U INTRODUCTION. 



the ceremony, and the sacredness of the oath, made such an inu 

 pression on his mind, as nothing afterwards could ever efface. Be» 

 ing appointed general at twenty-five years of age, he crosses the 

 -d p. Ebro, the Pyrenees, and the Alps, and unexpectedly rushes 



' * uown upon Italy. The loss of four battles threatens the fall of 

 ' Rome. Sicily sides with the conqueror. Hieronymus, king 

 of Syracuse, declares against the Romans, and almost all Italy 

 abandons them. In this extremity, Rome owed its preservation to 

 three great men. Fabius Maximus, despising popular clamour, 

 and the military ardour of his countrymen, declines coming to an 

 engagement. The strength of Rome has time to recover. Mar- 

 cellus raises the siege of Nola, takes Syracuse, and revives the 

 ■o p drooping spirits of his troops. The young Scipio, at the age 



' ' of four-and-twenty, flies into Spain, where both his father and 



uncle had lost their lives, attacks New Carthage, and carries 



it at the first assault. Upon his arrival in Africa, kings submit to 



him, Carthage trembles in her turn, and sees her armies defeated. 



t. p Hannibal, sixteen years victorious, is invain called home to 



* ' defend his country. Carthage is rendered tributary, gives 

 ' hostages, and engages never to enter on a war, but with the 

 consent of the Roman people. 



At this time the world was divided, as it were into two parts ; in 

 the one fought the Romans and Carthaginians ; the other was agi- 

 tated by those quarrels which had lasted since the death of Alex- 

 ander the Great ; and of which the scene of action was Greece, 

 Egypt, and the East. The states of Greece had once more disen- 

 gaged themselves from a foreign yoke. They were divided into 

 three confederacies, the iEtolians, Achseans, and Bceotians. Each 

 of these was an association of free cities, which had assemblies 

 and magistrates in common. The iEtolians were the most conside- 

 rable of them all. The kings of Macedon maintained that supe- 

 riority which, in ancient times, when the balance of power was little 

 attended to, a great prince naturally possessed over his less power- 

 ful neighbours. Philip, the monarch who then reigned in Macedon, 

 had rendered himself odious to the Greeks by some unpopular and 

 tyrannical measures ; the iEtolians were most irritated ; and, hear- 

 ing the fame of the Roman arms, called them into Greece, and 

 overcame Philip by their assistance. The victory, however, chiefly 

 redounded to the advantage of the Romans. The Macedonian gar- 

 risons were obliged to evacuate Greece ; the cities were all de- 

 clared free ; but Philip became a tributary to the Romans, and the 

 states of Greece became their dependents. The JEtolians, disco- 

 vering their first error, endeavoured to remedy it by another still 

 more dangerous to themselves, and more advantageous to the Ro- 

 mans. As they had called the Romans into Greece to defend them 

 against king Philip, they now called in Antiochus, king of Syria, to 

 defend them against the Romans. The famous Hannibal, too, had 

 recourse to the same prince, who was at this time the most power- 

 ful monarch in the East, and the successor to the dominions of 

 Alexander in Asia. But Antiochus did not follow his advice so 

 much as that of the JEtolians ; for, instead of renewing the war in 

 Italy, where Hannibal, from experience, knew the Romans to be 

 most vulnerable, he landed in Greece with a small body of troops, 

 and, being overcome without difficulty, fled over into Asia. In this 

 war the Romans made use of Philip for conquering Antiochus, as 



