cover Sardinia from the
mutinous garrison there, she declared war. Carthage could not think of
accepting the challenge and bought peace at the price of Sardinia and
Corsica and 1200 talents ($1,500,000). This unjustifiable act of the
Romans rankled sore in the memories of the Carthaginians.

III. THE ILLYRIAN AND GALLIC WARS: 229-219 B. C.

*The first Illyrian war: 229-228 B. C.* In assuming control of the
relations of her allies with foreign states, Rome had assumed
responsibility for protecting their interests, and it was the fulfillment
of this obligation which brought the Roman arms to the eastern shores of
the Adriatic.

Under a king named Agron an extensive but loosely organized state had been
formed among the Illyrians, a semibarbarous people inhabiting the Adriatic
coast to the north of Epirus. These Illyrians were allied with the kingdom
of Macedonia and sided with the latter in its wars with Epirus and the
Aetolian and Achaean Confederacies. In 231 Agron died and was succeeded by
his queen Teuta, who continued his policy of attacking the cities on the
west coast of Greece and practising piracy on a large scale in the
Adriatic and Ionian seas. Among those who suffered thereby were the south
Italian cities, which in 230 B. C. as the result of fresh and more serious
outrages appealed to Rome for redress. Thereupon the Romans demanded
satisfaction from Teuta and, upon their demands being contemptuously
rejected, they declared war.

*The Romans cross the Adriatic: 229 B. C.* In the next spring, 229 B. C.,
the Romans sent against the Illyrians a fleet and an army of such strength
that the latter could offer but little resistance and in the next year
were forced to sue for peace. Teuta had to give up a large part of her
territory, to bind herself not to send a fleet into the Ionian sea, and to
pay tribute to Rome. Corcyra, Epidamnus, Apollonia, and other cities
became Roman allies.

The fact that Rome first crossed the Adriatic to prosecute a war against
the Illyrians placed her in hostility to their ally, Macedonia, the
greatest of the Greek states. And although Macedonia had been unable to
offer aid to the Illyrians because of dynastic troubles that had followed
the death of King Demetrius (229 B. C.), the Macedonians regarded with
jealous suspicion Rome's success and the establishment of a Roman sphere
of influence east of the Adriatic. Conversely, the war had established
friendly relations