lowlands, and thus augment the
resources and population of the highland state; or, as is often the
case, the raiders call down upon themselves the vengeance of the
plainsmen, are subdued, and embodied in the lowland state. The conquest
of ancient Assyria and the destruction of Nineveh by the mountain Medes
seems to have been a process of this kind. Long before their descent
upon Mesopotamia, they were known as the "dangerous Medes," were
constantly threatening the Assyrian frontiers and occupying isolated
tracts.[1372] The predatory incursions of the Samnites of the Apennines
into the fertile fields of Campania eventuated in the conquest of
ancient Capua and other cities, and greatly strengthened the Samnite
Confederacy. But this encroachment of the mountain tribes upon the
plains aroused the cupidity and alarm of the Romans, who in turn bent
their energies toward the final subjugation of the Samnites.[1373]
Himalayan Nepal, after the unification of its petty Rajah states by the
Gurkha conquest between 1768 and 1790, began encroachments and ravages
upon the Indian Terai or fertile alluvial lowland at the foot of the
mountains; and finally by 1858 had acquired title to a considerable
strip of it, which by its rice fields and forests greatly strengthened
the geographic and economic base of the highland state.[1374] The Malay
Hovas, inhabiting the central plateau of Madagascar, braced to effort by
its temperate climate and not over-generous soil, have almost everywhere
subdued the better fed but sluggish lowlanders of the coast.[1375] There
can be little doubt that the beneficent effects of an invigorating
mountain climate, especially in tropical and subtropical latitudes, have
helped the hardy, active hill people to make easy conquest of the
enervated plainsmen.

[Sidenote: Conquest of mountain regions]

It is more often the case, however, that the scant resources, small
number, and divided political condition of the mountain tribes make such
conquest impossible. Their depredations provoke reprisals from the
stronger states of the plain, who bring the mountain region under
subjection, merely to police their frontier. Strabo makes it clear that
the Romans, having secured certain passes over the Alps, neglected the
conquest of the ranges, till the increase of Roman colonies along the
piedmont rim excited the cupidity of the mountaineers. Muscovite
dominion was extended over the Caucasus, both in order to check the
persis