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COMITIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 628 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COMITIA and See also:

SENATE). But these See also:political disabilities did not constitute the See also:main grievance of the See also:plebs in the See also:early years of the See also:Republic. What they fought for was See also:protection for their lives and liberties, and the See also:object of attack was the despotic authority of the 1 This is the view taken by the See also:present writer, as against See also:Schwegler and others. For Ridgeway's theory, see above. 'Cf. aedilis, aediltcius, &c.; Cic. De See also:Rep. ii. 12; See also:Livy i. 8; for a full discussion of other views, see Soltau 199 seq. ; Christensen, See also:Hermes, ix. 196. For. the clientela, see See also:Mommsen (Forsch. i. 355 sqq.; Staatsr. iii.

54 sqq.); Schwegler (i. 638 sqq.); Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyklopadse, iv. 23 sqq. (von Premerstein). 4 The offspring of such a See also:

union ranked as plebeians,patrician magistrates. The consuls wielded the full imperium of the See also:kings, and against this " consular authority " the plebeian, though a See also:citizen, had no protection and no See also:appeal, nor were matters improved when for the two consuls was substituted in some emergency a single, all-powerful, irresponsible See also:dictator. The See also:history of this struggle between the orders opens with a concession made to the plebs by one of the consuls themselves, a concession possibly due to a See also:desire to secure the Lex See also:allegiance of the plebeian landholders, who formed See also:Valeria the backbone of the See also:army. In the first See also:year of de See also:Provo. the Republic, according to the received See also:chronology, catlone. P. See also:Valerius Publicola or Poplicola carried in the comitia centuriata his famous See also:law of appeal.* It enacted that no See also:magistrate, saving only a dictator, should execute a See also:capital See also:sentence upon any See also:Roman citizen unless the sentence had been confirmed on appeal by the See also:assembly of the centuries. But, though the " right of appeal granted by this law was justly regarded in later times as the greatest safeguard of a Roman's liberties, it was by. no means at first so effective a protection as it after-wards became. For not only was the operation of the law limited to the See also:bounds of the See also:city, so that the See also:consul in the See also:field or on the See also:march was See also:left as See also:absolute as before, but no See also:security was provided for its observance even within the city by. consuls resolved to disregard it.* It' was by their own efforts that the plebeians first obtained any real protection against magisterial despotism.

The traditional accounts of the first See also:

secession are confused. The first and contradictoryj but its causes and results ' are secession tolerably clear. The seceders were the plebeian and the legionaries recently returned from a victorious See also:cam- tdbuuate, paign. Indignant at the delay of the promised reforms, they ignored the See also:order given them to march afresh against See also:Volsci and See also:Aequi, and instead entrenched themselves on a See also:hill across the Anio, some 3 M. from See also:Rome, and known afterwards as the See also:Mons Sacer. The frightened See also:patricians came to terms, and a See also:solemn agreement (See also:lee sacrata) s was concluded between the orders, by which it was provided that henceforth the plebeians should have See also:annual magistrates of their own called tribunes (tribuni plebis), members of their own order, , who should be authorized to protect them against the consuls,* and a curse was invoked upon the See also:man who should injure or impede the See also:tribune in the performance of his duties.1° The number of tribunes was possibly at first two, then five; before 449 B.C. it had been raised to ten. The tribunate is an institution which has no parallel in history. The tribune was not, and, strictly speaking, never became, a magistrate of the Roman See also:people. His one proper See also:prerogative was that of granting protection to the oppressed plebeian against a patrician officer. This prerogative (See also:jus auxi'ii) was secured to him, not by the See also:ordinary constitution, but by a See also:special compact between the orders, and was protected by the See also:ancient See also:oath (vetus jusjurandum),li which invoked a curse upon: the violator of a tribune. This exceptional and anomalous right the tribunes could only exercise in See also:person, within the limits of the " pomoerium," and against individual acts of magisterial oppression.12 It was only gradually that it See also:expanded into a wide See also:power of interference with the whole machinery of See also:government, and was supplemented by the legislative See also:powers which rendered the tribunate of the last See also:century B.C. so formidable (see TRIBUNE). But from the first the tribunes were for the plebs not only protectors but leaders, under whom they organized themselves in opposition to the patricians. The tribunes convened Lex assemblies of the plebs (concilia plebis), and carried Pubttlla.

resolutions on questions of See also:

interest to the order. This incipient s Livy ii. 8, lex Valeria de provocatione; Cic. De Rep. ii . 31; cf. Livy iii. 20. o Greenidge, Legal See also:Procedure of See also:Cicero's See also:Time, pp. 344 sqq. ' Schwegler ii. 226 seq. 8 Ibid. ii.

251 n. ; Livy i.` 33, o Cic. De Rep. ii. 34, contra consulate imperium creati." 10 Li iii. 55. 11 See also:

Festus 318. '2 See also:Gell. xiii. 12, " ut injuria quae See also:coram fieret arceretur." plebeian organization was materially advanced by the Publilian 283 law of 471 B.C.,i which appears to have formally re- cognized as lawful the plebeian concilia, and established also. the tribune's right cum plebe agere, i.e. to propose and carry resolutions in them. These assemblies were See also:tribute, or, in other words, the voting in them took See also:place not by curies or centuries but by tribes. In them, lastly, after the Publilian law, if not before, the tribunes were annually elected) By this law the See also:foundations were laid both of the powerful concilia plebis of later days and also of the legislative and judicial prerogatives of the tribunes. The patricians maintained indeed that resolutions (See also:plebiscite) carried by tribunes in the concilia plebis were not binding on their order, but the moral See also:weight of such resolutions, whether they affirmed a See also:general principleorpronounced sentence of condemnation on some single patrician, was no doubt considerable. The next See also:stage in the struggle is marked by the See also:attempt to substitute a public written law for unwritten usage.

292 The proposal of C. Terentilius Arse (462 B.C.) to ap- point a plebeian See also:

commission to draw up See also:laws restricting the powers of the consuls8 was resolutely opposed by the patricians, but after ten years of See also:bitter party strife a See also:compromise was effected. A commission of See also:tea patricians was appointed; who The should See also:frame and publish a See also:code of law binding equally Deceit- on both the orders. These See also:decemviri were to be the virate. See also:sole and supreme magistrates for the year, and the law of appeal was suspended in their favour.' The code which they promulgated, the famous XII. Tables, owed little of its importance to ;any novelties or improvements contained m its provisions. For the most See also:part it seems merely to have reaffirmed existing usages and laws (see ROMAN LAw). But it imposed, as it;was intended to do, a check on the arbitrary See also:administration of See also:justice by the magistrates. With the publication of the code the proper See also:work of the decemvirs was finished; nevertheless, for the next year a fresh decemvirate was elected, and it is conceivable that the intention was permanently to substitute government by an irresponsible patrician " See also:council of ten " for the old constitution.' However this may have been, the tyranny of the decemvirs themselves was fatal to the continuance of their power. We are told of a second secession of the plebs, this time to the Janiculum, and of negotiations with the senate, the result of which was the enforced See also:abdication of the decemvirs. The plebs joyfully See also:chose for themselves tribunes, and in the comitia centuriata two consuls were created. But this restoration of the old regime was accompanied by legislation which Valera.- made it an important crisis in the history of the iioratiaa struggle between the orders. With the fall of the taWs. decemvirate this struggle enters upon a new phase.

The tribunes appear as at once more powerful and more strictly constitutional magistrates; the , plebeian concilia take their place by the See also:

side of the older assemblies;, and finally this improved machinery is used not simply in self-See also:defence against patrician oppression but to obtain See also:complete, political equality. This See also:change was no doubt due in part to circumstances outside legislation, above all to the expansion of the Roman See also:state, which swelled the See also:numbers and added to the social importance of the plebs as compared with the dwindling forces of the See also:close See also:corporation of patrician gentes. Still the legislation 3f 449 clearly involved more than a restoration of the old See also:form of government. The Valerio-Horatian laws, besides; reaffirming the right of appeal and the inviolability of the tribunes, improved the position of the plebeian assemblies by epacting that plebiscite passed in them, and, as seems probable, approved by the patres, should be, binding on patricians as well as plebeians) ' Livy ii. 56, 6o; Dionys. ix. 41; Schwegler ii. 541; Soltau 493. For theories as to' the See also:original mode of appointing tribunes see Mommsen, Forsch. i. 185, Staatsr. ii. 274 sqq. Livy iii. 9.

