by the loss of so many of his children, hesitated to condemn the prince, and, upon his submission, restored him to favour.' This amiable weakness proved the source of his ruin. Pharnaces, apprehensive that he had lost his father's confidence, and had become an. object of suspicion to the court, felt uneasy in his presence, and resolved to free himself from apprehension by plunging deeper into guilt. But, taking his measures with greater precaution, he first secured the Eoman deserters, who dreaded nothing so much as a return to their own country; and then going privately by night among other parties in the camp, he brought over to his faction a large majority of the army, who, assembling at sunrise, proclaimed, with loud shouts, "Pharnaces is king!"* Mithridates, roused fi:om sleep by the unwonted clamour, sent an officer to inquire the cause of it, and received for answer, that " it was time the youthftd son should take the sceptre from the hands of an aged father, whose rashness and violence threatened to involve them all in ruin." The undatinted king, mounting his horse, rode out to address the mutineers ; but his detestable son, pointing him out to his adherents, desired them to seize him. This, however, was attempted in vain ; and the king, with a few loyal attendants, spurred up the side of a hUl, from whence he beheld the great body of the army crowning ' Appian, in loco. Pompey carried five sons and two daughters of Mithridates to Borne to grace his triumph. ^ They must have marched above two thousand miles through aU those countries which are now called Tartaria Crimaea, Podoha, Moldavia, Wallachia, Transilvania, Hungaria, Stkia, Carinthia, Tyro), and Lombardy ; and over the three great rivers of the Boristhenes, the Danube, and the Po. Prideaux, part ii. book 6. ' Appian, ibid. It is here related by Appian that the king had cruelly put to death his son Xiphares, who was innocent of any offence against him, merely to vex his mother. * Appian, ibid. 436 MITHEIDATES. [CHAP. XX. B.C. 65. Pharnaces witli acclamations of joy. Perceiving the hopelessness of resistance, he despatched a messenger to the rebels with a request that he might be permitted to depart in safety ; but Pharnaces would not suffer the bearer of the message to return : several more officers were sent in succession with the same petition, who were all, in like manner, detained ; and some of them, who were known to be the king's particular friends, were put to death in his sight. Mithridates now perceived that his hour was come ; and having resolved never to fall into the hands of his enemies aUve, he drew from his scabbard a deadly poison, which he always carried about with him against such an emergency. A very touching scene followed. The two princesses, Mithridatia and Nissa, begged that they might first partake of the drug, in order that they might not look upon the death of their father. After some mutual entreaties, the king so far yielded to their tears that they all took the poison together. Its effect upon the tender constitutions of the youthful princesses was immediate, and they expired with scarce a struggle ; but the robust habit of Mithridates resisted its operation, and he continued to walk backward and forward by the bodies of his daughters, in vain expectation of being released from his sufferings beside them. At last, impatient of delay, he desired Bititius, a loyal Celt, to put an end to his existence ; and that brave officer, choked with weeping, averted his face, and presented his sword.^ Deatii of Thus died Mithridates the Great, in the sixty-eighth year of his if p'^'m^ age, and the fifty-seventh of his reign ; and with him ended the Mithridatic war, after it had continued from the first commencement of hostilities, six or seven-and-twenty years.^ Pharnaces made haste to send in his submission to Pompey,^ and to declare that he held his hereditary dominions only at the pleasure of the senate. This base servility was well received by the Roman general, who probably thought, like the rest of his countr3Tnen, that there was a merit in " Romanizing,^'' sufficient to atone for all the crimes and treacheries of which mankind could be guilty.* In this slight sketch of the life and actions of one of the greatest 1 Appian, in Mithridatiois. 2 " The continuance of the war, according to Justin, (xxxvii. 1,) was forty-six years; according to Appian, (Mith.) forty-two; according to L. Florus (iii. 5,) and Eutropius, (vi.) forty; and according to Pliny, (vii. 26,) tliirty; but its exact duration is no more than twenty-seven years." — Prideaux, ii. 6. — Orosius reckons it thirty or forty years, lib. v. c. 19. Lempriere's Chrono- logical Table makes it twenty-six years. Prideaux himself places the accession of Mithridates in the year B.C. 124, the commencement of the war in b.c!. 89, and the death of the king in B.C. 64, which would make the interval only twenty-five years. But if Mithridates came to the throne b.c. 124, and reigned fifty-seven years, he must have died e.g. 67, which reduces the period of the war to twenty-two years. Such is the uncertainty of the chronology of this portion of history. 3 Appian states, in addition, that this monster sent his father's body to Pompey. * See, for example, the observations of Appian and Plutarch on the conduct and character of Machares and Pharnaces. (Mith.) (Pomp.) CHAP. XX.] MITHRIDATES. 437 princes of antiquity, it has been attempted to show how Uttle rehance B.C. 63. can be placed upon the opinions of the Eoman historians respecting his character, or even upon their representations in matters of fact. His great qualities have been universally acknowledged even by his enemies ; and the mention of his imputed crimes and vices is attended with so much puerile violence, as lead the reader to suspect that, among the many inaccuracies and false statements abounding in the history of this war, these accusations are perhaps the least entitled to credit.' Appian, who records numerous in- stances of the kind, concludes his account of Mithridates with a singular declaration, that he had no fault but an excessive love of women. That the king, like other Oriental princes of every age, indulged in a plurality of wives, there can be no doubt ; and he was sufficiently punished for this failing in its obvious consequences, the infiglehty of two queens,^ and the unnatural rebelhon of several of his sons. The necessary punishment of these miscreants, so nearly alhed to him, , carries with it something of horror ; nevertheless it may be gathered even from the prejudiced narratives, to which alone we have access, that Mithridates was generally indulgent and affectionate in domestic life, beloved by his faithful wives, revered by his household, and cherished by his subjects with devoted loyalty. His talents, his energy, and his courage, rendered him formidable to his adversaries ; and the fear of base spirits is ever malignant. But, through all the vindictive calumnies with which he has been assailed, a feeling of awe and respect involuntarily breaks out, and throws a grand, though an indistinct, hght upon the noble features of his character, which may be summed up in the lively language of Paterculus : — " He was a man neither to be mentioned nor passed over without caution ; most valiant in war, of surpassing bravery, distinguished at one time by success, at aU times by greatness of mind ; a consummate general, an invincible soldier, and to the end persevering and consistent in his opposition to Rome." '' 1 Appian, in Mithridaticis. ^ Laodice and Stratonice. 3 " Quamquam fagiens et victus, venerabilis adhuc et tremebundus videbatur." Appian, Mith. Gryph. 1069. " Mithridates Ponticus Rex, vir neque silendus neque dicendus sine cura, bello acerrimus, virtute eximius, aliquando fortiina, semper animo maximus, consiliis dux, miles manu, odio in Komanos Hannibal." Veil. Paterc. lib. ii. c. 18. [Ueiianus of M. Antonius, with Roman Eagle. ] ^^. [The Colline Gate. — Ovcrbehf. — Les Bestes de I'Ancienne Some.'} CHAPTER XXI. LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. PART II. B.C. 88. The former triumphs of the aristocratical party, over the Gracchi, Causeswhicli and over Saturninus, had been followed by some years of comparative renewal of Calm. But the popular cause had now gained an accession of disturbances, strength, more fatally, indeed, to its adversaries than beneficially to itself, in the support of ambitious and powerful men, who hoped to turn its successes to the advancement of their own greatness. Besides this, the Italian war, while it had filled Italy with armies, had degraded the quality of the soldiery : for in the distress of the state, the Komans had enlisted freedmen into the legions ; and this, com- bining with the example already set by Maxius of admitting men to serve without any qualification of property, had rendered the troops readier instruments of the personal schemes of their generals. The Italians also, by coalescing with one of the great divisions of the Eoman commonwealth, might hope for more complete success than when they had struggled against the united force of the senate and the people. Added to all this, the late violence of SyUa, although professing to be no more than a necessary retaUation of preceding outrages, yet furnished those who had suffered fi-om it with abundant excuses for a new reaction on their part: while the CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. 439 proscription of Marius, after the signal services he had rendered to b.c. 88. his country, exasperated not only his own numerous friends, but a large body of independent citizens, who forgot the associate of Sulpicius, and remembered only the conqueror of the Cimbri. Immediately, therefore, on the departure of Sylla from Italy, L. cinna Cinna again brought forward the law of Sulpicius,' which admitted Sw the' the Italians into all the thirty-five tribes J;'"?^."? . , .... rni 1 1-1 Sulpicms. without distinction. Ihose whom this law was intended to benefit, crowded to Eome in great numbers, to support its author by their swords, rather than by their votes. If we may believe Appian,^ hardly a shadow of any constitutional form of proceeding was observed ; and no sooner had some of the tribunes of the aristocratical party inter- posed their negative to stop the passing of the law, than a violent riot broke out, and the lives of the tribunes were threatened. Upon this, Cn. Octavius, the other consul, [i, ci„„a.] broke into the forum with an armed force, and drove out the rioters ; great numbers of whom were killed by his followers in their flight, but, as we are told, without his orders. Thus far the scene resembles the seditions of the Gracchi: but Octavius was of a mild and scrupulous temper, and had left the principal offender untouched ; and Cinna, being fully prepared for the last extremities of civil discord, began to summon the slaves to his standard, in the hope of maintaining his ground in the capital. But finding himself disappointed, he fled from the city with his He is aiiven chief partisans ; and the senate, by an act of authority hitherto un- ''ndaepriTOi precedented, declared that he had forfeited the consulship ;^ and the °'*^ people being called on to proceed to a new election, L. Cornelius Merula, the Flamen of Jupiter, was appointed consul in his room. The Italian towns regarding the cause of Cinna as their own, is assisted received him with the utmost cordiality ;* and encouraged by their n^uans, ann support, and assisted by their supplies of money, he presented him- 1^^^°™' " self at the camp of the army, which stUl, it seems, was employed in Army. the neighbourhood of Nola. Here, by bribes and promises, he per- suaded the soldiers to acknowledge him as their lawful consul, and to take the military oath of obedience to him ; and having thus secured a rallying point for- his partisans, he was soon joined by many individuals of the popular party from Kome. But his most powerfiil auxiliaries were the different cities of Italy;" who, think- ing that now they had a fair opportunity of resuming the contest 1 Velleius Paturcul. Ub. ii. c. 43. ^ pe Bellis Civilibus, lib. i. d. 64. 3 Velleius Patercul. lib. ii. e. 43. * Appian, o. 65. s Appian, c. 66 ; Patercul. c. 43, 440 LUCIUS COENELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 88. witli Eome under happier auspices, exerted every nerve in the cause, and not only furnished Cinna with money, but took up arms with such spirit and unanimity to join him, that he was able, in a very short time, to form an army of thirty legions, amounting, at the least, to a hundred and fifty thousand men. Already, too, Cinna had invited Marius, and the other exiles of the popular party to return to their country;^ and Q. Sertorius and Cn. Carbo were actually holding commands in his army. Hoping, therefore, to imitate the example of Sylla, he moved immediately with his forces towards Eome. The Senate The senate had no hopes of withstanding this assault by the mere Pompetaf "' efforts of the citizens of the capital. They required the support of for aid. a regular army,^ and implored Cn, Pompeius, who, as we have seen, still retained his command in Umbria, to employ bis soldiers in their defence. But he, more anxious to make the troubles of his country an occasion of his own advancement, remained for some time ill suspense, as if waiting to see which party would purchase his services at the highest price ; and thus allowed Cinna and his faction to con- solidate their force beyond the possibility of successful resistance. Marius lands Marius in the meanwhile landed in Tuscany with a small body of jJJins'ctana, adherents ; ' and studiously retaining all the outward marks of wretchedness and poverty in his person and dress, he appealed to the compassion of the people by contrasting his present miserable condition with his former triumphs and dignities. He is said to have raised by these arts a body of about six thousand men, and to have effected his junction with Cinna, so that their combined forces were capable of being divided into four distinct armies ; * with two of which Cinna and Carbo took up their positions on both sides of Rome ; while Sertorius, with a third, stationed himself so as to command the navigation of the Tiber above the city ; and Marius, with a fourth, was master of the course of the river below, between Eome and the sea. Progress of In this state of things Cn. Pompeius at last resolved to espouse War^'^ the cause of the senate, and marched towards Eome. A battle was fought between his army and that of Cinna, immediately under the walls of the capital;^ but though the slaughter was great, the event seems to have been indecisive ; and soon afterwards Cn. Pompeius was HUed by lightning in his own camp. Both parties were suffer- ing severely from the attacks of sickness ; and this, probably, sus- pended their operations ; while Marius was employed in destroying several of the towns in the neighbourhood of Eome,° from whence 1 Paterculus, o. 44 ; Plutaroh, in Sertorio, c. 5. 2 Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxix. ; Appian, lib. i. c. 66 ; Patercul. c. 44. 3 Appian, o. 67; Plutarch, iu Mario, o. 41. ' Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxix. ; Appian, c. 67. « Paterculus, lib. ii. o. 44; Appian, c. 68. « Appian, c. 67, 68. CHAP. XXI.] LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 441 the city miglit have been supplied with provisions ; and a detach- B.C. 88. ment occupied Ariminum to intercept the reinforcements which the senate hoped to receive from Cisalpine Gaul. One hope still remained to the aristocracy. Metellus Pius, the son of that Metellus Numidicus, whose name, combined as it is with the recollection of his virtues, is a beautifal contrast to those which we must now so often mention, was at the head of an army in Samnium ; and was still carrying on hostilities against the people of that country, who, with hereditary obstinacy, even now kept ahve the last sparks of the Italian war. He was desired by the senate to make the best terms in his power with the Samnites,' and to hasten to the rehef of his country. But either some difficulties occurred in the negotiation, or the conditions which he granted were not so favourable as to pre- vent the popidar leaders from turning his retreat out of Samnium to their own advantage. Marius promised to give the Samnites The every thing which they required ; and accordingly they instantly j^oZmSus. joined his cause, defeated a Eoman officer whom Metellus had left behind him to watch their movements, and added their whole strength to that already overpowering confederacy by which the aristocracy of Rome was assaulted. The defenders of the old constitution, under the command of Octavius the consul, and Metellus,^ had established themselves on the hill of Alba; and still presented a force which might have encoimtered any one of the enemy's armies with a fair hope of victory. But the generals dreaded to expose the whole nobihty of the commonwealth, with their wives and children, to the con- sequences of a decisive defeat ; besides this, their soldiers could not be ftdly depended on; for many of them preferred Metellus to Octavius,^ and entreated him to take the supreme command ; and when he refused and desired them to submit to the consul, who was their lawful general, they went over in crowds to the enemy. The very uprightness indeed of the axistocratical leaders contributed to the present success of their adversaries. Whilst Cinna was seducing the slaves to join him by promising them their liberty, Octavius refused to follow the example ; declaring that he would not imitate that conduct which he had himself denounced in his antagonist as treasonable. Thus the consular army was continually diminishing by desertion, without being able to repair its losses ; and the enemy had now established so strict a blockade, that the mass of the people were alarmed at the prospect of a famine, and impatient of a longer continuance of this hopeless struggle. Deputies were accordingly sent Cinna by the senate to treat of peace.* But he insisted on knowing whether they were going to canna enters treat with him as consul, or as a private individual ; and this diffi- ^°^^- ' Appian, o. 68 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxx. ^ Appian, c. 69. 3 Plutarch, in Mario, o. 42. * Appian, c. 69. 442 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 86. culty broke off the negotiation for the moment. But the desertion from the city to the besieging army daily increasing, the senate were obhged to yield ; they consented to acknowledge Cinna as consul, and only requested him to swear that he would shed no blood after his victory. He received the deputies with all the state of a consul,' and refusing to take any oath, merely promised that he would not wilhngly be the author of any executions. But what little comfort the deputies might have derived from this assurance, was destroyed by the sight of Marius, who stood silently beside the consul's chair, and whose savage glances, rendered more fearful by the assumed wildness of his face, and the meanness of his attire, betokened nothing but executions and massacres. Metellus had in the mean time withdrawn from Alba, and retired towards the north of Italy ; ^ but Octavius, partly actuated by a courageous sense of duty, partly trusting to the solemn assurances of safety which he received from Ginna and Marius, and partly led away by his prophets and sooth- sayers, who foretold that he should suffer no injury, and to whose predictions he was habitually too ready to listen, refiised to quit his station, and still continued to wear the ensigns of his office, and to show himself in public in the city. Cinna had already entered the walls, and disguise being no longer needful, he sent a party of soldiers to murder his colleague. Octavius quietly waited their approach, refusing either to fly or to conceal himself: the assassins executed their task, and the head of this blameless consul was, by Cinna's orders, suspended over the rostra, as the first victim to his vengeance. Marius Rome, with every thing that was most noble and most distinguished enters Rome, within its walls, now lay at the mercy of the popular leaders. But Marius professed that as he had been declared an exile by the people,' he could not enter the city tUl his sentence should be regularly repealed : and the tribes were summoned in mockery, that their votes might enable their conqueror to avail himself of his own victory. His thirst of blood, however, could not brook the delay, which he had devised to enhance the dehght of his triumph ; and when two or three of the tribes had voted, he took possession of one of the gates, and entered the town at the head of a band peouUarly attached to his own person, and which consisted chiefly of the peasants or fugitive slaves who had joined him on his first landing in Tuscany. With these instruments he proceeded at once to the work of murder. The principal nobility were selected as his victims. Massacres in Some fell by their own hands to anticipate the stroke of their order 0/ assassins; some were betrayed, and dragged from their places of Marius. concealment to death ; some were discovered and slain in the houses where they had sought refuge ; and others were butchered in the 1 Appian, c. 70 ; Plutarch, in Mario, c. 43. 2 Ibid. c. 80. Ibid. c. 42. 3 Plutarch, in Mario, c. 43. CHAP. XXI.] LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. 443 open streets, and gratified Marius with the sight of their agony. In b.c. 86. the midst of this carnage, the -wretches who were employed in it added to its horrors by all varieties of unauthorized crimes of their own devising. Fugitive slaves availed themselves of the opportunity to murder their masters,' to plunder their houses, and to commit the worst outrages on their families. The wife and children of SyEa were happy enough to escape this fate,' though they were especially sought after ; they were concealed by some of their friends until means were found to convey them out of the city. That their property should have been confiscated, that all SyUa's laws should have been repealed, and himself declared, in his turn, a public enemy, seemed only the natural retaliation of a party which had so lately suffered at his hands a similar treatment. But the general scene of lawless rapine and murder which was everywhere exhibited, as it fer exceeded any thing which Rome had hitherto witnessed, so it was far too dreadful to be palliated by any plea of former provoca- tions, and has deservedly procured for those who were its actors, the unmitigated abhorrence of all posterity. In this massacre there perished, by the orders of Cinna and Marius, L. Julius Csesar,' who had been consul during the Itahan war, and had distinguished himself by a splendid victory over the Samnites ; to- gether with his brother C. Juhus Csesar, whose iU-advised competition for the consulship had first provoked Sulpicius to enter on his career as a demagogue, and was now visited with death by the unforgiving jealousy of Marius. The heads of both these victims were exposed over the rostra ; and near them was seen the head of M. Antonius,* the M. Antonh« most eloquent citizen in the commonwealth, who had filled the oflSces of consul and censor, and who was respected as the able defender of all who applied for his aid in the courts of justice. His place of concealment was betrayed to Marius,^ who, although he was then at supper, was on the point of starting up from the table, to be himself a witness of his death : but being restrained by his friends, he sent a party of soldiers instantly to destroy him, and bring back his head with them. P. Crassus,' the father of M. Crassus the triumvir, who had also, hke M. Antonius, been both censor and consul, being now marked out for destruction, and having seen one of his sons murdered, killed himseE C. Numitorius and M. Bsebius,' both apparently men of some consideration, and the latter a name that occurs frequently in earher periods of the Koman history, were murdered, and their bodies ignominiously dragged through the forum by the common executioners. These, with many others, were sacrificed by mere ' Appian, c. 74. 2 pintarch, in Sylla, c. 22 ; Appian, c. 73. s Cicero, de Oratore, lib. iii. c. 3 ; Tusoulan. Disputat. lib. v. c. 19. * Ibid, de Oratore, lib. iU. c. 3. ^ Appian, o. 72. « Cicero, de Oratore, lib. iii. c. 3 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxx. ; Floras, lib. m. c. 21. ' Florus, lib. iii. c. 21. 444 LUCIUS COEIfELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 86. military execution to the first ftuy of the victorious leaders. But against L. CorneUus Merula, who had been appointed consul when Cinna was driven from Rome, and against Q. Lutatius Catulus, the colleague of Marius in his fourth consulship, and his companion in his great victory over the Cimbri, it was resolved to proceed with something of the forms of justice. Their condemnation they well Death of knew was the necessary consequence of their trial : Merula, therefore, Catulus. preferring to die by his own hands, opened his veins ; ' and as his blood flowed upon the altar of Jupiter, he, m his character of Flamen, imprecated the vengeance of his God upon the head of his murderers. Catulus, it appears, had actually co-operated with Sylla in procuring the expulsion of Marius and Sulpicius,^ and causing them to be declared public enemies. For this, Marius was bent upon his death, and answered every sohcitation in his behalf, by saying, "He must die:'" upon which Catulus, like Merula, to avoid falling by the executioner, shut himself up in a close room, and suffocated himself by burning charcoal. Often as the leaders of a popular party have made the interests of their followers subservient to their own ambition, yet never was this more shamelessly exemplified than in the behaviour of Cinna and Marius. After having plunged their country into a civil war, imder pretence of supporting the just claims of the Italians to an equal share in the right of suffrage, the chiefs of the victorious party would not, or coidd not, rely on the gratitude of those whose cause they had upheld ; nor would they allow the people to exercise the form of an election, even when they could have so certainly commanded the result. Cinna and Marius, by their own authority, declared themselves consuls for the ensuing year : * and it is mentioned of the latter, that on the very day on which he entered upon his usurped office, he ordered a senator, of the name of Sextus Licinius, to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock. The atrocities, indeed, which Marius was daily committing, and the excesses in which his band of fugitive slaves indulged themselves without remorse, at last awakened the shame or the jealousy of his associates. Cinna, instigated, as it is said, by Sertorius,' who beheld with indignation the crimes with which his party had disgraced themselves, finding all attempts to repress these disorders fruitless, assembled a body of his Gaulish auxiUary troops, and attacking Marius's band in their quarters by night, put the whole of them to the sword. Such an act was likely to have exasperated Marius against his colleague, had he been capable of revenging the affront ; but his career was fast drawing to i)eat"h of """^ a close : he was now in his seventieth year, and plunging deeply into Marius" the utmost intemperance in his manner of living," he contracted a 1 VeUeius Patercul. lib. ii. c. 45. 2 Appian, e. 74. 5 Cicero, Tuscal. Disputat. lib. v. o. 19. * Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxx. 5 Plutarch, iu Sertorio, c. 5 ; Appian, e. 74. « Plutarch, in Mario, c. 45, 46. CHAP. XXl.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. 445 pleurisy, of which he died after a short iUness, havmg enjoyed his b.c. 86. seventh consulship for only seventeen days. It was reported that he became delirious before his death, and imagined himself to be com- manding the army against Mithridates, which had so long been the object of his ambition, often shouting aloud, and expressing by the most violent gestures the HveHness of the impression which occu^pied his mind. But whatever were the scenes which accompained his last hours, they could scarcely add any thing to the certain horror of a sudden death thus cutting him off amidst the perpetration of so many and such dreadful crimes ; nor are any stories of his late remorse and agony of mind required to aggravate our abhorrence of a hfe which in the course of seventy years, presents an unvaried picture of evil passions, darkening more and more as he advanced in age, and growing to the deepest intensity of blackness as he approached the latest period of his earthly existence. It is mentioned by Cicero,^ that during the celebration of the funeral of Marius, C. Fimbria, a man whose ungoverned violence in speaking and in acting amounted sometimes almost to insanity, caused an attempt to be made on the life of Q. Mucins ScKvola, one of the most virtuous citizens of his time. The assassin only wounded his intended victim ; and Fimbria, when he heard that Scaavola had escaped, declared that he would bring him to trial before the people. He was asked, what charge he could possibly invent against a character so pure as Mucius ; to which he replied, " I shall accuse him for not having given my dagger a more hearty welcome." Such were the wretches whose crimes were now enjoying a full impunity in the triumph of the professed champions of the cause of hberty. After the death of Marius, L. Cornelius Cinna remained in fact Cinna the sovereign of Eome. His power was Httle less absolute than that master of the afterwards held by SyUa or Csesar : and it is somewhat remarkable, GoverDment. that his usurpation should have been so httle noticed by posterity, and that he himself should be so little known, that not a single trait of character, and scarcely a single personal anecdote of him, is to be found on record. His first step was to supply the vacancy in the consulship occasioned by the death of Marius ; and for this purpose he fixed on L. Valerius Flaccus,^ who had been the colleague of Marius in his sixth consulship, about fourteen years before. The massacres had now, for the most part, ceased ; and it was intended that the usual forms of the constitution should still be observed. Nothing indeed appeared to dispute the power of the victorious leaders : many of the nobility had left Italy,' and sought a refuge in the camp of Sylla ; some had retired to their estates in the country, and some" still remained in Eome, anxious above aU things to avoid participating in a civil war, and hoping that they might still 1 Orat. pro Roscio Amerino, c. 12. ^ Appian, c. 75 ; Paterculus, lib. ii. c. 46. 3 Patercul. c. 46 ; Plutarch, in Pompeio, c. 6. 446 LUCroS COKNELIUS stllA. [chap. XXI. [Cicero.] B.C. 86. possess influence enough to prevent the return of such a calamity altogether. In this last class we find the names of Q. Mucins ScKvola/ of another L. Valerius Flaccus, and of L. Philippus, the famous antagonist of Drusus, and notorious, during his consulship, for his opposition to the interests of the senate. But the usual freedom of speech allowed in the forum and in the courts of justice was so much abridged, that Cicero describes the three years which followed the victory of Cinna, as a period in which the republic was without laws and without dignity.^ He himself remained during all this time at Eome,^ and was employing himself in the study of eloquence and philosophy, attending the lectures of PhUo, then a refugee from Athens, and of Molo of Ehodes, and preparing himself at leisure, during this cessation of opportu- nities for actual practice, for the splendid career which the subsequent triumph of the aristocracy laid open to him. The scanty reports of these times which remain to us, wiU assist but little in ascertaining the state of the people at large under the dominion of Cinna. An immense military force was kept on foot throughout Italy, so that even if the Eomans were exempted from all share in its support, the burthen must still have pressed heavily on the Itahans, in addition to the numerous excesses which troops, so little subject to discipline, would naturally commit in the districts in which they were quartered. In Eome itself there was a large proportion of debtors among the lower orders, who were insolvent either through poverty or dishonesty. To relieve them was judged a measure becoming a party professedly popular; and L. Flaccus the consul, brought in a law,'' allowing a debtor to avoid all further claims upon him, on payment of a fourth part of his debt. It is one of the most difficult problems in legislation, to observe a just balance between severity to unavoidable distress and indulgence to wilful extravagance or fraud ; but at Eome, in this case as in so many others, the scale vibrated from one extreme of injustice to the other, and the monied interest, who a short time before had murdered a lawftil magistrate, because he had defended the poor against their oppressions, now saw their just rights sacrified in return, because the government wished to conciliate the needy and the desperate. Meanwhile, the several provinces of the empire submitted, as far as appears, without opposition to the party which prevailed in the 1 Cicero, ad Atticum, lib. viii. epist. iii. 3 De Claris Oratoribus, o. 89. 2 Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, c. 62. 1 Veil. Paterculus, lib. ii. c. 46. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS OOKNELIUS SYLLA. 