Part 24 (2/2)
(M819) The Greek cities of Palaeapolis and Neapolis, the only communities in Campania not yet reduced by the Romans, gave occasion to the outbreak of the inevitable war between the Samnites and Romans. The Tarentines and Samnites, informed of the intention of the Romans to seize these cities, antic.i.p.ated the seizure, upon which the Romans declared war, and commenced the siege of Palaeapolis, which soon submitted, on the offer of favorable terms. An alliance of the Romans with the Lucanians, left the Samnites unsupported, except by tribes on the eastern mountain district. The Romans invaded the Samnite territories, pillaging and destroying as far as Apulia, on which the Samnites sent back the Roman prisoners and sought for peace. But peace was refused by the inexorable enemy, and the Samnites prepared for desperate resistance. They posted themselves in ambush at an important pa.s.s in the mountains, and shut up the Romans, who offered to capitulate. Instead of accepting the capitulation and making prisoners of the whole army, the Samnite general, Gaius Pontius, granted an equitable peace. But the Roman Senate, regardless of the oaths of their generals, and regardless of the six hundred equites who were left as hostages, canceled the agreement, and the war was renewed with increased exasperation on the part of the Samnites, who, however, were sufficiently magnanimous not to sacrifice the hostages they held. Rome sent a new army, under Lucius Papirius Cursor, and laid siege to Lucania, where the Roman equites lay in captivity. The city surrendered, and Papirius liberated his comrades, and retaliated on the Samnite garrison. The war continued, like all wars at that period between people of equal courage and resources, with various success-sometimes gained by one party and sometimes by another, until, in the fifteenth year of the war, the Romans established themselves in Apulia, on one sea, and Campania, on the other.
The people of Northern and Central Italy, perceiving that the Romans aimed at the complete subjugation of the whole peninsula, now turned to the a.s.sistance of the Samnites. The Etruscans joined their coalition, but were at length subdued by Papirius Cursor. The Samnites found allies in the Umbrians of Northern, and the Marsi and Pieligni of Central Italy, But these people were easily subdued, and a peace was made with Samnium, after twenty-two years' war, when Bovianum, its strongest city, was taken by storm, B.C. 298.
(M820) The defeated nations would not, however, submit to Rome without one more final struggle, and the third Samnite war was renewed the following year, for which the Samnites called to their aid the Gauls. This war lasted nine years, and was virtually closed by the great victory of Seutinum-a fiercely contested battle, where the Romans, though victorious, lost nine thousand men. Umbria submitted, the Gauls dispersed, and the Etruscans made a truce for four hundred months. The Samnites still made desperate resistance, but were finally subdued in a decisive battle, where twenty thousand were slain, and their great general, Pontius, was taken prisoner, with four thousand Samnites. This misfortune closed the war, but the Samnites were not subjected to humiliating terms. The Romans, however, sullied their victories by the execution of C. Pontius, the Samnite general, who had once spared the lives of two Roman armies, B.C. 291. Rome now became the ruling State of Italy, but there were still two great nations unsubdued-the Etruscans in the north, and the Lucanians in the south.
(M821) A new coalition arose against Rome, soon after the Samnites were subdued, composed of Etruscans, Bruttians, and Lucanians. The war began in Etruria, B.C. 283, and continued with alternate successes, until the decisive victory at the Vadimonian Lake, gained by G. Domitius Calvinus, destroyed forever the power of the Etruscans. The attention of Rome was now given to Tarentum, a Greek city, at the bottom of the gulf of that name, adjacent to the fertile plain of Lucania. This city, which was pre-eminent among the States of Magna Grecia, had grown rich by commerce, and was sufficiently powerful to defend herself against the Etruscans and the Syracusans. It was a Dorian colony, but had abandoned the Lacedaemonian simplicity, and was given over to pleasure and luxury; but, luxurious as it was, it was the only obstacle to the supremacy of Rome over Italy.
(M822) This thoughtless and enervated, but great city, ruled by demagogues, had insulted Rome-burning and destroying some of her s.h.i.+ps. It was a reckless insult which Rome could not forget, prompted by fear as well as hatred. When the Samnite war closed, the Tarentines, fearing the vengeance of the most powerful State in Italy, sent to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a soldier of fortune, for aid. They offered the supreme command of their forces, with the right to keep a garrison in their city, till the independence of Italy was secured.