4 Ibid. iii. 32. I On the disputed question of the date of the XII. Tables see Pals, Storia di See also:

Roma, vol. i. See also:chap. iv., and Greenidge, Eng. Hist. See also:Review (1905), pp. I sqq. I Livy iii. 55, See also:quern veluti in controverso jure esset, tenerenturneBy this law the tribunes obtained a recognized initiative in legislation. Henceforth the desired reforms were introduced and. carried by tribunes in what were now styled comitia tribute, and,. if sanctioned by the patres, became laws of the state. From this See also:period, too, must be dated the legalization at any See also:rate of the tribune's right to impeach any citizen before the assembly of the tribes? Henceforward there is no question of the tribune's right to propose to the plebs to impose a See also:fine, or of the validity of the sentence when passed.

The efficiency of these new weapons of attack was amply proved by the subsequent course of the struggle. Only a few years after the Valerio-Horatian legislation came the lex Canuleia, itself a plebiscitum (445 B.c), by which mixed marriages between patricians Lex and plebeians were declared lawful, and the social cattalos. exclusiveness of the patriciate broken down. In the . 309• same year with this measure, and-like-it in the interests primarily of the wealthier plebeians, a vigorous attack commenced on the patrician See also:

monopoly of the consulate, and See also:round this stronghold of patrician ascendancy the conflict raged until the passing ,of the Licinian laws- in 367. The original proposal of the tribune See also:Gaius Canuleius. in 445, that the people should be allowed to elect a plebeian consul wam evaded by a compromise. The senate resolved that for the next year, in the See also:stead of consuls, six military tribunes with, consular powers should be elepted,e and that the' new See also:office should be open to patricians and plebeians alike. The consulship was thus for the time saved from pollution, as the patricians phrased it, but the growing strength of the plebs is shown by the fact that in fifty years out of the' seventy-eight betweeh 444 and 366 they succeeded in obtaining the S1Q-88. See also:election of consular tribunes rather than of consuls. Despite, however, these discouragements, the patricians fought on. Each year they strove to secure the creation of consuls rather than consular tribunes, and failing this strained every See also:nerve' to secure for their own order at least a See also:majority among 'the latter. Even the institution of the censorship (435), though rendered desirable by the increasing importance and complexity of the See also:census, was, it is probable, due in part to their desire to See also:discount beforehand the threatened loss of the consul-See also:ship by diminishing its powers .° Other causes; too, helped to protract the struggle. Between the wealthier plebeians, who were ambitious of high office, and the poorer, whose minds were set rather on allotments of See also:land, there was a See also:division of interest of which the patricians were not slow to take See also:advantage, and to this must be added the pressure of See also:war.

The See also:

death struggle with See also:Veil and the See also:sack of Rome by the Gauls absorbed for the time all the energies of the community. In 377, how-ever, two of the tribunes, C. See also:Licinius Stolo (see LICINrus STOLO, GAMS) and L. Sextius, came forward with proposals which See also:united all sections of the plebs in their support. Their proposals were as follows:10 (I) that' consuls and not consular tribunes be elected; (2) that one consul at least should be a plebeian; (3) that the priestly See also:college, which had the See also:charge of the Sibylline books, should consist of ten members instead of two, and that of these See also:half should be plebeians; (4) that no - single citizen should hold in occupation more than 500 acres of the See also:common lands, or pasture upon them more than too See also:head of See also:cattle and 500 See also:sheep; (5) that all landowners should employ a certain amount of See also:free as well as slave labour on their estates; (6) that interest already paid on debts should be deducted from the See also:principal, and the See also:remainder paid off in three' years. The three last proposals were obviously intended to meet the patres plebisci€is legem comities centuriafis tulere, ut quod ttibuti'm plebs jussisset populum teneret, qua lege tribuniciis rogationibus telum acerrimum datum est." What were the precise conditions under which a plebiscitum became. law can only be conjectured. The See also:control of the patres over legislation certainly remained effective until 287 B.c.. (See below.) After the decemvirate, the tribunes no longer pronounce capital sentences. ; They propose fines, which are confirmed by the eemstsa tribute. 8 Livy iv. 6; cf. Mommsen, Staetsrecht, ii.

181. Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii., 331. to Livy vi. 35, 42 ; See also:

Appian, B.C. i. 8. Leges 4Icieiae Sextiae. 38X demands of the poorer plebeians, and to secure their support for the first half of the See also:scheme. Ten years of bitter conflict 387 followed, but at last, in 367 B.C., the Licinian rogations became law, and one of their authors, L. Sextius, was created the first plebeian consul. For the moment it was. some See also:consolation to the patricians that they not only succeeded in detaching from the consulship the administration of See also:civil law, which was entrusted to a See also:separate officer, See also:praetor urbanus, to be elected by the comitia of the centuries, with. an understanding apparently that he should be a patrician, but also obtained the institution of two additional aediles (aediles curules), who were in like manner to be members of their own order.' With the opening of the consulship, however, the issue of the See also:long See also:con-test was virtually decided, and the next eighty years witnessed a rapid See also:succession of plebeian victories. Now that a plebeian consul might preside at the elections, the main difficulty in the way of the nomination and election of plebeian candidates was removed. The proposed patrician monopoly of the new See also:curule aedileship was almost instantly abandoned.

In 356 the first plebeian was made dictator; in 350 the censorship, and in 337 the praetorship were filled for the. first tithe by plebeians; and lastly, in 300, by the lex Ogulnia, even the sacred colleges of the pontiffs and See also:

augurs, the old strongholds of patrician supremacy, were thrown open to the plebs? The patricians lost also the control they had exercised so long over the See also:action of the people in assembly. The pairum auctoritas, the See also:sanction given or refused by the patrician senators to laws and to elections, had hitherto been a powerful 4/s. weapon, in their hands. But in 339 a law of Q. See also:Publilius nurnlian See also:Philo, a plebeian dictator, enacted that this sanction laws. should be given beforehand to laws enacted in the comitia centuriata,3 and a lex Maenia of uncertain date extended the See also:rule to elections in the same assembly. Livy ascribes to the same Publilius a law emancipating the concilium plebis Lex from the control of the patres; but this seems in reality Hortensia, to have been effected by the famous lex Hortensia, 467. carried by another plebeian dictator.* Henceforward the patrum auctoritas sank into a meaningless form, though as such it still survived in the time of Livy. From 287 onwards it is certain that See also:measures passed by the plebs, voting by their tribes, had the full force of laws without any further conditions whatsoever. The legislative See also:independence of the plebeian assembly was secured, and with this crowning victory ended the long struggle between the orders. (b) See also:Conquest of See also:Italy.—Twelve years after the passing of the lex Hortensia, See also:King See also:Pyrrhus, beaten at Beneventum, withdrew from Italy; and Rome was left See also:mistress of the See also:peninsula. The steps by which this supremacy had been won have now to be traced.s The See also:expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, followed as it seems to have been by the emancipation from See also:Etruscan supremacy of all the See also:country between the See also:Tiber and the Liris, entirely altered the aspect of affairs. See also:North of the Tiber the powerful Etruscan city of See also:Veii, after a vain attempt to restore the Tarquins, relapsed into an attitude of sullen hostility towards Rome, 347. which, down to the outbreak of the final struggle in 407, found vent in See also:constant and harassing border forays. The Sabines, recommenced their raids across the Anio; from their hills to the See also:south-See also:east the Aequi pressed forward as far as the eastern spurs of the See also:Alban range, and ravaged the See also:low country between that range and the See also:Sabine mountains; the Volsci overran the See also:coast-lands as far as See also:Antium, established them- ' Livy vi.

