The Carthaginians had, moreover, one special advantage in the facility with which they could raise a new army directly after a defeat; they had also powerful fleets, in which the Romans. were totally deficient at the beginning of the Punic wars. Nevertheless, the latter aggressive people were the first to draw the sword in the terrible contest which, though terminating in their favour, was to lead to their eventual ruin.

The outbreak was occasioned by the following circumstance. Eleven years after the defeat of Pyrrhus at Beneventum, Appius Claudius Caudex and M. Fulvius Flaccus being consuls, a deputation arrived at Rome from the Mamertines of Messana, praying the Romans not to suffer an Italian people to be crushed by Greeks and Carthaginians. Hiero, king of Syracuse, was their declared enemy; the Carthaginians, affecting a wish to save them from his vengeance, were trying to occupy their citadel, but the Mamertines, true to their Italian derivation, placed themselves under the protection of their countrymen, and it was the interest of the Romans not to allow the Carthaginians to master Messana, and have a station for their fleet, thirty stadia from the Italian

coast.

The senate hesitated for some time whether it should take the part of these robbers; but when intelligence reached it that the Carthaginians had reached Messana and occupied it, the assistance demanded was granted, and war was declared against Carthage. The Romans had acted six years before at Rhegium, precisely as the Carthaginians at Messana; yet they did not scruple to make the conduct of the Carthaginians on the present occasion a plea for war. One of the two consuls, C. Claudius, was sent to the spot, with an insignificant force, and with orders to communicate as soon as possible with the Mamertines. The consul crossed the straits, first in a small boat, and concerted measures with the Mamertines; and he called on the Carthaginians to evacuate the place, but his address received no answer.

His first attempt to expel the Carthaginians, by the help of a few galleys borrowed from neighbouring states, failed. The tribunes were taken by Hanno, the Carthaginian leader, and sent back, with a request that the Romans would not break the peace; but Claudius would not listen to Hanno's overtures. Collecting some more vessels and rafts, he crossed over to Sicily,

*Arnold says its hesitation was overruled by the voice of the comitia, paramount to every authority at Rome; and the comitia had been appealed to, and stirred up, by the consuls, both ambitious and unscrupulous men, in B.C. 564.

notwithstanding the vigilance of Hanno, drove the Carthaginians out of Messana, and concluded an alliance with the people of Syracuse. After this the Romans went on prosperously; many towns were taken from the Carthaginians, and next year (B.c. 492) Agrigentum was reduced after an obstinate siege, and all its inhabitants sold into slavery. Nor has it ever risen since; and the grand old massive masonry, columns, and pedestals of the temple of Olympian Jupiter still stand, ruined, but sublimely majestic, in the solitude of a Sicilian landscape, under the transparent azure of the southern sky, looking out for ages over the blue expanse of the Mediterranean.

At length the Carthaginians were roused to exert their power effectually; many towns on the Sicilian coast were recovered by them; and the coasts of Italy were so often ravaged, that the Romans found it necessary to encounter their rivals on the same element. A stranded Carthaginian galley gave them a model, and they proceeded to establish a navy with such extraordinary zeal, that while the shipwrights were building the vessels, other gangs of men were practised on land as rowers, and learnt to make all their movements together. As soon as the vessels were ready, they were exercised on the sea, and then sailed away along the coast of Italy. Yet their first enterprise was a failure, as seventeen vessels that were sent to Sicily were surrounded by the enemy and captured.

But the Romans were at this time a magnanimous people, and their high spirit was not depressed with this disaster. On the contrary, as most of the cities of Sicily had been meanwhile captured by them, they resolved not to end the war till they had subdued the whole island. But this was impossible, so long as the Carthaginians remained masters in all the sea-fights, in their handsome, light-built vessels. Under these circumstances, the consul, C. Duilius, invented a machine, by which the Romans obtained the superiority by sea, after having gained the mastery by land. The instrument was a boarding bridge, and consisted in a beam raised upright at the prow of each * ship to which a ladder was fixed, consisting of ratlines four feet wide, and provided with a small hand-rail. At the end of the ladder an iron hook or spike was fastened below, and at the top a ring, through which a rope was drawn, by means of which the machine could be let drop from the beam or mast supporting it, on to the deck of the enemy's ship. When a vessel was hooked in this manner, the Romans always rushed forward in pairs, those in front holding * Some represent the boarding bridge fixed to the mast.

up their shields, and those following holding them by their sides. It was still better if the spike could be made to fasten into the side of the enemy's ship, for then immediately the two vessels were fast the Romans could jump on the enemy's deck from the whole length of their own broadside.

