EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

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FIRST VICTORIES OF HANNIBAL

The Romans were surprised by the boldness and rapidity of Hannibal's
movements. They had expected to conduct the war far away in foreign lands;
they now knew that they must fight for their own homes and firesides. The
first battles were complete victories for the Carthaginians and opened the
road to Rome. Hannibal's plans, however, did not include a siege of the
capital. He would not shatter his victorious army in an assault on a
fortified town. Hannibal's real object was to bring the Italians over to
his side, to ruin Rome through the revolts of her allies. But now he
learned, apparently for the first time, that Italy was studded with Latin
colonies, [3] each a miniature Rome, each prepared to resist to the bitter
end. Not a single city opened its gates to the invader. On such solid
foundations rested Roman rule in Italy.

A DICTATORSHIP

The Senate faced the crisis with characteristic energy. New forces were
raised and intrusted to a dictator, [4] Quintus Fabius Maximus. He refused
to meet Hannibal in a pitched battle, but followed doggedly his enemy's
footsteps, meanwhile drilling his soldiers to become a match for the
Carthaginian veterans. This strategy was little to the taste of the Roman
populace, who nicknamed Fabius _Cunctator_, "the Laggard." However, it
gave Rome a brief breathing space, until her preparations to crush the
invader should be completed.

[Illustration: A CARTHAGINAN OR ROMAN HELMET (British Museum, London)
Found on the battle field of Cannae.]

BATTLE OF CANNAE, 316 B.C.

After the term of Fabius as dictator had expired, new consuls were chosen.
They commanded the largest army Rome had ever put in the field. The
opposing forces met at Cannae in Apulia. The Carthaginians numbered less
than fifty thousand men; the Romans had more than eighty thousand troops.
Hannibal's sole superiority lay in his cavalry, which was posted on the
wings with the infantry occupying the space between. Hannibal's center was
weak and gave way before the Romans, who fought this time massed in solid
columns. The arrangement was a poor one, for it destroyed the mobility of
the legions. The Roman soldiers, having pierced the enemy's lines, now
found themselves exposed on both flanks to the African infantry and taken
in the rear by Hannibal's splendid cavalry. The battle ended in a hideous
butchery. One of the consuls died fighting bravely to the last; the other
escaped from the field and with the wreck of his army fled to Rome. A
Punic commander who survived such a disaster would have perished on the
cross; the Roman commander received the thanks of the Senate "for not
despairing of the republic." [5]

AFTER CANNAE

The battle of Cannae marks the summit of Hannibal's career. He maintained
himself in Italy for thirteen years thereafter, but the Romans, taught by
bitter experience, refused another engagement with their foe. Hannibal's
army was too small and too poorly equipped with siege engines for a
successful attack on Rome. His brother, Hasdrubal, led strong
reinforcements from Spain to Italy, but these were caught and destroyed
before they could effect a junction with Hannibal's troops. Meanwhile the
brilliant Roman commander, Publius Scipio, drove the Carthaginians from
Spain and invaded Africa. Hannibal was summoned from Italy to face this
new adversary. He came, and on the field of Zama (202 B.C.) met his first
and only defeat. Scipio, the victor, received the proud surname,
_Africanus_.

PEACE IN 201 B.C.

Exhausted Carthage could now do no more than sue for peace on any terms
that Rome was willing to grant. In the hour of defeat she still trusted
her mighty soldier, and it was Hannibal who conducted the final
negotiations. The conditions of peace were severe enough. The
Carthaginians gave up Spain and all their ships except ten triremes. They
were saddled with a huge indemnity and bound to engage in no war without
the consent of Rome. Carthage thus became a dependent ally of the Roman
city.

VICTORIOUS ROME

In describing the course and outcome of the Second Punic War our
sympathies naturally go out to the heroic figure of Hannibal, who fought
so long and so bravely for his native land. It is clear, however, that
Rome's victory in the gigantic struggle was essential to the continued
progress of classical civilization. The triumph of Carthage in the third
century, like that of Persia in the fifth century, [6] must have resulted
in the spread of Oriental ideas and customs throughout the Mediterranean.
From this fate Rome saved Europe.

58. ROMAN SUPREMACY IN THE WEST AND IN THE EAST, 201-133 B.C.

THIRD PUNIC WAR BEGUN, 148 B.C.

