Introductory American History Part 2

NEW RIVALS OF THE GREEKS.

THE GREEK COLONIES AND THE CARTHAGINIANS. The Greek colonies were sometimes in danger of being attacked by the native tribes whose lands they had seized or by the wilder tribes that dwelt further from the coast. In Sicily their most dangerous neighbors were the Carthaginians at the western end of the island. The chief town of these people was Carthage, situated opposite Sicily in northern Africa in what is now Tunis. The Carthaginians were emigrants from Tyre and other cities of Phoenicia on the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean, and because of their many ships held control of a large part of the western Mediterranean. They had colonies even in Spain, where in very early times Phoenician traders had gone to obtain gold and silver.

THE GREEKS AND THE ROMANS. In Italy the most dangerous neighbors of the Greek colonists were the Romans, who lived half-way up the western side of the peninsula along the river Tiber. The history of the Romans, like the history of the Greeks, is full of interesting and wonderful tales. Some of them are legends, such as every people likes to tell about its early history. They relate how the city was founded by two brothers, Romulus and Remus; how Horatius defended the bridge across the Tiber against the hosts of the exiled Tarquin king; how the farmer Cincinnatus, having been made leader or dictator, in sixteen days drove off the neighboring tribes which were attacking the Romans and then went back to his plough.

THE GAULS BURN ROME, 390 B.C. The Romans told stories of their defeats as well as of their victories. One of these tells how hosts of Gauls, a people of the same race as the forefathers of the French, streamed southward from the valley of the Po. The Romans were alarmed by such tall men, with fierce eyes, and fair, flowing hair, whose swords crashed through the frail Roman helmets. They sent a large army to stop the invaders, but in the battle, which was fought only twelve miles from Rome, this army was destroyed.

The few defenders that were left withdrew to the Capitoline, the steepest of the hills over which the city had spread. Some of the older senators and several priests scorned to seek a refuge from the fury of the barbarians, and took their seats quietly in ivory chairs in the market place or Forum at the foot of the Capitoline hill. The Gauls at first gazed in wonder at the strange sight of the motionless figures. When one of them attempted to stroke the white beard of a senator, the senator struck him with his staff; then the Gauls fell upon senators and priests and slew them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLIFF OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL]

The sides of the Capitoline hill were so steep that for a long time the Gauls were baffled in their attempts to seize it. At last they discovered a path, and one dark night were on the point of scaling the height when some geese, sacred to the G.o.ddess Juno, cackled and flapped their wings until the garrison was aroused and the Gauls hurled headlong down the precipice. The garrison was saved, but the city was burned. This happened in Rome just one hundred years after the battle of Marathon in Greece.

THE CAUDINE FORKS. Another adventure did not have so happy an ending. The Romans were at war with the Samnites, a tribe living on the slopes of the Apennines, who were continually attacking the Greek cities on the coast. The war was caused by the attempt of the Romans to protect one of the Greek cities. The Roman generals, with a large army, in making their way into the Samnite country attempted to march through a narrow gorge which broadened out into a plain and then was closed again at the farther end by another gorge. When they reached this second gorge they found the road blocked by fallen trees and heaps of stones. They also saw Samnites on the heights above them. In alarm they hastened to retrace their steps, only to find the other entrance closed in the same way. After vain attempts to force a pa.s.sage or to scale the surrounding heights they were obliged to surrender.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE REGION OF THE CAUDINE FORKS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ITALY BEFORE THE GROWTH OF ROMAN POWER]

The Samnites compelled the Roman army, both generals and soldiers, each clad in a single garment, to pa.s.s "under the yoke" made of two spears set upright with one laid across, while they stood by and jeered. If any Roman looked angry or sullen at his disgrace, they struck or even killed him. This was called the disaster of the Caudine Forks, from the pa.s.s where the Romans were caught.

