the excellent
quality of the wool is a strong fact, against an opinion entertained by
many, that the fineness of the Spanish was originally derived from the
exportation of some English sheep to Spain, since it appears to have been
celebrated even in the time of the Romans: how important and lucrative an
object it was considered, may be collected from the attention that was paid
to the breed of sheep; a ram, according to Strabo, having been sold for a
talent, or nearly 200_l_. Horace incidentally gives evidence of the
commercial wealth of Spain in his time, when he considers the master of a
Spanish trading vessel and a person of great wealth as synonimous terms.

As Hannibal still continued in Italy, the senate of Rome resolved to send
Scipio into Italy, with a discretionary power to invade Africa from that
island. He lost no time in equipping a fleet for these purposes, and his
efforts were so well seconded by the zeal and activity of the provinces and
cities, many of which taxed themselves to supply iron, timber, cloth for
sails, corn, &c. that, in forty days after the timber was felled, Scipio
had a fleet of thirty new galleys.

Soon after he landed in Sicily, he resolved to invade Africa: for this
purpose his fleet was collected in the port of Lilibaeum. Never was
embarkation made with more order and solemnity: the concourse of people who
came from all parts to see him set sail, and wish him a prosperous voyage,
was prodigious. Just before he weighed anchor, he appeared on the poop of
his galley, and, after an herald had proclaimed silence, addressed a solemn
prayer to the gods. It is foreign to our purpose to give any account of the
campaign in Africa, which, it is well known, terminated in the utter defeat
of the Carthaginians, who were obliged to sue for peace. This was granted
them on very severe terms: all the cities and provinces which they
possessed in Africa previously to the war, they were indeed permitted to
retain, but they were stripped of Spain, and of all the islands in the
Mediterranean; all their ships of war, except ten galleys, were to be
delivered up to the Romans; and, for the future, they were not to maintain
above that number at one time: even the size of their fishing boats and of
their trading vessels was regulated. In the course of fifty years ten
thousand talents were to be paid to the Romans. During a short truce which
preceded the peace, the Carthaginians had seized and plundered a Roman