social ruin of the latter was so complete
that for long marriage was replaced by concubinage. The policy and
practices of Rome now literally became infernal; she forced a quarrel
upon her old antagonist Carthage, and the third Punic War resulted in
the utter destruction of that city. Simultaneously her oppressions in
Greece provoked revolt, which was ended by the sack and burning of
Corinth, Thebes, Chalcis, and the transference of the plundered statues,
paintings, and works of art to Italy. There was nothing now in the way
of the conquest of Spain except the valour of its inhabitants. After the
assassination of Viriatus, procured by the Consul Caepio, and the
horrible siege of Numantia, that country was annexed as a province. Next
we see the gigantic republic extending itself over the richest parts of
Asia Minor, through the insane bequest of Attalus, king of Pergamus. The
wealth of Africa, Spain, Greece, and Asia, was now concentrating in
Italy, and the capital was becoming absolutely demoralized. In vain the
Gracchi attempted to apply a remedy. The Roman aristocracy was
intoxicated, insatiate, irresistible. The middle class was gone; there
was nothing but profligate nobles and a diabolical populace. In the
midst of inconceivable corruption, the Jugurthine War served only to
postpone for a moment an explosion which was inevitable. The Servile
rebellion in Sicily broke out; it was closed by the extermination of a
million of those unhappy wretches: vast numbers of them were exposed,
for the popular amusement, to the wild beasts in the arena. It was
followed closely by the revolt of the Italian allies, known as the
Social War--this ending, after the destruction of half a million of men,
with a better result, in the extortion of the freedom of the city by
several of the revolting states. Doubtless it was the intrigues
connected with these transactions that brought the Cimbri and Teutons
into Italy, and furnished an opening for the rivalries of Marius and
Sylla, who, in turn, filled Rome with slaughter. The same spirit broke
out under the gladiator Spartacus: it was only checked for a time by
resorting to the most awful atrocities, such as the crucifixion of
prisoners, to appear under another form in the conspiracy of Catiline.
And now it was plain that the contest for supreme power lay between a
few leading men. It found an issue in the first triumvirate--a union of
Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, who usurped the whole power o