32 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



rages on the ])roperty of the Plebeians, while the Patricians generally 

 escaped. Coriolanus at last attacked Pome, which would doubtless have 

 submitted, had the terms offered been less humiliating. In the midst of the 

 carnage, a deputation of Poman matrons, among whom were the mother 

 and the wife of Coriolanus, proceeded to his tent, and by their remonstrances 

 and entreaties, saved the city from impending destruction. Coriolanus 

 retired to die in exile. But the class feuds continued to rage with 

 increased violence. The contests with the neic^bborino^ states also con- 

 tinned, but were of less consequence than the perpetual strife for supremacy 

 at home. After a number of years, the Plebeians secured to themselves 

 several privileges of the Patricians ; and dignities of the state which the 

 latter had possessed exclusively, soon became accessible to the Plebeians. 

 The people were animated by a new spirit ; complaints and troubles ceased, 

 the possession of real estate attached them strongly to their country, and 

 Pome was sufficiently invigorated to resume her quarrels with surrounding 

 nations, and thus to extend her dominion by conquest. 



Four different times, 361, 360, 358, and 349, B.C., she vanquished the 

 Gauls who roamed about JNorthern Italy ; she also carried on a war of seventy 

 years with the Samnites, who were finally subdued and rendered tributary, 

 290 B.C. In like manner, the Latins, 338, the Hernici, 308, and the Yolsci 

 and ^qui, 304, in succession, yielded to the progress of the Poman arms, 

 and agreed to furnish troops for the defence of the country. The Taren- 

 tines, Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttians, Peucentini, and Salentines, all 

 passed under the yoke of Pome, so that in 266 B.C., the Poman standard 

 waved over the whole country, from the Pubicon in the north to the 

 Sicilian straits in the south. 



Thus far, physical force and might in battle constituted the chief glory 

 of the Pomans. Science and art had accomplished but little. Having suc- 

 ceeded in humblinoj all Italv, the Pomans now began to seek other theatres 

 for the display of their courage ; and Carthage, Macedonia, Greece, and 

 Syria, came gradually to acknowledge their supremacy. 



The republic of Carthage had extended her dominion vastly. She ruled 

 over nearly all J^orthern Africa and South Iberia. The sovereignty of the 

 Mediterranean and most of its islands was also hers, and she had even a 

 strong foothold in Sicily; and although Pome and Carthage had concluded 

 treaties of commerce, the rival powers had long watched each other with 

 increasing jealousy. As Pome gradually extended, her conquests in a 

 southern direction, she occasionally came in contact with the Carthaginians, 

 whom she especially grudged the supremacy in Sicily, her own valuable 

 granary in time of need. She could no longer allow the rapid aggrandize- 

 ment of her powerful neighbor. A pretext was not long wanting for the 

 commencement of hostilities. A body of Campanian warriors had been hired 

 by Agathocles, tyrant of Sicily. They boastfully called themselves Ma- 

 mertines (sons of Mars). After the death of their emrployer, they roamed 

 about the island without distinct purpose, until they were enlisted by the 

 citizens of Messana. But they killed their employers and took possession 

 of the town. With a view of revenging this outrage, Carthage and Syra- 

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