Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/107

Rh III. Rome in League with the Latins and the Hernici.

League with Latins and Hernici. — While the struggles between the orders were going on, the Roman republic almost constantly waged war with its neighbors, but issued far greater and stronger from the foreign as well as from the domestic conflicts. At the very beginning it was forced to cede the territory north of the Tiber to the Etruscans, but probably recovered it within a few years. When, soon afterward, the Latins rebelled against its leadership, it reassumed for a time its old legal position, and in 493 concluded a treaty with them apparently on equal terms. In 486 the Hernici joined the league and obtained full equality in council and in the division of spoils and conquered territory. The alliance with the Hernici was a master-stroke of Roman diplomacy.

The wars of the next forty years did not result in any permanent conquests of importance. Then, in the course of the years 442-393, a number of successes followed. Ardea, Veii, Circeii, and other towns were captured. The Gallic invasion (in 388) did not cause the loss of the new acquisitions. In southern Etruria, in fact, the Romans were able, as early as 387, to organize four new districts (tribus) in the territory they had conquered, and to establish two Latin colonies, that is, colonies of people with Latin rights (p. 94). A little later they founded two other colonies in the Pomptine region.

Superiority of Rome in the League. — Rome possessed a great advantage, because it was equally powerful and more harmonious than the other members of the league. It greatly increased its strength through the recent territorial acquisitions, which it did not divide equally according to the