and receives the command of the African army-Metellus returns to PAGE 458 THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. CHAPTER I. SPAIN. B.C. 154-151. SALLUST marks the destruction of Carthage as a memorable epoch in the history of Rome, when that corruption commenced which ended in the overthrow of the old constitution. The fear of this great rival being removed, the nobles and the popular party no longer kept any terms. The nobles looked only to their own interest and aggrandizement, and as they possessed the real power, they were able by their union to resist the ill-combined assaults of the popular party, and to secure to themselves all the honours and emoluments, which a few, and only a few, derive from a great national expenditure, and an extensive foreign dominion. The remark of Sallust on the immediate effect of the destruction of Carthage is repeated by Velleius Paterculus and other Latin writers. It is true that the overthrow of a rival power gave the Roman State external security by terminating a long contest, which at one time threatened the existence of Rome. But Sallust also affirms that before the downfall of Carthage, the Roman people and Senate, by which he means the plebeians and the nobility, for the Senate was in a sense the representative of the nobility, had administered the state in peace and harmony, that there was no strife among the citizens for place and power, and that fear of the enemy kept all men in the practice of virtue. But this rhetorical flourish is a misrepresentation. From the establishment of the Republic there had been a constant B struggle between the Senate and the Plebs, and the history of this struggle is the most instructive part of Roman history. This disunion between the people (plebs) and the Senate, says Machiavelli, made Rome free and powerful, for in all republics there are two tempers, that of the people and that of the great; and all laws which are made in favour of liberty come from their disunion, as we may see in the history of Rome. From the expulsion of the Tarquinii to the time of the Gracchi, a period of more than three hundred years, the tumults in Rome had seldom ended either in the exile or death of citizens; and Rome had produced many excellent men and noble examples of Roman virtue. The Roman's virtue was faith in the destiny of Rome, and absolute devotion to his country; but it was a virtue not inconsistent with the vice of oppressing all people who resisted the march of Rome's dominion over Italy and the world. All political systems contain within them the principles of their own death; and political progress, as we call it, is only the slower road to that end to which all human institutions, so far as we have yet had experience, must come at last. The conquest of Carthage is a convenient epoch from which we may trace the decline of the Roman republic through a turbulent period, until tranquillity was restored under a new form of government, a monarchy in substance, though not in form. But the elements of dissolution were in the Roman constitution before the fall of Carthage, and they will plainly appear in the course of this narrative. The nations of Spain were subjugated one after another by the Romans. The contest began with the second Punic war, and it ended with the defeat of the Cantabri and Astures by Augustus, B.C. 25. From B.C. 205 the Romans had a dominion in Spain. It was divided into two provinces, Hispania Citerior or Tarraconensis, and Hispania Ulterior or Baetica. At first extraordinary proconsuls were sent to Spain, but afterwards two praetors were sent, generally with proconsular authority and twelve fasces. During the Macedonian war the two parts of Spain were placed under one governor, but in B.c. 167 the old division was restored, and so it remained to the time of Augustus. The boundary between the two provinces was originally the Iberus (Ebro); for it was the country between the Pyrenees and the Ebro, containing Navarra, the north part of Aragon, and Catalonia, in which the Romans maintained themselves during the second Punic war. The country south of the Ebro was the Carthaginian territory, which came into the possession of the Romans at the end of this war. The centre, the west, and north-west parts of the Spanish peninsula were still independent. At a later time the boundary of Hispania Citerior extended further south, and it was fixed at last between Urci and Murgis, now Guardias Viejas, in 36° 41′ N. lat. The downfall of Carthage allowed the Romans to prosecute their designs on the peninsula without any fear of foreign intervention. In B.c. 145, the consul, Q. Fabius Maximus Aemilianus, was sent to Spain to oppose Viriathus, and to crush a rebellion, which if successful would have ended with the expulsion of the Romans. But it is necessary to go back a few years, in order to show the origin of this revolt against Roman authority. Spain had been tranquil, with some occasional exceptions, since the settlement made by Ti. Sempronius Gracchus in B.C. 178. In B.c. 154 new troubles began, and in the following manner. The Belli, a people who belonged to the Celtiberian nation, possessed a strong city, which Appian names Segede, and they were also included in the treaty which Gracchus made with the Spanish states. To strengthen themselves the Belli removed the inhabitants of all their smaller towns to Segede, which they began to surround with a wall five Roman miles in circuit. The Roman Senate saw in this design the preparations for a revolt, and they commanded the Belli to desist from building. At the same time they demanded the tribute which Gracchus had imposed on the Belli, and required them to furnish soldiers for the Roman army according to the treaty. The Belli answered that the treaty forbade them to build new cities, but not to fortify old ones; and they reminded the Romans that since the treaty was made with Gracchus, the Senate had released them from |