CARTHAGINIANS IN SPAIN.--Meantime Carthage endeavored in Southern Spain to make up for its losses. The old tribes, the _Celtiberians_ and _Lusitanians_ in the central and western districts, and the _Cantabrians_ and _Basques_ in the north, brave as they were, were too much divided by tribal feuds to make an effectual resistance. The national party at Carthage, which wished for war, had able leaders in _Hamilcar_ and his three sons. By the military skill of _Hamilcar_, and of _Hasdrubal_ his son-in-law, the Carthaginians built up a flourishing dominion on the south and east coasts. The Romans watched the growth of the Carthaginian power there with discontent, and compelled _Hasdrubal_ to declare in a treaty that the _Ebro_ should be the limit of Carthaginian conquests (226). At the same time Rome made a protective alliance with _Saguntum_, a rich and powerful trading-city on the south of that river. _Hasdrubal_ was murdered in 221; and the son of Hamilcar Barca, _Hannibal_, who was then only twenty-eight years old, was chosen by the army to be their general. He laid hold of a pretext for beginning an attack upon _Saguntum_, which he took after a stout resistance, prolonged for eight months (219). The demand of a Roman emba.s.sy at Carthage--that _Hannibal_ should be delivered up--being refused, Rome declared war.
When the Carthaginian Council hesitated at the proposal of the Roman emba.s.sy, their spokesman, _Quintus Fabius_, said that he carried in his bosom peace or war: they might chose either. They answered, "We take what you give us;" whereupon the Roman opened his toga, saying, "I give you war!" The Carthaginians shouted, "So let it be!"
THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.--When the treaty of _Catulus_ was made (241), all patriots at Carthage felt that it was only a truce. They must have seen that Rome would never be satisfied with any thing short of the abject submission of so detested and dangerous a rival. There was a peace party, an oligarchy, at Carthage; and it was their selfishness which ultimately brought ruin upon the state. But the party which saw that the only safety was in aggressive action found a military leader in _Hannibal_,--a leader not surpa.s.sed, and perhaps not equaled, by any other general of ancient or modern times. He combined skill with daring, and had such a command over men, that under the heaviest reverses his influence was not broken. If he was cruel, it is doubtful whether he went beyond the practices sanctioned by the international law of the time and by Roman example. When a boy nine years old, at his father"s request he had sworn upon the altar never to be the friend of the Roman people. That father he saw fall in battle at his side. The oath he kept, for Rome never had a more unyielding or a more powerful enemy.
HANNIBAL IN ITALY.--In the summer of 218, _Hannibal_ crossed the _Ebro_, conquered the peoples between the _Ebro_ and the _Pyrenees_, and, leaving his brother _Hasdrubal_ in Spain, pushed into _Gaul_ with an army of fifty thousand foot, twelve thousand horse, and thirty-seven elephants. He crossed the swift _Rhone_ in the face of the Gauls who disputed the pa.s.sage, and then made his memorable march over the _Alps_, probably by the way now known as the _Little St. Bernard_ pa.s.s. Through ice and snow, climbing over crags and circling abysses, amid perpetual conflicts with the rough mountaineers who rolled stones down on the toiling soldiers, the army made its terrible journey into Northern Italy. Fifteen days were occupied in the pa.s.sage. Half the troops, with all the draught-animals and beasts of burden, perished on the way. The _Cisalpine Gauls_ welcomed Hannibal as a deliverer. No sooner had the valiant consul, _Cornelius Scipio_, been defeated in a cavalry battle on the _Ticinus_, a northern branch of the _Po_ (218), and, severely wounded, retreated to _Placentia_, and his rash colleague, _Semp.r.o.nius_, been defeated with great loss in a second battle on the _Trebia_, than the Gauls joined _Hannibal_, and reinforced him with sixty thousand troops inured to war. Hannibal, by marching through the swampy district of the _Arno_, where he himself lost an eye, flanked the defensive position of the Romans. The consul _Flaminius_ was decoyed into a narrow pa.s.s; and, in the battle of _Lake Trasumenus_ (217), his army of thirty thousand men was slaughtered or made prisoners. The consul himself was killed. All _Etruria_ was lost. The way seemed open to Rome; but, supported by the Latins and Italians, the Romans did not quail, or lower their mien of stern defiance. They appointed a leading patrician, _Quintus Fabius Maximus_, dictator. _Hannibal_, not being able to surprise and capture the fortress of _Spoletium_, preferred to march towards the sea-coast, and thence south into _Apulia_. His purpose was to open communication with _Carthage_, and to gain over to his support the eastern tribes of Italy. _Fabius, the Delayer (Cunctator)_, as he was called, followed and watched his enemy, inflicting what injuries he could, but avoiding a pitched battle. The Roman populace were impatient of the cautious, but wise and effective, policy of _Fabius_. In the following year (216) the consulship was given to _L. Aemilius Paulus_--who was chosen by the upper cla.s.s, the _Optimates_--and _C. Terentius Varro_, who was elected by the popular party for the purpose of taking the offensive. _Varro_ precipitated a battle at _Cannae_, in Apulia, where the Romans suffered the most terrible defeat they had ever experienced. At the lowest computation, they lost forty thousand foot and three thousand horse, with the consul _Aemilius Paulus_, and eighty men of senatorial rank. No such calamity since the capture of Rome by the Gauls had ever occurred. The Roman Senate did not lose heart. They limited the time of mourning for the dead to thirty days. They refused to admit to the city the amba.s.sadors of _Hannibal_, who came for the exchange of prisoners. With lofty resolve they ordered a levy of all who could bear arms, including boys and even slaves. They put into their hands weapons from the temples, spoils of former victories. They thanked _Varro_ that he had not despaired of the Republic. Some of the Italian allies went over to Hannibal. But all the Latin cities and all the Roman colonies remained loyal. The allies of Rome did not fall away as did the allies of Athens after the Syracusan disaster. It has been thought, that, if _Hannibal_ had followed up the victory at _Cannae_ by marching at once on the capital, the Roman power might have been overthrown. What might then have been the subsequent course of European history? Even the Roman school-boys, according to Juvenal, discussed the question whether he did not make a mistake in not attacking Rome. But it is quite doubtful whether he could have taken the city, or, even if he had taken it, whether his success would then have been complete. He took the wiser step of getting into his hands _Capua_, the second city in Italy. He may have hoped to seize a Campanian port, where he could disembark reinforcements "which his great victories had wrung from the opposition at home."
