Before Chrili 134 or 133. 109: 



fending many thoufands -of their enemies out of the world before t-hern, 

 at laft reduced their city, and every thing dear to them, together with 

 themfelves, to a heap of aflies (a". 1 t^^). Their deftrudioh was effeded 

 by the fame Scipio, who had completed tlie ruin of Carthage, and who, 

 for the butchery oftwo communities, infinitely more valuable than the 

 den of robbers from which he fprung, has been the theme of much 

 prodituted praife to the writers of fuccceding ages. j 



While the Spanifh wars were drawing to a conclufiorv, feveral infLrri* 

 redionsof the flaves broke out in Sicily. Under the command of their 

 elected king Eunus, or Antiochus, they frequently defeated the Roman 

 armies with great daughter. But all their attempts to emancipate them- 

 felves were finally frufirated. In the courfe of fix ye.ars many thoufands 

 of thofe unfortunate people, and a pwsporti'onal number of their oppref- 

 fors, were flain, before they were finally fupprefled, or exterrninated 

 (a". 132). Similar commotions of the flaves took place about this time, 

 and afterwards, in Sicily and other countries, and particularly in Dclos, 

 which has jufl: been noted as a gi-eat flave -market. 



134 or 133 — It was -apparently when Scipio palled through Gaul in 

 going to, or returning from, Spain, that he had fome conferences with 

 the merchants of Maflilia, Narbo, and Gorbilo, then the principal cities 

 of Gaul, wherein he endeavoured to draw froin them fome account of 

 Britain. But' they, knowing that no good could arife to their com- 

 merce from the interference of the Romans, prudently declined giving 

 him any information. We hereby learn from the mofi; refpecftable au- 

 thority, \_Polyb. ap. Sfrab. L. iv, p. 289] that a part, perhaps the greatefi: 

 part, of the Britifh trade was now in the hands of the Gallic merchants, 

 and idfo (from this notice of Polybius compared with fubfequent autho- 

 rities to be produced in the'ir proper time) that it was carried on over 

 land by inland^ navigation and land carriage, for which mode of con- 

 veyance the large rivers in Gaul are remarkably convenient. The ruin 

 of Carthage and the fubjection of Gadir to the Romans about feventy 

 years before this time, were circumfi:ances exceedingly favourable to the 

 commerce of the Gallic merchants *. 



* Polybius in his Hiilory [/,. iii, c. 57] expreffes mear.inc; of tlie pafTage \_PoIyb. L. in,c. 38] quoc- 



an intention of ilefcribing the ocean beyond the ed by Camden, as appears from the context, is. 



Straits, the British is^ANns. with the manner of that, as it was unknown, Whether Ethiopia was 



preparing 'le tin, the Spanilli mines, &c. in a fe- furrounded by the fea on the fouth, or joined to a 



parate work; which- he appears to have accom- foiithern continent ; fo that part of Europe l)ing. 



phflied, as may be iuferrt'd from a palTage of I'Stra- to the northward i>i iiaxho [Nar bonne) and the 



bo, ^L. ii, p. 163] apparenfly taken' from it, Tanats, was hitherto imexplored. Thai is to fay, 



wherein Polybius criticizes the accounts of Britain he knew not, whether it had fea to the northward 



by Dicearchus, Eratoithenes, and Pytheas; It is or not. Any otlier interpretation makes Poly- 



thus evident, that Polybius has made mentipu of bias inconfiilent with himfclf ; for he not only 



Britain in at leail two places, which had cfoaped knew of the exiftence of Britain, which 13 far to 



the refcarch of the indullriuus Camden, or he the northward of Narbo, but he alfo cleaily knew, 



would not have faid, that this part of the world that it was an ifland, and had other iilands adja- 



was not at all known to that p^reathiftorian. The ccntto it. The- 



