d their
commander and trusted his skill. Hannibal met his first and only defeat,
and Scipio won his title of AFRICANUS. The battle was a hard one. After
all the newly enrolled troops of Hannibal had been killed or put
to flight, his veterans, who had remained by him in Italy, although
surrounded on all sides by forces far outnumbering their own, fought
on, and were killed one by one around their beloved chief. The army was
fairly annihilated. Hannibal, with only a handful, managed to escape to
Hadrumetum.

The battle of Zama decided the fate of the West. The power of Carthage
was broken, and her supremacy passed to Rome. She was allowed to retain
her own territory intact, but all her war-ships, except ten, were given
up, and her prisoners restored; an annual tax of about $200,000, for
fifty years, was to be paid into the Roman treasury, and she could carry
on no war without the consent of Rome. Masinissa was rewarded by an
increase in territory, and was enrolled among the "allies and friends of
the Roman people."

Rome was now safe from any attack. She had become a great Mediterranean
power. Spain was divided into two provinces, and the north of Africa was
under her protection.

Such was the result of the seventeen years' struggle. Scipio was
welcomed home, and surnamed AFRICANUS. He enjoyed a triumph never before
equalled. His statue was placed, in triumphal robes and crowned with
laurels, in the Capitol. Many honors were thrust upon him, which he had
the sense to refuse. He lived quietly for some years, taking no part in
politics.

CHAPTER XVI. ROME IN THE EAST.

ROME was now in a position to add new nations to her list of subjects.
The kingdoms of the East which formerly composed a part of the vast
empire of Alexander the Great, and which finally went to swell the
limits of Roman authority, were Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, and Greece
proper.

EGYPT was governed by the Ptolemies, and included at this time the
valley of the Nile, Palestine, Phoenicia, the island of Cyprus, and a
number of towns in Thrace.

SYRIA, extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus, was composed of
various nations which enjoyed a semi-independence. Under incompetent
rulers, she saw portion after portion of her dominions fall from her.
Thus arose Pergamus, Pontus, Cappadocia, and Phrygia.

MACEDONIA was ruled by Philip V., and included also a large portion of
Northern Greece.

GREECE proper was divided between the ACHAEAN and