447 capita]. Sylla alone remained an object of fear and jealousy. Far b.c. 86. from seeking to disarm his enemies by concession, he is said contiu- SyUa reimes uaUy to have avowed his intention of punishing them,' so soon as acknowledge he should have finished the war with Mithridates ; and his confidence Government in his army was so well grounded, that he had no fears of their at Rome, allowing any other general than himself to be appointed to command them. L. Flaccus, indeed, was sent into Greece with a new army,^ as the officer intrusted by the people with the conduct of the war ; but he, not venturing to interfere with SyUa, who was at this time wintering in Thessaly, moved through Macedonia, and from thence crossed over into the northern parts of Asia Minor, to attack Mithri- dates in his own country. Here, however, he was soon assassinated by C. Fimbria, who had accompanied him from Eome as his heutenant, and whose daring wickedness gladly caught at this opportunity of advancing himself On the death of Flaccus he succeeded to the command, and carried on hostilities against Mithridates with some success: but when Sylla, having recovered the whole of Greece, crossed over himself into Asia, and there soon concluded a peace with the enemy, Fimbria was summoned to surrender the authority which he had unlawfiiUy acquired ;' and finding his soldiers yielding to the ascendency of SyUa's reputation, and inchned to desert him, he, to avoid the punishment which he deserved, killed himself The death of Fimbria, however, did not take place till after the period at which we are now arrrived. To resume, then, the regular course of our narrative, we must return to the conclusion of the year 667, when the time was arrived for the appointment of consuls for the year following. Cinna again re-elected himself by his own authority,* and chose as his colleague Cn. Papirius Caibo, a man cinna whose very name was ominous of evil : for of the two individuals of car iTw^th his family who had hitherto been most conspicuous, one had, through Mmseif in his perfidy, embroiled the repubhc in a quarrel with the Cimbri, constdsMp, and had sustained from them a severe defeat in Illyria ; and the fOT^wS.'"*'^'^^ other was deeply involved in the mischievous plans of the Gracchi, and when brought to trial, as has been already mentioned, by L. Crassus the orator, poisoned himself through fear of the sentence of his judges. The consuls, thus self-appointed, began to prepare themselves for the approaching contest with Sylla : they endeavoured to conciliate the rich by showing them unwonted attentions ; they appealed especially to the Itahan states, of whose interests they always professed themselves the advocates ; and endeavoured to secure the coasts of Italy against the expected invasion, by collecting a considerable fleet from the diSerent ports of Italy and Sicily. ^ Pateroulus, lib. ii. c. 48. 2 Appian, de Bell. Mlthridatico, c, 51, 52 ; Pateroul. lib. ii. c. 47. 3 Appian, de BeU. Mithridat. o. 60. * Ibid, de BeU. Civil, lib. i. c. 75, 76 ; Livy, Epitom. lib. 83. 448 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XXI. Civil War. B.C. 85. In this interval of suspense, a motion was made and carried in the Attempts to senate by L. Valerius Flaccus,^ that deputies should be sent to Sylla to prevent, if possible, the evils of war ; and Cinna and Carbo were desired to suspend their military preparations till the answer to this embassy should be received. The consuls promised com- pliance, and the deputies were sent over into Greece to treat with Sylla; but Cinna could not consent thus easily to relinquish the sovereignty he had gained, nor to treat on equal terms with an enemy whem he had injured beyond all hope of reconciliation. Once more, thei'efore, he re-appointed himself and Carbo to the consulship;^ and both leaders then left Eome, and began them- selves to press the levies of soldiers ; intending no longer to remain on the defensive, but to cross the Adriatic in person, and to antici- pate Sylla in beginning hostihties. But it seems that they had not a fleet sufficient to transport at one passage a force strong enough to maintain itself against the enemy. They resolved, therefore, to send over their troops in successive detachments from the neighbour- hood of Ancona, to the opposite coast of Liburnia ; a spot so distant from the intended scene of operations, that the whole army might be safely landed before SyUa could arrive to attack it. But the high reputation of the general against whom they were to act, ren- dered the soldiers very averse to the expedition : one detachment, after it had set sail, was driven back by a storm ; and no sooner did the men find themselves again on Italian ground, than they deserted their standards, and retuj-ned to their several homes. This example decided the rest of the army, and they all refused to embark. Cinna called them togetker, and endeavoured to enforce obedience. They crowded round him with minds prepared for the last extremi- ties, and when one of his lictors struck a soldier, in order to clear the way, the blow was returned by the man's comrade. Cinna called out to seize the offender ; a general mutiny broke out at the word, stones were cast at him, and the soldiers who were nearest, drawing their swords, immediately stabbed and killed him. Carbo at once saw that the project of crossing the Adriatic was hopeless : he recalled the few men who had already effected their passage, and resolved to confine his care to the defence of Italy. The death of Cinna, however, and the avowed disposition of the soldiers, encouraged the ordinary magistrates of the commonwealth to resume somewhat of their la^ul authority. Carbo was summoned by the tribunes to return to Rome, and to hold the Comitia for the election of a consul in the room of Cinna.^ He obeyed, but on the first day that the Comitia were held, the auspices were unfavourable; and on the Mutiny of the Soldiers, in whicli Cinna is kiUed. 1 Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxiii. ; Appian, c. 77. 2Appian, c. 77, 78; Paterculus, o. 48; Livy, Epitom. lib. 83; AuctordeViris illustribus, in Vita Cinnaa. 5 Appian, c. 78; Paterculus, c. 48. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. 449 next, the meeting was broken off by a thunder-storm; so that the b.c. 85. augurs forbade the election to take place tiU after the summer Cariio solstice ; and Carbo thus remained sole consul. Consu" About this time, the answer of Sylla to the deputation of the senate was received in Rome.' It stated that he would lay aside his purpose of invading Italy, if all those citizens whom Cinna had out- lawed, were restored to their country and their honours. The senate, we are told, was disposed to accept these conditions; but the influence of Carbo and his party procured their rejection; and war now appeared inevitable. Some months, however, intervened before SyUa commenced his expedition to Italy ; and this delay was occasioned in part by an illness which attacked him,^ and which obhged him to go to jEdepsus, in Eubcea, to try the effect of the warm baths, for which that place was celelDrated. Here he passed a considerable time, amusing himself with the society of actors,^ and of those persons, then so common in Greece, who lived upon their several talents of disputation, of eloquence, of wit, or of buffoonery. But he might console himself for this interruption to his plans, by reflecting that the party of his antagonists was by no means rising in the pubKc opinion, and that his own friends, on the contrary, were daUy becoming more numerous ; whUe the fate of Cinna suffi- ciently showed, that he was in no danger of being anticipated in his schemes of invasion, and of finding himself obliged to act on the defensive in the country which he now occupied. In the meantime, Q. MeteUus Pius,* who, in conjunction with Q. Meteiius Octavius, had unsuccessfully opposed Cinna and Marius in their supports the attack upon Rome,' and who, since their victory, had been living in Aristocracy. one of the provinces in obscurity, now endeavoured to raise again the standard of the aristocratical party, and to obtain possession of the province of Africa. His attempt, however, was imfortunate : he was repulsed by C. Pabius the praetor ; and from thence retired to Liguria, there to wait for a better opportunity of renewing the contest. The senate, though greatly overawed, was yet not entirely subservient to Carbo ; for it is said that he was prevented by them from demanding hostages of all the towns and colonies of Italy,* as a security against their supporting SyUa. But ia other points the interest of the popular leaders visibly prevailed. The right of voting was solemnly conferred, by a decree of the senate, on aU newly- admitted citizens, of whom the late war had given birth to a consid- erable number ; not consisting of the inhabitants of the states of Italy, but of enfranchised slaves or foreign soldiers, who had flocked to the standard of Cinna and Marius, and had contributed to their ' Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxiv. 2 Plutarch, in Sylia, c. 26 ; Strabo, lib. i. p. 56, et lib. ix. p. 487, edit. Xyland. 8 Plutarch, in SyM, o. 26. * Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxiv. ; Appian, c. 80. 5 Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxiv. [r. H.] 2 G 4.50 LUCIUS COENELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 85. triumph. These had not only the right of voting now. given to them,^ (whereas before they only enjoyed the personal liberties of Eoman citizens,) but they were, moreover, allowed to be enrolled indiscriminately in all the tribes ; that important point which, in the case of the Italians, had been so warmly contested, and which, in fact, had furnished Cinna with his first pretext for disturbing the public peace. In addition to these acts, a decree of the senate was also passed, commanding all military officers, in every part of the empire, to disband their forces. That Sylla should obey this order was scarcely to be expected ; but Carbo probably hoped, by its apparent fairness, to throw upon him the odium of being the chief obstacle to peace, and of disobeying that body whose authority he professed to respect so highly. Consulship of The year of Carbo's consulship now drew to an end, and as he Norbanus. could not, or would not procure his own re-appointment, two new B.C. 84. consuls were chosen, C. Norbanus and L. Cornelius Scipio. We are not informed what circumstances could have connected the latter, a member of one of the noblest families in Eome, with the party of Carbo ; or whether indeed he may not have been chosen by the most moderate citizens, as a man who might temper the violences of the times : and have been tolerated by the popular party on account of his want of the vigour and ability which might have made him dangerous to them. But C. Norbanus was a consid such as Carbo might have most desired. We have already noticed his seditious tribuneship, during which, at his instigation, a riot broke out at the trial of Q. C^pio, and the condemnation of the prisoner was pro- cured by actual force. For this crime he was accused by P. Sulpi- cius,^ who was destined, at no remote period, to tread in his foot- steps : he was defended by M. Antonius, whose murder, some years afterwards, might have been justified by the very arguments which he himself, on this occasion, taught the people to approve. It was against these consuls that Sylla now led his army irom Greece. All his preparations were completed, his health was fully re-established, and the devotion of his troops had been just proved, by their taking an oath to abide by him when they should be landed in Italy,^ and by their offering to raise, among themselves, a supply of money for his use. With soldiers so attached to him, and inured as they were to war, his force was far stronger than the proportion of his numbers seemed to promise ; and though it is said that he landed in Italy with no more than forty thousand men,* while more than two hundred thousand were in arms against him, he might yet fairly calculate on meeting his enemies with at least an equal chance of victory. 1 Li-vy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxiv. 2 Cicero, de Oratore, lib. ii. c. 49. 3 Plutarch, in Sylia, c. 27. ^ Veil. Pateroulus, lib. ii. c. 48 ; Appian c. 79. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIDS COENELinS SYLLA. 451 The expedition set sail from Patra;, in Achgea/ and arrived in b.c. 84. safety at Brundusium. The inhabitants of that town received Sylla syua lanas without opposition, and he immediately began to move forwards. '" ^"''^' On his march through Calabria and Apulia,^ his army observed the strictest discipline ; and his conduct thus confirmed his professions, that he was ever ready to hsten to fair conditions of peace. It is said, that he sent deputies to the camp of Norbanus, to propose a negotiation,' and that it was not till they had been insulted and outraged, that he commenced his military operations. He fell upon Norbanus, who was encamped in the neighbourhood of Capua, and defeated him with considerable loss. Over the other consul, L. Scipio, he obtained a still more decisive advantage. With him, too, he offered to treat, and commissioners from the two armies actually met to deliberate on the terms to be agreed upon.* Of the particu- lars which foUowed, contradictory accounts are given by different writers, none of whom are of sufficient authority to be confidently followed. The result, however, admits of no dispute ; the soldiers of the consular army were corrupted by those of Sylla,' and, at last, leaving L. Scipio and his son alone in the general's tent, they went over in a body to the enemy. Sylla then attempted to open a communi- cation with the army of Norbanus ; but finding that his design was suspected, and that no answer was returned to his proposals, he continued to advance towards Eome, and then, for the first time, began to lay waste the country through which he passed. He was not, however, yet in a condition to approach the capital; where Carbo's influence prevailed so far as to procure a decree of the people,* declaring all those who had joined Sylla to be pubho enemies. This denunciation was not issued on light grounds ; for the nobUity were flocking, on aU sides, to the camp of the invader ; and Q. Metellus had joined him with such troops as still adhered to him, and was zealously co-operating with him in the conduct of the war. It was at this time that On. Pompeius, the son of the late pro- is joined ly consul of that name, first made his appearance as a pubho character. i'°™P<'y- After the death of his father, and the estabhshment of Cinna's power at Eome, he had retired into Picenum,' where he possessed some property, and where his father's memory, hated as it was by the Eomans, was regarded with respect and affection. To account for this, we must suppose, that during the long period of his military command in that neighbourhood, he had prevented his soldiers from being burdensome to the people, and had found means of obhging 1 Appian, o. 79. ^ Paterculus, c. 49. 3 Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxv. * Cicero, Philippic. 12, c. 11. 5 Plutarch, in Sylia, c. 28 ; Appian, t. 85 ; Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxv. 8 Appian, o. 86. J Plutarch, in Pompeio, i;. 6 ; Pateroul. u. 53 ; Appian, c. 80. 452 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [chap. XXI. B.C. 84. or gratifying some of the principal inhabitants. Be this as it may, his son possessed so much influence in Picenum, partly hereditary and partly personal, that he prevailed on the people to drive away the officers sent among them by Carbo to enhst soldiers for the support of his cause ; and succeeded himself in raising an army of three legions, or about sixteen or seventeen thousand men. With this force, having obtained also the necessary supplies for its main- tenance from the zeal of the Picentes, he set out to join SyUa. He was at this time only twenty-three years of age, and had never filled any office in the state ; but his appearance at the head of an army so collected, announced him as a young man of more than ordinary promise ; and SyUa, as we are told, received him with the most flattering marks of distinction. Whilst both parties were endeavouring to strengthen their forces, the season for action gradually passed away, and the armies mutu- ally went into winter quarters. So imperfect are our accounts of this famous war, that we cannot tell how far Sylla had penetrated, nor what positions were occupied by him during the winter. His progress, however, had been such as to fill his antagonists with alarm : Carbo, therefore, caused himself to be appointed consul for the following year,' and selected, as his colleague, C. Marius the younger, the nephew and adopted son of the famous Marius, and who already, at the early age of twenty, seemed to have inherited all his father's wickedness. The winter was long and severe, and detained the armies on both sides for a considerable time in a state of inaction. Carbo mean- while chose Cisalpine Gaul as his province,^ and thus reserved the country to the north of Rome for the scene of his operations ; while Marius lay between the capital and the main army of SyUa, on the confines perhaps of Latium and Campania. It was about this time that SyUa, to quiet the suspicions of the Italian aUies,^ who were afraid that he would rescind the concessions made to them during the ascendency of Cinna, issued a declaration that he would respect aU the privileges which they actuaUy enjoyed ; and on these terms concluded, as we are told, a treaty with them. But whether the Samnites were not among those to whom his promise extended, or whether they distrusted his sincerity, and thought they might do better by adhering to their old cause, it is plain that they were amongst his most determined enemies, and, as we shaU see presently, did more than any of their confederates to render his victory doubt- ful. On the part of SyUa, Q. MeteUus was opposed to Carbo on the side of Tuscany,* and after having gained an advantage over one of his Ueutenants, was so hard pressed by the consul himself, that Cn. ConsuJsliip of Carbo and the Younger Marius. 1 Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxvi. ; Appian, c. 87. 2 Cicero, in Verrem, lib. i. c. 13. * ! * Appian, c. 87 ; Plutarch, in Pompeio, e. 8. Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxvi. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 453 Pompeius, or as his celebrity has caused his name to be Anglicized, B.C. 84. Pompey, was sent to support him ; and these two commanders togedier kept the fortune of the war in suspense. To the south of Rome, Sylla first -took the town of Setia;' and Marius retreating sy)ia takes before him in the direction of Prseneste, halted at a place called ^''"''' Saoriportum, situated apparently between Prasneste and Setia, and there drew out his army in order of battle. Sylla instantly proceeded to attack him, encouraged, as it is said, by a dream,^ which had visited him in the preceding night, and which had named the ensu- ing day as fatal to the family of Marius. The enemy had broken up the roads, and raised such obstacles to his march, that his soldiers, in their exertions to remove them, were worn down with fatigue, and many of them threw themselves on the ground, with their heads resting on their shields, to seek relief in sleep. It was in vain to persist in forcing them to action under these circumstances : and Sylla, however reluctant to contradict his dream, issued the order to halt, and to begin the usual works for the formation of a camp. But whilst his men were busied in digging the trench, the enemy's Battle of cavalry rode up, and began to annoy them ; till, irritated into an in^ch"™' entire forgetfulness of their fatigues, they at once left their work, Marius the and rushed on sword in hand to revenge the insults that had been defeated by offered to them. Their vehemence, however, might have proved ^^^ „„ fatal to themselves, had the soldiers of Marius done their duty : but on the fi.rst impression made by the assailants on the adverse line, five cohorts of infantry and two troops of cavalry deserted their standards,^ and joined the hostile army ; and this act of treachery presently decided the fate of the battle. The whole Marian army fled, and was pursued with great slaughter : the fugitives sought a shelter in Prasneste ; but the victors followed them so closely, that it became necessary to shut the gates in haste, and to exclude the greatest number of them, and even Marius himself was drawn up by ropes thrown down to him from the top of the wall.* Thus exposed to the swords of their conquerors, twenty thousand of them were said by Sylla, to have been slain, and eight thousand made prisoners ;° while he acknowledged on his own side no greater loss than that of twenty-three men. It was only a short time before the battle of Sacriportum, that the Massacre _^^^ heads of the popular party added their last and most horrible act to Eome by the numerous provocations, which were soon to be so mercilessly ^^^^f ** repaid. At the commencement of the campaign, Marius had fixed Marius. on Praeneste as the pivot of operations," and as the intended refuge and bulwark of his partisans, in case they should be defeated in the field. The situation of the town was naturally strong, ' Appian, c. 87. ^ Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 28. 3 Appian, c. 87. * Ibid. 6 As quoted by Plutarch, in Sylja, u. 28. " Patercuius, c. 50. 454 LUCIUS CORNEOUS STLLA. [chap. XXI. B.C. 82. as it was built on the side of a projecting eminence,' connected only by one narrow ridge with that chain of lulls, which rise immediately from the Campagna or great plain of Rome, at the distance of about twenty mUes from the capital. Standing on the edge of this plain, [Remains of Prajneste.] Prseneste is a conspicuous object from the walls of the eternal city; and a strong army occupying this position, might greatly impede or endanger the approach of an enemy towards the capital from the side of Campania. Marius, therefore, had strengthened the place to the utmost, by the assistance of art; and had carried thither the treasure of all the temples in Rome,^ to be converted into money for the payment of his soldiers. But the advance of Sylla stiU gave him considerable alarm ; and fearing that the aristocratical party in the capital might yet be able to exert itself with effect, should Sylla continue his progress, he sent instructions to L. Damasippus,' at that time prater, to assemble the senate in the Curia Hostilia. When the members were met together, the avenues leading to the spot were secured by armed men, and the individuals most obnoxious to the popular leaders were then marked out to be massacred. Pubhus Antistius, the father-in-law of Pompey,* and C. Papirius Carbo, a relation of the consul, and the son of that Carbo who had shared in the proceedings of the Gracchi,' were murdered in the senate-house. L. Domitius was killed in endeavouring to escape ; of him little else is known, but that his name and noble family were likely to render him an object of suspicion to the enemies of the aristocracy. But the most distinguished victim was Q. Mucius Scsevola, the Pontifex Maximus ; who had earned the purest and the rarest glory of any of his contemporaries, by his virtuous administration of his province of 1 Strabo, lib. v. p. 261. = Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii. c. 1. ' Livy, Epitom. lib. Ixxxvi. ; Patercul. o. 60. * Plutarch, in Pompeio, c. 9. ^ Cicero, ad Familiar, lib. is. epist. 21. de Claris Orator, o. 60. CHAP. XXI.] LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 455 Asia. Having brought home with him a character of spotless B.C. integrity and benevolence, he stained it by no subsequent acts of infamy ; his name is charged with no participation in the crimes of either party; but he continued to reside at Rome, and to make himself generally useful to all who asked his advice, by his unrivalled knowledge of the civil law. Though bound by iDirth, and station, and connections, to the cause of the aristocracy, and although the attempt made on his life by Fimbria, at the funeral of the elder Marius, might have warned him of the danger to which his virtues exposed him under the sway of the most profligate of mankind, he yet had refused to quit Eome, or to choose any part in the civil war, declaring that he would rather die than take up arms against his countrymen. !Marius, however, was bent upon his destruction ; and the soldiers of Damasippus advancing to murder him, he fled to the temple of Vesta,' and was overtaken and [Haedes Testae.— Temple of Vesta.] butchered even within the sacred ground. His body, together with those of Domitius, Carbo, and Antistius, was thrown into the Tiber ; and by this murder of the most virtuous of citizens, it was hoped that the ascendency of the Marii, the Carbones, and the Norbani might yet be maintained. But the issue of the battle of Sacriportum rendered this massacre as fruitless as it was detestable. Marius, the author of it, was now 1 Ibid, de Natnra Deorum, lib. iii. c. 32. 456 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [chap. XXL B.C. 82. Sylla recovers Rome, and obliges Carbo and Norbanus to fly from Italy. The Samnites, with the remains of of the Marian party, attack Kome. blocked up in Prseneste ; and the road to the capital being left open, Sylla advanced towards it ■ndth one part of his army, while the other part, under the command of Lucretius Ofella,' was pressing the siege of Prffineste. Rome received her new master without a struggle ; and he who had so lately been regarded as an outlawed rebel, being now in possession of the seat of government, was in a condition to retort the charge of rebeUion on his antagonists. He immediately ordered their property to be confiscated ; and having then left the city to the care of some of his partisans, he again took the field, and hastened to Clusium in order to superintend the operations of the war in Tuscany and the north of Italy.^ His arms were attended with equal success in every quarter : his lieutenants, Metellus Pius, Pompey, M. Crassus, M. Lucullus, and others, signaHzed themselves by several victories over Carbo and his adherents ; and in proportion as the Marian party seemed declining, it suffered more and more fi:om the treachery of its own members. Not only did the common soldiers often desert in large bodies to the enemy, but Albinovanus,' an officer of considerable rank, purchased his pardon fi:om Sylla, by contriving the assassination of several of his colleagues in command ; and Verres, on whom the eloquence of Cicero has bestowed such an infamous celebrity, and who was at this time quKstor in Carbo's army, abandoned his general,* and carried off with him a consider- able portion of the money committed to his charge for the maintenance of the consul's forces. Attempts had been made in vain to raise the blockade of Prajneste : and in this state of their affairs, Norbanus, being left almost alone at Ariminum by the desertion of his troops,* escaped by sea to Rhodes ; while Carbo gave up the command of the army which he still possessed in Tuscany, and withdrew with some of his friends into Africa, hoping there to be able to renew the con- test, and to obtain the assistance of Hiarbas the king of Mauritania. At this late period of the war, when the victory of the aristocrat- ical party seemed decided, one desperate effort was made to wrest it fi'om them, which had well nigh altered the history of the world. The Samnites and Lucanians, alone of all the people of Italy, had not forgotten their own national grounds of hostility towards the Roman government ; and whUst they supported the party of Marius against SyUa, they intended to make their assistance subservient to their own views, rather than to sink into the mere adherents of one of the factions of Rome. Durmg the advance of Sylla, their armies rested securely amid their own mountains, and had seen the defeat of Marius at Sacriportum, and the blockade of the remnant of his forces in Prseneste, without exerting their main strength in his behalf. Possibly they beheld without regret every field of battle 1 Appian, c. 88. 2 ibid. o. 89. "* Cicero, in Verrem, lib. i. c. 13, et seq. ^ Appiai], 0. 91, 92 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxiii. = Ibid. 0. 91. CHAP. XXl.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 457 covered with Eoman dead; and may have rejoiced in the hope, that, b.c. 82. when both parties were exhausted by mutual slaughter, they might themselves arise to wrest from their weakened hands the prize for which they were contending. But now, when the rapid victories of SyUa threatened them with a speedy termination of the civil war, their generals, Pontius Telesinus and M. Lamponius, saw that it was necessary for them to take a decisive part; and before Carbo and Norbanus had left Italy, the Samnites and Lucanians had endeavoured to relieve Prseneste,^ but were unable to force the strong positions occupied by the blockading army. StiU they lingered in the neigh- bourhood, hoping that some opportunity might arise to facilitate the execution of their object. Meantime Carbo had retired to Africa, and the army which he had forsaken had sustained a bloody defeat at Clusium from Pompey; so that the remaining generals of the popular party, Carinas, Marcius, and L. Damasippus, the agent in the late massacre at Rome, resolved as their last hope, to effect a junction with the Samnites and Lucanians, and then to attempt once more to deliver Marius and his garrison. The armies were united, and the attempt was made, but still in vain ; when the confederate generals conceived the plan of falling suddenly upon Rome, which they thought to find stripped of troops, and utterly unprovided with means to withstand their assault. At this very time they were threatened at once by two armies, that of Sylla on one side, and that of Pompey on the other ; yet hoping to win the capital before their purpose could be discovered, they broke up from their camp in the night, hastened towards Rome, and halted tiU morning ^ at the distance of httle more than a mile from the CoUine gate. Battle at the Day dawned, and discovered to the Romans the imlooked for sight CoUine gate. of the Samnite and Lucanian army. Some parties of cavalry, con- sisting of the flower of the youth of the city, immediately sallied to observe and to check the enemy ; but they were routed and driven back within their walls with severe loss. The panic then rose to the greatest height, when L. Balbus arrived with an advanced guard of seven hundred cavalry from SyUa's army ; and hardly allowing his horses a moment's respite, he led them at once into action. SyUa himself followed soon afler ; he was well aware of the urgency of the danger, and had hurried with the utmost speed in pursuit of the Samnites, as soon as he learnt their object. His men were greatly fatigued, and his officers pressed him to postpone the action, for it was now late in the afternoon of a November day ; but he refused to listen to them, and having ordered his men to eat their dinners as fast as they arrived from their march, he sent them to engage the enemy successively. Telesinus, on his part, forgetting his character as a partisan of Marius, and feeling only as Samnite general, rode 1 Appian, o. 90, 92. 2 Plutarch in Sylla, c. 29. 458 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XXI. B.C. 82. Victory of SyUa, at the Porta Collina, Nov. 1. Sylla commences his ma.ssacres. The Samnite Prisoners Murdered. along the raiiks repeatedly exclaiming,' that this was the last day of the Roman empire ; and calling to his soldiers to piill down, to destroy the city, for that those wolves, who had so long ravaged Italy, could only be extirpated by rooting up the wood which used to shelter them. At length M. Crassus, who commanded the right wing of SyUa's army, routed the left of the enemy,^ and pursued them as far as Antemnse ; but the wmg which was led by Sylla in person, in spite of all the eiforts of its general, was driven back under the walls of Eome, and was pursued even to the gates of the city. The gates were hastily closed to prevent the Samnites from entering together with the fugitives ; and the Eomans, thus obliged to defend themselves, continued the action till some time after it was dark, although with Uttle hope of resisting effectually. Nay, so great was the general panic, that some of Sylla's soldiers flying from the field arrived at the hues before Prseneste, and urged Lucretius Ofella, who commanded the blockading army, to raise the siege, and hasten to the rescue of his general and his country. Night at last stopped the engagement, and the Romans believed themselves com- pletely defeated ; when, about an hour after the close of the action, an officer arrived from M. Crassus, with the tidings of his success, and requiring supplies of provisions to be sent to him at Antemnse. It then appeared that the enemy's loss had been even greater than that of Sylla ; and the morning displayed more fully the real issue of the contest. Telesinus had fallen, and his soldiers, discouraged by his death and by the terrible slaughter of the battle, had abandoned the field, and had begun to retreat in all directions. Sylla then, to lose no time in improving his victory, set out at an early hour, and immediately joined Crassus at Antemnse. The Roman writers, whose accounts of these times remain to us, after following Sylla thus far in his career, and sympathizing in his victories over the popular party, all concur in turning away with unmingled abhorrence from his conduct after the decision of the struggle. One act of cruelty indeed follows another so rapidly in this part of his life, that a complete picture of his character cannot be drawn without satiating the reader wdth details of spoliation, and outrage, and massacre. On his arrival at Antemnse, three thousand of the enemy sent to implore his mercy,'* which he promised them, if they would deserve it by helping him to execute vengeance on their associates. Thus encouraged, they fell upon another party of fugitives from their own army, and began to cut them to pieces ; and then surrendered themselves to Sylla, to receive his promised pardon. But they, with all the other prisoners taken after the battle, amounting together to eight thousand men, were conveyed to Eome, and orders were issued by SyUa that they should aU be ^ Velleius Paterculus, u. 51. 