besieged by king Hiero II. of Syracuse. Part of their number sought aid from the Carthaginians, another part from the Romans. The Roman senate hesitated; the assemblies resolved to grant the assistance asked (265). A Roman fleet, consisting principally of the ships of the south Italian allies, and the advance guard of the army, arrived in Rhegium. Meanwhile the Mamertines had admitted Carthaginian ships to the harbor and received a Carthaginian garrison in the citadel. The Roman advance guard crossed the strait, occupied Messana, and drove the garrison from the citadel. The Carthaginians declared war.

264. A Carthaginian fleet besieged the Romans in Messana. The consul Appius Claudius Caudex crossed the strait with the main body of the army and relieved Messana. Unsuccessful attempt to take Syracuse. The consul returned to Italy, leaving a garrison in Messana. 263. Two Roman armies crossed to Sicily. Victory of the consul M. Valerius Maximus, called Messalla, over the Carthaginians and Syracusans. Hiero, king of Syracuse, deserted the Carthaginians and joined the Romans, who advanced to the south coast of Sicily.

262. Agrigentum captured by the Romans, after defeat of a Carthaginian army under Hanno, advancing to its relief. The Romans resolved to construct a large fleet. They built the first five-decker1 (pentĕre) after the model of a stranded Carthaginian ship.

260. First naval expedition of the Romans against Lipăra, with 17 ships, had an unfortunate end, the whole squadron with the consul Cn. Cornelius Scipio being captured by the Carthaginians. Immediately afterwards, however,

260. First naval victory of the Romans under C. Duilius at Mylæ, west of Messana. Boarding bridges. Special honors paid to Duilius. Columna rostrata in the Forum. The war was continued in the following years with changing fortune; the Carthaginians under Hamilcar maintained themselves in the western portion of the island.

257. Drawn battle at sea, off the promontory of Tyndaris.

The Roman senate decided to attempt a landing in Africa. A fleet of 330 ships under the consuls M. Atilius Regulus and L. Manlius Volso sailed for the southern coast of Sicily, where, at the mouth of the Himera, the troops were taken on board. A Carthaginian fleet of 350 vessels attempted to stop the expedition, but in the great 256. Naval battle of Ecnomus (south coast of Sicily)

it was completely defeated. What was left of the Carthaginian fleet took up position before Carthage to protect the city. The Roman consuls landed to the east of the city at Clupea and laid waste the Carthaginian territory. Manlius returned to Italy with half the army; Regulus remained with 15,000 men. The Carthaginians being defeated sued for peace. Regulus demanded the cession of Sicily and Sardinia, surrender of prisoners and all vessels of war except one, 1 Not the first ship of war; the Romans had long had vessels of war and three-deckers, see pp, 105, 107, 109.

and acknowledgment of Rome's supremacy. Stung by these insolent demands, the Carthaginians resolved upon most energetic preparations, and levied troops in Greece, whence numerous bands of mercenaries, and among them the Spartan Xanthippus, went to Africa. The Carthaginian army being thus greatly strengthened (the elephants numbered 100),

255. Regulus was defeated at Tunes

and captured. A part of the Roman army escaped to Clupea. The senate at once sent a fleet to Africa, which, after gaining a naval victory over the Carthaginians at the promontory of Hermes, took on board the Roman army, which was surrounded at Clupea; but on the return voyage three fourths of the ships were lost in a storm. The Carthaginians reopened the war in Sicily, landing in Lilybæum under Hasdrubal, son of Hanno. The Romans built a new fleet. 254. Capture of Panormus by the Romans. In the following year (253) the Roman fleet crossed to Africa and laid waste the coast. On the return voyage from Sicily to Italy it was almost annihilated by a storm. The Roman senate declined to continue the naval warfare. On land the Romans gained the

251. Victory of Panormus

over Hasdrubal under the consul Cæcilius Metellus, who at his triumph in Rome exhibited over 100 elephants.

The story of the embassy of Regulus to Rome falls in the period subsequent to this victory. It is, like the story of the cruelties inflicted upon him by the Carthaginians, probably an invention of a later time. The Romans renewed the naval war. They besieged Lilybæum in vain. The consul P. Claudius Pulcher in the

249. Sea-fight at Drepanum

defeated by the Carthaginians. Capture of a great number of Roman ships. After two more Roman fleets had been destroyed by storms on the south coast of Sicily, the Romans, for the second time, abandoned naval warfare.

