KtiMK 



allies, the Yolscians, ,quians, Latins, nn<l Ilcnii 

 can-, ami dominated Central Italv from tin- 

 Cimininn forest to the Latin shore. Tne Saliellian 

 tril.es of the Apennines now wive her trouble. 

 The mimt poweiiul of these, the Sauinites, hail 

 overrun Campania ; but from this she dislodged 

 i In-ill, :iiul, in spile of a formiilable revolt extend- 

 ing from the Sahine Hills to the Latin shore ami 

 Campania itself, she made good her coniniaml of 

 plain and sealxwird. 1> ing compact and firm between 

 north Etruria witii Us detached cities, the 

 Apennines with their miscellaneous tribes, and 

 Southern Italy with its enervated ( Ireck ]>opulation. 

 The Samnites, in a second war lasting twenty-two 

 \cars. failed to get the better of her; in a third, 

 with the northern Etruscans and the Celts as allies, 

 they made a last attempt to crush the growing 

 giantess. This too she defeated after desperate 

 contlict.s, in which she purchased victory dearly : the 

 Celts were shattered ; the Etruscans taught peace 

 bv heavy indemnities; and the Sammies on honour- 

 able terms became her allies. In characteristic 

 fashion she proceeded to consolidate what she had 

 won, planting 'colonies' Le. agricultural garrisons 

 of Roman citizens wherever their presence was 

 required, and in this way controlling Central Italy 

 from Adriatic to Mediterranean. At the invitation 

 of Greek Tarentum, beset with marauding hordes, 

 she successfully intervened in the south, till in 

 turn Tarentum, incurring her hostility (281-280), 

 brought King I'yrrhusof Lpimsto repel her. At first 

 the Epi rotes prevailed, but their two victories were 

 as costly as defeats, and in a third great battle at 

 Beneveiitum (275) they were so punished that 

 Pyrrhiis returned to Greece. The fall of Tarentum 

 short ly after left Home dominant in the peninsula 

 from the extreme south to the Ligurian and Celtic 

 frontier. Divide et impera was her policy detach- 

 ing the subject states or tribes from each other to 

 draw them more closely to herself, leaving them 

 ' home rule,' but reserving the safeguard of coast 

 and frontier ami power to make peace or war with 

 the outside world. Among her outlying com- 

 munities the colonies of civet Roman i above men- 

 tioned ranked first ; next came those Latin 

 towns which enjoyed the full franchise, this 

 lieing sparingly conceded to other communities, of 

 which the lowest received civil but not political 

 rights, their members excluded from the tribes, 

 and, as soldiers, serving not in Koman legions, but 

 in contingent* apart. To the urban communities 

 within her pale Rome gave self-government lil>er- 

 ally, with assemblies, senates, anil magistrates, 

 always, however, subject to the central authorities 

 the Roman consuls, pnctors, and censors. For 

 the administration of justice these colonies tuid 

 enfranchised towns were annually visited by the 

 pr.-e tor's representative*, called prefects, who also 

 assumed control of such communities as were 

 without local government. The military system 

 was modified till tin 1 old citi/cn army, with its 

 order in battle determined by civic rank, became 

 the professional institution in which superior light- 

 ing power and experience were primary consideia 

 lions to be paid for accordingly. On distant 

 campaigns the consul in command received extension 

 of his imprrium, out of which grew the 'proconsul,' 

 empowered to hold the field till the war was at an 

 end. 



Eleven yean after her victory over Pyrrhus 

 Koine engaged with Carthage in her mighty 

 struggle for the empire of the Mediterranean. To 

 secure her expansion westwards she had first to 

 expel the Carthaginians from Sicily. Having 

 gained to her side the Syracusan king Hiero, she 

 took Agrigentum, and in 260, with her first naval 

 armament under the consul I'uiliiis, she signally 

 defeated Carthage on Carthage's own element. 



