not despair: Scipio, a young man destined at no distant period to raise his country to the summit of greatness, encouraged the nobles of his own age to stand firm at this crisis; and Fabius Cunctátor being appointed to the command of the army, resumed the cautious system, the advantages of which had been already so fully proved. Hannibal, in the mean time, led his forces to Capua, where his veterans were enervated by the luxury and debauchery of that licentious city. At the same time he concluded an alliance with Philip, king of Macedon; but the Romans, by their intrigues in Greece, found sufficient employment for that monarch at home, to prevent his interference in the affairs of Italy. They even sent an army against him, under the command of the prætor Lævinus; and thus, though exposed to such danger in Italy, they maintained a vigorous contest in Greece, Spain, and Sicily.

the

It was in Sicily that success first began to dawn upon Roman cause (B. C. 211): the ancient city of Syracuse was taken by the prætor Metellus, and the celebrated mathematician, Archimedes, by whose engines the defence had been protracted, was slain in the storm. Two years afterwards, Agrigentum, the last stronghold of the Carthaginians, was betrayed to Lævinus; and the Romans remained masters of the entire island, which henceforth became a regular province.

In the mean time the war lingered in Italy; the Roman generals were rarely able to cope with Hannibal, though Marcellus is said to have gained a general battle over the Carthaginians. On the other hand, Hannibal, receiving no reinforcements from Carthage, feared to peril his limited resources in any decisive enterprise. At length he summoned his brother Asdrubal, who had long maintained the Carthaginian cause against the Scipios in Spain, to join him in Italy; and Asdrubal, without encountering any great difficulty, soon crossed the Pyrenees and Alps. The consuls, Livius and Nero, having discovered the direction of the Carthaginian's march, hastened to intercept him. Asdrubal, misled by his guides, was forced to hazard an engagement at a

disadvantage on the banks of the Metaurus, and was cut to pieces with his whole army (B. c. 206). The first information Hannibal received of this great misfortune, was the sight of his brother's gory head, which the consuls caused to be thrown into his camp. Soon after, the Romans alarmed the Carthaginians by the prospect of a war in Africa, having entered into a treaty of alliance with Massinissa, the legitimate king of Numidia, and also with the usurper Syphax.

ONQUEROR of Spain, Scipio, at length, was chosen consul, and, contrary to

the strenuous exertions of Fabius, he prevailed upon the senate to permit him to

transfer the war into Africa; and this was

the more readily conceded, as the conclusion of peace with Philip (B. c. 203) had placed a fresh army at their disposal. Scipio, on landing in Africa (B. C. 202), found that Syphax had been won over to the Carthaginian side by his wife Sophonisba, the daughter of Asdrubal. The Roman general, knowing, however, the inconstancy of the Numidian, commenced negotiations, which were protracted with equal duplicity. While Syphax was thus amused, Scipio suddenly surprised and burned his camp; then attacking the Numidians in the midst of the confusion, he put forty thousand of them to the sword. After this achievement, Scipio laid siege to Utica: the Carthaginians raised a large army to relieve a place of so much importance; but they were

routed with great slaughter, and pursued to their very walls. This victory exposed Carthage itself to the perils of a siege; Tunis, almost within sight of the city, opened its gates to the Romans; and the Carthaginian senate, driven almost to despair, recalled Hannibal from Italy to the defence of his own country.

Hannibal, on his return home, would have made peace on reasonable terms, had not the Carthaginian populace, elated by the presence of the hero of a hundred fights, obstinately resisted any concession. With a heavy heart the brave old general made preparations for a decisive engagement in the field of Zama. Hannibal's abilities were not less conspicuous in this fatal fight than in the battles he had won in Italy: but the greater part of his forces were raw troops, unfit to cope with Scipio's disciplined legions. After a dreadful struggle, the Romans prevailed, and they followed up their advantages with so much eagerness, that twenty thousand of the Carthaginians fell in the battle or the pursuit. Hannibal, after having performed every thing that a general or brave soldier could do to restore the fortune of the day, fled with a small body of horse to Adrumetum, whence he was soon summoned to Carthage to assist the tottering republic with his counsels (B. C. 201). There he informed the senate that "Carthage had no resource but in peace;" and these words, from the mouth of the warlike Hannibal, were decisive. Ambassadors were sent to seek conditions from the conqueror; and the humbled Carthaginians accepted the terins of peace dictated by Scipio, who, from henceforward, was honoured with the title of Africanus. The chief articles of the treaty were, that Carthage should deliver up to the Romans all their deserters, fugitive slaves, and prisoners of war; surrender all her ships of the line, except ten triremes, and all her elephants; restore Numidia to Massinissa; enter into no war without the permission of the Roman pecple; pay as a ransom ten thousand talents of silver (about two millions sterling); and give one hundred hostages for the performance of the treaty. To these harsh terms the

Carthaginians subscribed: Scipio returned nome, and was honoured with the most magnificent triumph that had yet been exhibited in Rome.

THE MACEDONIAN WAR.

OME was now become a great military republic, supreme in western Europe, and commanding a preponderating influence in the East, where the kingdoms formed from the fragments of Alexander's empire had sunk into weakness from the exhaustion of mutual wars. The Athenians, exposed to the attacks of Philip, king of Macedon, sought the protection of the Romans, which was readily granted, as the senate had long been anxious to find a pretext for meddling in the affairs of Greece (B. c. 206). War was declared against Philip, notwithstanding the opposition of the tribunes of the people; and it was resolved to follow up Scipio's policy, by making the enemy's country the theatre of hostilities. An army was sent into Macedonia, and its conduct was soon intrusted to Quintius Flaminius, whose diplomatic skill was even more conspicuous than his military talents. After some minor engagements, in none of which did Philip evince much ability as a general or statesman, a decisive battle was fought at Cynoscephale (B. C. 206), in which the Macedonians were irretrievably overthrown, and forced to submit to such terms of peace as the conquerors pleased to dic*ate. This success was followed by the solemn mockery of proclaiming liberty to Greece at the Isthmian games, which filled the foolish spectators with so much delight, that they virtually became slaves to the Romans through gratitude for freedom.