his progress In a partial encounter on the Ticínus' the Roman cavalry was beaten by the Spanish and Numidian horsemen,' and Scipio, who had been severely wounded, retreated across the Po3 te await the arrival of Semprónius and his army Soon after, the entire Roman army was defeated on the left bank of the Trébia, when the hesitating Gauls at once espoused the cause of the victors 5% (218 B. C.) t х 5 16. In the following year Hannibal advanced towards Rome, and Sempronius, falling into an ambuscade near Lake Trasimenus, was elain, and his whole army cut to pieces. (217 B. C.) In another campaign, Hannibal, after passing Rome, and penetrating inte southern Italy, having increased his army to fifty thousand men, de feated the consuls Æmilius and Varro in a great battle at Cannæ. (216 B. C.)2 The Romans, whose numbers exceeded those of the enemy, lost, in killed alone, according to the lowest calculation, more than forty-two thousand men. Among the slain was Æmilius, on' of the consuls. 17. The calamity which had befallen Rome at Cannæ shook th allegiance of some of her Italian subjects, and the faith of he allies; many of the Grecian cities, hoping to recover their independence, made terms with the victors; Syracuse deserted the cause of Rome; and Philip of Mac' edon sent an embassy to Italy and formed an alliance with Hannibal. (See p. 109.) But the Romans did not despond. They made the most vigorous preparations to carry on the war in Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and Africa, as well as in Italy they formed an alliance with the Grecian States of Etólia, and thus found sufficient employment for Philip at home, and in the 1. The Ticinus, now Ticino, enters the Po from the north about twenty miles south-west from Milan. Near its junction with the Po stood the ancient city of Ticinum, now called Pavia. (Map No. VIII.) 2. Numidia was a country of northern Africa, adjoining the Carthaginian territory on the west, and embracing the eastern part of the territory of modern Algiers. (Map No. IX.) 3. The river Po, the Erid' anus or Padus of the ancients, rises in the Alps, on the confines af France; and, flowing eastward, receives during its long course to the Adriat' ic, a vast nura. ber of tributary streams. It divides the great plain of Lombardy into two nearly equal parts. Map No. VIII.) 4. The Trébia is a southern tributary of the Po, which enters that stream near the modern city of Piazenza, (anciently called Placentia) thirty-five miles south-east from Milan (Map No. VIII.) 5. Lake Trasiminus, (now called Perugia,) was in Etruria, near the Tiber, eighty miles north from Rome. (Map No. VIII.) 6. Canne, an ancient city of Apulia, was situated near the river Aufidus (now Ofantɔ) five or six miles from the Adriat' ic. The scene of the great battle between the Romans and Carthaginians is inarked by the name of campo di sangue, “field of blood ;" and spears, heads of Lances, and other pieces of armor, still continue to be turned up by the plough. (Map No. VIILY end reduced him to the humilating necessity of making a separate peace. 18. From the field of Cannæ Hannibal led his forces to Cap' ua, which at once opened its gates to receive him, but his veterans were enervated by the luxuries and debaucheries of that licentious city In the meantime Fabius Maximus had been appointed to the com mand of the Roman army in Italy, and by a new and cautious system of tactics-by avoiding decisive battles-by watching the motions of the enemy, harassing their march, and intercepting their con voys, he gradually wasted the strength of Hannibal, who at length summoned to his assistance his brother Has' drubal, who had been contending with the Scipios in Spain. Has' drubal crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps with little opposition, but on the banks of the Metaurus' he was entrapped by the consuls Livius and Nero,— his whole army was cut to pieces, and he himself was slain. (B. C. 207.) His gory head, thrown into the camp of Hannibal, gave the latter the first intelligence of this great misfortune, Before this event the ancient city of Syracuse had been taken by storm by the Romans, after the siege had been a long time protracted by the me chanical skill of the famous Archimedes.a 19. At length the youthful Cornelius Scipio, the son of Publius Scipio, having driven the Carthaginians from Spain, and being elected consul, gained the consent of the senate to carry the war into Africa, although this bold measure was opposed by the age and experience of the great Fabius. Soon after the landing of Scipio near Utica, Massinis' sa, king