There was a powerful party in Rome (headed by the stern censor Porcius Cato) who relentlessly insisted on the destruction of Carthage. Her warlike neighbor, Masinissa, king of Numidia, was encouraged by the Romans in harassing attacks, and in 149 B. C. Rome found a pretext for war. Her forces could not be resisted, and Carthage offered a complete submission, seeking the preservation of her commerce and her capital by a surrender of arms, war-ships, and her internal independence.
When Rome insisted on the destruction of the city of Carthage itself, and the removal of the inhabitants to inland abodes, the Carthaginians took counsel of despair, and resolved to stand a siege within their strong fortifications. Scipio Africanus Minor conducted the three years’ siege of the great commercial city and her citadel, and Roman determination, as usual, carried its point. After fearful house-to-house fighting the remnant of seven hundred thousand people surrendered; the place was set on fire, and burned for seventeen days; the ruins were leveled with the ground, and Carthage the proud city, alike with Carthage the commercial state, ceased to exist, in 146 B. C., the year of the final conquest of Greece. Part of the territory was given to Masinissa of Numidia, Rome’s ally; part became the Roman province of Africa.
GRANDEUR OF ROME AFTER HER FOREIGN CONQUESTS
At the beginning of the period of conquest (266-133 B. C.), the Roman dominion was confined to the peninsula of Italy; at its close it extended over the whole of southern Europe from the shores of the Atlantic to the straits of Constantinople, over the chief Mediterranean islands, and over a portion of North Africa, while farther east, in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, its influence was paramount. At the beginning Rome was merely one of the “Great Powers” of the world as it then was,—that is, she ranked with Carthage, Macedonia, and the kingdom of the Seleucidæ; at its close she was clearly the sole Great Power left.
THE ORIGIN OF PROVINCIAL
GOVERNMENT
The addition of the conquered countries resulted in a new feature of Roman rule called Provincial government. Retaining their native habits, religion, laws, etc., the inhabitants of every province were governed by a military president, sent from Rome, with a staff of officials. The provincials were required to pay taxes in money and kind; and these taxes were farmed out by the censors to Roman citizens, who, under the name of Publicans, settled in the various districts of the provinces. Thus, like a network proceeding from a center, the political system of the Romans pervaded the mass of millions of human beings inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean; and a vast population of various races and languages were all bound together by the cohesive power of Roman rule.
SPLENDORS OF A FESTAL DAY IN ANCIENT ROME
The Coliseum (kol-e-see´-um), in the background, was dedicated by Titus, A. D. 80, in a grand festival of 100 days, at which 5,000 beasts were slaughtered in the games. The successive tiers of seats, receding from the arena to the summit, gave room for 90,000 spectators. Gladiatorial contests continued until abolished by Honorius, A. D. 405.