Macedonian and Greek Iraiss—The causes that led to the interference of Rome in the politics of the east are too complicated to begiven here, but the Macedonian scars were fumed immediately to the alliance fed by Philip V. of Macedon with Hannibal after the battle of Canine. Like the Samnite and Punic. the Mccedonlan wars were time in rannber. The first (214-205 13 c.) RIB barren of results, mainly because the whole ener gies ot. Rome were directed to Spain and lower Italy; hut the second (200-197 B •.), though it lasted only a third of the time occupied by the first, taught Philip that another and not he must rule in Greece. The battle of Ognoscephaim(" Dogs Heads" bills, a range in Thessaly) was followed by a treaty which compelled hint to withdraw his gar risons from the Greek cities, to surrender his fieet-, and to pay 1000 talents toward the expenses of the war. Philip was thoroughly quelled, and during the remaining 18 years of his life, he. adhered (like old Hiero of Syracuse, though less sincerely) to his Roman alliance. But the miserable Etolians, who had formed an alliance with Rome against Philip, with even more stupidity than insolence, quarreled in wanton jealousy with their powerful "friends," and persuaded Antiochus (q.v.) of Syria to come over seas to Thessaly, and fight them. A similar fate befell him to what had befallen Philip. After a war of three years he found himself obliged to surrender all his possessions in Europe and Asia Minor, all his elephants and ships, and to pay 15.000 Euboie talents (X3,660,000) within 12 years Next year the .tEtolians were crushed, and a little later the despicable quarrels between. the Achaians and Spartans led to a general Roman protectorate over the whole of Greece.
Philip of Macedon dying (179 B.c.), was succeeded on the throne by his eldest son Perseus (q.v.). who resolved once more to try the fortune of war with the Romans; and in 172 B.C., the third. and last Macedonian war began, the result of which, after four years of fighting, was the utter destruction of the Macedonian army at Pydna (108 13.C.) by the Roman consul Lucius A:minus Paullus (q.v.), the capture of the king. who adorned the triumph cf the conqueinr, and the dismemberment of the Macedonian empire. which was broken up into four oligarchic republics, the members of which were subjected to severe disqualifications; while in Greece itself, trials and executions for implication in the war of Perseus spread terror everywhere; the conspicuous `• patriots"—i.e., all who had made themselves notorious by their anti-Roman and Mace donian policy—were deported to Italy; further, the imperial republic stopped Antiochus Eoinhanes in his career of Egyptian conquest, ordered him instantly to abandon his acquisitions. and accepted the protectorate of Egypt, which the grateful and frightened monarch offered her (168 n.e.). Even the allies of Rome—the Pergamese, the Rhodians, cte,—were treated with shocking harshness and injustice. We may here, for the sake of connection, anticipate the coarse of history, and mention the last Greek and Punic wars. Both of these came to an end in the same year (146 n.e.). The former was caused by an expiring Ontlirst. of pseudo-patriotism in the Achaian league, consequent on the return of the exiles from Rome, and was virtually closed on the siege and destruc tion of Corinth (q.v.) by the consul Mummius. The latter was not so much a w€11* as a blo.aly sacrifice to the genius of Roman ambition. After H€ nnibal's. death his party in Carthage seems to have recovered the ascendency, and as coincident therewith, the com mercial prosperity of the city began to revive, a bolder front was shown in resisting the encroachments of Masinissa, the Numidian ruler, whom the Roman senate protected and encouraged in his aggressions This was enough. Fierce old Cato only expressed the instinctive sentimentof the Roman burgesses, when Ile came to utter incessantly Delenda est Carthago, and in 149 B.C. the senate adopted his barbarous conviction. After a siege of threa years, in which the inhabitants displayed superhuman energy and heroism, Carthage was ritormed by Scipio Africanus Minor, and the Carthaginian empire vanished forever from the earth.
