SPANISH WARS, B.C. 153-133. FIRST SERVILE WAR, B.C. 134-132.
The generous policy of Tib. Sempronius Gracchus in B.C. 179[58] had
secured for Spain a long period of tranquillity. But in B.C. 153, the
inhabitants of Segeda having commenced rebuilding the walls of their
town, which was forbidden by one of the articles in the treaty of
Gracchus, a new war broke out, which lasted for many years. The
Celtiberians in general espoused the cause of Segeda, and the Consul Q.
Fabius Nobilior made an unsuccessful campaign against them. His
successor, the Consul M. Claudius Marcellus, grandson of the Marcellus
who was celebrated in the Second Punic War, carried on the war with
vigor, and concluded a peace with the enemy on very fair terms (B.C.
152). The Consul of the following year, L. Lucinius Lucullus, finding
the Celtiberians at peace, turned his arms against the Vaccæi, Cantabri,
and other nations as yet unknown to the Romans. At the same time the
Prætor Ser. Sulpicius Galba invaded Lusitania, but, though he met with
some advantage at first, he was subsequently defeated with great loss,
and escaped with only a few horsemen. In the following year (B.C. 150)
he again invaded the country from the south, while Lucullus attacked it
from the north. The Lusitanians therefore sent embassadors to Galba to
make their submission. He received them with kindness, lamented the
poverty of their country, and promised to assign them more fertile
lands, if they would meet him in three bodies, with their wives and
children, in three places which he fixed upon. The simple people
believed him. But he meditated one of the most atrocious acts of
treachery and cruelty recorded in history. He fell upon each body
separately, and butchered them, men, women, and children, without
distinction. Among the very few who escaped was Viriathus, the future
avenger of his nation. Galba was brought to trial on his return to Rome
on account of this outrage; and Cato, then in the 85th year of his age,
inveighed against his treachery and baseness. But Galba was eloquent and
wealthy, and the liberal employment of his money, together with the
compassion excited by his weeping children and ward, obtained his
acquittal.
Viriathus appears to have been one of those able guerrilla chiefs whom
Spain has produced at every period of her history. He is said to have
been first a shepherd and afterward a robber, but he soon acquired
unbounded influence over the minds of his countrymen. After the massacre
of Galba, those Lusitanians who had not left their homes rose as a man
against the rule of such treacherous tyrants. Viriathus at first avoided
all battles in the plains, and waged an incessant predatory warfare in
the mountains; and he met with such continued good fortune, that numbers
flocked to his standard. The aspect of affairs seemed at length so
threatening that in B.C. 145 the Romans determined to send the Consul Q.
Fabius Maximus into the country. In the following year Fabius defeated
Viriathus with great loss; but this success was more than
counterbalanced by the revolt of the Celtiberians, the bravest and most
noble-minded of the Spaniards. The war is usually known by the name of
the Numantine, from Numantia, a town on the River Douro, and the capital
of the Arevaci, the most powerful of the Celtiberian tribes.
Henceforward two Roman armies were employed in Spain, one in the north
against the Celtiberians, and the other in the south against Viriathus
and the Lusitanians. The war against the Lusitanians was at first
brought to a conclusion. In B.C. 141 Viriathus surprised the Proconsul
Fabius Servilianus in a narrow pass, where escape was impossible. He
used his victory with moderation, and suffered the Romans to depart
uninjured, on condition of their allowing the Lusitanians to retain
undisturbed possession of their own territory, and recognizing him as a
friend and ally of Rome. This treaty was ratified by the Roman people;
but the Consul Q. Servilius Cæpio, who succeeded Fabius in the command
in southern Spain, found some pretext for violating the peace, and
renewed the war against Viriathus. The latter sent envoys to Cæpio to
propose fresh terms of peace; but the Roman Consul persuaded them, by
promises of large rewards, to murder their general. On their return they
assassinated him in his own tent, and made their escape to the Roman
camp before the Lusitanians were aware of the death of their chief. But,
when the murderers claimed their reward, the Consul coolly told them
that the Romans did not approve of the murder of a general by his own
soldiers. The Lusitanians continued in arms a little longer, but the war
virtually terminated by the death of Viriathus. Their country was
finally reduced to subjection by the Consul D. Junius Brutus in B.C.
138, who also crossed the rivers Douro and Minho, and received the
surname of Callaïcus in consequence of his receiving the submission of
the Callaïci, or Gallæci, a people in the northwest of Spain.
The war against the Celtiberians was at first conducted with success by
the Consul Q. Metellus Macedonicus, who during his Prætorship had
defeated the pretender to the Macedonian throne. But the successors of
Metellus experienced repeated disasters, and at length, in B.C. 137, the
Consul C. Hostilius Mancinus, being entirely surrounded by the
Celtiberians, was obliged to sign a peace with them, in which he
recognized their independence. He only obtained these terms on condition
that his Quæstor, Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, who was greatly respected by
the Spaniards for his father's sake, should become responsible for the
execution of the treaty. The Senate refused to ratify it, and went
through the hypocritical ceremony of delivering over Mancinus, bound and
naked, to the enemy. But the Numantines, like the Samnites in a similar
case, declined to accept the offering.