42. 2 Ibid. vii. 17, 22 ; viii. 15; x. 6. s Ibid. viii. 12, " ut .. . ante initum suffragium patres auctores fierent," cf. Livy. i. 17. For the lex Maenia, see Cic. See also:

Brut.

14, 55 ; Soltau 112. * Plin. N.H. xvi. lo; Gell. xv. 27; Gaius i. 3, " plebiscite lege Hortensia non minus valere quam leges." s For details of these See also:

wars see articles on the various cities, districts and tribes. For ethnographic and philological See also:evidence see ITALY, Ancient Peoples.selves at Velitrae and even wasted the 'See also:fields within a few See also:miles of Rome. But the See also:good See also:fortune of Rome did not leave her to See also:face these foes single-handed, and it is a significant See also:League fact that the history of the Roman advance begins, with the not with a brilliant victory, but with a timely See also:alliance. LatinH According to Livy, it was in 493, only a few years after and er• nicans. the defeat of the See also:prince of See also:Tusculum at See also:Lake See also:Regillus, 261. that a treaty was concluded between Rome and the Latin communities of the Campagna.6 The alliance was in every respect natural. The Latins were the near neighbours and kinsmen of the See also:Romans, and both Romans and Latins were just freed from Etruscan rule to find themselves as lowlanders and dwellers in towns face to face with a common foe in the ruder hill tribes on their See also:borders. The exact terms of the treaty cannot, any more than the precise circumstances under which it was concluded, be stated with certainty (see See also:LATIUM), but two points seem clear. There was at first a genuine equality in the relations between the See also:allies; Romans and Latins, though combining for defence and offence, did so without sacrificing their separate freedom of action, even in the See also:matter of waging wars independently of each other.?

But, secondly, Rome enjoyed from the first one inestimable advantage. The Latins See also:

lay between her and the most active of her foes, the Aequi and Volsci, and served to protect her territories at the expense of their own. Behind this barrier Rome See also:grew strong, and the close of the Aequian and Volscian wars left the Latins her dependents rather than her allies. Beyond the limits of the Campagna Rome found a second ally, hardly less useful than the Latins, in the tribe of the See also:Hernici (" the men of the rocks "), in the valley of the Trerus, who had equal See also:reason with the Romans and Latins to dread the Volsci and Aequi, while their position midway between the two latter peoples made them valuable auxiliaries to the lowlanders of the Campagna. The treaty with the Hernici is said to have been concluded in 486,8 and the confederacy of the three peoples Romans, Latins and Hernicans—lasted down to the 268. See also:great Latin war in 340. Confused and untrustworthy 414. as are the See also:chronicles of the early wars of Rome, it is clear that, notwithstanding the acquisition of these allies, Rome made but little way against her foes during the first fifty years of the existence of the Republic. In 474, it is true, an end was put for a time to the harassing border See also:feud 280. with Veii by a See also:forty years' See also:peace, an advantage due not so much to Roman valour as to " the increasing dangers from other quarters which were threatening the Etruscan states? But this partial success stands alone, and down to 449 the raids of Sabines, Aequi and Volsci continue without intermission, and are occasionally carried up to the very wa3"lls' of Rome. Very different is the impression left by the See also:annals of the next sixty years (449-39o).

During this period there is an unmistakable development of Roman power on all 305-6¢' sides. In See also:

southern See also:Etruria the See also:capture of Veii (396) capture virtually gave Rome the mastery as far as the Ciminian of veil See also:forest. Sutrium and Nepete, " the See also:gates of Etruria,", became her allies and guarded her interests against any attack from the Etruscan communities to the north, while along the Tiber valley her See also:suzerainty was acknowledged as far as See also:Capena and See also:Falerii. On the Anio frontier we hear of no disturbances from 449 until some ten years after the sack of Rome by the Gauls. In 446 the Aequi appear for the last' time before the gates of Rome. After 418 308• they disappear from 'See also:Mount Algidus, and in the same 386 year the communications of Rome and Latium with the Hernici in the Trerus valley were secured by the capture and colonization of Labicum. Successive invasions, too, See also:broke the strength of the Volsci, and in 393 a Latin See also:colony was 361. improved founded as far south as Circeii: In part, no doubt, these Roman successes were due to the 8 Livy ii. 33 ; Cic. See also:Pro See also:Balbo, 23. Livy viii. 2. 8 From the Celts in the north especially.

Opening of the magistracies. 398. 404. 417. 454. 8 Ibid. ii. 41. affairs in Rome itself, consequent upon the great reforms carried 304-J12. between 450 and 442; but it is equally. certain that now, as often afterwards, fortune befriended Rome by weakening, or by diverting the See also:

attention of, her opponents. In particular, her rapid advance in southern Etruria was Dec*" of facilitated by the heavy blows inflicted upon the Etruscan Etruscans during the 5th century B.C. by Celts, Greeks paver and See also:Samnites. By the close of this century the Celts had expelled them from the See also:rich plains of what was afterwards known as Cisalpine See also:Gaul, and were even threatening to advance across the See also:Apennines into Etruria proper. The Sicilian Greeks, headed by the tyrants of See also:Syracuse, wrested from them their mastery of the seas, and finally, on the capture of See also:Capua by the 331.

Samnites in 423, they lost their possessions in the fertile Campanian See also:

plain. These conquests of the Samnites were part of a great southward See also:movement of the highland Sabellian peoples, the immediate effects of which upon the fortunes of Rome were not confined to the weakening of the Etruscan power. It is probable that the cessation of the Sabine raids across the Anio was partly due to the new outlets which were opened southwards for the restless and populous hill tribes which had so long disturbed the peace of the Latin lowlands. We may conjecture, also, that the growing feebleness exhibited by Volsci and Aequi was in some measure caused by the pressure upon their See also:rear of the Sabellian clans which at this time established themselves near the Fucine lake and along the course of the Liris. But in 390,1y six years after the great victory over her ancient See also:rival Veil, the Roman advance was for a moment sack of checked by a disaster which threatened to alter the Rome by course of history in Italy, and which left a lasting the °sins. impress on the Roman mind. In 391 a See also:Celtic See also:horde 363. left their newly won lands on the Adriatic, and, See also:crossing the Apennines into Etruria, laid See also:siege to the Etruscan city of See also:Clusium (See also:Chiusi). Thence, provoked, it is said, by the conduct of. the Roman ambassadors, who, forgetting their sacred See also:character, had fought in the ranks of Clusium and slain a Celtic See also:chief, the barbarians marched upon Rome. On See also:July the 18th of 390 B.C., only a few miles from Rome, was 364. fought the disastrous See also:battle of the See also:Allia. The defeat of the Romans was complete, and Rome lay at the See also:mercy of her foe. But in characteristic See also:fashion the Celts halted three days to enjoy the fruits of victory, and time was thus given to put the Capitol at least in a state of defence. The arrival of the barbarians was followed by the sack of the city, but the Capitol remained impregnable.