2 Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 29, 30. 3 n^i^ (,_ 30, CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 459 put to the sword. The men thus doomed to be slaughtered were B.C. 82. uot the instruments of former massacres and proscriptions, wretches whose pmiishment, however shocking, might yet have worn the appearance of an awful retribution ; but they were mostly Samnite soldiers,' who had fought fairly against the Eomans in the field, and who were now to be sacrificed to the same atrocious policy which, in former times, had murdered their heroic countryman, C. Pontius; which had driven Hannibal, in old age and exile, to end his life by suicide ; which had exercised every extremity of unmanly cruelty against the brave citizens of Kumantia, and against the rival people of Carthage. In the meantime, while the massacre was perpetrating, SyUa, having returned to Eome, had assembled the senate in the temple of BeUona," and was beginning to address the members upon the state of the republic. The cries of his victims mingled with his first words, and the senators started with horror at the sound ; but he, with an unmoved countenance, desired them to hsten to him, and not to concern themselves with what was passing elsewhere ; what they heard was the correction bestowed by his orders on a few disturbers of the pubhc peace. On the following day, Marcius and Carinas, two of the Eoman ofiicers who had joined the Samnite army previously to their attack on Rome, were taken in their flight, and being brought before Sylla, were by his orders put to death, and their heads, with the head of Telesinus, were sent to Lucretius OfeUa before Prasneste,' with directions that they should be carried around the walls of the town, to inform the besieged of the fate of their expected deliverers. One signal act of justice was performed by Sylla at this time. ^ Ferguson has ventured to describe those who were thus murdered, as " six or eight thousand of those who were supposed to have been the busiest instruments of the late usurpations and murders," who had been "talcen prisoners in the war, or surprised in the city." It is not easy to say where Ferguson found his authority for this statement, as he appeals to no ancient writer to justify it ; but it is a most blameable misrepresentation, to use the lightest term, as far as it labours to give a colour of retributive justice to a massacre dictated by mere policy and national hatred. In particular the words, " or surprised in the city," are inserted especially to palliate Sylla's conduct, in complete opposition to the truth. That the men who were murdered were soldiers, taken in battle, is the concurrent account of every writer whom we have been able to consult; and as it is a point of some importance, the references, by which any reader, who has means and inclination, may satisfy himself, are here subjoined. Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxviii. ; Anctor de Viris illustribus, in Sylla; Florus, lib. iii. c. '21; Valerius Maximus, lib. ix. c. 2; Seneca, de Beneficiis, lib. v. o. 16. All these writers agree in the fact, that the men who were massacred were sol- diers, and soldiers who had surrendered themselves to the conqueror. Seneca's words are as follows : " Legiones duas, quod crudele est, post victoriam ; quod nefas, post fidem, in angulum congestas contrucidavit." In addition to these testimonies, Strabo declares that the victims were mostly Samnites, lib. v. p. 271, edit. Xyland, and Appian agrees with him, lib. i. o. 93, as does also Plutarch, in Sylla, c. 29, 30. 2 Seneca, de dementia, lib. i. c. 12. ' Appian, c. 93 ; Pateroulus, c. 51. 460 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 82. whicli was received with general satisfaction. L. Daraasippus,' the murderer of Mucius Sca3vola, had been taken after the late battle, and was instantly put to death. So great, indeed, were the crimes with which the chiefs of the Marian party were loaded, that men became reconciled to executions from the pleasure with which they I'egarded the fate of these flagrant offenders. But they soon were taught, that the wickedness of the sufferer ought never to lessen our hatred of bloody and illegal acts of vengeance. Numerous victims were every day murdered ; some by SyUa's own order ; but many more were sacrificed to the rapaciousness or personal enmities of his adherents,^ whose excesses he took no pains to suppress. At last he was entreated to relieve the commonwealth from its present state of suspense, by assuring of their pardon those whom he did not intend to destroy ; but one of his own retainers gave a different turn to this request,' by asking him only to name those whom he had marked out for punishment. Sylla answered, that he would do so ; The and immediately published his first hst of proscriptions, containing Mste a?!''™' the names of eighty individuals who were to be put to death ; to puwished by this, on the following day, he added two hundred and twenty names more ; and again, on the third day, the fatal list was increased by an equal number. " These," said Sylla to the people, " are all that I can at present remember ; if I recollect any others who must be punished, I will proscribe their names hereafter." It soon appeared that he had good reason to stipulate thus for the further gratifica- tion of his vengeance. In proportion as he extended his massacres, reasons would arise for perpetually adding new victims to the cata- logue of the proscribed ; and the more he became deserving of a future retaliation upon himself and his party, the more anxious was he to rid himself of every person who might be likely to assist in effecting it. But it was the most dreadful part of this proscription that, by establishing the reign of wild and unbridled violence, and by trampling under foot not only the laws of the commonwealth, but even the most lax of all the restraints which men under a low system of morals still imposed on themselves, it emboldened every meaner criminal to participate in the license of which the present master of the repubhc set so large an example. The meanest office, in ordinary times, is obtained from a government, by its retainers, with less ease, than Sylla's followers could gain from their leader Mui-der of Q. the gifit of innocent blood. It is mentioned that one Q. Aiu-ehus,* an inoffensive individual, who had never mingled in pohtical quar- rels, stopped one day in the Forum to read the hst of the pro- scribed, and found his own name among the number. " Wretch that I am," he exclaimed, "my Alban viUa is my death;" and ' Sallust, Catilina, c. 51. 2 pi„taroh, in Sylia, c. 31 ; Sallust, Catilina, c. 51. '■> Plutarch, in Sylla, o. 31. * Ibid. CHAP, xxi.] LUCIUS COENELIUS STLLA. 461 before he had gone far irom the spot, he was followed, overtaken, B.C. 82. and murdered. Nor were these scenes confined to the neighbour- hood of Eome, but extended over the whole of Italy. All who had rendered any assistance to the Marian party,' who had carried arms in their cause, or had supplied them with money ; nay, those who had held any communication, even in the commonest civilities of life, with the enemies of Sylla, were exposed to the vengeance of the conquerors. It is natural to suppose, that subordinate officers, commanding in remote provinces, would exceed the wishes of their chief, and would gratiiy their cupidity or their cruelty with less scruple. We ai-e told that M. Crassus,^ who was employed in Bruttium, proscribed a wealthy individual, without SyUa's orders, in order to get possession of his fortune ; and that Sylla, being informed of the fact, would never afterwards commit to Crassus any post of importance. But if this be so, Crassus might fairly com- plain of his HI fortune, for he had done no more than was practised by almost every one in similar circumstances ; and these super- numerary crimes heightened stiU more the horrors of the original proscription. Murders, it is said, were sometimes perpetrated even in the presence of SyUa himself,' when some of the victims, condemned by his proscription, endeavoured to save themselves by a direct appeal to his mercy, and were slain in his sight by their pursuers, who never found any interruption to their work from any touch of compunction in his nattu-e. His doors were beset with the execu- tioners of his orders, who flocked thither with the heads of those whom they had mxurdered, to claim from him the promised reward : and it is said, that this sight so awakened the indignation of M. J°^s'^**'°" Cato,* who, being then a boy, was taken, by his tutor, to visit Sylla, that he could not forbear asking for a sword, with which he might himself despatch the tyrant. Yet, on one memorable occasion, the remorseless nature of Sylla listened to the intercession of his friends, and spared a man, whom, if he could have looked into futurity, he would, above all others, have desired to destroy. C. Julius Cjesar,' then quite a young man, had married the daughter of Cinna, and, durimg the ascendency of his father-in-law, had been designed to fill the office of Flamen of Jupiter. He was further connected with the popular party through the marriage of Julia, his father's sister, vrith the elder Marius ; yet, although thus doubly obnoxious to the vic- torious party, he reftised to comply with the commands of Sylla to divorce his wife ; and being exposed, in consequence, to his resent- ment, he fled from Eome, and baffled all attempts upon his life, partly by conceahng himself, and partly by bribing the officer sent to kiU him, till Sylla was prevailed upon, according to Suetonius, to 1 Appian, c. 96. ^ piutarch, in Crasso, o. 6. » Appian. c. 95. 4 Hutarch, in Catone, c. 3. ^ Suetonius, in C. J, C^sar, o. 1. 462 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XXL PrjEneste, death of the youngeT" Marius, and massacre of the Prfenestines. B.C. 82. spare him at the entreaty of some common friends. A story -was afterwards common, that Sylla did not pardon him without great rekictance ; and that he told those who sued in his behalf, that in Caesar there were many Mariuses. Had he indeed thought so, his was not a temper to have yielded to any supplications to save him ; nor would any considerations have induced him to exempt from destruction one from whom he had apprehended so great a danger. Surrender of Soon after the defeat of the Samnites before Eome, the garrison of Prsneste surrendered. Marius attemped to escape from the town by a subterranean passage, communicating with the open country ; ' but his flight was intercepted, and he fell, either by the hands of the enemy's soldiers, or, according to the more common account, by the sword of his own slave, whom he requested to perform this last service. His head was brought to Rome, and presented to Sylla, who ordered it to be exposed in front of the rostra in the forum ; and as if his triumph were now complete, he assumed to himself, from henceforward, the title of Felkc, or the Fortunate. He might have justly claimed this title, says Paterculus, if his hfe had not been prolonged beyond the hour which thus crowned his victory. Imme- diately on the surrender of Prseneste, Lucretius Ofella put to death several senators whom he found in the town,^ and detained others in custody, to wait Sylla's decision on their iate. Sylla soon arrived, and having first ordered the execution of all whom OfeUa had arrested, and selected from the whole number of his prisoners, some few whom he thought deserving of mercy, he divided all the rest into three parties, one consisting of Eomans, another of Samnites, and a third of the citizens of Pr^neste. To the first he said, that though they deserved death, he nevertheless gave them their lives ; but the other two divisions were indiscriminately massacred, to the number, as is said, of twelve thousand persons. The women and children were then dismissed, with what prospect of future provision we know not ; and the town was given up to plunder. In like manner the towns of Spoletum, Interamna, Fluentia, Suhno, Norba, Arretium, and Ariminum were plundered,^ and deprived of their privileges, and their inhabitants were either sold for slaves or massacred. But the Samnites felt the heaviest weight of the con- queror's vengeance : for not satisfied with the slaughter of so many thousands of them in cold blood, both at Eome and at PrKueste, he seemed bent on the utter extirpation of the whole people ; and his subsequent proscriptions destroyed or compelled to emigrate so large a proportion of them, that in Strabo's time the ancient cities of Samnium had either been reduced entirely to ruins,* or were dwindled to the rank of mere villages. 1 Paterculus, c. 61 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixsxviii. - Appian, c. 94. 3 Floms, lib. iii. o. 21; Appian, c. 94; Cicero, in Verrem, lib. i. o. 14, pro Ciecina, o. 33. 4 Strabo, lib. v. p. 272. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. 463 Italy had been filled with murders and devastations from one B.C. 82, end to the other, while the author of them was as yet uninvested Deaths of with any legal authority. His partisans, however, were everywhere Norbams. inflicting as summary vengeance upon his enemies, as if he had been the lawful sovereign of Eome. C. Norbanus, who had fled to Ehodes,' finding that he was proscribed, and fearmg that he might be arrested by Sylla's order, even in this remote exile, kUled himself Carbo, after ha-v-mg abandoned Italy, had fled first to Africa ; ^ but hearing that some attempts were making to rally his party in Sicily, he crossed over to that island, leaving the command in Africa to Cn. Domitius. But his hopes were blasted by the arrival of Pompey, who, having been despatched to Sicily by an order of the senate, soon crushed the beginnings of resistance there, and obhged Carbo again to fly to the neighbouring island of Cossura. He was pursued, however, and taken, and brought as a prisoner to LilybsBum, where Pompey then was. It is said that his treatment was that of a common ' criminal ; that he was brought before the tribunal where Pompey sat as judge, and, after undergoing a short examination, was ordered away to immediate execution. By his death, added to that of Marius, the repubhc was left without consuls ; and the senate accordingly appointed L. Valerius Flaccus to be interrex,'' that he might hold the Comitia for the elections of the ensuing year. But the interrex, having received instructions from SyUa, instead of proceeding to the election of consuls, moved, that the oflSlce of dictator, which had been disused almost since the time of Q. Pabius Maximus, should now be revived, and mtrusted to the hands of Sylla ; proposing besides, that it should be given him for an unlunited period, till he should have restored the affairs of the commonwealth to a state of tranquUhty and security. Nor was L. Flaccus contented with investing SyUa with absolute power for the future ; but he proposed further, that all his acts up to the present time should be ratified ; * thus giving the sanction of law to aU his proscriptions and confiscations. The senate and people, however, felt that resistance was hopeless, and agreeing to both the proposed laws, SyUa was named dictator, and Syliais L. Flaccus was by him appointed his master of the horse. Having pe?petSi thus secured all real power to himself, Sylla was stiU vrilling that the Dictator, year should be marked as usual by the names of two consuls ; and, accordingly, M. TuUius Decula and Cn. Cornehus Dolabella were selected to wear the titles of the consular office. In this manner the liberties of Eome were surrendered into the hands of a man, whose utter contempt of his fellow-creatures seemed to promise a dreadful exercise of that absolute power with which he was now in some sort legally invested. His dominion however did ' Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxix. 2 Appian, lib. i. c. 95, 96 ; Li\'y, Epitome, lib. Ixxxix ; Plutarch, in Pompeio, o. 10. 3 Appian, c. 98. * Cicero, de Lege Agraria, iii. c. 2. 464 Lucins coenelius sylla. [chap. xxi. B.C. 82. not extend over the whole space of the Roman empire. In Asia, the war with Mithridates, which had been imperfectly smothered by the treaty concluded just before Sylla's arrival in Italy, was now again breaking out ; and in Africa the native force of Mauritania, always destined to assist the unsuccessful pai'ty in the civil wars of Kome, was supporting C. Domitius, and the last remains of the Marian fugitives from Italy, and was preparing to resist the arms of Pompey, to whom the task of estabUshing Sylla's authority was intrusted. But the most formidable enemy of the new government was to be found in Spain. Thither Q. Sertorius had retired after the first successes of Sylla over the consuls Scipio and Norbanus ; and there he had organised a force, insignificant indeed at present, in its actual strength, but which became, by the extraordinary abihties of its general, an invincible obstacle for many years to the complete triumph of the aristocratical party. In Italy, however, the power of the dictator was undisputed: there a series of battles, massacres, and proscriptions, had almost annihilated the popular cause; and the commonwealth lay subdued and exhausted, incapable of resisting any remedies which Sylla might think proper to administer, in order to correct the evils from which it had suffered, and to infuse into it a principle of future health and vigour. Laws of It is a most certain truth, that the leader of a victorious faction Sylla. g^^ never safely be intrusted with the task of reforming that which is faulty in the constitution of his country, and least of all when he has committed acts so violent as those of SyUa, in humbling the party of his opponents. The eyes of the dictator were blind to all grievances, except those under which the interests of his own friends had suffered : while he attributed all the disorders of the common- wealth to the turbulence and inordinate authority of the popular assembly and the tribunes. The great object of his measures, accordingly, was to strengthen the senate and the aristocracy, and to weaken the democratical part of the constitution. For this purpose he transferred the judicial power, which had been so often the subject of dispute,^ from the hands of the equestrian order to the senate. He deprived the tribunes of the right of proposing laws,^ and made it illegal for any one who had filled the office of tribune to be afterwards elected to any other magistracy. He increased the number of the pontifices and augurs,^ and, repealing the law of Domitius, which had left the appointment of them to the people, he restored to them their ancient right of fiUing up the vacancies in their own body. He selected the most distinguished individuals of the 1 VeU. Patercul. lib. ii. 2 Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxix.; Appian. de Bell. Civili, lib. i. o. 100 ; C«sar, de Bell. Civili, lib. i. c. 4, 6 ; Cicero, de Legibus, lib. iii. c. 9 ; Lepidi Oratio, Sallust. 3 Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxix. ; Cicero, Agrar. cent. RuU. ii. c. 7 ; Dion Cassius, lib. xxxvii. p. 46 ; edit. Leunclar. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS COENELIUS STLLA. 465 equestrian order to recruit the numbers of the senate,-' -which had B.C. 82. been greatly thinned by the civO wars and proscriptions ; and he Seierts pretended to subject the persons, whom he thus named, to the from the approval or rejection of the assembly of the tribes. Added to these ^i"*'^'*- were a great variety of statutes, some amending and strengthening the code of criminal laws, others providing for the better adminis- tration of the provinces, and others again tending to promote the general regularity and security of the government. In these points, where the interest of the repubhc did not interfere with any personal or party views of the legislator, his wisdom and escperience suggested to him regulations which were really excellent. Of his criminal His criminal laws, one was directed against forgeries of wUls or any other instru- ^™^' ments,^ and against coining or adulterating money; and its object was partly, perhaps, to determine more carefuUy the penalty for such offences, and also, in the case of forgeries, to render them pubhc crimes, for which any individual might lawfully prosecute. Another law, or rather another clause of the same law, denounced punishment against murders,^ whether committed by poison or by actual violence ; and a third clause rendered it criminal in any magistrate or senator to have conspired or concurred in procuring the condemnation of a citizen in a court of justice.* When we find so many various provisions comprehended in one statute, and many of them relating to the first and most natural subjects of criminal legislation, we might be apt to wonder how such enactments could be needed when the commonwealth had subsisted nearly seven himdred years, and must have possessed sufficient laws on all such points for many generations before the time of Sylla. But it seems that in all half-civUized countries, and in governments which have often been disturbed by seditions and acts of violence, the time at which a law is considered obsolete commences early, and it soon ceases to regulate the proceedings of the courts of justice, unless it be sanctioned and renewed at certain intervals by the authority of a more recent statute. In this manner we know that Magna Charta was confirmed often after its first enactment in several successive reigns ; and thus, after such violent convulsions as the repubhc had lately sustained, Sylla might deem it expedient to repubhsh and confirm anew the existing laws, on all points which he considered of importance. With regard to the provinces, Sylla hmited the Regulations expenses allowed by the provincial cities to their deputies,* whom pro^nces. they were in the habit of sending to Eome at the end of every year to pronounce a compliment before the senate on the conduct of their late governor. He ordered also that every officer should leave his 1 Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxvix. ; Appian, lib. i. i;. 100. 2 Cicero, in Verrem, lib. i. c. 42. 3 Seneca, de Providenti4, c. 3 ; Cicero, pro Cluentio, o. 54. * Cicero, pro Cluentio, c. 54. * Ibid, ad Famihares, lib, in. epist. x. [r. H.] 2 H 466 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XXI. B.C. 82. province within thirty days after the arrival of his successor/ and for the better prevention of bribery, it was enacted, that if a magis- trate, condemned for this crime,^ should not have property sufficient to refund all that had been corruptly received, the deficiency might be recovered from any other person who had shared in his unjust gains, or to whom any portion of them had descended. The general security of the government was consulted in some provisions of the law of treason, which also derive their origia from SyUa. By these, all provincial governors were forbidden to lead an army out of their [Roman Governor, with Consular Ornaments —British Museum.'] province,' to carry on any war by their own authority, or to enter any foreign country without the orders of the senate and people, to endeavour to tamper with the soldiers of any other general, or to set at liberty any of the enemies of the republic. The last of these, indeed, was an offence of which SyUa could not be accused ; but he who had crossed over from his province into Italy, with his army, who had made war upon the existing government of his country, ^ Cicero, ad Familiar, lib. iii. epist. vi. • 6 ibid, pro Eabirio Postumo, c. 4. 1 Cicero, in Pisonem, c. 21, pro Cluentio, u. 35, in Verrem, lib. i. c. 5. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS CORtTBLIUS STLLA. 467 and who had seduced the soldiers of the consul Scipio to desert their b.c. 82. leader, had good reason to fear lest his own example should in turn be employed to his own disadvantage, and wisely desired to prevent others from imitating that conduct by which he himself had acquired the dictatorship. Such are the principal measures by which the new sovereign of Eome proposed to reform the defects of the existing order of things. It now remains to notice the price which the people had to pay for the benefits of his government. The property of all those whom he Situation had proscribed was declared to be forfeited to the state,^ and was pros^riied. ordered to be publicly sold before the calends of June. All persons, even near relations, were forbidden to support or to assist any who had been proscribed; and the children of the proscribed were excluded during their hves from the enjoyment of any public ofSce or magistracy. Nor was the forfeiture of property confined to those only whose names Sylla had actually inserted in the lists of proscrip- tion. A clause in his law de proscriptis was intended to provide for any omissions into which he might have fallen,^ by including amongst those who were to be stripped of their fortunes, all who had at any time been killed in any of the ports, garrisons, or lines of the adver- saries. Yet even this did not carry the evil to its fiiU extent. Long after the proscription-hsts had been closed,' and the war had been generally ended, Sextus Eoscius, a wealthy citizen of the town of Murder of Ameria, in Umbria, who had attached himself to the party of SyUa, ko^^us. was assassinated in the streets of Eome ; his property was sold, and was bought at a price far below its value by L. Chrysogonus, SyUa's freedman. A deputation was sent by the magistrates of Ameria to acquaint Sylla with the merits of the case, and to intercede for the son of the murdered Eoscius, who was thus deprived of his inheri- tance. But Chrysogonus, by his entreaties and assurances that he would satisfy their wishes, prevailed with them not to lay the affair before the dictator ; and he found also several persons among the nobility, whom he persuaded to join with him in the same request and the same promises. The promises, however, were never fulfilled; and the fortunes of Eoscius were divided between an individual of his own name, who was suspected of having procured his murder, and Chrysogonus, who was bribed with a share of the plunder to contrive and maintain the forfeiture. It is not Kkely that SyUa was ever aware of the particulars of this transaction ; but his indifference to the sufferings of his feUow-creatures, and his pride, which regarded mankind as unworthy of his notice, naturally emboldened his crea- tures to commit numberless crimes in his name ; and the fortunes acquired by his freedmen and low dependents, as they added the 1 Cicero, pro Eosoio Amerino, o.43, inVerrem, lib. i. c. 47, in Pisonem, c. 2; Veil. Patercul. lib. ii. c. 53. 2 Ibid, pro Eosoio Amerino, c. 43. ' Ibid, pro Eoscio Amerino, passim. 468 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [chap. XXL Lucretius Ofella slain. B.C. 82. severest pang to the sorrow and indignation of the people, so they are alone suiEcient to show how Httle of real patriotism or love of justice was mingled with the pretended reforms of SyUa. We are told by Appian that Sylla also passed a law/ by which all candidates for the pr»torship were obliged previously to have gone through the office of qusestor ; and no one could be elected consul without having before been prsetor. To this it was added, that a certain interval must pass before a man who had filled one magis- tracy could be again elected to another ; and he could not hold the same office a second time till after the expiration of ten years. But this law was dispensed with in favour of his own adherents ; as we find that L. Lucullus was appointed redile when absent from Eome, and immediately afterwards succeeded to the prsetorship.^ Possibly SyUa found it necessary to grant this indulgence to his own principal supporters ; for in one instance he had at first seemed resolved, in a remarkable manner, to enforce the law without distinction. Lucretius Ofella, who had commanded at the siege of Prseneste, offered himself as a candidate for the consulship,* without having been either prsetor or quKstor. Sylla commanded him to desist, and on his stUl continuing his canvass, ordered him to be slain by a centurion in the middle of the forum. The multitude instantly seized the centurion, and expressed great indignation at the outrage ; but SyUa summoning the people before him, told them that OfeUa had been put to death by his orders, and that the centurion must be released. Appian reports that he addressed the assembly on this occasion in a style characteristic of his deep contempt for those whom he governed. "A labourer, when at plough," said he, "was annoyed by vermin; and he twice stopped from his work, and picked them off his jacket. But finding himself bitten again, to spare himself any further trouble, he threw the jacket into the fire. Now I advise those whom I have twice conquered, not to obhge me the third time to try the fire." It was natural, however, that his chief officers should remonstrate strongly against such a precedent as the death of OfeUa ; and per- haps it was owing to his knowledge of their sentiments, that he afterwards especially exempted them from the restrictions of his general law. During the course of the year Pompey had completely destroyed all opposition to SyUa's government in Africa.* Hiarbas king of Mauritania, and Domitius his confederate, were defeated and slain : and Pompey, on his return to Eome, enjoyed the honour of a triumph, although he was not of senatorian ranlj, nor had ever filled any magistracy. B.C. 81. Wlien the nominal consulship of M. Tulhus Decula and Cn. Dola- bella was expired, SyUa, while still retaining the dictatorship, caused Victories of Pompey in Africa. ' Appian, c. 100. * Appian, c. 101. 2 Cicero, Academic, prior, lib. ii. *Livy, Epitome, lib. Ixxxis. CHAP. XXI.] LUCIUS COKNELIUS SYLLA. 469 himself and Q. Metellus Pius to be nominated as consuls for the b.c. 81. year following. It appears that amidst the general submission of Reduction^ Italy, two towns remained imsubdued up to this time : Nola in voiatemu. Campania, and Volaterrse in Tuscany. The first of these had never been completely reduced since the Itahan war : a Roman army had been employed against it at the period of SyUa's first consulship ; and again, when Cinna was driven from Rome by his colleague Octavius, it was to the camp before Nola that he first apphed for support, and in which his attack iipon the government was first organized. Our knowledge, however, of the fate of this town, after so long a resistance, is limited to the simple fact mentioned by the epitomizer of Livy, that SyUa reduced Nola. Volaterrse had been occupied by the remains of one of the Tuscan armies defeated by SyUa in the late war ; ' and numbers of Romans, who had been pro- scribed, escaping thither and uniting with them, a force was formed amounting to four cohorts, or about 2,400 men. The situation of this town resembled that of the hUl forts of India, or of those re- markable fortified heights which are to be seen rising in the midst of the valley close to Luxemburg. It was built on an insulated position of point rising abruptly on every side from a deep and narrow valley ; Voiaterra;. on the top was a flat surface of considerable extent, which the town itself occupied ; and the ascent was nearly two miles in length, and was everywhere rough and difficult. These natural advantages enabled the garrison to hold out for two years ; and their resistance led SyUa himself to take the field against them,^ and to preside in person at the siege. Even at last they would only surrender on a capitula- tion, by which they were allowed to leave the town unmolested ; while the vengeance of the conqueror fell only upon the inhabitants, whom he deprived of their lately acquired privilege of Roman citizen- ship. It is remarkable that this alone, of all his measures, was maintained to be illegal,' as exceeding even the power of the Roman people to authorize. The right of citizenship, according to Cicero, could never be taken away from any one ; and it is doubtful how far SyUa's laws on this subject were observed, even during his Hfe- time. Thus it is satisfactory to see, that the real and substantial rights acquired by the people of Italy survived the violence of the storm by which themselves and their party at Rome had been almost overwhelmed ; and amidst such a succession of crimes and miseries, the cause of true liberty had yet gained an advantage which it con- tinued permanently to enjoy. It is however seldom at this period of history that any thing violations favourable to human happiness offers itself to our notice. If the " "''^ privileges of Roman citizenship were secured to the Italians beyond the power of SyUa to take away, it was not so with their properties, 1 Strabo, lib. v. p. 246. ^ Cicero, pro Eoscio Amerino, c. 7, 37. s Ibid, pro Cajcina, c. 33, et, seq. 470 LUCIUS COENELIUS STLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 81. over which he exercised the most absolute dominion. Large tracts of land had been wrested from different cities,-' as well as from proscribed individuals; besides which there were considerable portions which had never been enclosed or appropriated; and of which SyUa now claimed the right to dispose as he thought proper. On all these he proceeded to settle the soldiers who had enabled him to attain to his present greatness. Their numbers are variously reported ; the epitomizer of Livy stating them at forty-seven legions, while Appian, with far greater probabOity, limits them to twenty- three. To make room for 115,000 new proprietors, — for such, at the lowest computation, would be the number of soldiers whom SyUa rewarded with a settlement, — we may well imagine how large a pro- portion of the inhabitants of Italy must have been reduced to poverty, even when every allowance has been made for the probable amount of waste and unclaimed land which formed a part of the distribution. But as one individual case speaks a far clearer language than any general statement, let the reader consult the first Eclogue of Virgil, and he wOl there find a picture, drawn from reality, of the dreadful misery occasioned by these gifts of victorious leaders to their soldiers.. Having thus interested so many and such formidable supporters in maintaining his various regulations, SyUa proceeded to secure to Liberation himself a party in the assembly of the people at Rome. He gave of Slaves. liberty to more than ten thousand slaves,^ chiefly belonging to men of the opposite faction, who had been proscribed or had fallen in battle, and he allowed them to be enrolled ireely among the tribes. These new citizens, according to the usual practice of the Eomans, adopted the name of him who had given them their freedom, and were all called Cornelii; and they of course would be most anxious to resist any counter-revolution, which, by rescinding Sylla's act, would have restored them also to their former slavery. The persons nominated to the title of consuls for the following year, were P. Servihus and Appius Claudius. Sylla's government was now fully estabhshed, and the ascendency of his party, and the validity of his measures, seemed no longer to depend on his continuing to hold the office of dictator. He himself had no fondness for the mere ostentation of power, so long as he possessed the reality ; and his favourite enjoyments, the gratification of his sensual and intellec- tual appetites, might be pursued more readily if he reheved himself from the ordinary business of the administration of the commonwealth. Sj'Ua Accordingly, having assembled the people in the forum,' he made a M-Storship. formal resignation of the dictatorship, dismissed his lictors, and, profess- B.c. 79. uig that he was ready to answer any charges against his late conduct, continued to walk up and dovm. for some time, accompanied only by his friends, and then withdrew quietly to his own house. This 1 Appiau, c 100 ; Sallust, Oratio Lepidi in Sullam. 