THE ROMANS AND THE GREEK CITIES. Not many years after this the Romans quarreled with the Greek cities of southern Italy. The Greeks of Tarentum, situated where Taranto is now, called to their aid Pyrrhus, who ruled a part of Alexander's old kingdom. Pyrrhus was a skilful general, and he had with him, besides his foot-soldiers and hors.e.m.e.n, many trained elephants. A charge of these elephants was too much for the Romans, who were already hard pressed by the long spears of the soldiers of Pyrrhus. But the Romans were ready for another battle, and in this they fought so stubbornly and killed so many of the Greek soldiers that Pyrrhus cried out, "Another victory like this and we are ruined." In a third battle, which took place 275 B.C., he was defeated, and returned to Greece, leaving the Romans masters of the Greek cities in Italy.

THE ROMANS CONQUERORS OF ITALY. By this time there were few tribes south of the river Po which did not own the Romans as their masters. All Italy was united under their rule. This was the first step in the conquest of the world that lay about the Mediterranean Sea and in the extension of that ancient world to the sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic and to England. Before we read the story of the other conquests we must inquire who the Roman people were and how they lived.

HOW THE ROMANS LIVED. In early times most of the Romans were farmers or cattle raisers. A man's wealth was reckoned according to the number of cattle he owned. Their manner of living was simple and frugal. Like the Greek, the Roman had his games. He enjoyed chariot-races, but used slaves or freedmen as drivers. He also went to the theater, although he thought it unworthy of a Roman to be an actor. Such an occupation was for foreigners or slaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ROMAN WEARING A TOGA]

ROMAN BOYS AT SCHOOL. The boys at school did not learn poems, as did the Greek boys, but studied the first set of laws made by the Romans, called the Twelve Tables. This they read, copied, and learned by heart. Their interest in laws was the first sign that they were to become the world's greatest lawmakers.

ROMAN WOMEN. In their respect for women the Romans were superior to the Greeks. The Roman mother did not remain in the women's apartments of the house, as she was expected to do at Athens, but was her husband's companion, received his guests, directed her household, and went in and out as she chose.

PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS. The men of the families which first ruled Rome were called patricians or n.o.bles, while the rest were plebeians or common people. There were also many slaves, but they had no rights. At first only the patricians knew exactly what the laws were, because the laws were not written in a book. When disputes arose between patricians and plebeians about property, the plebeians believed the patricians changed the laws in order to gain an advantage over their poorer neighbors.

The story is told that twice the plebeians withdrew from the city and refused to return until their wrongs were removed. Then they compelled the n.o.bles to draw up the laws in a roll called the Twelve Tables. At this time messengers were sent to Athens to examine the laws of the Greeks. The richer plebeians were also gradually admitted to all the offices of the Roman republic, and so became n.o.bles themselves.

GOVERNMENT AT ROME. The Romans had once been ruled by kings, but now their chief officers were consuls. Two consuls were chosen each year because the Romans feared that a single consul might make himself a king, or, at least, gain too much power. The real rulers of Rome, however, were the senators, the men who had held the prominent offices. There were a.s.semblies of the people, but these generally did what the senators or other officers told them to do.

Among the interesting officers of Rome was the censor, who drew up a list or census of the citizens and of their property. Another officer was the tribune, chosen in the beginning by the plebeians to protect them against the patricians. The tribune was not at first a member of the senate, but he was given a seat outside the door, and if a law was proposed that would injure the plebeians, he cried out, "Veto," which means "I forbid," and the law had to be dropped. This is the origin of our word "veto."

HOW THE ROMANS TREATED THE ITALIANS. The Romans were wise in their dealings with the cities or tribes which they conquered. They not only sent out colonies of their fellow-citizens to occupy a part of the lands they had seized, but they also gave the conquered peoples a share in their government, and in some cases allowed them to act as citizens of Rome. These new Roman citizens helped the older Romans in their wars with other tribes. In this way Roman towns gradually spread over Italy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ROMAN MILITARY STANDARD]

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the name of the dangerous neighbors of the Greeks in Sicily? Find Carthage on the map. Where did the Carthaginians come from originally? Find Phoenicia on the map.

