Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/105

 ITALIA. arid Bruttians, the latter of whom now occur for the tirst time in Roman histoi-y (Liv. Fpit. xii.); hut cir- cumstances soon arose which led the Romans to de- clare wara<rainst the Tarentines; and these called in the assistance of Pyrrhus, kiii,£c of Epirus. The war •with that monarch (the first in which the Romans Tere engaged with an^ non-Italian enemy) was at the same time decisive of the fate of the Italian peninsula. It was, indeed, the last struggle of the nations of Southern Italy against the power of Rome: on the side of Pyrrhus w-ere ranged, besides the Tarentines and their mercenaries, the Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttians; while the Latins, Cam- panians, Sabines, Unibrians, Volscians, Marrucini, Peligni, and Frentani, are enumerated among the troops which swelled the ranks of the Romans. (Dionys. xx. Fr. Didot.) Hence, the final defeat of Pyrrhus near Benevcntum (b. c. 275) was speedily followed by the complete subjugation of Italy. Ta- rentum fell into the hands of the Romans in B. c. 272, and, in the same year, the consuls Sp. Carvilius and Papirius Cursor celebrated the last of the many Roman triumphs over the Samnites, as well as the LuciUiians and Bruttians. Few particulars have been transmitted to us of the petty wars which fol- lowed, and served to complete the conquest of the peninsula. The Picentes, who were throughout the Samnite wars on friendly terms with Rome, now appear for the first time as enemies; but they were defeated and reduced to submi-ssion in B. c. 2GS. The subjection of the Sallentines followed, b. c. 266, and the same year records the conquest of the Sarsinates, probably including the other mountain tribes of the Umbrians. A revolt of the Volsinians, in the following year (b. c. 265), apparently arising out of civil dissensions, gave occasion to the last of these petty wars, and earned for that people the credit of heing the hist of the Italians that sub- mitted to the Roman power. (Florus, i. 21.) It was not till long after that tiie nations of Northern Italy shared the same fate. Cisalpine Gaul and Liguria were still regarded as foreign provinces; and, with the exception of the Senones, whose territory had been already reduced, none of the Gaulish nations had been assailed in their own abodes. In B.C. 232 the distribution of the " Gal- licus agcr" (the territory of the Senones) became the occasion of a great and formidable war, which, however, ultimately ended in the victory of the Romans, who immediately proceeded to plant the two colonies of Placentia and Cremona in the ter- ritory of the Gauls, b. c. 218. The history of this war, as well as of those which followed, is fully related under Gallia Cisalpina. It may here suiSce to mention, that the final conquest of the Boii, in b. c. 191, completed the subjection of Gaul, south of the Padus; and that of the Trans- padane Gauls appears to have been accomplished soon after, though there is some uncertainty as to the exact period. The Venetians had generally been the allies of the Romans during these contests with the Gauls, and appear to have passed gradually and quietly from the condition of independent allies to that of dependents, and ultimately of subjects. The Istrians, on the contrary, were reduced by force of arms, and submitted in b. c. 177. The last people of Italy that fell under the yoke of Rome were the Ligurians. This hardy race of moun- taineers was not subdued till after a long series of campaigns; and, while the Roman arms were over- throwing the Macedonian and Syrian empires in the ITALIA. 89 East, they were still constantly engaged in an inglo- rious, but arduous, struggle with the Ligurians, on their own immediate frontiers. Strabo obser%'es, that it cost them eighty years of war to secure the coast- line of Liguria for the space of 12 stadia in width (iv. p. 203); a statement nearly correct, for the first triumph over the Ligurians was celebrated in b. c. 236, and the last in b. c. 158. Even after this last period it appears to have been a long time before the people were finally reduced to a state of tran- quillity, and lapsed into the condition of ordinary Roman subjects. 2. Itali/ nnder the Romans. — It would be a great mistake to suppose that the several nations of Italy, from the periods at which they successively yielded to the Roman arms and acknowledged the supremacy of the Republic, became her .subjects, in the strict sense of the word, or were reduced under any uniform system of administration. The rela- tions of every people, and often even of every city, with the supreme head, were regulated by special agreements or decrees, arising out of the circum- stances of their conquest or submission. How various and difl'ercnt these relations were, is sufficiently seen by the instances of the Latins, the Campanians, and the Hernicans, as given in detail by Livy (viii. 1 1 — 14, is. 43). From the loss of the second decade of that author, we are unfortunately deprived of all similar details in regard to the other nations of- Italy; and hence our infonnation as to the relations established between them and Rome in the third century b. c, and which continued, with little alteration, till the outbreak of the Social War, b. c. 90, is unfortunately very imperfect. We may, how- ever, clearly distinguish two principal classes into which tlie Italians were then divided ; those who possessed the rights of Roman citizens, and were thus incorporfted into the Roman state, and those who still retained their separate national' existence as dependent allies, rather than subjects properly so called. The first class comprised all those com- munities which had received, whether as nations or separate cities, the gift of the Roman franchise; a right sometimes conferred as a boon, but otten also imposed as a penalty, with a view to break up more efl'ectually the national spirit and organisation, and bring the people into closer dependence upon the supreme authority. In these cases the citizenship wjxs conferred without the right of suffrage; but in most, and perhaps in all such instances, the latter privilege was ultimately conceded. Thus we find the Sabines, who in b. c. 290 obtained only the " civitas sine sufTragio," admitted in b. c. 268 to the full enjoyment of the franchise (Veil. Pat. i. 14): the same was the case also, though at a mucli longer interval, with Formiae, Fundi, and Arpinum, which did not receive the right of suffrage till b. c. 188 (Lir. viii. 41, x. 1, xxxvhi. 36), though they had borne the title of Roman citizens for more than a century. To the same class belonged those of the Roman colonies which were called " coloniae civium Romanorum," and which, though less nimierous and powerful than the Latin colonies, were scattered through all parts of Italy, and included some wealthy and important towns. (A list of them is given by ]Iadvig, de Coloniis, pp. 295 — 303, and by Marquardt, Handb. der Romischen Alterthumer, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 18.) To the second class, the " Socii " or " Civitates Foederatae," which, down to the period of the Social War, included by far the largest part of the ItaUan