2 Appian, c. 100. 5 Ibid. c. 103, 104. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS COEITELIUS STLLA. 471 IS that famous abdication wHch has been ever viewed as so remark- k.c. 79. able a point in Sylla's character; and which has been sometimes adduced to prove, that he was actuated chiefly by a regard to the public welfare in all that he had done to gain and to secure the sovereign power. But if the preceding pages have faithfully represented the state of parties at Rome, and have truly related the origin and events of the civil war, we shall form a different estimate both of the act itself, and of the motives which led to it. SyUa was the leader of the aristocratical interest, and it was his object to raise that interest from the low condition to which Marius and Cinna had reduced it, and to invest it vfith a complete ascendency in the commonwealth. This he had entirely effected. He had extirpated the chiefs of the popular party; he had plundered and almost destroyed several states of Italy, who were used to support the popular cause at Eome ; he had crippled the tribunitian power ; had given to the nobihty the exclusive possession of the judicial authority; had enriched the most eminent families by the sale of the confiscated estates, which his principal partisans had purchased at a low price ; and he had provided for the security of his triimiph by immense grants of lands to the soldiers by whose swords he had won it. He PoUcv of had raised to wealth and honours a great number of his own per- ^''"'^ sonal dependents,' and he was himself in possession of a property amply sufficient to maintain him in a style of magnificence, and to give him the free enjoyment of his favourite pleasures. His pride had been gratified by the iullest revenge upon his own private enemies, and by the absolute control which he had exercised in the settlement of the repubho, securing the interests of his party as he thought proper, without allowing them to direct or interfere with his measures. K his object, indeed, had been to convert the govern- ment into a monarchy, the resignation of th^ dictatorship might justly have surprised us ; but viewing him as the chief of a party, whose ascendency he endeavoured to establish, whilst he himself enjoyed a pre-eminent share of the glory, and power, and advan- tages of their success, his abdication appears to have been a sacrifice of — ^nothing. It is clear that he was still considered as the head of his party, and that he resigned no more than a mere title, with the fatigue of the ordinary biisiness of the state, whUe he continued to act as sovereign whenever he thought proper to exert his power. This appears from a speech which SaUust ascribes to M. .lEmiUus Lepidus, who was consul the year after Sylla's abdication. It is supposed to be spoken during his consulship ; and in it he continu- ally inveighs against SyUa as the actual tyrant of the republic, with- out the least allusion to any resignation which he had made of his 1 Sallust, Catilina, c. 51 ; Oratio Lepidi in Sullam. 472 LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.C. 79. authority. And another speech, preserved among the "Fragments" of Sallust, and ascribed to Macer Licinius, tribune of the people, a few years afterwards, speaks of Sylla's tyranny as only ending with his hfe. "When Sylla was dead, who had laid this bondage upon us, you thought," says Macer to the people, "that the evil was at an end. But a worse tyrant arose in Catiilus." It appears, then, that Sylla, while reheving himself from the labours of government, retained, at least, a large portion of his former power, and that, having completed his work, he devolved the care of maintaining it upon the other members of his party, whUe he himself retired to enjoy the pursuits to which he was most strongly addicted. His manner Then it was, when the glare of the conqueror and the legislator oHife after ^^^^^ ^q longer thrown around him, that he sank into the mere Eesign.ition. selfish voluptuary, pampering his senses and his mind with the excitements of licentiousness and of elegant literature. His princi- pal companions, according to Phitarch, were actors and performers of various kinds, some of whom, indeed, such as the famous Q. Eoscius, were of unblemished reputation, but others were of the vilest class of those wretches who ministered to every appetite of their patrons, of those men of prostituted talents, who, above aU others, are most deserving of contempt and abhorrence. The inter- vals which were not passed in such society, Sylla employed in the composition of his own "Memoirs ;" a work in which he took great interest, and in which he brought down his history to within a few days of his death. It was about a year after he resigned the dicta- His Sickness torship, that he was attacked by the disorder which proved fatal to and Death, j^j^^ . ^^^ -which is said to have been one of the most loathsome that afflict humanity. We have, in truth, no very authentic accoimts of his sickness ; but it was the belief of the Romans, in the time of Pliny,' that he who had shed such torrents of blood was visited by an awful retribution of suffering ; that vermin bred incessantly in his body, and that thus he was in time destroyed. The senate ordered that his funeral should be celebrated in the Campus Martins ; ^ and by his own desire his body was burnt, contrary to the general practice of his family,^ who were accustomed to commit then- dead to the ground. But as he had ordered the grave of Marius to be opened, and his remains to be scattered abroad, he possibly departed from the custom of his ancestors to prevent any similar insults from being hereafter offered to himself. The members of his party, who owed their present greatness to him, testified their gratitude to their departed leader by lavishing every kind of magnificence on his funeral. The soldiers who had served under him crowded to Puteoh,* where he had died, and escorted the body in 1 Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. xi. c. 33 ; lib. xxvi. c. 13 ; lib. vii. c. 43. 2 Livy, Epitome, lib. xo. ^ Cicero, de Legibus, lib. ii. c. 22. 4 Appian, c. 105, 106. CHAP. XXI.] LUCIUS CORNELIUS SYLLA. 473 arms to Rome. All the mimstexs of the Gods, all the magistrates of B.C. 78. the commonwealth, in their ensigns of office, all the senate, the equestrian order, and an immense multitude of the people, walked in the procession ; and the ladies of the nobility vied with each other in offering perfumes to throw upon the funeral pUe.^ Such was the end of Sylla, in the sixtieth year of his age, six hundred and seventy- six years after the building of Eome, and seventy-eight before the Christian era. His character must sufficiently be collected from the events of his And life. Some anecdotes are to be found in Plutarch respecting his '^'"'^ ^^' behaviour in his family, which we cannot prevail on ourselves to copy on Plutarch's sole authority. It appears, however, that he was strongly attached to his wife Metella, although he is said finally to have divorced her, and to have married again only a few months before his death. The predominant featiu'e in his character was an intense pride and a contempt for mankind, feelings which must ever be incompatible with a virtuous and noble nature. Indifferent to the ordinary duties and honours of the repubhc, he found a stimulus during his early youth and manhood in hterature and sensuality ; and to these he gladly returned in his last years, when he had fully satisfied the passions which led him to take part in pohtical contests. But when circumstances drew him into pubhc situations, his pride could be content with no second place ; and when he found himself shghted and injured, the desire of ample vengeance and of establishing his superiority beyond all rivalry, prevailed in his mind over every other. He found himself individually opposed to a man whom he envied for his military glory, and despised for his low birth and ignorance : as a patrician, he felt an aristocratical contempt for the popular party ; as a Roman, he looked down with habitual arro- gance upon all foreign nations. It happened that Marius his enemy was leagued with the popular cause at Rome and with the Italian states, which were claiming an equality with Roman citizens ; and thus his pride as an individual, as a noble, and as a Roman, was wounded beyond endurance by their victory. But when that victory was accompanied by crimes which awakened the abhorrence even of the most moderate men, Sylla set no bounds to his retaliation, and seemed bent upon effecting the utter extirpation of all the three parties who were united against him, Marius and his personal enemies, the popular interest, and the allied states of Italy. Careless of the means by which this end was to be accomplished, and utterly indif- ferent to the multiplied miseries with which it must be attended, he commenced a series of boundless cruelties, in which it is impossible to find any resemblance to the just severities of a lawful government exercised upon flagrant criminals. He did not apply himsehf to a 1 Plutarch, in Sylia, ^. 38. 474 LUCIUS CORNELIUS STLLA. [CHAP. XXI. B.c 78. calm review of the causes wHch had so long disturbed the peace of his country ; nor, as some tyrants have done, did he forget in his elevation the character of a party leader, and being placed above all, learned to regard all classes of citizens with an eye of impartiality. No doubt he reformed many things that needed alteration ; but they were the abuses of one side only that he removed, and all that he did was to provide for the security of his party, except in those points where the common sense of every government sees that in the prevention of ordinary crimes its own interest and that of society His are identified. The inscription which he is said to have dictated for ^scrijtlon'' ^^^ °'^'^ monument, weU declares that constant thirst for superiority, or in other words, that unceasing pride, which we have called his characteristic quahty. It contained, in substance, that no friend had ever outdone him in the exchange of good offices, and no enemy had done him more evil than he had rendered to him again in return. The character of Sylla moreover exemplifies a truth, most usefiil to be remembered, yet most often contradicted or forgotten. His life, and the lives of many others in every age, and not least in our own, show that a cultivated understanding is no warrant for virtuous principles and conduct ; and that the old adage of, "Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes, Emollit mores, nee sinit ease feros," ^ unless a very strained interpretation be put upon the word fideliter, is widely at variance with the evidence of facts. SyUa had a general taste for literature ; he was intimately acquainted vdth the writers of Greece ; he delighted in the society of men of talent ; and he was himself long and careftdly engaged in recording the history of his own actions ; yet no man was ever more stained with cruelty, nor was ever any more degraded by habitual and gross proffigacy. Nor is this at aU wonderful, if we consider that the inteUectual faculties, like the sensual, are gratified by exercise; and that the pleasure derived from the employment of talent is quite distinct from the apphcation of the lessons taught by the understanding to the govern- ment of the afiections and the conduct. In all men, whose mental powers are at all considerable, the indulgence of them is as much an object of mere natural appetite, as the gratification of hunger and thirst is to the mass of mankind ; and it is only because it is less common that it is regarded as conferring on the character a much superior value. Bad men, of good natural faculties, gratify therefore with equal eagerness their animal and their inteUectual desires, and are eqiially ignorant of the government of either. It is the part of goodness to restrain both, and to convert them to their own purposes ; ' To have learned the fine arts thoroughly, softens the passions, nor does it permit them to be brutal. CHAP. XXI.J LUCIUS COENELIUS STLLA. 475 an effort ■wMcli is as paiDful to pride in the one case as it is to the B.C. 78. ordinary feelings of what is called licentiousness in the other : and it is the presence or absence of this effort which distinguishes talent from wisdom, and forms a perpetual barrier between men like Sylla, and those who have deserved the respect, and admiration, and love of posterity. It will form a proper conclusion to this part of our history, if we Sedition, add here a short account of the disturbances that immediately andDeatt of followed the death of SyUa, and which originated in an attempt made M. Lepians. by the popular party to procure the repeal of his various laws and measures. The consulship was at this time filled by M. jEmUius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus : the former of whom had governed Sicily some years before as prsetor,'' and had rendered himself infamous for his maladministration ; the latter was the son of that Catulus who had been the colleague of Marius in his fourth consul- ship, when he overcame the Cimbri, and had afterwards kiUed himself when sentenced to die by the same Marius, at the beginning of Cinna's usurpation. During SyUa's Hfetime, Lepidus had attempted to revive the popular cause, and had inveighed against the tyranny under which, as he said, the repubhc laboured. Upon the death of SyUa he endeavoured to deprive his remains of that magni- ficent funeral with which the aristocratical party proposed to honour them ; '^ but in this, as we have seen, he failed ; and Catulus, sup- ported by Pompey, succeeded in paying the last tribute to the late dictator's memory. Lepidus, however, having now declared himself the enemy of the party in possession of the chief power in the state, at once proceeded to try his strength, and proposed that Sylla's acts should be rescinded,' which was, in other words, to move for a counter-revolution. Attempting to tread exactly in the steps of Cinna, he called on the Itahans to support him,* as he was labouring to procure a restoration of the privUeges of Eoman citizenship for those states which SyUa had deprived of them. Disputes and contests, we know not of how serious a kind, were frequently occurring between his partisans and those of Catulus ; the senate, however, bound both consuls by an oath, that they would not carry their dissensions into a civil war. Lepidus perhaps consented the more readily to take this oath, as he expected, on the expiration of his consulship, to obtain the government of a province, and consequently the command of an army ; and he considered himself as only pledged to abstain from arms whilst he was actually consul. The senate, on their part, anxious to remove him firom the capital, and either trustmg to the obligation of his oath, or despising his means of injuring them by open rebellion, allowed him, on the expiration of his office, to ' Cicero, in Verrem, lib. iii. o. 91. ^ Appian, v;. 105. 8 Floras, lib. iii. c. 23 ; Livy, Epitome, lib. xo. 4 Appian, c. 107; Sallust, Oratio L. PhUippi contra Lepidum. 476 LUCIUS COUNELIUS STLLA. [chap. XXI. Command of Gaul. B.C. 78. receive tlie command of the province of Gaul/ with the title and Receives the authority of proconsul. No sooner did he find himself at the head of an army than he threw aside all reserve ; he endeavoured to raise partisans in Etruria, the quarter of Italy in which the latest resistance had been made to the power of Sylla ; whilst from his station in Gaul he might easily connect himself with those remains of the Marian party which Sertorius yet kept in the field in Spain. Numbers also of the lowest and most profligate inhabitants of Eome flocked to join him; the same men who had aided the riots of Sulpicius, and had been ready agents in the massacres of Marius and Damasippus. Lepidus marched at once towards the capital, and approached almost as far as the very walls of the city ; but the senate were prepared for their defence. Appius Claudius, the interrex, the consuls for the following year not being yet chosen, and Q. Catulus, as proconsul, were charged to provide for the safety of the state ; and, by the forces which they collected, Lepidus was easily checked and defeated. Destitute of any further means to continue the war in Italy, Lepidus then retired to Sardinia,^ where he was soon attacked by sickness, and died in the midst of his plans for renewing the contest. M. Brutus,' one of his officers, and the father of the famous assassin of Csesar, was about this time taken and put to death at Mutina by Pompey; and thus the ascendency of the aristocracy remained unimpaired, and was probably rather strengthened than in- jured by this rash and idle attempt to overthrow it. But the present leaders of the victorious party were men who have left behind them a purer character than most of their countrymen ; and Catulus has the rare merit of suU3dng his triumph with no cruelties,* and of remaining content with the suppression of the rebellion, without endeavouring to add any thing further to the powers and advantages of his friends, or to the depression of his antagonists. His Sickness and Death. B.C. 77. 1 Sallust and Appian, locis citatis. - Livy, Epitome, lib. xo. ; Plutarch, in Pompeio, c. 16. 3 Livy and Plutarch, ubi supra. * Floras, lib. iii. c. 23. [Baccliantes.— /"j-ooi an AntiqM Gem,} [_Embleinatic Head of Spain.] CHAPTER XXII. ANCIENT SPAIN. FROM B.C. 234 TO B.C. 73. Before we proceed in the domestic history of Eome, it will be B.C. 234 necessary to retrace our steps, in order to narrate the fortunes of ™^,-, some of her provinces. We begin with Spain. The historian of ■ ■ '^■ this quarter has uniformly had to lament the almost total want of information relative to its early inhabitants, as well as in regard to Early those rude beginnings of society and of government, which must of Spain™ ^ have long preceded the times of the Carthaginians. It is generally believed that the Celtiberians, who were found by Hamilcar Barca in possession of Catalonia and the adjacent districts, were originally a Celtic tribe, who had migrated from the neighbouring provinces of France, either for the purposes of commerce, or for the more simple object of obtaining a home and securing personal protec- tion among the friendly natives of Iberia. It has been imagined, too, that the PhoBnicians, to whom all the shores of the Mediterranean were familiarly known, were acquainted, at a very early period, with the mineral riches of Spain ; but the Greek historians, to whom we are indebted for nearly all our knowledge of the ancient world, seem not to have taken a sufficient interest in the commercial enterprise of their Syrian neighbours, either to record their discoveries, or to ascertain the limits of their conquests. There is a tradition among 478 ANCIENT SPAIN. fCHAP. XXII. B.C. 234. TO B.C. 73. Early History of Spain, and Condition of the Aboriginal Inhabitants. Invasion of Spain by Hamilcar Barca. B.C. 234. certain authors, that the people of Tyre fixed a mercantile establish- ment in the vicinity of the modern Cadiz : and Herodotus informs us, that a colony of Greeks, at a remote era, passed the pillars of Hercules ; and, moreover, that, upon meeting with encouragement and protection from a native prince, to whom he gives the name of Arganthonius, they proceeded to bmld, or to occupy, the maritime city of Tartessus ; where they continued to cultivate the arts of peace, and set an example of successful industry for many genera- tions. But it is, nevertheless, universally admitted, that very little is known of Spain until the period when the memorable contest between the rival republics of Carthage and Rome rendered her richest proviaces the theatre of wax ; and which, by drawing the attention of the Latin historians to the progress of their arms, placed within their reach the means of becoming acquainted with the character of the people, with the general aspect of the country, and even in some measure with its natural productions. It is no doubt true, that the curious reader may glean from more ancient annals than those which record the events of the second Punic war, a few facts concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of Iberia ; and learn from one author that they were brave but impohtic, ignorant of the arts of peace, and entirely occupied with the care of their armour and of their horses ; the latter of which they are said to have valued more highly than their own blood. It is Strabo who teUs us that the Spaniards painted or stained their bodies with various colours ; that they dehghted in long hair and in gUttering ornaments of gold and silver ; that their mountains abounded in mines of copper, as well as of the more precious metals ; and that either from ignorance, or from the possession of uncommon wealth, they were observed to use large vessels and implements of silver for the most ordinary domestic purposes. Upon the whole, however, it is abundantly obvious, that the knowledge of the ancients, in regard to Spain, was extremely limited ; and also that the few particulars which they had collected, relative to the inhabitants, denote a condition of the lowest barbarism ; in which there was neither sufficient concert among the various tribes to prevent the invasion and settlement of foreigners, nor sufficient skiU and docihty to imitate the arts by which their several hordes were successively subdued. It was soon after the conclusion of the first Punic war, and imme- diately upon suppressing the dangerous insurrection of the rebellious mercenaries, that Hamilcar Barca led an army into Spain, under the pretext, it is said, of protecting the Tyrian colonists, whom we have already mentioned, from the violence and injustice of their barbarian neighbours. This celebrated commander began by form- ing an extensive settlement on the coast, where he likewise built the town called Barceno, the modem Barcelona ; and in the choice of a CHAP. XXII.] ANCIENT SPAIN. 479 situation lie could not have selected one more conveniently adapted, b.c. 234. both for an easy intercourse with the mother country, and for se- curing at aU times a large share of the metaUic wealth of the Cata- lonian mountains. Polybius narrates that Hamilcar spent about nine years in Spain ; in the course of which he extended very consider- ably the dominions and influence of Carthage. His policy and arms were equally successful ; tiU, at length, engaging in battle with an army composed of the bravest and most warlike of the native tribes, and exceeding greatly in number aU the troops that he could bring into the field, he was defeated and slain. His Death. Hasdrubal, the son-in-law of the great commander whose death succession of we have just related, succeeded him in the management of the war, g^^'^o's and in the general superintendence of the Carthaginian province. But of the events which marked the commencement of Hasdrubal's government, we are not enabled to give any details ; and it is only from the effects which his military movements produced on the minds of the Eoman allies in Spain, that we are led to the conclusion, which is also confirmed by other considerations, that he must have subdued the confederate chiefs who took the field against his predecessor, and even added to the conquests which that general had achieved. His progress awakened the fears of the people of Saguntum ; a city which is understood to have derived its origin from the commercial estabhsh- ment of some Grecian colony, and which, at the period in question, enjoyed the alliance of Eome, and was entitled to claim the protection of that powerful and jealous state. In the life of Hannibai we have already detailed the principal events in Spain during the early period of his military career, tiU the fall of Saguntum, at sufficient length to prevent the necessity of recapitulating them here. After the capture of this city, the senate at Eome did not enter- B.C. 216. tain the most distant suspicion that their own territory was about to be invaded, but raised two consular armies ; of which, the one was destined to act in Spain, whilst the other was ordered to proceed against the African dominions of Carthage. Pubhus Cornelius Scipio was appointed to the command of the former; and this consul, together with his brother Cneius Cornelius, who had been named his Heutenant, was already on his passage to his province, when, happening to approach the coast of Gaul, he received the unexpected information that Hamnibal, at the head of a powerful armament, was actually marching through that country on his way to Italy. Such news could not feU to influence the procedure of Publius. It now became his main object to intercept the Carthaginians, and, by bringing them to battle, to fix, if possible, the seat of war among the Gauls. For this purpose he immediately landed a part of the troops at Marseilles, and went in quest of the invader; instructing his brother to proceed with the remainder into Spain, to effect the 480 ANCIENT SPAIN. [chap. XXII. B.C. 216. Hasdrubal commands in Spain. Cu. Cor. Scipio lands in Spain and defeats tile Carthagi- nian fleet. Publius Cor. Scipio joins his brother, and gains advantages over the Car- thaginians. reduction of that province, and to re-establish in it, by dint of arms and of negotiation, the interests of the commonwealth and the ascen- dency of their allies. When Hannibal marched out of Spain, he left to the command of his brother Hasdrubal a considerable body of troops, with a fleet of sixty ships to protect the coast ; whilst he committed to the charge of Hanno all the country between the Iberus and the Pyrenean range, to keep open the passes of the mountams, and to protect the heavy baggage of the Itahan army, which it had been found expe- dient to leave behind. Cneius Cornehus, having disembarked his soldiers at Emporium, proceeded along the coast, reducing several towns in his line of march, and restoring the confidence of such of the native chiefs as had been disposed to attach themselves to the fortune of Eome. He is said to have gained, in the beginning of the campaign, a considerable advantage over the Carthaginian fleet, under the immediate com- mand of Hamilco, who had been sent to assist the councils of Hasdrubal. But if we may trust to the accuracy of Polybius, the success of Cn. Cornelius Scipio will appear to have been neither very brilliant, nor attended vpith any permanent effect. He assures us that as soon as Hasdrubal was informed of these transactions, he made haste to pass the Iberus with his army ; and finding that the naval forces of the Eomans had grown confident from their late success, were relaxed in their discipline, and forgetful of the usual precautions, he sent forward a body of eight thousand foot and a thousand horse ; who, falling suddenly upon them, while they were dispersed over the face of the country, killed a great number, and drove the rest in confusion to their ships. Livy shows a strong inclination to magnify the exploits of his countrymen, and to exaggerate their triumphs ; but Appian, who is on this occasion a more impartial authority, remarks, with an air of much truth and simplicity, that prior to the arrival of his brother Publius from Italy, the Roman commander achieved nothing that was worthy of being mentioned. The value of Spain was first made manifest to the people of Eome, by the important supplies of men and treasure which Hannibal appeared to draw from it. Determined to cut oiF from him this source of power, the senate resolved that Publius Cor. Scipio, to whom the province of Spain was first allotted, should immediately proceed to resume his command at the head of a considerable reinforcement both of sea and land forces ; directing, in the mean time, their main attention to the hostile designs of their invader, who had already pitched his camp on the banks of the Po. Nor did Pubhus disappoint the hopes of his republic. Before this period the Eomans had never attempted to carry their arms beyond the Iberus ; thinking it sufiicient to have obtained the nominal alliance of the CHAP. XXn.] ANCIENT SPAIN. 481 barbarous tribes who dwelt towards the north and west, or to have B.C. 216. stipulated for their forbearance. But now, their warhke operations were planned on a larger scale ; and Publius, crossing the wonted boundary of his province, is said to have subdued, or gained over to the cause of Rome, a great variety of nations, whose names and appearance were altogether new to his victorious troops. The present success of the Eomans, however, was not confined to the progress of their arms ; and there is an incident, connected with the fortune of the war, and mentioned by all the historians, which con- tributed not a httle to strengthen their footing in Spain. When Hannibal was preparing for his Itahan expedition, he Anecdote of thought proper to secure the fideUty of his Spanish allies, by ■*''"°''' demanding the children of the principal families, in order to detain them in a fortified place, in the capacity of hostages, until the Romans should be finally expelled from their territory. A crafty Spaniard, to whom Livy gives the name of Abilox, and whom the readers of Polybius will recognise under the similar appellation of AbUyx, contrived to remove this impediment to the negotiations of the Roman proconsul. He persuaded the Carthaginian general, Bostar, who acted as the lieutenant of Hasdrubal, that humanity and good policy alike required that, as his countrymen could no longer maintain their ascendency by the terror of their arms, he should dehver up to their parents the youths whom Hannibal had shut up in Saguntum. Abilox was himself commissioned to carry this benevolent proposal into effect. Instead, however, of restoring the children immediately to their families, he carried them all to the Roman camp ; reserving for Publius Scipio the pleasing and popular office of replacing the hostages under the roof of their fathers, and of thereby securing, for the interests of his country, the affections and co-operation of a large body of the native chiefs. History has not preserved to us any detail of the proceedings Hasdmbai which diversified the war in Spain during the early part of the year ^^'^.