In the battle which followed, 4,000
Istrians were left on the field, and the rest took refuge in the cities,
and asked for peace. The negotiations were broken off owing to the
Consul Claudius proceeding in an irregular manner, and Nesactium was
vigorously besieged with two fresh legions. A stream which defended the
walls and supplied drinking-water was diverted by the Romans; its
failure convinced the inhabitants that their gods were either powerless
or angry, and during the final assault the despairing Istrians killed
their women and children to save them from slavery, and threw their
bodies over the walls. Epulus, the king, fell upon his sword when he saw
the enemy within the walls; the rest either perished or were made
slaves. Mutila and Faveria were also attacked and levelled with the
ground, and quiet reigned in Istria. Livy says that at that time 5,622
persons were sold into slavery, the authors of the war were beaten and
then decapitated, and Istria was garrisoned with Roman troops. In 129
B.C. the Istrians rose in revolt when Rome was occupied with the Gepid
war. The Consul Caius Sempronius Tuditanus crushed this revolt, and
after that colonies were established at AEgida (Capodistria), AEmonia
(Cittanova), Albona, Parentium, Piquentum, Pola, Tergeste, and probably
in other places. Many Istrians fled into the Karst region, and for a
long time the land was unsafe. Julius Caesar had to take measures to
protect Tergeste from raids.

The Italianising of the country proceeded apace. Many Slav names occur
in Roman inscriptions; but in 127 B.C. 14,000 Roman colonists arrived,
and year by year more came, until the time of Augustus, both plebeians
and patricians. Many of the latter of Istrian birth occupied important
posts outside Istria; and, according to an ancient Aquileian breviary
quoted by Dr. Kandler, many of the Christian martyrs belonged to
patrician families. The names of SS. Euphemia, Thecla, Apollinaris,
Lazarus, Justina, Zeno, Sergius, Bacchus, Servulus, and Justus may be
quoted. The towns benefited in material ways, aqueducts were constructed
to supply them with water, and fine roads, such as the consular road
from Pola to Aquileia and Venetia, with its many branches, provided easy
and rapid communication. There was traffic in wines, wood, marble, and
granite. Istrian acorns nourished a fine breed of pigs which were
exported to Rome. The purple-dyeing factories of Cissa near Rovigno, the
fulling works of Po