Along the coast of the Mediterranean there sprang up many thriving and populous towns, which became centres of civilization to the neighboring districts, and were treated by Rome rather as allies than as subjects.

Some of them were allowed to coin the silver money of Rome.
The civilizing process, due to Roman influence, went on rapidly in these parts, while the interior remained in barbarism.
In 105 the peninsula was overrun by the Cimbri, a barbarous race from the north.

The country was ravaged, but finally saved by the brave Celtiberi, who forced the invaders back into Gaul.
THE SERVILE WAR (134-132).
While the Numantine war was still in progress, a war with the slaves broke out in Sicily, where they had been treated with special barbarity.
For a long time slave labor had been taking the place of that of freemen.

The supply was rendered enormous by constant wars, and by the regular slave trade carried on with the shores of the Black Sea and Greece.

The owners of the slaves became an idle aristocracy.
The immediate cause of the outbreak in Sicily was the cruelty of a wealthy slave-owner, Damophilus.