After this signal and decisive defeat of his fleet, Pompey fled from Sicily to Asia, where he attempted to raise disturbances; but he was defeated, taken prisoner, and put to death.

We must now look back to the naval and commercial history of Rome, immediately after the defeat of the pirates by Pompey the Great.  The immediate consequence of his success against them was the revival of trade among the people who inhabited the coasts of the Mediterranean; but the Romans, intent on their plans of conquest, or engaged in civil wars, had little share in it The very nature and extent, however, of their conquests, by making them masters of countries which were either commercial, or which afforded articles of luxury, gradually led them to become more commercial.  Hitherto, their conquests and their alliances had been confined almost entirely to the nations on the Mediterranean, or within a short distance of that sea:  but Julius Caesar directed his ambition to another district of the world; and Gaul was added to the Roman dominions.

Transalpine Gaul comprehended Flanders, Holland, Switzerland, and part of Germany, as well as France, Its situation, having the ocean to the north and west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, was particularly favourable to commerce; and though, when Caesar conquered it, its inhabitants in general were very ignorant and uncivilized, yet we have his express authority, that the knowledge they possessed of foreign countries, and commodities from abroad, made them abound in all sorts of provisions.  About 100 years before the Christian era, the Romans, under pretence of assisting the people of Marseilles, carried their arms into Gaul, and conquered the district to the south of the Rhine.

This part of Gaul, long before the Romans invaded it, was celebrated for its commerce, which was carried on very extensively at the port of Marseilles.  We have already mentioned, that this city was founded, or, at least, greatly increased by the Greeks.  As the colonists could not, from the narrow boundaries of their territory, and the barrenness of the soil, support themselves by their own industry on land, they applied themselves to the sea:  at first, as fishermen; then, as pirates; and afterwards, as merchants.  For forty years they are said to have been the most warlike, as well as the most commercial people who frequented the Mediterranean, and were celebrated for the excellent construction and equipment, both of their merchant ships, and their ships of war.  Their maritime laws and institutions were nearly as much celebrated and respected as those of the Rhodians.  The wealth which the inhabitants of Marseilles had acquired by commerce, and which was contained or displayed in their fleets, arsenals, and magazines, and in their public buildings, drew upon them the envy of their more savage and poorer neighbours; and it is probable they would have fallen a prey to their more warlike habits, had they not formed an alliance with the Romans,