of the Rhone from the east and the Arar (Saône) from the north, was advantageous from the point of view either of a merchant or of a soldier. She was the centre of the road-system of Gaul, which was worked out by Agrippa; and whenever an Emperor visited his Gallic provinces, Lugudunum was naturally his head-quarters.
The difference in development between the Three Gauls and Narbonensis—the land of cantons and the land of cities—is well illustrated by the town-names of France. In Narbonensis the local names superseded for ever the tribal names; Arelate, Vienna, Valentia, survive in Arles, Vienne, Valence. But in imperial Gaul, the rule is that the local names fell into disuse, and the towns are called at the present day by the names of the old Gallic tribes. Lutetia, the city of the Parisii, is Paris; Durocortorum, the city of the Remi, isReims; Avaricum, the city of the Bituriges, is Bourges.
The conqueror of Gaul had shown the way to the conquest of Britain; but this work was reserved for another than his son. One of the objects of Augustus in visiting Gaul in 27 B.C. was to feel his way towards an invasion of the northern island; but the project was abandoned. The legions of Augustus, however, though they did not cross the channel, crossed the Rhine; but the story of the making of the true and original province of Germany beyond the Rhine and its brief duration, and of the forming of the spurious Germanies on the left bank of the river, will be told in another chapter.
SECT. III. — SPAIN
Spain, the land of the “far west” in the old world, was safe through its geographical position from the invasion of a foe. Almost enclosed by the sea, it had no frontier exposed to the menace of a foreign power; and it was the only province in such a situation that required the constant presence of a military force. For though the Romanizing of the southern and eastern parts had advanced with wonderful rapidity, the intractable peoples of the north-western regions refused to accept the yoke of the conqueror, and held out in the mountain fastnesses, from which they descended to plunder their southern neighbors. The Cantabrians and the Asturians were the most important of these warlike races, and, when Augustus founded the Empire, their territories could hardly be considered as yet really under the sway of Rome. Since the death of Caesar arms had never been laid down in Spain; commanders were ever winning triumphs there and ever having to begin anew. Augustus found it needful to keep no less than three legions in the country, one in Cantabria, two in Asturia; and the memory of the Asturian army still abides in the name Leon, the place where the legio VII gemina was stationed.
Before Augustus, the province of Hispania Ulterior took in the land of the Tagus and the Durius as well as the region of the Baetis. This division was now altered. First of all, Gallaecia, the north-western corner, was transferred from the Further to the Hither province, so that all the fighting in the disturbed districts of the north and north-west might devolve upon the same commander. The next step was the separation of Lusitania, and its organization as a distinct imperial province, while the rest of Further Spain,— Baetica as it came to be called—was placed under the control of the senate. Another change made by Augustus was the removal of the seat of government in Hither Spain from New Carthage to more northern and more central Tarraco, whence, from this time forth, the province was called Tarraconensis. Tarraco became in this province what Lugudunum was in Gaul, the chief seat of the worship of Rome and Augustus, and the meeting-place of the provincial concilium
Thus, under the new order of things, Spain consists of three provinces: Baetica, senatorial: Tarraconensis and Lusitania, imperial. This arrangement was probably not completed until the end of the Cantabrian war, which lasted with few interruptions from 29 to 25 B.C., only, however, to break out again a year or two later. A rebellion of Cantabria and Asturia was suppressed by Statilius Taurus in 29 B.C.; but in 27 B.C. disturbances were renewed and the Emperor himself hastened from Gaul to quell the insurrection. But a serious illness at Tarraco forced him to leave the conduct of the war to his legati, probably under the general direction of Agrippa. A fleet on the north coast supported the operations by land; and by degrees the fastnesses of the Cantabrians fell into the hands of the Romans. At the same time P. Carisius subdued the Asturians.