Carthage had been humbled, but not destroyed. She still enjoyed the
advantages of her magnificent situation and continued to be a competitor
of Rome for the trade of the Mediterranean. The Romans watched with
jealousy the reviving strength of the Punic city and at last determined to
blot it out of existence. In 149 B.C. a large army was landed in Africa,
and the inhabitants of Carthage were ordered to remove ten miles from the
sea. They resolved to perish in the ruins of their capital, rather than
obey such a cruel command.

[Illustration: A TESTUDO
A relief from the Column of Trajan, Rome. The name _testudo_ a tortoise
(shell) was applied to the covering made by a body of soldiers who placed
their shields over their heads The shields fitted so closely together that
men could walk on them and even horses and chariots could be driven over
them.]

[Illustration: Map, THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINIONS 264-133 B. C.]

DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE, 146 B.C.

Carthage held out for three years. The doubtful honor of its capture
belonged to Scipio Aemilianus, grandson, by adoption, of the victor of
Zama. For seven days the legionaries fought their way, street by street,
house by house, until only fifty thousand inhabitants were left to
surrender to the tender mercies of the Romans. The Senate ordered that the
city should be burned and that its site should be plowed up and dedicated
to the infernal gods. Such was the end of the most formidable rival Rome
ever met in her career of conquest. [7]

SICILY

The two European countries, Sicily and Spain, which Rome had taken from
Carthage, presented to the conqueror very different problems. Sicily had
been long accustomed to foreign masters. Its civilized and peace-loving
inhabitants were as ready to accept Roman rule as, in the past, they had
accepted the rule of Greeks and Carthaginians. Every year the island
became more and more a part of Italy and of Rome.

SPAIN

Spain, on the contrary, gave the Romans some hard fighting. The wild
Spanish tribes loved their liberty, and in their mountain fastnesses long
kept up a desperate struggle for independence. It was not until the Romans
sent Scipio Aemilianus to Spain that the Spanish resistance was finally
overcome (133 B.C.).

ROMANIZATION OF SPAIN

All Spain, except the inaccessible mountain district in the northwest, now
became Roman territory. Many colonists settled there; traders and
speculators flocked to seaports; even the legionaries, quartered in Spain
for long periods, married Spanish wives and, on retiring from active
service, made their homes in the peninsula. Rome thus continued in Spain
the process of Romanization which she had begun in Italy. [8] She was to
repeat this process in Gaul and Britain. [9] Her way was prepared by the
sword; but after the sword came civilization.

ROME AND MACEDONIA

While Rome was subduing the West, she was also extending her influence
over the highly civilized peoples of the East. Roman interference in the
affairs of Macedonia found an excuse in the attempt of that country,
during the Second Punic War, to give aid to Hannibal. It was a fateful
moment when, for the second time, the legion faced the phalanx. The easy
victory over Macedonia showed that this Hellenistic kingdom was no match
for the Italian republic. Macedonia was finally made into a subject state
or province of Rome. Thus disappeared a great power, which Philip had
founded and which Alexander had led to the conquest of the world.

[Illustration: STORMING A CITY (RECONSTRUCTION)]

ROME AND GREECE

Having subdued Macedonia, Rome proclaimed Greece a free state. But this
"freedom" really meant subjection, as was amply proved when some of the
Greek cities rose in revolt against Roman domination. The heavy hand of
Roman vengeance especially descended on Corinth, at this time one of the
most beautiful cities of the world. In 146 B.C., the same year in which
the destruction of Carthage occurred, Corinth was sacked and burned to the
ground. [10] The fall of Corinth may be said to mark the final extinction
of Greek liberty. Though the Hellenic cities and states were allowed to
rule themselves, they paid tribute and thus acknowledged the supremacy of
Rome. A century later, Greece became in name, as well as in fact, a
province of the Roman Empire. [11]

ROME AND SYRIA

Rome, in the meantime, was drawn into a conflict with the kingdom of
Syria. That Asiatic power proved to be no more capable than Macedonia of
checking the Roman advance. The Syrian king had to give up the greater
part of his possessions in Asia Minor. The western part of the peninsula,
together with the Greek cities on the coast, was formed in 133 B.C. into
the province of Asia. Thus the same year that witnessed the complete
establishment of Roman rule in Spain saw Rome gain her first possessions
at the opposite end of the Mediterranean.

POLITICAL SITUATION IN 133 B.C.

Roman supremacy over the Mediterranean world was now all but complete. In
264 B.C. Rome had been only one of the five great Mediterranean states. In
133 B.C. no other power existed to match its strength with that of Rome.
To her had fallen in the West the heritage of Carthage, in the East the
heritage of Alexander. Rome had built up this mighty empire at a terrible
cost in blood and treasure. Let us see what use she was to make of it.

59. THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD UNDER ROMAN RULE

CREATION OF THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM

Rome's dealings with the new dependencies across the sea did not follow
the methods that had proved so successful in Italy. The Italian peoples
had been treated with great liberality. Rome regarded them as allies,
exempted them from certain taxes, and in many instances gave them Roman
citizenship. It did not seem possible to extend this wise policy to remote
and often barbarous lands beyond the borders of Italy. Rome adopted,
instead, much the same system of imperial rule that had been previously
followed by Persia and by Athens. [12] She treated the foreign peoples
from Spain to Asia as subjects and made her conquered territories into
provinces. [13] Their inhabitants were compelled to pay tribute and to
accept the oversight of Roman officials.

EVILS OF THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM

As the Romans came more and more to relish the opportunities for plunder
afforded by a wealthy province, its inhabitants were often wretchedly
misgoverned. Many governors of the conquered lands were corrupt and
grasping men. They tried to wring all the money they could from their
helpless subjects. To the extortions of the governors must be added those
of the tax collectors, whose very name of "publican" [14] became a byword
for all that was rapacious and greedy. In this first effort to manage the
world she had won, Rome had certainly made a failure. A city-state could
not rule, with justice and efficiency, an empire.

THE PROFITS OF CONQUEST

In the old days, before Rome entered on a career of foreign conquest, her
citizens were famous among men for their love of country, their simple
lives, and their conservative, old-fashioned ways. They worked hard on
their little farms, fought bravely in the legions, and kept up with
careful piety all the ceremonies of their religion. But now the Roman
republic was an imperial power with all the privileges of universal rule.
Her foreign wars proved to be immensely profitable. At the end of a
successful campaign the soldiers received large gifts from their general,
besides the booty taken from the enemy. The Roman state itself profited
from the sale of enslaved prisoners and their property. Large sums of
money were sometimes seized and taken to Rome. When once peace had been
made, the Roman governors and tax collectors followed in the wake of the
armies and squeezed the provincials at every turn. The Romans, indeed,
seem to have conquered the world less for glory than for profit.

GROWTH OF LUXURY

So much wealth poured into Rome from every side that there could scarcely
fail to be a sudden growth of luxurious tastes. Rich nobles quickly
developed a relish for all sorts of reckless display. They built fine
houses adorned with statues, costly paintings, and furnishings. They
surrounded themselves with troops of slaves. Instead of plain linen
clothes they and their wives wore garments of silk and gold. At their
banquets they spread embroidered carpets, purple coverings, and dishes of
gilt plate. Pomp and splendor replaced the rude simplicity of an earlier
age.

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PEASANTRY

But if the rich were becoming richer, it seems that the poor were also
becoming poorer. After Rome became mistress of the Mediterranean, her
markets were flooded with the cheap wheat raised in the provinces,
especially in those granaries, Sicily and Africa. The price of wheat fell
so low that Roman peasants could not raise enough to support their
families and pay their taxes. When agriculture became unprofitable, the
farmer was no longer able to remain on the soil. He had to sell out, often
at a ruinous sacrifice. His land was bought by capitalists, who turned
many small fields into vast sheep pastures and cattle ranches. Gangs of
slaves, laboring under the lash, gradually took the place of the old Roman
peasantry, the very strength of the state. Not unjust was the famous
remark, "Great domains ruined Italy." [15]

THE EXODUS OF THE CITIES

The decline of agriculture and the disappearance of the small farmer under
the stress of foreign competition may be studied in modern England as well
as in ancient Italy. Nowadays an English farmer, under the same
circumstances, will often emigrate to America or to Australia, where land
is cheap and it is easy to make a living. But these Roman peasants did not
care to go abroad and settle on better soil in Spain or in Africa. They
thronged, instead, to the cities, to Rome especially, where they labored
for a small wage, fared plainly on wheat bread, and dwelt in huge lodging
houses, three or four stories high.

THE CITY MOB

We know very little about this poorer population of Rome. They must have
lived from hand to mouth. Since their votes controlled elections, [16]
they were courted by candidates for office and kept from grumbling by
being fed and amused. Such poor citizens, too lazy for steady work, too
intelligent to starve, formed, with the other riffraff of a great city,
the elements of a dangerous mob. And the mob, henceforth, plays an ever-
larger part in the history of the times.

