Asia and Greece were generally decided by a single battle, or two at most, and a battle was decided by the first onset. But it was quite different in the Celtiberian war, which was hardly interrupted by winter, and a fight, after being continued to nightfall, would be resumed on the first opportunity. The Celtiberi occupied the centre of Spain, and a large part of the two Castiles, an elevated table land bordered and intersected by mountains. They were the most warlike race in the Spanish peninsula. Polybius describes a peculiar practice among them. When the cavalry saw that the infantry was hard pressed, they would quit their horses and leave them standing in their place, while they helped the infantry. Of course we must understand that this was done on occasions when the mounted men for some reason could be of no use. The cavalry had small pegs fastened to the end of their reins, and they used to fix these pegs in the ground and train their horses to stand by them till the riders returned and took them up. The Celtiberi also excelled other nations in their swords, which were well adapted for piercing with the point and also for cutting with both sides. The Romans, says Polybius, after the wars with Hannibal, laid aside the Italian sword and used the Iberian form, but they were unable to equal either the goodness of the metal or the other qualities. Such were the people with whom the Romans carried on war, in a country where supplies were got with difficulty, where the summers are hot and the winters cold, and the commanders would lose more men from insufficient food, clothing, and sickness, than by the risks of war. The nature of war in such a land is always the same. In a rich, well cultivated country, a defeat of the enemy in a great battle and the occupation of a capital city may decide the fortune of a campaign; but in a poor country with a scattered population, whose chief employment is agriculture, where the roads are bad and the ground is difficult for the movements of a regular army, a war may be indefinitely prolonged, and the invader may finally retire before the obstacles of nature and the resistance of a brave people fighting for their homes.

While the Romans were suffering defeat in the countries

which lie about the sources of the Duero and the Tagus (Tajo), their arms were also employed in the remote western parts of the peninsula. The Lusitani, a warlike people, occupied the parts between the lower Duero and the Tagus, the country which is traversed by the Mons Herminius or Serra de Estrella, a large mountain mass which here separates the basins of the two rivers. The Lusitani, headed by some Carthaginian adventurer, plundered the parts which were under the Roman dominion, defeated the Roman praetor L. Calpurnius Piso with great loss, and killed his quaestor Terentius Varro (B.c. 154). The Lusitani being joined by their neighbours the Vettones, carried their incursions to the country of the Blastophoenices, as Appian names these people, who were Punic settlers established in Spain by Hannibal, and who mingled, as we may assume, with the native people. If Appian's Blastophoenices are the same as the Bastuli and Bastitani, this Lusitanian invasion extended across the Guadiana and Guadalquivir. L. Mummius, who afterwards distinguished himself by the capture of Corinth, was sent the next year (B.c. 153) against the Lusitani, who having lost their Carthaginian commander had chosen a new one named Caesaras. Mummius defeated Caesaras, but as the Romans pressed on the flying enemy in disorderly pursuit, Caesaras facing about converted his defeat into a victory. He killed 9000 of the Romans, recovered his own camp with all the booty that he had collected, and also took the camp of Mummius. In all these Spanish campaigns the killed are set down at very high numbers. The Roman general placed his remaining 5000 men in a fortified camp, and drilled them till they had recovered their courage. An opportunity soon offered for retrieving his disgrace. He fell suddenly on a detachment of the enemy who were carrying off their plunder, and took from them their booty and the Roman standards which had been lost in the camp.

The people south of the Tagus now rose in arms and attacked the Cunei or Conii, who were under the Roman dominion. The Conii occupied the south-western part of Portugal, which terminates in the Sacrum Promontorium, or Cape St. Vincent. The invaders took Conistorgis, a large

town in this district. The site of this place is not determined. It is mentioned by Appian and by Strabo, who says that it was the largest town belonging to the Celtici, or Celtic population of the south-west part of the peninsula. Some of these marauders crossed the Straits into Africa, and the rest laid siege to a town on the European side, named Ocile. Mummius, who had raised his troops to the number of 9000, and had got 500 horsemen, killed 15,000 of the enemy who were ravaging the country, and he raised the siege of Ocile. He then fell on those who were carrying off the plunder, and slaughtered them till not a man was left to report the news of the defeat. Such a signal destruction of nimble-footed barbarians might have been believed at Rome on the general's report more readily than we should believe it now. Mummius gave his men as much of the booty as they could carry off, and he burnt the rest in honour of the deities of war, in conformity to a fashion of which other instances are recorded in Roman history. On his return to Rome Mummius had a triumph.