^''i', , which we have noted in the margin. The two Scipios continued to ' ' make considerable progress when Hasdrubal, who alone of all the Carthaginian generals appeared able to cope with them, received orders firom his government to march into Italy to the relief of his brother, now beginning to be hard pressed by the consular armies. But the policy of the Romans required that Hannibal should not receive any reinforcements fi:om Spain ; and with this view Publius put his troops in motion to watch the steps of Hasdrubal, as he advanced towards the Pyrenees, brought him to an engagement in spite of his resolution to avoid it, and, finally, inflicted upon him so complete an overthrow, as to prevent him, for the present, fi:om continuing his march into Italy. But the prosperity of the Romans was doomed to experience a B.C. 211. grievous interruption. Three years had hardly elapsed when the [k. H.l 2 I 482 ANCIENT SrAKT. [CHAP. XXII. B.C. 211. Carthaginian force in Spain was so amply recruited, that they had no fewer than three armies in the field: one commanded by Hasdrubal the son of Gisgo, the second by Hasdrubal the brother of Hannibal, and the third by Mago, who seems to have joined the first of the generals now named. The Eoman leaders formed a plan for cutting them oiF separately, and in succession; and regarding Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, as by far the most formidable of their antagonists, it was agreed between the two Scipios that Cneius, with the greater part of the legionary soldiers and a portion of the alhes, should attack him, whilst Pubhus, with the remainder, com- posed of Eoman and Italian auxiharies, should watch the motions of the other Hasdrubal and of Mago. This resolution proved fatal to Defeat and the cause of Eome. Publius found himself unequal to the combined Pubikif armies which he had to oppose ; for, besides the troops which fought Scipio. under the standard of Carthage, there was a powerful body of Numidian cavalry, commanded by their prince Masinissa, which galled the heavy-armed soldiers of the legion, and intercepted all the supplies of their camp. Livy describes, in language rendered eloquent by indignation, the annoyance and difliculties which were created by these barbarian horsemen. Nor were these the only dangers with which the Eoman general had to contend. He was aware that Indibilis, one of the most spirited of the native chiefs, was at hand with seven or eight thousand men to increase the strength of the Carthaginians ; and he could not fail to perceive that, were this junction once effected, he would be compelled to relinquish the field to an enemy so much superior to himself in numbers. Influenced by these considerations, he resolved to issue forth in the night and crush the force of Indibilis, before the latter could reach the encamp- ment of the confederates ; a measure which, as it failed to secure success, has been condemned as rash and inexpedient. A general engagement took place amidst the confusion of a nocturnal assault : the Numidian horse attacked the Eomans whilst yet on their march, and the whole Carthaginian army, roused by the clamour of the onset, rushed from their entrenchments to support the arms of their allies. Publius fell in the battle, and his troops were put to the rout ; of whom, says Livy, not one would have escaped, had not the approach of night saved the fugitives.-' The two victorious armies, having joined that which was under the command of Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, marched imme- 1 Historians, like poets, are sometimes heedless ; and the reader of this passage, in the twenty-fifth book of the work to which we are now alludmg, must have some cariosity to learn, how a fight, which commenced at midnight, (media node profictus, mm obviis hostibus manus conseruit) could be terminated by the arrival of evening twilight. It may, perhaps, be said, that the battle lasted during the night and part of the following day ; aad that the pursuit continued till evening. This, improbable as it is, appears to he the only mode of reeonoihng the contradiction. Livy, xsv. 34. CHAP. XXU.J ANCIENT SPAM. 483 diately against Cneius, to put an end to the war by his defeat. He b.c. 211. was already more than half vanquished by the desertion of the Tiie Spanish allies, who had been seduced by the Carthaginians, or nian '"''' recalled home by the news of a domestic quarrel. The battle which ^fjf aid ensued was decisive of his fate. Attempting to retreat in the night, attack he was overtaken by the enemy, compelled to receive their attack in the most unfavourable cii-cumstances, and ultimately defeated vrith the loss of his army and of his life. Appian informs us, that wio is the Koman general, having fled with a few followers and taken defeated ana refuge in a tower or fortress, was pursued by the furious barbarians ^''''"■ and burnt to death within the walls ; and Livy adds some proba- bility to the same account, by stating, that the place in which Cneius • had shut himself up, was reduced by means of fire ; after which, he and all his attendants were cruelly butchered by the conquerors. Spain now seemed lost to the Eomans ; tlieir best commanders Good being killed, and their armies either cut in pieces or dispersed. In i,™J,^ ° this crisis of their affairs, a gallant young oiScej' of the equestrian Mavrfus. order, assumed the conduct of the war ; and, coUeoting the remains of the broken legions, prepared to maintain his ground against the overwhelming power of the Carthaginians, who were again advan- cing, under Hasdrubal, the son of Gisgo, to complete the conquest of the Spanish territory. We have the authority of Livy for assert- ing, that this spirited youth soon afterwards succeeded in turning the tide of fortune in favour of his countrymen ; that he attacked the Carthaginians, who had divided themselves into two camps, and were secure, as they imagined, from any attempt on the part of the Eomans, killed thirty-seven thousand of them, took nearly two thousand prisoners, and brought off an immense quantity of plunder. These events took place in the year 212 before the christian era; and as it was not tUl the following year that Publius Cornehus Scipio, the son of Publius who had lately fallen in battle, was appoiated to the command in Spain, there is an interval of more than twelve months, which appears like a blank in the page of history. Appian, it is true, supphes some information in regard to that period, which may be thought sufficient to connect, at least, the chain of events. He tells us that MarceUus, who had recently served with much distinction in Sicily, was sent, with M. Claudius, to assume the government in the Spanish province ; but, he adds, their success was so very indifferent, that the strength of the Car- thaginians was not only greatly increased, but that nearly the whole country had again fallen under their dominion, whilst the wrecks of the Roman army were confined to the fortresses of the Pyrenean mountains. Livy, it is proper to observe, makes no mention of these appointments ; and the inquisitive reader, who examines care- fully into dates, will unquestionably find some difiiculty in recon- ciling the statement of Appian with the proceedings which are 484 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XXII. B.C. 211. recorded of Marcellus, almost at the same moment, whilst exercising satatement a command in Sicily. But, in whatever way this obscurity may be regardto" ™ removed, there is no doubt that, in the course of the year we have fndMaraus already named, young Scipio appeared in the field, to revenge the Claudius. death of his father ; to revive the fallen hopes of the army, which had sustained so severe an overthrow ; and to conquer for Eome that ascendency in Spain which she continued to hold tUl her power was destroyed by the irruptions of the northern invaders. Voung Scipio The Spanish province had now fewer attractions for the ambition elected of Eoman leaders than at any former period ; and as none but a person of great ability was fit for the command, so, when the day appointed for the election of a proconsul arrived, it appeared, to the great consternation of the people, that no candidate for this danger- ous preferment had yet given in his name. Grief and dismay per- vaded the whole assembly ; when, on a sudden, a youth of twenty- four years of age presented himself to their choice, urging his pretensions with equal simplicity and confidence. The eyes of all the citizens were immediately attracted to Scipio, who, as the son of the late proconsul, whose death was still so recent, called forth at once their sympathy and admiration. The election of the aspiring soldier was unanimous. Not only did all the centuries agree in their votes, but, says Livy, every individual member of this popular assembly concurred in the decision, that the command in Spain should be conferred on Pubhus Scipio. ciiaracter of This young man was already known by a variety of circumstances Scipio. which recommended him greatly to pubhc favour. At the age of seventeen, when just entering upon the military service, he had had the good fortune to rescue and preserve his father, who was on the point of being killed or taken by the enemy, on the river Ticinus. Being afterwards engaged in the battle of Cannae, and one of a band of young men who had forced their way to Canusium, he prevented the execution of a design which they had formed to abandon Italy ; obhging them all to bind themselves by an oath, that they would remain and contend for the fortunes of their country till the last. He aiTives in Upon the arrival of Scipio in Spain, with a reinforcement of ten takes New thousand men and thirty armed ships, he found the remains of his Cartilage t)y vanquished countrymen shut Up within a narrow compass in the B.C. 210. neighbourhood of the Pyrenees. As the season was far advanced, he refrained from undertaking any military expedition tUl the ensuing spring ; and satisfied himself with fixing his head quarters at the modern town of Tarragona, and with using the utmost exertion to obtain accurate inteUigence, in regard to the strength and distribution of the enemy's forces. He learned that they had deposited their principal stores at New Carthage, which they had, at the same time, garrisoned with a thousand men ; separating their army, for the present, into three divisions, of which none was nearer CHAP. XXII.] ANCIENT SPAIN. 485 the position of their magazines than a marcli of ten days. Scipio b.c. 210. himself was, indeed, still farther from New Carthage than the distance just specified, being removed from it not less than three hundred miles. He nevertheless conceived the project of surprising it, trusting to the negligence of his enemies, and confiding in the hope that he would be able to accomphsh the gi-eater part of his march before his design could be suspected, or any measure adopted to prevent its success. His stratagem was crowned with the most complete triumph. The town fell into his hands, together with the immense stores which it contained ; and the Carthaginians, finding themselves outwitted by a mere youth, began to perceive that they would have to contend anew for the possession of a country which they had allowed themselves to consider as a permanent niirsery for their armies, and as one of the main sources of wealth to the parent state. It appears that about the time of Scipio's arrival in Spain, the Defeats Carthaginian generals were busily occupied in preparing a reinforce- ^^o had" ' ment for Hannibal in Italy. The best of their troops, with all the ^^'™'™''* supplies and apparatus necessary for accomphshing an arduous march Caithage. across the Pyrenees and the Alps, were collected and placed under the charge of Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar. The other Hasdru- bal, the son of Gisgo, was likewise intrusted with the command of an army still more numerous, the object of which was to employ the attention of the Eomans, and to aid the advance of the former towards the confines of Gaul. The position of Scipio at Tarragona, to which he had returned after the reduction of New Carthage, was regarded as a material obstacle to the accomplishment of this important measure. To withdraw him, therefore, from his station, the Carthaginian commanders set their whole force in motion towards the coast, apparently with the settled determination to recover New Carthage at every hazard, as being in itself a place of considerable consequence, and a necessary point of communication with the seat of government in A&ica. Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, whose division of the army was farthest advanced, took a post on the river Bsetis, with the seeming intention of commencing the siege, a move- ment which so much excited the apprehensions of the Eoman general for his recent conquest, that he immediately began his march, in order to risk a battle with the brother of Hannibal, rather than relinquish the possession of a maritime city, whose name was connected with his earliest honours. As the sole object of Hasdrubal's stratagem was to secure an Hasambai undisturbed march to the Pyrenees, he allowed the semblance of anTrarrie^ a victory to Scipio, and retreated with a slow and measured pace ?j^„'^^jy before the Romans, who could not fail to be surprised at the facility of their triumph. Scipio, who to all the ardour of youth joined much of the caution of more advanced life, abstamed fi-om pursuing 486 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XXU. B.C. 210. an enemy who had evidently retired without being defeated; and being justly apprehensive that, by a forward movement, he might be placed between the lines of two powerfiil armies, each of which, he had reason to believe, was in correspondence with the other, he recalled his victorious soldiers to their standards, and resolved to await the progress of events. Meantime Hasdrubal crossed the Iberus, and directed his steps towards the Pyrenees ; of which, as soon as the Roman general was aware, he despatched some light troops to watch the progress of his antagonist ; and finding that there was no longer any doubt of his intention to reinforce Hannibal in Italy, he sent information to Eome, apprizing the senate that, if the passage through the Alps could be a second time accomplished, they would soon have to contend with another Carthaginian army, commanded by another son of the renowned Hamilcar. In this transaction, Scipio may appear to have been overreached ; and in respect to the address of his enemy, there is no doubt that, admitting the object they pursued to be of sufficient consequence to be preferred to the reputation of victory, and to be attainable even under the loss and discouragement of a defeat, the plan was by them ably laid and carried into execution. But even in this supposition, Scipio must be acquitted of any mistake or defect of conduct. He advanced to cover an important station, which the enemy might have seized, if he had not taken this measure. He took advantage of their separation to strike a decisive blow ; and, probably, to dis- concert any immediate project of offensive war. On a discovery of their march into Italy, what remained for him to do was not neglected; the enemy were carefully observed, and seasonable intelligence was sent to Eome of their apparent intentions. Moderation But the character of Scipio rests on a better foundation than the humanitj' conjectural inferences of a historian, whose judgment was confined of Scipio. to the examination of a few unconnected events, without any knowledge of the particular views and motives whence they pro-' ceeded. His fame, as it respects the Spanish war, is supported on the ground of undisputed military talent, and on a series of spldndid victories, which led, in the first instance, to the complete expulsion of the Carthaginians, and afterwards to the entire conquest of Spain. His moderation and humanity, too, have been highly extolled. His conduct towards the hostages whom he found at New Carthage, and that continence which has become proverbial towards the noble ladies who fell into his hands upon its reduction, is praised by all historians as a fine example of liberahty and self-command ; and is represented, at the same time, as having had a very great effect in paving the way for his subsequent progress as a conqueror. B.C. 206. Having gained several advantages over the Carthaginian armies, both in person and also by means of the able services of his heutenant Lselius, his success was exposed to a momentary interruption, owing, CHAP. XXII.j ANCIENT SPAIN. 487 as well to the disaffection of his troops, as to the revolt of Mandonius B.C. 206. and Andobalis, (or IndibiUs,) two native chiefs, who had formerly «^^;;^^gS," been guilty of the same perfidious conduct towards his enemies, and Wngs' Polybius, who seems to have felt great dehght in describing any succeasM particular battle, as well as in expounding the principles of the 'ssue. military art at large, sets forth in the following terms, the arrange- ments of Scipio in his encounter with Andobalis. He informs us, in the first place, that the Eoman general had resolved not to employ Spaniard against Spaniard, but to reserve the glory of finishing the war to the legionary soldiers under his immediate command. A march of ten days, says he, brought him to the banks of the Iberus, which, having passed, he immediately found himself in the presence of the enemy, with only a narrow valley in front to divide the camps. On the following day, after having instructed Lselius to hold the cavalry in readiness, he succeeded in bringing on an action, by tempting the well-known cupidity of the Spaniards ; who, seeing a great number of cattle driven uito the valley, rushed forth to seize the prey, and thereby exposed themselves to the meditated attack of the Eomans. A sharp skirmish ensued with nearly equal success, when Lajhus, who stood prepared with the horsemen, fell suddenly upon the barbarians, and slaughtered their scattered bands. The Spaniards, enraged by the loss which they had already sustained, and dreading the eifect of it upon the minds of their impetuous but inconstant followers, formed the resolution of hazarding a general engagement on the same disadvantageous ground which they had already occupied. Scipio, on his part, was neither less prepared, nor less desirous to come to a decisive action. Guided, however, in Scipio his movements by those of his unskilful adversaries, he allowed them IpSiiards. to descend into the plain and form their ranks; upon which he advanced with his veteran infantry to attack that part of the Spanish force which was stationed nearest to the foot of the mountains. Lselius, meantime, having conducted his cavalry along the hiUs that extended from the camp to the valley, assailed the enemy's horse in the rear, and kept them so closely engaged, that they could afford no aid to the foot, already pressed by the heavy-armed Eomans. The barbarians, finding themselves thus mastered and confined by the superior tactics of Scipio, became at once furious with disappointed rage, and incapable of listening to command. The cavalry in particular, the most efiicient portion of their army, pent up between the rocks and their own foot, and thrown into disorder by the difficulties of their situation, committed greater havoc upon the lines of their countrymen, than was inflicted by the Eomans. The result of such a conflict could not be long in suspense. The Spaniards, who had descended into the valley, were nearly all destroyed ; and it was only those who were drawn up at the foot of the hills who had it in their power to seek their safety in flight. Among these 488 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XXn. I5.C. 206. Andobalis found means to escape, and afterwards to convey himself and a small body of attendants to a fortified place, in which he eluded the pursuit of the conquerors. Mandonius, the other leader of this revolt, made his peace with Scipio, on condition of paying to the conqueror a certain sum of money ; and as the disaffected had no longer any hope of opposing with success the established ascendency of the Eoman power, the war was considered at an end, and the victorious general forthwith took his departure for Italy. RecapiMa- We have purposely omitted some of the minor incidents which *'™tl"""°' diversified the progress of hostilities in Spain. We have not men- tioned, for example, that Scipio found it necessary to cross over into Africa, in order to counteract the daring projects of Syphax, who had abandoned his alliance with the Eomans, and attacked the kingdom of Masinissa ; the latter having now Hkewise changed sides and turned his arms against the Carthaginians. Nor did we think it necessary to detain the reader with the sieges of lUiturgi and Castulo ; in the former of which the Eomans tarnished not a little the glory of their name, by the indiscriminate slaughter of the Capture of inhabitants as soon as the place fell into their hands. The reduction Astapa. g£ Astapa, a town situated on the river Bsetis, was, perhaps, more worthy of the reader's notice, as illustrating the ferocious character and invincible love of liberty which, at that period, distinguished the people of Spain. Having resisted the progress of the Eomans with all the skill and bravery usually exhibited on such occasions, the inhabitants of Astapa resolved to die rather than yield to their more civilized foe : and with this view they bound themselves by an oath, to employ against their own lives the fire and the sword which might happen to prove ineffectual in their last desperate effort upon the camp of the besiegers. A furious saUy was accordingly made from the gates, which even the steady valour of the Eomans with difiiculty resisted : and it was not till after a most bloody and obstinate conflict that such of the townsmen as survived returned within their walls to accomplish their tremendous vow. Their women and children were included in the horrible immolation ; and whole famihes of unresisting females and tender infants were first mangled with the swords of their husbands or fathers, and then thrown in heaps on a pile of wood and consumed in the flames. When Scipio returned from the Spanish campaign, he was met by the senate outside the walls, in the temple of Bellona, where he described to the conscript fathers the nature and extent of his services, the number of battles he had fought, the commanders against whom he had taken the field, and the happy condition in which he had left the province. He afterwards entered the city and deposited in the public treasury the sum of 14,342 Eoman pounds , of sUver, besides a large amount in coin ; and his merits in every CHAP. XXII.j ANCIENT SPAM. 489 respect were accounted so high, both by the senate and the people, B.C. 206. that he would have obtained a triumph, had there been any instance of that honour having been conferred on a general not yet invested with a public magistracy. The command in Spain was now intrusted to Lucius Lentulus and B.C. 205. Lucius Manlius Acidinus ; and these officers had soon to lead their JndobaUs troops into the field to quash a fresh insurrection on the part of the and natives, who had been induced to take up arms by Andobahs. A '^™''™"^- single battle, however, terminated the war. The restless chief, whom we have just named, was killed at the head of his savage followers ; whilst Mandonius and other leaders of distinction, who were known to have fomented the disaifectiou of the multitude, were dehvered up into the hands of the Eomans and punished with death. The vanquished Spaniards were further compelled, in order to obtain the peace which they now found it necessary to sohcit, to pay double tribute for one year ; to supply the army with corn during six months ; to provide clothing and other conveniences for the soldiers who were quartered in the conquered districts ; and to yield hostages for about thirty of their tribes or nations. The Eomans, nevertheless, were not allowed to maintain an undisturbed possession of any part of Spain ; and so far were they from finding that the expulsion of the Carthaginians had secured the conquest of that strong country, that they soon perceived the war was only about to commence. They even found it necessary to divide the peninsula into two provinces, called the Nearer and the Farther Spain, and to appoint separate commanders for each ; and yet, as Livy informs us, while Lentulus enjoyed an ovation for the success which he had gained in the latter, Sempronius the proconsul, who had led an army into the remoter districts, was defeated and slain, with a very heavy loss of officers and men. During eight or nine successive years from the date last noted in g c_ jgg^ the margin, the progress of hostilities was not marked by any great Spain a event. The Roman generals were for the most part annually reheved, faTOuraWe and their armies annually recruited from Italy. But the natural for renewing strength of the country afforded many facilities to the hardy protracting inhabitants both for defence and assault ; and we accordingly find ™' that, although the pages of the Roman history are crowded with triumphs and victories gained by their commanders in Spain, the course of war was seldom interrupted, and their success rarely per- manent. Though often defeated, the Spaniards still renewed the contest. Concession on their part did not imply that they were vanquished ; and even a formal treaty with their enemies did not dispose their minds to peace, or preclude them from seizing the earliest advantage which promised revenge, or even seemed to favour the restoration of their independence. Upwards of a hundred towns, pn one occasion, tendered their submission to Tiberius Sempronius 490 ANCIENT SPAIN. [chap. XXII. B.C. 198. Gracchus ; and yet his successors in command found not that the number of their foes was diminished, or that the battles, in which they were successively engaged, were less frequent or less bloody. Ambition of It has, indeed, been maintained by several writers on the affairs t e omans. ^^ ijome, that, till after the conquest of Macedonia, the western repub- lic did not so much aim at the extension of her dominion in foreign countries, as at the defence of her own possessions in Italy ; and that it was only in pursuance of the latter object that she was incidentally led to accomplish the former. In Spain, for example, where the Eomans still continued to meet with a determined resistance, they had hitherto acted principally on the defensive ; but after the defeat of Perseus, and the reduction of his kingdom, their ambition seems to have enlarged, and their avarice to have acquired new strength. The acquisition of a large revenue from Macedonia first taught them that war might be carried on without domestic taxation ; and from this period, it has been remarked, their progress was distinguished by a succession of unprovoked hostilities, which they contrived to excite on their frontiers, not, as formerly, ia defence of their own possessions, but for the enlargement of a territory already much too extensive. In Spain, more particularly, they now pressed upon the natives, and provoked their opposition, with no other view than that they might enrich themselves by plunder, and gratify the people of Rome with new accessions to their dominions, or by a swollen list of tributaries. The invading legions now advancing to the Tagus, endeavoiu-ed to penetrate beyond the mountains from which that river takes its source, tUl, by awakening the fears of the strong and resolute inhabitants of Lusitania and Galhcia, they involved them- selves in a long train of sanguinary wars, the details of which are nowhere preserved, and which are only known to history by their general result. Extortion Placed at a distance from the inspection of the government, the Ge*ne?ais. Roman leaders, actuated not less by avarice than ambition, were ever seeking fresh occasions to quarrel with the natives, in order to get possession of their imaginary treasures ; and in their negotiations, too, with the chiefs and townships, they had recourse to such acts of treachery, and to such flagrant breaches of faith, as clearly showed that what they could not gain by force of arms, they were deter- mined to secure by deceit and extortion. For instance, a town having surrendered by capitulation to a Roman proconsul of the name of Lucullus, the inhabitants, notwithstanding, in open violation of the treaty, were plundered by his order, and many of them afterwards put to the sword. A similar act of perfidious cruelty was soon after perpetrated by Galba, who commanded in Lusitania, or what was called the Ulterior Province of Spain. This conduct, so disgraceful to the name of Rome, and so much at variance with the principles upon which the senate professed to regulate the CHAP. XXII.J ANCIENT SPAIN. 491 public actions of her representatives, instead of furthering the b.c. 198. progress of their arms, roused against them the most formidable opposition, and soon thereafter shook the foundations of their power in both the Iberian provinces. No sooner were the Eomans involved in the third Punic war, Appearance than the Lusitanians, incensed by the treachery of Galba which has "f Vmattas. just been alluded to, assembled in numerous parties under Viriathus, and made preparations for avenging the catise of their country. The chief now named had gained their admiration and confidence, first as a distinguished hunter, and afterwards as a captain of banditti ; and the quahties of mind and body which fitted him for these hardy occupations, recommended him "to the oppressed and desperate provincials, as the most proper person to lead their willing bands against their faithless invaders. Nor did this rude commander disappoint the hopes that were entertained of him. He knew so His well how to employ the impetuous courage of his barbarian troops '='"*'''"^'^''- against the disciplmed ranks to which they were opposed, that he converted their very deficiency, in those arts which constitute the excellence of a trained soldier, into the means of success in most of their operations. With him, an apparent rout was the ordinary prelude to a more violent attack ; and he usually endeavoured, by pretended flights and disorderly movements, to draw his enemy into a rash pursuit, and then seized, with irresistible address and valour, the advantages which he himself had created. The prsetor Vitilius marched against him with about ten thousand He defeats men, but was almost immediately defeated and killed, together with ^tiier™ ™* not less than four thousand of his troops. Another prsetor was i^^tors. forthwith despatched to quell this insurrection, intrusted with an army more numerous than the last, and including a powerful body of fifteen hundred horse. His success, however, was not more, gratifying to the senate than that of his predecessor. He was over- come in a pitched battle, losing not only a great number of his men, but likewise a considerable extent of territory. A third commander, of the same rank as the two former, was ordered to proceed against the Lusitanian, and he, like the others, fell under the weight of his arms, or the success of his stratagems. At length, after the termi- nation of the war with Carthage, the Eomans thought it expedient to send the consul Quintus Fabius into Spain, in order to recover their affairs in the further province, and to deliver them from the increasing apprehensions which the progress of Viriathus had not failed to excite. The consular army was led with greater skill, or q. FaWus under better auspices ; for Fabius is said to have obtained several '^^^ '"' important victories over his enterprising antagonist, and even to have reconquered much of the ground which the prsetorian commanders had lost. Nor did the fortune of war forsake the consul by whom Fabius was succeeded. Quintus Csecilius Metellus, an officer of 492 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XXII. B.C. 198. great bravery and talent, followed up the advantages which had been already gained, and compelling Viriathus to act entirely on the defensive, he reduced under the Roman power a vast number of cities, as well as the whole of what was called Tarraconian Spain. But MeteHus was not permitted to finish the war, which he showed himself so able to conduct to a successful issue. Intrigue, which now began to supersede at Eome the claims of merit and the most brilliant proofs of mihtary skill, gave to Quintus Pompeius the command in Lusitania, and thereby revived the hopes and retrieved the aifairs of the followers of Viriathus. Quintus The new consul, instead of directing his force to the subjugation Pompeius Qf ^jjg Lusitanian hunter, who still kept the field, and was ever unsuccessful t n ■, i ni- iii inws ready tor the most desperate undertakmgs, had the weakness to attemp on pj-gygj^-g ^]^q hostility of the Termantines and Numantines, and Numantines thereby to involve himself in a quarrel which ultimately covered Tei-mantines. him with disgrace and defeat. These two small communities, which had hitherto remained independent, were desirous to continue in a state of neutrality, and for this purpose offered every fair and reasonable concession to the Eoman general. But Pompeius declared that he would not be satisfied unless they delivered up their arms ; as no other security, he said, could remove the suspi- cion which possessed his mind, that they intended secretly to co- operate with his enemies. War was the immediate consequence; and the consul made haste to punish the obstinacy of the Numan- tines, by investing their city with his whole army. The proceedings of this Pompeius appear to have been equally inconsiderate in their origin and unsuccessful in their result. He was driven from before Numantia with considerable loss, both of men and of reputation. Upon this he removed his camp, and sat down under the walls of Termantia, where his operations were attended with still worse success. The people of that city saUied forth against him before his arrangements were completely formed, slew nearly a thousand of his soldiers, took a convoy which had been intended for the supply of his army, and destroyed a numerous detachment of horse, which they contrived to decoy into the passes of the mountains, serviiius Meanwhile, ServiHus, who now served in Spain with the rank of wtatiras'^'' proconsul, carried on the war against Viriathus ; and this he did with so little abihty, and with such a remarkable want of circum- spection, that he allowed himself to be surrounded by that spirited chieftain, by whom he was soon compelled to sue for peace. The terms proposed by the Lusitanian were extremely moderate. He confined himself to the reasonable demand, that he should be per- mitted to retain whatever portion of the country he already pos- sessed, promising to respect the claims of the Eomans as masters of all the rest. ServiHus gladly acceded to these conditions ; and the CHAP. XXn.] ANCIENT SPAIN. 