_Hannibal_ judged it best to go into winter-quarters at _Capua_, where his army was in a measure enervated by pleasure and vice. _Carthage_ made an alliance with _Philip V_. of Macedonia, and with _Hiero_ of Syracuse. But fortune turned in favor of the Romans. At _Nola_, _Hannibal_ was repulsed by _Marcellus_ (215); and, since he could obtain no substantial help from home, he was obliged to act on the defensive. _Marcellus_ crossed into Sicily, and, after a siege of three years, captured _Syracuse_, which had been aided in its defense by the philosopher _Archimedes_. _Capua_, in 211, surrendered to the Romans, and was visited with a fearful chastis.e.m.e.nt. Hannibal"s Italian allies forsook him, and his only reliance was on his brother in Spain. For a long time, the two brothers, _Publius_ and _Cnaeus Scipio_, maintained there the Roman cause successfully; but they were defeated and slain (212).
SCIPIO: ZAMA.--_Publius Cornelius Scipio_, son of one and nephew of the other Scipio just named, a young man twenty-five years old, and a popular favorite, took the command, and gained important successes; but he could not keep _Hasdrubal_ from going to his brother"s a.s.sistance in Italy. The Romans, however, were able to prevent a junction of his force with that of _Hannibal_; and _Hasdrubal_ was vanquished and slain by them in the battle of _Sena Gallica_, near the little river _Metaurus_ (207). _Scipio_ expelled the Carthaginians from Spain, and, having returned to Rome, was made consul (205). His plan was to invade Africa. He landed on the coast, and was joined by _Masinissa_, the king of Numidia, who had been driven from his throne by _Syphax_, the ally of Carthage. The defeat of the Carthaginians, and the danger of Carthage itself, led to the recall of _Hannibal_, who was defeated, in 202, by _Scipio_ in the decisive battle of _Zama_. Carthage made peace, giving up all her Spanish possessions and islands in the Mediterranean, handing over the kingdom of _Syphax_ to _Masinissa_, and agreeing to pay a yearly tribute equal to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for fifty years, to destroy all their ships of war but ten, and to make no war without the consent of the Romans (201). _Scipio Africa.n.u.s_, as he was termed, came back in triumph to Rome. The complete subjugation of _Upper Italy_ followed (200-191).
CHAPTER II. CONQUEST OF MACEDONIA: THE THIRD PUNIC WAR: THE DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH (202-146 B.C.).
PHILIP V.: ANTIOCHUS III.--The Romans were now dominant in the West. They were strong on the sea, as on the land. Within fifty years Rome likewise became the dominant power in the East. Philip V. of Macedon had made an alliance with Hannibal, but had furnished him no valuable aid. The Senate maintained that a body of Macedonian mercenaries had fought against the Romans at _Zama_. _Rhodes_ and _Athens_, together with _King Attalus_ of Pergamon, sought for help against _Philip_. The Romans were joined by the _aetolians_, and afterwards by the _Achaians_. In 197, the consul _T. Quintius Flamininus_ defeated him at the battle of _Cynoscephalae_ in Thessaly, and imposed upon him such conditions of peace as left him powerless against the interests of Rome. At the Isthmian games, amid great rejoicing, _Flamininus_ declared the Greek states independent. When they found that their freedom was more nominal than real, and involved a virtual subjection to Rome, the _aetolians_ took up arms, and obtained the support of _Antiochus III_., king of Syria. Another grievance laid at the door of this king was the reception by him of _Hannibal_, a fugitive from Carthage, whose advice, however, as to the conduct of the war, _Antiochus_ had not the wisdom to follow. In 190 he was vanquished by a Roman army at _Magnesia_, under _L. Cornelius Scipio_, with whom was present, as an adviser, _Scipio Africa.n.u.s_. He was forced to give up all his Asiatic possessions as far as the _Taurus_ mountains. The territory thus obtained, the Romans divided among their allies, _Pergamon_ and _Rhodes_. About seven years later (183), _Hannibal_, who had taken refuge at the court of _Prusias_, king of Bithynia, finding that he was to be betrayed, took poison and died. The ingrat.i.tude of his country, or of the ruling party in it, did not move him to relax his exertions against Rome. He continued until his death to be her most formidable antagonist, exerting in exile an effective influence in the East to create combinations against her.
