Exercises upon the Different Parts of Italian Speech, with References to Veneroni's Grammar / to which is added an abridgement of the Roman history, intended at once to make the learner acquainted with history, and the idiom of the Italian language

CHAP. VI.

(Of the World, 3908—Of Rome, 608.)

[1]About the same time the [2]Lusitanians in [3]Spain [4]beat the Romans most [5]shamefully [6]under the [7]conduct of [8]Viriathus; who from a [9]huntsman [10]became a [11]highwayman; and from a highwayman, a general, and [12]defeated the Roman [13]armies [14]several times. But that [15]overthrow was most [16]memorable of all [17]others, in which, in the year 608, having [18]routed the [19]forces of [20]Vetilius the [21]prætor, [22]he took him prisoner, and [23]put him [24]to death, according to [25]Appian. Nor was he the [26]only one that was [27]conquered by Viriathus, but several others [28]underwent the same [29]fate. The first that was [30]successful [31]against him was [32]C. Lælius the prætor, in the year 609. After which the proconsul [33]Quintius Fabius Maximus [34]defeated him. In the year 614, [35]Q. Servilius Cæpio [36]basely [37]procured him to be [38]assassinated by some of his own [39]officers, whom he had [40]bribed [41]for that purpose, to the great [42]dishonour of the Roman [43]name.

After this a much more [44]dangerous war [45]broke out in Celtiberia. The Numantini having [46]received the [47]Segidenses their [48]allies, that had [49]escaped the [50]hands of the Romans, were [51]commanded by Metellus the proconsul, [52]to deliver up the [53]refugees, and [54]lay down their [55]arms, but they [56]refused both: and [57]though they were so much [58]inferior to the Romans, in [59]number and [60]strength, they [61]made a [62]gallant [63]resistance for some [64]years. The [65]army of [66]M. Popilius the proconsul, was [67]cut off by them, and the year [68]following, [69]thirty [70]thousand Romans, under the consul Mancinus, were [71]routed by four thousand of the Numantini; which [72]disgrace was [73]followed by a most [74]shameful [75]peace; but the senate [76]refused to [77]ratify it; [78]wherefore Mancinus was [79]delivered up into their hands, but the Numantini would not [80]receive him. [81]At last they were [82]vanquished in the [83]field by Scipio, who had [84]destroyed Carthage; and being [85]shut up within their own [86]walls, were [87]reduced to [88]so desperate a condition, that they all [89]laid violent hands upon themselves; and Numantia was [90]levelled with the ground, in the ninth year after their [91]revolt from the Romans, and from the [92]foundation of the city 621.

[93]Whilst the Romans were [94]still at war with the [95]Achæans and Carthaginians, Macedon was [96]conquered a third time. [97]Andriscus, a [98]man of [99]mean birth, who [100]pretended to be [101]Philip the son of [102]Perseus, had [103]possessed himself of it. He was conquered by [104]Q. Cæcilius Metellus, with the [105]slaughter of 25,000 [106]of his men. Metellus had [107]from thence [108]the surname of [109]Macedonicus.

At the time that the Romans were [110]engaged in the [111]Numantine war, there was a [112]rising of the [113]slaves in Sicily. A [114]Syrian, [115]by name Eunus, [116]pretending to a [117]divine [118]inspiration, [119]called the slaves to [120]arms and [121]liberty, [122]as it were by the [123]order of the [124]gods; and having [125]raised a [126]vast [127]army, [128]consisting of no less than 70,000 men, he [129]vanquished four Roman prætors, and was [130]at last [131]routed himself, by P. Rupilius the consul, in the year of the city 622.

Attalus, son of [132]Eumenes, king of [133]Phrygia, when his [134]uncle Attalus was [135]dead (who after Eumenes’ death had [136]managed the [137]kingdom as his [138]guardian), [139]reigned five years, and dying about the year of the city 621, made the Roman people his [140]heir: which [141]Aristonicus, a son of Eumenes by one of his [142]mistresses, [143]taking amiss, he [144]seized upon Asia, and [145]cut off the army of Crassus the prætor. Afterwards he was [146]vanquished by the consul Peperna, and an [147]end was put to the war the year [148]following, 625, by M. Aquilius the consul. This was a [149]melancholy year for the [150]death of Scipio Africanus, who was [151]found dead in his [152]bed, not without the [153]suspicion of having been [154]poisoned by his [155]wife.

The year in which Attalus [156]made the Roman people his [157]heir, there was a [158]formidable [159]sedition at Rome. For T. Gracchus, [160]tribune of the [161]people, having made the [162]Agrarian law, that [163]nobody should [164]possess above 500 [165]acres of [166]land, and [167]proposing to have the [168]money of king Attalus [169]divided amongst the people, and [170]likewise [171]suing for the [172]tribuneship against the year following, the senators being very much [173]disturbed at the [174]matter, he was, by the [175]order of P. Corn. Nasica, [176]slain in the [177]Capitol, [178]whither he had [179]fled for [180]refuge.

After the death of Tiberius, his [181]brother Caius [182]pursuing the same [183]design, was [184]taken off by Opimius, the consul, and [185]together with him, Fulvius Flaccus, who had been consul.

In the year of the city 629, the Romans first made war upon the [186]Gauls [187]beyond the Alps. They [188]began with the Salii, and [189]Allobroges, whom Fulvius Flaccus [190]subdued. In the year 633, Fabius the consul made an end of the war with the Allobroges. He [191]conquered Bituitus, king of the Arverni, in [192]battle. The king himself [193]coming to Rome to [194]satisfy the senate, was [195]confined at Alba. Then Gallia Narbonensis was made a [196]province, and a [197]colony [198]sent to Narbon in the year 636.

The Romans were after this [199]almost [200]perpetually at war with the Gauls, by whom they were [201]oftentimes [202]soundly beaten; but, above all others, the Cimbri and Teutones were [203]terrible to them. They [204]marching for Italy, and not [205]being able to [206]prevail with the senate for [207]room to [208]settle in, they [209]routed M. Silanus the consul; the year following Scaurus was [210]defeated by the Cimbri, and L. Cassius by the Helvetii Tigurini the year after that. But the [211]overthrow of Q. Cæpio was more [212]memorable than all the [213]rest. He had [214]plundered [215]Tholouse in the [216]country of the Tectosagæ, and had [217]carried off an hundred thousand [218]pounds of [219]gold, and fifteen hundred thousand pounds of [220]silver. This was done in the year of the city 648. But the following, he, with C. Manilius, [221]paid for this [222]sacrilege, with the [223]utter, [224]destruction of the Roman army. It is certain there were [225]slain in this [226]battle of the Romans and their [227]allies, [228]fourscore thousand, and of [229]servants that [230]followed the [231]camp [232]threescore thousand.

At length the Teutones and the [233]Ambrones were almost all [234]destroyed, two hundred thousand being slain, and seventy thousand [235]taken [236]prisoners, by C. Marius the consul, in the year 652; and the following year, the same Marius, [237]in conjunction with Catulus, defeated the Cimbri, that were [238]making their way through [239]Noricum, [240]slew an hundred and twenty thousand, and took sixty thousand prisoners.