CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. B.C. 264 TO B.C. 241.

"Urbs antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni

CARTHAGO, Italiam contra Tyberinaque longè

Ostia; dives opum, studiisque asperrima belli."—VIRGIL.

SICILY THE BATTLE-FIELD OF ROME AND CARTHAGE-ITS CONNECTION WITH ITALY, GREECE, AND CARTHAGE-SEIZURE OF MESSANA BY THE MAMERTINES-THEY ARE BESIEGED BY HIERO-AID VOTED TO THEM BY THE ROMANS-BEGINNING OF THE FIRST PUNIC WARSUCCESSES OF THE ROMANS-THEY ARE JOINED BY HIERO-THEIR VICTORY AT AGRIGENTUM-HISTORY OF THE PHOENICIANS-THEIR PROPER NAME CANAANITES-THEIR LANGUAGE SEMITIC-TRADITION OF THEIR MIGRATION FROM THE RED SEA TO THE MEDITERRANEAN -THE CITIES OF PHOENICIA-HISTORY OF TYRE AND SIDON-THEIR COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION-COLONIES OF THE PHOENICIANS-CARTHAGE-LEGENDS OF ITS FOUNDATION -ITS DOMINION IN AFRICA-ITS MARITIME AND COLONIAL EMPIRE IN SPAIN, SARDINIA, AND SICILY-RIVALRY WITH THE GREEKS AND ALLIANCE WITH THE TYRRHENIANS-THE CARTHAGINIAN CONSTITUTION AND RELIGION-RELATIONS WITH ROME TO THE TIME OF THE PUNIC WARS-HISTORY OF THE FIRST PUNIC WAR RESUMED-ATTACKS ON THE COASTS OF ITALY-THE ROMAN FLEET-NAVAL VICTORY OF DUILIUS-CAMPAIGNS IN SARDINIA, CORSICA, AND SICILY-NAVAL VICTORY OF REGULUS-HIS SUCCESSES IN AFRICA-HIS DEFEAT AND IMPRISONMENT-THE WAR RESUMED IN SICILY-VICTORY OF PANORMUS AND SIEGE OF LILYBEUM-REGULUS AT ROME-WRECK OF THE ROMAN FLEET-EXPLOITS OF HAMILCAR BARCA IN SICILY-ROMAN VICTORY OFF THE EGATIAN ISLANDS-CONCLUSION OF THE WAR-SICILY A ROMAN PROVINCE-REVOLT AND RECONQUEST OF THE FALISCIPOPULATION OF ROME.

WHEN Pyrrhus sailed from the shores of Sicily, he is reported to have exclaimed, "How fine a battle-field are we leaving to the Romans and Carthaginians!" That island has been described as geographically belonging to Italy, as truly as the Peloponnesus belongs to Greece; and that a political division at the straits of Messina is as unnatural as the partition of Italy itself, is proved by the fact that Sicily and the South of Italy have generally been held by the same or kindred nations. The Siceli, from whom the island received its name, were, as we have seen, the same people as the Itali of the peninsula. The Hellenic settlements studded the shores alike of Magna Græcia and of Sicily. By the events now about to be related, the natural union of the island with the peninsula was established by the Romans; and it was preserved under their Gothic successors. When the kingdom of the Lombards was founded in Italy in the sixth century, the Greek empire held Sicily in conjunction with the duchies of Naples and Rome under the exarchate of Ravenna. Rent from Italy by the Arabs in the ninth century, as it had nearly been by the Carthaginians, Sicily was reunited to the peninsula by the Norman adventurers of the eleventh century; and the union of the island

with Southern Italy was perpetuated (with some interruptions) in the kingdom of the two Sicilies; till in our day the hero who created the new Italian kingdom began his work in Sicily.

