ith them, the Carthaginians were forced to subdue them one
after another. This circumstance occasioned, on one hand, the loss of
Spain; but on the other, protracted the war, and made the conquest of the
country much more difficult.(599) Accordingly it has been observed, that
though Spain was the first province which the Romans invaded on the
continent, it was the last they subdued;(600) and was not entirely
subjected to their power, till after having made a vigorous opposition for
upwards of 200 years.

It appears from the accounts given by Polybius and Livy, of the wars of
Hamilcar, Asdrubal, and Hannibal in Spain, which will soon be mentioned,
that the arms of the Carthaginians had not made any considerable progress
in that country before that period, and that the greatest part of Spain
was then unconquered. But in twenty years' time they completed the
conquest of almost the whole country.

At the time that Hannibal set out for Italy, all the coast of Africa, from
the Philaenorum Arae, by the great Syrtis, to the pillars of Hercules, was
subject to the Carthaginians.(601) Passing through the straits, they had
conquered all the western coast of Spain, along the ocean, as far as the
Pyrenean hills. The coast, which lies on the Mediterranean, had been
almost wholly subdued by them; and it was there they had built Carthagena;
and they were masters of all the country, as far as the river Iberus,
which bounded their dominions. Such was, at that time, the extent of their
empire. In the centre of the country, some nations had indeed held out
against all their efforts, and could not be subdued by them.

_Conquests of the Carthaginians in Sicily._--The wars which the
Carthaginians carried on in Sicily are more known. I shall here relate
those which were waged from the reign of Xerxes, who first prompted the
Carthaginians to carry their arms into Sicily, till the first Punic war.
This period includes near two hundred and twenty years; _viz._ from the
year of the world 3520 to 3738. At the breaking out of these wars,
Syracuse, the most considerable as well as most powerful city of Sicily,
had invested Gelon, Hiero, and Thrasybulus, (three brothers who succeeded
one another,) with the sovereign power. After their deaths, a democracy or
popular government was established in that city, and subsisted above sixty
years. From this time, the two Dionysius's, Timoleon, and Agathocles, bore
the sway in Syracuse. Pyrrhus was afterwards in