Rome was now safe from any attack. She had become a great
Mediterranean power. Spain was divided into two provinces, and the
north of Africa was under her protection.

Such was the result of the seventeen years' struggle. Scipio was
welcomed home, and surnamed AFRICANUS. He enjoyed a triumph never
before equalled. His statue was placed, in triumphal robes and crowned
with laurels, in the Capitol. Many honors were thrust upon him, which
he had the sense to refuse. He lived quietly for some years, taking no
part in politics.




CHAPTER XVI.

ROME IN THE EAST.


ROME was now in a position to add new nations to her list of subjects.
The kingdoms of the East which formerly composed a part of the vast
empire of Alexander the Great, and which finally went to swell the
limits of Roman authority, were Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, and Greece
proper.

EGYPT was governed by the Ptolemies, and included at this time the
valley of the Nile, Palestine, Phoenicia, the island of Cyprus, and a
number of towns in Thrace.

SYRIA, extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus, was composed of