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alliance,12 was followed by the fall of Agrigentum,' and, within a year or two more, by the first naval victory, won by Caius Duilius, in a novel but decisive manner, off Mylæ, on the northern coast of Sicily." Four years later, Atilius Regulus being in command, the Carthaginian fleet was worsted near Ecnomus, on the southern shore, and Africa itself was invaded, though soon abandoned by the Roman army.' Before and after the African campaign of Regulus, the operations of Atilius Calatinus in Sicily contributed greatly to the encouragement of the Romans,16 whose hopes were still more strengthened by the later victory of Cæcilius Metellus, at Panormus, in the North;" and though Hamilcar Barca, the great hero of all the war, came over not long afterwards, and for five years kept the remnants of the Carthaginian dominion from falling into the hands of its enemies, the defeat of the admiral Hanno, near Ægusa, by Lutatius Catulus,19 cut off the subsidies on which Hamilcar depended, and forced him to make, under authority received from home, the overtures of peace. It was finally decided that Carthage should pay a large sum of money, besides releasing her prisoners and evacuating Sicily, together with the immediately adjoining islands.20 On the 12 Polyb., I. 16.

16 Polyb., I. 25, 38. He was 13 Ibid., I. 19. The siege lasted the first Dictator who commanded seven months. beyond the limits of Italy. Liv., Epit. XIX.

14 The novelty, which consisted in the use of boarding planks, is described by Polybius, I. 20-22.

15 Polyb., I. 26 et seq. Florus, II. 2.

17 Polyb., I. 40.

18 Ibid, I. 56.
19 Ibid., I. 61.
20 Ibid., I. 62, 63.

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other side, though the number of Roman citizens bearing arms was diminished by more than forty thousand, the losses and the fears of the conflict were compensated a thousand-fold by the hopes and the triumphs which had been acquired. The first blast of the trumpet blown abroad had brought the enemies of the Commonwealth to their knees; and it was of little concern in Rome, that her own breath should have been almost too severely tried.

As well as we can penetrate within the folds which are scarcely moved aside by history from the daily lives of the Romans through this eventful contest, we see all classes devoted to the one great purpose of victory over the Carthaginians. The rich gave their money," the poor their service, the skilful their knowledge, and the brave their strength 23 to the common cause, in which the citizen Romans, fresh as they were with their recent conquests, did not seem to outdo the subjects or the allies, whose energies were stimulated by the memory of their late defeats. The longings which some must have felt for peace, when a fleet returned without the kinsmen or the friends whom it had borne away, were hushed; and the impulse to which others would have yielded in

21 It appears that there were 292,224 returned by the census of A. C. 262; but only 251,222 by that of A. C. 242. Liv., Epit. XVI., XIX.

22 As when the fleet was prepared, by which Catulus conquered at Ægusa. Polyb., I. 59.

23 As when the military Tribune,

whose name is left uncertain, led four hundred followers to certain destruction, in order to save the army to which they belonged. Cato, after whom the story is related, compares the heroism of the action to that of Leonidas at Thermopylæ. Aul. Gell., III. 7. Cf. Liv., Epit. XVII.

harping upon political disputes was weaker still, at a time when most men were determined to be united. A Plebeian, Tiberius Coruncanius, was elected Chief Pontiff because of his proficiency in the lore upon which the functions of the office were dependent; and he, in return, instructed those who wished to learn in some of the knowledge he himself possessed.24 On the other hand, the men in high places who were inefficient or lukewarm in their duties were visited, not merely with censure, but with degradation; and the record is preserved of thirteen Senators and forty Knights who were stripped of the honors they knew not how to wear.25 It was in such times, when the sword was sharpened in every house, and a camp pitched upon nearly every field, that the liberty of the Romans seemed to assume its highest vigor, raising the worthy, humbling the unworthy, yet making claims that many a man could have satisfied only by blood or bitter tears.

One singular instance of the subserviency required of the highest as well as the lowest classes is

24 Digest. Lib. I. Tit. II. 2, sect. Q. Cassius, Zonaras, VIII. 14. So 35-38. Liv., Epit. XVIII.

25 The reason for the degradation of the Knights is expressly stated as having been their neglect of military duties in Sicily. Val. Max., II. 9, sect. 7. Liv., Epit. XVIII.

26 Others, however, are also recorded as in the conduct and sentence of Claudia, Claudius Pulcher's sister, Liv., Epit. XIX.; the punishment of Aurelius Pecuniola, Val. Max., II. 7, sect. 4; and that of

the Consul Aulus Postumius could not take the field because he was the Flamen of Mars. Liv., Epit. XIX. The familiar story of the return and the steadfastness of Regulus, the invader of Africa, is too doubtful to be given as history, but may be referred to in illustration of the spirit to uphold and to die for the laws. Liv., Epit. XIX. De Vir. Ill., Cap. XL.

preserved in the account of Publius Claudius Pulcher, the son of Appius the Blind, and the inheritor of even more than his father's self-relying pride. Having been elected Consul and invested with the command of the fleet, in the year following the great victory at Panormus, he not only set out from Rome in defiance of unfavorable auspices,27 but, when, after putting to sea, he came near the ships of the enemy off Drepanum, he ordered the sacred chickens to be hurled into the waves, because their refusal to feed denied him good omens.28 Defeated in the action which ensued, he was presently recalled by the Senate, who ordered him to name a Dictator in his stead; and finding he had to comply with their commands, as with the will of the whole people, he gave way again to his passions, and nominated one of his dependants, the son of a freedman." The appointment, however, was instantly set aside, and Claudius himself was brought to trial before the people, and by them condemned for treason to the Commonwealth.30

It is not mere reasoning, but actual though greatly defective history, that suggests some proportion between the melioration of the inferior orders and the obligations laid by zeal or by necessity upon their superiors. The slave might be more kindly treated by the master whose liability to distant service obliged him to think, at least, of securing the

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faithfulness of his retainers. The artisan would profit by the incessant calls upon his labor, whether for the equipments of the departing or the luxuries of the returning soldier; and many of the classes hitherto excluded from the places they would themselves have sought amongst the warriors were enlisted in the fleets or in the armies of their countrymen. These things, perhaps, ought to be related only of the lower ranks in the city, or in its immediate neighbourhood, whose presumption would be excited, even if their elevation were not really produced, by their connection with the victors over so many people, both free and bond, as were now dependent upon the Commonwealth. But there is likewise proof that the improvement here noticed in the estimation of the inferior classes resulted in something better than the vanity or the warlike ardor of the slaves, the artisans, or the immigrants in Rome. A year or two before the close of the war, a new magistrate was appointed, under the title of Alien Prætor, whose chief duty it should be to administer justice amongst the aliens, whether resident in the city or in the various towns 32 to which they belonged. Yet, in the midst of these happier prognostics, there comes a sound of clanking chains and dripping weapons; and the first combat of gladiators, ordered, it is told, by a son in

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31 Peregrinus appellatus est ab eo quod plerumque inter peregrinos jus dicebat." Digest. Lib. I. Tit. II. 2, sect. 28. The date, however, is uncertain.

32 See Hugo's Hist. Rom. Law, Sect. CLVIII. and note.

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