Punic Wars

                        There was a balance of power in the western Mediterranean around 264 BC like before WWI in Europe. As in Europe in 1914, this balance of power did not stand up to empire building pressures. An assassination in Sarajevo, or restless puny Greek city-state of Messana – both were the cause of a long drawn war, with inconclusive peace and with a determined man in the defeated nation to “right the  wrongs” and to continue the conflict...

View of the remains of the temple of Saturn, otherwise known as the
State Treasury. It has two underground stories.

1st Punic War

                   Carthage in north Africa (today close to the capital of Tunisia) was founded according to tradition around 750 BC by Phoenician settlers. Called ‘Puni’ by the Greeks and later Romans, they were very business minded and built up a mercantile empire in the western Mediterranean, with attending naval expertise. Rome and Carthage had few problems between them because each had its own spheres of interest. While Rome was busy staying above the water under constant attacks from about everybody in Italy, Carthage was exploring naval routes, trolling for business and crucifying pirates to everybody’s applause.

Carthaginian empire before wars with Rome

             Carthaginians founded trading colonies all over western Mediterranean and ruled over northern Africa from Libya to Gibraltar, part of Spain, whole Corsica and Sardinia, and nearly half of Sicily as well. Carthaginians did not like Pyrrhus (he had some notions and adventures in Sicily) and supported Rome in its defense against him. But there was a fundamental weakness in the empire building Carthaginian drive. They forced others – tribes and city-states – to pay taxes to them, but had no interest to integrate them into their system. No ‘Friends and Allies of Carthage’ existed, no graduated citizenship held as carrot for the future, and also no loyalty to Carthage, only subservience.

            The initial cause of Roman – Carthaginian conflict involved convoluted Greek politics in Sicily. Campanian mercenaries took over the city-state of Messana. Syracusan king Hiero wanted to oust them. The mercenaries appealed to a Carthaginian fleet.  Carthaginians helped, however they decided they want to keep Messana for Carthage and stayed. Messanians, or rather the mercenary rulers of Messana appealed for help to the Roman Senate. Roman Senate decided to do nothing. They did not want to tangle with the most powerful navy in the Mediterranean, especially since Rome had no navy. Not to mention they were not at all sympathetic to the Campanian mercenaries.

           The younger and less staid faction in the Roman Senate brought the Messanian request before the Popular Assembly, in the person Appius Claudius Caudex, grandson of the stubborn consul and censor from preceding chapter. Honed in the new art of persuasion, imported from southern Italy, he managed to convince the Assembly that they should help the Messanians. Thus proving, that the people generally, represented by the Assembly, were not bent on peace and brotherly love, as is commonly held by intellectuals today.  The 1^st Punic War could start. Caudex led an army to Sicily, where he handily defeated Carthaginian garrison and the Syracusans, who allied themselves with the Carthaginians.

            Most of Carthaginian ships were in storage; they had to be refitted and crews hired and trained. This did not inspire confidence in the Syracusan king Hiero, because the most powerful navy in his world could not even prevent Romans from ferrying an army over the Strait of Messana to Sicily. He speedily signed a peace treaty with Rome for next 15 years and on top of it he helped the Romans with logistical support and with capturing some Carthaginian forts.

           Of course, the fleet was going to be a problem. Eventually, the Carthaginians would refit their warships and without their own navy, the Romans could not hope to prevent the Carthaginians raiding Italy with impunity. The triremes hired from the Greek city-states were somewhat helpful, but the latest in the naval warfare were quinqueremes, with five (quinque) men to an oar, and it was a heavy ship with proper heft behind the bronze beak just beneath the surface to ram enemy ships.

            Romans had one quinquereme, which they captured or found on the shore and in sixty days had one hundred of them built. This also meant that they had to build some simulators on land to train crews. Realising, after some unfortunate encounters with the Carthaginian navy that they need more advantage than speed in building, Romans invented the corvus (raven) – a large gangplank with a hook at the end to board enemy ship and to allow legionaries to do what they did best – to fight as if on land.