It was a more difficult task to secure a lasting pacification. Augustus endeavored to induce the mountain peoples to settle in the plains, where in the neighborhood of Roman colonies they might be tamed and civilized. Such centres of Roman life in the north-west were Augusta Asturica, Bracara Augusta, Lucus Augusti, memorials of the Spanish visit of Augustus, and still surviving under their old names as Astorga, Braga, and Lugo. The chief inland town of eastern Tarraconensis was the work of the same statesman; Saragossa, on the Ebro, still preserves the name of the colony of Casar Augustus.
But the Emperor had not left Spain long (24 B.C.), when new disturbances broke out. They were promptly put down, but in 22 B.C.another rebellion of the Cantabrians and Asturians called for the joint action of the governors of Tarraconensis and Lusitania. The last war, and perhaps the most serious of all, was waged two years later, and demanded the leadership of Marcus Agrippa himself (20-19 B.C.). The difficulty was at first aggravated by the mutiny of the soldiers, who detested the weary and doubtful warfare in the mountains; and it required all the military experience of the general to restore their discipline and zeal. After many losses the war was successfully ended (19 B.C.), and the hitherto “untameable” Cantabrian people reduced to insignificance. A few disturbances occurred four years later, but were easily dealt with; yet it was still felt to be needful to keep a strong military force in northern Spain.
Roman civilization had soon taken a firm hold in the south of Spain. The contrast of Narbonensis with the rest of Gaul is like the contrast of Baetica and the eastern side of the Hither province with the rest of Spain. But Roman policy was very different in the two countries; and this was due to the circumstance that Spain was conquered and organized at an earlier period. The Latinizing of Spain had been carried far under the Republic; the Latinizing of Gaul had practically begun under the Empire. In Gaul the tribal cantons were allowed to remain; this was the policy of the Caesars, father and son. In Spain, the tribal cantons were broken up in smaller divisions; this was the policy of the republican senate. In Gaul, excluding the southern province, there were no Roman cities except Lugudunum; in Spain Roman colonies were laid here and there in all parts. The Gallic fellows of Baetic Gades, Corduba and Hispalis, of Lusitanian Emerita and Olisipo, of Tarraconese Carthage, Cassaraugusta and Bracara, must be sought altogether (under the early Empire) in the smallest of the four provinces of Gaul.
In Lusitania, Augustus founded Emerita Augusta, a colony of veterans, on the river Anas (Guadiana), and made it the capital of the province. The other chief Roman towns of Lusitania were Olisipo, since promoted to be the capital (Lisbon) of a modern kingdom, and Pax Julia, now represented by Beja. Spain was not a network of Roman roads, like Gaul. The only imperial road was the Via Augusta, which went from the north of Italy along the coast to Narbo, then across the pass of Puycerda to Ilerda, and on by Tarraco and Valentia to the mouth of the Baetis. The other road-communication necessary in a fertile and prosperous country, was provided by the local communities. The Spanish peninsula was rich not only in metals, but in wine, oil, and corn. Gades (Cadiz), which now received the name of Augusta Julia, was one of the richest and most luxurious towns in the Empire.
SECT. IV. — AFRICA, SARDINIA, SICYLY
From Spain one naturally goes on to Africa. Augustus never visited either the African province or the African dependency, but, before he left Tarraco (25 B.C.), he was called upon to deal with African affairs. In history Spain and Africa have always been closely connected. Sometimes Spain has been the stepping-stone to Africa, oftener, as for the Phoenicians and the Arabs, Africa has been the stepping-stone to Spain. The western half of Mauretania was really nearer to the European peninsula which faced it than to the rest of the African coast; and under the later Empire this region went with Spain and Gaul, not with Africa and Italy. There was no road between Tingis in western and Caesarea in eastern Mauretania: the communication was by sea. And so it was that the Moorish hordes, crossing to Baetica in their boats, were more dangerous to Roman subjects in Spain than to those in Africa. A poet of Nero’s time describes Baetica as trucibus obnoxia Mauris. For though Spain, as has been already said, had no frontier exposed to a foreign power, her southern province had as close neighbor a land which, first as a dependency and then as a province, was