493 peace founded upon them was afterwards formally ratified by the B.C. 198. senate and people of Rome. The followkig year, Pompeius, who was continued in his com- Pompeius mand, renewed his operations against the people of Numantia. He ifslltempt" hoped to reduce the town by turning aside the course of the river "P™ , Durius, or Douro, from which it was supplied with water ; but in '^"""™'"^- attempting to realize this project he lost so many of his men, that, finding himself unable any longer to contend with an enemy whose valour was more than equalled by their skiU, he was content to make peace on much more unfavourable terms than they had originally offered to him. Viriathus had, in the mean time, assumed somewhat of the state and formality of a sovereign prince, observing faithfuUy his treaty with the Romans, and holding himself not unprepared to protect • both the people and the territory which the chance of war had committed to his charge. Such a character at the head of an inde- pendent state could not fail to embitter the regret of the cormnanders whose arms he had baffled, and of the country whose ambitious schemes he had so long defeated. The Romans, accordingly, sought to create an occasion which might afford a pretext for the renewal of hostilities; and Quintus Servihus Cajpio, who is said to have courted this appointment, was sent against him at the head of a powerful aimy. Viriathus, whose forces were far inferior to those of the new consul, had recourse to negotiation ; and seemed willing to avert the storm which impended over him, by making a consider- able sacrifice to the cupidity of his adversaries. Csepio demanded that he should surrender at discretion, and committ himself to the generosity or justice of the senate ; a proposal which the Lusitanian chief spurned with the utmost indignation, and declared his resolu- tion to abide by the hazard of the sword. But the fate of Viriathus Assassina- was already determined. Two faithless attendants, won by the viSaUins. bribes and promises of the consul, murdered their master as he lay b.c. 140. asleep ; and in this way was brought to a conclusion, an eventful contest which had lasted more than fourteen years, and in which the native valour of the rude Iberian repeatedly triumphed over the discipline of the Roman legions, as well as over the experience and genius of some of their best commanders. While these events were occurring in the western parts of Spain, the eastern division was under the charge of the elder Cato, of the elder Tiberius Gracchus, and of other officers, who respectively endeavoured to secure what their countrymen had already con- quered, and even to add to the extent of their dominions. As both Cato and Gracchus obtained a triumph, we are justified in conclud- ing that there must have been several battles in the districts in which they commanded ; but as the more minute facts and circum- stances connected with these conflicts have eluded the industry of 494 ANCIENT SPAIN. [chap. xxn. B.C. 140. Brutus',leads an Army into Gallicia. Popilius attacks Numantia and is repiilsecl. Mancinus renews the attack, and is Defeated with great Loss. Consents to a Treaty which the Senate will not sanction. historians, it would be worse than a waste of time for us to attempt to supply the deficiency. The death of Viriathus opened once more a wider field to the ambition and curiosity of the Romans. In little more than a year after that event, according to some writers, (though Appian places it a year or two before it,) Brutus conducted one of their armies across the Durius, and advanced even to the very coast of Gallicia : whence they reported, with more than the embellishment and exaggeration of ordinary travellers, that the sun, at his setting, was seen to sink into the western ocean, and to be extinguished in the waves with a mighty noise. But the principal undertaking which employed the Eoman arms, after they were reheved from the oppo- sition of Viriathus, was a renewed attack upon the city of Numan- tia. The consul Popihus was instructed to employ his troops in this nefarious service, in open violation of the treaty which his pre- decessor had contracted ; and his success was such as to make a fit return for the treacherous views in which his attempt originated. The Numantines, rushing from their gates, inflicted such a discom- fiture on the whole Roman army, that it was no longer able to keep the field ; nor was the independence of that gallant people threatened with another siege, untU a new consul and a fresh levy had restored courage to the enemy's hearts, and numbers to their ranks. Mancinus, who succeeded Popilius both as consul and commandant of the forces employed against Numantia, was doomed to sustain reverses still more severe than those which have just been described. The army under his charge, which consisted of more than thirty thousand men, was totally routed by less than one-third of their number. Twenty thousand fell in the battle ; and the remainder, with their general, were surrounded by the Numantines in such a manner, that they could neither retreat nor advance, and conse- quently must all have perished by famine, or by the sword, had not their enemy, with more generosity than they were wont to experience from the Romans, set them at liberty, on condition that a treaty should be concluded and ratified by the senate. But the Roman government refused to sanction the stipulations of their consul. On the contrary, they not only declared the treaty to be null and void, but insisted, at the same time, upon dehvering up Mancinus, together with Tiberius Gracchus his quEestor, into the hands of the Numan- tines, that they might suffer in their persons for the failure of an engagement which they had no power to fulfil. Gracchus appealed to the people, and was acquitted ; whilst Mancinus, who acquiesced in the sentence of the senate, was presented naked and in chains at the gates of Numantia. But the citizens refused to receive the victim thus ofiered to their resentment. They denied that a breach of public faith could be expiated by the death of a single individual; and insisted that, if the treaty was not to be ratified, they had a CHAP. XXII.J ANCIENT SPAIN. 495 claim not for one man, but for the ten thousand whom, in rehance B.C. 140. upon Roman honovur, they had permitted to escape and to return to the service of their country. At length, after the consul had re- mained a whole day before the city, Furius, who now commanded in the Roman camp, ordered him to be brought back, but he himself did not think it prudent to hazard an engagement with the accom- plished warriors of Numantia, either to avenge the disgrace of a friend, or to retrieve the reputation of the legions which had been so often compelled to turn their backs before the victorious weapons of a barbarous town. Neither did Calpurnius Piso, who succeeded Furius in Spain, venture to approach the waUs of Numantia. He preferred the safer employment of driving away booty from the lands of the Pallantinians ; and he spent what remained of his term of service in winter quarters, which he took up in the district of Carpetia. , Fifty years had now elapsed since the commencement of those Description wars which the Romans found it necessary to wage with the natives "f^"™™**^ of Spain, and in particular with Viriathus and the people of Numantia. This city, which makes so conspicuous a figure in the latter part of this history, was the capital of a small nation situated among the mountains of Old Castile, and containing no more than seven or eight thousand inhabitants. The town itself appears to have been placed on a strong point of land, where one of the tributary branches of the Douro forms its confluence with that river ; both of which streams having very high banks, rendered the post on two of its sides of very diflacult access, whilst, on the third side, it was fortified with a rampart and ditch. The inhabitants, though few in number, were greatly distinguished by their valour, were reputed the best horsemen in Spain, and were at least equal in the use of the pointed-sword and shield (weapons which were originally borrowed from that country,) to the Romans themselves. They had beaten several armies commanded by able generals, re- duced two consuls to the necessity of suing for peace, and they had lately seen at their gates one of those distinguished magistrates, of whose life and liberty they were the acknowledged masters. Mortified vrith repeated disappointment, as well as with the dura- scipio tion of a war, of which the difficulties increased in proportion to its ^poin^edto length, the Roman people had now recourse to the tried abilities of ^Jf^^^jj^^ Scipio /Rmilianns, the conqueror of Carthage. Upon the arrival of in Spain, this renowned soldier in Spain, he found, it is said, the Roman army at once extremely relaxed in courage, and sunk into a state of the greatest insubordination. Disheartened by numerous defeats, they were alarmed at the sight of the Spaniards, whose long hair, painted faces, and savage yells had made a deep impression upon their imaginations. Scipio began by reforming the manners of the camp, and by 496 ANCIENT SPAIN. [chap. XXII. B.C. 133. reviving in the breasts of the soldiers that spirit and confidence of which late events had deprived them ; himself setting the example of every military virtue, and being the first to submit to every necessary privation. Though at the head of superior numbers, he declined a battle with the triumphant Celtiberians ; thinking it wiser to exhaust their ardent valour by expectation, and to drain their resources by a protracted contest. He bad been joined on his march to Numantia by the celebrated Jugurtha, the grandson of Masinissa, who brought to the Romans a reinforcement of twelve elephants, with a considerable body of Numidian horse, archers, and shngers. But Scipio, though now at the head of sixty thousand men, did not attempt to storm the town. His object was to reduce it by famine, or to waste the strength of its defenders by useless saUies and constant watching ; and in this line of pohcy his measures were so judicious, and his vigilance so unremittingly exercised, that no efforts of the enemy were able to divert him from his purpose, or to defeat his arrangements. Five aged warriors, attended each by a son, undertook to pass in the night through the lines of the besiegers, in order to sohcit aid from the neighbouring nations ; and having prevailed on the people of Lutia to embark in their cause, a hope was now entertained that Numantia might yet be saved. But Scipio, fTombof the Scipios, larraconensis, Spaia. — L' Univers pUloresque.] CHAP. XXII.J ANCIENT SPAIN. 497 who was_ informed of the intended relief, adopted effectual means to B.C. 133. prevent its execution. He hastened to Lutia at the head of a com- petent force, surprised the inhabitants in their preparations, and demanding that four hundred of the young men should be delivered up to him, he gave orders that their hands should be immediately- struck off. The Numantines, after this disappointment, pressed with famine, and having no longer any hopes of rehef, addressed the Roman chief with the view of obtaining favourable conditions. He required an unrestricted submission ; and would grant no terms that did not imply a complete surrender of their persons, their property, and their arms. This answer confirmed them in their resolution to die, either in defence of their walls, or amid the ramparts of their assail- ants. The end of the miserable scene, which was now fast approach- rau of ing, is variously described by different authors ; but it is agreed on n™"""*- all hands, that the inhabitants of Numantia, after having endured the most dreadful privations, perished almost to a man, rather than consent to see the Eomans in possession of their city, or yield them- selves the slaves of that detested nation. Their town was levelled with the ground; the spirit of the surrounding states was broken by the sight of the desolation with which that brave people was visited ; and in the ashes of Numantia was extinguished the last spark of Spanish independence. The tranquillity of the Roman government in Spain appears not to Sertorius have suffered any interruption, except by the temporary inroad of spain, ana the Cimbrian hordes, till the times of Marius and Sylla. The gtantod adherents of the latter commander, having obtained a complete against Syiia. ascendency, attempted to destroy the powerful faction which had ^•^- 77. supported the pretensions of his rival : and as among those Sertorius had acted a conspicuous part under the consulate of Marius, he became an object of the bitterest jealousy and resentment to SyUa and his numerous followers. Sertorius had served in Spain in the capacity of prastor, and knew well the interests and views of that country ; he no sooner perceived, therefore, that the cause of his patron was lost at Rome than he crossed the Pyrenees, unfurled his flag against the dominating faction, proclaimed protection to aU his fellow-citizens, who, like himself, were dissatisfied with the condition of things at home, and declared his resolution to dispute with the ruling party the possession of the Spanish provinces. As soon as Sylla was informed of this rebellion, he sent into Spain a considerable army, under Caius Annius, with orders to crush the insurgent forces. Sertorius, aware that he would not be allowed to occupy in peace so important a province, despatched Julius Salinator with six thousand men to guard the passes of the Alps, and to watch the movements of his adversaries. Annius, having procured the death of Julius, made his way through the mountains, and appearing [e. h."1 2 K 498 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XIIi. B.C. 77. in the plain witli an overwhelming preponderancy, compelled the praetor of Marius to seek for safety in Africa. Pursued by bad fortune, even to the wilds of Mauritania, Sertorius was reduced to the necessity of agaia putting to sea ; but being unable to effect a re-landing in Spain, he strengthened his little fleet by the addition of some of the CUician pirates, and made a descent on the island of Ivica, in which Annius had placed a small garrison. The lieutenant of Sylla made haste to succour his insular colony, and sailing for Ivica with a strong squadron of armed ships, was resolved to bring Sertorius to battle. A storm prevented the engagement ; most of the ships were driven ashore, or swallowed up in the waves ; and Sertorius, who had with diiEculty escaped from the fury of the tempest, bore away with a few small vessels for the Straits of Gib- raltar, and landing near the mouth of the Guadalquiver, refreshed his men on the shores of the Atlantic ocean. It was on that occa- sion that, fatigued by the vicissitudes of a hard fortune and filled with gloomy views as to the future, he is said to have listened to the romantic description of certain sailors, who charmed his ears with the delights and peaceful security which belonged to a group of happy islands lying scattered at a convenient distance in the western sea. He would have retired to that fabled paradise, had not the Cilician rovers, who preferred a more enterprising life, refused to accompany him, and sailed back to the coast of Africa. Sertorius Scrtorius in like manner returned into the Mediterranean, and AMca. commenced hostilities against an African prince whom he knew to be in alhance with the Eomans. Having defeated this petty sovereign, whose name appears to have been AscuUs, he was preparing to enjoy the fruits of his success, when he was informed that Pacianus, who had been sent by Sylla to assist the barbarian, was already marching to attack his conqueror. Upon this intelligence Sertorius put his troops in motion to meet this new enemy; and, although greatly inferior in number of men, he resolutely sustained the attack of Pacianus, and defeated him, with the loss of his life and the capture of nearly his whole army. Is invited by The reputation acquired by this victory retrieved the affairs of Lusitanians Sertorius. The Lusitanians, irritated by the conduct of Annius, t» command resolved to throw off the yoke, and inviting the conqueror of Pacianus '^^' to assume the command of their army, they took the field against the deputy of Sylla, and set the whole power of Eome at defiance. The most brilliant success attended the arms of Sertorius. Witb two thousand six hundred men, whom he called Eomans, (though of these seven hundred were Africans,) and an addition of four thousand light-armed Lusitanians and seven hundred horse, he carried on the war agamst four Eoman generals, who had a hundred and twenty thousand foot, six thousand horse, two thousand archers and slingers, and cities without number under their command. Of the ofiScerSi CHAP. XXn.J ANCIENT SPAIN. 499 opposed to him, he beat Cotta at sea, in the straits over against b.c. 77, Mellaria, near the modern Trafalgar : he defeated Phidius, who had '^Ij"^,^, ^J the chief command in Bsetica, now Andalusia, and Idlled four thou- ovlrtho*^'^'' sand Eomans, on the banks of the river from which that province ''™™'- takes its name. By his qusestor he vanquished Domitius and Lucius Manlius, proconsul of the Hither Spain : he likewise slew Thoranius, one of the officers sent against him by MeteUus, and cut off the whole army under his command. Even MeteUus himself, one of the most experienced and successM generals of his age, was not a match for Sertorius, in the species of warfare which the Lusitanians waged under his direction. Constantly changing his post, and flying from one fastness to another with a small body of active men, he cut off the Eomans in every quarter, without allowing them time to make any arrangement for their defence, or even to see the enemy under whose hands their numbers were so rapidly reduced. If they began to march, says Plutarch, he was on the wing to harass them ; and if they sat still, he galled them in such a manner that they were quickly forced to quit their ground. If they invested a town, he soon made his appearance, and by intercepting their convoys, besieged, as it were, the besiegers. In short, he combined in his character all the activity and hardiness of savage hfe, with the policy and mili tary skiU of a Eoman general. Nor did Sertorius think it enough to fight the battles of the He attempts Spaniards : he also undertook to estabUsh amongst them the habits spaDi'li*;.""" and advantages of civilisation. He taught their soldiers all the more useful parts of Eoman tactics ; he founded schools for the education of youth ; distinguished the meritorious by marks of his approbation ; and even introduced among the higher orders the dress of Eoman citizens. But his attention was soon called away from these pleasing occupations to encoimter the pressure of an augmented host, con- ducted by the celebrated Pompey, who had been invested with the rank of proconsul, and sent from Eome to employ his splendid talents against this successful rebel. The strength of Sertorius had been in the meantime considerably is joined by iacreased by the accession of an army of upwards of thirty thousand p^^™^' "^ men, under Perpenna Vento, who had likewise intended to take refiige in Spain from the persecutions inflicted upon his party by the tools of Sylla. He was at the same time supplied with an additional motive to exert himself to the utmost ; for, as Plutarch informs us, as long as he carried on the war against MeteUus, his success was generally ascribed to the age and inactivity of his adversary, who had to contend with a bold young man, at the head of troops so Ught, that they might pass rather for a party of marauders than a regular army. But when Pompey had passed the Pyrenees, and Sertorius had taken post against him, every art of generalship, on both sides, was put in practice; and yet, even then, observes the 500 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XXII. B.C. 77. same author, it appeared that, in point both of attack and of defence, Sertorius had the advantage. An opportunity very soon occurred which enabled the latter to exhibit a signal instance of his skUl and resources. He had laid siege to Lauron, the modern Liria, which Pompey advanced with his whole army to relieve. The attention of both parties was fixed on the result ; for, if Sertorius had earned a high name by his exploits in Lusitania, and by his repeated victories over Metellus, his opponent, on the other hand, had attained, under the discerning eye of Sylla, and even before he had reached the years of manhood, the appellation of Pompey the Great. Takes the There was a hill at some distance from the walls of Lauren, the Lauion. possession of which, might be very annoying to the garrison of that city. Sertorius hastened to seize it, and Pompey to prevent him, but the former gained the post. Pompey, however, sat down near it with great satisfaction, thinking that , he had been singularly fortunate in cutting the enemy off from the town ; and under this impression he even sent a message to the Lauronites, assuring them that they might be perfectly easy, and sit quietly upon their walls and see him besiege Sertorius. When that warrior was informed of this boastful observation, he only laughed and said, " I will teach the pupil of Sylla, that a general ought to look behind him as well as before." At the same time he showed to the besieged a body of six thousand foot which he had in his camp to attack Pompey in the rear, while he himself advanced to assail him in front. Sertorius took the town and reduced it to ashes ; and though Pompey (to use the strong expression of the historian,) was near enough to have warmed his hands at the flame, he dared not quit his post for fear of being surrounded, but was compelled to witness the discomfiture of his aUies, and the utter demolition of their city. But Sertorius, though successful wherever he commanded in person, sustained soon after the event now mentioned, a considerable loss in the defeat of his qusestor Herennius, whom Metellus overcame in battle with great slaughter. Afraid lest the conqueror should join the camp of Pompey, Sertorius made haste to attack the latter, who had taken up a position on the banks of the . Sucro. Nor did the pupil of Sylla show any inclination to decline the combat : on the contrary, unwilling that Metellus should share in the honour of victory over so powerful an antagonist, he engaged in battle at the approach of night, though perfectly convinced that, whether suc- cessful or vanquished, the ensuing darkness could not but prove hett'eeu disadvantageous to him. Each general was victorious in that wing Pompey and wMch he first commanded, and the issue of the fight seemed balanced Sertonus. ijj g^ doubtful equahty, when Sertorius, having driven his immediate antagonist from the field, placed himself at the head of the division which had been repulsed by Pompey, and renewing the conflict with his usual valour, at length compelled that celebrated leader to consult CHAP. XXII.j ANCIENT SPAIN. 501 his safety by a rapid flight. Pompey had a very narrow escape, his B.C. 77. horse being taken and himself slightly wounded by the African cavalry who pursued him. The victory, however, was not regarded by either army as decisive ; and each was accordingly prepared to renew the struggle at the dawn of the following day. But Metellus had come up during the night ; which when Sertorius observed, he commenced a retreat, observing, with a gay and sarcastic air, " If that old woman had not interposed, I would have flogged the boy well, and sent him back to school at Rome." After a short interviil, another battle was fought with similar a secomi success,_ though Pompey and Metellus had united both their arms '^''"'''■ and their counsels against Sertorius. On either side, signal acts of valour were performed. Memmius, Pompey's best officer, fell in the hottest of the fight. Sertorius, if we may believe Plutarch, carried aU before him, and, through heaps of slain, made his way to Metellus, who manfully withstood him, and fought with a vigour above his years, till he was borne down by the stroke of a spear. The Romans, perceiving the danger of their general, ralhed to save him, under the influence of shame as well as of humanity, and, renewing the fight with indescribable fiiry, they not only repulsed the vic- torious barbarians, but even succeeded in restoring the fortune of the day. Sertorius, upon this, found it expedient to occupy a stronghold in the mountains, whither he seems to have been followed by Pompey and MeteUus. Escaping, however, from their pursuit, he made his way into Lusitania, where he once more raised such a powerfLd force as enabled him to appear again in the field, and to oppose himself to the united standards of his warlike countrymen. He recommenced his operations against them, both by sea and land, cutting off their convoys, hemming in their quarters, and waylaying their foraging parties, insomuch that the Roman commanders deemed it advisable to separate ; the one retiring into Gaul, and the other taking up his winter station in the modern province of Biscay. A fate similar to that of Viriathus was about to terminate the Murder of career of the more celebrated Sertorius, after having, for more than and Defeat ten years, withstood successfully aU the power of Rome. Perpenna, ofPevpenna. who had sometime before led an army into Spain, and joined his ^•'-'' '^■ ranks, at length conspired against him, and procured his death. This murderer, it should seem, was impatient of the ascendency which his master had acquired, and more particularly of his bound- less popularity among the troops ; and, as his ambition aspired to the command of the brave soldiers who had so ofl;en foiled the arms of Pompey, and driven the combined army of Romans to the foot of the P3T:enees, he had no sooner accomphshed his nefarious object, than he announced himself as the successor of Sertorius. But he 5(12 ANCIENT SPAIN. [CHAP. XXII. H.c. 73. soon proved as unfit for the duties, as he was unworthy of the honour attached to that high office. Pompey, upon hearing that his formidable antagonist was no more, attacked the traitor, whom he easily defeated. He was taken prisoner, and afterwards executed as an enemy to his country ; and in this way ended a war which, at one time, threatened the overthrow of the whole fabric of the Eoman power in Spain. tfeSHMaiT [Roman Retiariua and Secutor.] CHRONOLOGY OP ITALY. Laxium and Alba Longa. " The earliest tnowniuhabitantB of Italy are called by Cato and other writers, Aborigines, a term which, as Micale observes, must not be understood to signify a distinct race, native or foreign, but to apply to the tribes of Italy who were in the lowest state of civilization. These are said to have been first instructed in the simpler arts of social life by Janus, or Saturnus. Virgil ascribes the merit to the latter, and identifies him with the Greek Kronos, the father of Jove. ***** The Siculi, who eventually gave name to Sicily, are said to have had their first seat on the banks of tte Tiber, where they were sufficiently powerful to carry on long wars against the Umbri. The latter, however, at last prevailed, and the Siculi passed over into Sicily."— av John Stoddart. ' It IS supposed that tlie name Italia is deduced from Italus, one of the ancient kings of the country, or from the old Greek word It«a.o;, which signifies an Ox, the land abounding with this animal." 2450 The Aborigines, under Saturn, found the kingdom afterwards called Latium. Long and bloody wars between the Umbri, Siculi, and other tribes. 1293 Migration of the Sicels into Sicily (? 1035.) Immigration of the Pelasgians from Greece into Italy. 1253 Settlement of Evander of Arcadia on the Palatine Hill (? 1244.) 1250 Agriculture extended and encouraged. Letters introduced by Evander. 1239 Latinus reigns in Italy. 1181 ^neas, from Troy, settles in Italy. The Heneti are settled in Upper Italy. The Argives in Lower Italy ; and the exiled Trojans occupy the intervening country. 1152 Alba Longa founded by Ascanius, son of ^neas, the Trojan. Alba Longa flourishes. 1143 Sylvius Posthumus succeeds Ascanius. 1114 ^neas Sylvius reigns in Alba Longa. 1043 Latinus king of Alba Longa. 1038 Alba succeeds Latinus. 1002 Capetus, or Atys, king of Alba Longa. 976 Capys reigns in Alba Longa. 916 CaIpetus,King of Alba Longa. 903 Tiberinus reigns in Alba Longa. 895 Defeat of Tiberinus near the river Albula, into which he throws himself, hence called the Tiber. Agrippa, king of Alba Longa. 864 Bbmulus, king of Alba Longa. 845 Aventinus, king of Alba Longa. 808 Procas reigns in Alba Longa. 800 Introduction of the Etruscan order of architecture. 795 Numitor, king of Alba Longa. 794 Amulius seizes the throne of his brother Numitor, and condemns Ilia, his daugh- ter, to perpetual celibacy. 771 Ilia, the vestal, is ravished. 770 Remus and Romulus born. Ilia buried alive ; her twin children are sent adrift on the Tiber. Faustulus, a shepherd of Mount Aventine, rescues the children; and his wife, sur- named Lupa, nourishes them. 754 Romulus, grandson of Numitor, puts Amu- lius to death, and restores his grandfiather. 753 Dispute between Romulus and Remus: the latter is slain by Celer. Remus buried on the hill Remuria. Romulus founds Rome. See Borne. 671 Cluilius, kingof Alba Longa, sends ambas- sadors to Tullus Hostihus respecting a trespass upon his territory by the Romans. 670 The Albans invade the Roman territory; and the Romans retaliate upon theirs. Fight between the three Horatii and the three Curiatii, the latter are killed, one of the others only survives. Submission of the Albans to the Romans. 664 The Albans, wishing to regain their inde- pendence, incite the Teientes and Pidaj- neans to war with Rome, i Mettius, the general of the Albans, acts cowardly and treacherously in a battle between the Romans and Veientes, &c. After the battle, Mettius is punished by being torn to pieces ; Alba Longa is rased, and me Albans transferred to Rome. End oftlie kingdom of Alba Longa. Magna Ge^cia, and Etkuria. " Prior to the eminence obtained by the Romans, there were, in Italy, two main centres of that refinement which gradually spread over the : Peninsula. These were the countries called Magna Grseeia and Etruria. The Grecian adventurers who had landed on the south-eastern part of Italy (M^na Grseeia) built, or seized from the natives, the towns of Metapontus, Gorton, Sybaris, Tarentum, Locri, and others. The governments in all these were republican. They rapidly acquired wealth and splendour. The new Greek cities, in a short time, sent out colonies themselves to neighbouring lands ; and the whole coast, from Tarentum on the Adriatic, to Cumse near Naples, was studded with Grecian cities."— i'jr John Stoddart. 503 B.C. 1710.] CHRONOLOGY. [B.C. 477. 1710 A colony of Arcadians, under CEnotrus, settle in Italy ; they give the name OSnotria to the country which is after- wards called Magna Graoia (? 1680.) 1030 Cumaj founded by colonists from Chalcis in Eubcea. ! Neapolis and Zancle settled by the Cu- maeans. ? Etrurian colonies in Campania. SOO Etrurian architecture famed. 774 Pandosia and Metapontus colonised. 749 Rhegium founded by the Chalcidians, or Milesians, under Alcidamus. 721 Colonies of Achseans and Trazenians found Sybaris. 710 Crotona founded by the Achaeans. rOS The Parthenise, under Phalanthus, plant Tarentum in Apulia. 706 The Locri Ozolae establish Locri Epize- phyrii. 673 Locri founded, according to Eusebius. 660 Zaleucus gives laws to the Locri Epize- phyrii. 600 Rise of Sybaris: the inhabitants indulge in great luxury. 564 AlaUa, in Corsica, founded by Phooseans. 560 Ibycus, the poet of Ehegium, fi. 550 Pythagoras legislates for Magna Graecia. 511 Overthrow of Sybaris by the Crotoniataa. Etruria about this time consists of twelve confederated cities. 508 Porsenna, king of Clusium, takes Rome, and greatly limits its territory. ,506 War with Aricia; Aruns, the son of Por- senna, defeated ; Porsenna guits Rome to I fight against the Latins; Svbaris des- troyed; Milo, with 100,000 Crotonians, defeat 300,000 Sybarians. The Etruscans expelled Upper Italy by the marauding Gauls. 504 Parmenides, phil. of Elea, fl. Incursions of the Gauls, 499 Death of Pythagoras (?497; see 472.) 483 The Drama, Architecture, and Music, fl. in Etruria. 476 Death of Anaxilaus of Rhegium. Naval defeat of the Etruscans by the Car- thaginians. 474 Etruria flourishes ; civilization extends ; fine arts cultivated ; luxuiy succeeds. 472 Death of Pythagoras, the philosopher, at Metapontum, aged 99. 467 Anaxilaus' sons receive possession of their inheritance. 417 War with the Samnites, who seize colonies in Campania. 405 Siege of Veii by the Romans. 