Qunquiereme

            In 260 BC a great naval battle took place not far from Messana, where the Roman navy defeated the Carthaginian navy, and took the beaks of the captured ships to decorate the Speakers platform in the Forum Romanum to prove to the Assembly, that the war was a good idea. In 258 BC the Carthaginian navy went down, that is down to the bottom, off the coast of Sardinia before the Roman fleet. Carthaginian council was so enraged that its commander was crucified. 

Diagram of corvus

            Many historians are puzzled that during that titanic, many years lasting struggle, the Carthaginians with all their naval expertise did not manage to develop a counter measure to the corvus.  Possibly the fact, that only the officer corps consisted of Carthaginians and the rest were mercenaries had something to do with it. They were hired to fight, not to think. Or they were more aware than the nautically reckless Romans that the heavy corvus, fastened to the mast, destabilised ships in stormy weather and they thought they’d  let nature take care of the Roman tactics.

            The Romans became very cocky. They decided to bring the war to northern Africa. M. Atilius Regulus received command for the invasion. This went bad in its entirety. Carthage hired a Spartan mercenary, Xanthippus, as a general, and his tactics defeated the Roman army in 255 BC. Roman fleet saved the remnants of Regulus’ army, but the fleet was partially destroyed by a storm and the captured consul Regulus was executed.

            After that, the main theatre of operations remained Sicily, from where the Carthaginians were previously thrown out. Since they did not believe in allies, only in subjugation, the minute Carthage was in trouble, the subjected peoples in Africa and Spain revolted, and Carthaginians spent a lot of time and energy to bring them back into the fold; or under the fold.

                In 249 BC happened an incident that served as a warning example and oratorical exercise on the dangers of impiety for generations of middle school boys. Publius Claudius Pulcher of the maverick Claudius family was elected to consulship and received the command of the fleet. Before a battle, every commander was supposed to see if the sacred chickens would eat, and thus prophesy success or failure in battle.  Chickens eating eagerly suggested success. If they were off their feed, commanders had to wait for another opportunity for battle. Well, the chickens did not want to eat that time and the consul threw them overboard, yelling “if they won’t eat, let them drink!’ He lost the battle, and the fleet.

             Irreverent people suggested though, that his defeat was caused rather by poor tactics than by wayward chickens. The same irreverent people hauled him to court on charges of incompetence and impiety, a handy charge. He was convicted and heavily fined, because Romans did not believe in killing bad commanders, rather making money off of them to compensate for losses caused by them.

Hamilcar Barca

            From then on, the war went badly for Rome. An excellent Carthaginian officer, Hamilcar Barca in command of 20 thousand mercenaries was dispatched to Sicily, and started to press the Romans back. The Romans had no more navies after the defeats in 249, whoever was to blame, chickens or bad commanders. Carthaginian navy regained its status and was able to supply the mercenaries in Sicily.

            Romans realised that their only chance for victory lay in the recovery of their naval power. However, there was no money for ships. Actually, for anything, the treasury under the temple of Saturn, the ancient god of wealth, was empty.  Rome’s doggedness and sheer pigheadedness (politely called perseverance) showed a way. Senators lined up on the Speakers platform in the Forum, since the 1^st Punic war called the Rostra (ships' beaks), and asked citizens to lend money to the state. The consuls went ahead with all their own silver first as an example. In 242 BC 200 Roman ships arrived to Sicily. On a stormy morning they destroyed the Carthaginian fleet. The Carthaginian army in Sicily could no longer be supplied and the war was over. Carthage did not have another navy.

Carthage in 3rd cent. AD- note the excellent harbour

              Hamilcar Barca negotiated the peace treaty in 241 BC. Romans were well aware that their victory was a very close thing and did not press for severe terms.  However, whatever the terms, Sicily was henceforward Roman, the first Roman province outside of Italy proper. 