But the very configuration of the island seems to indicate the fate which has made it, in every age, the prey of adventurers from diverse quarters. Severed from Italy by the straits, it is exposed to be torn from its connection by a superior maritime power. If its northern coast faces the peninsula, its eastern shore looks towards Greece, and its southern towards Africa: and we have already seen how these aspects were significant of its destinies thus far. For centuries, the Greek republics and the power of Carthage had been contending for its possession. The decline of the former had brought the latter up to the very straits; and across them Rome and Carthage now eyed each other with a jealousy about to break out into an internecine war, in which the Greeks now represented only by the rule of Hiero at Syracuse, were unable to take more than a subordinate part. The conflict was brought on by a cause apparently insignificant.

While the war was raging between Pyrrhus and the Romans, it happened by a strange coincidence that the cities of Rhegium and Messana, on the opposite shores of the straits, fell into the hands of independent freebooters, alike the enemies of both. We have seen how the Campanian mercenaries, who garrisoned Rhegium for Rome, revolted on the first successes of Pyrrhus. Their massacre of the Greek inhabitants would make them as odious to Pyrrhus as their revolt was unpardonable by the Romans. They were encouraged to defy both, and to hold the city for themselves, by the example of their kinsmen on the other side of the straits. A body of Campanian mercenaries, who had served under Agathocles, having been marched to Messana, on their way back to Italy, rose upon the citizens, who had received them hospitably, massacred all the males, and took possession of their wives and property (about B.C. 284). By assuming the title of Mamertini (children of Mamers, or Mars) they likened themselves to the, chosen bands which had been sent forth by their Sabellian ancestors in their" sacred spring." Both cities thus became nests of robbers, preying on the adjacent territories; and, while the garrison of Rhegium were strong enough to make war on Locri, the Mamertines of Messana carried terror as far as the gates of Syracuse. The first business of the Romans after the capture of Tarentum was, as we have seen, to punish the revolters of Rhegium (B.C. 271).

B.C. 265.]

ROME PROTECTS THE MAMERTINES

341

Meanwhile the Mamertines were maintained against Pyrrhus by the help of the Carthaginians. On his retreat they formed a third power in Sicily, occupying the north-eastern part, while Syracuse possessed only a small territory in the south-east, and the Carthaginians held the rest of the island. But a new impulse was given to Syracuse by the election of Hiero, the son of Hierocles, to succeed Pyrrhus as general of the Greeks (B.c. 275). Though at first raised to power by the soldiers against the will of the citizens, he soon won over the latter by his wise and moderate government. He got rid, by a treacherous stroke, of the mercenaries who had been the tools of former Syracusan tyrants, and, having remodelled the citizen army, he led them out to extirpate the nest of robbers at Messana. By a great victory, he gained the title of king of the Sicilian Greeks, and shut up the Mamertines in the city (B.c. 270).

After the siege had lasted for five years, the Mamertines, reduced to the last extremity, and hopeless of mercy from Hiero, saw that their only resource was surrender either to Carthage or to Rome. The majority decided that to give Rome a footing in Sicily would constitute a perfect claim upon her gratitude; and envoys were sent to the Senate, to offer the surrender of the city. It seemed at first impossible that the Romans could accept such a gift from the partners in guilt of those they had just so severely punished, and punished by the aid of that very ally against whom the Mamertines asked their protection. The suggestions of cautious policy, too, tended the same way as the dictates of good faith. To give the assistance asked, must not only precipitate a war with Carthage, but would lead the Romans beyond the boundaries of Italy. But on the other hand, it was certain that on their refusal the city would be given over to the Carthaginians, whose attempt to seize Tarentum seemed to justify the Romans in gaining a footing on the coast of Sicily. The Senate, as the representative of the moderate and cautious party, still hesitated, when the consuls referred the question to the comitia of the centuries. That assembly, subject to the impulses by which masses of men are moved, heard only the voice that called them to new conquests beyond the shores of Italy, and bade them not to suffer the Carthaginians to seize a post within sight of their shores. Aid was voted to the Mamertines; and a device was invented to bring that aid within the semblance of public law. They were treated with, not as revolted mercenaries, but as Italians established at a foreign post, and were received, just like the other Italians, into the con

federacy of Rome, who proclaimed herself the protector of the Italians beyond the seas. A mandate was despatched to Hiero, requiring him to desist from attacking the allies of Rome; and an embassy was sent to Carthage, to prepare an indirect justification of the war, by demanding an explanation of the attempt to seize Tarentum seven years before. The Carthaginians did not scruple to purge themselves from the charge by an oath; and their answers to other causes of complaint, which were raked up to strengthen the Roman case, were studiously moderate; for it was not their policy to precipitate an open war (B.c. 265).

