Part 862

When the Romans had made themselves dominant in middle Italy, and the Samnites [see SAMNITES] in southern Italy, the question which of the two peoples should be masters of the peninsula at large was sure to demand settlement. About the middle of the fourth century, B. C., it began to urge the two rivals into collision, and the next two generations of Romans were busied chiefly with Samnite Wars, of which they fought three, with brief intervals to divide them, and at the end of which the Samnite name had been practically erased from history. The first hostilities grew out of a quarrel between the Samnites of the mountains and their degenerate countrymen of Capua and Campania. The latter sought help from the Romans, and, according to the Romans, surrendered their city to them in order to secure it; but this is obviously untrue. The First Samnite War, which followed this (B. C. 343-341), had no definite result, and seems to have been brought to an end rather abruptly by a mutiny in the Roman army and by trouble between Rome and her Latin allies. According to the Roman annals there were three great battles fought in this war, one on Mount Gaurus, and two elsewhere; but Mommsen and other historians entirely distrust the historic details as handed down. The Second or Great Samnite War occurred after an interval of fifteen years, during which time the Romans had conquered all Latium, reducing their Latin kinsmen from confederates to subjects. That accomplished, the Romans were quite ready to measure swords again with their more important rivals in the south. The long, desperate and doubtful war which ensued was of twenty-two years duration (B. C. 326-304). In the first years of this war victory was with the Romans and the Samnites sued for peace; but the terms offered were too hard fur them and they fought on. Then Fortune smiled on them and gave them an opportunity to inflict on their haughty enemy one of the greatest humiliations that Rome in all her history ever suffered. The entire Roman army, commanded by the two consuls of the year, was caught in a mountain defile (B. C. 321), at a place called the Caudine Forks, and compelled to surrender to the Samnite genera], C. Pontius. The consuls and other officers of the Romans signed a treaty of peace with Pontius, and all were then set free, after giving up their armor and their cloaks and passing "under the yoke." But the Roman senate refused to ratify the treaty, and gave up those who had signed it to the Samnites. The latter refused to receive the offered prisoners and vainly demanded a fulfilment of the treaty. Their great victory had been thrown away, and, although they won another important success at Lautulæ, the final result of the war which they were forced to resume was disastrous to them. After twenty-two years of obstinate fighting they accepted terms (B. C. 304) which stripped them of all their territory on the sea-coast, and required them to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. The peace so purchased lasted less than six years. The Samnites were tempted (B. C. 298) while the Romans had a war with Etruscans and Gauls on their hands, to attempt the avenging of their humiliations. Their fate was decided at the battle of Sentinum (B. C. 295), won by the old consul, Q. Fabius Maximus, against the allied Samnites and Gauls, through the heroic self-sacrifice of his colleague, P. Decius Mus [imitating his father, of the same name.]

See ROME: B. C. 339-338.

{2671}

The Samnites struggled hopelessly on some five years longer and submitted finally in 290 B. C. Their great leader, Pontius, was put to death in the dungeons of the state prison under the Capitoline.

_J. Michelet, History of the Roman Republic, book 2, chapter 1._

ALSO IN: _H. G. Liddell, History of Rome, book 2, chapters 19, and 21-24._

_T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 2, chapter 6._

ROME: B. C. 340. The Publilian Laws.

"In the second year of the Latin war (340 B. C.) the Plebeian Consul, Q. Publilius Philo, being named Dictator by his Patrician colleague for some purpose now unknown, proposed and carried three laws still further abridging the few remaining privileges of the Patrician Lords. The first Publilian law enacted that one of the Censors, as one of the Consuls, must be a Plebeian. … The second gave fuller sanction to the principle already established, that the Resolutions of the Plebeian Assembly should have the force of law. The third provided that all laws passed at the Comitia of the Centuries or of the Tribes should receive beforehand the sanction of the Curies."

_G. Liddell, History of Rome, book 3, chapter 20 (volume 1)._

See a discussion of these laws in their relation to the preceding Valerio-Horatian law, and the subsequent Hortensian laws.

