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General History for Colleges and High Schools by Philip Van Ness Myers
page 283 of 806 (35%)
The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it, save the
lands belonging to Syracuse, as a province of the republic. This was the
first territory beyond the limits of Italy that Rome had conquered, and
the Sicilian the first of Roman provinces. But as the imperial city
extended her conquests, her provincial possessions increased in number and
size until they formed at last a perfect cordon about the Mediterranean.
Each province was governed by a magistrate sent out from the capital, and
paid an annual tribute, or tax, to Rome.

ROME ACQUIRES SARDINIA AND CORSICA.--The first acquisition by the Romans
of lands beyond the peninsula seems to have created in them an insatiable
ambition for foreign conquests. They soon found a pretext for seizing the
island of Sardinia, the most ancient and, after Sicily, the most prized of
the possessions of the Carthaginians. The island, in connection with
Corsica, which was also seized, was formed into a Roman province. With her
hands upon these islands, the authority of Rome in the Western, or Tuscan
Sea, was supreme.

THE ILLYRIAN CORSAIRS ARE PUNISHED.--At about the same time, the Romans
also extended their influence over the seas that wash the eastern shores
of Italy. For a long time the Adriatic and Ionian waters had been infested
with Illyrian pirates, who issued from the roadsteads of the northeastern
coasts of the former sea. The Roman fleet chased these corsairs from the
Adriatic, and captured several of their strongholds. Rome now assumed a
sort of protectorate over the Greek cities of the Adriatic coasts. This
was her first step towards final supremacy in Macedonia and Greece.

WAR WITH THE GAULS.--In the north, during this same period, Roman
authority was extended from the Apennines and the Rubicon to the foot of
the Alps. Alarmed at the advance of the Romans, who were pushing northward
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