A History of the Roman World

by Scullard, H. H.

  Roman annalists tried to palliate the disgrace by making the Senate repudiate the agreement, and by crediting the Roman legions with a series of fictitious victories. In fact, however, the peace was observed; the Romans surrendered Fregellae and refrained from hostilities against the Samnites.4 Yet the blow to Rome’s prestige made some of the subject communities restless. Hostages were exacted from Canusium and Teanum in Apulia, and Roman prefects were sent to steady Capua and Cumae in 318. Two new tribes were formed in land which was still lying idle; the territory confiscated from Privernum became the home of the Oufentina tribe, and the district north of Capua of the Falerna.

  By 316 both sides were ready for war again. The Romans had quietened much of the discontent and were now able to put four legions into the field each year; the Samnites were looking askance at Rome’s increasing influence in Apulia. War restarted when the Romans seized Satricum-on-Liris; in 315 they sent L. Papirius Cursor to capture Luceria, where he established a Latin colony (in 314). But the Samnites, who were now strengthened by the adhesion of the league of Nuceria, advanced past Sora to the Liris valley and the coast where they defeated a hastily levied army of Roman reserves at Lautulae, near Tarracina (315). They perhaps even forced their way into the Latin plain and raided Ardea.5 Rome was in grave danger, her prestige was shaken, the Aurunci and Capua revolted, the Campanian cities began to waver, but the Latins remained loyal. The Samnites had reached the high-water mark of their success and could not shake the solidarity of the Roman confederacy: Lautulae, no less than Hannibal’s successes later, tested and proved the wisdom of Rome’s treatment of her allies. In the next year, with characteristic doggedness and untiring energy, the Romans gathered strength to launch an offensive and won a great victory over the Samnites, probably at Tarracina.

  It remained to reassert their leadership. Capua and the Aurunci were speedily brought to heel; Fregellae and Sora were recaptured and the latter was severely punished (313 or 312); Nola and Calatia were defeated and made allies. Latin colonies were sent to Suessa Aurunca and Pontia to watch the coast road, to Saticula to cover the Campanian frontier, and to Interamna to guard the middle Liris valley. The construction of the ‘Queen of Roads’, the Via Appia, through the Volscian and Campanian coast land was commenced. In 311 the Romans, persuaded perhaps by their new Greek allies at Naples, turned their thoughts to the sea; a small Naval Board, duoviri navales, was set up, perhaps to reorganize the fleet captured from Antium in 338. The following year a small squadron, doubtless manned largely by Greeks, was sent to effect a landing at Pompeii and to attack the district of Nuceria, but the move was not a success. The days of an effective Roman fleet were not yet come, though the ships may have afforded some protection to the colony at Ostia. Thus by 312 Rome had recovered from the disasters of Caudium and Lautulae, had strengthened her hold on Campania and her influence in Apulia, and had begun to hem in Samnium with a narrowing ring of allies and fortress colonies. Her recovery was due not a little to her superior numbers and to her wisdom in adapting her equipment, tactics and strategy to meet her foe (pp. 309ff.).

  The Etruscans had long remained quiet and had taken no share in the Roman-Samnite struggle, partly perhaps because remembering how the restless Samnites had overthrown their empire in Campania they did not desire to see them become their southern neighbours in place of the more civilized Romans; and partly because towns like Sutrium, Nepete, Caere, Tarquinii and Falerii were on friendly terms with Rome and would check any hostile feeling on the part of their northern kinsmen, who, in the days of their decadence, were preoccupied with the Gauls. But when this danger decreased and when they saw that Rome’s star was rising, they were more ready to interfere to restore the balance. Further, Rome’s forty years’ truce with Tarquinii was now expiring. In 311, therefore, the Etruscans threw in their lot with Samnium and advanced against Sutrium. But in 310 the Roman consul Q. Fabius Rullianus in a bold counter-stroke forced his way through the dread Ciminian Hills into central Etruria, where he is credited with a victory. The Romans made treaties with Cortona, Perusia and Arretium; Volsinii was taken, and in 308 the alliance with Tarquinii was renewed for another forty years and alliances were made with the Umbrian towns of Camerinum and Ocriculum.6

