rich had gained much land, and the poor had been permitted to share the
general progress; commerce, agriculture, and, to some extent,
manufactures had advanced. Rome kept a firm hold upon all of the
territory she had won, connecting them with the capital by good roads,
but making no arrangements for free communication between the chief
cities of the conquered regions. The celebrated military roads, of
which we now can see the wonderful remains, date from a later period,
with the exception of the Appian Way, which was begun in 312, and,
after the conquest of Italy was completed to Brundusium, through Capua,
Tres Taberna, and Beneventum. Other than this there were a number of
earth roads leading from Rome in various directions. One of the most
ancient of these was that over which Pyrrhus marched as far as
Præneste, known as the Via Latina, which ran over the Tusculum Hills,
and the Alban Mountain. The Via Ostiensis ran down the left bank of the
Tiber; the Via Saleria ran up the river to Tibur, and was afterward
continued, as the Via Valeria, over the Apennines to the Adriatic.
[Illustration: ROMAN STREET PAVEMENT.]
The population of Italy (at this time less than three million) was
divided into three general classes: first, the _Roman Citizens_,
comprising the members of the thirty-three tribes, stretching from Veii
to the river Liris, the citizens in the Roman colonies, and in certain
municipal towns; the _Latin Name_, including the inhabitants of
the colonies generally, and some of the most flourishing towns of
Italy; and the _Allies_, or all other inhabitants of the peninsula
who were dependent upon Rome, but liked to think that they were not
subjects. The Romans had been made rich and prosperous by war, and were
ready to plunge into any new struggle promising additional power and
wealth.
X.
AN AFRICAN SIROCCO.
All the time that the events that we have been giving our attention to
were occurring--that is to say, ever since the foundation of Rome,
another city had been growing up on the opposite side of the
Mediterranean Sea, in which a different kind of civilization had been
developed. Carthage, of which we have already heard, was founded by
citizens of Phoenicia. The early inhabitants were from Tyre, that old
city of which we read in the Bible, which in the earliest times was
famous for its rich commerce. How long the people of Phoenicia had
lived in their narrow land under the shadow of great Libanus, we cannot
tell, though Herodotus, when writing his history, went there to find
out, and reported that at that time Tyre had existed twenty-three
hundred years, which would make its foundation forty-five hundred years
ago, and more. However that may be, the purple of Tyre and the glass of
Sidon, another and still older Phoenician city, were celebrated long
before Rome was heard of. It was from this ancient land that the people
of Carthage had come. It has been usual for emigrants to call their
cities in a new land "new," (as Nova Scotia, New York, New England, New
Town, or Newburg,) and that is the way in which Carthage was named, for
the word means, in the old language of the Phoenicians, simply new
city, just as Naples was merely the Greek for new city, as we have
already seen.
[Illustration: A PHOENICIAN VESSEL (TRIREME).]
Through six centuries, the people of Carthage had been permitted by the
mother-city to attend diligently to their commerce, their agriculture,
and to the building up of colonies along the southern coast of the
Mediterranean, and the advantages of their position soon gave them the
greatest importance among the colonies of the Phoenicians. There was
Utica, near by, which had existed for near three centuries longer than
Carthage, but its situation was not so favorable, and it fell behind.
Tunes, now called Tunis, was but ten or fifteen miles away, but it also
was of less importance. The commerce of Carthage opened the way for
foreign conquest, and so, besides having a sort of sovereignty over all
the peoples on the northern coast of Africa, she established colonies
on Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and other Mediterranean islands, and
history does not go back far enough to tell us at how early a date she
had obtained peaceable possessions in Spain, from the mines of which
she derived a not inconsiderable share of her riches.
Perhaps it may be thought strange that Carthage and Rome had not come
into conflict before the time of which we are writing, for the distance
between the island of Sicily and the African coast is so small that but
a few hours would have been occupied in sailing across. It may be
accounted for by the facts that the Carthaginians attended to their own
business, and the Romans did not engage to any extent in maritime
enterprises. On several occasions, however, Carthage had sent her
compliments across to Rome, though Rome does not appear to have
reciprocated them to any great degree; and four formal treaties between
the cities are reported, B.C. 509, 348, 306, and 279.
