ROME. 



ROMK. 



338 



his fathers hatred of the Romans, declared war against them in B.C. 171. 

 This war was at first very unfortunate for the Romans, but in B.C. 1G8 

 L. -Kmilius Paulus decided the fate of Macedonia in the battle of 

 Pydn.i. 



The third Punic war lasted from ac. 149 to 146, when the Romans 

 razed Carthago to the ground (ac. 146), and her territory became a 

 Roman province under the name of Africa. Macedonia was next 

 reduced to the form of a province ; and the same fate befel Greece 

 after the fall of Corinth in B.C. 146. The discontented Spaniards, 

 headed by Viriathus, carried on war with the Romans for many years 

 with varying success, from B.C. 148 till 140. After the death of Viria- 

 thus in the latter year the Romans penetrated as far as the western 

 coast, but the natives nevertheless did not submit Kumantia, 

 which offered the most determined resistance, was totally destroyed in 

 ac. 133. Spain then became apparently quiet, and Roman com- 

 missioners arranged the affairs of the country. Attalus, the last king 

 of Pergamus, left, in B.C. 133, his kingdom as an inheritance to Rome ; 

 the disputes arising out of this gift led to the reduction of Asia into 

 the form of a province (ac. 129). How completely the old distinction 

 between patricians and plebeians had disappeared during these incessant 

 wars, may be inferred from the fact, that in ac. 172 both the consuls, 

 and in ac. 131 both the censors, were plebeians. Ever since the wars 

 of Hannibal, the number of plebeian senators had exceeded that of 

 the patricians. The citizens were either exorbitantly rich or in abso- 

 lute poverty. The illustrious families had almost monopolised the 

 lucrative offices of the republic, and the small landowners, on account 

 of the constant wan, had been compelled to neglect their fields, and 

 in numerous cases had sold them to the nobles. Such reduced persons 

 wandered about homeless, with their wives and children, and lived in 

 extreme poverty. (Pint 'Tib. Gracchus,' e. 9.) The only remedy 

 was to provide this multitude of destitute citizens with lands, and to 

 raise them to the station of an independent middle class. This was 

 undertaken by the two brothers. Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, who 

 proposed to relieve the people by an equitable distribution of the 

 public lands and by the leading out of colonies. The aristocratic 

 party gained the victory over the Gracchi, but it was gained by crime 

 and bloodshed. Several regulations of the agrarian law were abolished, 

 the nobles still extended their possessions by purchasing the smaller 

 portions of the poor, and expelled the impoverished peasantry. The 

 Urge estates of the nobles were cultivated by an enormous number 

 of foreign elaves, whom the long wars of the Romans had brought 

 into Italy. (Appian, ' Civil,' L 27.) 



Jugurtha, the usurper of the kingdom of Numidia, in ac. 106 was 

 brought to Rome in triumph, and C. Marius, the conqueror of 

 Jugurtha, annihilated (ac. 102) the whole body of the Teutones near 

 Aquae Sextiro, and in the following year the Cimbri in the Campi 

 Raudii. These barbarians bad been hovering over the northern 

 frontiers of Italy since ac. 113, and had defeated several Roman 

 armies sent against them. 



The demand of the Italians to be admitted to the Roman franchise led 

 (ac. 91 ) to the bloody and destructive Social or Martian war. The Italians, 

 seeing that there was no hope of gaining their object, intended nothing 

 less than to destroy Rome, to establish a new Italian republic with a 

 senate of 500 members and two consuls, and to make Corfinium under 

 the name of Italica its centre and capital The Latins and Umbrians 

 remained faithful to Itnme, and obtained, together with some other 

 places in Etrnria, the Roman franchise by a Lex Julia. In the first 

 campaign the Romans were unsuccessful, but Cn. Pompeius Strabo 

 defeated the Italian allies at Ascnlum, which he took and destroyed 

 (ac. 89). The Italians gradually submitted, and received the franchise, 

 and thus the great mats of the inhabitants of the peninsula became 

 Roman citizens. The province of Gallia Transpadana received in the 

 same year by the Lex Poinpeia the Jus Latii, that is, those political 

 rights which the Latins had possessed previous to receiving the full 

 franchise ; but did not obtain the Roman franchise till Julius Ctesar 

 became dictator. 



The war against Mithridates and the civil war between Marius and 

 Sulla followed. The first Mithridatic war lasted from ac. 87 to B.C. 84. 

 After its conclusion Sulla returned to Italy, forced his way to Rome, 

 and was made perpetual dictator (ac. 82). In ac. 83 the second 

 Mithridatic war broke out, in which the Romans were defeated, and 

 in ac. 81 they concluded a peace. In ac. 74 Mithridates commenced 

 the tiiird war against the liomans, which led to the complete subju- 

 gation of all Asia Minor, Syria, and Phoenicia. Other Roman generals 

 in the meantime advanced into Mcesia ss far as the Danube, and on 

 the northern coast of the Euxine as far as the river Don and the 

 Palus Mcotis, or Sea of Azof. In ac. 63 Rome was saved by the 

 watchful care of Cicero from the destruction with which the con- 

 spiracy of Catiline threatened it Between B.C. 68 and B.C. SO Csesar 

 completed the conquest of Gaul ; and in ac. 56, by the treaty of Lucca, 

 the Roman world was divided among Ctesar, Crassus, and Pompey 

 (first triumvirate) ; and when Pompey, as sole consul (ac. 52), placed 

 himself at the head of the republic, the civil war between him and 

 Ctttar broke out which was decided in B.C. 48 by the battle of Pbar- 

 salus. , CsMar, who had now become dictator, defeated the remains of 

 the Pompeian party, and then endeavoured to restore order in Italy ; 

 ''it be was sssaesiosted in ac. 44. His opponents, whose republican 

 pirit had survived the republic, were unable to restore it; and in the 



G1OO. DIT. VOL. IT. 



following year a second triumvirate was formed by Octavianus, Antony, 

 and Lepidus, whose object was the total destruction of the republican 

 party. This object they pursued by proscriptions and a series of 

 despotic and cruel measures, until they began to quarrel with one 

 another. Their quarrels led to a new civil war, which ended in the 

 battle of Actium, and placed Octavianus (Augustus) at the head of the 

 Roman world. Thus ended the Roman republic. 