of the Numidians, who had previously 1. The Metaurus, now the Metro, was a river of Umbria, which flowed into the Adriat' ic. The battle was fought on the left bank of the river, at a place now occupied by the village of Fombrone. (Map No. VIII.) 2. The city of Utica stood on the banks of the river Bagrada, (now the Mejerdah,) a few miles north-west from Carthage. Its ruins are to be seen at the present lay near the port of Farina. (Map No. VIII.) a. Archimedes, the most celebrated mathematician among the ancients, was a native of syra, guse, lle was highly skilled in astronomy, mechanics, geometry, hydrostatics, and optics, in all of which he produced many extraordinary inventions. His knowledge of the principle of specific gravities enabled him to detect the fraudulent mixture of silver in the golden crown of Hiere, king of Syracuse, by comparing the quantity of water displaced by equal weights of gold and silver. The thought occurred to him upon observing, while he was in the bath, that he displaced a bulk of water equal to his own body. He was so highly excited by the discovery, that he is said to have run naked out of the bath into the street, exclaiming eureka! "I have found it." His acquaintance with the power of the lever is evinced by his famous declaration to Hiero: "Give me where I may tand, and I will move the world." At the time of the siege of Syracuse he is said to have fled the Roman fleet by means of iramense reflect ing mirrors. been in alliance with the Carthaginians, went over to the Romans, and aided in surprising and burning the Carthaginian camp of Has'drubal, still another general of that name. Both Tunis and Utica were next besieged; the former soon opened its gates to the Romans, and the Carthaginian senate, in despair, recalled Hannibal from Italy for the defence of the city. (202 B. C.) 20 Peace, which Hannibal himself advised, might even now have been made on terms honorable to Carthage, had not the Carthagi nians, elated by the presence of their favorite hero, and confident of his success, obstinately resisted any concession. Both generals nado preparations for a decisive engagement, and the two armies met on the plains of Zama;' but the forces of Hannibal were mostly raw troops, while those of Scipio were the disciplined legions that had so often conquered in Spain. Hannibal showed himself worthy of his former fame; but after a hard-fought battle the Romans prevailed, and Carthage lost the army which was her only reliance. Peace was then concluded on terms dictated by the conqueror. Carthage consented to confine herself to her African possessions, to keep no elephants in future for purposes of war, to give up all prisoners and deserters, to reduce her navy to ten small vessels, to undertake no war without the consent of the Romans, and to pay ten thousand talents of silver. (202 B. C.) Scipio, on his return home, received the title of Africanus, and was honored with the most magnificent triumph that had ever been exhibited at Rome. 21. The second Punic war had brought even greater distress upor the Roman people than upon the Carthaginians, for during the sixteen years of Hannibal's occupation of Italy the greater part of the Roman territory had lain waste, and was plundered of its wealth, and deserted by its people; and famine had often threatened Rome itself; while the number of the Roman militia on the rolls had been reduced by desertion, and the sword of the enemy, from two hundred and seventy thousand nearly to the half of that number. Yet in their greatest adversity the Roman people had never given way to despair, nor shown the smallest humiliation at defeat, nor manifestel the least design of concession; and when the pressure of war was removed, this same unconquerable spirit rapidly raised Rome to a state of prosperity and greatness which she had never at tained before. 1. The city of Zama, the site of which is occupied by the modern village of Zano Brix, was about a hundred miles southwest from Carthage. (Map No. VIII) 22. The sate of the world was now highly favorable for the ad vancement of a great military republic, like that of Rome, to univer. sal dominion. In the East, the kingdoms formed from the fragments of Alexander's mighty empire were either still engaged in mutual wars or had sunk into the weakness of exhausted energies; the Grecian States were divided among themselves, each being ready to throw itself upon foreign protection to promote its own immediate interests; while in the West the Romans were masters of Spain; their colonies were rapidly encroaching on the Gallic provinces; and they had tributaries among the nations of Northern Africa. 