2. Who were the dangerous neighbors of the Greeks in Italy? Find the Tiber and Rome on the map.

3. Tell the story of the capture of Rome by the Gauls. How long was this after the battle of Marathon? How long after the death of Socrates? How long before Alexander became king of Macedon?

4. Find the land of the Samnites on the map. Tell the story of the Caudine Forks.

5. What Greek king did the people of Tarentum call to Italy to help them against the Romans? What did he say after his second battle with the Romans?

6. After the defeat of Pyrrhus how much of Italy owned the Romans as masters? How did the Romans treat the Italians?

7. Explain how the early Roman ways of living differed from the ways of the Greeks.

8. How differently did the Romans and the Greeks govern themselves?

EXERCISES.

1. Read the story of Horatius in Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome."

2. Collect pictures of Rome and Italy.

3. Is there a modern city of Carthage? What country rules over Tunis? Are there now any Phoenicians?

4. Read the description of Tyre in the Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 3-25, and tell what is said there about the riches of the Tyrians. Find out who destroyed Tyre.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN EARLY ROMAN COIN]

CHAPTER VI.

THE MEDITERRANEAN A ROMAN LAKE.

ROME IN PERIL. The conquest of Italy by the Romans took about two hundred and fifty years. The conquest of the peoples living in the other lands on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean took nearly as long again. Only twice in these four or five hundred years was Rome in serious danger of destruction. Once it was by the Gauls, as we have read, who captured all the city except the citadel. The second time it was by the Carthaginians, who lived on the northern coast of Africa. The Romans were finally victorious over all their enemies because they were patient and courageous in misfortune and refused to believe that they could be conquered.

CAUSE OF WAR WITH CARTHAGE. The Carthaginians were angry at the way the Romans treated them. They watched with alarm the steady growth of the Roman power, and feared that the Romans, if masters of Italy, would attack their trade with the cities of the western Mediterranean. A quarrel broke out over a city in Sicily. At first the Carthaginians seemed to have the best of it, because they had a strong war fleet while the Romans had only a few small vessels. But the Romans hurriedly built ships and placed upon each a kind of drawbridge, fitted with great hooks called grappling-irons. These they let down upon the enemy's decks as soon as the ships came close enough, and over these drawbridges the Roman soldiers rushed and captured the Carthaginian ships.

When the Carthaginians asked for peace, the Romans demanded a great sum of money and a promise that the Carthaginians would leave the cities in Sicily which they occupied. Soon afterward the Romans took advantage of a mutiny in the Carthaginian army to demand more money and to seize Sardinia and Corsica. No wonder the Carthaginians were angry. The result was a new and more terrible war.

HANNIBAL. The Carthaginians in the new war were led by Hannibal, who understood how to fight battles better than any of the generals whom the Romans sent against him. The story is told that when he was a boy his father made him promise, at the altar of his city's G.o.ds, undying hatred to Rome. Even the Romans thought him a wonderful man. Their historians said that toil did not wear out his body or exhaust his energy. Cold or heat were alike to him. He never ate or drank more than he needed. He slept when he had time, whether it was day or night, wrapping himself in a military cloak and lying on the ground in the midst of his soldiers. He did not dress better than the other officers, but his weapons and his horses were the best in the army.

WAR CARRIED INTO ITALY, 218 B.C. Hannibal decided that the war should be carried into Italy to the very gates of Rome. He started from Spain, half of which the Carthaginians ruled, marched across southern Gaul, and came to the foot-hills of the Alps. To climb the Alps was the most difficult part of his long journey.

