abandoned, but the settlers in
Africa were left undisturbed on their lands. By 120 the restrictions on
the sale of allotments in Italy were withdrawn; in 118 assignments ceased;
and in 111 rentals to the state were abolished and all lands then held in
possession were declared private property; an enactment which benefited
greatly the wealthy proprietors.

III. THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA AND THE RISE OF MARIUS

*Foreign wars of the Gracchan Age.* While the Senate and the Gracchi were
struggling for the mastery in Rome, the Roman state engaged in continual
frontier struggles, particularly on the northern borders of Italy and
Macedonia. Most of these wars were of slight importance, but one resulted
in the occupation of the Balearic Islands, in 123-122, which gave Rome
full command of the sea route to Spain. Another, still more important, was
that waged between 125 and 123 in answer to an appeal from Massalia
against the Ligurian Salyes to the north of that city. Their subjugation
gave the Romans the command of the route across the Maritime Alps from
Italy to Gaul. The fortress of Aquae Sextiae was established to guard this
passage.

*The Roman advance in Transalpine Gaul.* It now became the object of the
Romans to secure the land route to Spain. But beyond the territory of
their ally Massalia the way was blocked by powerful coalitions of Gallic
tribes. Chief among these were the Allobroges to the east of the Rhone,
the Arverni the greatest of all, whose territory lay west of that river,
from the Loire to the Pyrenees, and the Aedui, to the north of the
Arverni. The Romans made an alliance with the latter people who were at
enmity with the other two, and attacked the Allobroges because they had
received fugitives from the Salyes. The Arverni were drawn into the
conflict on the side of the Allobroges.

*The province of Narbonese Gaul.* In 121 B. C. both these peoples were
decisively beaten in a great battle near the junction of the Isere and the
Rhone by the consul Fabius Maximus and the proconsul Domitius. The Romans
were now masters of all southern Gaul, except Massalia, and organized it
as a province. In 118 B. C. a Roman colony was established at Narbo, which
was with the exception of the abandoned settlement of Junonia, the first
colony of Roman citizens sent beyond the Italian peninsula, although
colonies with Latin rights had been founded in Spain long before. To link
Italy with Spain there was constr