THE SPANISH PENINSULA AT THE OPENING OF THE WAR.
THE Spanish Peninsula, in which a frightful war was now about to commence, and where the armies of France and England at last found a permanent theatre of combat, has been distinguished from the Memorable earliest times by memorable achievements, and rendered events of illustrious by the exploits of the greatest captains who Spanish have ever left the impress of their actions on the course of human events. The mighty genius of Hannibal theatre. there began its career, and under the walls of Saguntum gave the earliest indication of that vast capacity which was soon to shake to its foundation the enduring fabric of Roman power. Scipio Africanus there first revived the almost desperate fortunes of the republic, and matured those talents which were destined on a distant shore to overthrow the fortunes of the inveterate enemy of his country. The talents of Pompey, the genius of Cæsar, were exerted on its plains. A severer struggle than that of Pharsalia awaited the founder of the empire on the shores of the Ebro. The desperate contest between the Cross and the Crescent raged for centuries amidst its mountains, and from their rocks the wave of Mussulman conquest was first permanently repelled. Nor has the Peninsula been in modern times the theatre of less VOL. XII.