It is said that when Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was about to leave
Sicily, he exclaimed: "What a grand arena [Footnote: _Arena_ in
Latin meant "sand," and as the central portions of the amphitheatres
were strewn with sand to absorb the blood of the fighting gladiators
and beasts, an arena came to mean, as at present, any open, public
place for an exhibition. To the ancients, however, it brought to mind
the desperate combats to which the thousands of spectators were wont to
pay wrapt attention, and it was a much more vivid word than it now is.]
this would be for Rome and Carthage to contend upon!" It did not
require the wisdom of an oracle to suggest that such a contest would
come at some time, for the rich island lay just between the two cities,
apparently ready to be grasped by the more enterprising or the
stronger. As Carthage saw the gradual extension of Roman authority over
Southern Italy, she realized that erelong the strong arm would reach
out too far in the direction of the African continent. She was,
accordingly, on her guard, as she needed to be.
At about the time of the beginning of the war with Pyrrhus, a band of
soldiers from Campania, which had been brought to Sicily, took
possession of the town of Messana, a place on the eastern end of the
island not far from the celebrated rocks Scylla and Charybdis, opposite
Rhegium. Calling themselves Mamertines, after Mars, one form of whose
name was Mamers, these interlopers began to extend their power over the
island. In their contests with Hiero, King of Syracuse, they found
themselves in need of help. In the emergency there was a fatal division
of counsel, one party wishing to call upon Rome and the other thinking
best to ask Carthage, which already held the whole of the western half
of the island and the northern coast, and had for centuries been aiming
at complete possession of the remainder. Owing to this want of united
purpose it came about that both cities were appealed to, and it very
naturally happened that the fortress of the Mamertines was occupied by
a garrison from Carthage before Rome was able to send its army.
The Roman senate had hesitated to send help to the Mamertines because
they were people whom they had driven out of Rhegium, as robbers, six
years before, with the aid of the same Hiero, of Syracuse, who was now
besieging them. However, the people of Rome, not troubled with the
honest scruples of the senate, were, under the direction of the
consuls, inflamed by the hope of conquest and of the riches that they
expected would follow success, and a war which lasted twenty-three
years was the result of their reckless greed (B.C. 264).
The result was really decided during the first two years, for the
Romans persuaded the Mamertines to expel the Carthaginians from
Messana, and then, though besieged by them and by Hiero, drove them
both off, and in the year 263 took many Sicilian towns and even
advanced to Syracuse. Then Hiero concluded a peace with Rome to which
he was faithful to the time of his death, fifty years afterward. The
Sicilian city next to Syracuse in importance was Agrigentum, and this
the Romans took the next year, thus turning the tables and making
themselves instead of the Carthaginians masters of most of the
important island, with the exception of Panormus and Mount Eryx, near
Drepanum (B.C. 262).
The Carthaginians, being a commercial people, were well supplied with
large ships, and the Romans now saw that they, too, must have a navy.
Possessing no models on which to build ships of war larger than those
with three banks of oars, [Footnote: The ancient war vessels were moved
by both sails and oars; but the oars were the great dependence in a
fight. At first there was but one bank of oars; but soon there were two
rows of oarsmen, seated one above the other, the uppermost having long
oars. After awhile three banks were arranged, then four, now five, and
later more, the uppermost oars being of immense length, and requiring
several men to operate each. We do not now know exactly how so many
ranges of rowers were accommodated, nor how such unwieldly oars were
managed. The Athenians tried various kinds of ships, but concluded that
light and active vessels were better than awkward quinquiremes.] they
took advantage of the fact that a Carthaginian vessel of five banks (a
_quinquireme_) was wrecked on their shores, and in the remarkably
short space of time of less than two months built and launched one
hundred and thirty vessels of that size! They were clumsy, however, and
the crews that manned them were poorly trained, but, nevertheless, the
bold Romans ventured, under command of Caius Duilius, to attack the
enemy off the Sicilian town of Mylæ, and the Carthaginians were
overwhelmed, what remained of their fleet being forced to seek safety
in flight. The naval prestige of Carthage was destroyed. There was a
grand celebration of the victory at Rome, and a column adorned with the
ornamental prows of ships was set up in the forum.