           

            Carthage was beset by other problems than mere loss of naval supremacy (never regained) and an indemnity to be paid to Rome.  They could not pay off the mercenaries who returned from Sicily and wanted their paycheck. Carthaginians did not have the money, so the mercenaries did, what they knew best – fought for it. With Carthage.

Carthaginian sacrificial altar. Romans were not fond of
the Carthaginians not only because of the war, but
because the Carthaginians practiced child sacrifices as well.
This fact was confirmed by archaeology.

Pyrrhus and Trouble in the South

       
             Notwithstanding their success, Rome was still regarded as a rube upstart with no culture and full of people who had no appreciation of philosophy. However, when danger loomed, the sophisticated cities of the south called Rome for help. Of course, this is not the same as when the sophisticated Europeans embroiled the whole world in two wars and then looked to the unsophisticated and non cultured US for help...           

Area Sacra Largo di Torre Argentina - area of 4 temples some from 3rd century BC

Trouble in the South


            At the beginning of the 3^rd century BC, the most powerful Greek city-state in the heel of Italy was Tarentum. Tarentum had a treaty with Rome since 302 BC, which denied Romans access to the Bay of Tarentum, where resided the most powerful navy of Italy. It was OK with the Romans, because a) they were not fond of naval warfare and b) any of their naval activity was limited around central Italy.

            In the southeast of Italy also resided Lucanians, Osco-Sabellic people, who were not fond of the Greek city-states. Lucanians had one overwhelming problem, that is, they usually allied themselves with the losing sides in the Italic peoples’ wars with Rome, like with the Etruscans. Therefore they turned their military aggression against the Greeks in southern Italy, to the cities like Locri, Rhegium, Croton and Thurii. Those cities sent a collective SOS to Rome for help against the Lucanians.

            Romans decided that for once they should send the army by the sea, a more comfortable and faster transport than by land. A Roman garrison was sent by sea to Thurii to help out. Tarentum, though its dear Greek speaking friends called for Roman help, considered it a breach of treaty, when Romans disembarked their troops in the Bay of Tarentum – did not stay there, went to Thurii –and Tarentinian knee jerk reaction was to sink the Roman fleet and to expel the garrison from Thurii AND sack the town of Thurii. They were annoyed because the Thurians wanted help from Rome and not from Tarentum, their allies. Perhaps Thurians believed that Rome is stronger and more reliable, as well as less dangerous than Tarentum, and they might have had something there as the sack of their town by the Tarentines proved.

            The Senate sent an embassy to Tarentum, led by L. Postumius Megellus,  to discuss the matter, and to ask for compensation for the fleet. However, the Roman ambassadors were publicly insulted, and ridiculed because of their lousy Greek language and denied audience. It was one of those unfortunate historical mistakes. Some of the Tarentines realised that this incident means trouble and cast their eyes to their motherland, the mainland Greece, where the successors of Alexander the Great were carving out their niches. One of them was king Pyrrhus of Epirus in northwestern Greece. He was an adventurer, who had delusions of being another Alexander the Great. Pyrrhus accepted the invitation from Tarentum with alacrity, because he thought that this was the first step on the road to an empire, which he craved.

            In 280 BC Pyrrhus landed in Italy and besides 25 thousand mercenaries, he sported 20 war elephants. Romans had never seen anything like that and even though they were successful against the Greek phalanx, the elephants created real havoc and the Romans lost about 7 thousand men. However, Pyrrhus did not destroy the Roman army, and won just on points. He lost at least 4 thousand of his mercenaries, and they could not be replaced. His main problem was a wounded elephant, which went on rampage among his own troops. 

Pyrrhus

          Some of the Samnite tribes, which after their defeat received only a status of “Friend and Ally’ and not the coveted citizenship, encouraged Pyrrhus to attack Rome itself. Pyrrhus was convinced that the Latins would join him (preferably with flower throwing and rejoicing at being freed from the callous Romans). Though by that time, the Latins could not really remember the time before they enjoyed Roman citizenship and were members of the Res Publica. They joined together not against Rome, but against Pyrrhus, and stopped him about 60 km from Rome. Not to mention, that his attitude ‘I am a king and you are dirt’ somewhat alienated his Tarentine allies.