395 Veil taken by the Romans. The other cantons of Etruria continue to offer a vigorous resistance to the encroach- ments of Rome, 345 Twelve cities in Campania destroyed by an earthquake, 338 Archidamus of Sparta defeated and slain at Locri, 308 Battle of Lacus Vadimonis; the Romans victorious, 283 Etruria finally subdued to Rome. End of the Etruscan state. CHRONOLOGY OF SICILY, Tradition reports that the Siculi, when expelled Italy by the Umbri, drove the Sicani before them. This tribe, it is said, had arrived from Spain some years previously, and having destroyed or expelled the Aborigines, occupied their settlements. Dr. Stoddart imagines tiiat both the Siculi and Sicani were one tribe. They probably had a common origin. B.C. 1293 753 735 734 730 728 713 644 632 612 The Sicels form colonies in the island. [Some ancient historians place this event in the year B.C. 1264, others at 1035.] The Greeks (lonians and Dorians) settle on the eastern and southern shores. Catania, at the foot of Mount ^tna, founded by a colony from Chalcis (? 735.) The lonians, under Theucles, plant Naxos. A colony of Corinthians, under Archias, founds Syracuse. Action put to death by Archias and Cher- sicrates (? 769.) Catana planted by Guarchas ( ? 753.) A settlement commenced at Trotilas. Colony of Megara Hybliea. Gela founded (? 690.) Lacius plants Gela, The Messenians arrive at Zancle, which they name Messene, The Syracusans colonise Acrie, Theron founds Himera. Casmenas founded by Syracusans. Stesichorus, the poet, born at Himera, Lipara colonized, — Eusebius 579,) Stesichorus, the poet, ft, Camarina founded by a colony from Syra- cuse, under Dascon and Meriecolus, S04 485 Agrigentum founded,— Thucydides. Lipara founded,— Diodorus (? 627,) Birth of Pythagoras, Accession of Pnalaris of Agrigentum. Death of Stesichorus, aged 79. Camarina destroyed. Death of Phalaris of Agrigentum. Ibicus of Rhegium, poet, fl, Cleander, tyrant of Gela, Epicharmus the comedian. Camarina ceded to Hippocrates. Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela. The Gameroi expelled Syracuse by the Demonata. Gelon becomes tyrant of Syracuse; he restores the Gameroi. Epicharmus, the comic writer, comes from Megara to Syracuse. Victory of Gelon over the Carthaginians and Persians at Himera; death of Hamil- car the elder. Gorgias, the orator, born in Leontium. Hiero I. succeeds his brother Gelon. .aSschylus at the court of Hiero, Syracuse celebrated for its flour, Epicharmus, the poet, fl. at Syracuse. Pindar and Baconalydes, at Hiero's court. B.C. 476.] CHRONOLOGY. [B.C. 212. 476 Simonides patronized by Hiero. 474 Hiero's naval victory over tlie Tuscans. 472 Death of Theron of Agrigentura (? 476.) 471 Empirics instituted by Acron of Agrigen- tum(?473.) 467 Tlirasyhvlus (another brother of Gelon) succeeds Hiero I. 466 Dethronement and expulsion of Thrasy- bulus for cruelty. Democratic form of government estabUshed. 461 Gelon restores Camarina (599 and 553.) Syracuse the chief city of Sicily. 459 (rorgias of Leontium, fl. (480.) 456 Death of ^schylus the poet. 451 Ducetius unites the Sicels under his sway. 450 Empedocles, the philos. fl. at Agrigentum. 446 Agrigentum reduced by the Syracusans. 444 Empedocles of Agrigentum, fl. 443 Death of Epioharmus.— Lucian. 440 Death of Ducetius. 431 Birth of Dionysius the elder. 423 Antiochus of Syracuse brings down his history to this date. 417 The _ Leontines, at war with Syracuse, re- ceive assistance from Athens. 415 The Athenians invade Sicily, and capture the city of Catana. 414 Syracuse besieged by the Athenians. The Spartans, under Gylippus, come to the aid of the Syracusans. 413 The Athenians defeated at the time of a solar eclipse (? 414) 412 Diodes gives laws to the Syracusans; a republic and commonwealth established. 409 Selinus and Himera fall before the Cartha- ginians. 407 An army of 400,000 Carthaginians arrives in Sicily. 406 Agrigentum taken by the Carthaginians. Pnylistus the historian promotes the inter- est of Dionysius. Dionysius I. becomes master of Syracuse. 399 War between Syracuse and Rhegium. Catapultae invented by Dionysius. 398 Dionysius at war with the Carthaginians- Hannibal and Himilco. Victories of Carthaginians over Dionysius. 396 Syracuse besieged; Dionysius reduced to great distress; a pestilence compels the Carthaginians to retire. 393 Xenarohus the poet flourishes in the court of Dionysius. 392 Dionysius, aided by Agyris, defeats the Carthaginians ; they sue for peace. 391 Dionysius establishes a colony at Messena, as a stronghold against Rhegium. League of the Greek cities in Italy against Dionysius. 390 Alliance of Dionysius with the Lucanians. 389 Victory of Dionysius at the river Helorus. 387 Rhegium taken by Dionysius. Damon and Pythias; their fidelity to each other causes Dionysius to spare Damon. 385 Dionysius represses the piracy on the Etruscan coasts. He enters into alliance with the Spartans. 383 War again with the Carthaginians; they are defeated, and Hago slain. Dionysius defeated by the Carthaginians. Peace with the Carthaginians. 379 The Carthaginians invade Italy. 368 Fourth war between the Syracusans and Carthaginians. Treaty of peace. 367 Dionysius I. poisoned (?); his Son Dionysius II. succeeds. 360 Banishment of Dion. 357 Dion returns and seizes Syracuse. 356 Expulsion of Dionysius from Syracuse after twelve years reign. Philustus, who had espoused the cause of Dionysius, is defeated and slain. .353 Calippus murders Dion. 347 Dionysius II. regains the govt, of Syracuse. 344 Defeat of Hicetas and nis Carthaginian allies by Timoleon of Corinth. 343 Syracuse taken by Timoleon. Dionysius sent to Corinth. 339 Timoleon obtains a victory over the Cartha- ginians at the Crimesus. 337 Death of Timoleon at Syracuse. 317 AgatMcLes usurps the government. Syracusans and Carthaginians at war. 310 Agathocles is defeated in battle, and then besieged in Syracuse. Agathocles (during the seige of Syracuse) goes over to Africa, carrying war into the (Darthaginian territory. Defeat of the Carthaginians by Agathocles. 306 Peace with the Carthaginians. 289 Agathocles poisoned by Msenon, who as- sumes the government. Hicetas expels MEenon,andrules in Syracuse as Praitor. 278 Thymon and Sostratus's usurpation. Pyrrhus, of Epirus, lands in Sicily. He defeats the Carthaginians, and gets pos- session of their towns. 275 Pyrrhus quarrels with the SiciUan princes; hence he departs for Italy. 270 Defeat of the Mamertines by Hiero. Hiero II. reigns in Syracuse 263 Hiero renounces his alliance with Carthage, and joins the Romans. 262 Agrigentum taken by the Romans. 260 Corsica, Lipara, and Malta, lost to the Carthaginians. 224 A planetarium, constructed by Archimedes ; by whom the measuring of solids, conic sections, &c., the properties of the lever, &c., is demonstrated. _ 216 Hieronymus succeeds Hiero. 215 War with Rome. 214 Marcellus besieges Syracuse. 212 Syracuse taken by the Romans. Death of Archimedes. Sicily apart of the Roman empire. CHRONOLOGY OF EOME. " The history of Rome, such as it has been popularly received down to our own times, opens with a fable, but without such a mixture of mythological fiction, as abounds in the wild tradi- tions of the East. The traditionary Romulus is a mere symbol, or representative of a tribe who 505 B.C. 753.] CHRONOLOGY. [B.C. 501. occupied a fortified bill, which they (being perhaps of Pelasgic or Greek origin) called P^^tj, Roma^ the " strength " or '* stronghold." Another tribe (of Latin or Sabine origin) were called Quirites, from the Sabine word, quiris, a spear, they being good spearmen."— .S'^r J. Stoddart. " It is probable that the Latins belonged to that great race which, in very early times, overspread Greece and Italy, under the various names of Pelasgians,Tyrsenians, and Siculians. ' — Arnold. 763 Rome founded according to Varro. [Cato, 751; Polybius, 750; Fabius Pictor, 747;Cincius, 728.] Romulus^t]\& first king, extends his domin- ions by military conquests. He gives laws to his people. The Constitution is based on agriculture. The Senate consists of 100 menibers. The three tribes, Ramnes, Titles, and Luceres, of 10 Curiae each. Clients the germ of the Plebs. 750 Rape of the Sabine women. War with the Sabines. 7^ The Sabines settle on the Capitohne and Qurinal; league with Romulus. Tatius, kg. of Sabines, slain at Laurentum. War with Veii. Earthenware in use. 732 Circensian games established by Romulus. 716 Murder of Romulus by the Senators. 715 Numa Pompilim, founder of the national religion, succeeds. Music at the time of sacrifice introduced. 713 JanuaryandFebruary placed before March, by Numa Pompilius — increasing the year from ten to twelve months of 360 days. 710 Augurs and vestals instituted. 677 Tulltis HostUius, king (? 672 or 673.) 672 The Albans encamp near Rome ; the ditch Fossa Cluilia thrown up. ^1 Mutual outrages on property by the inhabi- tants of Rome and Alba Longa. Tullus, desirous of war, makes prisoner of the ambassadors from Alba Longa. 670 The celebrated and decisive fight between the Horatii and Curiatii. 665 Treachery of the Albans in exciting the Fidense and Veii to revolt. Tullus defeats his enemies. The Romans destroy Alba Longa, and trans- fer its inhabitants to Rome. Rise of the Plebeian caste. Wars with the Fidense and Veii. League with the Latins. The Senate increased to 200. 640 Aneus Martins king of Rome. Great extension otTloman territory. The port of Ostea founded. Settlement of the conquered Latins on the Aventine hill; and establishment of the Plebeian order:— [The inhabitants of the conquered tovnis, which Tullus and Aneus had removed to Rome, were formed into a class distinct from the populus or trueRomancitizens.] Dyrrhachium in Illyria occupied. 621 Institution of the Laurentalia festivals. 618 Tarquinius Prisctts^ kin§^i in whose reign Rome flourished. Public works on an extensive scale. 616 The foundation of the Capitol laid. The Sabines and Latins conquered. The Senate increased to 300 ; the additional 100 named the " Minores Gentes." The number of Equites doubled. 506 B.C. 605 The Circus Maximus built. 600 The Cloacse built. 578 Sermus Tvllius^ sixth king of Rome. The Esquiline and Viminafis added to the City tribes. Money first coined at Rome. 566 First census of Rome: citizens, 84j700. First Lustrum performed by Servius. 550 Constitution of Servius ; he divides the people of Rome into six classes, according to their property; ^e prold:aria7is alone ex- empted from taxes and military duties. The tnirty Plebeian tribes. Institution of the Comitia Centuriata. Army reviewed in the field of Mars. Wall and ditch around Rome. 534 Murder of Servius ; usurpation of Tarquinius II. (Superbus); who seizes the throne without election, and, at the same time, claims supremacy over other cities. He abrogates the constitution formed by his predecessor; greatly oppresses the Plebeians, and persecutes the Patricians. War against Latium ; it is conquered. Rome IS head of the Latin confederacy. War with the Volscians; Suessia Pometia conquered. Colonies sent to Signia, Circeii, and Cora. 520 The Sibylline books brought from Cumse. First appointment of the Duumviri to take care of them. Temple of Capitoline Jupiter built in the Tuscan order. 510 Siege of Ardea; dispute between the king's sons and their cousins. 509 Lucretia violated by Sextus; invokes re- venge, and stabs herself. Conspiracy, headed by Brutus. Tarquin expelled; kingly government in Rome abolished. Two Consuls appointed— L. Junius Brutus and L. Tarquinius CoUatinus— by whom is establishea — The Roman Republic. Attempts of Tarquin to gain the kingdom. War with the Etruscans; Brutus killed. 508 First commercial treaty with Carthage. " Lex de Provocatione " of Valerius Popli- cola — securing the right of appeal to all Roman citizens. War with the T?arqains and their ally, Porsenna of Clusium. Rome besieged, and taken by Porsenna. Diminution of the tribes to 20. 507 The Capitoline Temple dedicated by the Consul Horatius. Census: Roman citizens, 130,909. 504 Appius Claudius comes to Rome. 503 Death of P. Valerius Poplicola. 502 War with the Latins. 501 Office of Dictator instituted; according to some, M.Valerius was the first appointed ; other authorities mention the name or Titus Lartius Flavius (? 498.) B.C. 501.J 501 50O CHEONOLOGY. [B.C. 442. Sp. Cassius Viscellinus the first Magister Equitum. Commencement of the civil contests be- tween the Plebeians and Patricians. Temple of Minerva built. 498 Titius Lartius, the first Dictator, according to some (see above, 501.) 496 Battle of Regillus; theLatms defeated by the Romans. Death of Tarquinius Superbus at Cumse. [The mythical period of Roman history ends about this time.] 495 Addition of the tribus Claudia, which in- creases the tribes to 21. 494 First secession of the Plebs to Mons Sacer. Tribunes of the people, and JEdiles first appointed. 493 Cassras's treaty with the Latins. 492 The Tolsoians defeated; Corioli captured. Institution of the Comitia Tribitta, or free assembly of the people (? 494.) Famine in Rome. " Lex Icilia," enjoining silence during the addresses of the Tribunes. Norba colonized. 491 Coriolanus, in exile among the Volscians, rises in importance. 489 Rome attacked by the Volscians under the command of Coriolanus. 488 Coriolanus withdraws the Volscians from Rome at the request of his mother. 486 Cassius's league with the Hernici. First "Agrarian law ;" the lands of the con- quered Hernici equally divided. 485 Cassius put to death. Qucestors first appointed. 483 War with Veii, and other states. The Fabia Gens in the ascendant. 481 IciUus, Tribune of the Plebs, re-introduces the Agrarian law of Cassius. 480 Battle with the Etruscans; Manlius killed. 479 Proposal of Quintus Fabms to distribute lands among the Plebs. The Pabii (305 in all) undertake the war against Veii; they establish themselves in the Cremera. 477 Fight between the Fabii and Veientes; heroic death of the former, one only (a child) survives. Menenius impeached and fined ; lie soon after dies of grief. 476 The Janiculum taken by the Veientes, and re-taken by the Romans. 475 Servilius impeached by the Tribunes, but is acquitted. 474 Truce with Veii for forty years. 473 The Tribune Genucius impeaches the Con- suls of 474, for which tne Patricians has him assassinated. 472 Publius Volero proposes that the Tribunes should be elected by the Comitia Tributa. 471 Publius Volero, again Tribune, carries the "LexPublilia.'*^ [This extension of the popular prerogatives rendered the Plebeians comparatively in- dependent of the Patres.] War with the JBquians and Volscians; the army deserts Appius Claudius. 470 Appius Claudius impeached. Death of Claudius before trial. 468 The Romans take Antium. 467 Antium colonized. 461 460 Census: 134,214 Roman citizens, capable of bearing arms. A pestilence rages in Rome. The demand for pubUc written laws by the Plebeians becomes general. Victory over the Volscians and ^quians. Terentillus, the Tribune, demands on behalf of the people that the consular power should be limited. Fixed code of laws proposed. Condemation of Kaeso Quinctius. Earthquake at Rome. Cincinnatus chosen from the plough-tail as one of the Consuls. The struggle between the Patricians and Plebeians continues. Herdonius takes advantage of the commo- tion to seize the Capitol; it is besieged and taken — the Consul Valerius killed. Revolt of Antium ; subdued. The Volscian war continues. The iEquians and Sabines shut up the Romans under Minucius in their camp. Cincinnatus is chosen Dictator. He efifects the deliverance of the Romans. Tribunes increased from five to ten. The "Lex Icilia;" Mons Aventinus as- signed to the Plebeians. The -iEquians defeated. "Lex Aternia Tarpeia," by which magis- trates might fine for contempt. End of the contest respecting public laws; the Patricians submit: — Three ambassadors proceed to Greece to learn and report on the Grecian laws.^ Return of the Ambassadors : resolutions based upon their report. Institution of the Decemviri, as substitutes for the Consuls and the Duumviri. Laws of the X. tables compiled. Connubium between Patres and Plebs forbidden (see 445.) Second appointment of the Decemviri. The law tables increased to XII. ; they were chiefly compiled from those of Athens. Outrage of Appius Claudius. Virginia killed by her father. Secession of the Plebs to Mons Sacer. Deposition of the Decemviri: the consular authority restored ; flight of Claudius. The Sabines and ^quians defeated. "Leges ValeriEC," for the protection of magistrates from personal injury, &c. " Lex Trebonia," a law regulating the elec- tion of the Comitia. Election of the Quaestors by the people for the first time. The Tribunitia potestas renewed. The " Lex tCanuleia," or jus connubii be-' tween Patricians and Plebeians. Appointment of the Tnbuni Militum with consular power. Election of three Tribuni Mihtum ; they soon abdicate ; their places filled by Consuls. Appointment of Censors. [At first they only numbered the people, but afterwards their power was extended over the surveys and rates of the city, and the manners of the people.J The Duumviri Noxales appomted. The Volscians defeated. Ardea colonized. 507 B.C. 440.] CHRONOLOGY. [b.c. 348. 440 Famine at Rome; Sp. Maelius, the first Praefectus Annonaa, distributes corn to the poop of the city. 439 Quinctiua Cincinnatus II. Dictator. Sp. Maelius killed by C. Servilius Structus Ahata, magister equitum. 438 Revolt of the Fidenaeans to Veii. The Roman ambassadors murdered. 437 Fidense again subdued (? 435.) Victors^ over the Veientes. 434 "War with the Tuscans. 433 "Lex iEmilia," limiting the duration of the censorship to eighteen months. The Temple of Apollo dedicated. 431 The jEquians and Volscians defeated at Mount Algidus, by A. P. Tubertius. 430 " Lex P. Mulctarum," instituting payment of taxes in money instead of cattle, &c. 427 "War with Veii, declared by the Comitia Centuriata. 426 Revolt, capture, and destruction of Fidense. 425 A twenty years' truce with Veii. 423 War with the Volscians resumed. 421 Four Quaestors elected instead of two. 420 The Campanians conquer Cumas, 418 Lavici taken from the ^quians, and made a Roman colony. 414 War again with the jiEquians; Bola and other places conquered. The power of the Samnites ascendant. Postumius put to death by the soldiers. 410 An Agrarian law proposed by the Tribune Maenius. 409 Three Plebeian Quaestors. 407 Battle with the Volscians, and defeat. 406 Anxur taken from the Volscians. Rupture again between Rome and Veii. Soldiery first paid, for which a war-tax is levied, also to maintain a standing army. 405 Siege of Veii commenced <396.) 403 " -^s Uxorum," a tax on old bachelors. 402 Defeat by the Veientes. The Volscians recover Anxur. 400 The Romans again take Anxur. 399 Pestilence at Rome; a Lectisternium (the first) appointed. 398 Embassy to Delphi to consult the Oracle. 396 Veii taken by Camilius, dictator. 393 The territory of the Veientes divided among the Plebs. 391 Banishment of Camilius. 390 Battle at Allia; the Gauls, under Brennius, defeat the Romans. The Gauls enter Rome, and burn it. Recall of Camilius, who dissuades the people from retiring to Veii. The Gauls evacuate Rome in seven months. 389 Rome rebuilt. Alliance of the Latins and Hernicians with Rome renounced. Victories of Camilius. 387 Four new tribes added, increasing the number to 25 (? 389.) Institution of the Ludi CapitoUni. 386 The Etruscans, &c. defeated. 385 The Volscians defeated. A colony sent to Satricum. 384 Trial, condemnation, and execution of Manlius Capitolinus. 383 The Plebeians are given the district — Ager Pomptinus. 382 War between Rome and Prseneste. 508 381 War with the Volscians renewed. 380 Q. Cincinnatus takes Prseneste. 376 The three Licinian Rogations proposed by C. Licinius and L. Sextus (366.) 375 The passing of the three Rogations, op- posed by the Patricians. The Tribunes prevent the election of Patri- cian magistrates till 371. 371 War with VelitrEe. Consular Tribunes are elected by permis- sion of Licinius and Sextus (? 370.) 367 The **■ Rogationes Licinise" are passed and adopted into the laws, by which one of the Consuls is to be a Plebeian, The office of Prcetor instituted — to be con- fined to the Patricians. The Gauls defeated by Camilius. He dedicates a temple to Concordia, to celebrate the union of Patres and Plebs. 366 L. Sextus elected the first Plebeian Consul. [The tribunate of Sextus and Licinius had been renewed every year during the "Licinian" struggle—a period of lOyears.] L. Furius Camilius thQ first Pr(Mor. Curjle Ediles first elected. [The Patricians have now the privilege of choosing a Pr^tor and Curile Ediles.] 365 Pestilence rages at Rome. Camilius dies. The Agrarian law of Licinius Stole. 364 Institution of the Ludi Scenici, to appease the gods on account of the plague. 362 The Plebs for the first time elect half of the Tribuni Militum. Earthquake at Rome; romantic death of Marcus Curtius. 361 Gallic invasion ; single combat — Manlius the Roman, victor;heis called Torquatus. 360 The Gauls and Tiburtines defeated by Ser- vilius Ahala. 359 Unsuccessful attempt of the Tiburtines to enter Rome at night. 358 The Gauls and Hernicans defeated. Fabius repulsed by the Tarquinienses. Alliance with Latium renewed. " Lex Poetalia," against canvassing and bribery at elections, proposed. The tribes increased to twenty-seven. 357 " Lex Dulia," refjulating the rate of interest. " Lex Manlia," imposing a tax on manu- mitted slaves. Invasion of Lower Italy by Alexander, the kingof Epirus(332.) Privernum, in Latium, taken. Legal interest settled at 10 per cent. 356 C. Martius Rutilus, first Plebeian Dictator. The Etruscans defeated. 355 The two Consuls Patricians (367.) 354 The Consuls again Patricians (367.) Alliance with the Samnites. Etruscan prisoners put to death. 353 War with the Tarquinii. Truce of 100 years with Caere. 352 Appointment of the Quinqueviri Mensarii for a general liquidation of debts. 351 C. Martius Rutilus, ^?-5i Plebeian Censor. Truce of forty years with Tarquinii. 350 Popilius, Consul, defeats the Gauls. 349 The Consuls again Patricians (367.) Camilius defeats the Gauls. Single combat; Valerius (jorvus, victor. 348 Treaty with Carthage renewed. B.C. 347.] o!o t"'?^' °" money reduced to 5 per cent. Mb JLudi oeculares. ,,_ The Volsoians lose Satricum. Mo Iwelve cities in Campania destroyed by an earthguake. War with the Aurunoi. 344 Dedication of the ^des iUonetse. 343 The Samnite Wars commenced. The Campanians under Roman protection. Deieat of the Samriites by Valerius. 342 The army at Capua rebel— general insur- rection of the Plebs. Concessions of the Patres to the Plebs:— "Lex Genucia," abolishing interest on money; Valerms, Dictator, &e. 341 Peace with the Samnites. 340 War with the Latins; self-devotion of De- oius, and defeat of the enemy. 339 "Leges Publilia;;" 1. the plebiscita made binding; 2. the decrees of the Comitia Centunata rendered independent of the vote of the Comitia Curiata; 3. one of the Censors to be a Plebeian. 338 The Latins and Campanians subdued. 337 Q. Publius Philo,>Vsi; Plebeian Prcetor. 335 Peace with the Gauls. Capture of Cales in Campania. 334 Cales a Roman colony. 332 The Ascerranimade citizens; butare denied the Suffragium. The Roman tribes increased to twenty-nine. War of the Samnites and Lucanians with Alexander of Epirus. Romans make a treaty with Alexander. Alexander of Epirus slain in Lucania. 330 Fundi and Privernum rebel. 329 Capture of Privernum ; the Civitas conferred upon its inhabitants. 328 Fregellae colonized. 327 The Samnite war renewed. 326 War with Palsepolis ; it is taken. " Lex Poetelia Papiria," preserving to debtors their civil freedom and status. 324 The Samnites defeated. 323 League with the Apulians and Lucanians. 322 The Samnites again defeated. 321 The Roman army surrender to the Samnites at the Caudine Porks. 319 Papirius defeats the Samnites. 318 A two years' truce with the Samnites.- The Roman tribes increased to 31. 315 The Samnites defeat Pabius. 314 The Samnites defeated. Revolt of the Campanians: subdued. 313 Capua, Saticula, Suessa, and the isle of Pontia, colonized by Romans. 312 New war with the Etruscans. Claudius constructs the Via Appia, the first of the Roman military roads; also, the Gnomon and Agua Appia. He distributes the "Libertini" among all the Roman tribes. Calendar of the Fasti and Nefasti (? 304.) 311 Victories over the Etruscans and Samnites. 310 Etruscans and Samnites defeated, though at first victorious. Claudius retains his censorship contrary to the Lex Emilia (433.) 309 Victories over the Samnites and Etruscans. 308 League with the Umbrians. War against Peligni and Marsi. 307 Battl- -'■ "'=*■-• e-.-v,„it=. riofratpH. CHEONOLOGT. [B.C. 273. 306 Revolt of the Hernicans subdued; and the Samnites defeated. 305 Bovianum taken fr. the Samnites ; a truce. 304 Deieat of the iBquians. Peace with the Samnites, Marsi, &c. The " Libertini " classed with the four tribes of the city. Dedication of temples without the consent of the Senate forbidden. Calendar of the Fasti and Nefasti (312.) The " (Civile Jus " published. 303 Institution of the Tribus Urbanae. Colonies of Alba and Sora. 302 The jEquians defeated. 3U0 The tirst Plebeian Priests, by virtue of the " Lex Ogulnia," which increased the Pontificesto eight,and the Augurs to nine. " Lex Valeria," for the protection of Ple- beian magistrates, ratified. 299 Two tribes added ; now numbering 33. Narnia colonized. 298 The third Samnite war. Samnites and Etruscans defeated; the for- mer at Bovianum, the latter at Volaterra;. Carseoli colonized. 295 The Gauls, Etruscans, Samnites, and Um- brians defeated at Sentinum. Self-sacritice of Decius Mus. 294 Truce for 40 years with the Etrurian cities — Arretium, Perusia, and Volscinii. 293 Census taken: citizens, 272,300. First sun dial seen at Rome; the day divided into hours. ^ 292 The Samnites defeat the younger Pabius. Victory of the elder Fabius ; the Samnite general, Pontius, taken. 291 Cominium taken from the Samnites. Venusia a Roman colony. 290 Final victory over the Samnites; they sue for peace (see 343.) Painting introduced by Fabius. 289 Institution of the Triumviri Capiiales. Hadria and Castruni colonized. 286 " Lex Hortensia," extending popular pre- rogatives ; the Comitia Triiuta indepen- dent of the Senate ; to Plebeians;and Pa- tricians equal rights. Thus ending the great strugglebetweenPatricians and Ple- beians of more than 300 yrs. duration(500.) 285 Defeat by the Gauls at Arretium. 283 The Gauls and the Etrurians defeated. Annexation of Etruria to the Roman do- minions, 282 War with the Boii ; a peace. Defeat of the revolted Samnites, the Lu- canians, and Bruttians. War with the Tarentines. 281 Pyrrhus, of Epirus, aids the Tarentines. 280 Battle of Pandosia, near Heracleia; Pyr- rhus victorious. 279 Battle of Asculum ; Pyrrhus victorious. Pyrrhus goes into Sicily. 278 Roman arms victorious. 275 Pyrrhus returns; he is defeated at the decisive battle of Beneventum. [In this war the Romans learned from Pyr- rhus the plan of fortifying a camp.] QuEcstors increased in number to eight. 274 Pyrrhus places a garrison in Tarentum, and quits Italy. 273 Embassy from Alexandria arrives; treaty concluded with Ptolemy. 509 B.C. 273.] CHRONOLOGY. [B.C. 203. 273 Posidonia and Cosa colonized. 272 Tarentum conquered, which concludes the war in southern Italy. 271 Rhegium taken. 'J'he Campanian soldiers who had seized Bhegiura executed at Rome. 269 The Denarius (silver) first coined. 268 Defeat and submission of the Picentines. Ariminum and Beneventum colonized. 267 Brundusiura taken by the Romans; all Ituly subdued to Rome. 266 The defenders of Volsini put to death, and the city rased to the ground. 264 Popular decree for aiding the Mamertines in Sicily, which leads to the First Punic War. First Gladiatorial exhibition in Rome. 263 Peace with Hiero of Syracuse. 262 First Roman fleet. 260 First Naval victory — Duilius defeats the Carthaginian fleet. 257 Naval history of Tyndaris. 256 Roman fleet victorious at Ecnomus. 265 Regulus in Africa. Victory off Cape Hermseum. Naval disasters ; the fleet wrecked return- from Africa. 254 Second Roman fleet built. 253 First Plebeian High Priest— T. Coruncanius. 252 The new fleet wrecked. 250 Metellus's victory at Panormus. A third fleet built. 249 The thii'd fleet wrecked. 248 The Carthaginians in Italy under Hamilcar. 247 Lilybceum and Drepanum besieged. 243 Fundanius defeats Hamilcar. 241 Naval Victory off the ^getian Islands. Peace with the Carthaginians. 240 First Tragedy at Rome, produced by Livius Adronicus. 239 Birth of Ennius the poet. 238 Seizure of Corsica and Sardinia. The Corsicans oppose the Romans. Hamilcar proceeds into Spain. 234 War with the Corsicans, &c. continued. Cato born. 232 Agrarian law of C Flaminius. 231 Conquest of Corsica and Sardinia. Divorces for adultery flrst introduced by Spurius Carvilius; 3,000 prosecutions enrolled within a few weeks. ^9 War with lUyria; successful. Death of Hamilcar : Hasdrubal succeeds to the command in Spain. 228 Submission of Teuta, Queen of lUyria. Treaty with Hasdrubal, the Carthaginian. First Iloman embassy to Greece. 227 The number of Praetors increased to four. 226 The Gauls invade Italy. 225 War with the Gauls ; they are defeated at Clnsium, and driven across the Po by ^milius; the Consul Atilius killed. Fabius Pictor, historian, fl. 224 Submission of the Boii (238.) ^3 The Gauls (Insubrians) defeated by the Consul Flaminius. 222 Battle of Clastidium; Marcellus defeats the Gauls; they sue for peace. Conquest of Insubria and Liguria. The " Spolia Opima " gained by Marcellus, The province of Gallia Cisalpina formed. Plautus, the comic poet, fl. 510 221 Death of Hasdrubal, Carthaginian general. War with the Istri ; successful. 220 Census: Roman citizens, 270,213. The *'Via Flaminia" constructed, and the " Circus Flaminius" built. The *■* Libertini " are again classed among the four city tribes. Birth of the tragedian Pacuvius (? 219) 219 War with the lUyrians; the Consul ^mi- lius defeats Demetrius Phalarius. Saguntum taken by Hannibal. Archagathus, from the Peloponnesus, the flrst professed surgeon in Rome. 218 Second Punic War: Hannibal arrives in Italy, and is victorious at the battles of the Ticinus and the Trebia. Cn. Scipio successful in Spain. 217 Battle at the lake Thrasymene; Hannibal defeats Flaminius. Hannibal winters in Apulia. 216 The two Scipios victorious in Spain. The Romans, under Varro, defeated at Cannas by Hannibal. Capua and other cities revolt. 215 Hannibal defeated at Nola by Marcellus. Victories in Sardinia, and successes in Spain. *'Lex Oppia,'' restraining the extravagant expenditure of Roman ladies. Treaty between Philip of Macedon and Hannibal. 214 First war with Philip of Macedon as an ally of Carthag;e. Operations in Sicily and Spain. 213 Hannibal's camp near Tarentum. War in Africa, Sicily, &c. 212 Tarentum taken by Hannibal. Death of the two Scipios in Spain. Sicily conquered; now subject to Rome. Institution of the '*Ludi ApoUinares "£to propitiate the god Apollo. 211 Capua recaptured by the Romans. Treaty with the j*ltoIians, who had re- nounced their alliance with Macedon. 210 P. N. Scipio victorious in Spain. Marcellus brings from Sicily much of the treasures of Grecian art. Census: Roman citizens, 137,108. 209 Fabius re-takes Tarentum. Scipio's successes in Spain. 208 Defeat near Venusia by Hannibal; Mar- cellus is killed. 207 Italy entered by Hasdrubal ; he is defeated and slain near the Metaurus. Ennius, the poet of Calabria, fl. Gold coin first struck in Rome. 206 Bruttii occupied by the Consuls. Spain conquered ; Scipio crosses into Africa ; his league with Syphax. Plautus, the comic poet of Umbria, fl. 205 P. N. Scipio elected Consul. Peace with Philip of Macedon. 204 Scipio goes into Africa. Hannibal defeated near Croton. Scipio defeats Syphax and Hasdrubal. Census: Roman citizens, 214,000. "Lex Cincia Muneralis" forbidding ad- vocates to receive gifts, &c. 203 The Carthaginians and Syphax defeated; Syphax made prisoner. Hannibal leaves Italy for Africa. *' \..a: m.„.i.„.„.» ;„ !,_.„„ "'Oybele. B.C. 202.] CHEONOLOGY. [B.C. 155. 202 Decisive victory of Zama; the Cartha- ginians agree to a peace advantageous to Roma, but ruinous to Carthage. Dictatorship ceases till B.C. 82. 201 Great extension of the Roman dominion over Italy, Sicily, part of Spain, &o. 200 Second war with Philip of Macedon. War with the Insubrians. Venusium colonized. 199 Ware with Philip and the Gauls continued. Narnia a Roman colony. 198 T. Q. Plamininus induces the Achasans to join tlie Roman interest. 197 Battle of CynooephalsE. Victory of Flamininus over Philip. The number of Prsetors increased to six. "Lex Porcia," exempting citizens from capital punishment and scourging. 196 Peace with Philip of Macedon. Hannibal at the court of Antiochus. The Boii and Insubrian Gauls defeated. Institution of the Triumviri Epulones^ to preside over the ecclesiastical corporation, denominated Epulum Jovis. 195 War with Nabis, tyrant of Sparta. Cato restores order in Spain. The "Lex Oppia" repealed (see 215.) Birth of Terence. 194 Triumph of Flamininus and Cato. Colonies in Apulia, Bruttii, Campania, &c. Census: Roman Citizens, 143,704. 193 Ambassadors sent to Philip of Macedon. "Lex Sempronia de Fenore," forbidding citizens to lend money to foreigners in the name of the Socii. 192 War with Antiochus of Syria. 191 Victory of Acilius at Thermopyte. Defeat and submission of the Boii. "Ludi Megalenses " regularly established. 190 Scipio Asiaticus victorious at Magnesia. Bononia a Roman colony. Peaee with Antiochus of Syria (188.) Eumenes,king of Pergamus, comes to Rome. 189 Defeat of the vEtolians; a peace succeeds. Manlins victorious over the Galatians. Census: Roman Citizens, 258,318. 188 The peace with Antiochus ratified. The Thracians attack the Romans under Manlius on their return from Asia. Total eclipse; three days' supplication. 187 The two Scipios accused of embezzlement; the one by Cato, the other by Naevius. Through popular favour, Scipio Africanus is not brought to trial. His brother is condemned (though inno- cent); his property confiscated, &c. Voluntary exile of Scipio Africanus. 186 Discovery of the existence, and prompt sup- pression of, the Bacchanalian orgies. Restoration of Lucius Scipio (187.) 