[Illustration: A ROMAN WAR VESSEL.]
For a few years the war was pursued with but little effect; but in the
ninth year, when the favorite Marcus Atilius Regulus was consul, it was
determined to carry it on with more vigor, to invade Africa with an
overwhelming force, and, if possible, close the struggle. Regulus
sailed from Economus, not far from Agrigentum, with three hundred and
thirty vessels and one hundred thousand men, but his progress was soon
interrupted by the Carthaginian fleet, commanded by Hamilcar. After one
of the greatest sea-fights of all time, in which the Carthaginians lost
nearly a hundred ships and many men, the Romans gained the victory, and
found nothing to hinder their progress to the African shore. The enemy
hastened with the remainder of their fleet to protect Carthage, and the
conflict was transferred to Africa. Regulus prosecuted the war with
vigor, and, owing to the incompetence of the generals opposed to him,
was successful to an extraordinary degree. Both he and the senate
became intoxicated to such an extent, that when the Carthaginians made
overtures for peace, only intolerable terms were offered them. This
resulted in prolonging the war, for the Carthaginians called to their
aid Xanthippus, a Spartan general, who showed them the weakness of
their officers, and, finally, when his army had been well drilled,
offered battle to Regulus on level ground, where the dreaded African
elephants were of service, instead of among the mountains. The Roman
army was almost annihilated, and Regulus himself was taken prisoner
(B.C. 255).
The Romans saw that to retain a footing in Africa they must first have
control of the sea. Though the fleet that brought back the remains of
the army of Regulus was destroyed, another of two hundred and twenty
ships was made ready in three months, only, however, to meet a similar
fate off Cape Palinurus on the coast of Lucania. The Romans, at
Panormus (now Palermo), were, in the year 250, attacked by the
Carthaginians, over whom they gained a victory which decided the
struggle, though it was continued nine years longer, owing to the rich
resources of the Carthaginians. After this defeat an embassy was sent
to Rome to ask terms of peace. Regulus, who had then been five years a
captive, accompanied it, and, it is said, urged the senate not to make
terms. He then returned to Carthage and suffered a terrible death. The
character given him in the old histories and his horrible fate made
Regulus the favorite of orators for ages.
The Romans now determined to push the war vigorously, and began the
siege of Lilybæum (now Marsala), which was the only place besides
Drepanum, fifteen miles distant, yet remaining to the enemy on the
island of Sicily (B.C. 250). It was not until the end of the war that
the Carthaginians could be forced from these two strongholds. Six years
before that time (B.C. 247), there came to the head of Carthaginian
affairs a man of real greatness, Hamilcar Barca, whose last name is
said to mean lightning; but even he was not strong enough to overcome
the difficulties caused by the faults of others, and in 241 he
counselled peace, which was accordingly concluded, though Carthage was
obliged to pay an enormous indemnity, and to give up her claim to
Sicily, which became a part of the Roman dominion (the first "province"
so-called), governed by an officer annually sent from Rome. Hamilcar
had at first established himself on Mount Ercte, overhanging Panormus,
whence he made constant descents upon the enemy, ravaging the coast as
far as Mount Ætna. Suddenly he quitted this place and occupied Mount
Eryx, another height, overlooking Drepanum, where he supported himself
two years longer, and the Romans despaired of dislodging him.
In their extremity, they twice resorted to the navy, and at last, with
a fleet of two hundred ships, defeated the Carthaginians off the Ægusæ
Islands, to the west of Sicily, and as the resources of Hamilcar were
then cut off, it was only a question of time when the armies at Eryx,
Drepanum, and Lilybæum would be reduced by famine. It was in view of
this fact that the settlement was effected.
