5.  After these, came tragedy and comedy, which were borrowed from the Greeks:  indeed, the first dramatic poet of Rome, whose name was Liv’ius Andronicus, was a native of one of the Greek colonies in southern Italy. 6.  The instant these finer kinds of composition appeared, this great people rejected their former impurities with disdain.  From thenceforward they laboured upon the Grecian model; and though they were never able to rival their masters in dramatic composition, they soon surpassed them in many of the more soothing kinds of poetry.  Elegiac, pastoral, and didactic compositions began to assume new beauties in the Roman language; and satire, not that rude kind of dialogue already mentioned, but a nobler sort, was all their own.

7.  While they were thus cultivating the arts of peace, they were not unmindful of making fresh preparations for war; intervals of ease seemed to give fresh vigour for new designs, rather than relax their former intrepidity.

[Sidenote:  U.C. 527.]

8.  The Illyr’ians were the first people upon whom they tried their strength.  That nation happened to make depredations upon some of the trading subjects of Rome, which being complained of to Teuta, the queen of the country, she, instead of granting redress, ordered the ambassadors, who were sent to demand restitution, to be murdered. 9.  A war ensued, in which the Romans were victorious; most of the Illy’ric towns were surrendered to the consuls, and a peace at last concluded, by which the greatest part of the country was ceded to Rome; a yearly tribute was exacted for the rest, and a prohibition added, that the Illyr’ians should not sail beyond the river Lissus with more than two barks, and those unarmed.

10.  The Gauls were the next people that incurred the displeasure of the Romans. 11.  A time of peace, when the armies were disbanded, was the proper season for new irruptions; accordingly, these barbarians invited fresh forces from beyond the Alps, and entering Etru’ria, wasted all with fire and sword, till they came within about three days’ journey of Rome. 12.  A praetor and a consul were sent to oppose them, who, now instructed in the improved arts of war, were enabled to surround the Gauls. 13.  It was in vain that those hardy troops, who had nothing but courage to protect them, formed two fronts to oppose their adversaries; their naked bodies and undisciplined forces were unable to withstand the shock of an enemy completely armed, and skilled in military evolutions. 14.  A miserable slaughter ensued, in which forty thousand were killed, and ten thousand taken prisoners. 15.  This victory was followed by another, gained by Marcel’lus, in which he killed Viridoma’rus, their king, with his own hand. 16.  These conquests forced them to beg for peace, the conditions of which served greatly to enlarge the empire.  Thus the Romans went on with success; retrieved their former losses, and only wanted an enemy worthy of their arms to begin a new war.