The Historians' History of the World 05 [The Roman Republic]

Probably the Volscians had been considerably weakened by incursions from the constantly expanding Sabellian tribes in their rear, and the Romans now took the offensive against them with growing success until piece by piece they regained all the territory that had formerly been taken from the Latins. The Æquians were driven back to their highlands, and the country of the eastern Volscians, turned into a seat of war, was traversed in 408 by the Romans who plundered on all sides. So weakened were Rome’s adversaries in 404 that they looked on passively at the siege and capture of Veii. In 400 Tarracina was taken, and in 393 Circeii was freshly colonised, so that even in the later period when it had attained its greatest size all of Latium was either subject or allied to Rome. Moreover as a result of these struggles, and during their course, the compact between the Romans and their Latin allies grew into a sort of hegemony, the Romans claiming the sole right to decide in all matters relating to wars and contracts, while the Latin prætors ceased to alternate with the Roman generals as commanders-in-chief of the army, and the positions of staff officers in the allied troops, at first open only to men appointed by the Romans, soon came to be filled almost exclusively by the Romans themselves.

The close of the fifth century was also marked by new conflicts between the Roman-Latin nations and the Veientines. The peace with this people which had lasted so many years came to an end in 438, when the Roman city Fidenæ, on the Tiber, fell into the possession of Veii. In 437 a war broke out that was interrupted in 434 by the conclusion of an eight years’ truce, then resumed until the total overthrow of Fidenæ in 425, after which it terminated in a second truce of twenty years. During all this period of truce the political situation of the Rasena, the race that had for long been powerful in Italy, was so adverse that the Romans were led to entertain the project of entirely destroying Veii and then proceeding northward from the Tiber on a grand conquering expedition against Etruria. The power of the Rasena had attained its height in the beginning of the fifth century when, firmly established on their three mainland districts, in alliance with the Carthaginians they made Greeks and Italians feel their supremacy on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Etruria had also owned for many decades—as Carthage had, since 500, owned the island of Sardinia—the coast lands of Corsica; but these possessions were seriously threatened by the rise in power of the Hellenes.

[425-395 B.C.]

Since the crushing defeat suffered by the Etruscans in 474 at the hands of Hiero I of Syracuse and the Greeks of Cyme, in a sea battle near that town, Syracuse, Tarentum, and Massilia had further impaired their predominance on the Italian seas. The Campanian province of Etruria and northern Italy were also about that time menaced simultaneously by different but equally powerful enemies. The danger on the Campanian side was from the Sabellian populations. At the time of Tarquinius’ departure the Samnites had probably been long in possession of the mountainous regions extending between the lowlands of the Apulian and Campanian coasts, and since the middle of the fifth century had sent out successive conquering expeditions which, penetrating further and further southward and seaward, threatened equal danger to the Italians and the Etruscans. Simultaneously with the uprising of the Lucanian Sabellians in Magna Græcia, in the third decade before the close of the fifth century, Campanian Sabellians invaded the beautiful regions on the Gulf of Naples. In 420 the Greeks lost Cyme—henceforth Italian Cumæ—but continued to have dominion in and around Naples for several centuries, and in 424, when Etruscan Capua fell, the Rasena were driven forever from that part of Italy.