Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/338

 IIISPANIA. Tol. u. p. 69.) It was in the year b. c. 237 that Hainilcar commonced Uiis mighty work, not with- out an ultimate design, unless he is- grossly mifl- represented by Polybius and Livy, of founding for his house an empire in Spam, in case the Anti- Bar- cine fiK^on should prerail at Carthage. [Car- thago Nova.] For eight years he carried on hi8*]plan with great success, and he appears to have extended the Carthaginian empire as far N. as the Sierra Morena, so that it included the whole of AndahtciOf and pretty well all Murcia, On his death, B. c. 229, he leift his power and his schemes as an inheritance to Hasdrubal, his son-in-law, who carried on the plan for nearly nine years, till he was cut off by an assassin, b.c. 221, and left its f iil6Iment to the mighty genius of Hannibal. Mean- while the Romans, occupied with the war in Cisal- pine Gaul, had no power to interfere. Just, how- ever, before that war began, they had done the best they could by makuig a separate treaty, not with Carthage, but with Hasdmbal himself (as a sort of supplement to the existing treaty with Carthage), by which the river Iberns {Ehro) was fixed as a 'limit beyond which the Carthaginians were not to extend their conquests (as Polybius states), or (ac- cording to Livy) as the boundary between the two states, B. c. 228. (Polyb. iii. 27 ; Liv. xxi. 2 ; xxxiv. 13). That the latter expression, e^ien if used m the treaty (which seems from Polybius to be more thau doubtful) does not imply that the Soman arms had actually extended to the Iberus, is shown by Livy himself in the second passage quoted, when he says that Spain was then in the hands of the Carthaginians, held by their generals and armies, while Rome had not a single general nor any soldiers iu the countiy. The previous treaty itself, made at the close of the Firat Punic War, had provided that the allies of each state should be safe from molestation by the other ; and now, if we are to believe Livy (Polybius bemg silent CD the pwnt), an express stipulation to the same effect was intnxluced on behalf of Saguntnm, a city lying within the portion assigned to the Cartha- ginians, but in alliance with the Romans. [Saoun- TUM.] The dispute upon this question, and its bearing upon the rights of the two parties in the Second Punic War, are of little consequence here, except as throwing light on the connection of the Romans with the peninsula. Thus much is certain, that Saguntum was in alliance with Rome when Hannibal laid siege to it, and it is also probable that the Romans had some footing in Tarraco. 3. The Second Pmio TTar.— When Hannibal, on his march to Italy, had eflfbcted the passage of the Rhone, and turned the flank of Scipio, b.c. 218, the bold resolution, by which that general sent the bulk of his army into Spain under his brother Cneius, to oppose Hasdmbal, while it perhaps deter- mined, however remotely, the issue of the war, began a struggle, firat with the Carthaginians, and then with the Spaniards* themselves, which histed almost 200 yeara, and only ended with the subjugation of the northern mountaineera, the Camtabri and As- TiJRBS, by Augustus, B. c. 25. It is needless to dwell on those detMls, which are familiar to every reader as a part of the Second Punic War : the suc- cesses of Cn. and P. Scipio, and their unfortunate end, B. c. 218 — 212; the almost romantic expe- dition of young P. Scipio, 211, his capture of New Carthage, 210 [Carthago Nota], and the final expulsion of the Carthaginians from Spain, n.c. HISPANIA. 1079 206, which was followed by its erection into a Ro- man province. From this time the Romans had to deal with the natives, a people always willing to make use of foreigners against each other, but never ready to yield them obedience. 4. Conqunt of the country by the Romana. — Neither the dominion of Hannibal, nor that acquired by the Romans in the Second Punic War, extended over so much as one half of the peninsula. The part which they had entirely subdued, seems to have comprehended Catalonia^ Valencia^ Mureia. and Andalucitij or the countiy between the sea and the great chain which runs parallel to the E. coast, and on tlie S. the country between the Sierra Mo^ rena and the sea. The province (its division will be spoken of presently) was governed by praetors ; there being sometimes one, and sometimes two ; and two legions were kept stationary in Spain. This arrangement, besides its effects on the Roman con- stitution, with which we are not here concerned, had a most important influence on Spain. ** The legions remained there for a number of yean, mar- ried Spaniith women, and became estranged from Italy. When, therefore, such legions were dis- banded, many soldiera would remain in Spain, unwilling to return to a country to which they had become strangers." (Niebuhr, Lectttre* on Roman History^ vol. ii. p. 208.) The central tribes, forming the great Celtiberian nation, retained their own government, which seems to have been of a republican form, in nominal alli- ance with the Romans, to whom the independent tribes of the N. and W. were as yet scarcely known by name. (Liv. xxiii. 21, xxix. 3 ; Flor. ii. 17.) The Roman settlements were continually exposed to the attacks which the natives, as provocation was given or opportunity offered, made upon them from their strongholds in the mountains. (Liv. xxviii. 4.) To abate the evil Cato the Elder, when con- sul, undertook an expedition against the Celtibe- rians and some smaller tribes, whom he induced, by a stratagem, to demolish the defences of their towns, and so to place themselves in his power, which, it must be added, he used with such justice and moderation as to win their hearts, b. c. 184. (Appian, Hisp. 41 ; Liv. xxxiv. 17 ; Plutarch, Cat. 10 ; Flor. ii. 17.) Indeed, as Niebuhr has more than once obsei-ved in his LectureSj the wars of Rome in Spain give constant illustrations of that point which (hke most othere) is still conspicuous in the national character, their great susceptibility of personal tn/fuence, which often proved a correc- tive to their bitter jealousy of foreigners. " It is indeed surprising" (he says, vol. ii. p. 209) *' to see how a Roman general with humane feelings was always able to win the affections and confidence of those tribes [in central Spain], and to establish the authority of Rome for a time, until fresh acts of injustice provoked their resentment." Of this we have another striking example in the success of Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, the father of the celebrated brothers, who concluded a fierce war, in which the Romans had been for some time engaged with the Celtiberians, by an honourable peace, which at once secured the Roman supremacy and won the hearts of the natives. By this peace the Roman power became established in Catalonia^ Valencia^ Arra- goHy and the E. part of Castile, and the tribes who were parties to it bound themselves to build no more towns, b. c. 179. (Polyb. ap Strab. iii. pp. Ill, 170; Liv. x1. 49, et seq., xli. 3; Appian, 3z 4