The two European countries, Sicily and Spain, which Rome had taken from Carthage, presented to the conqueror very different problems. Sicily had been long accustomed to foreign masters. Its civilized and peace-loving inhabitants were as ready to accept Roman rule as, in the past, they had accepted the rule of Greeks and Carthaginians. Every year the island became more and more a part of Italy and of Rome. SPAIN Spain, on the contrary, gave the Romans some hard fighting. The wild Spanish tribes loved their liberty, and in their mountain fastnesses long kept up a desperate struggle for independence. It was not until the Romans sent Scipio Aemilianus to Spain that the Spanish resistance was finally overcome (133 B.C.). ROMANIZATION OF SPAIN All Spain, except the inaccessible mountain district in the northwest, now became Roman territory. Many colonists settled there; traders and speculators flocked to seaports; even the legionaries, quartered in Spain for long periods, married Spanish wives and, on retiring from active service, made their homes in the peninsula. Rome thus continued in Spain the process of Romanization which she had begun in Italy. [8] She was to repeat this process in Gaul and Britain. [9] Her way was prepared by the sword; but after the sword came civilization. ROME AND MACEDONIA While Rome was subduing the West, she was also extending her influence over the highly civilized peoples of the East. Roman interference in the affairs of Macedonia found an excuse in the attempt of that country, during the Second Punic War, to give aid to Hannibal. It was a fateful moment when, for the second time, the legion faced the phalanx. The easy victory over Macedonia showed that this Hellenistic kingdom was no match for the Italian republic. Macedonia was finally made into a subject state or province of Rome. Thus disappeared a great power, which Philip had founded and which Alexander had led to the conquest of the world. [Illustration: STORMING A CITY (RECONSTRUCTION)] ROME AND GREECE Having subdued Macedonia, Rome proclaimed Greece a free state. But this "freedom" really meant subjection, as was amply proved when some of the Greek cities rose in revolt against Roman domination. The heavy hand of Roman vengeance especially descended on Corinth, at this time one of the most beautiful cities of the world. In 146 B.C., the same year in which the destruction of Carthage occurred, Corinth was sacked and burned to the ground. [10] The fall of Corinth may be said to mark the final extinction of Greek liberty. Though the Hellenic cities and states were allowed to rule themselves, they paid tribute and thus acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. A century later, Greece became in name, as well as in fact, a province of the Roman Empire. [11] ROME AND SYRIA