Pyrrhus's movements in Italy

          Another year, another battle. In 279 BC a huge engagement was fought in Apulia. It lasted two days, the first one a draw. Next day, the only thing that saved Pyrrhus were his elephants, and Romans had to withdraw. After surveying his substantially thinned ranks, Pyrrhus declared ‘Another such victory and I am lost”. Since no Roman allies were eager to break their treaty with Rome and join him, Pyrrhus had no way of replenishing his troops. Feeling magnanimous, he offered peace terms to Rome.  When the Senate debated this offer, and the opinion seemed to swing in favour of accepting it, the old and blind Appius Claudius Caecus ordered his sons to lead him into the Senate where he held a long speech, the topic being: “You fools, whose idiotic idea was it to accept any offers from Pyrrhus?” In 1^st century BC this speech was still extant and Cicero admired it for its succinctness and inventiveness in the field of insults.  This speech put an effective end to peace offerings, proposals and negotiating and left Pyrrhus high and dry. Because – what to do? He could not decisively defeat the Romans, he could not get support and he could not replace the experienced mercenaries.

           Pyrrhus was deserted by ideas of what to do with Rome. Basically sulking, he left with his army for Sicily. The Greeks there called him to defend them from the Carthaginians, who were on the verge of conquering the whole island. Initially, he had some successes against the Carthaginians and captured from them two cities, Panormus and Eryx. However, his Greek allies deserted him and he was forced to return to Italy, where the Romans were pressing hard against Tarentum, the original cause of war, disturbance, plundering, and general mayhem.

            In 275 BC Pyrrhus faced the Roman army at the town of Malventum in southern Italy. This time, even a “Pyrrhic victory” was elusive. Romans learned to deal with the elephants by stabbing them with spears into the sides, and Pyrrhus returned to Epirus without most of his army, without his elephants and quite subdued. Eventually he mixed himself up in other adventures and was killed by a woman who threw a roof tile on his head.

           The Romans renamed the town of Malventum to Beneventum (good omen), and offered the usual lenient peace agreement to the defeated foes. The city of Tarentum was allowed self-rule, received Latin rights, and other Greek city-states and the remaining Italian tribes surrendered under similar conditions.

            The victory over Pyrrhus confirmed Rome as master of Italian mainland, and in the same time confirmed that Appius Claudius had a lot of common sense. Of course, this mastery of the mainland put the Romans in direct neighbourhood of a western Mediterranean superpower, Carthage.

           Many historians and scholars cannot get their mind around the fact of Roman success, and try to find combination of reasons why Rome was so successful in the first centuries of the Republic, especially considering the number of external enemies and the internal bickering between various classes of citizens. The said bickering was considerably lessened by the reforms of 367 BC that provided debt relief, instituted land distribution to poor citizens and provided plebeians with access to the highest offices of the state.

         The statesmanlike quality of Rome’s leaders was another part of the equation, with building of strategic alliances and punctiliously fulfilling their treaty obligations. Rome’s treatment of her neighbours in Latium secured their loyalty in the long run, not to mention that various Italian communities found Samnites in the south and Gauls in the north with their thieving and pillaging ways far less palatable and much bigger threat to their security than Rome.

        Some historians just throw hands in the air and declare that Rome just had good luck. Considering how long the history of Rome was, this was one long run of good luck! And since nothing succeeds like success, Rome attracted immigrants from far and wide. By the year 300 BC Rome's urban population doubled to 60 thousand from 30 thousand and by 275 BC probably surpassed 90 thousand and growing.  Growing population meant more housing, more food and especially more water were needed and Aqua Appia, hailed as such a marvel in 312 BC did not cut it any more and another aqueduct, Anio, was added and 272 BC.