ROME: B. C. 286.

ROME: B. C. 339-338. Subjugation of the Latins. Grant of pseudo-citizenship. The real concession of the next century and its effects.

A league between the Romans and their kinsmen and neighbors, the Latins, of Tibur, Præneste, Lanuvium, Aricia, Velitræ, and other towns, as well as with the Hernicans, existed during a century and a half, from the treaty of Sp. Cassius, B. C. 493, according to the Roman annals. At first, the members of the league stood together on fairly equal terms fighting successful wars with the Volscians, the Æquians and the Etruscans. But all the time the Romans contrived to be the greater gainers by the alliance, and as their power grew their arrogance increased, until the Latin allies were denied almost all share in the conquests and the spoils which they helped to win. The discontent which this caused fermented to an outbreak after the first of the Samnite wars. The Latins demanded to be admitted to Roman citizenship and to a share in the government of the state. Their demand was haughtily and even insultingly refused, and a fierce, deadly war between the kindred peoples ensued (B. C. 339-338). The decisive battle of the war was fought under Mount Vesuvius, and the Romans were said to have owed their victory to the self-sacrifice of the plebeian consul, P. Decius Mus, who, by a solemn ceremony, devoted himself and the army of the enemy to the infernal gods, and then threw himself into the thick of the fight, to be slain. The Latin towns were all reduced to dependence upon Rome,—some with a certain autonomy left to them, some with none. "Thus, isolated, politically powerless, socially dependent on Rome, the old towns of the Latins, once so proud and so free, became gradually provincial towns of the Roman territory. … The old Latium disappeared and a new Latium took its place, which, by means of Latin colonies, carried the Roman institutions, in the course of two centuries, over the whole peninsula."

_W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 3, chapter 6 (volume 1)._

"The Latins, being conquered, surrendered,—that is to say, they gave up to the Romans their cities, their worships, their laws, and their lands. Their position was cruel. A consul said in the senate that, if they did not wish Rome to be surrounded by a vast desert, the fate of the Latins should be settled with some regard to clemency. Livy does not clearly explain what was done. If we are to trust him, the Latins obtained the right of Roman citizenship without including in the political privileges the right of suffrage, or in the civil the right of marriage. We may also note, that these new citizens were not counted in the census. It is clear that the senate deceived the Latins in giving them the name of Roman citizens. This title disguised a real subjection, since the men who bore it had the obligations of citizens without the rights. So true is this, that several Latin cities revolted, in order that this pretended citizenship might be withdrawn. A century passed, and, without Livy's notice of the fact, we might easily discover that Rome had changed her policy. The condition of the Latins having the rights of citizens, without suffrage and without connubium, no longer existed. Rome had withdrawn from them the title of citizens, or, rather, had done away with this falsehood, and had decided to restore to the different cities their municipal governments, their laws, and their magistracies. But by a skilful device Rome opened a door which, narrow as it was, permitted subjects to enter the Roman city. It granted to every Latin who had been a magistrate in his native city the right to become a Roman citizen at the expiration of his term of office. This time the gift of this right was complete and without reserve; suffrage, magistracies, census, marriage, private law, all were included. … By being a citizen of Rome, a man gained honor, wealth, and security. The Latins, therefore, became eager to obtain this title, and used all sorts of means to acquire it. One day, when Rome wished to appear a little severe, she found that 12,000 of them had obtained it through fraud. Ordinarily, Rome shut her eyes, knowing that by this means her population increased, and that the losses of war were thus repaired. But the Latin cities suffered; their richest inhabitants became Roman citizens, and Latium was impoverished. The taxes, from which the richest were exempt as Roman citizens, became more and more burdensome, and the contingent of soldiers that had to be furnished to Rome was every year more difficult to fill up."

_N. D. Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City, book 5, chapter 2._

ROME: B. C. 326-304? Abolition of personal slavery for debt.

See DEBT, ROMAN LAW CONCERNING.

ROME: B. C. 312. The censorship of Appius Claudius. His admission of the freedmen to the Tribes. The building of the Appian Way.

