Of these Cacus stole four of the finest, and though he ingeniously dragged them by the tails, was the cause of his own destruction. And that was not the first time that meddling with Spanish affairs was fatal to a foreign robber! Horace likewise alludes to this expedition of Hercules, in compliment to Augustus (_Carm._ iii. 14), where he compares the victorious return of the Roman from Iberia to that of Hercules--“Herculis ritu.” The first authenticated occupation of the country was by the Phœnicians, who colonized it extensively, but according to their usual practice endeavoured long to keep their discovery secret. The name of the country “_Span_” in the Phœnician signifies “a mystery.” The rivalry between Rome and Carthage brought the Romans subsequently to the Peninsula, and Spain since that period has played a great part in the history of the world. The warlike character of the ancient Spaniards is attested by a variety of circumstances; by the terrific struggle which they maintained against the overwhelming power of Rome, by their determined and unflinching resistance to Hannibal as well as Scipio, by such desperately sustained sieges as those of Saguntum and Numantia, by the complimentary allusions to their valour with which the Latin poets abound, and not least by the reputation of their ancient armour, which was in the highest esteem at Rome in the days of Julius and Augustus Cæsar. Thus, when Horace addresses Iccius on his change of the study of Philosophy for a military life, he twits him with having promised better things than to exchange his splendid library for Iberian cuirasses: Cùm tu coëmptos undique nobiles Libros Panæti, Socraticam et domum Mutare loricis Iberis, Pollicitus meliora, tendis? _Carm._ i. 29. The metallurgic fame of Spain covers a period of nearly two score centuries. It is attested by Hudibras and Horace, by Le Sage and Pliny:--“Iron ores are almost everywhere found ... there is a variety of different species ... and great difference in the forges. But the greatest difference of all is the water, into which it is plunged when red-hot. This glory of her iron has ennobled certain places, as Bilbilis in Spain,” _lib._ xxxiv. _cap._ 14. Pliny here alludes to the town now known as Bilbao, which retained its reputation for sword-blades, like Toledo, down to a recent period. He speaks of it as a city in Tarracon or Cantabria, corresponding with the Basque Provinces of which Bilbao is one of the chief towns. How strange that, after the lapse of seventeen centuries, representatives from this very Bilbao should have accompanied the Asturian Deputies to England to solicit a subsidy of arms from the descendants of those who were such utter barbarians, when the cuirasses of Cantabria were eagerly sought after by the nobles of Imperial Rome!