Furnished with this boarding bridge, Duilius sailed forth to encounter the Carthaginian fleet. The Carthaginians were greatly delighted when they saw the Roman squadron advancing, and bore down upon them without observing any order, as if secure of their prey, because they despised their antagonists as inexperienced in nautical affairs. When they approached and saw the boarding bridge raised to be dropped, they were astonished at first; but they soon laughed at the new invention, of which they did not understand the object, and they began the attack. But part of their vessels were immediately hooked; the Romans rushed over the boarding bridge on to their deck, and as they were able thus to fight as easily as on land, the Carthaginians were cut down, or had to surrender. In this manner thirty Carthaginian vessels that had made the attack were taken with all their crews, including the ship of the admiral, who himself only escaped with difficulty in an open boat.

The remaining Carthaginian vessels, trusting in their swiftness, sought to attack the Romans in flank and rear, and here again the use of the boarding bridge was put to the proof, and the Carthaginians were forced to retire, after suffering heavy losses.

This was the first naval victory that the Romans had gained. It excited so great rejoicing, that a marble trophy, adorned with the beaks of the captured vessels, was raised to Duilius in the Forum at Rome. This consul also received this special distinction, that he alone of all citizens, when returning at night from a banquet, was allowed to be accompanied home by a slave bearing a torch, and by a musician playing on a flute.

lessly laid waste, and a Carthaginian army collected hastily to the invasion was defeated and put to flight. The Caroppose thaginian senate sued for peace, but Regulus proposed such hard conditions, that it preferred to suffer the last extremity. In this stress, a saviour appeared suddenly to the Carthaginians. A Spartan, named Xantippus, who had come to their assistance at the head of Greek mercenaries, declared himself ready to take the supreme command of the Carthaginian army. He organized and exercised the soldiers in the Greek fashion, marched to engage the Romans, and inflicted a severe defeat upon them; even Regulus, who had been previously intoxicated with his victories, was taken prisoner, and only a few of the whole Roman encampment escaped, as the very fleet that had been a refuge for the fugitives was almost destroyed by a violent storm (B.c. 255).

While Regulus was in prison at Carthage, the Romans built hastily another fleet, and sent other legions over to Sicily. On that island the consul Metellus succeeded in defeating the Carthaginians in a great battle, and in capturing 104 elephants, which the Romans had always feared above everything. These animals were led along at the triumph at Rome amidst the infinite rejoicings and cheers of the multitude. On the other hand,

the Carthaginians, according to the barbarous custom of their country, condemned their unsuccessful generals to be crucified, and sent envoys to Rome to negotiate peace on reasonable terms, or at least to effect an exchange of prisoners (B.c. 250).

In order to secure this end the more certainly, they adjoined Regulus to the embassy, after they had obliged him to take a solemn oath that he would return into captivity, in case he could effect nothing. Regulus, on his arrival at Rome, was received by his friends and relations with heartfelt delight, but, without sharing in their joy, he proceeded at once with the envoys to the assembled senate. Here, to the astonishment of all present, he dissuaded the fathers from an exchange of prisoners. "The Romans," he said, "who linger in captivity at Carthage are no longer Romans. Honour has less influence with them than life; therefore you can well dispense with them. But the enemy feels painfully the absence of these numerous and welltrained bands who have learnt the art of war from you, and have become hardened by action. Carthage cannot get such mercenaries again. Do not set them free, if you have at heart the welfare of your country." In conclusion, he begged the senate not to have any consideration for a feeble old man. In vain his wife, children, and friends begged him to reconsider his decision; he went back to Carthage, with his envoys, after the senate, following his advice, had refused peace, as well as the extradition of prisoners.

Boundless was the exasperation with which he was received by the Carthaginians. Some writers relate that they invented unheard-of torments at his execution; one thing is certain, that he was treated in the harshest manner at Carthage, and never returned thence to his native country.

After the war had lasted ten years, the Romans gained such a splendid victory that the Carthaginians were obliged to sue for peace on any conditions. They received it by consenting to give up Sicily to the Romans, by paying 3000 talents (£8,000,000) as war indemnity, and by restoring all prisoners, without ransom (B.c. 241).

HAMILCAR. -THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

One of the principal characters developed by these Carthaginian wars was Hamilcar, surnamed Barca. He began at an early date to command the army in Sicily, about the end of the First Punic War. It so happened, that before his arrival in Sicily the affairs. of the Carthaginians were in a very bad condition, while immediately on his arrival a change took place.