HELLENIC INFLUENCE AT ROME

We must not imagine, however, that all the changes in Roman life worked
for evil. If the Romans were becoming more luxurious, they were likewise
gaining in culture. The conquests which brought Rome in touch, first with
Magna Graecia and Sicily, then with Greece itself and the Hellenic East,
prepared the way for the entrance of Hellenism. Roman soldiers and traders
carried back to Italy an acquaintance with Greek customs and ideas.
Thousands of cultivated Greeks, some as slaves, others as freemen, settled
in the capital as actors, physicians, artists, and writers. There they
introduced the Greek language, as well as the religion, literature, and
art of their native land. Roman nobles of the better type began to take an
interest in other things than simply farming, commerce, or war. They
imitated Greek fashions in dress and manners, collected Greek books, and
filled their homes with the productions of Greek artists. Henceforth every
aspect of Roman society felt the quickening influence of the older, richer
culture of the Hellenic world. It was a Roman poet who wrote, "Captive
Greece captured her conqueror rude." [17]

60. THE GRACCHI

TIBERIUS AND GAIUS GRACCHUS

In 133 B.C., a year otherwise made memorable by the final subjugation of
Spain and the acquisition of Asia, efforts began Rome to remedy some of
the disorders which were now seen to be sapping the strength of Roman
society. The first persons to undertake the work of reform were the two
brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. The Gracchi belonged to the highest
nobility of Rome. Their father had filled a consulship and a censorship
and had celebrated triumphs. Cornelia, their mother, was a daughter of
Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. A fine type of the Roman
matron, she called her boys her "jewels," more precious than gold, and
brought them up to love their country better than their own lives.
Tiberius, the elder brother, was only thirty years of age when he became a
tribune and began his career in Roman politics.

AGRARIAN LAW OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS

Tiberius signalized his election to the tribunate by bringing forward his
celebrated agrarian law. He proposed that the public lands of Rome, then
largely occupied by wealthy men who alone had the money necessary to work
them with cattle and slaves, should be reclaimed by the state, divided
into small tracts, and given to the poorer citizens. By getting the people
back again on the soil, Tiberius hoped to revive the declining agriculture
of Italy.

DEFECTS OF THE AGRARIAN LAW

This agrarian law, though well intentioned, did not go to the root of the
real difficulty--foreign competition. No legislation could have helped the
farming class, except import duties to keep out the cheap grain from
abroad. But the idle mob at Rome, controlling the assemblies, would never
have voted in favor of taxing their food, thus making it more expensive.
At the same time the proposal to take away part of the public domains from
its possessors roused a hornet's nest about the reformer's ears. Rich
people had occupied the public land for so long that they had come to look
upon it as really their own. They would be very sure to oppose such a
measure. Poor people, of course, welcomed a scheme which promised to give
them farms for nothing. Tiberius even wished to use the public funds to
stock the farms of his new peasantry. This would have been a mischievous
act of state philanthropy.

FAILURE AND DEATH OF TIBERIUS, 133 B.C.

In spite of these defects in his measure, Tiberius urged its passage with
fiery eloquence. But the great landowners in the Senate got another
tribune, devoted to their interests, to place his veto [18] on the
proposed legislation. The impatient Tiberius at once took a revolutionary
step. Though a magistrate could not legally be removed from office,
Tiberius had the offending tribune deposed and dragged from his seat. The
law was then passed without further opposition. This action of Tiberius
placed him clearly in the wrong. The aristocrats threatened to punish him
as soon as his term of office was over. To avoid impeachment Tiberius
sought reelection to the tribunate for the following year. This, again,
was contrary to custom, since no one might hold office for two successive
terms. On the day appointed for the election, while voting was in
progress, a crowd of angry senators burst into the Forum and killed
Tiberius, together with three hundred of his followers. Both sides had now
begun to display an utter disregard for law. Force and bloodshed,
henceforth, were to help decide political disputes.

GAIUS GRACCHUS BECOMES TRIBUNE, 123 B.C.

Tiberius Gracchus, in his efforts to secure economic reform, had
unwittingly provoked a conflict between the Senate and the assemblies. Ten
years after his death, his brother, Gaius Gracchus, came to the front.
Gaius quickly made himself a popular leader with the set purpose of
remodeling the government of Rome. He found in the tribunate an office
from which to work against the Senate. After the death of Tiberius a law
had been passed permitting a man to hold the position of tribune year
after year. Gaius intended to be a sort of perpetual tribune, and to rule
the Roman assemblies very much as Pericles had ruled the people at Athens.
[19] One of his first measures was a law permitting the sale of grain from
the public storehouses to Roman citizens at about half the market price.
This measure, of course, won over the city mob, but it must be regarded as
very unwise. It saddled the treasury with a heavy burden, and later the
government had to furnish the grain for nothing. Indiscriminate charity of
this sort increased, rather than lessened, the number of paupers.

