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CHAPTER XV.

THE WARS DOWN TO THE LAST WAR WITH VEII,
449-405 B.C.

BOOK

II.

General condition of the Romans.

Internal dissenblous.

DURING the internal struggles which led to the decemvi-
rate and the consular tribuneship, the wars with the
neighbouring nations, especially the Equians and the
Volscians, had not ceased. Year after year these enemies
repeated their incursions for rapine and murder; and not
only the allies of the Romans, the Hernicans and the
Latins, but even the Roman dominions themselves, were
visited by the dreadful scourge of these everlasting petty
wars. Three times, as mentioned above, in the years
465, 463, 446 B.C., the enemy penetrated into the im-
mediate vicinity of Rome, and in the year 460 B.C., in the
midst of the disputes about the Terentilian law, the
Roman Capitol had temporarily fallen into their hands.
The second and third book of Livy, and the corresponding
books of Dionysius, convey to the careless reader a very
erroneous impression. They make it appear that Rome,
in spite of occasional reverses, was on the whole success-
ful, and pursued an almost uninterrupted course of victories
and conquests. This, as we have seen, is a great misre-
presentation, caused by the national vanity of the histo-
rians. In truth Rome could hardly stand her ground,
while her allies, the Latins and Hernicans, lost a consider-
able portion of their territory, and suffered more directly
than even Rome, as lying nearer to the common enemies
of the league.

Such continual calamities, we may suppose, were ag-
gravated by internal dissensions. We are told of Roman

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XV.

soldiers, who, out of hatred to the patrician consuls, allowed CHAP. themselves, to be beaten by the enemy, or at least would not conquer, in order that the commander might lose his triumph; we read frequently of the factious opposition of the tribunes, who prevented, by their intercession, the levying of troops. There may be a great deal of exagaccounts, but they are not altogether fictitious, for it is evident that the wars were very disastrous. And, in truth, no growth of national power was possible for Rome so long as the plebeians, who supplied the main strength of the armies, were in bitter enmity against the ruling class.

geration in these

A connected history of the wars of the Volscians and the Equians during this time is out of the question. The character of our sources is essentially the same as in the preceding period, though such wild fictions as the stories of Cincinnatus and Coriolanus are not repeated. Here and there we are even agreeably surprised by narratives which have so much the air of genuine history about them that the dark clouds appear to break and to show distinct lines and points, which enable us to form an opinion of the probable outlines even of those parts which are still hidden. In the half century after the foundation of the republic, as we have seen, the war was decidedly unfavourable to the Romans and their allies. The Equians, issuing forth from their old strongholds in the mountains on the Anio, had taken possession of the plain which, between those mountains and the isolated group of the Mons Albanus, formed the only easy communication between Rome and the Trerus valley, or the land of the Hernicans. They had taken several places, such as Labici and Bolæ, and retained possession of them. More than that, they had even penetrated to the Alban mountains, and had established themselves on the eastern spur, known as Mount Algidus. From this hill, as from a citadel, they could make their devastating incursions into all parts of Latium. The neighbouring town of Tusculum they kept in a continual state of siege, and made inroads at pleasure between

Equian

and Volscian wars.

BOOK

II.

Volscian

Tusculum and the Anio into the Roman districts as far as the Tiber. In the south of Latium the Volscians had at the same time made extensive and lasting conquests. The most important of these was the fortified maritime town of Antium. The new Volscian inhabitants of this town separated themselves politically from their countrymen, and formed an independent community; they renounced all ideas of further conquests, and for a long while took no part in the war against Rome, in order apparently to devote themselves more exclusively to piracy, which promised not less profit than the predatory wars on land.

Next to Antium, Ecetra, originally a Latin town, had conquests. become a principal stronghold of the Volscians in Latium. The situation of this town is not known; it lay, perhaps, in the mountain range which forms the eastern boundary of Latium, and divides it from the country of the Hernicans in the valley of the Trerus. Other towns, among them, perhaps, Satricum and Velitræ, had fallen into the power of the Volscians. Such a Volscian conquest may be presumed in the case of those towns which, at a later period, when the fortunes of war had turned, are reported to have been taken by the Romans. Besides the towns of Latium already named which fell into the possession of the enemy, we must also mention those which were destroyed and never built again. One of these was Corioli, the territory of which was the matter of dispute between Ardea and Aricia. Many other places may have had a similar fate. Who can say how many flourishing villages, strong castles, and walled towns shared a similar fate in those devastating wars? The Roman antiquarians

It is true Satricum and Velitræ are stated (Diodorus, xiv. 102) to have deserted the Roman alliance a short time before they were retaken by the Romans. As a voluntary desertion of allies seemed less humiliating to the Roman pride than a conquest by foreign enemies, the former has sometimes been substituted for the latter by the patriotic annalists. This could be done with some plausibility, and almost with good faith, in those frequent cases in which civil discord in a town facilitated its conquest. We shall see at a future stage of the history of Rome, that very few towns were taken by an enemy from without who had not the co-operation of a party within the town. Such a conquest might easily be represented as a desertion.

