SPAIN. S99 
time that Augustus had become sole master of the Roman 
empire, they were again in a condition to assert their liberty. 
The Cantabrians and Asturians were the most powerful and 
valiant nations at that time in Spain; but they were almost 
exterminated by Agrippa. 
When incorporated with the Roman empire, Spain par¬ 
took of its tranquillity, and received in exchange for her 
liberty, at least wise laws and a mild government. If she 
could not prevent herself from falling under the dominion 
of the masters of the world, she was at least the most pow¬ 
erful, the richest, and the happiest province of their empire. 
Columella has left us an interesting account of her agriculture 
under the first emperors. The tradition of her ancient popu¬ 
lation is probably exaggerated, but the ruins of several 
towns prove it to have been considerable. It was increased 
by a great many Roman families after the conquest; several 
legions were established in Spain; 25 colonies were distri¬ 
buted in the most fertile parts of the country, and intermarried 
with the inhabitants. After a while the Spaniards, seeing 
in their masters only countrymen, were the first to solicit 
the rights of Roman citizens, by which they were completely 
consolidated. Some municipal towns went so far as to desire 
permission to take the title of colonies, though in the change 
they lost their independence, nearly in the same manner 
as certain proprietors of lands under the feudal system con¬ 
verted their domains into fiefs, in order to enjoy the honours 
attached to them. The government was, in general, milder 
in Spain than in the other Roman provinces. The adminis¬ 
tration was carried on in the towns by magistrates named 
by themselves, and the different provinces were under the 
superintendance of praetors, proconsuls, and legates, or 
deputies, according to the different eras of the Roman em¬ 
pire ; those in their respective departments took care of all 
the works of public utility, the aqueducts, baths, circuses, 
and highways, whose magnificent ruins are still existing ; 
but they were principally employed in collecting the reve¬ 
nues of the state, which arose from dues, fines, or aliena¬ 
tions of property, and the produce of the mines. Spain 
at that time drew from her own mines the same riches 
she afterwards derived from the new world, and they 
were distributed in nearly the same manner. One part be¬ 
longed to the state, and the other to the inhabitants of the 
country, who paid a cfertain duty on the metals which they 
.procured from the mines. Their returns went on increasing, 
and depended entirely on the number of hands which coulcl 
be devoted to work in the mines. An employment, so 
laborious, however, which required a numerous population, 
tended to diminish that population by the excessive fatigues 
which it occasioned. Agriculture also suffered by the 
accumulation of estates in the hands of a few wealthy land¬ 
holders. By the little attention paid to it by the proprietors, 
and by the defects inseparable from the system of cultiva¬ 
tion by means of slaves, commerce and industry lan¬ 
guished ; and Spain, after having shared in the splendour 
of the Roman empire, was beginning to participate in its 
decline, when a new calamity, by completing her ruin, pre¬ 
pared her regeneration. 
This calamity was the irruption of the northern hordes, 
which soon involved Spain in the general attack. This 
province was invaded first by the Franks, who in the third 
century had entered Gaul with a formidable force. 
The Rhine, though dignified by the title of Safeguard of 
the Provinces, was an imperfect barrier against the daring 
spirit of enterprize with which the Franks were actuated. 
Their rapid devastations stretched from the river to the foot 
of the Pyrenees; nor were they stopped by those mountains. 
Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist the 
inroads of the Germans. During 12 years, the greatest part 
of the reign of Gallienus, that opulent country was the 
theatre of unequal and destructive hostilities. Tarragona, 
the flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was sacked 
and almost destroyed ; and so late as the days of Orosius, 
who wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages, scattered 
amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, still recorded the rage 
of the barbarians. When the exhausted country no longer 
supplied a variety of plunder, the Franks seized on some 
vessels, and retreated to Mauritania, 
The situation of Spain, separated, on all sides, from the 
enemies of Rome, by the sea, by the mountains, and by in¬ 
termediate provinces, had secured the long tranquillity of 
that remote and sequestered country; and we may observe, 
as a sure symptom of domestic happiness, that in a period 
of 400 years, Spain furnished very few materials to the his¬ 
tory of the Roman empire. The footsteps of the Barbarians, 
who, in the reign of Gallienus, had penetrated beyond tlie 
Pyrenees, were soon obliterated by the return of peace; and 
in the 4th century of the Christian era, the cities of Emerita 
or Merida, of Corduba, Seville, Bracara, and Tarragona, 
were numbered with the most illustrious of the Roman 
world. 
The various plenty of the animal, the vegetable, and the 
mineral kingdoms, was improved and manufactured by the 
skill of an industrious people; and the peculiar advantages 
of uaval stores contributed to support an extensive and 
profitable trade. The arts and sciences flourished under the 
protection of the emperors; and if the character of the 
Spaniards was enfeebled by peace and servitude, the hostile 
approach of the Germans seemed to rekindle some sparks of 
military ardour. As long as the defence of the mountains 
was intrusted to the hardy and faithful militia of the country, 
they successfully repelled the frequent attempts of the Barba¬ 
rians. But no sooner had the national troops been com¬ 
pelled to resign their post to the Honorian bands, in the ser¬ 
vice of Constantine, than the gates of Spain were treache¬ 
rously betrayed to the public enemy, about ten months 
before the sack of Rome by the Goths. The consciousness 
of guilt, and the thirst of rapine, prompted the mercenary 
guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station ; to invite the 
arms of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alani; and to swell 
the torrent which was poured with irresistible violence from 
the frontiers of Gaul to the sea of Africa. The misfortunes 
of Spain may be described in the language of its most elo¬ 
quent historian, who has concisely expressed the passionate 
and perhaps exaggerated declamations of contemporary 
writers. “ The irruption of these nations was followed by 
the most dreadful calamities; as the Barbarians exercised 
their indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the Romans 
and the Spaniards; and ravaged with equal fury the cities 
and the open country. The progress of famine reduced the 
miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellow crea¬ 
tures; and even the wild beasts, who multiplied, without 
controul, in the desert, were exasperated, by the taste of blood 
and the impatience of hunger, boldly to attack and devour 
their human prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the inseparable 
companion of famine; a large proportion of the people was 
swept away ; and the groans of the dying excited only the 
envy of their surviving friends. At length the Barbarians, 
satiated with carnage and rapine, apd afflicted by the conta¬ 
gious evil which they themselves had introduced, fixed their 
permanent seats in the depopulated country. The ancient 
Gallicia, whose limits included the kingdom of Old Castile, 
was divided between the Suevi and the Vandals, the Alani 
were scattered over the provinces of Carthagena and Lusitan ia, 
and from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean; and the 
fruitful territory of Bcetica was allotted to the Silingi, another 
branch of the Vandalic nation. After regulating this parti¬ 
tion, the conquerors contracted with their new subjects some 
reciprocal engagements of protection and obedience; the 
lands were again cultivated; and the towns and villages 
were again occupied by a captive people. The greatest part 
of the Spaniards was even disposed to prefer this new con¬ 
dition of poverty and barbarism, to the severe oppressions of 
the Roman government; yet there were many who still as¬ 
serted their native freedom, and who refused, more especially 
in the mountains of Gallicia, to submit to the barbarian 
yoke,” 
The important present of the heads of Jovinus and Sebas¬ 
tian, had approved the friendship of Adolphus, and restored 
Gaul to the obedience of his brother Honorius. Peace was 
incompatible with the situation and temper of the king of the 
Goths. 