Plan of ancient Rome with the course of Anio Vetus Aqueduct

            Romans had literacy from early age, having adapted Greek script to Latin. However, they regarded writing with great pragmatism like anything else. Writing was good to record laws, keep account books and note important events on the chief priest’s ‘white tablets’. Literature was something imported from the Greeks in southern Italy, but that entailed learning Greek. Too much trouble. However, the upper classes appreciated the Greek learning and literature. Especially, since the Greeks perfected the art of oratory and persuasive rhetoric.  The rising politicians found it useful when trolling for votes, speaking in the Senate, or at trials.

           One of the first teachers of Greek ways was Lucius Livius Andronicus.  A slave from southern, Greek, Italy, he was freed, and added the name of his master, Lucius Livius,  to his own. He became not only a teacher of Greek and Latin to teenage boys bent on politics or law career, but also a translator and adaptor of Greek literature. Thus began Roman literature – as was usual with the Romans, they imported a useful skill and developed it. 

Third Samnite war

                    How is it that when things are settled to a peaceful and generally good time is had by all, always something happens to spoil the moment. With Rome, after the Samnite wars, everyone could exhale and turn attention to what is going on in the law courts, or should we accept all those immigrants and there are not enough wells, and other such mundane, but important things. It was rather like the 90-ties. Cold War over, globalisation making poor people richer,  no enemy on the horizon. 

Pompeii Fresco of Samnite
 warriors

The Third Samnite War.

            In 298 BC the Samnites judged that they are strong enough to start another war with the Romans. However, they did not make a mistake of haphazard alliance with other enemies of Rome like before. This was one strong alliance, when the Etruscans and the Gauls to the north and the Samnites to the south decided to coordinate their efforts of bringing Rome down once and for all.

Peter is contemplating the
original she-wolf of Rome

            This pious intention started as usual in the plain of Campania. Until then, the Romans defeated their enemies piecemeal, but this one was a real threat to their very existence. The new highway, Via Appia, was put to good use. The Roman army swiftly moved to Campania and defeated the southern Samnite army. The battle for Italy took place in the north of Rome at Sentium in Umbria, where Etruscans and Gauls joined against the Roman army. The Consul Publius Decius Mus inspired his troops by dedicating himself to the gods and purposely exposing himself to death at enemy hands.

One version of the war chariot

The Romans were all agog, seeing the chariot driving Gauls and retreated initially, probably sorry for the horses. When the Romans stopped gaping at the chariots,  they crushed the Gallic-Etruscan alliance. The Samnites held out for another 5 years, surrendering in 290 BC.

            As usual, Samnium was not pillaged, burned, or Samnites enslaved even though after three wars one would expect some bitterness.  They got a treaty of alliance (well, it was either that or pillaging, burning and enslaving) with different degrees of closeness to Roman citizenship, which effectively ended their cyclical surge of anti Roman sentiment for the rest of Roman history. This battle also caused the southern Greek and Campanian city-states to see the light and to become swiftly undisputed Roman allies with varying degrees of independence.

            The Gauls and the Etruscans kept fighting, and it took two more defeats for the Gauls to ask for terms in 282. The Etruscans, annoyed that the city state where long time ago an Etruscan king ruled is ruling them, fought on. But the Romans were kind. They defeated the Etruscans, but gave them very moderate terms and  annexed only some of the territory of the Etruscan city of Caere. To show themselves the cruel taskmasters, they punished Caere by giving them Roman citizenship without the right to vote in Roman elections. Probably causing huge despair around annual election time, when Caereans  moaned ‘if we only had the right to vote, this idiot would never have become a consul !”

Republican Rome and
the course of Aqua Appia

            In Rome, during the Samnite wars, time did not stand still for politics and for building up the city. The Circus Maximus, first mentioned as being set up by Romulus and his band of girls kidnappers, got handsome stands and a face lift with new horse stalls and starting gates  329 BC. In 312 BC not only the maverick Appius Claudius pushed through his Via Appia project, but the first of the Roman aqueducts, the Aqua Appia, was built. The wells and the Tiber were not enough to supply the growing population with potable water. Not to mention that the same growing population used the Great Sewer as well, and the Great Sewer dumped its content into the Tiber river, so another source of drinking water was urgently needed.

