The progress of the Carthaginians in Spain, and various hostile movements among the Gauls, excited great alarm at Rome. In order to meet these extra ordinary emergencies, an army of 800,000 men is said to have been raised; but the Gauls, forcing their way through Hetruria, advanced towards Rome. Here they had the good fortune to beat one of the Roman armies, but encountering other two, they were totally defeated with the loss of 50,000 men. The Romans pursued them into Gaul, and laid waste their country; but the breaking out of the plague compelled them to return. A new war, however, broke out, and Insubria and Liguria were reduced to a Roman province.
The second Punic war now commenced, and at first threatened to overwhelm the Roman power; but sub sequent events, of which we have given a minute ac count under CARTHAGE, led to the destruction of Car thage, and the total subversion of the Carthaginian power.
Our limits will not permit us to follow the Roman arms in their wars in Spain and in Syria. In the con quest of Macedon they experienced considerable diffi culties. Philip, the last, but one, of the Macedonian kings, after quarrelling with the Romans, was obliged to enter into an unfavourable treaty with them; but on the accession of his son Perseus, (179, B. C.) the Ma cedonians renewed the war. The Romans were for the first time called upon to resist the Macedonian phalanx, a square body of 16,000 men, having 1000 men in front, and 16 in depth. Each soldier carried a pike 23 feet long; the pikes of the fifth rank extend ed beyond the front of the phalanx, and hence the shock of such a body of men was almost. irresistible. In their first encounter with the Macedonians, the Romans were defeated with the loss of 2200 men. Perseus did not avail himself of this success, and the war was protracted without any decisive advantage on either side.
Paulus Emilius, a commander of much experience, was now sent to Macedon. Perseus made great pre parations to receive him, and resolved to hazard a general engagement. The light troops of the Mace donians charged the Romans with incredible vigour, and did great execution, while the phalanx was en gaged with the main body of the Roman infantry. Upon seeing this advantage Emilius is said to have rent his garments, and abandoned himself to despair; when perceiving that the phalanx lost its order in some particular places, he commanded his light troops to charge them at these weak points. By this skilful manceuvre this formidable body was thrown into disorder, and the Macedonian king, followed by his army, sought for safety in flight, after leaving about 20,000 dead on the field. The whole kingdom
now submitted to the conquerors. Perseus took re fuge in Samothracia, but was at last obliged to sur render to the consul, who carried him in triumph to Rome. The Roman dominion over Macedon was oc casionally disturbed by some pretenders to the throne; but the kingdom was finally reduced to a Roman pro vince.
The tranquillity of Rome, which the splendour of her foreign conquests had so long contributed to pre serve, was now shaken by an intestine sedition. Ti berius Gracchus, the most accomplished youth in Rome, was equally distinguished by his personal ap pearance, by his commanding talents, and by his powers of eloquence and persuasion. lie had been deeply attached to the interests of the Patricians, both from his own connexions, and from those of his wife, who was the daughter of Appius Claudius, then at the head of the Senate; but having negotiated a disgrace ful, though a necessary peace with Numantia, he was condemned, along with all those who had signed it, to be delivered up to the Numantines. The people, however, would not suffer Gracchus to be thus sacri ficed; and he himself, stung with indignation at the treatment which he had experienced, resolved to re venge himself upon the Patrician families.
Having with this view obtained the tribuneship of the people, he determined to revive the Licinian law, which prevented any citizen from holding more than five hundred acres, and thus to make a direct attack upon the property of the nobles, who, in opposition to this enactment, had kept possession of some exten sive lands for more than 250 years. Tiberius pro posed that those who possessed more than 500 acres should receive payment fur the surplus out of the public treasury, that every child might hold 250 acres in his own name, independent of what was held by his father, and that the lands thus released should be di vided among the poorer citizens. In these views Gracchus was supported by Mutius Scaevola, the ablest lawyer in Rome, and also by his father-in-law, Appius Claudius, and by P. Crassus, the Pontifex Maximus; but the wealthy Patricians, especially those of the senatorial and equestrian orders, opposed it with the utmost vehemence. The influence and the argument which they brought against it, were power fully exposed by the eloquence of Gracchus; and when they found themselves unable to make an im pression upon the people, they assailed the Tribune with every species of calumny, and are said even to have laid plans for his assassination.