is, however, memorable for the great public
works which he executed. He made the great military road called the
Appian Way (Via Appia), leading from Rome to Capua, a distance of 120
miles, which long afterward was continued across the Apennines to
Brundusium. He also executed the first of the great aqueducts (Aqua
Appia) which supplied Rome with such an abundance of water.

Cn. Flavius, the son of a Freedman, and Secretary to Appius Claudius,
divulged the forms and times to be observed in legal proceedings. These
the Patricians had hitherto kept secret; they alone knew the days when
the courts would be held, and the technical pleadings according to which
all actions must proceed. But Flavius, having become acquainted with
these secrets, by means of his patron, published in a book a list of the
formularies to be observed in the several kinds of actions, and also set
up in the forum a whited tablet containing a list of all the days on
which the courts could be held. In spite of his ignominious birth, he
was made a Senator by Appius Claudius, and was elected Curule AEdile by
the people.

[Illustration: Temple of Vesta. (From a Coin.)]

[Footnote 25: See p. 6. (The end of Chapter I.--Transcriber)]

[Illustration: Mount Ercta in Sicily.]

CHAPTER X.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. B.C. 264-241.

Rome, now mistress of Italy, entered upon a long and arduous straggle
with Carthage, which ruled without a rival the western waters of the
Mediterranean. This great and powerful city was founded by the
Phoenicians[26] of Tyre in B.C. 814, according to the common
chronology. Its inhabitants were consequently a branch of the Semitic
race, to which the Hebrews also belonged. Carthage rose to greatness by
her commerce, and gradually extended her empire over the whole of the
north of Africa, from the Straits of Hercules to the borders of Cyrene.
Her Libyan subjects she treated with extreme harshness, and hence they
were always ready to revolt against her so soon as a foreign enemy
appeared upon her soil.

The two chief magistrates at Carthage were elected annually out of a few
of the chief families, and were called _Suffetes_.[27] There was a
Senate of Three Hundred members, and also a smaller Council of One
Hundred, of which the latter were the most powerful, holding office for
life, and exercising an almost sovereign sway over the other authorities
in the state. The government was a complete oligarchy; and a few old,
rich, and p