Following up this advantage, she transferred the 

 war to Africa, and was at first so successful as to 

 recall a considerable part of her forces. Hut her 

 consul Kegulus, whom she left liehind, was worsted 

 and made prisoner, a series of naval disasters en- 

 sued, and Carthage seemed alioiit to icgain more 

 than -he had lost of Sicily, when i he consul Catulus 

 (241), in command of a splendid tied, gained a 

 decisive victory over the Carthaginians, who then 

 upon undertook to evacuate Sicily and the adjacent 

 islands. This ended the first I'unic war, twenty- 

 two years in duration, the result to Home being 

 her acquisition, not only of Sicily, which she 

 henceforth governed as a 'province,' but (a few 

 years later) of Sardinia and Corsica, also governed 

 like Sicily by magistrate* sent every year from the 

 capital. Finding Koine her match at ->-;<. ( 'ai ihoge 

 resumed hostilities by acquiring a foot bold in Spain, 

 which was to become her military basis for fnrthei 

 operations against her rival. I'mler Hamilcar, 

 the great general who conceived this plan, she 

 occupied the peninsula as far as the Tagns ; Has- 

 drubal continued the work of subjugation till his 

 death (221); and finally Hamilcarsson Hannibal, 

 who, with more than his father's genius, shared 

 all his father's antipathy to Koine, pushed the 

 conquests of Carthage up to the Ebro. 



Meanwhile Rome herself was engaged in sub- 

 duing the Celts in the valley of the Po, and having 

 planted three colonies Placentia, Cremona, and 

 Mutina to safeguard her new possessions, she 

 turned her attention on Spain, and got Carthage to 

 make the Ebro her northern boundary in the penin- 

 sula. But such engagements could not long be 

 respected. Saguntiim, a Greek colony in alliance 

 with Rome, on the east coast of Spain, was be- -, 

 and taken by Hannibal, though a Roman embassy 



to Carthage had protested against tl pcration. 



The .second I'unic war was declared in 218, and 

 Rome sent one army under P. Cornelius Scipio to 

 Spain, and another under T. Scmpronius ( Bacchus 

 through Sicily to Africa. But Hannibal's plans, 

 long matured in secret, were carried out with 

 unexampled celerity. Seiiiio had got no farther 

 than M:i--ilia when Hannibal, having crossed the 

 Pyrenees, was already at the Rhone; and after 

 lighting his way over the Al]>s against every 

 obstacle the hostility of the tribes included 

 descended on Cisalpine Gaul with but 26,000 sur- 

 viving of his army of 59,000 men. Defeating the 

 Romans on the Ticino and the Trehia. he realised 

 his expectation of getting the Celts to join him, 

 and in the spring of '217 Tie pushed on to the city 

 through east Etruria, He annihilated the consul 

 Flaininius at Lake Trasimene ; and from Spolctinm 

 within a few days of Rome he turned eastward, 

 plundering as he went, and paused for supplies in 

 north Apulia. The Romans, now gravely alarmed, 

 elected a dictator, Quintus Fabius Mnximus : but 

 his masterly inactivity did not satisfy them, and 

 they sent two consuls with a numerous army i.- 

 hurl back the invader. In the great liattle of 

 Canine, Hannibal's victory was complete- the 

 Unmans losing 70,000 men to Hannibal's 6000, and 

 Southern Italy all but the Latin colonies and the 

 < ; reek coast-towns came to his side. Macedonia 

 and part of Sicily declared for the conqueror, and 

 the Greek communities one by one were surrender 

 ing to him. The Romans tried toreein.'r ( 'ampaniii 

 and laid siege to Capua, and this brought Hannibal 

 up from Tarentum. He even inarched directly on 

 Rome herself and rode up to the Colline gale ; hut 

 he retired unable to make any impression on the 

 city and its defenders; he conciliated no allies; 

 and fell Iwick on South Italy, leaving Capua an 

 prey to its Inssiegers. Five \i-\- had done little to 

 encourage the Romans, till Hasdrulial, defeated in 

 Spain, crossed the Alps and skirted the east coast 



