And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt by me and mine, And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan, and then, with steadfast feet, 8. Then up sprang Appius Claudius: "Stop him, alive or dead! And he hath passed in safety unto his woeful home, And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in Rome. 9. The people gathered around the dead body; and when Claudius attempted to disperse them, a furious onset was made upon the liotors, who were driven back severely wounded, and with garments torn in shreds. A rush was then made at Appius himself; but when the people could not reach him, owing to the crowd of his dependents who gathered around him, they resorted to other means of assault. 10. When stones began to fly, He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his thigh. "Kind clients, honest lictors, stand by me in this fray! Must I be torn to pieces? Home-home the nearest way!" While yet he spake, and looked around with a bewildered air, Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair; And fourscore clients on the left, and fourscore on the right, Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for fight. But though without or staff or sword, so furious was the throng, That scarce the train with might and main could bring their lord along. 11. Twelve times the crowd made at him; five times they seized his gown; Small chance was his to rise again, if once they got him down; And sharper came the pelting, and evermore the yell"Tribunes! we will have tribunes!"-rose with a louder swell: And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tattered sail, When raves the Adriatic beneath an eastern gale; When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume, And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom. 12. One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear; And, ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and fear. His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride, Now, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to side: And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door, His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore. As Appius Claudius was that day, so may his grandson be! God send Rome one such other sight, and send me there to see. MACAULAY. LESSON XVI.-THE CARTHAGINIAN WARS. 1. AFTER the Romans had reduced all Italy to their dominion, about 270 years before the Christian era, they began to extend their influence abroad, when an interference with the affairs of Sicily brought on a war with Carthage, at that time a powerful republic on the northern African coast, superior in strength and resources to the Roman. The Carthaginians were originally a Tyrian colony from Phoenicia; and not only had they, at this time, extended their dominion over the surrounding African tribes, but they had foreign posses sions in Spain, and also in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, and other islands of the Mediterranean. 2. In the year 263 before Christ the first Punic* war began; and, after it had continued eight years with varied success, the Romans sent the Consul Regulus, at the head of a large army, to carry the war into Africa. On the passage across the Mediterranean, the Carthaginian fleet, bearing not less than a hundred and fifty thousand men, was met and defeated; but in a subsequent battle on land the Romans themselves were defeated with great loss, and Regulus himself, being taken prisoner, was thrown into a dungeon. Five years later, however, the Carthaginians were in turn defeated in Sicily, with a loss of twenty thousand men, and the capture of more than a hundred of their elephants, which they had trained to fight in the ranks. 3. It was then that the Carthaginians sent an embassy to Rome with proposals of peace. Regulus was taken from his dungeon to accompany the embassy, the Carthaginians trusting that, weary of his long captivity, he would urge the senate to accept the proffered terms; but the inflexible Roman persuaded the senate to reject the proposal and continue the war, assuring his countrymen that the resources of Carthage were already nearly exhausted. Bound by his oath to return if peace were not concluded, he voluntarily went back, in spite of the prayers and entreaties of his friends, to meet the fate which awaited him. It is generally stated that after his return to Carthage he was tortured to death by the exasperated Carthaginians. The circumstances of the appearance of Regulus before the Roman senate, and his heroic self-sacrifice, are described in the following lesson. *The term Punic means simply "Carthaginian." The three famous Carthaginian wars are usually called, in Roman history, "The Punic Wars." LESSON XVII.-REGULUS BEFORE THE SENATE. 1. URGE me no more'; your prayers are vain'; To vengeance from the dead', Inly I cursed my breath: I recked' not; could they chain the mind, And there they left me, dark and lone, Then from that living tomb They led me forth, I thought, to die'; 4. But no! kind Heaven had yet in store A joy I thought to feel no more, Or feel but in the grave. They deemed, perchance, my haughtier mood That he who once was brave- They would have trained my lips to swear, Silent their base commands I heard, I go, prepared to meet the worst, Fools as they were, could not mine eye, Else had they sent this wasted frame Is yours; she knows it well, and you Ye know no longer it is hers, The empire of the sea; Ye know her fleets are far and few, And Rome, the bold and free, Shall trample on her prostrate towers, Then tell me not of hope or life; I have in Rome no chaste, fond wife, No smiling progeny; One word concentres for the slave Wife, children, country, all-THE GRAVE.-DAle. LESSON XVIII.—THE DOWNFALL OF CARTHAGE. 1. THE first Punic war ended disastrously to Carthage in the year 240 B.C. Twenty-two years later commenced the second Punic war, in which the Roman republic was at one time brought to the brink of ruin by the superior military skill of the Carthaginian Hannibal, who proved himself the greatest general of antiquity. Carrying the war into Italy, he penetrated nearly to the gates of Rome; but his army, enervated by the luxuries of the conquered cities, gradually dwindled away while victory already perched upon its ban ners. 2. Ere long Sicily was conquered by the Romans, the Carthaginian city of Syracuse being taken by storm after the siege had been a long time protracted by the mechanical skill of the famous Archime'des. The youthful Scipio, who received the title of Africanus, also carried the war into Africa; Hannibal, recalled from Italy to protect Carthage, was defeated; and the second Punic war ended in the complete humiliation of Carthage (202 B.C.). 3. But still the very existence of a rival and neighboring republic was a thing which the Romans seem to have made up their minds not to endure; the expediency of a farther war with Carthage was a favorite topic of debate in the Roman senate; and it is said that, of the many speeches which the elder Cato made on this subject, all ended with the sentence, delenda est Carthago, "Carthage must be destroyed." And in a third and final war, unjustly provoked by the Romans, Carthage was destroyed; her walls being leveled with the ground, and the buildings of the city burned (146 B.C.). The same year witnessed the conquest of Greece-like Carthage, the victim of Roman ambition. 1 AR-CHI-ME'-DËS. See account of, p. 324. LESSON XIX.-ADDRESS OF HANNIBAL TO HIS ARMY DUR ING THE SECOND CARTHAGINIAN WAR. ON what side soever I turn my eyes, I behold all full of courage and strength. A veteran infantry; a most gallant cavalry: you, my allies, most faithful and valiant; you, Carthaginians, whom not only your country's cause, but the justest anger impels to battle. The hope, the courage of assailants, is always greater than of those who act upon the defensive. With hostile banners displayed you are come down upon Italy: you bring the war. Grief, injuries, indignities, fire your minds, and spur you forward to revenge. First, they demanded me that I, your general, should be delivered up to them; next, of all you who had fought at the siege of Saguntum; and we were to be put to death by the extremest tortures. Proud and cruel nation! every thing must be yours, and at your disposal. You are to prescribe to us with whom we shall make war, with whom we shall make peace. You are to set us bounds; to shut us up within hills and rivers; but you-you are not to observe the limits which yourselves have fixed! "Pass not the Iberus." What next? "Touch not the Saguntines; Saguntum is upon the Iberus; move not a step toward that city." Is it a small matter, then, that you have deprived us of our ancient possessions, Sicily |