PERSEUS.--_Philip V_. laid a plan to avenge himself on the Romans, and regain his lost Macedonian territory. _Perseus_, his son, followed in the same path, having slain his brother _Demetrius_, who was a friend of Rome. The war broke out in 171. For several campaigns the management of the Roman generals was ill-judged; but at last _L. aemilius Paulus_, son of the consul who fell at _Cannae_, routed the Macedonians at the battle of _Pydna_. Immense spoils were brought to Rome by the conqueror. _Perseus_ himself, who had sat on the throne of Alexander, adorned the consul"s triumphal procession through the streets of Rome. The cantons of Greece, where there was nothing but continual strife and endless confusion, were subjected to Roman influence. One thousand Achaians of distinction, among them the historian _Polybius_, were carried to Italy, and kept under surveillance for many years. The imperious spirit of Rome, and the deference accorded to her, is ill.u.s.trated in the interview of _C. Popilius Laenas_, who delivered to _Antiochus IV_. of Syria a letter of the Senate, directing him to retire from before Alexandria. When that monarch replied that he would confer with his counselors on the matter, the haughty Roman drew a circle round him on the ground, and bade him decide before he should cross that line. _Antiochus_ said that he would do as the Senate ordered.
THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.--The treaty with Carthage had bound that city hand and foot. Against the encroachments of _Masinissa_, the Carthaginians could do nothing; but at length they were driven to take up arms to repel them. This act the Romans p.r.o.nounced a breach of the treaty (149). That stern old Roman, who in his youth had served against Hannibal, _M. Porcius Cato_, had been unceasing in his exhortation to destroy Carthage. He was in the habit of ending his speeches with the saying, "But I am of opinion that Carthage should be destroyed." The Roman armies landed at _Utica_. Their hard demands, which included the surrender of war-ships and weapons, were complied with. But when the Carthaginians were required to abandon their city, and to make a new settlement ten miles distant, they rose in a fury of patriotic wrath. The women cut off their hair to make bowstrings. Day and night the people worked, in forging weapons and in building a new fleet in the inner harbor. The Romans were repulsed; but _P. Scipio aemilia.n.u.s_, the adopted son of the first Scipio Africa.n.u.s, shut in the city by land and by sea, and, in 146, captured and destroyed it. Its defenders fought from street to street, and from house to house. Only a tenth part of the inhabitants were left alive. These were sold into slavery. Carthage was set on fire, and almost entirely consumed. The fire burned for seventeen days. The remains of the Carthaginian wall, when excavated in recent times, "were found to be covered with a layer of ashes from four to five feet deep, filled with half-charred pieces of wood, fragments of iron, and projectiles." _Scipio_ would have preserved the city, but the Senate was inexorable. With the historian Polybius at his side, the Roman commander, as he looked down on the horrors of the conflagration, sorrowfully repeated the lines of Homer,--
"The day shall come when sacred Troy shall be leveled with the plain, And Priam and the people of that good warrior slain."
"a.s.syria," he is said to have exclaimed, "had fallen, and Persia and Macedon. Carthage was burning: Rome"s day might come next." Carthage was converted into a Roman province under the name of _Africa_.
DESTRUCTION OF CORINTH.--The atrocious crime of the destruction of Carthage was more than matched by the contemporaneous destruction of _Corinth_. Another rising in Macedonia resulted, in 146, in the conversion of that ancient kingdom into a Roman province. The return to Greece of three hundred Achaian exiles who had been detained in Italy for sixteen years, strengthened the anti-Roman party in Greece, and helped to bring on war with the Achaian league. In 146, after the battle of _Leucopetra_, Corinth was occupied by the consul _L. Mummius_. The men were put to the sword; the women and children were sold at auction into slavery; all treasures, all pictures, and other works of art, were carried off to Rome, and the city was consigned to the flames. The other Greek cities were mildly treated, but placed under the governor of Macedonia, and obliged to pay tribute to Rome. At a later date Greece became a Roman province under the name of _Achaia_.
THE PROVINCES.--At this epoch, there were eight provinces,--_Sicily_ (241), _Sardinia_ (238) and _Corsica_, two provinces in _Spain_ (205), _Cisalpine Gaul, Illyric.u.m_ (168), _Africa_ (146), _Macedonia_ (146), and _Achaia_. The first four were governed by _Praetors_. Later, however, the judicial functions of the praetors kept them in Rome. At the end of the year, the praetor, on laying down his office at home, went as _propraetor_ to rule a province. But where there was war or other grave disturbances, the province was a.s.signed to a _consul_ in office, or to a _proconsul_, who was either the consul of the preceding year, or an ex-consul, or an ex-praetor who was appointed proconsul. The provinces were generally organized by the conquering general and a senatorial commission. Some cities retained their munic.i.p.al government. These were the "free cities." The taxes were farmed out to collectors called _publicans_, who were commonly of the equestrian order. The last military dictator was appointed in 216. In times of great danger, dictatorial power was given to a consul.
LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY.--The intercourse of the Romans with the Greeks opened to the former a new world of art, literature, and philosophy, and a knowledge of other habits and modes of life. There were those who regarded the Greek authors and artists with sympathy, and showed an intelligent enthusiasm for the products of Greek genius. Under the patronage of the _Scipios_, Roman poets wrote in imitation of Greek models. Such were _Plautus_ (who died in 184), and the less original, but more refined, _Terence_ (185-159), who had been the slave of a senator. _Ennius_ (239-169), a Calabrian Greek, wrote epics, and also tragedies and comedies. Him the later Romans regarded as the father of their literature. The beginnings of historical writing--which go beyond mere chronicles and family histories--appear, as in the lost work on Roman history by _M. Portias Cato_ (Cato the Censor, 234-149). The great historian of this period, however, was the Greek _Polybius_. The Greek philosophy was introduced, in spite of the vigorous opposition of such austere conservatives as Cato. _Panaetius_ (185-112), the Stoic from _Rhodes_, had a cordial reception at Rome. The Stoic teaching was adapted to the Roman mind. The Platonic philosophy was brought in by _Carneades_. This was frequently more acceptable to orators and statesmen. Along with the _Stoic_, the _Epicurean_ school found adherents. Cato--who, although a historian and an orator, was, in theory and practice, a rigid man, with the simple ways of the old time--procured the banishment of_ Carneades_, together with _Critolaus_ the Peripatetic, and the Stoic _Diogenes_. The schools of oratory he caused to be shut up. He did what he could to prevent the introduction of the healing art, as it was practiced by the Greeks. He preferred the old-fashioned domestic remedies.
THE STATE OF MORALS.--If the opposition of the Conservatives to Greek letters and philosophy was unreasonable, as it certainly proved futile, there was abundant ground for alarm and regret at the changes that were going on in morals and in ways of living. The conquest of Greece and of the East brought an amazing increase of wealth. Rome plundered the countries which she conquered. The _optimates_, the leading families, who held the chief offices in the state and in the army, grew very rich from the booty which they gained. They left their small dwellings for stately palaces, which they decorated with works of art, gained by the pillage of nations. They built villas in the country, with extensive grounds and beautiful gardens. Even women, released from the former strict subordination of the wife to her husband, indulged lavishly in finery, and plunged into gaieties inconsistent with the household virtues. The _optimates_, in order to enrich themselves further, often resorted to extortion of various sorts. In order to curry favor with the people, and thereby to get their votes, they stooped to flattery, and to demagogical arts which the earlier Romans would have despised. They provided games, at great expense, for the entertainment of the populace. In the room of the invigorating and of the intellectual contests, which had been in vogue among the Greeks, the Romans acquired an increasing relish for b.l.o.o.d.y gladiatorial fights of men with wild beasts, and of men against one another. Slaves multiplied to an enormous extent: "as cheap as a Sardinian" was a proverb. The race of plain farmers dwindled away. The trade in slaves became a flourishing branch of business. Field-hands toiled in fetters, and were often branded to prevent escape. If slaves ran away, and were caught, they might be crucified. If a householder were killed by a slave, all the slaves in his house might be put to death. As at Athens, the testimony of slaves was given under torture. Hatred to the master on the part of the slave was a thing of course. "As many enemies as slaves," was a common saying.
NUMANTIAN WAR.--The intolerable oppression of the provinces occasionally provoked resistance. It was in _Spain_ that the Romans found it most difficult to quell the spirit of freedom. The _Lusitanians_ in the territory now called Portugal, under a gallant chieftain, _Viriathus_, maintained for nine years a war in which they were mostly successful, and were finally worsted only in consequence of the perfidious a.s.sa.s.sination of their leader (149-140). The _Celtiberians_, whose princ.i.p.al city, _Numantia_, was on the upper _Douro_, kept up their resistance with equal valor for ten years (143-133). On one occasion a Roman army of twenty thousand men was saved from destruction by engagements which the Senate, as after the surrender at the Caudine Forks, repudiated. In 133, after a siege of eighteen months, Numantia was taken by _Scipio Africa.n.u.s aemilia.n.u.s_. It was hunger that compelled the surrender; and the n.o.blest inhabitants set fire to the town, and slew themselves, to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy.
PERGAMON.--More subservience the Romans found in the East. In the same year that the desperate resistance of the _Numantians_ was overcome, _Attalus III_., king of _Pergamon_, an ally of Rome, whose sovereignty extended over the greater part of _Asia Minor_, left his kingdom and all his treasures, by will, to the Roman people. There was a feeble struggle on the part of the expectant heir, but the Romans formed the larger part of the kingdom into a province. _Phrygia Major_ they detached, and gave to _Mithridates IV_., king of _Pontus_, who had helped them in this last brief contest.
PERIOD IV. THE ERA OF REVOLUTION AND OF THE CIVIL WARS. (_146-31 B.C_.)
CHAPTER I. THE GRACCHI: THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR: MARIUS AND SULLA (146-78 B.C.).
