Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/764

Rh 740 ROME LHISTOKY. lack of lome by he Jauls. 163. Successes igainst Equi and folsci. $64-411. that the growing feebleness exhibited by Volsci and ./Equi was in some measure caused by the pressure upon their rear of the Sabellian clans which at this time established themselves near the Fuciue Lake and along the course of the Liris. But in 390, only six years after the great victory over her ancient rival Veii, the Roman advance was for a moment checked by a disaster which threatened to alter the course of history in Italy, and which left a lasting impress on the Roman mind. In 391 a Celtic horde left their newly won lands on the Adriatic, and, crossing the Apennines into Etruria, laid siege to the Etruscan city of Clusium (Chiusi). Thence, provoked, it is said, by the conduct of the Roman ambassadors, who, forgetting their sacred character, had fought in the ranks of Clusium and slain a Celtic chief, the barbarians marched upon Rome. On July 18, 390 B.C., only a few miles from Rome, was fought the disastrous battle of the Allia. The defeat of the Romans was complete, and Rome lay at the mercy of her foe. But in characteristic 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 impreg- nable. For seven months they besieged it, and then in as sudden a fashion as they had come they disappeared. The Roman chroniclers explain their retreat in their own way, by the fortunate appearance of Camillus with the troops which he had collected, at the very moment when famine had forced the garrison on the Capitol to accept terms. More probably the news that their lands across the Apennines were threatened by the Veneti, coupled with the unaccustomed tedium of a long siege and the difficulty of obtaining supplies, inclined the Celts to accept readily a heavy ransom as the 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 Campania (361-360), 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 attack. The storm passed away as rapidly as it had come on. The city was hastily rebuilt, and Rome dismayed the enemies who hastened to take advantage of her misfortunes by her undiminished vigour. Her con- quests in southern Etruria were successfully defended against repeated attacks from the Etruscans to the north. The creation in 387 of four new tribes (Stellatina, Sabatina, Tromentina, Arniensis) marked the final annexa- tion 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 for the more effectual defence of the frontier, and finally, in 353, the subjuga- tion of South Etruria was completed by the submission of Caere (Cervetri) and its partial incorporation with the Roman state as a " municipium sine suffragio " the first, it is said, of its kind. 1 Next to the 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 ^Equi and Volsci, and her old allies the Latins and Hernicans. The JEqui 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 campaign of 389 we have no further mention of an 1 For the status of Ctere, and the "Cserite franchise," see Mar- quardt, Staatsverw., i. 28 sy. ; Madvig, R. Verf., i. 39 ; Beloch, Ital. Bund, 120. ^Equian war until the last ./Equian rising in 304. The 450. Volsci, who in 389 had advanced to Lanuvium, were met and utterly defeated by M. Furius Camillus, the con- queror of Veii, and this victory was followed up by the gradual subjugation to Rome of all the lowland country lying between the hills and the sea as far south as Tarracina. Latin colonies were established at Satricum (385), at Setia (379), and at Antium and Tarracina some 369, 3; time before 348. In 358 two fresh Roman tribes (Pomp- 406, 3s tina and Publilia) were formed in the same district. 2 Rome had now nothing more to fear from the foes who Re- a century ago had threatened her very existence. The or gani; lowland country, of which she was the natural centre, *} c from the Ciminian forest to Tarracina, was quiet, and le within its limits Rome was by far the strongest power. But she had now to reckon with the old and faithful allies to whose loyal aid her present position was largely due. The Latins and Hernicans had suffered severely in the ^Equian 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 independ- ence, and we are consequently told that this disaster was immediately followed by the temporary dissolution of the confederacy, and this again a few years later by a series of actual conflicts between Rome and her former allies. Between 383 and 358 we hear of wars with Tibur, Prseneste, 371 Tusculum, Lanuvium, Circeii, and the Hernici. But in all Rome was successful. In 382 Tusculum was fully 372. incorporated with the Roman state by the bestowal of the full franchise 3 ; in 358, according to both Livy and 396. Polybius the old alliance was formally renewed with Latins and Hernicans. 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 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 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 from the Ciminian forest to Tarracina and Circeii and of the bordering highlands. Her own terri- tory 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 Sora on the upper Liris, and to Circeii on the coast. Already, too, she was beginning to be recognized as a power outside the limits of the Latin lowlands. The fame of the capture of Rome by the Celts had reached Athens, and her subse- quent victories over marauding Celtic bands had given her prestige in South Italy as a bulwark against northern barbarians. In 354 she had formed her first connexions 400. beyond the Liris by a treaty with the Samnites, and in 348 followed a far more important treaty with the great 406. maritime state of Carthage. 5 Rome had won her supremacy from the Ciminian forest 2 Livy, vii. 15. 8 Livy, vi. 26. 5 Livy, vii. 27. For the whole question of the early treaties with Carthage, see Polylnus, iii. 22 ; Mommsen, R. G., i. 413, and 11. Chronol., p. 320 ; Vollmer, Rhein. Mus., xxxii. 614.
 * Mommsen, R. G., i. 347, note ; Beloch, lial. Bund, cap. ix.