CROSSING THE ALPS. There were no roads across the mountains, only rough paths used by the mountaineers, who constantly attacked Hannibal's soldiers, bursting out suddenly upon them from behind a turn in the trail, or rolling huge rocks upon them from above. The elephants, the horses, and the baggage animals of the army were frightened, and in the tumult many of them slipped over the precipices and were dashed on the rocks below. For five days the army toiled upward, and then rested two days on the summit of the pa.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ALPS THAT HANNIBAL HAD TO CROSS]

Although the road down into Italy was short, it was steep, and the paths were slippery with ice and with snow trodden into slush by thousands of men and animals. In one place there had been a landslide, and the road along the rocky slope was cut away for a thousand feet. In order to build a new road it was necessary to crack the rocks. This the soldiers did by making huge fires and pouring wine over the heated surface. At last, worn out, ragged, and half starved, the army reached the plains of Italy, but with a loss of half its men.

HOW HANNIBAL WON A VICTORY. The first great battle with the Romans was fought on the river Trebia in northern Italy, and in it Hannibal showed how easily he could outwit and destroy a Roman army. It was a winter's day and the river was swollen by rains. The two camps lay on opposite banks. In the early morning Hannibal sent across the river a body of hors.e.m.e.n to attack the Roman camp and draw the Romans into a battle. At the same time he ordered his other soldiers to eat breakfast, to build fires before their tents to warm themselves, and to rub their bodies with oil, so that they might be strong for the coming fight.

The Romans were suddenly roused by the attack of the Carthaginian hors.e.m.e.n, and, without waiting for food, moved out of camp, chasing the hors.e.m.e.n toward the river. Into its icy waters the Romans waded breast-high, and when they came up on the opposite bank they were benumbed with cold. As soon as Hannibal knew that the Romans had crossed the river he attacked them fiercely with all his troops. Two thousand men whom he had placed in ambush fell upon the rear of their line. Their allies were frightened by a charge of elephants. Seeing that destruction was certain, ten thousand of the best soldiers broke through the Carthaginian line and marched away. All the rest of the army was destroyed.

ROMAN ENDURANCE. This was not the last of the Roman defeats. Two other armies were destroyed by Hannibal during the next two years. In the battle of Cannae nearly seventy thousand Romans, including eighty senators, were slain. The news filled the city with weeping women, but the senate did not think of yielding. When their allies deserted them, they besieged the faithless cities, took them, beheaded the rulers, and sold the inhabitants into slavery.

They did not dare to fight Hannibal in the open field, but tried to wear him out by cutting off all small bodies of his troops and by making it difficult for him to get food for his army. They carried the war into Spain and finally into Africa, and when, with a weakened army, Hannibal faced them there, they defeated him. His defeat was the ruin of Carthage, for the unhappy city was compelled to see her fleet destroyed, to pay the Romans a huge sum of money, and to give up Spain to them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ROMAN SOLDIER]

OTHER ROMAN TRIUMPHS. The war with Carthage ended two hundred and two years before the birth of Christ. In the wars that followed, Roman armies fought not only in Spain and Africa, but also in Greece and Asia. Carthage was destroyed; as was also Corinth, a Greek city. Roman generals enriched themselves and sent great treasures back to Rome. Roman merchants grew rich because their rivals in Carthage and Corinth were ruined or because the conquered cities were forbidden to trade with any city but Rome. All this took a long time and many wars, but in the end the Romans became masters of every land along the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. This was not wholly a misfortune, for the Romans had learned that the Greeks were superior to them in some things and they took the Greeks as their teachers in most of the arts of living. The ancient world became a sort of partnership, and we call its civilization Graeco-Roman, that is, both Greek and Roman.

THE ROMANS AS RULERS. The Romans at first treated the lands in Sicily, Spain, Africa, Greece, and Asia as conquered territories, or provinces, sending to rule over them officers who were to act both as governors and judges. With these men went many tax-collectors or "publicans." The Romans were obliged to leave in most provinces a large body of soldiers to put down any attempt at rebellion. Often the officers and the publicans robbed the country instead of ruling it justly.

