CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



radical reform ever permanently effected. The 

 momentary success of Tiberius, and of his far 

 abler brother Caius, Gracchus, in their desperate 



revolutionary attempts to prevent the social 

 ruin of the state, by breaking down the powers 

 of the senate, redistributing the domain lands, 

 reorganising the administration, and partially 

 restoring the legislative authority of the popular 

 assemblies, hardly survived their death ; and the 



:on tli.u ensued proved that the senate, like 

 the Bourbons, could learn nothing from adversity, 

 and that the rabble of the city were incapable 

 of elevation or generosity of political sentiment. 

 Henceforth, the malversation of the public money 

 by prxtors and quxstors became chronic, and the 

 moral debauchery of the mob of the capital by the 

 mbitious politicians and the vile 

 flattery of demagogues, complete. The old Roman 

 faith, so deep, and strong, and stern, disappeared 

 from the heart. The priests became Pharisees, 

 the nobles 'philosophers' (i.e. unbelievers), their 

 n practisers of oriental abominations tinder 

 the name of 'mysteries;' while the poor looked 

 on \vith unmeaning, yet superstitious wonder at 

 the hollow but pompous ceremonies of religion. 



FROM THF. DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE TO 

 THE TERMINATION OF THE REPUBLIC, 



We have already alluded to the wars waged 

 in Spain during the first half of the second 

 century B.C. The humane and conciliatory 

 policy pursued towards the natives by Tiberius 

 Scmpronius Gracchus, father of the ill-fated 

 tribunes, brought about a peace, 179 B.C. that 

 lasted 25 years; but in 153 B.C. a general 

 rising of the Celtiberians took place, followed by 

 another on the part of the Lusitanians of Portugal. 

 The struggle maintained by these gallant bar- 

 barians against their mighty oppressor lasted, 

 with intervals of peace, for the space of 20 years, 

 but ended, in spite of gleams of brilliant success, 

 as such contests invariably do, in the final over- 

 throw of the undisciplined and uncivilised com- 

 batant All the valour of the shepherd-warrior, 

 Yiriathus, even if the assassin's steel had spared 

 his life, would not have prevented the annexation 

 of Lusitania to the Roman empire, nor did the 

 unsurpassable heroism of the besieged Numantines 

 avail to baffle the military skill of the younger 

 Scipio. 



Towards the conclusion of the Numantine War 

 occurred the first of those horrible social out- 

 breaks known as ' servile ' or ' slave ' wars, which 

 marked the later ages of the republic. The 

 scene of the revolt was Sicily (134 B.C.), where 

 the system was seen at its worst. Its leader was 

 one Eunus, a Syrian, who, mimicking his native 

 monarch, took the title of King Antiochus. The 

 suddenness and barbaric fury of the affair for a 

 time rendered all opposition impossible. The 

 slaves overran the island, like demoniacs let loose ; 

 and routed one Roman army after another. But 

 a slave insurrection has no aim beyond imme- 

 diate revenge, and when the first wild paroxysms 

 of ferocity are over, it becomes powerless, more 

 even from a moral than a physical exhaustion, 

 and can be quelled with ease. In 132 B.C. the 

 consul Publius . Rupilius restored ' order ' in the 

 island. In the East, fortune continued to smile 

 upon the Roman arms. Attalus III., Philometer, 



108 



a villainous despot of the true oriental stamp, who 

 massacred or poisoned every one that ventured to 

 give him advice, dying 133 B.C. bequeathed his 

 client-kingdom of Pergamus to its protector 

 Rome ; and after a fierce struggle with an ambitious 

 ulcr called Aristonicus, the Romans obtained 

 possession of the splendid bequest, and formed it. 

 into the province of Asia, 129 B.C. 



\Ve may here enumerate the different provinces 

 into which the Roman senate divided its foreign 

 conquests in the order of their organisation, i. 

 Sicily, 241 B.C. ; 2. Sardinia and Corsica, 238 B.C. ; 

 3. Hispania Citerior. and 4. Hispania Ulterior, 205 

 B.C. ; 5. Gallia Cisalpina, 191 B.C. ; 6. Macedonia, 

 146 B.C. ; 7. Illyricum, circa 146 B.C. ; 8. Achaia 

 (or Southern Greece), circa 146 B.C. ; 9. Africa, 

 (i.e. the Carthaginian territory), 146 B.C. ; 10. 

 Asia (kingdom of Pergamus), 129 P..C. A few 

 years later, 118 B.C. an nth was added by the 

 conquest of the southern part of Transalpine Gaul, 

 and was commonly called, to distinguish it from 

 the rest of the country, ' the Province ;' hence the 

 modern Provence. 



In Africa, the overthrow of Jugtirtha, 104 B.C. 

 by the consul Marius, added yet further to the 

 military renown and strength of the republic. 

 Meanwhile, from a new quarter of the world, a 

 gigantic and unforeseen danger threatened the 

 Roman state. North of the Alps there had long 

 been roaming in the region of the Middle Danube 

 an unsettled people called the Cimbri, whose 

 original home was probably the north-west of 

 Germany. They first came into collision with the 

 Romans in Noricum, 113 B.C. ; after which they 

 turned westward, and poured through the Helve- 

 tian valleys into Gaul, where they overwhelmed 

 alike the native tribes and the Roman armies. At 

 Arausio (Orange) on the Rhone, 105 B.C. a Roman 

 army of 80,000 was annihilated ; but instead 

 of invading Italy, the barbarians blindly rushed 

 through the passes of the Pyrenees, wasted precious 

 months in contests with native tribes of Spain as 

 valiant and hardy as themselves, and gave the 

 Romans time to recover from the effects of their 

 terrible defeat. Marius, who had just returned 

 from his Numidian victories, was reappointed 

 consul ; and at Aqua-Sextias (Aix, in Dauphine"), 

 he literally exterminated the dreaded foe, 102 B.C. 

 Next year, near Milan, the same doom befell 

 another northern horde the Teutones, who had 

 accompanied the Cimbri in their irruption into 

 Spain ; but on their withdrawal, had parted from 

 their associates in Gaul, forced their way back 

 through Switzerland, and descended into Italy by 

 the Tyrolese valleys. In the same year a second 

 insurrection of the slaves in Sicily, which had 

 reached an alarming height, was suppressed by 

 the consul Marcius Aquillius. 



For the next ten years the internal history of 

 Rome is a scene of wild confusion and discord. 

 Marius, an admirable soldier, but otherwise a man 

 of mediocre talents, and utterly unfit to play the 

 part of a statesman, was the idol of the poor 

 citizens, who urged him to save the state from 

 the rapacious misgovernment of the rich. His 

 attempts were pitiable failures ; the brave honest 

 soldier fell into the hands of unscrupulous dema- 

 gogues like Glaucia and Saturninus, and sullied 

 the laurels he had won in war by associating with 

 men who did not hesitate to assassinate a political 

 opponent Not less fruitless was the wise and 