(M823) Pyrrhus, who was compared with Alexander of Macedon, aspired to found an h.e.l.lenic empire in the West, as Alexander did in the East, and responded to the call of the Tarentines. Rome was not now to contend with barbarians, but with h.e.l.lenes-with phalanxes and cohorts instead of a militia-with a military monarchy and sustained by military science. He landed, B.C. 281, on the Italian sh.o.r.es, with an army of twenty thousand veterans in phalanx, two thousand archers, three thousand cavalry, and twenty elephants. The Tarentine allies promised three hundred and fifty thousand infantry and twenty thousand cavalry to support him. The Romans strained every nerve to meet him before these forces could be collected and organized. They marched with a force of fifty thousand men, larger than a consular army, under Laevinius and aemilius. They met the enemy on the plain of Heraclea. Seven times did the legion and phalanx drive one or the other back. But the reserves of Pyrrhus, with his elephants, to which the Romans were unaccustomed, decided the battle. Seven thousand Romans were left dead on the field, and an immense number were wounded or taken prisoners. But the battle cost Pyrrhus four thousand of his veterans, which led him to say that another such victory would be his ruin. The Romans retreated into Apulia, but the whole south of Italy, Lucania, Samnium, the Bruttii, and the Greek cities were the prizes which the conqueror won.
(M824) Pyrrhus then offered peace, since he only aimed to establish a Greek power in Southern Italy. The Senate was disposed to accept it, but the old and blind Appius Claudius was carried in his litter through the crowded forum-as Chatham, in after times, bowed with infirmities and age, was carried to the parliament-and in a vehement speech denounced the peace, and infused a new spirit into the Senate. The Romans refused to treat with a foreign enemy on the soil of Italy. The amba.s.sador of Pyrrhus, the orator Cineas, returned to tell the conqueror that to fight the Romans was to fight a hydra-that their city was a temple, and their senators were kings.
(M825) Two new legions were forthwith raised to re-enforce Laevinius, while Pyrrhus marched direct to Rome. But when he arrived within eighteen miles, he found an enemy in his front, while Laevinius hara.s.sed his rear. He was obliged to retreat, and retired to Tarentum with an immense booty. The next year he opened the campaign in Apulia; but he found an enemy of seventy thousand infantry and eight thousand horse-a force equal to his own. The first battle was lost by the Romans, who could not penetrate the Grecian phalanx, and were trodden down by the elephants. But he could not prosecute his victory, his troops melted away, and he again retired to Tarentum for winter quarters.
(M826) Like a military adventurer, he then, for two years, turned his forces against the Carthaginians, and relieved Syracuse. But he did not avail himself of his victories, being led by a generous nature into political mistakes. He then returned to Italy to renew his warfare with the Romans. The battle of Beneventum, gained by Carius, the Roman general, decided the fate of Pyrrhus. The flower of his Epirot troops was destroyed, and his camp fell, with all its riches, into the hands of the Romans. The king of Epirus retired to his own country, and was a.s.sa.s.sinated by a woman at Argos, after he had wrested the crown of Macedonia from Antigonus, B.C. 272. He had left, however, to garrison, under Milo, at Tarentum. The city fell into the hands of the Romans the year that Pyrrhus died.
(M827) With the fall of Tarentum, the conquest of Italy was complete. The Romans found no longer any enemies to resist them on the peninsula. A great State was organized for the future subjection of the world. The conquest of Italy greatly enriched the Romans. Both rich and poor became possessed of large grants of land from the conquered territories. The conquered cities were incorporated with the Roman State, and their inhabitants became Roman citizens or allies. The growth of great plebeian families re-enforced the aristocracy, which was based on wealth. Italy became Latinized, and Rome was now acknowledged as one of the great powers of the world.
(M828) The great man at Rome during the period of the Samnite wars was Appius Claudius-great grandson of the decemvir, and the proudest aristocrat that had yet appeared. He enjoyed all the great offices of State. To him we date many improvements in the city, also the highway which bears his name. He was the patron of art, of eloquence, and poetry.
But, at this period, all individual greatness was lost in the State.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.