248-242. Campaign by land on the south side of Sicily. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar, called Barak or Barcas (i. e. lightning) not only defended himself for 6 years successfully against the Romans, first on Mt. Eircte (Monte Pellegrino, near Palermo), then on Eryx, but also annoyed the Italian coasts by privateers. Through the contributions of rich patriots at Rome, a new fleet was finally built entirely at private cost. With this fleet the consul C. Lutatius Catulus won the decisive

241. Victory at the Ægatian Islands

(opposite Lilybæum), over the Carthaginian fleet under Hanno. Peace: I. The Carthaginians gave up all claims to Sicily. II. They paid 3200 talents ($4,000,000) war indemnity in ten years. The larger western part of Sicily became the first Roman province; the smaller eastern 1 part continued under the supremacy of Syracuse, which was allied with Rome.

1

The territory of Syracuse, Acra, Leontini, Megára, Helorum, Netum, Tauromenium. Comp. Marquardt-Mommsen, Röm. Alth., IV. 91.

241 (?). In this period, probably, occurred the democratic reform of the constitution of the centuries, concerning the details of which but little is known with certainty. Only this is clear : that the right of first vote was taken from the centuries of equites and that henceforward the century which should cast the first vote (centuria prærogativa) was determined by lot. It is probable that the centuries from now on formed a subdivision of the wards (tribus). It is further probable that the number of centuries was increased; perhaps an equal number of centuries (i. e. voting bodies) was established for each class (p. 92), and in this manner the preponderance of the first class was abolished.1

238.

The Romans made use of an insurrection of the mercenaries and Libyan subjects against Carthage to extort from the Carthaginians the cession of Sardinia. This island was at a later time united with the island of Corsica (formerly Etruscan, afterwards conquered by the Romans) to form one province. For the present the Romans were satisfied with the occupation of the coasts. 229-228. War with the Illyrians of Scodra, brought about by the piracies and acts of violence committed by these tribes, and their refusal to make the reparation demanded by the senate. A Roman fleet of 200 ships soon brought the Illyrian pirates to terms, and compelled the queen Teuta, the guardian of her son, to accept the following conditions: release of all Grecian cities from her sway, abandonment of piracy, limitation of navigation, and payment of a tribute. The Greeks attested their gratitude to the senate by admitting all Romans to the Isthmian games and the Eleusinian mysteries (p. 44). The lasting result of the war was the firm establishment of Roman superiority in the Adriatic Sea and supremacy over Corcyra, Apollonia, Epidamnus, and some neighboring tribes. In 219 the renewal of the war led to the subjugation of a part of Illyria by L. Emilius Paullus.

225-222. Subjugation of Cisalpine Gaul

brought about by a dangerous invasion of the Gallic tribes inhabiting the plains of the Po (except the Cenomani) joined by numerous bands of transalpine Gauls. The Celts entered Etruria 70,000 strong and advanced upon Rome. The Romans sent two consular armies against them, which were reinforced by a third. Surrounded by these forces the Gauls were defeated and annihilated in the

225. Battle of Telamon,

south of the mouth of the Umbro. The consul C. Atilius Regulus fell, 10,000 Gauls and one of their military leaders were captured, nearly all the rest fell or killed themselves. The Romans entered Gallia Cispadana, and the inhabitants, the Boi, submitted. The Romans crossed the Po, with severe losses (223), and defeated the Insubres. After two more victories in the following year (222) the consul Cn. Scipio captured Mediolanum, the capital of the Insubres, and Comum. To strengthen their power the Romans founded the fortresses of Placentia, Cremona, and Mutina. The military

1 Becker, Röm. Alterth. II.3, p. 9, foll.

road to Spoletium was extended across the Apennines to the Adriatic Sea, and along the coast to Ariminum (Via Flaminia). Further measures for the firmer establishment of their power in Cisalpine Gaul were interrupted by the

218-201. Second Punic War.1

Causes: Envy of the Romans, excited by the new prosperity of Carthage, springing from her recent acquisitions in Spain, and the efforts of the party of the Barcæ to take revenge on Rome.

Special causes: The conquests of Hamilcar Barcas in southern and western Spain (236-228) being successfully pursued after his death by his son-in-law Hasdrubal, the Romans concluded a treaty with the Grecian cities Zacynthus or Saguntum, north of Valencia, and Emporia, now Ampurias, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and compelled the Carthaginians to promise to neither attack these cities nor cross the Ebro with the purpose of making further conquests. After the murder of Hasdrubal (221) the army chose the son of Hamilcar Barcas, Hannibal, then 28 years old, for their general. In order to make war unavoidable even against the will of the Carthaginian government, Hannibal conquered and destroyed Saguntum (219) after a brave resistance of the inhabitants for eight months. A refusal to deliver up Hannibal as demanded by a Roman embassy in Carthage was followed by a declaration of war on the part of the Romans.