CONDITION OF ROME.--We come now to an era of internal strife. The Romans were to turn their arms against one another: Yet it is remarkable that the march of foreign conquest still went on. It was by conquests abroad that the foremost leaders in the civil wars rose to the position which enabled them to get control in the government at home. The power of the _Senate_ had been more and more exalted. Foreign affairs were mainly at its disposal. The increase in the number of voters in the _comitia_, and their motley character, made it more easy for the aristocracy to manage them. Elections were carried by the influence of largesses and by the exhibition of games. Practically the chief officers were limited to a clique, composed of rich families of both patrician and plebeian origin, which was diminishing in number, while the numbers of the lower cla.s.s were rapidly growing larger. The gulf between the poor and the rich was constantly widening. The last Italian colony was sent out in 177 B.C., and the lands of Italy were all taken up. Slaves furnished labor at the cost of their bare subsistence. It was hard for a poor man to gain a living. Had the _Licinian Laws_ (p. 137) been carried out, the situation would have been different. The public lands were occupied by the members of some forty or fifty aristocratic families, and by a certain number of wealthy Italians. A great proletariate--a needy and disaffected lower cla.s.s--was growing up, which boded no good to the state.
TIBERIUS GRACCHUS.--This condition of things moved _Tiberius Gracchus_, the son of _Cornelia_, who was the daughter of the great _Scipio Africa.n.u.s_, to bring forward his _Agrarian Laws_. The effect of them would have been to limit the amount of the public domain which any one man could hold, and to divide portions of it among poor citizens. In spite of the bitter opposition of the n.o.bility, these laws were pa.s.sed (133). But _Gracchus_ had been obliged to persuade the people to turn a tribune, who resisted their pa.s.sage, out of office, which was an unconst.i.tutional act. In order to carry out the laws, he would have to be re-elected tribune. But the _optimates_, led by the consul _Scipio Nasica_, had been still more infuriated by other proposals of _Gracchus_. They raised a mob, and slew him, with three hundred of his followers. This gave the democratic leaders a temporary advantage; but violent measures on their own side turned the current again the other way, and proceedings under the laws were quashed.
CAIUS GRACCHUS.--The laws of _Caius Gracchus_, the brother of Tiberius, were of a more sweeping character. He caused measures to be pa.s.sed, and colonies to be sent out, by decrees of the people, without any action of the Senate. He renewed the agrarian law. He caused a law to be pa.s.sed for selling corn for less than the cost, to all citizens who should apply for it. He also caused it to be ordained, that juries should be taken from the knights, the _equites_, instead of the Senate. These were composed of rich men. The tendency of the law would be to make the equestrian order distinct, and thus to divide the aristocracy. The proposal (122), which was not pa.s.sed, to extend the franchise to the Latins, and perhaps to the Italians, cost him his popularity, although the measure was just. The Senate gave its support to a rival tribune, _M. Livius Drusus_, who outbid _Gracchus_ in the contest for popular favor. In 121 _Gracchus_ was not made tribune. In the disorder that followed, he, with several hundred of his followers, was killed by the _optimates_. Before long most of his enactments were reversed. The law for the cheap sale of corn, the most unwise of his measures, continued.
THE JUGURTHINE WAR.--An interval of tranquility followed. But the corruption of the ruling cla.s.s was ill.u.s.trated in connection with the Jugurthine war. _Jugurtha_, the adopted son of the king of _Numidia_, the ally of Rome, wishing the whole kingdom for himself, killed one of the sons of the late king, and made war upon the other, who applied to the Romans for help. The commission sent out by the Senate was bribed by _Jugurtha_. Not until he took the city of _Cirta_, and put to death the remaining brother, with all his army, was he summoned to Rome. There, too, his money availed to secure him impunity, although he caused a Numidian prince to be murdered in Rome itself. When the Romans finally entered on the war with _Jugurtha_, he bribed the generals, so that little was effected. The indignation of the people was raised to such a pitch that they would not leave the direction of the war in the hands of _Quintus Metellus_, whom the Senate had sent out, and who defeated _Jugurtha_ (108), but insisted on giving the chief command to one of his subordinate officers, _Caius Marius_ (107), the son of a peasant, wild and rough in his manners, but of extraordinary talents as a soldier. He brought the war to an end. _Jugurtha_ was delivered up by the prince with whom he had taken refuge to _L. Cornelius Sulla_, one of the generals under _Marius_, and in 105, with his two sons, marched in chains before the triumphal car of _Marius_ through the streets of Rome. _Marius_ was now the leader of the popular party, and the most influential man in Rome.
THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES.--The power of _Marius_ was augmented by his victories over the _Cimbri_ and the _Teutones_. These were hordes of barbarians who appeared in the Alpine regions, the _Cimbri_ being either _Celts_, or, like the _Teutones_, _Germans_. The _Cimbri_ crossed the Alps in 113, and defeated a Roman consul. They turned westward towards the Rhine, traversed Gaul in different directions, defeating through a series of years the Roman armies that were sent against them. These defeats the democratic leaders ascribed, not without reason, to the corrupt management of the aristocratic party. In 103 the _Cimbri_ and the _Teutones_ arranged for a combined attack on Italy. _Marius_ was made consul; and in order to meet this threatened invasion, which justly excited the greatest anxiety, he was chosen to this office five times in succession (104-100). Having repulsed the attack of the barbarians on his camp, he defeated them in two great battles, the first at _Aquce s.e.xtice_ (Aix in Provence) in 102, and the second at _Vercellce_, in Upper Italy, in 101. These successes, which really saved Rome, made _Marius_ for the time the idol of the popular party.