EVIL RESULTS OF CONQUEST. During the wars the Romans had lost many of their simple ways of living. Some had grown rich in the business of providing for the armies and navies, and they were eager for new wars in order to make still bigger fortunes. Hannibal's marches up and down Italy had driven thousands of farmers from their homes, and they had wandered to Rome for safety and food. When the war was over many of them did not go back to their homes. Those who did found that they could no longer get fair prices for their crops because great quant.i.ties of wheat were shipped to Rome from the conquered lands. Wealthy men bought the little farms and joined them, making great estates where slaves raised sheep and cattle or tended vineyards and olive groves. There was not much work for free men in Rome, for slaves were very cheap. One army of prisoners was sold at about eight cents apiece. In this way the poor were made idle, while the rich sent everywhere for new luxuries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLADIATORS After carvings on the tomb of Scaurus]

CRUEL SPORTS. To amuse the idle crowds, office-seekers and victorious generals provided cruel sports. Savage animals were turned loose to tear one another to pieces. What was worse, human prisoners were compelled to fight, armed with swords or spears. These men were called gladiators, and often were specially trained to fight with one another or with wild beasts.

SOME THINGS THE ROMANS LEARNED. But the successes of the Romans brought them other things which were good. They took the buildings of the Greeks as models and built similar temples and porticoes in Rome, especially about the old market place or Forum. Their own houses, which in earlier times were nothing but cabins, they enlarged, and if they were rich enough, built palaces, adorned with paintings and with statues. Unfortunately many of these came from the plunder of Greek cities, for the Romans were great robbers of other peoples. The poorer Romans continued to live in wretched hovels.

THE THEATER. The Romans learned more about the theaters of the Greeks. Their plays were either translated into Latin from Greek or retold in a different manner from the original Greek. The Romans did not succeed in writing any plays of their own which were as good as the plays of the Greeks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUINS OF THE ROMAN THEATER AT ORANGE, FRANCE]

THE NEW EDUCATION OF THE ROMANS. The Greeks also taught the Romans how to write poems and histories. The first histories were written in Greek, but later the Romans learned how to write in Latin prose and poetry as good as much that had been written by the Greeks. Greek became the second language of every educated Roman, and thus he could enjoy the books of the Greeks as well as those written by Romans. The education of the Roman boy now began with the poems of Homer, and the young man's education was not thought to be finished until he had traveled in Greece and the lands along the eastern Mediterranean.

QUESTIONS.

1. How long did it take the Romans to conquer Italy? How long to conquer the lands about the Mediterranean? In what "Times" did all this happen?

2. Why did the Carthaginians and the Romans fight? What did Hannibal promise his father? What sort of a leader was Hannibal?

3. How did Hannibal reach Italy? How did he win the battle of the Trebia?

4. Why was he unable to force the Romans to yield?

5. How long before the beginning of the Christian Era did this war with Hannibal close? How long after the battle of Marathon, and after the death of Alexander the Great?

6. What other lands did the Romans conquer? How did they rule these colonies?

7. Were they better for the wealth and power they gained? What became of many of the Italian farmers? Where did the Romans get their slaves?

8. What good things did they learn from the Greeks? What was the Graeco-Roman world?

EXERCISES.

1. On an outline map of the lands around the Mediterranean mark on each land, Spain, Greece, northern Africa, Asia Minor, and Egypt, the dates at which the Romans conquered each, finding these dates in any brief Roman or Ancient History--Botsford, Myers, Morey, West, Wolfson.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ANCIENT WORLD EXTENDED TO THE Sh.o.r.eS OF THE ATLANTIC.

NEW CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS. The Romans had as yet conquered only civilized peoples like themselves, with the exception of the tribes in Spain and southern Gaul. Now the Roman armies were to push northward over the plains and through the forests of Gaul, across the Rhine into unknown Germany, and over the Channel into Britain, equally unknown. They were to be explorers as well as conquerors. In this way they were to carry their civilization to the Rhine and the Atlantic, and so increase greatly the part of the earth where men lived and thought as the Romans did and as the Greeks had before them. The ancient civilized world was beginning to move from its older center, the Mediterranean, toward the sh.o.r.e of the Atlantic.

