the word which Appian uses, for the Celtiberi retained their freedom. Posidonius, who is quoted by Strabo, says that the amount of money (silver) which Marcellus received from the Celtiberi was 600 talents, which seems a very large sum for such a people to pay. Marcellus thus complied with the commands of the Senate by making a show of fighting, and he also put an end to the war, as he wished to do.

We may conclude from this story about the 600 talents, observes Strabo, that the Celtiberi, though their country was poor, were a numerous people, and possessed a great deal of the precious metals. Spain is rich in the precious metals, but Celtiberia was not the part in which gold and silver abounded. The great mineral wealth is in the countries further south. If the Celtiberi had the precious metals, they probably obtained them chiefly by exchange, and used them as ornaments more than as coin. It may then be assumed that the women and men stripped themselves of their decorations to satisfy the demands of the Roman consul and to buy peace from their greedy enemies. Posidonius, though himself given to exaggeration, ridicules Polybius when he says that Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in his campaign destroyed above 300 Celtiberian towns, for he wrote this only to flatter Gracchus. Strabo judiciously remarks that both the generals and the historians wishing to magnify the deeds of the Romans fell into great exaggerations; and all the numbers that are reported in these Spanish wars show that the sensible geographer's remark is true. He adds that those writers who said that the Iberians had more than 1000 towns were guilty of the same falsehood. They gave to large villages the name of towns.

Lucullus on arriving in Spain found no war, but he made one. He wished to gain military reputation and to improve his fortune. Without any commission from the Senate, and without any provocation, he advanced against the Vaccaei, a nation of Celtiberian stock, who were the neighbours of the Arevaci on the west. The country of the Vaccaei lay on both sides of the upper Duero, and probably extended north to the Vindius or Vinnius, the mountain range which runs parallel to the shores of the bay of Biscay. Lucullus must

have brought his troops to Spain by sea, for he advanced from the south-east across the Tagus, and came to the town of Cauca (Coca), which is about twenty-nine Roman miles north-west of Segovia, and on the present road from Madrid to Valladolid. The people asked him why he had come there and what he wanted. A man who attacks another without a reason can always find one. Lucullus said that he came to aid the Carpetani, who were wronged by the Vaccaei. The Carpetani were between the Guadiana and the Tagus, on the great table lands of Spain. Their chief city Toletum (Toledo), on the north bank of the Tagus, and built on rocky hills, is the central point of the whole peninsula. The territory of the Carpetani probably extended north of the Tagus to the Sierra de Guadarama, which separates the basins of the Tagus and the Duero. Lucullus had marched through the country of the Carpetani on his road to Cauca, but we are not told that the Carpetani had complained of their neighbours.

The Carpetani were an Iberian race, and they may not have been on good terms with the Vaccaei, who were either a Celtic people or a mixture of Celts and Iberians. Indeed the name Vaccaei is evidently the same as the second part of the name Are-vaci. The first part of the name Are-vaci is Gallic, or at least Gallo-Iberian, and it occurs in the name of the Volcae-Arecomici in Gallia Narbonensis. The termination Vaci is also Celtic, as we observe in the name of the Gallic Bellovaci, the first part of which name is the same as that of the Celtiberian Belli.

The people of Cauca on receiving the answer of Lucullus shut themselves up in the town, but seizing an opportunity they sallied out and fell on the Romans, while they were getting wood and foraging. They killed some, and drove the rest to the Roman camp. A regular battle followed, in which the active Caucaei had the advantage till their missiles failed, when they fled to the town, and in the thronging about the gates 3000 of them were killed.

On the next day the oldest inhabitants of Cauca came in the fashion of suppliants to ask Lucullus what they must do to be received as friends. Lucullus demanded hostages,

a hundred talents of silver, and their cavalry, which should serve in his army. All this was granted; and then Lucullus asked them to receive a Roman garrison into their town. This was granted also; and Lucullus sent 2000 picked men with orders to take possession of the walls. This being done, Lucullus brought the rest of his army into the town, and on a given signal the Roman soldiers fell on the Caucaei, and massacred every male who had reached manhood. In vain the unhappy Spaniards appealed to the promise of the Roman general. A few escaped by throwing themselves from that part of the walls which stood on the edge of the precipice. Twenty thousand men are said to have perished, and the place was plundered. It may be true that the women and children were killed too. If they were sold as slaves, it does not seem likely, as we shall soon see, that either Lucullus or the slave-dealers could have carried them off to the south. The neighbouring people on hearing of the misfortune of the Caucaei left the plains, and fled to the hills and fortified cities, carrying with them what they could and burning the rest.