The Roman republic at the time of its dissolution comprehended 

 the following countries, which were for the most part administered as 

 Roman provinces : Italy and all the islands by which it was sur- 

 rounded ; all Gaul as far as the Rhine ; nearly all Spain, Illyricum, 

 Pannonia, Dalmatia, Greece with all the islands of the yEgean, Thrace, 

 Mcesia (the Danube here formed the boundary) : in Asia all thu 

 countries between the Caspian Sea, the Parthian empire, the Persian 

 and Arabian gulfs, the Mediterranean and the Caucasus, that is, 

 Colchis, Iberia, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia, nearly the whole 

 of Asia Minor, the whole of the northern coast of Africa, Mauritania, 

 Numidia, the territory of Carthage, Cyrenaiea, and Egypt In some 

 of these countries however the power of Rome was not firmly 

 established until the imperial period. 



The imperial period comprises the interval from the accession of 

 Augustus to the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, that is, from 

 ac. 30 to A.D. 476. 



Augustus gradually concentrated in his own person all the great 

 offices of the republic, though the officers themselves, mere shadows 

 of former days, still continued to be appointed. He thus in effect 

 acquired the sovereign power, being free from all responsibility. He 

 had the right to raise armies, to impose taxes, to decide on peace and 

 war; he had the command of all the legions, and the power of life and 

 death over all Roman citizens, both within and without the city. The 

 senate, after the removal of those whom Augustus had reason to fear, 

 was filled up with individuals who were his mere creatures. Tiberius 

 indeed restored to the senate part of its former power, but the more 

 the influence of the soldiers increased the more that of the senate 

 declined, which body, as a compensation for this loss, was made a high 

 court of justice, which took cognizance of offences against the state 

 or the person of the emperor. No provision was made for a regular 

 accession; the first five emperors all belonged to the Julian and 

 Claudian families. The succession depended upon the will of the 

 actual imperator, who appointed his successor either by adoption or 

 by giving him one of the titles, Csosar and Princeps Juventutis ; or by 

 making him his colleague in the quality of tribune or proconsul. In 

 cases where no person was designated the senate exercised the right 

 of election. But this privilege was soon assumed by the soldiers, who 

 proclaimed the emperors, and the sanction of the senate became a mere 

 form. The numerous body-guards of the emperors (praetorians), who 

 in their stronghold (praetorian camp) formed as it were a new Capitol, 

 in effect possessed the sovereign power ; and on some occasions they 

 sold the empire to the best bidder. The numerous legions in the 

 province* too soon became acquainted with this secret of despotism, 

 and availed themselves of it 



The Roman empire, notwithstanding its vast extent at the end of 

 the republic, still continued to increase. Vimlclicio, Khretia, Noricum, 

 Pannonia, and Mcesia were completely subdued, and made parts of the 

 empire. The Danube was made the boundary in these parts, to secure 

 the empire against the incursions of the barbarian . The subjugation 

 of Spain was completed by the submission of the warlike Cantabrians. 

 In Germany conquests were also made, but more with a view to secure 

 Gaul than to acquire any new possessions in that country ; and the 

 Rhine may be considered as the frontier on that side of the empire. 

 In the reign of Trajan the empire attained its greatest extent ; Dacia, 

 Assyria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, ami Arabia were made Roman pro- 

 vinces; but some of these conquests were soon given up, and the 

 Danube and the Euphrates became the boundaries of the empire. 

 Britain and the southern part of Scotland had been made a province 

 in the reign of Nero. But the internal weakness, resulting from the 

 imperfect union of so many countries and nations, rendered it impos- 

 sible to repel the incursions of the barbarians by whom the empire 

 was harassed from about the close of the 4th century. During this 

 period one country was lost after another, and Italy itself was invaded 

 by the Huns under Attila (A.D. 452). In the year A.D. 476 Odoacer, 

 an officer of the imperial guards and a Goth by birth, dethroned the 

 last emperor Romulus Augustulus, and was saluted by his army King 

 of Rome. The Roman senate implored his protection, and Zeno, the 

 emperor of the East, raised him to the rank of a Roman patricius. 

 Thus ended the Roman empire in the west 



Long before this event the necessity of dividing the unwieldy mass 

 of the empire had been felt, and since the time of Diocletian a division 

 had been made for the purpose of facilitating the administration. 

 Constantinople, founded by Constantino A.D. 328, had become the 

 capital of the eastern part of the empire ; but it was not until after 

 the death of the elder Theodosius (A.D. 395) that the division into the 

 Eastern and Western empires became permanent : the two parts 

 however were intended to form one whole. The line of demarcation 

 between the two empires was the Danube, from a little above Pesth 

 down to where it receives the Drave, then the small river Drinus 

 (Drino), and a line drawn past the town of Scutari towards the great 

 Syrtid, near the coast of Cyrenaiea. All the countries east of this line 



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