For seven months they besieged it, and then in as sudden a fashion as they had come they disappeared. The Roman chroniclers explain their See also:

retreat in their own way, by the fortunate See also:appearance of M. Furius See also:Camillus with the troops which he had collected, at the very moment when See also:famine had forced the See also:garrison on the Capitol to accept terms. More probably the See also:news that their lands across the Apennines were threatened by. the See also:Veneti, coupled with the unaccustomed tedium of a long siege and the difficulty of obtaining supplies, inclined the Celts to accept readily a heavy See also:ransom as the See also:price of their withdrawal. But, whatever the reason, it .is certain that they retreated, and, though during the next fifty years marauding bands appeared at intervals in the neighbourhood of Rome, and even once penetrated as far south as 393 94. See also:Campania (361-6o), the Celts never obtained any footing in Italy outside the plains in the north which they had made their own. Nor, in spite of the defeat on the Allia and the sack of the city, was Rome weakened except, for the moment by the Celtic Annexa- attack. The See also:storm passed away as rapidly as it had tioa of come on. The city was hastily rebuilt, and Rome dissouthern mayed the enemies who hastened to take advantage Etrr,ria' of her misfortunes by her undiminishedvigour. Her conquests in southern Etruria were successfully defended against repeated attacks from the Etruscans to the north. The 367 creation in 387 of four new tribes (Stellatina, Sabatina, Tromentina, Arnensis) marked the final See also:annexation of the territory of Veii and of the lands lying along the Tiber valley. A few years later Latin,. colonies were ;established at Sutrium and Nepete forthe more effectual defence of the frontier, and finally, in 353, the subjugation of South Etruria was completed by the submission of See also:Caere (q.v.) and its 401' partial See also:incorporation with the Roman state as a " See also:municipium sine suffragio "--the first, it is said, of its See also:kind.' Next to the See also:settlement of southern Etruria, the most important of the successes gained by Rome between 390 and 343 B.C. were those won against her old foes the Aequi and Volsci, and her old allies the Latins and Hernicans.

The Aequi indeed, already weakened by their long feud with Rome, and hard pressed by the Sabellian tribes in their rear, were easily dealt with, and after the See also:

campaign of 389 we have no further mention of an Aequian war until the last Aequian rising in 304. The Volsci, who in 389 had advanced to See also:Lanuvium, were met and utterly defeated by Camillus, the conqueror of Veil, and this victory was followed up by the See also:gradual subjugation to Rome of all the See also:lowland country lying between the hills and the See also:sea as. far south as Tarracina. Latin colonies were established at See also:Satricum (385), at See also:Setia (379), and 369, 375. at See also:Anti= and Tarracina some time before 348. In 306' 396. 358 two fresh, Roman tribes (Pomptina and Publilia) were formed in the same See also:district,2 Rome had now nothing more to fear from the foes who a century ago had threatened her very existence. The lowland country, of which she was the natural centre, from. Re_ the Cinlinian forest to Tarracina, was quiet, and organist's within its limits Rome was by far the strongest power. tion of But she had now to reckon with the old and faithful the Latin allies to whose loyal aid her present position was league. , largely due. The See also:Latini and Hernici had suffered severely in the Aequian and Volscian wars; it is probable that not a few of the smaller communities included in the league had either been destroyed or been absorbed by larger states, and the independence of all alike was threatened by the growing power of Rome. The sack of Rome by the Celts gave them an opportunity of reasserting their independence, and we are consequently told that this disaster was immediately. followed by the temporary See also:dissolution of the confederacy, and this again a few years later by a See also:series of actual conflicts between Rome and her former allies. Between 383 and 358 we hear of wars with See also:Tibur, See also:Praeneste, Tusculum, Lanuvium, 371-96. Circeii and the Hernici.

But in all Rome was successful. In 382 Tusculum was fully incorporated with the Roman 372. state by the bestowal of the full See also:

franchise; 3 in .358, X96. according to both Livy and See also:Polybius, the old alliance was formally renewed with Latini and Hernici. We cannot, however, be wrong in assuming that the position of the allies under the new league was far inferior to that accorded them by the treaty of Spurius See also:Cassius.4 Henceforth they were the subjects rather than the equals of• Rome, a position which it is evident that they accepted much against their will, and from which they were yet to make one last effort to See also:escape. We have now reached the close of the first stage in Rome's advance towards supremacy in Italy. By 343 B.C. she was already mistress both of the low country stretching.. . '4t: from the Clminian forest to Tarracina and Circeii and of the bordering See also:highlands. Her own territory had. largely increased. Across the Tiber the lands of Veii, Capena and Caere were nearly all Roman, while in Latium she had carried her frontiers to Tusculum on the Alban' range and to the southernmost limits of the Pomptine district. And this territory was protected by a circle of dependent allies and colonies reaching northward to Sutrium and Nepete, and southward to See also:Sora on the upper Liris, and to Circeii on the coast. Already, too, she was beginning to be recognized as a power outside the ' For the status of 'Caere and the " Caerite franchise," see See also:Marquardt, Staatsverw. i. 28•seq, See also:Madvig, R.

Verf. i. 39; Beloch, Ital. Bund, 120; Mommsen, Staatsr. iii. 583 sqq. 2 Livy vii. 15. ' 3 Ibid. vi. 26. 4 Mommsen, R.G. i. 347• n. ; Beloch, Ital. Bund, cap. ix.

Successes against Aequi and Volsci. limits of the Latin lowlands. The fame of the capture of Rome by the Celts had reached See also:

Athens, and her subsequent victories over marauding Celtic bands had given her See also:prestige in South Italy as a See also:bulwark against See also:northern barbarians. In eoo. 354 she had formed her first connexions beyond the dO6. Liris by a treaty with the Samnites, and in 348 followed a far more important treaty with the great maritime state of See also:Carthage.' Rome had won her supremacy from the Ciminian forest to the Liris as the See also:champion of the comparatively civilized See also:corn-advance. munities of the lowlands against the See also:rude highland beyond tribes which threatened to overrun them, and so, when the Lids, her legions first crossed the Liris, it was in See also:answer to and the sawnite an appeal from a lowland city against invaders from Wes• the hills. While she was engaged in clearing Latium of Volsci and Aequi, the Sabellian tribes of the central Apennines had rapidly spread over the southern half of the peninsula. Foremost among these tribes were the Samnites, a portion of whom had captured the Etruscan city of Capua in 334 334. 423, the See also:Greek See also:Cumae in 420, and had since' then ruled as masters over the fertile Campanian' territory. But in their new homes the conquerors soon lost all sense of relationship and sympathy with their highland brethren: They dwelt in cities, amassed See also:wealth; and inherited the See also:civilization of the Greeks and Etruscans whom they had dispossessed;2 above all, they had before long to defend themselves in their turn against the attacks of their ruder kinsmen from the hills, and it was for aid against these that the Samnites of Campania appealed to the rising state which had already made herself known as the bulwark of the lowlands north of the Liris, and which with her Latin and Hernican allies had scarcely less interest than the Campanian cities themselves in checking the raids of the highland Samnite tribes. The Campanian appeal was listened to. Rome with her confederates entered into alliance with Capua and the neigh-First bouring Campanian towns, and war was formally &.make declared (343) against the Samnites.3 While to the war.

Latins and Hernicans was entrusted apparently the ~i• defence of Latium and the Hernican valley against the northerly members of the Samnite confederacy, the Romans themselves undertook the task of See also:

driving the invaders out of Campania. After two See also:campaigns the war was ended - in 41.t. 341 by a treaty, and the Samnites withdrew from the lowlands, leaving Rome the recognized suserain of the Campanian cities which had sought her aid.4 There is no doubt that the check thus given by Rome to the advance of the hitherto invincible Sabellian highlanders' not only made her the natural head See also:acid champion of the low countries, south as well as north of the Liris, but also consider-ably added to her prestige. Carthage sent her congratulations; and the Etruscan city of Falerii voluntarily enrolled herself among the allies of Rome:•' Of even greater service, however, was the fact that for fifteen years the Samnites remained quiet, for this inactivity, whatever its cause, enabled Rome triumphantly to surmount a danger which threatened for the moment to See also:wreck her whole position. This danger was nothing less than a desperate effort on the part of nearly all her allies and dependants south of the Tiber to throw off the yoke of hersupre-The Latin macy. The way was led by her. ancient confederates war the Latini, whose smouldering discontent broke into open See also:flame directly the fear of a Samnite attack was removed. From the Latin Campagna and the Sabine hills the revolt spread westward and southward to Antium and Tarracina, and even to the towns of the Campanian plain, ' Livy Vii. 27. For the whole question of the early See also:treaties with Carthage, see Polybius iii. 22 ; Mommsen, vol. ii. Appendix (p. 523) ; See also:Strachan-See also:Davidson, Polybius, pp.