Fulvius was succeeded in the command in north Spain (B.C. 152) by the consul M. Claudius Marcellus, and Mummius by M. Atilius. Marcellus led his men carefully through a hostile country and reached Ocilis, where Fulvius had lost. his stores. This town surrendered, and gave the consul hostages and thirty talents of silver; the townsmen received pardon for their defection. The Nergobriges, as Appian names them, hearing of the consul's clemency offered to submit on terms. Marcellus demanded a hundred horsemen to serve in his army, and the men and horses were sent. But in the mean time some of the Nergobriges had fallen on the rear of the Roman army and plundered the baggage, knowing nothing of the terms with the Romans, as the Nergobriges alleged. The consul however made the hundred men prisoners, and sold the horses, which may mean that he had no men to mount them. He then ravaged the territory of the Nergobriges, and began the siege of the chief city, Nergobriga, by raising mounds of earth and bringing up the vineae on them close to the walls. This place is the Nertobriga of other writers, a town on the river Salo

(Xalon), a branch of the Ebro, and about thirty Roman miles south-west of Zaragoza. The citizens, seeing these preparations for an assault, sent a herald to Marcellus, a man clad in a wolf skin, which among these people was the symbol of a herald's office. Marcellus refused to listen unless the Arevaci, Belli, and Titthi should altogether sue for peace. These states immediately joined in entreating Marcellus to be content with imposing a moderate penalty, and to allow them to return to the terms of the treaty made with Ti. Sempronius Gracchus. But some of the people in these parts who had been attacked by these Celtiberi, probably because they adhered to the Romans, opposed the petition of the Arevaci. Marcellus referred both parties to Rome; but he privately advised the Senate to come to terms with the Celtiberi, for he wished the war to be ended during his year of government, thinking that the termination of hostilities would be creditable to his reputation. The consul, more prudent than his predecessor, made a truce with the Celtiberi till the Spanish ambassadors should return from Rome, and led his army to the warmer south to pass the winter and to keep the Lusitani in check. He fixed his quarters at Corduba, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, at the head of navigation and in a pleasant well-watered country, where supplies were abundant, and here he founded a colony or settlement. This was the origin of the Spanish town Cordoba. The Roman settlement Italica, which was also on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, but lower down. than Corduba, and a few miles north-west of Sevilla, was made by P. Scipio Africanus in B.C. 207. Part of the amphitheatre of Italica remains. The population of Corduba was composed of select Roman citizens and native Iberians. It is not clear whether it was a colony from the date of its foundation, nor whether it was a Roman or a Latin colony. The name Patricia, which was afterwards added to Corduba, is supposed to have been given from the fact of many Roman patricians having been among the original settlers, or having established themselves there at a later time; but this is a most improbable explanation of the origin of the name. The settlement of this place was in conformity to the prudent

policy of the Romans, who held conquered countries in obedience by establishing in them strong towns of their own. Corduba was afterwards the chief city of a conventus, or civil division of Hispania Ulterior or Baetica, and the largest town in these parts next to Cadiz. Latin was the language of the people of Corduba, and it was afterwards the birthplace of the poet Lucan and the two Senecae.

In the west of Spain M. Atilius, the successor of Mummius, took Oxthracae, the largest city of the Lusitani. This loss brought the Lusitani and some of the Vettones to terms, and Atilius went into winter quarters. But this was a signal for a fresh rising of the natives and an attack on those who remained faithful to Rome. Nothing more is said of Atilius. The labour of reducing the Lusitani to submission was left to his successor Servius Sulpicius Galba.

One part of the Spanish envoys, whom Marcellus sent to Rome, were from the Belli, Titthi, and others of the Roman party. The other deputation was from the hostile Arevaci. This is the statement of Polybius. Appian, who may have misunderstood Polybius, or followed some other authority, includes the Belli, Titthi, and Arevaci, among the enemies of the Romans. But so far is clear, that the Romans had succeeded in dividing the Spaniards, and thus prepared the way for the subjugation of a warlike people.

The envoys from the friendly states were admitted into Rome, and had the first audience. The envoys of the Arevaci were ordered to wait on the other side of the Tiber till their turn came. The arguments of the friendly states were prompted by their fears. They said that if their enemies were not chastised as they deserved, they would punish the Roman allies as traitors, when the Roman armies should leave the country, and they would rouse all the Iberians to arms; for they would have the credit of being a match for the Romans. Accordingly the allies advised the Senate to keep a permanent force in Spain, to send over a consul every year to protect them, and keep the Arevaci in order, or not to withdraw the Roman troops till they had made such an example of the Arevaci as would deter all the other Spaniards from resisting the authority of Rome.