patricians and plebeians had
vanished, and a new nobility had arisen, composed of rich men and of those
whose ancestors had enjoyed curule magistracies. They possessed the
Senate, and had control of the Comitia Centuriata, by the prerogative vote
of the equestrian centuries. A base rabble had grown up, fed with corn and
oil, by the government, and amused by games and spectacles. The old
republican aristocracy was supplanted by a family oligarchy. The vast
wealth which poured into Rome from the conquered countries created
disproportionate fortunes. The votes of the people were bought by the rich
candidates for popular favor. The superstitions of the East were
transferred to the capitol of the world, and the decay in faith was as
marked as the decay in virtue. Chaldaean astrologers were scattered over
Italy, and the gods of all the conquered peoples of the earth were
worshiped at Rome. The bonds of society were loosed, and a state was
prepared for the civil wars which proved even more destructive than the
foreign.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ROMAN CONQUESTS FROM THE FALL OF CARTHAGE TO THE TIMES OF THE GRACCHI.

Although the Roman domination now extended in some form or other over most
of the countries around the Mediterranean, still several States remained
to be subdued, in the East and in the West.

The subjugation of Spain first deserves attention, commenced before the
close of the third Punic war, and which I have omitted to notice for the
sake of clearness of connection.

After the Hannibalic war, we have seen how Rome planted her armies in
Spain, and added two provinces to her empire. But the various tribes were
far from being subdued, and Spain was inhabited by different races.

(M909) This great peninsula, bounded on the north by the ocean
Cantabricus, now called the Bay of Biscay, and the Pyrenees, on the east
and south by the Mediterranean, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, was
called Iberia, by the Greeks, from the river Iberus, or Ebro. The term
Hispania was derived from the Phoenicians, who planted colonies on the
southern shores. The Carthaginians invaded it next, and founded several
cities, the chief of which was New Carthage. At the end of the second
Punic war, it was wrested from them by the Romans, who divided it into two
provinces, Citerior and Ulterior. In the time of Augustus, Ulterior Spain
was divided into two provinces, called Lusitania and Baetica, while the