A contest greater than with Pyrrhus and the Greek cities, more memorable in its incidents, and more important in its consequences, now awaited the Romans. This was with Carthage, the greatest power, next to Rome, in the world at that time-a commercial State which had been gradually aggrandized for three hundred years. It was a rich and powerful city at the close of the Persian wars. It had succeeded Tyre as the mistress of the sea.
(M829) We have seen, in the second book, how the Carthaginians were involved in wars with Syracuse, when that city had reached the acme of its power under Dionysius. We have also alluded to the early history and power of Carthage. At the time Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, it contained nearly a million of people, and controlled the northern coast of Africa, and the western part of the Mediterranean. Carthage was strictly a naval power, although her colonies were numerous, and her dependencies large. The land forces were not proportionate to the naval; but large armies were necessary to protect her dependencies in the constant wars in which she was engaged. These armies were chiefly mercenaries, and their main strength consisted in light cavalry.
(M830) The territories of Carthage lay chiefly in the islands which were protected by her navy and enriched by her commerce. Among these insular possessions, Sardinia was the largest and most important, and was the commercial depot of Southern Europe. A part of Sicily, also, as we have seen (Book ii., chap. 24), was colonized and held by her, and she aimed at the sovereignty of the whole island. Hence the various wars with Syracuse.
The Carthaginians and Greeks were the rivals for the sovereignty of this fruitful island, the centre of the oil and wine trade, the store-house for all sorts of cereals. Had Carthage possessed the whole of Sicily, her fleets would have controlled the Mediterranean.
(M831) The embroilment of Carthage with the Grecian States on this island was the occasion of the first rupture with Rome. Messina, the seat of the pirate republic of the Mamertines, was in close alliance with Rhegium, a city which had grown into importance during the war with Pyrrhus. Rhegium, situated on the Italian side of the strait, solicited the protection of Rome, and a body of Campanian troops was sent to its a.s.sistance. These troops expelled or ma.s.sacred the citizens for whose protection they had been sent, and established a tumultuary government. On the fall of Tarentum, the Romans sought to punish this outrage, and also to embrace the opportunity to possess a town which would facilitate a pa.s.sage to Sicily, for Sicily as truly belonged to Italy as the Peloponnesus to Greece, being separated only by a narrow strait. A Roman army was accordingly sent to take possession of Rhegium, but the defenders made a desperate resistance. It was finally taken by storm, and the original citizens obtained repossession, as dependents and allies of Rome. The fall of Rhegium robbed the pirate city of Messina of the only ally on which it could count, and subjected it to the vengeance of both the Carthaginians and the Syracusans. The latter were then under the sway of Hiero, who, for fifty years, had reigned without despotism, and had quietly developed both the resources and the freedom of the city. He collected an army of citizens, devoted to him, who expelled the Mamertines from many of their towns, and gained a decisive victory over them, not far from Messina.
(M832) The Mamertines, in danger of subjection by the Syracusans, then looked for foreign aid. One party looked to Carthage, and another to Rome.
The Carthaginian party prevailed on the Mamertines to receive a Punic garrison. The Romans, seeking a pretext for a war with Carthage, sent an army ostensibly to protect Messina against Hiero. But the strait which afforded a pa.s.sage to Sicily was barred by a Carthaginian fleet. The Romans, unaccustomed to the sea, were defeated. Not discouraged, however, they finally succeeded in landing at Messina, and although Carthage and Rome were at peace, seized Hanno, the Carthaginian general, who had the weakness to command the evacuation of the citadel as a ransom for his person.
(M833) On this violation of international law, Hiero, who feared the Romans more than the Carthaginians, made an alliance with Carthage, and the combined forces of Syracuse and Carthage marched to the liberation of Messina. The Romans, under Appius, the consul, then made overtures of peace to the Carthaginians, and bent their energies against Hiero. But Hiero, suspecting the Carthaginians of treachery, for their whole course with the Syracusans for centuries had been treacherous, retired to Syracuse. Upon which the Romans attacked the Carthaginians singly, and routed them, and spread devastation over the whole island.
This was the commencement of the first Punic war, in which the Romans were plainly the aggressors. Two consular armies now threatened Syracuse, when Hiero sought peace, which was accepted on condition of provisioning the Roman armies, and paying one hundred talents to liberate prisoners.
<script>