THE ARMY.--At about this time a great change took place in the const.i.tution of the army. The occupation of a soldier had become a trade. Besides the levy of citizens, there was established a recruiting system, which drew into the ranks the idle and lazy, and a system of re-inforcements, by which cavalry and light-armed troops were taken from subject and va.s.sal states. Thus there arose a military cla.s.s, distinct, as it had not been of old, from the civil orders, and ready to act separately when its own interest or the ambition of favorite leaders might prompt.
SATURNINUS.--_Marius_ lacked the judgment and the firmness required by a statesman, especially in troublous times. When _Saturninus_ and _Glaucia_ brought forward a series of measures of a radical character in behalf of the democratic cause, and the consul _Metellus_, who opposed them, was obliged to go into voluntary exile, _Marius_, growing ashamed of the factious and violent proceedings of the popular party, was partially won over to the support of the Senate. When _C. Memmius_, candidate for consul, was killed with bludgeons by the mob of _Saturninus_ and _Glaucia_, and there was fighting in the forum and the streets, he helped to put down these reckless innovators (99). But his want of hearty cooperation with either party made him hated by both. _Metellus_ was recalled from banishment. _Marius_ went to Asia, and visited the court of _Mithridates._
THE MURDER OF DRUSUS.--Nearly ten years of comparative quiet ensued. The long continued complaints of the Italians found at last a voice in the measures of _M. Livius Drusus,_ a tribune, who, in 91, proposed that they should have the right of citizenship. Two other propositions, one referring to the relations of the _Equites_ and the _Senate,_ and the other for a new division of lands, had been accepted by the people, but were by the Senate declared null. Before _Drusus_ could bring forward the law respecting Italian citizenship, he was a.s.sa.s.sinated. Neither Senate nor people was favorable to this righteous measure.
THE ITALIAN OR SOCIAL WAR (90-88 B.C.).--The murder of _Drusus_ was the signal for an insurrection of the _Italian_ communities. They organized for themselves a federal republic. The peril occasioned by this great revolt reconciled for the moment the contending parties at Rome. In the North, where _Marius_ fought, the Romans were generally successful: in the South, the allies were at first superior; but in 89, in spite of _Sulla"s_ bold forays, they were worsted. But it was by policy, more than by arms, that the Romans subdued this dangerous revolt. They promised full citizenship to those who had not taken part in the war, and to those who would at once cease to take part in it (90). Finally, when it was plain that Rome was too strong to be overcome, the conflict was ended by granting to the allies all that they had ever claimed (89). Rome had now made ALL ITALY (south of _Cisalpine Gaul_), except the _Samnites_ and _Lucanians,_ EQUAL WITH HERSELF. But Italy had been ravaged by desolating war: the number of small proprietors was more than ever diminished, and the army and the generals were becoming the predominant force in the affairs of the state.
WAR WITH MITHRIDATES.--_Mithridates,_ king of Pontus, in the north-east of Asia Minor, was as ardent an enemy of the Romans as Hannibal had been. With the help of his son-in-law _Tigranes,_ king of Armenia, he had subdued the neighboring kings in alliance with Rome. The Asiatic states, who were ruled by the Romans, were impatient of the oppression under which they groaned. When checked by the Romans, _Mithridates_ had paused for a while, and then had resumed again his enterprise of conquest. In 88 the Grecian cities of Asia joined him; and, in obedience to his brutal order, all the Italians within their walls, not lelss than eighty thousand in number, but possibly almost double that number, were put to death in one day. The whole dominion of the Romans in the East was in jeopardy.
MARIUS AND SULLA.--_Sulla_ was elected consul in 88, and was on the point of departing for Asia. He was a soldier of marked talents, a representative of the _aristocratic_ party, and was more cool and consistent in his public conduct than _Marius_. _Marius_ desired the command against _Mithridates_ for himself. _P. Sulpicius_, one of his adherents, brought forward a revolutionary law for incorporating the Italians and freedmen among the thirty-five tribes. The populace, under the guidance of the leaders of the Marian faction, voted to take away the command from _Sulla_, and to give it to _Marius_. _Sulla_ refused to submit, and marched his army to Rome. It was impossible to resist him. _Sulpicius_ was killed in his flight. _Marius_ escaped from Italy, and, intending to go to Africa, was landed at _Minturnae_. To escape pursuit, he had to stand up to the chin in a marsh. He was put in prison, and a Gaulish slave was sent to kill him. But when he saw the flashing eyes of the old general, and heard him cry, "Fellow, darest thou kill _Caius Marius_?" he dropped his sword, and ran. _Marius_ crossed to Africa. Messengers who were sent to warn him to go away, found him sitting among the ruins of Carthage.
THE MARIANS IN ROME.--_Sulla_ restored the authority of the Senate. During _Sulla"s_ absence, _Cinna_, the consul of the popular party, sought to revive the laws of _Sulpicius_ by violent means (87). Driven out of the city, he came back with an army which he had gathered in _Campania_, and with old Marius, who had returned from Africa. He now took vengeance on the leaders of the _Optimates_. For five days the gates were closed, and every n.o.ble who was specially obnoxious, and had not escaped, was killed by _Marius_, who marched through the streets at the head of a body of soldiers. In 86 _Marius_ and _Cinna_ were made consuls. _Sulla_ was declared to be deposed. _Marius_, who was now more than seventy years old, died (86). The fever of revenge, and the apprehension of what might follow on _Sulla"s_ return, drove sleep from his eyelids. A brave soldier, he was incompetent to play the part of a statesman. He went to his grave with the curse of all parties resting upon him.
