——Nam maximus ultor,
Tergemini nece Geryonis spoliisque superbus,
Alcides aderat, taurosque huc victor agebat
Ingentes: vallemque boves amnemque tenebant.
Æn. viii. 201.
Of these Cacus stole four of the finest, and though he ingeniously dragged them by the tails, was the cause of his own destruction. And that was not the first time that meddling with Spanish affairs was fatal to a foreign robber! Horace likewise alludes to this expedition of Hercules, in compliment to Augustus (Carm. iii. 14), where he compares the victorious return of the Roman from Iberia to that of Hercules—“Herculis ritu.” The first authenticated occupation of the country was by the Phœnicians, who colonized it extensively, but according to their usual practice endeavoured long to keep their discovery secret. The name of the country “Span” in the Phœnician signifies “a mystery.” The rivalry between Rome and Carthage brought the Romans subsequently to the Peninsula, and Spain since that period has played a great part in the history of the world.
The warlike character of the ancient Spaniards is attested by a variety of circumstances; by the terrific struggle which they maintained against the overwhelming power of Rome, by their determined and unflinching resistance to Hannibal as well as Scipio, by such desperately sustained sieges as those of Saguntum and Numantia, by the complimentary allusions to their valour with which the Latin poets abound, and not least by the reputation of their ancient armour, which was in the highest esteem at Rome in the days of Julius and Augustus Cæsar. Thus, when Horace addresses Iccius on his change of the study of Philosophy for a military life, he twits him with having promised better things than to exchange his splendid library for Iberian cuirasses:
Cùm tu coëmptos undique nobiles
Libros Panæti, Socraticam et domum
Mutare loricis Iberis,