5o ff. ; Pais, .See also:

Scoria di Roma, i. 2, 305, n. I ; also See also:article CARTHAGE. 2 For the Samnites in Campania, see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, i. 453 ; Schwegler,-Clason,R.G. v. 98 seq.; Beloch, Campanien (See also:Berlin, 1879)- 3 Livy vii. 32. t For the difficulties in the traditional accounts of this war, see Mommsen, Yist. of Rome, i. 459 n. ; Sehwegier-Clason, R.G. v. 14 seq.where the See also:mass of- the inhabitants at once repudiated the alliance formed with Rome by the ruling class.

The struggle was See also:

sharp but See also:short. Its two pitched battles' the strength of the insurrection was broken, and two more campaigns sufficed for the complete reduction of such of the insurgent communities as still held out. Thee revolt crushed, Rome set herself deliberately to the task of re-establishing on a new and firmer basis her supremacy over the lowlands, and in doing setae. so laid the foundations of that marvellous organization See also:Rent of which was destined to spread rapidly over Italy, Latium; and to withstand the attacks even of See also:Hannibal. The old historic Latin league ceased to exist, though its memory was still preserved by the yearly Latin festival on the Alban Mount. Most if not all of the common land of the league became Roman territory;6 five at least of the old Latin cities were compelled to' accept the Roman franchise' and enter the See also:pale of the Rornan state. The See also:rest, with the Latin colonies, were ranked as Latin allies of Rome, but on terms which secured their complete dependence upon the See also:sovereign city. The policy of See also:isolation, which became so See also:cardinal a principle of Roman rule, was now first systematically applied. No rights of conubium or corntnercium were any longer to exist between these communities. Their federal See also:councils were prohibited, and .all federal action See also:independent of Rome forbidden.s In Campania and the coast-lands connecting Campania with Rome, a policy of annexation was considered safer than that of alliance. Of the two frontier posts of the Volsci, and of Antium and Velitrae, the former was constituted a Cam- Roman colony, its long galleys burnt and their pania• prows' set up in the See also:Forum at Rome, while the walls of Velitrae were razed to the ground, its leading men banished beyond the Tiber, and their lands given to 'Roman settlers. Farther south on the route to Campania, Fundi and Formiae were, after the precedent set in the See also:case of Caere; declared Roman and granted the civil rights of Roman citizenship, while lastly in Campania itself the same status was given to Capua, Cumae, and the smaller communities dependent upon them During the ten years from 338 to 328 the work of 4J64u settlement was steadily continued.

Tarracina, like Antium, was made a Roman colony. Privernum the See also:

Mast Velscian See also:town to offer resistance to Rome, was subdued 424. in 33o, part of its territory allotted to Roman citizens, and the state itself forced to accept the Roman franchise. Lastly, to strengthen the lines of defence againstthe Sabellian tribes; two colonies with the rights of Latin allies were established at Cales (334) and at See also:Fregellae (328). The 120, 426. settlement of the lowlands was accomplished: As a single powerful and compact state with an See also:outer circle of closely dependent allies, Rome now stood in sharp contrast with the disunited and degenerate cities of northern Etruria, the loosely organized tribes of the Apennines; and the' decaying and disorderly Greek towns of the south. The strength of this See also:system was now to be tried by a struggle with the one See also:Italian people who were still ready and able-to contest with Rome the supremacy of the peninsula. second - The passive attitude of the Samnites between 342 and &snake 327 was no doubt largely due to the dangers "which war had suddenly threatened them in South Italy. But 7~15p® the death of See also:Alexander of See also:Epirus, in 332,10 removed 412-27 their only formidable opponent there, and left them 422. free to turn their attention to the See also:necessity of checking the steady advance of Rome. In 327, the year after the 427 ominous See also:foundation of a Roman colony at Fregellae, a pretext for renewing the struggle was offered them. The 6 At the See also:foot of Mount See also:Vesuvius, Livy viii. 9; at Trifanum, ibid. viii. II.

6 Livy viii. II. J Livy viii. 14; Lanuvium, See also:

Aricia, See also:Nomentum,' Pedum, Tusculum. 8 Ibid.. loc. cit., ceteris Latinis populis conubia commerciaque et concilia inter se ademerunt." ' For the controversy as to the precise status of Capua and the " See also:equites Campani " (Livy viii. 14), see Beloch, Ital. See also:Bend, 122 seq. idem, Campanten, 317; Mommsen, Staatsr. iii. 574. 0 Livy viii. 3, 17, 24. Cumaean colony of Palaepolis t had incurred the wrath of Rome by its raids into her territory in Campania. The Samnites sent a force to defend it, and Rome replied by a See also:declaration of war.

The two opponents were not at first sight unequally matched, and had the Sabellian tribes held firmly together the issue of the struggle might have been different. As it was, however, the Lucanians to the south actually joined Rome from the first, while the northern clans, See also:

Marsi, See also:Vestini, See also:Paeligni, See also:Frentani, after a feeble and lukewarm resistance, subsided into 450. a See also:neutrality which was exchanged in 304 for a formal alliance with Rome. An even greater advantage to Rome from the outset was the enmity existing between the Samnites and the Apulians, the latter of whom from the first joined Rome and thus gave her a position in the rear of her enemy and in a country eminently well fitted for maintaining a large military force. These weaknesses on the Samnite side were amply illustrated by the events of the war. The first seven or eight years were marked by one serious disaster to the Roman arms, the defeat at the Caudine Forks (321), but, when in 318 the Samnites asked for 433' 436' and obtained a two years' truce, Rome had succeeded not only in inflicting several severe blows upon her enemies but in isolating them from outside help. The Lucanians to the south were her allies. To the east, in the rear of Samnium, See also:Apulia acknowledged the suzerainty of Rome, and 434. Luceria, captured in 320, had been established as a See also:base of Roman operations. Finally to the north the Romans had easily overcome the feeble resistance of the Vestini and Frentani, and secured through their territories a safe passage for their legions to Apulia. On the renewal of hostilities in 438. 316, the Samnites, See also:bent on escaping from the See also:net which was being slowly See also:drawn round them, made a series of desperate efforts to break through the lines of defence which protected Latium and Campania. Sora and Fregellae on the upper Liris were captured by a sudden attack; the Ausones in the low country near the mouth of the same See also:river were encouraged to revolt by the appearance of the Samnite army; and in Campania another army, attracted by rumours of disturbance, all but defeated the Roman consuls under the very walls of Capua.

But these efforts were unavailing. Sora and Fregellae were recovered as quickly as they had been lost, and the frontier there was strengthened by the See also:

establishment of a colony at Interamna. The Ausones were punished by the See also:confiscation of their territory, and Roman supremacy further secured by the two colonies of Suessa and Pontia (312). The construction of the famous Via See also:Appia,2 the work of the See also:censor Appius See also:Claudius Caecus, opened a safe and See also:direct route to Campania, while the capture of See also:Nola deprived the Samnites of their last important stronghold in the Campanian lowlands. The failure of these attempts broke the courage even of the Samnites. Their hopes were indeed raised for a moment by the news that Etruria had risen against Rome (310), but their daring scheme of effecting a union with the Etruscans was frustrated 449 by the See also:energy of the Roman generals. Five years later (305) the Romans revenged a Samnite See also:raid into Campania by an invasion of Samnium itself. Arpinum on the frontier was taken, and at last, after a twenty-two 450 years' struggle, the Second Samnite War was closed by a renewal of the ancient treaty with Rome (304).3 The six years of peace which followed (304—298) were employed by Rome in still further strengthening her position. 450-56. Already, two years before the peace, a rash revolt of the Hernici4 had given Rome a pretext for finally annexing the territory of her ancient allies. The tribal confederacy was broken up, and all the Hernican communities, with the exception of three which had not joined the revolt, were incorporated with the Roman state as municipia, with the civil rights of the Roman franchise. Between the Hernican 1 Livy viii.