ANCESTORS OF THE FRENCH AND THE GERMANS. The tribes living in Gaul were not at that time called French, but Gallic. The Gauls were like the Britons who lived across the Channel in Britain. The German ancestors of the English had not yet crossed the North Sea to that land. Beyond the Rhine lived the Germans, who had but little to do with the Romans and the Greeks and were still barbarians. The Gauls living farthest away from the Roman settlements were not much more civilized.

The princ.i.p.al difference between the Germans and the Gauls was that the Gauls lived in villages and towns and cultivated the land or dug in mines or traded along the rivers, while the Germans had no towns and dwelt in clearings of the forest. Their wealth, like that of the early Romans, was their cattle. The land they cultivated was divided between them year after year, so that a German owned only his hut and the plot of ground or garden about it. Some of the towns of the Gauls were placed on high hills and were protected by strong walls.

THE TERRIBLE GERMANS. The Romans had at first been afraid of the Gauls, because they had never forgotten how terribly these people had once defeated them. But since that time they had fought the Gauls so often that they were losing this fear. They now dreaded more to meet the Germans, who seemed like giants because they were taller even than the Gauls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GALLIC WARRIORS]

GALLIC AND GERMAN WARRIORS. The leaders of the Germans were sometimes kings and sometimes n.o.bles whom the Romans called duces, from which comes our word duke. The Gallic chieftains were adorned with gold necklaces, bracelets, and rings. When they went out to battle, they wore helmets shaped like the head of some ravenous beast, and their bodies were protected by coats of chain armor made of iron rings. Their princ.i.p.al weapon was a long, heavy sword. Both German and Gallic n.o.bles were accompanied by bands of young men, their devoted followers, who shared the joys of victory or died with them in case of defeat. It was a disgrace to lose one's sword or to survive if the leader was killed.

HOW THE GERMANS LIVED. When the Germans were not fighting they were idle, for all work was done by women and slaves. They were great drinkers and gamblers, and often in their games a man would stake his freedom upon the result. If he lost, he became the slave of the winner. The Germans respected their wives, even if they compelled them to do the hard work. The women sometimes went with the men to battle, and their cries encouraged the warriors, or if the warriors wavered, the fierce reproaches of the women drove them back to the fight.

RELIGION OF THE GERMANS. We remember the religion of the Germans because four days of the week are named for their G.o.ds or the G.o.ds of their neighbors across the Baltic. Their princ.i.p.al G.o.d was Wodan, or Odin, G.o.d of the sun and the tempest. Wodan's day is Wednesday. Thursday is named for Thor, the Northmen's G.o.d of thunder. The G.o.d of war, Tiw, gave a name to Tuesday, and Frigu, the G.o.ddess of love, to Friday. The German, like his northern neighbors, thought of heaven as the place where brave warriors who had died in battle spent their days in feasting.

JULIUS CAESAR. Julius Caesar was the great Roman general who conquered the Gauls and led the first expeditions across the Rhine into Germany and over the Channel into Britain. He was a wealthy n.o.ble who, like other n.o.bles, held one office after another until he became consul. He was also a great political leader, and with two other men controlled Rome. We should call them "bosses," but the Romans called them "triumvirs."

[Ill.u.s.tration: JULIUS CAESAR After the bust in the Museum at Naples]

CAESAR IN GAUL. As soon as Caesar became governor of the province of southern Gaul, he showed that he was a skilful general as well as a successful politician. He interfered in the wars between the Gauls, taking sides with the friends of the Romans. When a large army of Germans entered Gaul, he defeated it and drove it back across the Rhine. One war led to another until all the tribes from the country now called Belgium to the Mediterranean coast professed to be friends of the Roman people. His campaigns lasted from 58 B.C. for nine years. Two or three times Caesar was very close to ruin, but by his courage and energy he always succeeded in gaining the victory.

