and sold as slaves, and who were
proverbial for their worthlessness, is still to be traced in the present
inhabitants; for they are represented as extremely barbarous, and so
treacherous, and inhospitable, that they have been called the Malays of the
Mediterranean. The island of Corsica, which, indeed, generally followed the
fate of Sardinia, was another of the fruits of the first Punic war which
the Romans reaped, in some degree favourable to their commerce. It
possessed a large and convenient harbour, called Syracusium. The
Carthaginians must have reduced it at an early period, since, according to
Herodotus, the Cyrnians (the ancient name for the inhabitants), were one of
the nations that composed the vast army, with which they invaded Sicily in
the time of Gelon.

During the interval between the first and second Punic wars, the Roman
commerce seems to have been gradually, but slowly extending itself,
particularly in the Adriatic: we do not possess, however, any details on
the subject, except a decisive proof of the attention and protection which
the republic bestowed upon it, in repressing and punishing the piracies of
the Illyrians and Istrians. These people, who were very expert and
undaunted seamen, enriched themselves and their country by seizing and
plundering the merchant vessels which frequented the Adriatic and adjacent
Mediterranean sea; and their piracies were encouraged, rather than
restrained by their sovereigns. At the period to which we allude, they were
governed by a queen, named Teuta, who was a woman of a bold and
enterprising spirit: the Roman merchants, who traded, in the Adriatic, had
frequently been plundered and cruelly treated by her subjects; upon this,
the Roman senate sent two ambassadors to her, to insist that she should put
a stop to these measures. The Romans had also other grounds of complaint
against her and her subjects; for the latter extended their piracies to the
allies of Rome, as well as to the Romans themselves, and the former was at
that time besieging the island of Issa, in the Adriatic, which was under
the protection of the republic. The inhabitants of this island seem to have
been rather extensively engaged in commerce, and were celebrated for
building a kind of light ships, thence called _Issaei lembi_.

Teuta received and treated the Roman ambassadors with great scorn and
haughtiness; she promised, indeed, that she would no longer authorise the
piracies of her subjects; bu