RETURN OF SULLA.--_Sulla_ refused to do any thing against his adversaries at home, or for the help of the fugitive n.o.bles who appealed to him, until the cause of the country was secure abroad. He captured _Athens_ in 86, defeated _Archelaus_, the general of _Mithridates_, in a great battle at _Chaeronea_; and, by this and subsequent victories, he forced _Mithridates_ to conclude peace, who agreed to evacuate the Roman province of Asia, to restore all his conquests, surrender eighty ships of war, and pay three thousand talents (84). _Sulla"s_ hands were now free. In 83 he landed at _Brundisium_. He was joined by _Cneius Pompeius_, then twenty-three years old, with a troop of volunteers. _Sulla_ did not wish to fight the Italians. He issued a proclamation, therefore, giving them the a.s.surance that their rights would not be impaired. This pledge had the desired effect. The army of the _Consuls_ largely outnumbered his own. _Sulla_ lingered in South Italy to make good his position there. The _Samnites_ joined the _Marians_, and moved upon Rome with the intent to destroy it. They were defeated before they could enter the city. The _Marians_ in Spain were defeated afterwards, as were the same party in _Sicily_ and _Africa_ by _Pompeius_.
CRUELTY OF SULLA.--The cruelty of Sulla, after his victory, was more direful than Rome had ever witnessed. It appeared to spring from no heat of pa.s.sion, but was cold and shameless. After a few days, there was a ma.s.sacre of four thousand prisoners in the _Circus_. Their shrieks and groans were heard in the neighboring Temple of _Bellona_, where Sulla was in consultation with the Senate. Many thousands--not far from three thousand in Rome alone--were proscribed and murdered, and the property of all on these lists of the condemned was confiscated.
THE LAWS OF SULLA.--In his character as _Dictator_, _Sulla_ remade the const.i.tution, striking out the popular elements to a great extent, and concentrating authority in the _Senate_. The _Tribunes_ were stripped of most of their power. The _Senate_ alone could propose laws. In the Senate, the places in the juries were given back (p. 154). Besides these and other like changes, the right of suffrage was bestowed on ten thousand emanc.i.p.ated slaves; while _Italians_ and others, who had been on the Marian side, were deprived of it. In the year 80 B.C., _Sulla_ caused himself to be elected _Consul_. The next year he retired from office to his country estate, and gave himself up to amus.e.m.e.nts and sensual pleasure. A part of his time--for he was not without a taste for literature--he devoted to the writing of his memoirs, which, however, have not come down to us. He died in 78.
CHAPTER II. POMPEIUS AND THE EAST: TO THE DEATH OF CRa.s.sUS (78-53 B.C.).
WAR WITH SERTORIUS.--Not many years after _Sulla"s _death, his reforms were annulled. This was largely through the agency of _Cneius Pompeius_, who had supported _Sulla_, but was not a uniform or consistent adherent of the aristocratic party. He did not belong to an old family, but had so distinguished himself that Sulla gave him a triumph. Later he rose to still higher distinction by his conduct of the war against _Sertorius_ in Spain, a brave and able man of the Marian party, who was supported there for a long time by a union of Spaniards and Romans. Not until jealousy arose among his officers, and _Sertorius_ was a.s.sa.s.sinated, was the formidable rebellion put down (72).
THE GLADIATORIAL WAR.--_Pompeius_ had the opportunity still further to distinguish himself on his way back from Spain. A gladiator, _Spartacus_, started a revolt among his companions. He called about him slaves and outlaws until with an army of one hundred thousand men he defeated the Roman generals, and threatened Rome itself. For two years they ravaged Italy at their will. They were vanquished by _Marcus Cra.s.sus_ in 71, in two battles, in the last of which _Spartacus fell_. The remnant of them, a body of five thousand men, who had nearly reached the Alps, were annihilated by _Pompeius_.
POMPEIUS: CRa.s.sUS: CICERO.--_Cra.s.sus_ was a man of great wealth and of much shrewdness. _Pompeius_ was bland and dignified in his ways, a valiant, though sometimes over-cautious, general. These two men, in 70 B.C., became consuls. They had resolved to throw themselves for support on the middle cla.s.s at Rome. _Pompeius_, sustained by his colleague, secured the abrogation of some of the essential changes made by _Sulla_. The _Tribunes_ received back their powers, and the independence of the _a.s.sembly of the Tribes_ was restored. The absolute power of the Senate over the law-courts was taken away. These measures were carried in spite of the resistance of that body. Pompeius was aided by the great advocate, _Marcus Tullius Cicero_. He was born at _Arpinum_ in 106 B.C., of an equestrian family. He had been a diligent student of law and politics, and also of the Greek philosophy, and aspired to distinction in civil life. He studied rhetoric under _Molo_, first at Rome and then at _Rhodes_, during a period of absence from Italy, which continued about two years. On his return (in 77 B.C.), he resumed legal practice. _Cicero_ was a man of extraordinary and various talents, and a patriot, sincerely attached to the republican const.i.tution. He was humane and sensitive, and much more a man of peace than his eminent contemporaries. His foibles, the chief of which was the love of praise, were on the surface; and, if he lacked some of the robust qualities of the great Roman leaders of that day, he was likewise free from some of their sins. The captivating oratory of Cicero found a field for its exercise in the impeachment of _Verres_, whose rapacity, as Roman governor of Sicily, had fairly desolated that wealthy province. _Cicero_ showed such vigor in the prosecution that _Verres_ was driven into exile. This event weakened the senatorial oligarchy, and helped _Pompeius_ in his contest with it.