22. 2 Ibid. ix. 29; see APPIA, VIA. 2 Ibid. ix. 45. 4 Ibid. ix. 43.valley and the frontiers of the nearest Sabellian tribes lay what remained of the once formidable people of the Aequi. In their case, too, a revolt (304) was followed by the 450. annexation of their territory, which was marked in this 453. case by the formation there (301) of two Roman tribes (Aniensis and Teretina).5 Not content with thus carrying the borders of their own territory up to the very frontiers of the Sabellian country, Rome succeeded (304) in finally detaching from the Sabellian confederacy all the tribes lying6 between the north-east frontier of Latium and the Adriatic Sea. Henceforward the Marsi, Paeligni, Vestini, See also:

Marrucini and Frentani were enrolled among the allies of Rome, and not only swelled her forces in the field but interposed a useful barrier between her enemies to the north in Etruria and See also:Umbria and those to the south in Samnium, while they connected her directly with the friendly Apulians. Lastly, as a security for the fidelity at least of the nearest of these allies, colonies were planted in the Marsian territories at See also:Alba Fucentia (303) and at See also:Carsioli (298).

A significant indication 45f 456. of the widening range of Rome's See also:

influence in Italy, and of the new responsibilities rapidly pressing upon her, is the fact that when in 302 the Spartan Cleonymus 452. landed in the territory of the Sallentini, far away in the south-east, he was met and repulsed by a Roman force? 'Six years after the conclusion of the treaty which ended the Second Samnite War, news arrived that the Samnites were harassing the Lucanians. Rome at once interfered to Third protect her allies. Samnium was invaded in force, Samnite the country ravaged and one stronghold after another war, captured. Unable any longer to hold their own in a 298-90–position where they were hedged round by enemies, 456-64. the Samnite leaders turned as a last See also:hope to the communities of northern Etruria, to the free tribes of Umbria and to the once dreaded Celts. With a splendid daring they formed the scheme of uniting all these peoples with them-selves in a last desperate effort to break the power of Rome. For some forty years after the final annexation of southern Etruria (351 B.C.) matters had remained unchanged in that See also:quarter. Sutrium and Nepete still guarded Romans the Roman frontier; the natural boundary of the in N. Ciminian forest was still intact; and up the valley of Etruria. the Tiber Rome had not advanced beyond Falerii, a 403. few miles short of the most southerly Umbrian town See also:Ocriculum. But in 311, on the expiry, apparently of the long 443. truce with Rome, concluded in 351, the northern Etruscans, alarmed no doubt by the rapid advances which Rome was making farther south, See also:rose in arms and attacked Sutrium.

The attack, however, recoiled disastrously upon the heads of the assailants. A Roman force promptly relieved Sutrium, and its See also:

leader, Q. See also:Fabius Rullianus, without awaiting orders from See also:home, boldly plunged into the wilds of the Ciminian forest, and crossing them safely swept with See also:fire and See also:sword over the rich lands to the north. Then turning southward he met and utterly defeated the forces which the Etruscans had hastily raised in the hopes of intercepting him at the Vadimonian Lake?' This decisive victory ended the war. The Etruscan cities, disunited among themselves, and enervated by long years of peace, abandoned the struggle for the time, paid a heavy See also:indemnity and concluded a truce with Rome (309-8). In the 445 46. same year the promptitude of Fabius easily averted a threatened attack by the Umbrians, but Rome proceeded nevertheless to fortify herself in her invariable fashion against future dangers on this side, by an alliance with Ocriculum, which was followed ten years later (299) by a colony at Nequinum,9 and an alliance with the Picentes, whose position in the rear 5 Livy x. 9. 6 Ibid. ix. 45. 7 Ibid. x. 2.

4 Ibid. ix. 39. Ihne (Romische Geschichte, i.2 394 seq.) throws some doubts on the traditional accounts of this war and of that in 296. 9 It received the name of Narnia (Livy x. to). were now to be disputed by a new and formidable foe. At the close of the Third Samnite War the Greek cities war with on the southern coast of Italy found themselves once Pyrrhus, more harassed by the Sabellian tribes on their borders, 281-75= whose energies, no longer absorbed by the long struggles 473-79-in central Italy, now found an attractive opening southward. Naturally enough the Greeks, like the Capuans sixty years of Umbria rendered them as valuable to Rome as the Apulians had proved farther south. Fourteen years had passed since the battle on the Vadimonian Lake, when the Samnites appeared on the borders of Etruria and Battle of called on the peoples of northern Italy to rise against See also:

Ben- the common enemy. Their appeal, backed by the ttnum, presence of their troops, was successful. The Etruscans 295=459, found courage to face the Roman legions once more; a few of the Umbrians joined them; but the most valuable allies to the Samnites were the Celts, who had for some time threatened a raid across the Apennines, and who now marched eagerly into Umbria and joined the See also:coalition. The news that the Celts were in See also:motion produced a startling effect at Rome, and every nerve was strained to meet this new danger. While two armies were left in southern Etruria as reserves, the two consuls, Q.

Fabius See also:

Maximus Rullianus and P. See also:Decius See also:Mus the younger, both tried soldiers, marched northwards up the valley of the Tiber and into Umbria at the head of four Roman legions and a still larger force of Italian allies. At See also:Sentinum, on the further side of the Apennines, they encountered the united forces of the Celts and Samnites, the Etruscans and Umbrians having, it is said, been withdrawn for the defence of their own homes. The battle that followed was desperate, and the Romans lost one of their consuls, Decius, and more than 8000 men.' But the Roman victory was decisive. The Celts were annihilated, and the fear of a second Celtic attack on Rome removed. All danger from the coalition was over. The Etruscan communities gladly See also:purchased peace by the See also:payment of indemnities. The rising in Umbria, never formidable, died away, and the Samnites were left single-handed to See also:bear the whole weight of the wrath of Rome. During four years more, however, they desperately defended their highland homes, and twice at least, in 293 and 292, they managed to place in the field a force sufficient to meet the Roman legions on equal terms. At last, in 290, the consul M'.Curius See also:Dentatus finally ex- hausted their power of resistance. Peace was concluded, and it is significant of the respect inspired at Rome by their indomitable courage that they were allowed to become the allies of Rome, on equal terms and without any See also:sacrifice of independence? Between the close of the Third Samnite War and the land-473 See also:ing of Pyrrhus in 281 B.C. we find Rome engaged, as her wont was, in quietly extending and consolidating her power.

In southern Italy she strengthened her hold on Apulia by planting on the borders of Apulia and Lucania the strong colony of See also:

Venusia.3 In central Italy the annexation 464 of the Sabine country (290) carried her frontiers eastward to the borders of her Picentine allies on the Adriatic.' Farther east, in the territory of the Picentes them-selves, she established colonies on the Adriatic coast at See also:Hadria 469-71. and Castrum (285-83).5 North of the Picentes lay the territories of the Celtic See also:Senones stretching inland to the north-east borders of Etruria, and these too now See also:fell into her hands. Ten years after their defeat at Sentinum (285–84) a Celtic force descended into Etruria, besieged See also:Arretium and defeated the relieving force despatched by Rome. In 283 the consul L. See also:Cornelius See also:Dolabella was sent to avenge the insult. He completely routed the Senones. Their lands were annexed by Rome, and a colony established at Sena on the coast. This success, followed as it was by the decisive defeat of the neighbouring tribe of the See also:Boii, who had invaded Etruria and penetrated as far south as the Vadimonian Lake, awed the Celts into quiet, and for more than forty years there was See also:comparative tranquillity in northern Italy.s In the south, however, the claims of Rome to supremacy ' Livy x. 27. s Livy, Epit. xi., " pacem petentibus Samnitibus foedus See also:quarto renovatum est." 3 See also:Dion. See also:Hal. Exc. xvi. xvii. 5 ; Veil.

Pat. i. 14. ' Livy, Epit. xi.; Vell. Pat. i. 14. Livy, Epat. x. 6 Ibid. xii. ; Polyb. ii. 20.before, appealed for aid to Rome (283–82), and like 471-72. the Capuans they offered in return to recognize the suzerainty of the great Latin Republic. In reply a Roman force under C. See also:

Fabricius Luscinus marched into south Italy, easily routed the marauding bands of Lucanians, Bruttians and Samnites, and established Roman garrisons in See also:Locri, Croton, Rhegium and See also:Thurii.

