Mithradates alone,
king of Pontus, endeavored to resist; but after thirty years of war he
was driven from his states and compelled to take his life by poison.
=Conquest of the Barbarian Lands.=--The Romans found more difficult
the subjection of the barbarous and warlike peoples of the west. A
century was required to conquer Spain. The shepherd Viriathus made
guerilla warfare on them in the mountains of Portugal (149-139),
overwhelmed five armies, and compelled even a consul to treat for
peace; the Senate got rid of him by assassination.
Against the single town of Numantia it was necessary to send Scipio,
the best general of Rome.
The little and obscure peoples of Corsica, of Sardinia, and of the
mountains of Genoa (the Ligurians) were always reviving the war with
Rome.
But the most indomitable of all were the Gauls. Occupying the whole of
the valley of the Po, they threw themselves on Italy to the south. One
of their bands had taken Rome in 390. Their big white bodies, their
long red mustaches, their blue eyes, their savage yells terrified the
Roman soldiers. As soon as their approach was learned, consternation
seized Rome, and the Senate proclaimed the levy of the whole army
(they called this the "Gallic tumult").
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