The plan of the Romans to land their main army in Africa, while a second army should engage the Carthaginian troops in Spain, was thwarted by

218. Hannibal's daring expedition to Italy

by land. Leaving a sufficient number of troops in Spain, Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees with 50,000 foot, 9000 horse, and 37 elephants, traversed Gaul not far from the coast by way of Narbo (Narbonne) and Nemausus (Nimes). The Roman consul P. Cornelius Scipio, who had stopped at Massilia on the voyage to Spain, heard of Hannibal's march, but his attempt to prevent the Carthaginians from crossing the Rhodanus (Rhône) with a division of his army came too late; the Carthaginian army had already passed the river above Avenio (Avignon). Cavalry skirmish. The Roman consul sent his brother Cn. Scipio with the main part of the army to Spain, while he himself returned with a small force to northern Italy (Pisa). Hannibal marched up the Rhône to Vienna, then turned eastward through the territory of the Allobroges and Centrones, where he forced a way with great loss, crossed the Alps, still fighting, by the pass of the Little St. Bernard, and after indescribable exertions and severe losses reached the valley of the Dora Baltea with about 26,000 men and a few elephants. In upper Italy a small Roman army was engaged with the revolted Gauls. Hannibal defeated the consul Scipio, who had gone on before with the cavalry and lightarmed foot soldiers, in the

1 Also called the Hannibalic War (Bellum Hannibalicum).

2 See Kiepert, Atlas Ant. Tab. VII. and X. The topographical questions have been settled by the Englishmen Wickham and Cramer.

218. Cavalry engagement on the Ticinus, a northern branch of Sept. the Po. The wounded consul was rescued by his seventeenyears-old son, the future "Africanus." Reinforced by the Gauls, Hannibal defeated in the

218. Battle of the Trebia, a southern branch of the Po, the other Dec. consul, Tib. Sempronius Longus, who had been hastily recalled from Sicily before the commencement of his African expedition, and now commanded the united Roman armies; the remnant of the Roman force threw itself into the fortresses Placentia and Cremona.

In northern Italy Hannibal organized the national insurrection of the Cisalpine Gauls; over 60,000 joined his army. In Rome two new consular armies were placed in the field for the next campaign. One under Cn. Servilius took the Via Flaminia to Ariminum in Umbria, the other under C. Flaminius the Via Cassia to Arretium in Etruria, to meet a possible attack by the Carthaginians. After Hannibal had released without ransom all prisoners belonging to the Roman allies, and by their influence had incited all Italy to desert Rome, he crossed the Apennines, and marched, unexpectedly to the Romans, through the swampy regions about the Arno. Severe losses. Hannibal himself lost an eye. By this march he flanked the Roman defensive position. The consul Flaminius followed him in all haste, and allowed himself to be decoyed by Hannibal into a narrow pass. In the

217. Battle of Lake Trasimene, between Cortona and Perusia, the Roman army was partly slaughtered, partly made prisoner (in all 30,000 men). Terror at Rome. Preparations for the defence of the city, destruction of the bridges over the Tiber. Appointment of Q. Fabius Maximus as dictator. Hannibal, however, did not march upon Rome, but passed the fortress of Spoletium after an unsuccessful attempt to surprise it, traversed Umbria across the Apennines to Picenum and the Adriatic Sea. There he rested his army, reorganized it after the Italian system, and established communication with Carthage by sea. Then he advanced southward. His hope that the Sabellian tribes would join him was not fulfilled; most of the cities closed their gates upon him.

After the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus had united his 2 new legions with the army of Ariminum, he followed, at a discreet distance, the Carthaginian army, which went through Samnium to Apulia, and passed by Luceria to Arpi. Fabius avoided a pitched battle (hence his nickname Cunctator, delayer), but tried successfully to weaken the Carthaginian army by numerous skirmishes. Hannibal crossed the Apennines again, and went through Samnium to Capua, which he tried in vain to seduce from Rome. The dictator followed and obstructed the Carthaginian march on the Volturnus, where Hannibal gained the pass by a stratagem only (Livius, XXII. 16). After he had severely harried the Sabellian tribes, Hannibal returned to Apulia.

Meantime the military conduct of Fabius Maximus had so displeased the Roman populace that they entrusted one half the army to the independent command of M. Minucius, master of the horse,