  Meantime the Samnite war dragged on. In 312 the Romans captured Peltuinum in the country of the Marrucini, and attacked Samnium from northern Apulia, where they only succeeded in capturing Allifae. No sooner had Q. Fabius induced Nuceria to return to her alliance with Rome than he had to hasten north to the country of the Marsi, which the Samnites invaded in 308. Just when Rome might have been expected to undertake a more vigorous offensive the Hernici revolted: Sora, Arpinum, Frusino, Anagnia, and Calatia all went over to the Samnites, though Aletrium, Ferentinum and Verulae remained inactive. In 306 Q. Marcius stormed Anagnia, which received civitas sine suffragio, while the inactive towns were made Roman allies; Frusino surrendered. In 305 the Aequi and Paeligni supported the uncrushed Hernici, and the Samnites broke into the ager Falernus. They were repulsed, and after a severe struggle a relieving Samnite army was defeated, probably near Bovianum;7 the capture of Arpinum, Sora and Cerfennia ended the resistance of the Hernici and Paeligni. In 304 the Aequi were defeated by P. Sempronius, and the Samnites at long last accepted the foedus antiquum. Alliances were made with the Marsi, Paeligni, Marrucini, and Frentani, and two years later with the Vestini. Civitas sine suffragio was granted to Arpinum and Trebula. A Latin colony was settled at Sora, and two strong ones on Aequian territory at Alba Fucens (303 or 300) and at Carsioli (302 or 298). The territory confiscated from the Aequi was distributed to Roman citizens. Two new tribes were formed in 299, the Aniensis from Aequian territory south of Carsioli and the Teretina in the Trerus valley from land taken from Frusino.

  Thus after twenty years of stiff fighting the Samnites still retained their independence but had been thrust back into their own country. Rome’s gains were solid rather than spectacular. She had won some frontier towns, for example, Saticula, Arpinum, Sora and Luceria; she had allied herself with the hill folk of the Abruzzi in central Italy and with the people of northern Apulia; the treaties with Nola and Nuceria completed her hold on Campania; and her fortresses along the Liris and at Luceria were real accessions to her strength. She had thus become the first state in Italy, and, as such, a Mediterranean power.8 Consequently, when the Carthaginians wished to avert the risk that Agathocles of Syracuse, who was contesting their control of western Sicily, might appeal to Italy for help, the two republics may well have entered into a closer political agreement which excluded the Romans from interfering in Sicily and the Carthaginians in Italy (306).9 Though Rome was not yet ready to measure her strength against Carthage or against the kingdoms of Macedon, Egypt and Syria which at this very time were being carved out of Alexander’s empire, yet her territory exceeded not only that of each of the surviving leagues of Italy, but also that of the Syracusan empire of Agathocles.

  3. ROME’S TRIUMPHANT ADVANCE

  The consolidation of Rome’s confederacy was rudely interrupted by a Gallic invasion which tempted the Samnites and some of the Etruscans to try conclusions with the Romans once again. New hordes of Celts had crossed the Alps and were unsettling their kinsmen in Cisalpine Gaul. One band swept down through Etruria and even invaded Roman territory in 299, but the main body was fighting the Veneti. The Romans hastily tried to block their southern advance by forming an alliance with the Picentes and capturing Umbrian Nequinum where they founded a Latin colony named Narnia. While Rome was thus preoccupied the Samnites made a final bid for freedom and invaded Lucania. One of the consuls of 298, L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, captured Taurasia and Cisauna in south-west Samnium, drove back the Samnites, and exacted hostages from the Lucanians. Meantime his colleague, Cn. Fulvius, attacked northern Samnium where he captured Aufidena, though probably not Bovianum.10 But while the consuls Q. Fabius Rullianus and P. Decius Mus continued the campaign in Samnium during the next two years and captured Murgantia and Romulea in t
he east, the Samnites, under the leadership of Gellius Egnatius, conceived the bold plan of cooperating with the northern enemies of Rome in a combined attack. In 296, while the storm was gathering, the Samnites raided the Falernian plain, perhaps to distract attention from the north, but they were driven back by Volumnius, and two maritime colonies of Roman citizens were planted at Minturnae and Sinuessa on the Appian Way; Volumnius himself was recalled to support his colleague Appius Claudius in southern Etruria. The next year the Romans hurried their full force through Umbria to prevent the Samnites joining forces with the Gauls. They were too late and their advance guard was defeated near Camerinum. The situation was very grave. It remained to face the allied forces of Samnites, Gauls, and perhaps some Umbrians. A great battle was fought at Sentinum, where the heroic sacrifice of the veteran Decius Mus, the skill of Fabius, and the steadiness of the Roman legions broke the forces of the coalition.11 The disaster of Allia was avenged and the fate of central Italy was sealed. The surviving Gauls and Samnites scattered to their homes, while Fabius marched back through Etruria. The next year the Romans ended the unrest in Etruria by granting a peace for forty years to Volsinii, Perusia and Arretium; as they still had to deal with the Samnites, they were ready to be lenient in Etruria.