A period of peace followed this long war, during which at one time, in
the year 235, the gates of the temple of Janus, which were always open
during war and had not been shut since the days of Numa, were closed,
but it was only for a short space. After this war, the Carthaginians
became involved with their own troops, who arose in mutiny because they
could not get their pay, and Rome took advantage of this to rob them of
the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, and at the same time to demand a
large addition to the indemnity fund that had been agreed upon at the
peace (B.C. 227). Such arbitrary treatment of a conquered foe could not
fail to beget and keep alive the deepest feelings of resentment, of
which, in after years, Rome reaped the bitter fruits.
The Adriatic Sea was at that time infested with pirates from Illyria,
the country north of Epirus, just over the sea to the east of Italy,
and as Roman towns suffered from their inroads, an embassy was sent to
make complaint. One of these peaceful messengers was murdered by
direction of the queen of the country, Teuta, by name, and of course
war was declared, which ended in the overthrow of the treacherous
queen. Her successor, however, when he thought that the Romans were too
much occupied with other matters to oppose him successfully, renewed
the piratical incursions (B.C. 219), and in spite of the other wars
this brought out a sufficient force from Rome. The Illyrian sovereign
was forced to fly, and all his domain came under the Roman power.
Meantime the Romans had begun to think of the extensive tracts to the
north acquired from the Gauls, and in 232 B.C., a law was passed
dividing them among the poorer people and the veterans, in the
expectation of attracting inhabitants to that part of Italy. The
barbarians were alarmed by the prospect of the approach of Roman
civilization, and in 225, united to make a new attack upon their old
enemies. When it was rumored at Rome that the Gauls were preparing to
make a stand and probably intended to invade the territory of their
southern neighbors, the terrible days of the Allia were vividly brought
to mind and the greatest consternation reigned. The Sibylline or other
sacred books were carefully searched for counsel in the emergency, and
in obedience to instructions therein found, two Gauls and two Greeks (a
man and a woman of each nation) were buried alive in the Forum Boarium,
[Footnote: The Forum Boarium, though one of the largest and most
celebrated public places in the city, was not a regular market
surrounded with walls, but an irregular space bounded by the Tiber on
the west, and the Palatine Hill and the Circus Maximus on the east. The
Cloaca Maxima ran beneath it, and it was rich in temples and monuments.
On it the first gladiatorial exhibition occurred, B.C. 264, and there
too, other burials of living persons had been made, in spite of the
long-ago abolishment of such rites by Numa.] and the public excitement
somewhat allayed in that horrible way. A large army was immediately
raised, and sent to meet the Gauls at Ariminum on the Adriatic, but
they avoided it by taking a route further to the west. They were met by
a reserve force, however, which suffered a great defeat, probably near
Clusium. Afterwards the main army effected a junction with another body
coming from Pisa, and as the Gauls were attacked on both sides at once,
they were annihilated. This battle occurred near Telamon, in Etruria,
not far from the mouth of the Umbria. The victory was followed up, and
after three years, the whole of the valley of the Po, between the Alps
and the Apennines, was made a permanent addition to Roman territory.
Powerful colonies were planted at Placentia and Cremona to secure it.
[Illustration: HANNIBAL.]
No greater generals come before us in the grand story of Rome than
those who are now to appear. One was born while the first Punic war was
still raging, and the other in the year 235, when the gates of the
temple of Janus were, for the first time in centuries, closed in token
that Rome was at peace with the world. Hannibal, the elder of the two
was son of Hamilcar Barca, and inherited his father's hatred of Rome,
to which, indeed, he had been bound by a solemn oath, willingly sworn
upon the altar at the dictation of his father.
When Livy began his story of the second war between Rome and Carthage,
he said that he was about to relate the most memorable of all wars that
ever were waged; and though we may not express ourselves in such
general terms, it is safe to say that no struggle recorded in the
annals of antiquity, or of the middle age, surpasses it in importance
or in historical interest. The war was to decide whether the conqueror
of the world was to be self-centred Rome; or whether it should be a
nation of traders, commanded by a powerful general who dictated to them
their policy,--a nation not adapted to unite the different peoples in
bonds of sympathy,--one whose success would, in the words of Dr.
Arnold, "have stopped the progress of the world."