            Amazingly, after all these wars, Rome’s population was growing and it held approximately 90 000 people which made it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean .  In addition, with the Roman invention of giving out citizenship to people who were not born in Rome, were not born of Roman parents and never even traveled to Rome, there were tens of thousands of Roman citizens strewn across Italy. There were more hundreds of thousands who held Latin Rights and Allied status and who kept peace and quiet because it meant that they might receive citizenship sometimes in the future, if they behaved well.

            Looking around Italy around 280 BC, the Romans could be happy. Where their gaze fell, they had an Ally, or a Latin Rights community, and close to Rome, the former deadly enemies became Roman citizens and competed in the Roman elections and for Roman public contracts to build Via Valeria. The Gauls in the Po valley in the north did not see it that way yet and neither did some Greek holdouts in the south, like the city-state of Tarentum, but the Roman Senate and People did not fret about them.

            They should have, because while Romans were fighting and building alliances, roads and aqueducts, they attracted attention of other regional powers, first the Hellenistic ones and later the Carthaginians.

     Any reader of Roman history might be puzzled by the abundance of wars-in-triplicate. The 1st Samnite war, 2nd Samnite war, 3rd Samnite war.... 1st Illyrian war, 2nd Illyrian war.... etc. The first defeat of the enemy usually served as a warning and besides peace treaty nothing happened. The second served as  "now we really meant it and you will be punished". The third one usually resulted in a new province of Rome.

The Samnite Wars

Samnite warriors 4th cent.BC

The First Samnite War.

            This short, but consequential war erupted at 343 BC. The historical accounts, including Livy’s, are probably quite fictitious, taken from the family chronicles of self-aggrandising families seeking better status than they held, but the Romans undoubtedly won and it ended in 341 BC with a peace treaty which acknowledged the Roman alliance with Capua.

Silver coin with Manlius's name

            This short war which led Roman armies away from Rome seemed to the Latin tribes around Rome a good time to try for asserting their preeminence in the Latin League of city states, where Rome held dominant position. In 340 BC erupted the Latin War, where the Latins allied themselves with the Campanians and attacked Rome. They lost badly. Under the command of the consul Titus Manlius the legions crushed them at the battle of Trifanum. The Campanians bitterly regretted their silly notions about dominating Rome and with alacrity and proper humility swore that they did not mean it.

Tusculum - one of the Latin cities

           It took another two year to convince the Latins that alliance with Rome is better than anything else (like destruction). In 338 BC Romans dismantled the Latin League. Rome decided that it had about enough of fighting with linguistically and culturally close neighbours. Some of the Latin city-states were incorporated fully within the Republic, others were given rights to lesser Roman citizenship (Latin Rights). To stop new plotting among the city-states (at least among those who did not get the full Roman citizenship), Romans decreed that Latin city-states could make alliances and treaties only between Rome and individual states and not among each other. This effectively stopped the victim industry from appearing – like we should get together and crush those upstarts, who did not sack out town, did not enslave our people, but do not respect us as they should, boohoo.

            The Latin Rights (ius Latii) became the first step in the future for newly defeated communities to feel a part of Rome and if they behaved, did not raid their neighbours, respected the Roman law and rules, the next step was full Roman citizenship and the chance to lord it over others.

            The potential whiners from the ranks of the elites of the Latin city-states were effectively shut up, by having been given the task of managing the individual cities, with dangling carrot of full Roman citizenship and potential seat in the Roman Senate in front of their noses. 

The Second Samnite War.

            The matters in Latium were settled in most satisfactory way – from the Roman perspective – and it seems that thereafter the Romans decided to settle the question of the Samnites. They founded colonies of Roman citizens south of Latium, especially the colony of Fregellae in 328 BC to goad the Samnites.