  But although the coalition was broken and its designer, Gellius Egnatius, lay on the field of Sentinum, the Samnites were far from crushed and succeeded in defeating L. Postumius near Luceria in 294. The Romans were hampered by the visitation of a plague, but in 293 they again took the offensive. The geographical details of the campaign are obscure, but it appears that Sp. Carvilius captured Amiternum to check some Sabine restlessness, while his colleague L. Papirius won a great victory at Aquilonia (Lacedogna) on the Apulian frontier and thus completed the work begun at Sentinum. In the following year a truce was reached with Falerii which had revolted; in 291 L. Postumius stormed Venusia, which controlled the main route from Campania to Apulia, and a large Latin colony was settled there. The Samnites were at last exhausted and peace was re-established in 290. The terms are not preserved, but Rome’s booty was great and the Samnites were mulcted of territory, so that henceforth the Upper and Middle Volturnus replaced the Liris as the dividing line between Rome and Samnium. Although the Samnite League apparently was allowed to continue in existence, the Samnites were no longer friends but ‘allies’, subject to Rome’s demands for troops and obedience in foreign policy. In this same year, 290, M’. Curius Dentatus marched through the territory of the Sabines who were still independent, though doubtless they had become largely Romanized. The whole population was granted civitas sine suffragio and enrolled in the Roman state; not long afterwards it received full franchise. A few square miles of the territory of the Praetuttii, an offshoot of the Sabines, was annexed; a Latin colony was established at Hadria to guard the coast road along the Adriatic.

  After a few years of peace the Gauls again gave trouble. The Senones crossed the Apennines and besieged Etruscan Arretium which remained faithful to its alliance with Rome. Caecilius Metellus tried to relieve Arretium and met his death in a battle which cost the Romans some 13,000 men (284). This grave disaster encouraged Etruscan Vulci and Volsinii to revolt, while some Samnites and Lucanians in the south followed suit. But though the Romans had to face danger from several directions, their enemies could not unite to form another coalition. After the Senones had murdered some Roman ambassadors, M’. Curius Dentatus marched into the ager Galliens and drove them out with merciless vigour.12 Their land was annexed and a Roman colony was settled at Sena on the Adriatic. In 283 the Boii took up the cudgels laid down by their kinsmen and joined the Etruscan cities in their revolt. On their southward march they were defeated by Cornelius Dolabella at Lake Vadimo, only fifty miles from Rome. The next year a similar attempt ended in a similar disaster near Populonia; after this the Boii remained quiet for fifty years. Volsinii and Vulci held out till 280 when they were defeated, deprived of part of their territory and enrolled as Rome’s allies. It is possible that the Etruscan towns of Tarquinii, Rusellae, Vetulonia, Populonia, and Volaterrae had participated in the revolt and were now coerced into alliance with Rome. But no sooner were the Gauls defeated and the Etruscans pacified than the Romans were forced to turn to southern Italy where the Samnites and Lucanians were restless, where Thurii appealed for Rome’s help and where in 280 the Greek adventurer, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, had landed.

