ng
the Alps with fresh forces, but by a brilliant operation was annihilated
on the Metaurus. The time had come when Scipio could disregard Hannibal
and strike at Carthage herself. Even Hannibal's return could not save
her. The victory of Zama decided the issue. Carthage became virtually a
tributary and subject state. Spain was a Roman province, and North
Africa a sort of protectorate.

The threatening extension of Macedonian power now demanded the
protecting intervention of Rome; an honest act of liberation for the
Greeks, but entailing presently the war with Antiochus of Syria.
Antiochus had left Phillip and Macedon in the lurch; now he sought to
impose his own yoke in place of theirs. The practical outcome was his
decisive overthrow at the battle of Magnesia, and the cession to Rome of
Asia Minor. Pergamus, under the house of Actalus, was established as a
protected kingdom, as Numidia under Masinissa had been. The Greek
states, however, were becoming conscious that their freedom was hardly
more than a name; Perseus of Macedon once more challenged Rome, not
without Greek support. Macedon was finally crushed by Aemilius Paullus
at Pydna. From that moment, Rome dropped the policy of maintaining free
states beyond the seas, which had manifestly failed. Virtually, the
known world was divided into subjects and dependencies of Rome, so vast
was the change in the forty years between the battles of the Metaurus
and Pydna.

Rapid extension of dominion by conquest had demoralising results; the
ruling race was exposed to strong temptations in the provinces, and the
city remained the seat of government, while the best of the burgesses
were distributed elsewhere. Hence, the popular assembly became virtually
the city mob, while the ruling families tended more and more to form a
close and greedy and plutocratic oligarchy. The demoralisation was very
inadequately checked by the austerity of the censorship as exercised by
Cato.

In the provinces, the Spanish natives revolted, and were only repressed
after severe fighting. In Greece, Asia and Africa, the Roman rule gave
neither freedom nor strong government. In Africa, the disturbances led
to the wiping out of Carthage; in Greece to the complete subjection of
the dependent states; in the Far East, a new Parthian power arose under
Mithridates. The Mediterranean was allowed to be infested by pirates.
Revolution was at hand. Politics had become reduced to a process of
intrigue for offi