Position of Mine at the close of the Punic Wars, and sketch of its Subsequent Social Con dition to the termination of the Republic.—"Polybius dates from the battle of Pydna the full establishment of the universal empire of Rome, It was in fact the last battle in which a civilized state confronted Rome in the field on a footing of equality with her as a great power: all subsequent struggles were rebellions or wars with peoples beyond the pale of the Romano-Greek civilization—the barbarians, as they were called. The whole civilized world thenceforth recognized in the Roman senate the supreme tribunal, whose commissioners decided in the last resort between kings and nations; and, to acquire its language and manners, foreign princes and noble youths resided in Rome." But con temporaneous with this enormous extension of power and authority in foreign lands, the national character underwent a complete and fatal alteration. The simplicity and stern integrity of life, the religious gravity of deportment, and the fidelity with which common civic and household duties were discharged—well expressed in the saying of Cato, that it was "better to be a good husband than a great senator"—which in early times nobly distinguished the Roman burgess, had now all but disappeared. Those hardy virtues— frugality, temperance, justice, and rectitude—which, combined with courage and energy, had given the strength to the nation that made it great, required for their permanence the social conditions out of which they sprang. But the class of peasant proprietors
who had laid the foundations of Roman greatness were either extinct or no longer what they once had been. The original causes of their social degradation have been already noticed, and here it is only necessary to say that the victories of Rome abroad furthered r alter than retarded that degradation. The long and distant wars made it more and more impossible for the soldier to Lica good citizen or a successful farmer. The freedom and licentiousness of camp-life, the sweets of pillage and rapine, ever grew more pleas ant to the Italian burgess and colonist; thus indolence. inaptitude, and spendthrift habits aided tbe greedy designs of the capitalists, and in most cases the paternal acres gradually slipped into the possessiOn of the great landlords, who found it more profitable to turn them into pasture or cultivate them by gangs of slaves. The rise of the slave system—though an inevitable result of foreign conquest—was, indeed, the most horrible curse that ever fell on ancient Rome, and the atrocities inflicted on its unhappy victims are far beyond the possibility of description; Mommsen does not exaggerate when he considers it probable that "compared with the sufferings of the Roman slaves the sum of all negro suffering is but a drop." If the Italian farmer honorably strove to retain his small farm he was exposed to the competition of the capitalists, whe•shipped immense quantities of corn from Egypt and other granaries, where slave-labor rendered its pro duction cheap, and of course lie failed in the unequal struggle. Not less pernicious was the change that passed over the character of the rich. We have already shown how the old Roman patricians lost Weir exclusive privileges, how the plebeians gradually acquired a full equality with them, :aid how• the germs of a new social aristocracy originated, based on wealth rather them pedigree, and comprising both plebeians and patricians. During the 4111 and 3d centuries B. C. the political power of this order immensely increased. In fact the whole government of the state passed into their hands. They became an oligarchy, and while it is not to be denied that they displayed extraordinary ability in the conduct of foreign affairs, the vices inseparable from oligarchic rule— selfishness, nepotism, and arrogance, of which Scipio is a striking example—gradually became rampant. Regarding themselves as the Roman community par exce,llence and the poor burgesses as a mere canaille, whose wishes and interests were unworthy of a moment's consideration, they virtually relapsed into the exclusiveness of the ancient populus with this difference for the worse, that their wealth, influence, and pride were a thousandfold greater than those of Coriolanus or Camillus. But far worse than even the nepotism and selfishness of the nobles was their ever-increasing luxury and immoral ity. When Rome had conquered Greece, and Syria, and Asia Minor, the (lays of her true greatness were ended. The wealth that poured into the state coffers, thence to be if not formally) distributed among the clique of nobles, the treasures which vic torious generals acquired, etlabled them to gratify to the full the morbid appetites for pleasure engendered by exposure to the voluptuousness of the east. Such results were, it is true, not brought about in a day, nor without a resolute protest on the part of indi vidual Romans. The attitude of Cato Major toward the Hellenizing tendencies of his brother nobles was doubtless patriotic, and posterity has been generous in its laudation of his antique virtue; but Cato Major was nevertheless only a political fanatic and iototrnate anachronism. So long as Rome chose to subdue foreign nations and to hold th •at by the demoralizing tenure of conquest—i.e., as mere provinces, whose inhabitants, held in check by a fierce and unscrupulous (like the Kabyles of Algeria by the French., or, until recently, the Hindus by the British),. neither possessed political privi leges nor dared cherish the hope of them—it was morally impossible for the citizens, either at home or abroad, to resume the simple and frugal habits of their forefathers. After Cato's time things grew worse instead of better, nor from this period down to the final dissolution of the empire was a single radical reform ever permanently effected. The momentary success of Tiberius and of his far abler brother, Gains Gracehus (q.v.), in their desperate and revolutionary attempts to prevent the social ruin of the state by breaking down the powers of the senate, redistributing the domain lands, reorganizing the administration, and partially restoring the legislative authority of the popular asseni. blies, hardly survived their death; and the reaction that ensued proved that the senate, like the Bourbons, could learn nothing from adversity, and that the rabble of the city were incapable of elevation or generosity of political sentiment. the 'waver sation of the public money by prtletors and qua:stors became chronic, and the moral debauchery of the mob of the capital by the largesses of ambitious politicians and the vile flattery of demagogues, complete. The old Roman faith, so deep, and strong., and stern, disappeared from the heart. The priests beanie Pharisees, the nobles "philoso phers" (i.e., unbelievers), their wives practicers of oriental abominations under the name of "mysteries;" wink the poor looked on with unmeaning, yet superstitious wonder at the hollow but pompous ceremonies of religion. It would serve no useful pnrpose to dwell longer on these aspects of Roman society, and we now turn to sketch in a few words the course of outward events to the close of the republic.