VERCINGETORIX, GALLIC HERO. The great hero of the Gauls in their struggle with the Romans was Vercingetorix. He was a young n.o.ble who lived in a mountain town of central Gaul. His father had been killed in an attempt to make himself king of his native city. Vercingetorix believed that if the Gauls did not unite against the Romans they would soon see their lands become Roman provinces. As he knew his army was no match for the Romans in open fight, he persuaded the Gauls to try to starve the Romans out of the country. He planned to destroy all village stores of grain, and to cut off the smaller bands of soldiers which wandered from the main army in search of food.

CAESAR AND VERCINGETORIX. Vercingetorix found the work of conquering Caesar in this way too difficult. He was finally driven to take refuge in Alesia, on a hilltop in eastern Gaul. Here the Romans prepared to starve him into surrender. They dug miles of deep trenches about the fortress so that the imprisoned Gauls could not break through. They dug other trenches to protect themselves from the attacks of a great army of Gauls which came to rescue Vercingetorix. These trenches were fifteen or twenty feet wide; they were strengthened by palisades and ramparts, and filled with water where this was possible. Several times the Gauls nearly succeeded in breaking through, but the quickness and stubborn courage of Caesar always saved the day.

DEATH OF VERCINGETORIX. Vercingetorix now proved that he was a real hero. He offered to give himself up to Caesar, if this would save the town. But Caesar demanded the submission of all the chiefs. When they had laid down their arms before the conqueror, Vercingetorix appeared on a gaily decorated horse. He rode around the throne where Caesar sat, dismounted in front, took off his armor, and bowed to the ground. His fate was hard. He was sent to Rome a prisoner, was shown in the triumphal procession of the victorious Caesar, and was then put to death in a dungeon. On the site of Alesia stands a monument erected by the French to the memory of the brave Gallic hero. The defeat of Vercingetorix ended the resistance of the Gauls, and not many years afterward their country was added to the long list of Roman provinces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BRIDGE ON WHICH CAESAR'S ARMY CROSSED THE RHINE]

CAESAR IN GERMANY. Caesar crossed the Rhine into Germany on a bridge which his engineers built in ten days. He laid waste the fields of the tribes near the river in order to make the name of Rome feared, and then returned to Gaul and destroyed the bridge. Twice he sailed over to Britain, the last time marching a few miles north of where London now stands. His purpose was to keep the Britons from stirring up the Gauls to attack him. Other generals many years later conquered Britain as far as the hills of Scotland.

THE GERMAN HERO HERMANN. The Romans were not fortunate in their later attempts to conquer a part of Germany. When Caesar's grandnephew Augustus was master of Rome, he sent an army under Varus into the forests far from the Rhine. Hermann, a leader of the Germans, gathered the tribes together and utterly destroyed the army of Varus. Whenever Augustus thought of this dreadful disaster, he would cry out, "O Varus, give me back my legions!" The Rhine and the Danube became the northern boundaries of the Roman conquests.

GAULS AND BRITONS BECOME ROMAN. Although the Gauls had fought stubbornly against Caesar they soon became as Roman as the Italians themselves. They ceased to speak their own language and began to use Latin. They mastered Latin so thoroughly that their schools were sometimes regarded as better than the schools in Italy, and Roman youths were sent to Gaul to learn how best to speak their own language. The Britons also became very good Romans. Even the Germans frequently crossed the Rhine and enlisted in the Roman armies. When they returned to their own country they carried Roman ideas and customs with them.

THE INTEREST OF AMERICANS IN ROMAN SUCCESSES. For Americans the influence the Romans exerted in Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain is more important than their work in the eastern Mediterranean, because from those countries came the early settlers of America. The civilization which the Romans taught the peoples of western Europe was to become a valuable part of the civilization of our forefathers.