The Numantine war continued in the same disastrous manner to the Roman
arms, and the people now called upon Scipio Africanus to bring it to a
conclusion. We have already traced the career of this eminent man till
the fall of Carthage. In B.C. 142 he was Censor with L. Mummius. In the
administration of the duties of his office he followed in the footsteps
of Cato, and attempted to repress the growing luxury and immorality of
his contemporaries; but his efforts were thwarted by his colleague. He
vainly wished to check in the people the appetite for foreign conquests;
and in the solemn prayer which he offered at the conclusion of the
lustrum he changed the usual supplication for the enlargement of the
Republic into one for its preservation. He was now elected Consul a
second time, and was sent into Spain in B.C. 134. His first efforts were
directed, as in Africa, to the restoration of discipline in the army,
which had become disorganized and demoralized by every kind of
indulgence. Two remarkable men served under Scipio in this war. Marius,
afterward seven times Consul, and the Numidian prince Jugurtha. Having
brought his troops into an effective condition, Scipio, in the following
year, proceeded to lay siege to Numantia. The town was defended by its
inhabitants with the courage and perseverance which has pre-eminently
distinguished the Spaniards in all ages in the defense of their walled
towns. It was not till they had suffered the most dreadful extremities
of famine, eating even the bodies of the dead, that they surrendered the
place (B.C. 133). Fifty of the principal inhabitants were selected to
adorn Scipio's triumph; the rest were sold as slaves, and the town was
leveled to the ground. He now received the surname of Numantinus, in
addition to that of Africanus.
During the Numantine war Rome was menaced by a new danger, which
revealed one of the plague-spots in the Republic. We have already had
occasion to describe the decay of the free population in Italy, and the
great increase in the number of slaves from the foreign conquests of the
state.[59] As slaves were cheap, in consequence of the abundant supply,
the masters did not care for their lives, and treated them with great
barbarity. A great part of the land in Italy was turned into
sheep-walks. The slaves were made responsible for the sheep committed to
their care, and were left to supply themselves with food as they best
could. It was an aggravation of their wretched lot, that almost all
these slaves had once been freemen, and were not distinguished from
their masters by any outward sign, like the negroes in the United
States. In Sicily the free population had diminished even more than in
Italy; and it was in this island that the first Servile War broke out.
Damophilus, a wealthy landowner of Enna, had treated his slaves with
excessive barbarity. They entered into a conspiracy against their cruel
master, and consulted a Syrian slave of the name of Eunus, who belonged
to another master. This Eunus pretended to the gift of prophecy, and
appeared to breathe flames of fire from his mouth. He not only promised
them success, but joined in the enterprise himself. Having assembled to
the number of about 400 men, they suddenly attacked Enna, and, being
joined by their fellow-citizens within the town, quickly made themselves
masters of it. Great excesses were committed, and almost all the freemen
were put to death with horrid tortures. Eunus had, while yet a slave,
prophesied that he should become king. He now assumed the royal diadem,
and the title of King Antiochus. Sicily was at this time swarming with
slaves, a great proportion of them Syrians, who flocked to the standard
of their countryman and fellow-bondsman. The revolt now became general,
and the island was delivered over to the murderous fury of men maddened
by oppression, cruelty, and insult. The Prætors, who first led armies
against them, were totally defeated; and in B.C. 134 it was thought
necessary to send the Consul C. Fulvius Flaccus to subdue the
insurrection. But neither he, nor the Consul of the following year,
succeeded in this object; and it was not till B.C. 132 that the Consul
P. Rupilius brought the war to an end by the capture of Tauromenium and
Enna, the two strong-holds of the insurgents. The life of Eunus was
spared, probably with the intention of carrying him to Rome, but he died
in prison at Morgantia.
About the same time died Attalus Philometor, the last king of Pergamus,
leaving no children (B.C. 133). He beqeuathed his kingdom and treasures
to the Roman people; but Aristonicus, a natural son of Eumenes, the
father of Attalus, laid claim to the crown. He even defeated the Consul
P. Licinius Crassus, who fell in the engagement (B.C. 131), but he was
himself defeated and taken prisoner in the following year. The kingdom
of Pergamus was formed into a Roman province under the name of Asia
(B.C. 129).
The foreign dominions of Rome now comprised the ten following provinces,
to which is added the date of the formation of each: 1. Sicily, B.C.
241. 2. Sardinia and Corsica, B.C. 238. 3, 4. The two Spains, Citerior
and Ulterior, B.C. 205. 5. Gallia Cisalpina, B.C. 191. 6. Macedonia,
B.C. 146. 7. Illyricum, probably formed at the same time as Macedonia.
8. Achaia, that is, Southern Greece, virtually a province after the
capture of Corinth, B.C. 146, though the exact date of its formation is
unknown. 9. Africa, consisting of the dominions of Carthage, B.C. 146.
10. Asia, including the kingdom of Pergamus, B.C. 129. To these an
eleventh was added in B.C. 118 by the conquest of the southern portion
of Transalpine Gaul between the Alps and the Pyrenees. In contrast with
the other portions of Gaul, it was frequently called simply the
"Provincia," a name which has been retained in the modern Provence.
[Footnote 58: See p. 115.(The end of Chapter XVI.--Transcriber)]
[Footnote 59: See p. 128.(Fifth paragraph of Chapter XVIII.--Transcriber)]
[Illustration: Stairs of the modern Capitol.]