HOW THE REPUBLIC OVERCAME ITS NEIGHBORS.



We have now reached the time when Rome had brought under her sway all
the country towards Naples as far as the river Liris, and, gaining
strength, she is about to add materially to her territory and to lay
the foundation for still more extensive conquests. During the century
that we are next to consider, she conquered her immediate neighbors,
and was first noticed by that powerful city which was soon to become
her determined antagonist, Carthage. It was the time when the great
Macedonian conqueror, Alexander, finished his war in Persia, and the
mention of his name leads Livy to pause in his narrative, and,
reflecting that the age was remarkable above others for its conquerors,
to enquire what would have been the consequences if Alexander had been
minded to turn his legions against Rome, after having become master of
the Eastern world. Alexander died, however, before he had an
opportunity to get back from the East; but, as the old historian says,
it is entertaining and relaxing to the mind to digress from weightier
considerations and to embellish historical study with variety, and he
decides that if the great Eastern conqueror had marched against Rome,
he would have been defeated. While Livy was probably influenced in this
decision by that desire to magnify the prowess of his country which is
plainly seen throughout his work, we may agree with him without fear of
being far from correct, especially when we remember that Alexander
achieved his great success against peoples that had not reached the
stage of military science that Rome had by this time attained. "The
aspect of Italy," Livy says, "would have appeared to him quite
different from that of India, which he traversed in the guise of a
reveller at the head of a crew of drunkards * * * Never were we worsted