XV.

have preserved long lists of townships in Latium,' the CHAP. names of which touch our ears like the faint sounds of a distant echo; in the plains of the depopulated Campagna are seen at present, in many places, heaps of weatherworn stones, and unmistakable sites of towns on the level summits of steep rocks, to which no name and no memories cling. At the time of the Volscian wars, the desolation began which changed that once fruitful and populous land into the malaria-stricken wilderness of the present day.

the Latins and Herniof cans.

By the successful invasions of the Equians and the Decay of Volscians, the league between the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans was practically dissolved. The towns Latium which had escaped destruction or conquest were so much reduced that they could no longer claim to be allies, entitled to treat with Rome as equals. They were compelled to look to Rome for their safety, and so they were no longer allied but protected states, and the superiority of Rome became more and more acknowledged as a de facto dominion.

Two causes seem to have contributed to turn the tide of Increasing strength the Equian and Volscian wars in favour of Rome after the of Rome. period of the decemvirs. In the first place, the civil troubles which preceded that period were followed by comparative repose. The laws of the Twelve Tables seem not to have been without a beneficial effect in quieting the internal disorders. The Canuleian law on the right of intermarriage and the admission of the plebeians, at least in law and theory, to the highest office of the state, seem to have softened the virulence of the civil contest. Rome was therefore able to meet her enemies on more advantageous ground. In the second place, the Equians and Volscians displayed much less vigour and energy during this period. This was owing, probably, as we have already said,' to the growth of the Samnites, who were at that time extending their dominion in the rear of these two nations, and thus involuntarily relieving Rome. The

See above, p. 163, and Pliny, Hist. Nat., iii. 9.

• See p. 164.

BOOK

II.

Fall of Labici,

418 B.C.

Romans thus felt strong enough to assume the offensive, and to regain the ground they had lost.

They turned their attention first to their nearest enemies, the Equians, who were decidedly the most troublesome, and had in the year 446 B.C. laid waste the Roman territory, even to the gates of the city. The wars appear often to have been interrupted by long periods of armistice, and the enemies of Rome were now reduced to the defensive. The first statement from which we can venture to form an opinion as to the course of the wars, refers to the conquest of Labici in the year 418 B.C.' A Roman colony was founded here, and this is the first permanent extension of the Roman dominion by means of the military colonisation, the method which the Romans employed to secure their hold on their conquests in Italy, and to extend their dominion from one centre over a large extent of country. Labici remained as a colony in the Roman possession. The situation of this town shows that after it was taken by the Romans, the Equians could no longer retain the Algidus. Thus the advanced station of the Equians in the land of the Latins had fallen. A further success of the Romans is marked by the conquest of the

Livy, iv. 47. Diodorus, xiii. 6.

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2 All the reports of colonies which have reference to the regal period are fictitious. So are those of the colonies alleged to have been founded previously to the year 418 B.C., viz., Fidenæ, Ecetra, Velitræ, Norba, and Antium. At the first dawn of trustworthy historical tradition we discover these towns in possession of the enemies of Rome. It is therefore all but certain that the stories of the conquest, colonisation, and revolt of these towns at an earlier period were invented to fill up the empty annals of those times. This can be proved satisfactorily in the case of Fidena (see p. 25). The fact is that colonies were quite out of the question so long as the territory of Rome extended only to within five Roman miles from the gates, and so long as Rome and Latium had to maintain a doubtful struggle for their existence, and were unable to oppose an effectual barrier to the advance of the Equians and Volscians into the heart of Latium. For the same reasons we must question the authenticity of all reports of agrarian laws and of the distributions of land during the same period. It was not till after the acquisition of the territory of Corioli from Ardea (442 B.C.), and after the conquest of Labici (418 B.C), of Bolæ (414 B.C.), that assignations of land could be proposed or even thought of in Rome. Accordingly, after 418 B.C., they are no longer reported as encamped on the

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Algidus.

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