HISTORY OF ROME. 



Rome at the very moment Rome was free to exert 

 all her terrible power. Awaking to a sense of their 

 danger, the Tarentines invited Pyrrhus over from 

 Epeirus, and appointed him commander of their 

 mercenaries. It is not necessary to narrate here 

 the varying fortunes of the struggle between 

 Pyrrhus and the Romans, which lasted only six 

 years, and ended in his being obliged to return 

 to Epeirus without accomplishing anything. 



After Pyrrhus, baffled in his attempts to check 

 the progress of Rome, had withdrawn to Greece, 

 the Lucanians and Samnites, whom his reputation 

 and original successes had induced to rise once 

 lore against the dreaded foe, continued the un- 

 ]ual struggle, but ' even the bravery of despair/ 

 is it has been said, ' comes to an end ; the sword 

 md the gibbet at length (269 B.C.) carried peace 

 sven into the mountains of Samnium.' Tarentum 

 lad surrendered three years earlier ; and now 

 rom the Macra and the Rubicon to the Strait of 

 lessana, there was not a nation in Italy that did 

 lot acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. Dis- 

 tant kingdoms began to feel that a new power had 

 risen in the world, and when Ptolemy Philadel- 

 phus, sovereign of Egypt, heard of the overthrow 

 of the famous Epeirote warrior, he sent an embassy 

 to Rome (273 B.C.), and concluded a treaty with 

 ic republic. To secure their new acquisitions, 

 le Romans established in the south military 

 colonies at Passtum and Cosa, in Lucania (273 

 B.C.); at Beneventum (268 B.C.), and at yEsernia 

 (263 B.C.), to overawe the Samnites ; and in the 

 lorth, as outposts against the Gauls, Ariminum 

 (268 B.C.), Firmum in Picenum (264 B.C.), and the 

 jurgess colony of Castrum Novum. Preparations 

 were also made to carry the great Appian highway 

 far as Brundisium, on the Adriatic, and for the 

 jlonisation of the latter city as a rival emporium 

 Tarentum. 



The political changes were almost as important 

 the military. The whole population of Penin- 

 sular Italy was divided into three classes I. Gives 

 ^.omani, or such as enjoyed the full burgess privi- 

 of Roman citizens ; 2. Nomen Latinum 

 lat is, such as possessed the same privileges as 

 lad been enjoyed by the members of the quondam 

 ~ itin league viz. an equality with the Roman 

 Durgesses in matters of trade and inheritance, the 

 jrivilege of self-government, but no participation 

 the Roman franchise, and consequently no 

 >wer to modify the foreign policy of the state ; 

 Socit, or ' Allies,' to some of whom were con- 

 sdcd most liberal privileges, while others were 

 joverned in an almost despotic fashion. The 

 lives Roinani no longer embraced merely the in- 

 ibitants of the old Roman community, the well- 

 cnown ' tribes ' (of whom there were now thirty- 

 iree), but all the old burgess-colonies planted in 

 ^truria and Campania, besides such Sabine, Vol- 

 :ian, and other communities as had been received 

 ito the burgess body on account of their proved 

 klelity in times of trial, together with individual 

 onian emigrants or families of such, scattered 

 long the tnutufipia, or living in villages by 

 icmselves. The cities possessing the Latinum 

 ^lomcn included most of the 'colonies' sent out 

 Rome in later times, not only in Italy, but even 

 eyond it ; the members of which, if they had 

 reviously possessed the Roman franchise, volun- 

 rily surrendered it in lieu of an allotment of 

 id. But any 'Latin' burgess who had held a 



magistracy in his native town, might return to 

 Rome, be enrolled in one of the tribes, and vote 

 like any other citizen. The Socii comprised all 

 the rest of Italy, as the Hernicans, the Lucanians, 

 Bruttians, the Greek cities, &c. 



THE PUNIC WARS. 



The first foreign people with whom the Romans 



came into collision were the Carthaginians 



a people of Phoenician lineage, who, settling 

 in that part of Africa now called Tunis, and 

 building a city there, about a century before 

 the date assigned to the foundation of Rome, 

 had in the interval become a great commer- 

 cial nation, with ships sailing to all parts of 

 the Mediterranean, and with colonies along the 

 coasts of Algiers, in Sardinia and Corsica, and 

 even in Spain. They had recently gained a foot- 

 ing in Sicily, and now shared it with the Greeks 

 of Syracuse ; and it was on this rich island as a 

 battle-field that the Romans first came into con- 

 flict with the merchant-people of Africa. Between 

 the Carthaginians and the Romans there had long 

 existed a nominal alliance the oldest treaty 

 dating as far back as the sixth century B.C. But 

 this alliance had never possessed any real signifi- 

 cance, and latterly the two nations had come to 

 regard each other with considerable distrust. The 

 incident that occasioned the outbreak was quite 

 trivial, and need not be recorded. Suffice it to 

 say that in 264 B.C. war was formally declared 

 between the two nations, and incomparably the 

 most terrible contest in which Rome was ever 

 engaged, began. 



We do not propose to follow minutely the course 

 of the famous Punic Wars, but we may briefly 

 indicate their character and result. The wars 

 with Carthage, like those with Samnium, were 

 three in number. The first lasted 23 years (264- 

 241 B.C.), and was waged mainly for the posses- 

 sion of Sicily. Its leading feature was the 

 creation of a Roman navy, which, after repeated 

 and tremendous misfortune, finally wrested from 

 Carthage the sovereignty of the seas. So ener- 

 getically did the senate set to work, that (we 

 are told) in sixty days from the time the trees 

 were felled, 120 ships were launched, and soon 

 after the consul Caius Duilius gained a bril- 

 liant success (260 B.C.) over the Carthaginians 

 off Mylse, on the north-east coast of Sicily. 

 The Coluinna Rcstrata (' Beaked Column ') in the 

 Forum preserved for ages the memory of the 

 ' glorious victory.' Subsequent events, however, 

 were less favourable. An invasion of Africa by 

 Regulus ended in disaster, and the war, which 

 was henceforth confined to Sicily, miserably lan- 

 guished. Thrice was the Roman navy annihilated 

 by storms at sea (255 B.C. 253 B.C. and 249 B.C.) ; 

 and in spite of a series of unimportant successes 

 by land, the Romans long found it impossible to 

 make any impression on the great Carthaginian 

 strongholds of Lilybaeum and Drepanum, mainly 

 on account of the brilliant strategy with which 

 they were held in check by Hamilcar Barca, the 

 father of Hannibal. At last, however, a great sea- 

 fight took place off the Agates isles (242 B.C.), 

 in which a Roman fleet, commanded by the consul 

 Lutatius Catulus, obtained a magnificent victory. 

 The Carthaginian government, whose treasury 

 was empty, and who had in vain tried to raise a 



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