pus.

HE renewed war began unfavourably for the Romans, their entire fleet having been wrecked on the south coast of Sicily (B. c. 248), and Hamilcar Barca, the new commander of the Carthaginians, proving a worthy successor of XanthipBut they were not dispirited by these losses; a new fleet, of better construction than any they had yet possessed, was built, and placed under the command of the consul Lutatius Catulus; at the same time strong reinforcements were sent to the army in Sicily. The hostile navies met near the Ægates: the consul had lightened his vessels by landing all unnecessary burdens on one of these islands; but Hanno, the Carthaginian admiral, in his hurry to engage, left his vessels encumbered with baggage. The battle was brief but decisive: fifty of Hanno's vessels were sunk, and seventy taken; and the Carthaginians were for ever deprived of the empire of the sea (B. c. 241).

But the consequences of this defeat threatened still more

fatal results to Carthage: Hamilcar Barca, with the last army on which the republic could depend, was closely blockaded in a corner of Sicily, and the Roman cruisers cut him off from all communication with Africa: were he forced to surrender, Carthage would be left at the mercy of the barbarous tribes in its neighbourhood. Under these circumstances the Carthaginians sought peace; but could obtain no better terms than those which Regulus demanded when in sight of their gates (B. c. 240). These conditions were, that the Carthaginians should evacuate all the islands of the Mediterranean; restore the Roman prisoners without ransom; and pay three thousand talents of silver (about $3,000,000) to defray the expenses of the war.

A

HANNIBAL.

FTER the termination of the first Punic war, Rome enjoyed a brief period of domestic and external tranquillity; and the temple of Janus was shut for the second time since the foundation of the city. Tedious wars were waged against the Ligurians and the Gallic tribes which had settled in northern Italy, when the people became weary of peace: but a more important contest was provoked by the piracies of the Illyrians, whose queen, Teuta, procured the murder of the ambassadors sent to remonstrate against the outrages of her subjects. A navy was soon established in the Adriatic, and an army sent into Illyricum, whose rapid successes compelled Teuta to purchase peace by resigning the greater

part of her territories (B. c. 227). This speedy conquest diffused the fame of the Romans throughout eastern Europe; for most of the Greek states had suffered severely from the piracies of the Illyrians. The war was subsequently renewed (B. C. 218), and the Illyrians again overthrown with greater disgrace and loss.

The Carthaginians were anxious to compensate their losses in Sicily by the subjugation of Spain; and their extensive conquests in that peninsula gave great umbrage to their suspicious rivals. A pretext for interference was soon found. Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar Barca, who had been brought, while yet a child, to the altar by his father, and sworn never to relax in his enmity to Rome, laid siege to Saguntum, a Greek colony on the Iberus, and treated with contempt the remonstrances of the Roman ambassadors (B. c. 218). His conduct having been approved by the Carthaginian senate, both parties made instant preparations for renewing hostilities, and soon commenced the second Punic war.

Before the Roman armies were ready to take the field, Hannibal had completed the conquest of Spain, and crossed the Pyrenees on his road to Italy. The consul, Scipio, hastened to prevent him from passing the Rhone; but being frustrated by the superior diligence of the Carthaginian general, he sent the greater part of his forces into Spain, and sailed with the remainder for Italy, in order to intercept his enemies as they descended from the Alps. Even these formidable mountains caused but little delay to the enterprising Hannibal. He led his army across them in fifteen days (B. C. 217); and, advancing through the country of the Taurini, took their capital city (Turin) by storm. Scipio hastened to meet the invaders on the banks of the river Ticinus; but he was defeated with great loss, and further weakened by the desertion of his Gallic mercenaries, who eagerly flocked to the standard of Hannibal, regarding him as another Brennus.

In the mean time Scipio had been reinforced by Sempronius, the other consul; but he found that these succours were more than counterbalanced by the impetuosity of his col

league. Sempronius, eager to engage, imprudently forded the river Trebia, though its waters were swollen by rain and melted snow. The Romans, suddenly attacked as they came out of the river, were not able to cope with their enemies, who were fresh and vigorous; nevertheless, they made a orave resistance, and the central division, unbroken, made its way from the field to the city of Placentia. The victory, however, was of the greatest service to Hannibal, as it secured him the alliance of the Gauls in northern Italy.

Flaminius, the consul of the next year, displayed even more impetuosity and imprudence than Sempronius. Marching incautiously in search of Hannibal, he fell into an ambuscade near the Thrasymenian lake, and was slain, with the greater part of his army (B. C. 216). The Romans were so alarmed by the intelligence of this great calamity, that they created Fabius Maximus dictator, though, in the absence of the surviving consul, they were obliged to dispense with the legal formalities. Fabius adopted a new system of tactics; he declined fighting; but moving his camp along the summits of the hills, he closely watched the motions of the invaders, harassed their march, and intercepted their convoys. From his steadfast adherence to this policy, Fabius received the surname of Cunctátor, (the delayer). During this period, the Roman armies in Spain, under the command of the Scipios, gained many important advantages, and thus prevented the Carthaginians from sending succours to Hannibal.

At the close of the year, Fabius resigned his authority to the consuls Paulus Æmilius and Terentius Varro (B. c. 215). The latter hurried his more prudent colleague into a general action at the village of Cannæ, near the river Aufidus, where the Romans suffered a more severe defeat than any they had received since their fatal overthrow by the Gauls on the Alia. This victory gave Hannibal a secure position in southern Italy: it is even supposed that he would have got possession of Rome itself, had he marched thither immediately after the battle.

But the Romans, notwithstanding their great losses, did