Hannibal stands out among the famed generals of history as one of the
very greatest. We must remember that we have no records of his own
countrymen to show how he was estimated among them; but we know that
though he was poorly supported by the powers at home, he was able to
keep together an army of great size, by the force of his own
personality, and to wage a disastrous war against the strongest people
of his age, far from his base of supplies, in the midst of the enemy's
country. It has well been said that the greatest masters of the art of
war, from Scipio to Napoleon, have concurred in homage to his genius.
The other hero, and the successful one, in the great struggle, was
Publius Cornelius Scipio, who was born in that year when the temple of
Janus was closed, of a family that for a series of generations had been
noted in Roman history, and was to continue illustrious for generations
to come.
Another among the many men of note who came into prominence during the
second war with Carthage was Quintus Fabius Maximus, a descendant of
that Rullus who in the Sabine wars brought the names Fabius and Maximus
into prominence. His life is given by Plutarch under the name Fabius,
and he is remembered as the originator of the policy of delay in war,
as our dictionaries tell us, because his plan was to worry his enemy,
rather than risk a pitched battle with him. On this account the Romans
called him _Cunctator_, which meant delayer, or one who is slow
though safe, not rash. He was called also _Ovicula_, or the lamb,
on account of his mild temper, and _Verrucosus_, because he had a
wart on his upper lip (_Verruca_, a wart).
The second Punic war was not so much a struggle between Carthage and
Rome, as a war entered into by Hannibal and carried on by him against
the Roman republic in spite of the opposition of his own people; and
this fact makes the strength of his character appear in the strongest
light. Just at the close of the first war, the Carthaginians had
established in Spain a city which took the name of New Carthage--that
is, New New City,--and had extended their dominion over much of that
country, as well as over most of the territory on the south shore of
the Mediterranean Sea. Hannibal laid siege to the independent city of
Saguntum, on the northeast of New Carthage, and, after several months
of desperate resistance, took it, thus throwing down the gauntlet to
Rome and completing the dominion of Carthage in that region (B.C. 218).
Rome sent ambassadors to Carthage, to ask reparation and the surrender
of Hannibal: but "War!" was the only response, and for seventeen years
a struggle of the most determined sort was carried on by Hannibal and
the Roman armies.
After wintering at New Carthage, Hannibal started for Italy with a
great army. He crossed the Pyrenees, went up the valley of the Rhone,
and then up the valley of the Isère, and most probably crossed the Alps
by the Little St. Bernard pass. It was an enterprise of the greatest
magnitude to take an army of this size through a hostile country, over
high mountains, in an inclement season; but no difficulty daunted this
general. In five months he found himself in the valley of the Duria
(modern Dora Baltea), in Northern Italy, with a force of twenty
thousand foot and six thousand cavalry (the remains of the army of
ninety-four thousand that had left New Carthage), with which he
expected to conquer a country that counted its soldiers by the hundred
thousand. The father of the great Scipio met Hannibal in the plains
west of the Ticinus, and was routed, retreating to the west bank of the
Trebia, where the Romans, with a larger force, were again defeated,
though the December cold caused the invading army great suffering and
killed all the elephants but one. The success of the Carthaginians led
the Gauls to flock to their standard, and Hannibal found himself able
to push forward with increasing vigor.
[Illustration: TERENCE, THE LAST ROMAN COMIC POET.]
Taking the route toward the capital, he met the Romans at Lake
Trasimenus, and totally routed them, killing the commander, Caius
Flaminius, who had come from Arretium to oppose him. The defeat was
accounted for by the Romans by the fact that Flaminius, always careless
about his religious observances, had broken camp at Ariminum, whence he
had come to Arretium, though the signs had been against him, and had
also previously neglected the usual solemnities upon his election as
consul before going to Ariminum. The policy of Hannibal was to make
friends of the allies of Rome, in order to attract them to his support,
and after his successes he carefully tended the wounded and sent the
others away, often with presents. He hoped to undermine Rome by taking
away her allies, and after this great success he did not march to the
capital, though he was distant less than a hundred miles from it,
because he expected to see tokens that his policy was a success.