WAR WITH THE PIRATES.--In 69 B.C., _Pompeius_ retired from office; but, two years later, he a.s.sumed command in the war against the pirates. These had taken possession of creeks and valleys in Western _Cilicia_ and _Pamphylia_, and had numerous fleets. Not confining their depredations to the sea, they plundered the coasts of Italy, and stopped the grain-ships on which Rome depended for food. _Pompeius_ undertook to exterminate this piratical community. By the _Gabinian Law_, he was clothed with more power than had ever been committed to an individual. He was to have absolute command over the Mediterranean and its coasts for fifty miles inland. He used this unlimited authority for war purposes alone, and, in three months, completely accomplished the work a.s.signed him. He captured three thousand vessels, and put to death ten thousand men. Twenty thousand captives he settled in the interior of _Cilicia_.
POMPEIUS IN THE EAST.--The success of Pompeius was the prelude to a wider extension of his power and his popularity. After the return of _Sulla_ from the East, another _Mithridatic War_ (83-81), the second in the series, had ended in the same terms of peace that had been agreed upon before (p. 157). In 74 the contest began anew against _Mithridates_, and _Tigranes_ of Armenia, his son-in-law. For a number of years _Lucullus_, the Roman commander, was successful; but finally _Mithridates_ regained what he had lost, and kept up his aggressive course. In 66 B.C., on a motion that was supported by _Cicero_, but opposed by the aristocratic party in the Senate, _Pompeius_ was made commander in the East for an indefinite term. So extensive powers had never before been committed to a Roman. He drove _Mithridates_ out of Pontus into Armenia. _Tigranes_ laid his crown at the feet of the Roman general, and was permitted to retain _Armenia_. _Mithridates_ fled beyond the Caucasus, and, in 63 B.C., committed suicide. _Pompeius_ overthrew the Syrian kingdom of the _Seleucidae_. He entered _Judaea_, captured Jerusalem from _Aristobulus_ the reigning prince, and placed his brother _Hyrca.n.u.s_ on the throne, who became tributary to Rome.
_Pompeius_ with his officers entered the sanctuary of the temple, and was surprised to find there neither image nor statue. He established in the Roman territories in Asia the two provinces, _Pontus_ and _Syria_, and re-organized the province of _Cilicia_. Several kingdoms he allowed to remain under Roman protection. After this unexampled exercise of power and responsibility as the disposer of kingdoms, he slowly returned to Italy, dismissed his army at _Brundisium_, and entered the capital as a private citizen, where, in 61 B.C., he enjoyed a magnificent triumph that lasted for two days.
THE ROMAN TRIUMPH.--The most coveted reward of a victorious general was a triumph. It was granted by a vote of the Senate and according to certain rules, some of which, however, were often relaxed. The general must have held the office of dictator, consul, or praetor; at least five thousand of the enemy must have been slain in a single battle; the war must have been against public foes, etc. The general, with his army, remained without the city until the triumph had been decreed by the Senate, which also a.s.sembled without the walls to deliberate on the question. The pageant itself, in later times, was of the most splendid character. It consisted of a procession which entered the "Triumphal Gate," and pa.s.sed through the _Via Sacra_, up the Capitoline Hill to the Temple of Jupiter, where sacrifices were offered. In front were the Senate, headed by the magistrates. Then came a body of trumpeters, who immediately preceded the long trains of carriages and frames which displayed the spoils of conquest, including statues, pictures, gorgeous apparel, gold and silver, and whatever else had been borne away from the conquered people. Pictures of the country traversed or conquered, and models of cities and forts, were exhibited. Behind the spoils came flute-players, and these were followed by elephants and other strange animals. Next were the arms and insignia of the hostile leaders; and after them marched the leaders themselves and their kindred, and all the captives of less rank, in fetters. The crowns and other tributes voluntarily given to the general by Roman allies next appeared, and then the central figure of the procession, the _imperator_ himself, standing in a chariot drawn by four horses, clad in a robe embroidered with gold, and a flowered tunic, in his right hand a bough of laurel and in his left a scepter, with a wreath of laurel on his brow, and a slave standing behind, and holding a crown over his head. Behind him in the procession were his family, then the mounted _equites_ and the whole body of the infantry, their spears adorned with laurels, making the air ring with their shouts and songs. Meantime the temples were open, and incense was burned to the G.o.ds; buildings were decorated with festal garlands; the population, in holiday dress, thronged the steps of the public buildings and stages erected to command a view, and in every place where a sight of the pageant could be obtained. As the procession climbed the Capitoline Hill, some of the captives of rank were taken into the adjoining _Mamertine_ prison, and barbarously put to death. In the lower chamber of that ancient dungeon, which the traveler still visits, _Jugurtha_ and many other conquered enemies perished. After the sacrifices had been offered, the _imperator_ sat down to a public feast with his friends in the temple, and was then escorted home by a crowd of citizens.