23. The war with Carthage had scarcely ended when an embassy from Athens solicited the protection of the Romans against the power of Philip II. of Mac' edon; and war being unhesitatingly VI. A GREdeclared against Philip, Roman diplomacy was at once CIAN WAR. plunged into the maze of Grecian politics. (B. C. 201.) After a war of four years Philip was defeated in the decisive battle of Cynoceph' al, (B. C. 197,) and forced to submit to such terms as the conquerors pleased to dictate; and at the Isthmian games the Greeks received with gratitude the declaration of their freedom under the protection of Rome. When, therefore, a few years later, the Ætólians, dissatisfied with the Roman policy, invited Antiochus of Syria into Europe, and that monarch had made himself master of Euboea, a plausible pretext was again offered for Roman interference: and when the Ætólians had been reduced, Antiochus driven back, and Greece tranquillized upon Roman terms, an Asiatic war was open to the cupidity of the Romans. WAR. 24. After a brief struggle, Antiochus, completely overthrown in the general battle of Magnésia,' (B. C. 191,) purchased a peace by surrendering to the Romans all those portions of Asia VII. SYRIAN Minor bounded on the east by Bithyn' ia, Galátia, Cappadócia, and Cilic'ia, pledging himself not to interfere in the affairs of the Roman allies in Europe-giving up his ships of war and paying fifteen thousand talents of silver. The Romans now erected the conquered provinces, with the exception of a few Greek maritime towns, into a kingdom which they conferred upon Eúmenes, their 1. Magnésia, (now Manisa,) a city of Lydia, was situated on the southern side of the river Hermus, (now Kodus,) twenty-eight miles north-east from Smyrna. The modern Manisa ir one of the neatest towns of Asia Minor, and contains a population of about thirty thousand inhabitants. The e was another Magnésia, now in uins, fifty miles south-east from Smyrna 'Map No. IV.) a. See Map of Asia Minor, No. VI. ally, a petty prince of Per' gamus,' while to the Rhodians, also their alies, they gave the provinces of Lyc' ia and Cária.a 25. Soon after the close of the second Punic war, Hannibal, having incurred the enmity of some of his countrymen, retired to Syria, where he joined Antiochus in the war against Rome. A clause in the treaty with the Syrian monarch stipulated that Hannibal should be delivered up to the Romans; but he avoided the danger by seeking refuge at the court of Prúsias, king of Bithyn' ia, whera he remained about five years. An embassy was finally sent to de mand him of Prúsias, who, afraid of giving offence to the Romans, agreed to give him up, but the aged veteran, to avoid falling into the hands of his ungenerous enemies, destroyed himself by poison, in the sixty-fifth year of his age The same year witnessed the death of his great rival and conqueror Scipio. (B. C. 183.) b The latter, on his return from carrying on the war against Antiochus, was charged with secreting part of the treasure received from the Syrian king. Scorning to answer the unjust accusation, he went as an exile into a country village of Italy, where he soon after died. VIII. THIRD 26. The events that led to the overthrow of the Macedónian monarchy, and the reduction of Greece to a Roman province, have been related in a former chapter.c Already the third PUNIC WAR. Punic war was drawing to a close, and the same year that Greece lost her liberties under Roman dominion, witnessed the destruction of the miserable remains of the once proud republic of Carthage. During the fifty years that had elapsed since the battle of Zama, the conduct of the Carthaginians had not afforded the Romans any cause whatever for complaint, and amicable relations between the two people might still have continued; but the expediency of a war with Carthage was a favorite topic of debate in the Roman senate, and it is said that, of the many speeches which the elder Cato made on this subject, all ended with the sentence, delenda est Car. thago, "Carthage must be destroyed." 27 Carthage, still a wealthy, but feeble city, had long been har assed by the encroachments of Massinis' sa, king of Numid' ia, who 1. The 'gamus here mentioned, the most important city of Mysia, was situated in the southern part of that country, in a plain watered by two small rivers which united to form the Caicus. (Map No. IV.) a. See Map of Asia Minor, No. VI. D. Some of the ancients placed the death of Hannibal one or two years later. The date of Scipio's death vary fror 1831 187 c. See P. !10 |