ROME 



5059 



ROME 



failing to take the citadel, which was heroically 

 defended by Manlius. After 367 B. c., when the 

 class struggle finally closed, expansion was 

 rapid. It was not, however, unresisted. The 

 Latins revolted for the last time in 338 B.C., 

 but were crushed and made subject to Rome; 

 and in 326 began a struggle with the Samnites, 

 rude and aggressive mountain tribes, which did 

 not terminate for almost fifty years, but which 

 left Rome dominant in the peninsula. One 

 more struggle, with Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, 

 and all the peoples of Italy acknowledged the 

 supremacy of the city on the Tiber. 



"Carthage Must be Destroyed." But out- 

 if Italy was an enemy not so easily sub- 

 dued Carthage, on the North African coast, 

 the greatest sea power in the world. Though 

 originally the two cities had been allies, an 

 inevitable jealousy had grown up between -them 

 which in 263 B.C. resulted in open war. Three 

 terrific combats known as the Punic Wars were 

 fought before Rome gained that final victory 

 which had been made possible only by the 

 creation of a navy and the breaking of Cartha- 

 ginian power on the sea. True, the close of the 

 Punic War in 241 B.C. saw Carthage ex- 

 hausted and ready to make almost any terms, 

 but Rome realized, as the statesman Cato de- 

 clared in every speech, that "Carthage must be 

 destroyed," and consequently prepared for fur- 

 ther war. In the Second Punic War (218-202 

 B.C.) the outstanding figure was Hannibal, the 

 Carthaginian general, whose crossing of the 

 Alps was one of the dramatic events of history. 

 The disasters which the Romans suffered at 

 his hands were avenged when Scipio won his 

 >ive victory at Zama, and Carthage gave 

 up to Rome all of its colonial possessions, its 

 v and its elephants and promised never 

 again to make war without the consent of 

 Rome. 



Philip V of Macedon, in the old Greek state, 

 I: t'l aided Hannibal, and to punish him Rome 

 sent armies to the East. In three wars, th- 

 last one ending in the complete defeat of the 

 Greeks at Corinth in 146 B. c., the Macedonian 

 empire was broken up and Greece was made a 

 < ' In the same year also ended 

 the Third Punic \V n. which consisted merely 

 -iegc of Carthage. The de- 

 fense was heroic but vain i..i the splendid 

 was destroyed m empire was 



n.1.,1 Meanuhile Spain, i :rom Car- 



'|I.IL Miisiil)ini>sivi\ and only 



i)\ tli. constant presence of a large army could 

 in subjection. 



Last Century of the Republic. During this 

 period the two streams continued to flow side 

 by side of class dissension within, of conquest 

 without. A change had begun to show itself in 

 the national character a departure from the 

 simplicity and severity of the early life and an 

 ever-increasing luxuriousness and immorality. 

 Occasional reformers arose, but never was the 

 tide successfully stemmed, and through all the 

 years when Rome was most glorious in the eyes 

 of the world its people were slowly disintegrat- 

 ing, slowly preparing for that decline which 

 later came with such apparent rapidity. Sin- 

 cere and steadfast belief in the old gods was 

 dying out, and to take its place there was only 

 skepticism among the upper classes and super- 

 stition among the lower. 



Internal Affairs. Nominally, both orders of 

 Roman citizens had the same civil and politi- 

 cal rights ; in reality, however, power was in the 

 hands of the wealthy nobles, who governed en- 

 tirely in their own interests. Champions of the 

 plebeians were not wanting who fought des- 

 perately to better their condition, but little of 

 permanence was accomplished. The land sys- 

 tem continued as unjust, the officials as un- 

 trustworthy. Nor were the plebeians within the 

 city the only ones who struggled for their 

 rights. The subject Italian peoples, demanding 

 the rights of citizenship which had been limited 

 to the inhabitants of Rome, precipitated in 

 91 B.C. the so-called Social War, in which the 

 military genius of Marius, Sulla and Porapey 

 made Rome victorious. But, wisely enough, 

 the subject peoples were given what they de- 

 manded, and henceforth had the fran< i 

 Three years later the jealousy of Marius and 

 Sulla led to that bloodthirsty conflict known as 

 the Civil War, in which the two parties, the 

 lower class under Marius and the patricians 

 under Sulla, proved equally violent. No man 

 was safe from massacre, and not until 82 B.C. 

 was the stnipplr ended by the triumph of Sulla. 

 In 63 B.C. another danger threatened the city 

 the conspiracy of Catiline which was f 

 only by the watchfulness and genius of Cicero. 

 rnal Conquests. During this time more 

 than one war was brought to a successful con- 

 clusion. Jnnurtha. who had seemed invincible. 

 was conquered by Marius, and the terrible 

 menacing hordes of the Cimbri and Teutons 

 were turned back by the same hero, at a time 

 when it had seemed that Rome was purely 

 doomed. Another famous conflict of these 

 years was the war with Mithridates of Pontus. 

 It was the appointment of Sulla to the com- 



