Spain

hich he came so close to final success that he rode up to one of its gates and threw his spear into the city; but we must not fail to

nt scale, and in the end all but brought Rome to terms, yet in Spain, the c

12, four years later marched through Gaul to the assistance of the Africans. He made the perilous passage of the Alps successfully,

ity on the southern coast. So well timed were his movements that his fleet and army arrived there the same day, and leading his soldiers through a shallow lake, where the fortifications were the weakest, after fierce fighting he drove the defenders from the citadel, took the city, and put every warrior to the sword. The plunder of this Carthaginian stronghold was immense, for besides the five war ships and one hundred and thirteen merchant vessels in the harbour, there were brought to him two hundred and seventy-six golden bowls weighi

ion, had yet failed of the original object of his invasion, which had been the diversion of Hannibal from the conquest of Italy. So he resolved to "carry the war into Africa," and so successful was he that Hannibal was utterly defeated at the b

Hannibal) with a nation." The first, as we have seen, resulted in the occupation of Spain by Hamilcar Barca; the second was the outcome of the destruction of Saguntum by his son Hannibal;

nia. It was another Scipio, ?milianus, who thirty-seven years later acquired the surname of "Africanus Minor" for his capture of Carthag

th the proconsul Scipio Africanus, whose luxurious mode of living he denounced. Appointed to a position in Spain, in the year 195 he crushed a r

whole salutary, and at this time the Roman soldiery began to look upon Spain as a desirable country to settle in after their terms of service had expired. Many of them married Spanish women, proconsuls were appointed from Rome, cities were built, colonies planted, military roads constructed, and through these means the Latin language gradually took the place of native dialects. In this manner was the Iberian peninsula Roma

and captured more than one hundred Celtiberian towns. They were eminently successful, but in or

e. Rome was now mistress of the Mediterranean, which from Spain to Syria was "hardly more than a Roman lake." During the years 147 to 140 b.c. the Lusitanians were in revolt, led by the gallant Viriathus, a simple herdsman, who, having seen his people treacherously massacred, vowed vengeance against the emissaries of Rome. He cut to pieces army after army,

sand defenders fell by famine and the sword. The Roman army, said to have been sixty thousand strong, was led by no less a personage than the younger Scipio, Africanus Minor, who served Numantia as he had unh

lla, and espoused his cause. Upon the downfall of Marius he fled to Spain and gained a refuge with the Lusitanians, among which barbarous but brave people he acquired immense influence. He trained them in the arts of war, and when the Roman soldiers came against them, d

hen he had grown to manhood, he was sent to Spain to defeat and capture the older soldier, then leader of the revolted Lusitanians. He was several times defeated by the wily Sertorius,

or the applause and favours of the Roman populace. In the year 68 b.c. he also went to Spain, having obtained a qu?storship; and again, in 63, he was given the province of

fought on the soil of Spain. In the year 49 C?sar defeated Pompey's legates in Spain; the following year he overthrew Pompey hi

! It was at Munda, not far from Cordova, in the valley of the Guadalquivir, and it is said that C?sar himself led the soldiers in the ranks; saying afterward that though he had often fought for victory, yet he had never before fought for his life. More than thirty thousand men were slain, amo

eatest men: Sulla, the first Roman to invade the Eternal City with her own troops, "set the pace" for C?sar at the Rubicon; Sulla's champion, Pompey,

rom participation in Roman feuds, yet the barbaric population of the far north was not entirely subjugated until the time of Augustus, who finally completed the work begun by the Scipios and continued

hitecture may now be found and studied in Spain, such as an amphitheatre at Merida, another at Saguntum, the Roman bridges at Cuenca, Salamanca, and Cordova, and that splendid bridge over the Guadiana built by Trajan, which is half a mile long, thirty-three feet above the

ical works Rome has left her impress upon Hispania: in the language spoken there, in the illustrious names of Roman citizens born there, such as Trajan and Hadrian,

ss Spain's page of history, in the years of her peace and prosperi