At See also:

Tarentum, the most powerful and flourishing of the Greek seaports, this sudden and rapid advance of Rome excited the greatest anxiety. Tarentum was already allied by treaty (301) with Rome, and she had now to decide whether this treaty should be exchanged 453. for one which would place her, like the other Greek communities, under the See also:protectorate of Rome, or whether she should find some ally able and willing to assist in making a last stand for independence. The former course, in Tarentum, as before at Capua, was the one favoured by the aristocratic party ; the latter was eagerly supported by the mass of the people and their leaders. While matters were still in suspense, the appearance, contrary to the treaty, of a Roman See also:squadron off the See also:harbour decided the controversy. The Tarentines, indignant at the insult, attacked the hostile See also:fleet, killed the See also:admiral and sunk most of the See also:ships. Still Rome, relying probably on her partisans in the city, tried negotiation, and an alliance appeared likely after all, when suddenly the help for which the Tarentine demo- crats had been looking appeared, and war with Rome 473-74 was resolved upon (281–8o)? King Pyrrhus,$ whose timely appearance seemed for the moment to have saved the independence of Tarentum, was the most brilliant of the military adventurers whom the disturbed times following the death of Alexander the Great had brought into prominence. High-spirited, generous and ambitious, he had formed the scheme of rivalling Alexander's achievements in the East, by winning for himself an See also:empire in the See also:West. He aspired not only to unite under his rule the Greek communities of Italy and See also:Sicily, but to overthrow the great Phoenician state of Carthage—the natural enemy of Greeks in the West, as See also:Persia had been in the East. Of Rome it is clear that he knew little or nothing; the task of See also:ridding the Greek seaports of their See also:barbarian foes he no doubt regarded as an easy one; and the splendid force he brought with him was intended rather for the conquest of the West than for the preliminary work of chastising a few Italian tribes, or securing the sub-See also:mission of the unwarlike Italian Greeks. He defeated the Roman consul, M. Valerius Laevinus, on the See also:banks of the Liris (28o), and gained the support of the Greek cities as well as that of numerous bands of Samnites, 474' Lucanians and Bruttians.

But, to the disappointment of his new allies, Pyrrhus showed no anxiety to follow up his advantage. His See also:

heart was set on Sicily and See also:Africa, and his immediate object was to come to terms with Rome. But though he advanced as near Rome as See also:Anagnia (2 79), nothing could shake the See also:resolution of the senate, and in the next year 475' (278) he again routed the legions at Asculum (See also:Ascoli), but only to find that the indomitable resolution of the enemy was strengthened by defeat. He now crossed into Sicily, where, though at first successful, he was unable to achieve any lasting result. Soured and disappointed, Pyrrhus returned to Italy (276) to find the Roman legions steadily moving southwards, and his Italian allies disgusted by his See also:desertion of their cause. In 275 the decisive battle of the war was fought at Beneventum. The consul, M'. Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of Samnium, gained a complete victory, ' Livy, Epit. xii. ; Plut. Pyrrh. 13. 5 For his career and for the See also:story of his wars with Rome, see the article PYRRHUS.

461, 462. 464. 478. 479. and Pyrrhus, unable any longer to face his opponents in the field, and disappointed of all assistance from his allies, retreated to disgust to Tarentum and thence crossed into See also:

Greece.' 482 A few years later (272) Tarentum was surrendered to Rome by its Epirot garrison; it was granted a treaty of alliance, but its walls were razed and its fleet handed 484 over to Rome. In 270 Rhegium also entered the ranks of Roman allies, and finally in 269 a single 485' campaign crushed the last efforts at resistance in Samnium. Rome was now at leisure to consolidate the position she had won. Between 273 and 263 three new colonies were founded in Samnium and Lucania—Paestum in 273, Beneventum in 268, See also:Aesernia in 263. In central Italy the See also:area of Roman territory was increased by the full enfranchisement (268) of the Sabines,2 and of their neighbours to the east, the people of See also:Picenum. To guard the Adriatic coast colonies were established at See also:Ariminum (268), at Firmum and at Castrum Novum (264), while to the already numerous maritime colonies was added that of See also:Cosa in Etruria.' Rome was now the undisputed mistress of Italy. The limits of her supremacy to the north were represented roughly by a Rome the See also:line drawn across the peninsula from the mouth of mistress the See also:Arno on the west to that of the Aesis on the east.4 Of Italy. Beyond this line lay the Ligurians and the Celts; all south of it was now united as "Italy" under the rule of Rome.

But the rule of Rome over Italy, like her wider rule over the Mediterranean coasts, was not an absolute dominion over conquered subjects. It was in form at least a confederacy under Roman protection and guidance; and the Italians, like the provincials, were not the subjects, but the " allies and See also:

friends " of the Roman people.' In the treatment of these allies Rome consistently followed the See also:maxim, See also:divide et impera. In every possible way she strove to isolate them from each other, while binding them closely to herself. The old federal See also:groups were in most cases broken up, and each of the members united with Rome by a special treaty of alliance. In Etruria, Latium, Campania and Magna Graecia the city state was taken as the unit; in central Italy where See also:urban See also:life was non-existent, the unit was the tribe. The northern Sabellian peoples, for instance—the Marsi, Paeligni, Vestini, Marrucini, Frentani—were now constituted as separate communities in alliance with Rome. In many cases, too, no freedom of See also:trade or intermarriage was allowed between the allies themselves, a policy afterwards systematically pursued in the provinces. Nor were all these numerous allied communities placed on the same footing as regarded their relations with Rome herself. To begin with, a sharp distinction was drawn between the " Latini" and the general mass of Italian allies. Theexchange the status of a favoured ally. The member of a Latin colony had the right of commercium and down to 268 7 of conubium also with Roman citizens. Provided 486. they left sons and See also:property to represent them at home, they were free to migrate to Rome and acquire the Roman franchise.

In war-time they not only shared in the See also:

booty, but claimed a portion of any land confiscated by Rome and declared "public." These privileges, coupled with their close natural See also:affinities with Rome, successfully secured the fidelity of the Latin colonies, which became not only the most efficient props of Roman supremacy, but powerful agents in the work of Romanizing Italy. Below the privileged Latins stood the Italian The allies; and here again we know generally that there Italian were considerable See also:differences of status, determined allies. in each case by the terms of their respective treaties with Rome. We are told that the Greek cities of Neapolis and See also:Heraclea were among the most favoured;8 the See also:Bruttii, on the other See also:hand, seem, even before the Hannibalic War, to have been less generously treated. But beyond this we have no detailed See also:information. Rome, however, did not rely only on this policy of isolation. Her allies were attached as closely to herself as they were clearly separated from each other, and from the first she took every security for the See also:maintenance of her own See also:paramount authority. Within its own borders, each ally was left to See also:manage its own affairs as an independent state.' The badges which marked subjection to Rome in the provinces—the See also:resident magistrate and the tribute—were unknown in Italy. But in all points affecting the relations of one ally with another, in all questions of the general interests of Italy and of See also:foreign policy, the decision rested solely with Rome. The place of a federal constitution, of a federal council, of federal See also:officers, was filled by the Roman senate, assembly and magistrates. The maintenance of peace and order in Italy, the defence of the coasts and frontiers, the making of war or peace with foreign powers, were matters the settlement of which Rome kept entirely in her own hands. Each allied state, in time of war, was called upon for a certain contingent of men, but, though its contingent usually formed a distinct See also:corps under officers of its own, its numerical strength was fixed by Rome, it was brigaded with the Roman legions, and was under the orders of the Roman consul.° This paramount authority of Rome throughout the peninsula was confirmed and justified by the fact that Rome herself was now infinitely more powerful than any one of her The numerous allies. Her territory, as distinct from that Roman of the allied states, covered something like one-third state. of the peninsula south of the Aesis.

