Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/774

Rh 750 E M E [HISTORY. faithful Massiliots sent word that Hasdrubal, beaten in Spain, was marching to join Hannibal in Italy. The anxiety at Rome was intense, and every nerve was strained to prevent the junction of the two brothers. Equally great was the relief when the news arrived that the bold march of the consul Claudius had succeeded, and that Hasdrubal had been defeated and slain on the river Metaurus (207). The war in Italy was now virtually ended, for, though during four years more Hannibal stood at bay in a corner of Bruttium, he was powerless to prevent the restoration of Roman authority throughout the peninsula. Sicily was once more secure ; and finally in 206, the year after the victory on the Metaurus, the successes of the young P. Scipio in Spain (211-206) were crowned by the complete expulsion of the Carthaginians from the peninsula. Nothing now remained to Carthage outside Africa but the ground on which Hannibal desperately held out, and popular opinion at Rome warmly supported Scipio when on his return from Spain he eagerly urged an immediate invasion of Africa. The senate hesitated. Many were jealous of Scipio's fame, and resented his scarcely concealed intention of appealing to the people, should the senate decline his proposals. Others, like the veteran Q. Fabius, thought the attempt hazardous, with exhausted resources, and while Hannibal was still on Italian soil. But Scipio gained the day. He was elected consul for 205, and given the province of Sicily, with permission to cross into Africa if he thought fit. Voluntary contributions of men, money, and supplies poured in to the support of the popular hero ; and by the end of 205 Scipio had collected in Sicily a sufficient force for his purpose. In 204 he crossed to Africa, where he was welcomed by the ISTumidian prince Masinissa, whose friendship he had made in Spain. In 203 he twice defeated the Carthaginian forces, and a large party at Carthage were anxious to accept his offer of negotiations. But the advocates of resistance triumphed. Hannibal was recalled from Italy, and with him his brother Mago, who had made a last desperate attempt to create a diversion in Italy by landing in Liguria. Mago died on the voyage, but Hannibal returned to fight his last battle against Rome at Zama, where Scipio, who had been continued in command as proconsul for 202 by a special vote of the people, won a complete victory. The war was over. The Roman assembly gladly voted that the Carthaginian request for peace should be granted, and entrusted the settlement of the terms to its favourite Scipio and a commission of ten senators. Carthage was allowed to retain her own territory in Africa intact ; but she under- took to wage no wars outside Africa, and none inside without the consent of Rome. She surrendered all her ships but ten triremes, her elephants, and all prisoners of war. Finally she agreed to pay an indemnity of 10,000 talents in fifty years. Masinissa was rewarded by an increase of territory, and was enrolled among the " allies and friends " of the Roman people. 1 The battle of Zama decided the fate of the West. The power of Carthage was broken, and her supremacy passed ^y ^ e T1 S^ f conquest to Rome. Henceforth Rome had no rival to fear westward of Italy, and it rested with her- self to settle within what limits her supremacy should be confined, and what form it should take. The answer to both these questions was largely determined for her by circumstances. For the next fifty years Rome was too deeply involved in the affairs of the East to think of extending her rule far beyond the limits of the rich inherit- ance which had fallen to her by the defeat of Carthage ; and it was not until 125 that she commenced a fresh career of conquest in the West by invading Transalpine Gaul. But within this area considerable advance was Aauu vuw died i;uiiaiucMctUJ.t 1 Livy, xxx. 43 ; Polyb., xv. 18. made in the organization and consolidation of her rule. The rate of progress was indeed unequal. In the case of Sicily Sicily and Spain, the immediate establishment of a Roman : ""l government was imperatively necessary, if these posses- s P ain - sions were not either to fall a prey to internal anarchy, or be recovered for Carthage by some second Hamilcar. Accordingly, we find that in Sicily the former dominions of Hiero were at once united with the western half of the island as a single province, under the rule of a Roman praetor (201), 2 and that in Spain, after nine years of a 55; provisional government (206-197), two provinces were in 548-55 197 3 definitely established, and each, like Sicily, assigned to one of the praetors for the year, two additional praetors being elected for the purpose. But here the resemblance between the two cases ends. From 201 down to the out- 5 break of the Slave War in 136 there was unbroken peace 61 in Sicily, and its part in the history is limited to its important functions in supplying Rome with corn and in provisioning and clothing the Roman legions. 4 It became every year a more integral part of Italy ; and a large pro- portion even of the land itself passed gradually into the hands of enterprising Roman speculators. The governors of the two Spains had very different work to do from that which fell to the lot of the Sicilian praetors. Although the coast towns readily acquiesced in Roman rule, the restless and warlike tribes of the interior were in a con- stant state of ferment, which from time to time broke out into open revolt. In Sicily the ordinary praetorian authority, with at most a few cohorts, was sufficient, but the condition of Spain required that year after year the praetors should be armed with the consular authority, and backed by a standing force of four legions, while more than once the presence of the consuls themselves was found necessary. Still, in spite of all difficulties, the work of pacification proceeded. To the elder Cato (consul 195), and to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (praetor and 5 propraetor 180-179), father of the two tribunes, is mainly 574-5 due the credit of quieting the Celtiberian tribes of central Spain, and the government of Gracchus was followed by thirty years of comparative tranquillity. The insurrection headed by Viriathus in 149 was largely caused by the exactions of the Roman magistrates themselves, while its obstinate continuance down to the capture of Numantia in 133, was almost as much the result of the incapacity of the Roman commanders. But the re-settlement of the country by Scipio Africanus the younger in that year left all Spain, with the exception of the highland Astures and Cantabri in the north-west, finally and tranquilly subject to Rome. Meanwhile the disturbed state of the interior had not prevented the spread of Roman civilization on the seaboard. Roman traders and speculators flocked to the seaport towns and spread inland. The mines became centres of Roman industry ; the Roman legionaries quartered in Spain year after year married Spanish wives, and when their service was over gladly settled down in Spain, in preference to returning to Italy. The first Roman communities established outside Italy were both planted in Spain, and both owed their existence to the Roman legions. 5 Spain even in 133 gave promise of becoming in time "more Roman than Rome itself." In Africa there was no question at first of the introduc- Af' i(V tion of Roman government by the formation of a province. J Carthage, bound hand and foot by the treaty of 201, was ^- n . placed under the jealous watch of the loyal prince of Nu- 153-1 2 Livy, xxvi. 40. The union was apparently effected in 210 ; but the first praetor of all Sicily was sent there in 201. 3 Livy, xxxii. 27; cf. Marquardt, Staatsverw., i. 100, and Hiibner in Hermes, i. 105 sq. 4 Livy, xxvii. 5, "pace ac bello fidissimum annonae subsidium"; cf. xxxii. 27. 8 Italica (206), Appian, Iber., 38 ; Carteia (171), Livy, xliii. 3. 605-6