"Appius Claudius, … afterwards known as Appius the Blind, … was elected Censor [B. C. 312], … and, as was usual, entered, with his colleague, Plautius Decianus, upon the charge of filling the vacancies which had occurred within the Senate since the last nominations to that body by the preceding Censors. The new elections were always made, it appears, from certain lists of citizens who had either borne great offices or possessed high rank; but Appius, determined from the beginning to secure his authority, either for his own sake or for that of his faction, through any support he could command, now named several of the lowest men in Rome as Senators, amongst whom he even admitted some sons of freedmen, who, as such, were scarcely to be considered to be absolutely free, much less to be worthy of any political advancement. {2672} The nomination, backed by a powerful party, out of rather than in the Senate, and vainly, if not feebly, opposed by Plautius Decianus, who resigned his office in disgust at his colleague, was carried, but was set aside in the following year by the Consuls, who could call such Senators as they pleased, and those only, as it seems, to their sessions. Appius, still keeping his place, was soon after assailed by some of the Tribunes, now the representatives, as must be remembered, of the moderate party, rather than of the Plebeian estate. At this the Censor admitted all the freedmen in Rome to the Tribes, amongst which he distributed them in such a manner as promised him the most effectual support. Appius, however, was not wholly absorbed in mere political intrigues. A large portion of his energy and his ambition was spent upon the Way [Appian Way] and the Aqueduct which have borne his name to our day, and which, in his own time, were undertakings so vast as to obtain for him the name of 'the Hundred-handed.' He was an author, a jurist, a philosopher, and a poet, besides. … Cneius Flavius, the son of a freedman, one, therefore, of the partisans on whom the Censor and his faction were willing to lavish pretended favor in return for unstinted support, was employed by Appius near his person, in the capacity of private secretary. Appius, who, as already mentioned, was a jurist and an author, appears to have compiled a sort of manual concerning the business-days of the Calendar and the forms of instituting or conducting a suit before the courts; both these subjects being kept in profound concealment from the mass of the people, who were therefore obliged, in case of any legal proceeding, to resort first to the Pontiff to learn on what day, and next to the Patrician jurist to inquire in what form, they could lawfully manage their affairs before the judicial tribunals. This manual was very likely given to Flavius to copy; but it could scarcely have been with the knowledge, much less with the desire, of his employer, that it was published. … But Flavius stood in a position which tempted him, whether he were generous or designing, to divulge the secrets of the manual he had obtained; and it may very well have been from a desire to conciliate the real party of the Plebeians, which ranked above him, as a freedman, that he published his discoveries. He did not go unrewarded, but was raised to various offices, amongst them to the tribuneship of the Plebeians, and finally to the curule ædileship, in which his disclosures are sometimes represented as having been made. … The predominance of the popular party is plainly attested in the same year by the censorship of Fabius Rullianus and Decius Mus, the two great generals, who, succeeding to Appius Claudius, removed the freedmen he had enrolled amongst all the Tribes into four Tribes by themselves."

_S. Eliot, The Liberty of Rome: Rome, book 2, chapter 8 (volume 2)._

ROME: B. C. 300. The Ogulnian Law.

In the year 300 B. C., "Quintus and Cneius Ogulnius appear in the tribuneship, as zealous champions of the popular party against the combination of the highest and the lowest classes. Instead, however, of making any wild attack upon their adversaries, the Tribunes seem to have exerted themselves in the wiser view of detaching the populace from its Patrician leaders, in order to unite the severed forces of the Plebeians upon a common ground. … A bill to increase the number of the Pontiffs by four, and that of the Augurs by five new incumbents, who should then, and, as was probably added, thenceforward, be chosen from the Plebeians, was proposed by the Tribunes. … Though some strenuous opposition was made to its passage, it became a law. The highest places of the priesthood, as well as of the civil magistracies, were opened to the Plebeians, whose name will no longer serve us as it has done, so entirely have the old distinctions of their estate from that of the Patricians been obliterated. The Ogulnii did not follow up the success they had gained, and the alliance between the lower Plebeians and the higher Patricians was rather cemented than loosened by a law professedly devised to the advantage of the upper classes of the Plebeians."