Along the west coast it stretched from Caere to the southern borders of Campania. Inland, it included the former territories of the Aequi and Hernici, the Sabine country, and even extended eastward into Picenum, while beyond these limits were outlying districts, such as the lands of the Senonian Celts, with the Roman colony of Sena, and others elsewhere in Italy, which had been confiscated by Rome and given over to Roman settlers. Since the first important annexation of territory after the capture of Veil (396), twelve new tribes had been formed," and the number of male citizens registered at the census had risen from 152,000 to 290,000.12 Within this enlarged Roman 7 The year of the foundation of Ariminum, the first Latin colony with the restricted rights; Cic. Pro Caec. 35, 202; Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. 52 n.; Staatsr. iii. 624; Marquardt, Staatsverw. i. 54; Beloch, 155-58, takes a different view. 8 Beloch, See also:

Camp. 39; Cic. Pro Balbo, 8, 21, 22, 50. 9 For the relation of the socii Italici to Rome, see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii.

53 ff. ; Beloch, Ital. Bund, cap. x. Beloch, 203. The importance of this See also:

duty of the allies is ex-pressed in the phrase, " socii nominisve Latini quibus ex See also:formula togatorum milites in terra Italia imperare See also:solent." " Four in South Etruria (387), two in the Pomptine territory (358), two in Latium (332), two in the territory of the southern Volsci and the Agee Falernus (313), two in the Aequian and Hernican territory (299). The See also:total of See also:thirty-five was completed in 241 by formation of the Velina and Quirina, probably in the Sabine and Picentine districts, enfranchised in 268. See Beloch, 32. 12 Livy, Epit. xvi.; Eutrop. ii. 18; Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. 55 n. ; Beloch, cap. iv. pp. 77 seq.

481, 491. 481, 486, 491. 486. 486. 490. The Latins. " Latins " of this period had little more than the name in common with the old thirty Latin peoples of the days of Spurius Cassius. With a few exceptions, such as Tibur and Praeneste, the latter had either disappeared or had been incorporated with the Roman state, and the Latins of 268 "Lc. were almost exclusively the " Latin colonies," that is to say, communities founded by Rome, composed of men of Roman See also:

blood, and whose only claim to the See also:title " Latin " lay in the fact that Rome granted to them some portion of the rights and privileges formerly enjoyed by the old Latin cities under the Cassian treaty.' Though nominally allies, they were in fact offshoots of Rome herself, See also:bound to her by community of See also:race, See also:language and interest, and planted as Roman garrisons among See also:alien and conquered peoples. The Roman citizen who joined a Latin colony lost his citizenship—to have allowed him to retain it would no doubt have been regarded as enlarging too rapidly the limits of the citizen See also:body; but he received in Livy, Epit. xiv. ; Plut. Pyrrh. 26.

2 Veil. Pat. i. 14, " suffragii ferendi jus Sabinis datum." ' Ibid.; Livy, Epit. xv. Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. 6o, See also:

note 1 ; Nissen, Ital. Landeskunde, i. p. 71. Beloch, Ital. See also:Band, 203 ; Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. 6o, note 2. ' For the coloniae Latinae founded before the First Punic War, see Beloch, 136 seq. 358.

state were now included numerous communities with See also:

local colonies institutions and government. At their head stood and the Roman colonies (coloniae civium Romanorum), °1ani- founded to guard especially the coasts of Latium and cipla. Campania.' Next to these eldest See also:children of Rome came those communities which had been invested with the full Roman franchise, such, for instance, as the old Latin towns of Aricia, Lanuvium, Tusculum, Nomentum and Pedum. Lowest in the See also:scale were those which had not been considered ripe for ,the full franchise, but had, like Caere, received instead the civitas sine suffragio, the civil without the political rights.2 Their members, though Roman citizens, were not enrolled in the tribes, and in time of war served not in the ranks of the Roman legions but in separate contingents. In addition to these organized town communities, there were also the groups of Roman settlers on the public lands, and the dwellers in the See also:village communities of the enfranchised highland districts in central Italy. The administrative needs of this enlarged Rome were obviously such as could not be adequately satisfied by the system which had done well enough for a small city state with a few square miles of territory. The old centralization of all government in Rome itself had become an impossibility, and the Roman states-men did their best to meet the altered requirements of the time. The urban communities within the Roman pale, colonies and municipia, were allowed a large measure of local self-government. In all we find local assemblies, senates and magistrates, to whose hands the ordinary routine of local administration was confided, and, in spite of differences in detail, e.g. in the titles and numbers of the magistrates, the same type of constitution prevailed throughout .3 But these local authorities were carefully subordinated to the higher powers in Rome. The local constitution could be modified or revoked by the Roman senate and assembly, and the local magistrates, no less than the ordinary members of the community, were subject to the paramount authority of the Roman consuls, praetors and censors. In particular, care was taken to keep the administration of justice well under central control. The Roman citizen in a colony or municipium enjoyed, of course, the right of appeal to the Roman people in a. capital case.

We may also assume that from the first some limit was placed to the See also:

jurisdiction of the local magistrate, and that cases falling outside it came before the central authorities. But an additional safeguard for the equitable and See also:uniform administration of Roman law, in communities to many of which the Roman code was new and unfamiliar, was provided by the institution of prefects (praefecti juri dicundo),4 who were sent out annually, as representatives of the Roman praetor, to administer justice in the colonies and municipia. To prefects was, moreover, assigned the charge of those districts within the Roman pale where no urban communities, and consequently no organized local government, existed. In these two institutions, that of municipal government and that of prefectures, we have already two of the cardinal points of the later imperial system of government. Lastly, the changes which the altered position and increased responsibilities of Rome had effected in her military system' The tended to weaken the intimate connexion between military the Roman army in the field and the Roman people system. at home, and thus prepared the way for that complete See also:breach between the two which in the end proved fatal to the Republic. It is true that service in the See also:legion was still the first duty and the highest See also:privilege of the fully qualified citizen. But this service was gradually altering in character. Though new legions were still raised each year for the summer ' See also:Ostia, Antium, Tarracina, See also:Minturnae, Sinuessa, and, on the Adriatic, Sena and Castrum Novum. 2 To both these classes the See also:term municipia was applied. 3 For details, see Beloch, Ital. Bund, caps. v., vi., vii. The enfranchised communities in most cases retained the old titles for their magistrates, and hence the variety in their designations.

4 For the praefecti, see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. 49, 67, and Staatsr. ii. 608; Beloch, 130-33. 6 Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. 72 seq. ; Livy viii. 8 ; Polyb. vi. 17-42.campaigns, this was by no means always accompanied, as formerly, by the disbandment of those already on foot, and this increase in the length of time during which the citizen was kept with the See also:

standards had, as early as the siege of Veii, necessitated a further deviation from the old theory of military service—the introduction of pay.6 Moreover, while in the early days of the Republic the same divisions served for the soldier in the legion and the citizen in the assembly, in the new manipular system,' with its three lines, no regard was paid to civic distinctions, but only to length of service and military efficiency, while at the same time the more open order of fighting which it involved demanded of each soldier greater skill, and therefore a more thorough training in arms than the old See also:phalanx. One other change resulted from the new military The Pro- necessities of the time, which was as fruitful of results consulate. as the incipient separation between the citizen and the soldier. Under the early Republic, the chief command of the legions rested with the consuls of the year. But, as Rome's military operations increased in area and in distance from Rome, a larger See also:staff became necessary, and the inconvenience of summoning home a consul in the field from an unfinished campaign became intolerable. The remedy found, that of prolonging for a further period the imperium of the consul, was first applied in 327 B.C. in the case of Q.

Publilius Philo,s and between 327 and 264 instances of this prorogatio 427-90. imperii became increasingly common. This proconsular authority, originally an occasional and subordinate one, was destined to become first of all the strongest force in the Republic, and ultimately the chief prop of the power of the Caesars.

End of Article: COMITIA

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