These hollow negotiations were still in progress, and the Roman preparations to cross the straits were all but complete, when news arrived that the Carthaginians had appeared before Messana in the character of mediators, and concluded a peace between Hiero and the Mamertines; and that then the anti-Roman party had surrendered the citadel and harbour to the Carthaginian forces under Hanno. Still the consul, Appius Claudius, would not abandon the enterprise. His advanced ships were warned back by the Carthaginians; and a few of them were taken, but these were sent back to avoid a cause of war. A second attempt was more successful. Claudius, the consul's legate, landed at Messana, and called a meeting of the citizens, at which Hanno, who was present in the character of a friend, was seized, and consented to evacuate the place. He was punished with death by the Carthaginians, who sent a great armament, under Hanno the son of Hannibal, to besiege Messana by sea and land; while Hiero, who had withdrawn at the bidding of the Romans, renounced their alliance for the time, and returned to the attack. The siege was speedily raised by the consul Appius Claudius, who eluded the Carthaginian fleet and transported his whole army from Rhegium under the cover of night. He kept the field throughout the summer, inflicting several blows on the enemy, and even advancing to the gates of Syracuse, and then led his army back in safety, leaving a strong garrison in Messana (B.c. 264). The following year was marked by a similar but still more successful campaign. Both consuls crossed the straits unopposed, and defeated the Carthaginians and Syracusans in a battle which had the most important political results. For Hiero, finding the issue now fairly raised, whether the Romans or the Carthaginians were to be masters of Sicily, wisely chose the friendship of the former, and remained their firm ally during the rest of his life and reign, which was protracted to nearly fifty years (B.c. 263). His example was

B.C. 264.]

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

343

followed by all the Sicilian Greeks; and thus, besides the strength of their alliance, the Romans gained the all-important posts of Syracuse and Messana. With such a basis, they had little difficulty in driving back the Carthaginians, in a third campaign, to their fortresses on the coast. The only inland city at which a stand was made was Agrigentum, into which Hannibal, the son of Gisgo, threw himself with 50,000 men. The Romans blockaded the city for seven months, reducing the besieged to the utmost distress; but their own case became little better, when Hanno landed at the port of Heraclea, and cut off their supplies. Both parties resolved on a battle, as the only relief from their embarrass ments. The Romans felt for the first time the superiority of the terrible Numidian horse, but their legions secured them a dearbought victory, which left them too exhausted to prevent the escape of the Carthaginians from the city to their fleet (B.C. 262).

Thus the FIRST PUNIC WAR had opened with three campaigns which had nearly given the Romans the coveted prize of Sicily. But they had only just entered on the long conflict of four-andtwenty years. While Hamilcar, the successor of Hanno, entrenched himself in the maritime fortresses, by his sallies from which alone hostilities were continued in the island, the Romans had to prepare, for the first time in their history, to sustain the burthen of a maritime war with the power that was mistress of the sea. This pause in the operations affords an opportunity for casting back a glance on the previous history of the Carthaginians, and of the Phoenician race from which they sprang, and of which they were now the chief representatives.*

The PHOENICIANS claim a conspicuous place in the history of the world, not so much from any influence they had on the great movements of political events, as from their unexampled activity in commerce and colonization. Hence it is that, in the past course of our narrative, they have only occasionally appeared as conducting the commerce which enriched the nations of Western Asia and supported the magnifience of Solomon,-as resisting, with truly Semitic obstinacy, the attacks of conquerors, such as Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander,-and as affording to the Persian empire the assistance of their powerful marine. It remains to take a

*The Romans preserved the memory of the Phoenician origin of the Carthaginians by the name of Pani (with its derived adjective Punicus) which they applied to them indifferently with that of Carthaginiensis. The adjective Punic signifies Phænician by etymology, but Carthaginian by usage.