_S. Eliot, Liberty of Rome: Rome, book 2, chapter 9 (volume 2). _

ROME: B. C. 295-191. Conquest of the Cisalpine Gauls.

Early in the 3d century B. C. the Gauls on the southern side of the Alps, being reinforced from Transalpine Gaul, again entered Roman territory, encouraged and assisted by the Samnites, who were then just engaging in their third war with Rome. A Roman legion which first encountered them in Etruria, under Scipio Barbatus, was annihilated, B. C. 295. But the vengeance of Rome overtook them before that year closed, at Sentinum, where the consuls Fabius and Decius ended the war at one blow. The Gauls were quiet after this for ten years; but in 285 B. C. the Senonian tribes invaded Etruria again and inflicted an alarming defeat on the Romans at Arretium. They also put to death some Roman ambassadors who were sent to negotiate an exchange of prisoners; after which the war of Rome against them was pushed to extermination. The whole race was destroyed or reduced to slavery and Roman colonies were established on its lands. The Boian Gauls, between the Apennines and the Po, now resented this intrusion on Gallic territory, but were terribly defeated at the Vadimonian Lake and sued for peace. This peace was maintained for nearly sixty years, during which time the Romans were strengthening themselves beyond the Apennines, with a strong colony at Ariminum (modern Rimini) on the Adriatic Sea, with thick settlements in the Senonian country, and with a great road—the Via Flaminia—in process of construction from Rome northwards across the Apennines, through Umbria and along the Adriatic coast to Ariminum. The Boians saw that the yoke was being prepared for them, and in 225 B. C. they made a great effort to break it. In the first encounter with them the Romans were beaten, as in previous wars, but at the great battle of Telamon, fought soon afterwards, the Gallic hosts were almost totally destroyed. The next year the Boians were completely subjugated, and in 223 and 222 B. C. the Insubrians were likewise conquered, their capital Mediolanum (Milan) occupied, and all north Italy to the Alps brought under Roman rule, except as the Ligurians in the mountains were still unsubdued and the Cenomanians and the Veneti retained a nominal independence as allies of Rome. {2673} But Hannibal's invasion of Italy, occurring soon after, interrupted the settlement and pacification of the Gallic country and made a reconquest necessary after the war with the Carthaginians had been ended. The new Roman fortified colony of Placentia was taken by the Gauls and most of the inhabitants slain. The sister colony of Cremona was besieged, but resisted until relieved. Among the battles fought, that of Comum, B. C. 196, appears to have been the most important. The war was prolonged until 191 B. C., after which there appears to have been no more resistance to Roman rule among the Cisalpine Gauls.

_W. Ihne, History of Rome, book 3, chapters 12-13; book 4. chapter 5; book 5, chapter 7._

ROME: B. C. 286. The last Secession of the Plebs. The Hortensian Laws.

"About the year 286 B. C. the mass of the poorer citizens [of Rome], consisting (as may be guessed) chiefly of those who had lately been enfranchised by Appius, left the city and encamped in an oak-wood upon the Janiculum. To appease this last Secession, Q. Hortensius was named Dictator, and he succeeded in bringing back the people by allowing them to enact several laws upon the spot. One of these Hortensian laws was probably an extension of the Agrarian law of Curius, granting not seven but fourteen jugera (about 9 acres) to each of the poorer citizens. Another provided for the reduction of debt. But that which is best known as the Hortensian law was one enacting that all Resolutions of the Tribes should be law for the whole Roman people. This was nearly in the same terms as the law passed by Valerius and Horatius at the close of the Decemvirate, and that passed by Publilius Philo the Dictator, after the conquest of Latium. Hortensius died in his Dictatorship,—an unparalleled event, which was considered ominous. Yet with his death ended the last Secession of the People."

_H. G. Liddell, History of Rome, book 3, chapter 25 (volume 1)._