Lucullus moved forwards from Cauca, through a desolate O country, and reached Intercatia, also a town of the Vaccaei, but the site is unknown. Twenty thousand fighting men and two thousand horsemen were collected here. Lucullus invited the Spaniards to surrender; but they asked him. whether he proposed the same terms that he had offered to the Caucaei. On receiving this answer the consul wasted the surrounding country, and began to raise his earthworks round the town, but the Spaniards would not come out to fight, and they harassed the Romans by skirmishes. One of the barbarians splendidly equipped rode out before the armies and challenged any Roman to single combat. No man answered the challenge, and the Spaniard insulted the Romans by his gestures. The challenge was repeated till young Scipio came forward and accepted it: he killed the barbarian, who was a man of great stature, though he was himself of small size.

The siege was continued. The Romans suffered greatly from fatigue, want of sleep, and bad food; they had neither

wine, nor salt, nor vinegar, nor oil, all of which were necessaries for a Roman army. The want of these supplies is a proof of the incapacity of the commander, who led his men into a hungry country, where they could not find subsistence. The soldiers had wheat and barley, and deer flesh, and hares to eat; but an army that depends on wild animals must soon starve. For want of salt their food was unwholesome; dysentery attacked the soldiers, and many died. The agger or earthwork was at last finished, and the battering engines were brought to the walls. A breach was made, and the Romans with Scipio at their head forced their way through it, but meeting with a firm resistance they were driven out. Some of the Roman soldiers lost their way in the town and fell into a reservoir of water and were drowned. In the night the Spaniards repaired the breach. There was famine both in the town and in the Roman camp, and both sides were ready to come to terms. Scipio gave his word to the Spaniards that if they would submit, the convention should be honourably observed. We must assume that Lucullus allowed Scipio to propose terms, for he knew that the people would not trust him. It was agreed that the citizens of Intercatia should give ten thousand cloaks, a certain number of cattle and fifty hostages. The cattle and hostages might be easily found, but the cloaks could only be supplied by the citizens stripping themselves. Some of the Iberian mountaineers used to wear black cloaks, and such a covering is necessary in that climate in all seasons. The Spaniard had his cloak long before he knew the Roman. Lucullus asked for gold and silver too, which in fact were the sole objects of his expedition: he foolishly thought that all parts of Spain were as rich in these metals as some parts are. But he got neither gold nor silver, for the people had none: they did not care for such things.

The consul now moved on to Pallantia in the hope of finding there what he had not found at Intercatia. Pallantia, now Palencia, is on the Carrion, a branch of the Pisuerga which flows into the Duero; and it is on the road between Burgos and Valladolid. Palencia stands in a wide plain, and the climate is cold in winter. It was the largest city in these

C

parts and many Spaniards had fled there. The consul persisted against better advice in sitting down before the city till he was driven away by hunger. The enemy's cavalry harassed his foraging parties and prevented him from getting supplies. He was at last compelled to retire, and to protect his men and baggage he retreated with his troops in the form which the Romans call Agmen quadratum', followed by the cavalry of Pallantia as far as the Duero. The form in which Lucullus began his retreat proves his danger. The army though moving was always ready to fight. One division led the way, always in battle order: the baggage train followed, and behind the baggage train came another division in the same order as that which led the way. A third and fourth division, one on each flank, marched in columns and protected the centre of the moving square. After his pursuers left him, Lucullus had to lead his men over the cold Sierras of Spain and across the Tagus and the Guadiana, a distance of near three hundred miles in a direct line, before he reached the warm climate of the Guadalquivir where he wintered.

We read in Livy's Epitome (48) that Lucullus subdued the Vaccaei, Cantabri and other nations then unknown. It is possible that the Epitomator misunderstood or carelessly read Livy's text which is now lost. We may confidently affirm that Lucullus never crossed the Vindius into the territory of the Cantabri or the modern Asturias, and that if he had crossed, he would never have returned.

This was the end of a war begun contrary to Roman practice without the authority of the Senate, conducted with the basest treachery and ended by an ignominious retreat; and yet says Appian with great simplicity, Lucullus was not brought to trial. His friends and connexions were powerful enough to save him from the punishment which he deserved. Money was the only object of this contemptible Roman, and he got money in some way. On his return to Rome he built a temple to Felicitas or Good Fortune, which he dedicated in B.C. 146.

1 Machiavelli, Dell' arte della guerra, Libro Quinto; W. Rüstow, Heerwesen und Kriegsführung C. Julius Cäsars, p. 65.