Roman Expansion from 508-270 B.C.

Following the defeat of the Etruscans at Cumae and the successive fall of Etruscan dominance over the region of Latium, the city of Rome rose up with other Latin states to challenge the Etruscans. While the Romans were one of the most dominant cities in the region when it had been under Etruscan rule, they had fared poorly in wars of rebellion against the Etruscans near the end 6^th Century B.C. Although Livy details an account of how the city of Rome was saved from invasion in these wars, other historical evidence suggests that the city fell. Though Rome was able to eventually oust the Etruscans with the assistance of other Latin states, this defeat meant that Rome was not the foremost power in Latium. At the beginning of the 5^th Century, Rome’s hands were tied and she was forced to sign the Cassian treaty of alliance with the other Latin states, establishing equal partnership.

Despite the decline of the trade-based Etruscan civilization, their legacy continued in ancient Italian culture. Rossella Lorenzi details the archaeological research surrounding the Etruscans and accentuating their conjoining of Greek, Italian, and Near Eastern cultures and ideals in his journal entry for Archaeology Magazine titled Unraveling the Etruscan Enigma. The 5^th Century, however, was no time for Rome to think about expanding her culture. Following the departure of the Etruscans, the Roman economy declined rapidly. “Once the Etruscans were overthrown and expelled, the newly independent nation went into immediate economic decline and the population likewise rapidly fell from a census of 130,000 in 509 B.C. to 120,000 in 503 and on down to a projected 116,000 (- 25,000) by 500 B.C., a loss of some 14,000 people or 11% of the population within nearly a decade” (Ward, 11). To make matters worse for the Romans, Eastern Italian tribes from mountainous regions, the Aequi and Volsci, invaded Latium when they were driven from their homelands by the rising Samnites, and fought against the Latin League for the next 80 years (Connolly, 89). By 431 B.C., the Latin League drove the invaders back and turned its attention to the surviving Etruscan colonies to the north in Etruria.

Etruscan outposts had survived on the north-western coast of the Italian Peninsula throughout the Latin League’s wars with the Aequi and Volsci. Indeed, in 500 B.C the Etruscans established at colony at Bologna in the Po River valley. However, this settlement came under pressure from Celtic tribes that had been pushing southward into Italy. The Etruscans then faced an attack on city of Veii in southern Etruria (quite close to Rome, in fact). The Romans, now the dominant power in the Latin League, led a siege of Veii that culminated with the capture of the city in 396 B.C. The Etruscans, attempting to defend on two fronts, ended up defending neither amply and saw the decline of its colonies in northern Italy. As Fredrick the Great of Prussia put it, “He who defends everything defends nothing.” The incoming hordes of Celts, however, also swept into Rome and sacked the city. Rome lost much of its prestige in the Latin League, but eventually recovered. After recovering from the Celtic attack, the League moved to invade Etruria a second time, pushing forward to meet the army of Tarquinii in 388 and 386. Following savage warfare over many decades the League defeated Tarquinii and the nearby Etruscan city of Falerii, who was also a belligerent. The Etruscan power further diminished with the loss of Bologna to the Celts in 350 B.C.

With secure dominance over Latium, southern Etruria, and northern Campania (further south down the coast of Italy), Rome looked to further assert its position as the leader of the Latin League. Following a few years of civil war at the beginning of the 330s B.C., Rome emerged victorious and the Latin League was absolved into Roman control. From this position, Rome soon came into conflict with the Samnites to their south-east. After subduing the remaining Volsci tribes in the 350s, the Romans engaged in many long and bloody wars with the Samnites. After an initial stalemate where the Samnites refused to fight in the plains and the Romans refused to fight in the hilly lands of the Samnites, the two Roman Consuls in 321 B.C. made an excursion into Samnite territory. The entire Roman army was defeated and captured, and suffered much humiliation. In 316, the Romans broke the peace, but the Samnites outflanked the Roman position and descended upon Latium from the north. The Romans frantically tried to make a stand, but the Samnites crushed their disheveled armies. When Rome looked to be defeated, an unlikely change of events occurred. Acrotatus of Sparta was en route to aid the city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily. After a foray in Illyria, Acrotatus and his army stopped at Taranto in southern Italy (Connolly, 90). The Samnites, wary of a Greek invasion to their southern borders, hesitated in attacking Rome. The distraction was just enough for the Romans to push the Samnites back. After a period of peace from 304-296 B.C. the war was rekindled with another Samnite invasion, but the Romans were in a much stronger position now and brought the Samnites to their knees. The few and scattered remaining Etruscan strongholds, allying with the Samnites due to a mutual enemy, were finally subdued in the aftermath of these wars in the earlier part of the 3^rd Century B.C.

After surviving another attack from Celtic tribes from the north, the Romans stood in a position of dominance over the Italian peninsular in 280 B.C. The only opposing forces on peninsular Italy were the remaining Greek colonies in the south. Rome began to pressure these cities into submission, prompting the response of Pyrrhus of Epirus, king of Epirus in western Greece. Pyrrhus led an army of 25,000 veteran troops and 20 war elephants (received as a gift from the Ptolemies in Egypt) into southern Italy to unite Rome’s enemies, but the Romans anticipated the offensive and met him at Heralea (90). Although Pyrrhus’ phalanx proved victorious in the ensuing battle, he suffered substantial casualties. Despite Pyrrhus’ regard in the ancient world, he became notorious for these victories at great cost, leading to the expression “Pyrrhic victory.” The next year the Romans challenged Pyrrhus with 40,000 troops, yet the second battle had a similar outcome to the one a year before. Dismayed by his losses, Pyrrhus left for Sicily to attack the enemy of the Greeks there: the Carthaginians. When he returned to Italy two years later, however (with the Carthaginians nipping at his heels), he found that the Romans had subdued many of their enemies in the south. Pyrrhus met the Romans in a final battle and was defeated. After surviving the Pyrrhic Wars, the Samnite wars, and invasions from other Italian and Celtic tribes, the Romans stood in a powerful position by 275 B.C. They controlled basically all of peninsular Italy, and became a dominant Mediterranean power in the years to come.

Works Cited:

Connolly, Peter. “Italy and The Western Mediterranean: The Rise of Rome 800-275 B.C., Part 1: the         Struggle for Italy.” Greece and Rome at War. 4th ed. Chicago: Frontline, 2012. 86-95. Print.

Title:  Rome and Latium Vetus, 1980-85
Author(s):  T. J. Cornell
Source:  Archaeological Reports, No. 32  (1985 - 1986), pp. 123-133
Publisher(s): The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Stable URL:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/581098

Title:  Unraveling the Etruscan Enigma
Author(s):  Rossella Lorenzi
Source:  Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 6  (November/December 2010), pp. 36-43
Publisher(s): Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/41780629

Title:  The Samnites
Author(s):  R. M. Ogilvie
Source:  The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 3  (Dec., 1968), pp. 330-332
Publisher(s): Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/709309

Title:  News Letter from Rome
Author(s):  A. W. van Buren
Source:  American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 62, No. 4  (Oct., 1958), pp. 415-427
Publisher(s): Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/502066

Title:  Roman Population, Territory, Tribe, City, and Army Size from the Republic's Founding to the Veientane War, 509 B.C.-400 B.C.
Author(s):  Lorne H. Ward
Source:  The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 111, No. 1  (Spring, 1990), pp. 5-39
Publisher(s): The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/295257