185 War in the territory of the Celtiben. Death of Lucius Scipio. Death of Scipio Asiaticus. 184 Flamininus expelled the senate by Cato. Philip of Macedon summoned before the Roman ambassadors. The erection of a theatre in Rome pro- hibited by the Senate. Death of Plautus the comedian. 183 Death of Hannibal by poison. Death of Scipio Africanus. 182 Continuation of the Lieurian war. 181 " Lex Cornelia Baebia" against " canvas- sing" at elections. " Lex Orehia," limiting the number of guests at entertainments. The sacred books of Numa discovered in a stone coffin ( '! 179.) 180 Pisa a Roman colony. " Lex Annalis," fixing the ages at which a Suaestor and Consul might be elected, vius victorious over the Ligurians. The Celtiberians, in Spain, defeated by Ti- berius Gracchus. Census: Roman citizens, 273,294. 178 The Sardinians and CJorsicans rebel. Csecilias, the comic poet, fl. 177 Roman arms victorious in Istria under Claudius, and in Sardinia under Tibe- rius Gracchus. Roman colonies of Lucca and Luna. 176 Defeat by the Ligurians ; the Consul Petillias killed in the battle. The Sardinian revolt quelled. 175 Victory over the Ligurians. Triumph of Gracchus at Rome. 174 Cato's embassy to Carthage. The streets of Rome paved. Census: Roman citizens, 269,015. 172 Eumenes visits Rome a second time; he complains against Perseus of Macedon. 171 Third war with Macedon— against Perseus. Licinius commands the army. 170 Hostilius Mancinus in Macedonia. 169 Marcius commands in Macedonia. " Lex Voconia," regulating legacies, &c. Gracchus places the "Libertim " in the four city tribes. Census: Roman citizens, 312,805. Death of thepoet Ennius ( ? 167.) 168 Victory of jEimilius at Pydna. Perseus made prisoner, and the Mace- donian monarchy abolished. Illyria subdued after a 30 days' war. Death of the poet Csecilius. Taxes on the citizens removed, the treasury being now full. 167 Death of Ennius, aged 72 years. Polybius, and about 1000 Achaean captives, arrive at Rome. The first public library at Rome ; composed of books brought from Macedon. Limitation of the Tribunitian power. 164 The heir of Syria a prisoner at Rome. Census : Roman citizens, 327,032. Rapid decline in public morals. 163 Revolt and subjugation of the Corsicans. 162 Hipparchus of Nice lays the foundation of the science of Trigonometry. 161 Banishment of the philosophers and rhe- toricians from Rome. 160 " Lex Faunia," limiting the expenses of entertainments, &c. The Pontine marshes drained. Terence performs his last play at the funeral games of iEmilius Paulus. 159 Census : Roman citizens, .338,314. Water-clock of P.C. Scipio. Death of Terence. 157 Visit of Philopater to Rome. 166 War with the Dalmatians. 155 The Dalmatians conquered. Arrival of an embassy from Athens— Dio genes, Carniades, and Critolaus. 511 B.C. 155.] CHRONOLOGY. [b.c. 106. 155 Pacuvius, the tragedian, fl. 154 War with the Grauls. Census: Roman citizens, 324,000. 153 War in Spain witli the Celtiberians. Cato accused of a capital crime. 153 Marcellus succeeds Nobilior in Spain. Cruelty of Lucullus to a tribe of Celts. 151 Lucullus and Galba in Spain. The former is victorious over the Cantabri; but Galba, in a battle with the Lusitani- ans, suffers a signal defeat. The Achiean hostages sent back. 150 Galba treacherously murders the Lusitani- ans who had surrendered. 149 Third Punic War, Gate's Harangue, '"'' Delenda est Carthago." The *' Lex Calpurnia," ijroviding for the recovery of moneys obtained by the extor- tion of magistrates. Fourth Macedonian war:— Philippus. The Achsean war. Death of Gate, aged 85. 148 Metelius victorious in Macedon. Defeat bv Viriathus in Lusitania. 147 War with the Achseans. P. Corn. Scipio (the younger) in Africa. Census: Roman citizens, 322,000. 146 Epirus subdued to Rome. Carthage overthrown by Scipio. Corinth, Colchis, and Thebes taken and destroyed by Mummius. The first fine painting seen in Italy are received from Mummius — being part of the spoils of Corinth. 145 Fabius jiEmiUanus sent against Viriathus, commander of the Lusitani. 143 The Numantim War ass.) Roman arms victorious over the Numan- tines; unsuccessful against the Lusitani. " Equites Publicani " in the provinces. Hipparchus's new cycle of the moon. Birth of M. Antonius, the orator. 142 Census: Roman citizens, 328,440. 141 Peace with Viriathus in Spain. 140 Cffipio succeeds Fabius in Spain. Viriathus treacherously murdered. Birth of Crassus, the orator. 139 "Lex Gabinia, "against bribery at elections. Pompeius succeeded in Spain by Popillius. 138 C£epio and Popillius succeeded by Brutus and Mancinus in Spain. Brutus defeats the Lusitanians. Lusitania annexed to Rome. 137 Peace with the Numantinians :— invalidated by the Senate. 136 Census: Roman citizens, 323,923. Defeat of Lepidus in Spain. 134 Servile War in Sicily ; revolt of 70,000 slaves. Scipio proceeds against Numantia. 133 Pergamus bequeathed to Rome ; it is hence- forth a Roman province. Numantia destroyed — and Close of the Numantine war (143.) Spain a Roman province. Civil disturbances; Tiberius Gracchus pro- poses the revival of the " Lex Licinia." Aristocratic tumult, headed by Scipio Na- sica; Gracchus and 300 citizens are slain. The Equestrian order instituted. 132 End of the Servile War in Sicily (134.) Scipio's triumi)hant return. 131 War in Asia with Aristonicus. 512 131 Census: Roman citizens, 317,823. Cains (jrracchus advocates popular rights. 130 Elevation of the Tribunes to the Senate. Death of Pacuvius, the tragedian. 129 Suspension of the ** Lex Licinia" (365.) Death of Scipio Africanus (minor) aged 56. Pergamus a Roman province. 126 C. Gracchus sent as Queestor to Sardinia. **■ Lex Junia Perigrinis," for the removal of aliens from the city. 125 Census: Roman citizens, 390,736. Flaccus defeats the Gauls. Fregellas revolts; it is destroyed. _ 124 C. Gracchus returns from Sardinia. 123 Caius Gracchus appointed Tribune. The Agrarian law revived (365. ) Carthage rebuilt, and a colony sent thither. Metelius conquers the Balearic isles. 122 Aix the first Roman colony in Gaul, is a province of Rome. Gracchus appointed Tribune a second time. He submits a proposal for admitting the Italian allies to the freedom of Roman citizens; and suggests apian for estab- lishing colonies beyond Italy. 121 War of Classes in Rome; C. Gracchus and 3,000 citizens slain (see 133.) The Aristocratic party triumphant. The AUobroges twice defeated. Roman provmces in Gaul. 120 Opimius, the murderer of 0. Gracchus, ac- cused of high treason. 119 Accusation of Carbo by Crassus. Carbo commits suicide. 118 Micipsa, k. of Numidia, dies. Jugurtha assassinates HiempsaJ. Dalmatia a Roman province. 117 Escape of Adherbal, son of Micipsa, from Numidia to Rome. He is restored to his kingdom. 116 The " Libertini" restored by the " Lex -iEmilia " to the four city tribes. Varro, the Roman historian, born. 115 Census: Roman citizens, 394,336. Eras— of the philosopher, Anthemon ; Cas- tor of Rhodes, and Apollodorus of Athens, chronologists ; Lucilius, the satirist, and L. C. Antipater, historian. 114 Birth of Q. Hortensius L. F. the orator. 113 The Cimhrian War : several tribes of Cim- brians and Teutones, amounting to more than 500,000 men, pursue the course of the Danube, and approach lUyria. Consul P. Carbo defeated in Styria. 112 Jugurtha murders Adherbal at Cirta. The Cimbrians joined by several tribes of Celts and Helvetii, march into Gaul. War against Thrace successful. Ill The Jugurthine War commenced. Calpurnius makes peace with Jugurtha. " Lex Thoria "—an Agrarian law. 110 Gaul invaded by the Cimbrians. War with the Thracians. First Sumi)tuary law at Rome. 109 The Cimbrians defeat Junius Silanus. Jugurtha defeats Aula, who thereupon makes peace ; which is not ratified. Birth of Atticus Pomponius (32.) 107 Jugurtha defeated by Metelius. Lon^inus and Scauriis defeated by the Cim- brians and Teutones; Longinus slain. 106 Jugurtha captured; end of the war. B.C. 106.] CHRONOLOGY. [B.C. 77. 106 Numidia a Roman province. Bocchus, Hiarbas, and Hiempsal divide Numidia between them. '* Lex Servilia Judicaria." Births of Cicero and Pompey. 103 The Cimbrians defeat the Consuls Cn. Manlius Maximus and Q. ServiUus Caepio. They next proceed towards Spain. 104 " Lex Domitia," giving to the people the privilege of electing the priests. The Cimbrians repulsed m Spain by the Celtiberians. Appuleius Saturninus, Quaestor at Ostia, removed from office by the Senate. 103 The Cimbrians approach Italy. 102 The Standard of the Eagle adopted. Appuleius Saturnmiis, Tribune (104.) Marius defeats the Tentones near Aix. Second Servile war in Sicily. 101 Defeat of the Cimbrians by Marius and Catullus, near Verona. Ambassadors from Mithridates at Rome. Saturninus and the Plebs arrayed against the Aristocracy. 100 Marius, Consul the sixth time, by purchase. Appuleius Saturninus, Tribune (101, 104.) Agrarian law of Appuleius ; Metellus Numi- dicus banished tor refusing to sanction it. Memmius murdered by assassins hired by Saturninus. Saturninus, Glaucius, and Saufeius, mur- dered by the populace. Caius Jidius Caesar born, July 12. 99 Return of Metellus (100.) Revolt in Spain (97.) Lusitania a Roman province. The slaves in Sicily subdued (102.) 98 The orators, Antonius and Cassius, inveigh against the oppressors of the provinces. 97 Didius successful in Spain. Cappadocia conquered by Mithridates. 96 Apion bequeaths Cyrene to Rome. Cyrenaica a Roman province. 95 Cappadocia declared free by Rome ; Ario- barzanes elected king. Lucretius, the Epicurean, born. "Lex Licinia Mucia," &e. enjoining a rigid inquiry into the title of citizenship. [The carrying out of this law caused great discontent, and partly led to the Marsic war.] 92 Sylla settles the affairs of Asia Minor. Communication opened with Parthia. 91 Marsian War commenced (88.) [This was a struggle tor the extension of the privileges of Roman citizensliip to the other States of Italy; during which, the lives of 300,000 men were sacrificed.] Marcius Livius Drusus,Tribune of thePlebs, commences the struggle, by proposing certain popular leges; he is assassinated. Death of Craasus, the orator. Lucius Julius Caesar, one of the Consuls. 90 "Lex Julia," extending the franchise. 89 Eight new tribes added. 88 The Maisian war ends in the concessions demanded by the Italian States. " Leges Sulpiciae," recalling the exiles, expelling Senators who were in debt, &c. First Mithridatic War, (84,) which also in- volves the empire in Civil War between Marius and Sylla (82.) [R.H.] 88 The Athenians solicit aid from Mithridates against Sylla. The command against Mithridates is con- ferred upon Sylla by the Optimates ; while Marius obtains it by formmg an alliance with Sulpicius and the Plebs. Sylla leads six legions against Marius, who flees from Rome to Carthage. Proscription of Marius and his friends. 87 Sylla victorious in Asia Minor. Return of Marius to Rome; Cinnajoinshim ; they massacre Sylla's friends. Rome pillaged; horrid tyranny. Death of Antonius the orator, and the Con- sul Octavius. Birth of the poet Catullus. 86 Death of Marius, aged 70 ; Placcus succeeds. Sylla victorious in Greece; Athens reduced to famine— taken ; its library sent to Rome. Fimbria assassinates Flaceus in Numidia. The Samnites receive the franchise. Birth of Sallust at Anciternum. 85 Fimbria's horrid cruelties in Asia Minor. Sylla's victories over Archelaus and Orcho- menos in Grreece. Mittiridates conquers Bithynia and other provinces of Rome. 84 Sylla makes peace with Mithridates. He attacks the camp of Fimbria, \ylio escapes to Pergamus, where he puts him- self to a miserable death. Death of the Consul Cinna. 83 Sylla's return; Civil War between him and tlie party of Marius. Sertorious goes into Spain (78.) The Capitol burnt. Birth of Mark Antony. Second Mithridatic War (81.) Murena commands in Asia Minor. 82 Total defeat of the party of Marius, and the Samnites under Telisinus. Horrid massacre of the Samnites. Rome captured by Sylla. First proscriptions in Rome; 150,000 pensh. Sylla created perpetual Dictator. Sylla plunders the Delphian Temple. Pompey at war with tlie Marians. 81 Splendid triumph of Sylla. His legislation; oligarchical government; colonial system, &c. Valerius, CJato, and Cicero, fl. Decline of agriculture in Italy: com sup- plied by the provinces. 80 African War: Domitius and king Hiarbus conquered by Pompey. C. Jufius Caesar at the siege of Mytilene. Zeno, of Sidon, the Epicurean, fl. 79 Abdication of Sylla. . Metellus sent against Sertorius, in Spam. The height of the atmosphere calculated by Posidonius to be 800 stadia. ApeUicon, fl. at Athens. 78 War with the Lusitani, who are commanded by Sertorius (72.) Valerian Antias, historian, and Alexander Polyphistor, grammarian, fl. Death of Sylla, aged 60. Attempt of Lepidus to repeal SyUa's laws defeated by Catulus. War with the Mediterranean pirates. 77 Pompey sent into Spain to join Metellus against Sertorius. B.C. 77.] CHRONOLOGY. [B.C. 55. 11 Q. Hortensius, orator, and Photius Galllus, rhetorician, fl. 7'j Sertorius, aided by M. Peperna, defeats Pompey and Metellua. Birth of Asinius PoUio (54.') 75 The Isaurian pirates subdued. Also the Dartiani in Macedonia. Birth of Maecenas, patron of Horace. 7i Third Mithridatic War (63.) Lucullus commands in Asia Minor. Nicomedes III., of Bithynia, bequeaths his kingdom to the Romans; from nenceforth it is a Roman province. Library of Lucullus the Consul. Luoullus introduces the Cherry Tree into Europe from Asia. 73 Servile war in Italy; Spartacus at the head of70,000 slaves (71.) Varro's Three Books on Agriculture. 72 Sertorius murdered by the treachery of his ally, Perpenna. Perpenna defeated and killed. Spam concmered by Pompey. victory of Spartacus. 71 The Republic possesses mines of Gold in Sardinia, Gaul, Macedonia, and Asia Minor; and Silver mines in Spain. Crassus and Pompey end the Servile war; Spartacus is killed. War in Asia continued; Mithridates escapes into Armenia. 70 "Lex Aurelia," authorizing the election of Judices from among the Senators, Equites, and Tribuni iErarii. The power of the Tribunes restored. Impeachment of Verres by Cicero. Birth of Virgil at Andes, near Mantua. A Water Mill near a residence of Mithri- dates in Asia Minor. *)!) War with the Cretans (67.) Tiie Capitol dedicated. Census: Roman Citizens, 450,090. G^ LucuUus successful against Mithridates. 67*' Lex Gabinia," investing Pompey with extraordinary authority for three years. Metellus conquers Crete. Pontus becomes a Roman province. Piratical war: Pompey in forty days subdues the Sicilian and Isaurian pirates (78.) '* Lex Roscia," giving special seats at the exhibitions to the Equites. b'6 Pompey succeeds Lucullus in Asia. Ebony first seen in Rome: obtained by Pompey after his defeat of Mithridates. First digest of the Roman laws, by Varro. 'i;j Pompey in the Caucasus. Cataline's Conspiracy/ (62.) Cicero's orations against Cataline. Foreigners expelled Rome, according to the Papian law. , 65 Birth of Horace in Apulia 64 Syria conquered by Pompey. Dejotarius, of Galatia, seizes Armenia Minor. "Lex Amphia," conferring a crown of bay on Pompejr at the games. Earthquake in the Bosporus; several towns laid m ruins. 63 Second conspiracy of Cataline disclosed by Fulvia to (jicero. Agrarian law for purchasing lands upon which to locate the poor, proposed by Servilius Rullius — lost. Pharmaces made king of Pontus. Birth of Octavius (Augustus), Sep. 23. 62 Syria and Phcenicia united into one Roman province. Defeat of Cataline in Etruria by Antonius; Cataline slain. Return of Pompey to Rome. 61 Pompey's two triumphs, as the conqueror of 15 kingdoms and 400 cities. Clodius tried for sacrilege; he bribes his accuser and judge, and is acquitted. 60 Tfte first Triumvirate; Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, Triumvirs. Asinius Poliio's history commences. Era of — Cicero, orator; ApoUoniua, rhetori- cian: Andronicus, peripatetic ph. of Rhodes; Aristomedes, grammarian, of Crete ; Sallust, historian ; Lucretius and Catullus, poets. 59 The two Gauls and Illyria conferred upon Caesar for five years. Birth of Livy at Patavium. "Lex Julia Agraria," disposing the public land— Ager Campanus. 58 Splendid marble theatre of the ^dile Scau- rus, which accommodated 80,000 persons. Banishment of Cicero by Clodius; he retires to Athens. CcBsar^s Gallic campaigjis (50.) "Lex Gabinia," forbidding the raising of loans at Rome by forei^ embassies. C. Manlius proposes to give the Libertini the privilege of voting. 5T Return of Cicero to Rome. Caesar conquers the Belgse. Pompey superintendent of the Aunona. Gylf created king of Sweden. The king of Egypt at Rome. Csesar subdues the Aquitani. 56 Disunion between the Triumvirs. Adjustment of their differences at Lucca, where Csesar winters. *'Lex de Bonis Cedendis," securing to those debtors their personal liberty who gave up their property to their creditors. 55 Death of Julia, wife of Pompey, and daughter of Caesar. Ol4r INDEX. Abilox, anecdote of, 4S1 Achaiaa lea^e, 247 war, 303 Achseans, condnct of Eomans to, 301 Acradina, conspirators at, killed br Diony- sius, 164 Acron, king of Coenina killed, 1 6 Acrotatns's heroism at Sparta, 149 Addictns, meaning of the term, 35 Adherbal, naval victory o^ 231 Adherbal expelled Numidia, 3 1 1 returns, and is put to death by Ju- gortha, 311 MgiB plundered by Gauls, 147 -Sgesta besieged, 176, 177 Mneas, legend of, 13 ^qni, the, Koman campaign against, 76 take the Tnsculan citadel, 82 treaty made with Borne, 82 revolt and victories of, 83 submit to Cincinnatns, 85 defeated by Camillus, 109 ^scnlapins shorn of his golden beard, 181 ^tna, military insurrection at, 167 population of; increases, 168 inhabitants of, scattered, 168 destroyed by Timoleon, 208 -StoUa subdued by Folvius, 295 A^ris, fidelity of, 186 obtains the freedom of the city of Syracuse, 209 Agrarian law proposed by Cassias, 74 a subject of contention, 80 of Licinius Stolo, 118 of Tiberius Gracchus, 333 commission, 334, 338 Agrigentum blockaded by the Cartha- ginians, 158 the principal Carthaginian depot for arms, &c., 223 taken by the Romans, 224 Africans, rebellion of, against Carthage, 236 Alba, lake o^ its rise, 98 Alba Longa founded, 14 destroyed, 23 Alcyonens presents the head of Pyrrhus to biR father. 1 52 Allia, battle of, 104 Alliance of the Italian states, 3S1 • Romans at the head of it, 3s2 Alps, Hannibal's passage of, 258 Altar of Venus Cloacina, 18 Aminias comes to aid Sparta, 149 Amulius, his wickedness and death, 1 5 Ancus Martins, king of Home, 23, 24 his sons mnrder Tarqmn, 27 they are exiled for life, 27 Andobalis, insnrrection of, 487, 489 Andriseus, ambition of, 303 Andromachus at Syracuse, 199 spared by Timoleon, 210 Anio, river, encampment of the Gauls near it, 119 Annius sent against Sertorins, 497 Antigonns opposed by Pyrrhus, 147 retires from Argos, 150 honourably inters Pyrrhus, 1 52 treats Helenas kindly, 152 Antiochns at war with Rome, 292 passes into Greece, 293 defeated near Magnesia, 294 snhmits to degrading terms of peace, ±>i Antinm, insurrection at, 110 Antonius, M., murdered, 443 Antistius massacred, 454 ApoUonia submits to Timoleon, 204 ApoUoniades, abdication of 209 Appius's opposition to the debtors, 59 Appius Claudius, history o£ 89 chosen consul, 90 Decemvir, 90 - — - is re-elected, 90 rules tyrannically, 92 condnct towards Virginia, 92 is found dead in bed, 94 his character, 94 Aquilius, Manius, suppresses the SicUian insurrection, 368 accused ofcorruptionandacquitted,S66 Archelaus defends Athens, 406 Archimedes defends Syracuse, 270 ■ is killed by a soldier, 270 Ardea besieged by Tarquin, 39 truce with for 1 5 years, 44 '.16 INDEX. Arete married to Dionysius, 162 . violated, destroys herself, 1 64 Areus relieves Sparta, 149 aids Antigonus, 151 Ariarathes, kings of this name, 295, 399, 400 Aristeas hires Pyrrhus against Argolis, 149 admits Pyrrhus mthin the city, 150 Aristomache married to Dionysius, 174 Aristotle, insubordination of, 184 Aristotle's account of Carthage, 220 Aristus, Spartan ambassador to Sicily, 168 Arnold, Dr., on the Eoman legends, 33 on Porsenna, 52 Artabazus, the ancestor of Mithridates, 395 Aruns, son of Demeratus, 24 Aruns Tarquinius assassinated, 29 Ascanius, legend of, 14 Asculum, battle of, 142 Asculum, massacre of the Romans at, 380 Asia Minor, its political condition at the rise of Hannihal, 249 Aspis taken by the Romans, 228 Roman soldiers taken from, 230 Athenio general of the Sicilian insurgent slaves, 367 Athens, her political position at the rise of Hannibal, 248 besieged by Sylla, 406 taken, 409 Attus Ncevius cuts a whetstone, 26 Aufidus, Eoman army collected near, 267 Augurs first appointed, 20 Auguiy adopted by the state, 26 of Tarquinius Superbus, 31 Aventine hill, residence of the Latins, 24 seat of the Plebeians, 34 Bsebius opposes the Agrarian law of Satur- ninus, 359 Balearian Isles conquered, 315 Battery of Dionysius, 173 Benevolences raised by Dionysius, 181 Berea taken by Pyrrhus, 134 Bocchus joins Jngurtha. 313 betrays Jugurtha, 314 Brennus plunders Rome, 105 Bruttians, war with, 129 Brutus, Lucius Junius, descent, 37 counterfeits idiocy, 38 proceeds to Delphi, 38 ■ addresses the people of Rome, 41 . expels the Tarquins, 42 and Collatinus first chosen consuls, 43 sons join the Tarquin conspiracy, 45 condemns them to death, 46 procures the exile of Collatinus, 47 _is killed by Aruns, 49 character of, 49 Brutus one of the first Tribunes, 60 Cicpio, Q , alters Gracchus's laws, 356 robs the temple of Toulouse, 356 defeated by the Cimbri, 356 banished, 357 (son) opposes the laws proposed Ijv M. Drusus, 378 Ca3sar,L Julius and C.Julius, murdered, 443 Caaso opposes the tribunes, 78 accused of murder, 79 bailed — he absconds, 79 accuser banished, 85 opposition to the appointment of the Decemviri, 90 Caius Cluilius dies at Rome, 22 Calaurea besieged, 209 Calippus murders Dion, 198 • assassinated at Rhegium, 198 Callicrates the Achsean traitor, u02 Camarina evacuated, 1 63 Camillus, Marcus Furius, 96 early heroism, 96 chosen military tribune, 98 his victory and prayer, 99 commands against the Falisci, 100 punishes the schoolmaster of Falerii, 101 loses the favour of the soldiery, 101 death of his son, 101 accused of embezzlement, 102 quits Rome, 102 slaughters the Gauls at Ardea, 105 chosen dictator, 106 defeats the Gauls, 107 dictator a second time, 108 dictator a third time, 109 defeats the Volsci, 110 captures Satricum, 111 recovers Sutrium, 111 defeats the Volsci, 115 enters Tusculum, 116 again dictator, 118 erects a temple to Concord, 120 death and character, 121 Campania revolts from Rome, 269 Campanians defeated by Samnites, 125 Campus Martins devoted to the use of the public, 46 Cape of Good Hope circumnavigated by the Carthaginians, 216 Capenates, the, defeated by Camillus, 98 Capitol, the, commenced by Tarquin, 26 Carbo defends Opimius, 354 destroys himself, 354 put to death by order of Pompey, 463 Carthage, its origin and earlyprosperity, 216 — aorlv pnnnpptinn with Rnme. 217 INDEX. 517 Carthage, ambassadors from, to Rome, 126 Pyrrhiis prepares to invade it, 144 suffers from the plague, 165 submits to Scipio, 282 prostrate before Rome, 305 finally destroyed, 308 Carthagena founded, 244 Carthaginian property in Syracuse con- fiscated, 175 cities surrender to Dionysius, 175 history lost, 216 army in Sicily, 216 government, 220 life, manners, literature, &c. , 221 Carthaginians invade Sicily, 158 Carthalo's victory ofl^Lllybseum, 231 Cassander tries to obtain Pyrrhus, 131 Cassius, Sp., impeached and beheaded, 74 Caste, variety of, at Rome, 324 Catapulta first used at Syracuse, 173 Catulns suffocates himself, 444 Caudine Forks, Romans defeated at, 127 Caulonia rased to the ground, 188 Cave of Dion, 171 Celer kills Remus, 16 Celtiberians, a Spanish tribe, 477 Censorinus announces the contemplated _* ruin of Carthage, 306 Centuries, thirty appointed to represent the thirty Curiae, 34 Ceres, jewels consecrated to, 180 Chseronea, battle of, 411 Cicero not always to he depended upon as a historian, 9 his opinion of Gracchus' s murder, 337 attends Philo's lectures, 446 Ciceronian doctrine respecting kings, 156 Cimbri, their ravages, &c., 321 overthrown by Marius, 322 Cincinnatus, Lucius Qnintius, 77 Privacy of his earlier years, 77 sells his property to reimburse Caeso's sureties, 79 chosen consul, 80 . refuses to be re-elected, 82 chosen dictator. 83 his prompt measures, 84 defeats the j5)qui, 85 ■ • retires to private life, 85 again chosen dictator, 87 ■ his death and character, 88 Cineas's mission to Rome, 139 second mission, 140 Cinna proposes the law of Sulpicius, 439 driven from Rome. 439 receives aid from the Italians, 439 at war with Pompey, 440 ent ' '" Cinna spreads desolation in the city, 413 — — • attacks Marius's band, 444 rules alone, 445 associates Carbo in the government, 447 is killed by his own soldiers, 44S Citizenship, rights of, promised to the Italian states, 341 scheme frustrated by the senate, 341 granted to some tribes, 386 City crafts or guilds instituted, 21 Civil wars between the rich and poor, origin of; 323 Cleonymus aided by Pyrrhus, 148 Clnsium besieged by the Gauls, 102 Roman embassy to, 102 Ccelian hill colonized by Tullus, 21 the Albans remove to it, 23 CoUatintis's domestic affliction, 40 chosen consul, 43 tries to save his nephews, 46 is exiled from Rome, 47 Colline gate, battle of, 457 Codes, Horatius, bravery of, 51 Colonies of Greece and Italy compared with the American, 382 Cominins at war with the Yolscians, 60 heroism of, 61 Comitium, the, 18 Concord, temple of, erected, 121 Confederacy of the Sicilian cities, 174 Conscripti, a part of the Senate, 45 Consuls first appointed, 43 chosen by the patricians, 76 their authority suspended by the De- cemviri, 90 restoration of their office, 94 one of, to be a plebeian, 120 Consus, great festival to, 1 6 Copper ctirrency depreciated in the time of Hannibal, 273 Corinth destroyed by Mummius, 304 Cornelian family, antiquity of, 374 Coriolanus, Cains Marcins, descent of, 54 his early valour, 55 opposes the debtors, 60 his bravery at Corioli, 61 inveighs against the tribunes, 63 takes spoils at Antium, 63 defies the tribunes, 64 trial and punishment, 66 unites with the Volsci, 67 invades the territory of Rome, 69 proposes harsh terms, 69 withdraws his forces, 71 assassinated at Antium, 72 doubtful statements as to his death, 7i '"■- character, 72 518 INDEX. Corvus, single combat of, 124 victory over the Samnites, 125 frustrates a conspiracy in the army, 126 Cossus imprisons Manlius, 113 Crassus accuses Carbo, 354 sumptuary law of, 370 Creditors, their power limited, 29 Crews of Roman ships, 226 Curise, ten in each tribe, 34 Curiatii and Horatii, 22 Curtius. M., legend of, 123 Cynocephale, battle of, 291 Cyzicus besieged by Mithridates, 419 siege of, raised, 420 Dajmenes crucified, 177 Damocles, feast of, 171 Daphnajus defeats the Carthaginians, 1 59 put to death, 1 62 Debtor and Creditor, law of, 55 Debtors, Eoman, hard fate of, 35 . their dispute with creditors, 56 proceed to resistance, 58 Debts, proposal for their liquidation, 117 Decemviri appointed, 90 . become oppressive, 91 office abolished, 94 Decianus banished, 363 Decius accuses Coriolanus, 66 Decius Mus, his bravery, 125 self-devotion of, 127 Delphi, shrine of, offering to, 100 Delphic Oracle, visit of Brutus to, 38 consulted respecting lake Alba, 98 promises success to Timoleon, 201 Demainetus impeaches Timoleon, 211 Demaratus, ancestor of Tarquinius, 24 Demarchus put to death, 1 62 Demetrius protects Pyrrhus, 131 kills Alexander, 133 defeated by ^milius, 253 poisoned, 297 Dexippus, Spartan general, 160 commanded to quit Syracuse, 162 Diodes leader of the democratic party in Sicily, 158 Dion, his design upon the government of Syracuse, 193 banished, 195 gets possession of Syracuse, 197 murders Heracleides, 198 ■ • assassinated, 198 Dionysius the elder, history of, 155 character by Nepos, 157 elected to the government, 159 recalls the exiles, 159 restores order at Gela, 160 chosen autocrator, 161 Dionysius selects a body-guard, 161 marries Arete, 162 defeated by Hamilcar, 1 63 frustrates a conspiracy, 1 64 — — - makes peace with Hamilcar, 165 fortifies Syracuse, 165 rules with prudence, 166 suppresses an insurrection, 167 fortifies the Epipolae, 169 his architectural plans, 172 forms a fleet, 173 erects batteries, 173 promotes a confederacy of Sicilian cities, 174 marries Doris and Aristomache, 174 at war with Hamilcar, 175 captures Motya, 176 besieges .^gesta, 177 frustrates Mago's design, 1 80 insulted by Theodoras, 182 receives 300 talents from Hamilcar, 1 83 • repairs the ravages of Hamilcar, 184 defeated at Taurominium, 185 defeats Heloris, 188 besieges Rhegium, 188 contends in the Olympic games, 189 at war with Carthage, 190 makes peace, 1 9 1 private life of, 191 at war with Carthage, 192 dies, 192 Dionysius the younger, 193 makes peace with Carthage, 194 patronises Plato, 195 banishes Dion, &c., 195 loses Syracuse, 197 retires to Locri, 198 restored to Syracuse, 198 besieged in Syracuse, 201 surrenders his power to Timoleon, 203 sent to Corinth, 203 fate of, 203 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, historian, 3 an unsafe historical guide, 8, 9 Distress, pecuniary, at Rome, 273 Domitius crucifies a shepherd for having a boar spear, 368 and Crassus, quarrel of, 372 assassinated, 455 Doris married to Dionysius, 174 mother of Dionysius n., 174 Drains constructed by Tarquin, 26 by Superbus, 31 Drepanum, naval victory off, 231 Drusas, Livius, undermines the popularity of C. Gracchus, 347 laws proposed by, 377 INDEX. 519 Drusus, Livius, his laws are carried, 379 murdered, 379 his laws repealed, 380 DnUius gains the first Roman naval vic- tory, 227 Dnronius expelled the Senate, 370 Duumviri condemn Horatius, 22 Eagle, a title given Pyrrhus, 133 Eagles, omen of, 24 Ear, Dionysins's, 171 Ecnomus, naval victory near, 227 Egeria, married by Numa, 20 Egypt, her political position at the rise of Hannibal, 250 Eircte, Hamilcar's post, 232 abandoned for Eryx, 233 Elephants destroyed by Cocilius, 231 captured rebels thrown to, 239 Eloquence studied at Rome, 372 Emissarium constructed, 98 Enna seized by Eunus, 365 besieged and taken, 366 Entella taken by Timoleon, 204 Epipolse seized by rebels, 167 fortified, 169 Epirns, characteristics of, 130 its inhabitants, 131 seventy towns of, given up to Rome, 300 Equites, number of, doubled by Tarqnin, 26 formation of three new centuries for- bidden by an augur, 26 Equitius, his pretensions, 361 joins Saturninus's rebellion, 361 • stoned to death, 362 Eryx besieged and taken, 143 seized by L. Junius, 232 EsquiUne hUl, the seat of Servius, 29 Etrurians aid Superbus, 51 conquer Rome, 53 defeated before Aricia, 53 Etruscan league does homage, 26 captives beheaded, 124 alliance, 128 Etruscans destroy the Fabii, 75 defeated by Eabius Ambustus, 124 Eualcus killed by Pyrrhus, 150 Enmenes receives accession of territory, 294 Eunus heads the slaves in Sicily, 364 defeats the Romans, 366 is joined by Cleon, 366 . defeated — dies in prison, 366 Europe, north of, sketch of the nations in- habiting it, 320 Evidence, internal and external, 2 Fabii, the partizans of Remus, 1 6 th, '"■.-- "— ' " "^ Eabii, different accounts of their army by Livy and Dionysius, 6 Fabius, Q., impeachment and death, 10.^ (Maximus) routs the Samnites, 127 defeated by Pontius, 129 Fabricius's mission to Pyn-hus, 140 magnanimity, 141 Facts, (reported,) how treated by philoso- phers. 1 Faith, temple to, by Numa, 21 Falerii besieged, 100 treachery of the schoolmaster of, 100 Falisci at war with Rome, 100 capitulate to Camillus, 101 Faunus ensnared by Numa, 20 sumptuary law, 369 Faustulus adopts Romulus and Remus, 1 5 Female fortune, temple to, 71 Fimbria, C, attempts the life of Mucius Scffivoia, 445 Flamens first appointed, 20 Fleet, the Romans equip a, 233 Forum established by Tarquin, 26 Freemen, Roman, distress of the poorer jjor- tion of, 325 Fulvius Flaccus and C Gracchus engage in treasonable designs, 348 resists the government, 349 defeated and killed, 349 his son put to death, 350 Funeral oration of Valerius over the body of Brutus, 49 Furius, rashness and repulse of, 115 Furius, P., torn to pieces, 363 Gabii besieged by Superbus, 32 Galatians, the, defeated, 295 Galba's cruelty in Spain, 490 Galhcia invaded by Brutus, 494 Gauls, the, description of, 102 overrun Etruria, 1 02 threaten to destroy Rome, 103 kill the Senators, and pillage Rome, 104 slaughtered near Ardea, 105 repulsed from the Capitol, 106 are bought off Rome, 107 defeated by Camillus, 107 again invade Italy, 118, 124 are routed by Camillus, 1 19, 124 routed at Argos, 151 Cisalpine, oppressed by Rome, 254 defeat Manlius, 255 Insubrian, aided by Hannibal, 259 Asiatic, defeated by Cn.M.Vulso, 295 . Transalpine, reduced, 310 Geese, cackling of, saves the Capitol, 106 Gela receives aid from Dionysius, 160 evacuated by stratagem, 163 520 INDEX. Gelo presents corn to the Romans, 63 Genucius assassinated, 75 Gisco recalled from exile, 207 commands in Sicily, 208 ■ murdered by rebels. ;;38 Glaucia, C. Servilius, praetor, 357 joins Saturninus's rebellion, 361 ■ stoned to death, 362 Gracchi, the, reflections on, 350 . laws of, eluded or repealed, 351 Gracchus, Tiberius, character of the popular party in his time, 323 rescued from the cruel decision of the Senate, 330 ■ proposes to revive theLicinian law, 330 opposed by the aristocracy, 331 carries the Licinian law, 333 accused of various offences, 333 aims at securing his re-election, 334 appeals to the people, 335 killed in a tumult, 336 body thrown into the Tiber, 337 banishment of his friends. 339 Gracchus, Caius Sempronius, one of the Agrarian commission, 338 • sent into Sardinia, 341 returns without permission, 342 elected tribune, 342 popular laws of, 344 promotes public works, 346 re-elected tribune, 347 popularity diminished byL.Drnsus,348 sent to Africa, 348 associates with F. 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