HISTORY 



11 



of Pompey at Thapsus, in Africa, and thus put 

 an end to the Civil \V:ir. 



The third African War was undertaken by the 

 Romans against Tacfartnas, a Xumidiun, in the 

 reign of Tiberius. Tacfarlnas, having collected 

 a large gang of freebooters, defied for some years 

 the Roman arms in Numidia, but was ultimately 

 overthrown and slain by Dolabella, A. D. 



The fourth African War was between the Ro- 

 mans and Vandals in Africa. The Vandals under 

 Genseric took possession of the Roman dominions 

 ica, and continued masters for 105 years 

 ' A. 1 ). Belisarius was sent into Africa 



by the Emperor Justinian to win back the Afri- 

 can dominions, and he utterly overthrew the 

 Vandals, took Carthage in 533, and returned to 

 Rome in triumph in the autumn of the year fol- 

 lowing A. I). ,->:*l. 



Agrarian Agitation, B. C. 480. The 

 great Roman agrarian agitation was set on foot 

 .by Spurius Cassius, who had been three times 

 consul. To win popular favor, he told the peo- 

 ple that the Senate ought to give an account of 

 the land taken from the Volsci, which ought to 

 have been equally divided amongst the whole 

 people irrespective of rank. The Senate, to allay 

 the popular clamor, promised to give the matter 

 their best consideration, but arrested Cassius 

 and hurled him from the Tarpeian Rock. Things 

 went on till B. C. -Hi I. when Herdonius, the Sa- 

 bine, got possession of the capital. Then the 

 Senate promised to pass an agrarian law, if the 

 people would eject the invaders. The invaders 

 were expelled, but it was not till B. C. 365 that 

 Licinius Stolo, the plebeian tribune, got a law 

 passed making it penal for anyone to hold more 

 than 500 acres of the public lands. 



Alabama. The name, derived from the 

 Indians, denotes "Here we rest." Originally a 

 j >art i >f Georgia, the country included in Alabama 

 a-id Miissippi was orirani/ed as a Territory in 

 1798. In 1812. that part of Florida, then belong- 

 ing to Spain, lying between the Perdido and 

 Pearl rivers on the Gulf Coast, was seized by 

 the United States troops and annexed to the 

 Territory. Alabama remained a Territory after 

 the western portion was admitted as a State 

 under the name of Mississippi, and was itself 



admitted as a State in 1819. On January 11, 

 1861, the Ordinance of Secession was adopted 

 by the Secession Convention, and on February 

 a provisional congress met at Montgomery and 

 organized the Government of the Confederate 

 States. Jefferson Davis was inaugurated Presi- 

 dent of the Confederacy at Montgomery, Febru- 

 ary 18, 1861, and the government seat was 

 moved from Montgomery to Richmond in July, 

 1861. Mobile was finally captured by the Fed- 

 erals, April 12, 1865, and on May 1th the State 

 was included in the surrender made by General 

 Richard Taylor. After the Confederate sur- 

 render, the State passed under the phases of pro- 

 visional and military government until 1868, 

 when it was regularly reconstituted as a State 

 in the Union. In 1901, a Constitutional Con- 

 vention, called to regulate negro suffrage, was in 

 session from May 21st to September 2d at Mont- 

 gomery. On November 11. 1901, the new con- 

 stitution was ratified by popular vote. In 1907, 

 a notable effort was made by Governor Comer 

 opposing federal interference in the regulation 

 of the railroads of the State. 



Alamo, The, a mission church at San 

 Antonio, in what is now Bexar County, Texas, 

 converted into a fort. In 1836 it was occupied 

 by about 150 of the revolutionists in the Texan 

 War of Independence. Though attacked by 

 4,000 Mexicans under Santa Ana, the Texans held 

 it from February 23d to March tith. when Santa 

 Ana took it by storm. All but seven of the gar- 

 rison perished, six' of these being murdered after 

 their surrender, and one man escaping to report 

 the affair. In this garrison were the celebrated 

 David Crockett, and Colonel James Bowie, in- 

 ventor of the bowie-knife. The memory of this 

 massacre became an incitement to the Texans 

 in subsequent encounters, and "Remember the 

 Alamo!" became a war-cry in their struggle for 

 freedom. 



Alemanni, a confederacy of tribes which 

 appeared on the banksof the Rhine in the Third 

 Century, and for long gave no small trouble to 

 Rome, but whose incursions were arrested, tirst 

 by Ma \iminus, and finally by Clovis in t'.Mi. who 

 made them subject to the Franks, hence the 

 modern names in French for Germany ami the 

 Germans. 



\MERICAN BATTLES, TABULATED 



I engagement* are indicated by italic*; * moans that it was a drawn battle; t mean* a general estimate. 