MEASURES OF GAIUS TO RELIEVE THE POOR

Having won popular support, Gaius was able to secure the additional
legislation which he deemed necessary to carry out his brother's work. He
reenacted the land laws for the benefit of the peasantry and furnished
work for the unemployed by building roads throughout Italy. He also began
to establish colonies of poor citizens, both in Italy and in the
provinces. This was a wise policy. Had it been allowed to continue, such
state-assisted emigration, by providing the landless poor of Italy with
farms abroad, would have relieved the economic distress of the peninsula.

AN EFFORT TO EXTEND ROMAN CITIZENSHIP

Gaius now came forward with another measure which marked him as an able
and prudent statesman. He proposed to bestow the right of voting in the
Roman assemblies upon the inhabitants of the Latin colonies. [20] He
thought, also, that the Italian allies should be allowed to intermarry
with Romans and hold property under the protection of the Roman law. No
doubt Gaius believed that the time might come when all the Italian peoples
would be citizens of Rome. This time did come, thirty years later, but
only after a terrible war that nearly ruined Rome.

FAILURE AND DEATH OF GAIUS, 121 B.C.

The effort by Gaius to extend Roman citizenship cost the reformer all his
hard-won popularity. It aroused the jealousy of the selfish city mob,
which believed that the entrance of so many new citizens would mean the
loss of its privileges. There would not be so many free shows and so much
cheap grain. So the people rejected the measure and, turning from their
former favorite, failed to reelect him to the tribunate. When Gaius was no
longer protected by the sanctity of the tribune's office, [21] he fell an
easy victim to senatorial hatred. Another bloody tumult broke out, in
which Gaius and three thousand of his followers perished. The consul who
quelled the disturbance erected at the head of the Forum a temple to
Harmony (_Concordia_).

THE GRACCHI BEGIN THE REVOLUTION

The pathetic career of the Gracchi had much significance in Roman history.
They were the unconscious sponsors of a revolutionary movement which did
not end until the republic had come under the rule of one man. They failed
because they put their trust in the support of the Roman mob. Future
agitators were to appear with the legionaries at their heels.

61. MARIUS AND SULLA

MARIUS AND THE JUGURTHINE WAR, 112-106 B.C.

Although Rome now ruled throughout the Mediterranean, she was constantly
engaged in border wars in one corner or another of her wide dominions.
These wars brought to the front new military leaders, of whom the first
was Gaius Marius. He was a peasant's son, a coarse, rude soldier, but an
honest, courageous, and able man. Marius rose to prominence in the so-
called Jugurthine War, which the Romans were waging against Jugurtha, king
of Numidia. That wily African had discovered that it was easier to bribe
the Roman commanders than to fight them; and the contest dragged on in
disgraceful fashion year after year. Marius at last persuaded the people
to elect him consul and intrust him with the conduct of the war. By
generalship and good fortune he speedily concluded the struggle and
brought Jugurtha in chains to Rome.

MARIUS AND THE WAR WITH THE GERMANS, 102-101 B.C.

A few years later Marius had another opportunity to win distinction. He
became the defender of Rome and Italy against a dangerous invasion of
Germanic barbarians, who were ravaging Transalpine Gaul and the Po Valley.
The decisive victories which Marius gained over them removed a grave
danger which threatened the Roman world. The time had not yet come for
ancient civilization to be submerged under a wave of barbarism.

SULLA AND THE SOCIAL WAR, 90-88 B.C.

The second military leader whom this troubled period brought forth was
Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He was a man of noble birth, and with his social
gifts, his appreciation of art and letters, his knowledge of men and the
world, presented a sharp contrast to Marius. Sulla's great abilities
quickly brought him into public notice; he rose rapidly from one office to
another; and in the Social War showed his skill as a commander. This
struggle was the consequence of Rome's refusal to grant the rights of
citizenship to her Italian allies. The strength of the rebellion lay among
the Samnites and other peoples of central and southern Italy. The war came
to an end only when Rome promised the franchise to all Italians who
returned to their allegiance. Before many years had passed, the
inhabitants of nearly all the Italian towns south of the Rubicon River
received Roman citizenship. It was this same wise policy of making
conquered peoples equal with herself that afterwards led Rome to grant
citizenship to the inhabitants of the provinces. [22]