Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/294

* ROME. 268 BOME. n sense of their diiiif.'iT. tlic Tarentines invited I'yrrluis (q.v. ) over from Epinis, and appointed liiiii eoniniandor of their mercenaries. He arrived in Italy (I'-C. 280) with a small army of his own. and a va^ue nolinii of founding an Hellenic empire in the West that should rival that created in the East by his kinsman, Alexander the Great. The varyiiif;; fortunes of the struggle between I'yrrluis'anit the Romans, which lasted only five years, ended in his being obliged to return to Kpirus without accomplishing anything. After I'yrrhus. baffled in his attempts to check the progress of Rome, had withdrawn to Greece, the J.ncanians and Samnites continued the un- eipial struggle, but in B.C. 209 the Samnites were utterly and definitely crushed. Tarentum had surrendered three years earlier; and now there was not a nation in Italy that did not acknowl- edge the supremacy of Rome. Distant kingdoms began to feel that a new power had risen in the world; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, sovereign of Egypt, sent an embassy to Rome (B.C. 273), and concluded a treaty with the Republic. To secure their new acquisitions, the Romans established in the South military colonies at Piestum and Cosa, in Lucania (b.c. 273), at Beneventum (B.C. 268), and at .Esernia (B.C. 263), to over- awe the Samnites; and in the North, as outposts against the Ganls, Ariminum (b.c. 208), Firmum in Picenum ( B.C. 204 ), and the burgess colony of Castrum Novum. Preparations were also made to carry the great Appian highway as far as Brundisium, on the Adriatic, and for the colonization of that city as a rival emporium to Tarentum. The political changes were almost as impor- tant as the military. The whole population of peninsular Italy was divided into three classes — (1) Gives Roniani, or such as enjoyed the full burgess privileges of Roman citizens ; ( 2 ) Nomen Latinum — that is, such as possessed the same privileges as had been enjoyed by the members of the quondam Latin league — an equality with the Roman burgesses in matters of trade and in- heritance, the privilege of self-government, but no participation in the Roman franchise, and consequently no power to modify the foreign policy of the State; (3) Socii, or 'allies,' to some of whom were conceded most liberal privileges, while others were governed in an almost despotic fashion. The Gives Ifomani no longer embraced merely the inhabitants of the old Roman com- munity, the well-known 'tribes' (of whom there were now 33), but all the old burgess colonies planted in Etruria and Campania, besides such Sabine, Volscian, and other communities as had been received into the burgess body on account of their proved fidelity in times of trial, together with individual Roman emigrants or their fam- ilies, scattered among the miinicipia, or living in villages by themselves. The cities possessing the Ao»K'/i lAitiiiinn inchuled most of the 'colonies' sent out by Rome in later times, not only in Italy, but even beyond it; the members of which, if they had previously possessed the Roman fran- chise, voluntarily surrendered it in lieu of an allotment of litnd. But any 'Latin' burgess who had held a magistracy in his native town might return to Rome, be enrolled in one of the tribes, and vote like any other citizen. The Socii com- prised all the rest of Italy, as the Hernicans, the Lucanians, Bruttians, the Greek cities, etc. All national or cantonal confederacies and alliances among the Italians were broken up, and no means wen; left imemployed by the victors to prevent their restoration. From the Outbreak of the Punic Wars (B.C. 204) TO THE DE.STRUCTION OF CARTHAGE (B.C. 140). At the time when Carthage (q.v.) came into collision with Rome she was indis- putal)ly the first maritime empire in the world, ruling as absolutely in the central and western Jleiliterranean seas as Rome in the Italian penin- sula. Between the Carthaginians and the Ro- mans there had long existed a nominal alliance — the oldest treaty dating as far back as the sixth century B.C. But this alliance had never possessed any real significance, and latterly the two nations had come to regard each other with considerable distrust. In B.C. 264 war was for- mally declared between the two nations on ac- count of a trivial incident. The wars with Carthage, known as the Punic Wars, were three in number. The first lasted 23 years (B.C. 264-241), and was waged mainly tor the possession of Sicily. Its leading feature was the creation of a Roman navy, which finally wrested from Carthage the sovereignty of the seas. Rome, indeed, had never been a merely agricultural State, but events had hindered it from engaging to any large extent in maritime enterprise. The necessity for a navy now began to show itself. Not only was there a difficulty felt in transporting troops to Sicily, but the shores of the mainland were completely exposed to the ravages of Carthaginian squadrons. So energetically did the Senate set to work that (we are told) in 60 days from the time the trees were felled 120 ships were launched, and soon after the consul Gaius Duilius gained a brilliant suc- cess (B.C. 200) over the Carthaginians oft' Mylae, on the northeast coast of Sicily. Subsequent events, however, were less favorable. An invasion of Africa by Riegulus (q.v.) ended in disaster, and the war. which was henceforth confined to Sicily, languished miserably. Thrice the Roman navy was annihilated by storms at sea (B.C. 255, 253, and 249) ; and in spite of a series of unim- portant successes by land, the Romans long found it impossible to make any impression on the Carthaginian strongholds of Lilybfeum and Drepanuni, mainly on account of the brilliant strategj- with which the.v were held in check by Hamilcar Barca, the father of Hannibal. At last, how'ever, a great sea fight took place off the .^?gatian Isles (B.C. 241), in which a Roman fleet commanded by the consul Lutatius Catulus ob- tained a magnificent victory. The whole of Sic- ily, except the territory of Hiero of Syracuse, who had been a firm ally of the Romans, passed into the hands of the victors, who constituted it a Roman province afcd placed it under the govern- ment of a pra!tor. A lapse of 23 years occurred before the Second Punic War began, but during tluit interval neither Romans nor Carthaginians had been idle. The former had bullied their Aeak and exhausted rival into surrendering Sar- dinia and Corsica, which, like Sfcily, were trans- formed into a Roman province. In addition, they had carried on a series of Gallic wars in Cisalpine Gaul (B.C. 231-222), the result of which was the complete humiliation of the bar- barian Boii, Insubres. etc.. and the extension of Italy to the Alps. On the eastern coast of the Adriatic also the Romans made their power felt by the vigor with which they suppressed Illyrian