  4. THE GREEKS OF SOUTHERN ITALY

  The sun of Hellenism was slowly sinking in the west. The Greek cities in southern Italy had long suffered at the hands of the Sabellic Lucanians and Bruttians, who were receiving the final thrust of that pressure of peoples which began beyond the Alps. Unwilling, as always, to cooperate voluntarily, and not forced into a semblance of unity by the strong hand of a tyrant, many Italiote cities had succumbed to the natives. The southernmost cities, of which Tarentum was the strongest thanks to its trade with the neighbouring hinterland and with Greece, had maintained their ground by hiring professional soldiers from Greece. Archidamus of Sparta had been called in and involuntarily did Rome the service of distracting the attention of the Samnites during the Latin revolt before he fell fighting in 338. Soon afterwards, with the help of Alexander the Molossian, King of Epirus and brother-in-law of Alexander the Great, the Tarentines tried to establish a claim to the downlands of Apulia. It was perhaps at this time that they made a treaty with Rome, by which Roman warships were not to sail east of the Lacinian promontory, near Croton; the Romans were not yet particularly interested in Apulia or the south.13 Alexander’s ambitions, which soon outran the desires of his Tarentine employers, were quenched by his death in 330. Rome’s alliance with Naples in 327 must have attracted the notice of the southern Greeks, while her operations in Apulia during the Second Samnite War, especially the founding of a colony at Luceria, irritated the Tarentines, who were probably forced to resign their claims to northern Apulia. Renewed attacks by the Lucanians induced the Tarentines to call in Cleonymus of Sparta in 303; his personal ambitions soon caused his dismissal after a defeat by the barbarians, who were probably not supported by the Romans as tradition relates. The intervention of Agathocles of Syracuse temporarily checked the Bruttians (c. 298–295), but more significant was the founding of a Latin colony at Venusia in 291.14 The smaller Greek cities began to look for help from the Romans, who though allied to the Lucanians had overthrown the Samnites, rather than from Tarentum or from Agathocles, whose early brilliance had declined and whose empire collapsed at his death in 289.

  About 285 Thurii appealed to the Romans for help against the Lucanians. Some aid was apparently given, in return for which a Roman tribune was honoured with a golden crown. In 282 Thurii again appealed and the Romans sent C. Fabricius with a consular army to drive back the Lucanians and to garrison Thurii. Rhegium, Locri and perhaps Croton also availed themselves of Rome’s protection. Rome was thus suddenly forced to define her policy towards southern Italy. After due deliberation she decided to intervene rather than to abandon the Greek cities to the onslaughts of her Lucanian allies; this decision was due perhaps to the influence of the younger plebeian leaders whose power was increased by the recent political victory of the plebs in 287.15 But although it was becoming increasingly evident that the Senate must now think in terms of Italy as a whole and extend the range of its policy, it is equally true that the Romans liked quiet neighbours. Alexander of Epirus had advanced as far as Paestum and Agathocles had caused considerable trouble; Rome would be glad to end the need for these foreign condottieri. Also the infant Roman fleet might find Thurii a useful station now that Rome had established colonies on the Adriatic. Finally, as the Lucanians had become restless when the Gauls attacked Rome’s northern frontier, the Romans would welcome the opportunity of punishing them. Thus all considerations forced Rome to undertake the cause of Thurii.

  The Tarentines, who had done little to justify their hegemony among the Italiotes, replied by attacking ten Roman ships which appeared off their harbour; they sa
nk four, captured another and scattered the rest. They followed up this unprovoked attack by marching to Thurii, driving out the Roman garrison and sacking the town. Roman envoys, who demanded very moderate reparations, were insulted. War was forced on the Romans; the consul L. Aemilius Barbula was sent to attack Tarentum if it still refused to make redress (281). The Tarentines, who had already summoned the help of Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, were on the point of capitulating when the King’s envoy, Cineas, arrived and turned the scales in favour of war. The cause of this remarkable outburst is perhaps found in the party politics of Tarentum. It is true that by sailing east of the Lacinian promontory the Romans had broken their formal treaty; but as this was old and had been made with King Alexander it might well be considered to have been abrogated. The Roman fleet may have been innocently cruising round on a tour of inspection or on its way to the new Adriatic colonies, but more probably it had come to offer moral if not physical support to the pro-Roman oligarchs in Tarentum. The Tarentine democrats may thus have had good cause to distrust its presence and resorted to violence in the expectation of help from Pyrrhus. Rome’s quarrel with Tarentum would have soon been over and have had little significance, had not Pyrrhus answered the appeal.

  5. THE ITALIAN ADVENTURE OF PYRRHUS