THERE is no doubt the most remarkable period of Roman history was that comprised within the two hundred and fifty years immediately preceding the advent of Christ Jesus the Saviour into the world.
Pyrrhus, of whom we wrote in our previous paper, had been slain. He was defeated at Bene-ventum, and ultimately lost his life, through a tile, thrown by a woman from a housetop in the City or Argos, having fatally wounded him. Then his forces retired from the Latin peninsula, and the Romans were left for a very short time in comparative peace.
About this time, however, began the formidable struggle with Carthage. This wonderful city was founded by the Phoenicians of Tyre, and, therefore, the people were, strange to say, connected with the Semitic race. They were active traders, and possessed a splendid fleet, with which they carried on a considerable commerce, and also with their ships of war attacked and captured some of the Roman towns on the coast. Some great and brave men resisted strenuously the efforts of Regulus and other generals who endeavored to break the power of the Carthaginians. One of them, Hamilcar, was a noble defender of the integrity of his country. When his young son was only nine years of age, he told him of the efforts the Romans were making to subjugate their land, and he asked the young lad to declare in the presence of all the people that he would never be a friend of the Roman people. That boy’s name was Hannibal, and who has not read how he kept his promise to his father? His marvelous march over the Alps into Italy, the victory of Cann, when it is said 70,000 Romans were slain, and all his wonderful deeds, until in the year 202 B.C. he met Publius Cornelius Scipio on the decisive battlefield of Zama, when his army was destroyed, and he had to flee for his life. All these historical facts are well known to every reader, and the final defeat of the great man Hannibal left Rome free to pursue her career of conquest almost unopposed.
Very soon the kingdoms in the East, over which Alexander once held sway, came under Roman domination.
About the year 133 B.C., Macedonia, Greece, Asia, Spain, and, indeed, all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, were under the direct authority of Rome and were governed as Roman provinces. Carthage also was utterly destroyed, for, singular to say, although so powerless the Romans had all along been afraid of her, and eventually set the city on fire and burned it so that hardly a vestige of it remained.
It is singular how often in the history of the rise and progress of nations many of the best men have been treated with neglect. Scipio Africanus, who had done so much for Rome, died in exile, and the words “Ungrateful Country” were written on his grave. Cato, another patriotic citizen, said, “What will become of Rome when she has no other state to fear.” The brothers Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, too, tried their utmost to guide the state in a way that would be worthy of her mighty power. But all their efforts were unavailing, and both lost their lives at the hands of their own countrymen. When they were boys their mother Cornelia, when asked to show her jewels, called for her sons and put her arms around their necks saying, “These are my jewels.”
We have not space to tell of Marius, or Cinna, or Sulla, or of Marcus Tullius Cicero, and others who labored for the welfare of the state until the time of Caius Julius Caesar. He was born in the year 100 B.C. Descended as he was from an old noble patrician family he in early life gave evidence of remarkable powers and that he was a born leader of men; but few would have imagined that he was destined, not only to subjugate the proud spirit of the Roman nobility and to overthrow the republican power, but also to become the absolute ruler of the Roman world, and to pave the way, through the controlling power of the Eternal God, for such momentous events as have proved of the highest concern to men of all ages ever since, and will do so to the end of time.