            The Samnites were annoyed by this intrusion, however, they were locked in troubles with the Greek colony of Tarentum in the south of Italy. Greek colonies, city-states founded centuries earlier, were in the habit of calling for help their original states in Greece for help, any old time they were in trouble. Tarentum called for help the king of Epirus, Alexander. But by 331 BC the Samnites were free to deal with the reality of Romans, expanding behind their backs.

         That is where the Campanian alliance came to a good use. Romans claimed that the Samnites helped the good folks of Greek city-state of Neapolis to intrude into Campanian territory and to prevent that, the Romans had to plant citizen colonies of their own in the disputed areas. The Samnites were not amused and sent a garrison of mountain fighters with bad hygienic habits to occupy and ‘protect’ Neapolis. The citizens of Neapolis screamed for help to Rome. It was one matter to annoy the Romans, the most powerful state in central Italy, to pretend to be on good terms with the very rustic Samnites and even have their help, another entirely to have them inside the sophisticated, centuries old Greek colony.

Silver coin of Neapolis 4th cent. BC (Naples today)

            In 327 BC the Roman army arrived and promptly threw out the Samnite garrison. The war was on. It was a war where overconfident Romans were humbled and had to rethink their strategies, and served them right. The Samnites had about twice as much population as the Romans and their allies and controlled about twice as much territory.

            Actually, in the beginning, the Romans were clearly victorious and Samnites sued for peace in 321 BC. But Rome offered such lopsided and arrogant terms, that Samnites rejected them and the war continued. That’s when the Roman hubris met their Nemesis.  Both Rome’s consuls, Titus Veturius Calvinus and Spurius Postumius, led a Roman army into a trap deep in the Samnite territory, and were trapped in a mountain pass at Caudine Forks. Completely surrounded and facing certain annihilation, the Romans surrendered and had to walk under “the yoke’, that is a gate made of three spears. That was a complete humiliation.

            According to some later historians, looking for heroic deeds, the surrender was rejected by Rome, however it seems that after Caudine Forks there was 5 years of peace, or at least truce. Samnites were happy and went around boasting of their military prowess, not checking what the Romans did during the enforced truce.

            A mistake. Romans attacked and took over Apulia and Lucania to the east and south of Samnium.  As usual, not burning and enslaving, but making new Friends and Allies in the process.  In 316 BC the war resumed, but Romans were still on the losing side. That meant that the Etruscans, whose 40 –year peace treaty with Rome ran out about that time, joined gleefully the Samnites in attacking Rome.

            The Etruscans had an unerring sense of joining the losing side. They were forced to sue for peace in 308 BC on severe terms and in 304 BC the Samnites followed suit. The final decade of the 4^th century BC was the last gasp of some of the tribes of Aequi, Paeglini and Hernici to reassert themselves and they did it by joining the Samnites. Even tribes which had never fought with Rome before, and had no grievance, joined the alliance, like Marrucini, Marsi, Frentani and others. They wanted in on the fun of defeating Rome and get the spoils. They were all soundly defeated or surrendered before defeat and made Friends and Allies of the Roman People.

Peter is looking closely
at the famous road

Part of Via Appia reserved for
PEDESTRIANS!!

           Notwithstanding all the troubles and wars with about everybody, the Romans introduced another innovation in the long range planning and tactics which ultimately won them an empire. In 312 BC, the censor Appius Claudius (of the eccentric Claudius clan) arranged a state contract to build a paved road from Rome to Capua, in the length of 211 km. Roman enemies gaped at this huge expense, but it meant that troops could move swiftly in any kind of weather. The old guy Claudius must have been a hard taskmaster, when one looks today at the buses and cars moving without any problem on the Via Appia (there is asphalt over the old paving). 

Purported image
of Appius Claudius Caecus

          The popularity of the politician Appius Claudius was changeable. Even though a patrician, he introduced sensible reforms, like allowing the sons of manumitted slaves to enter the Senate (thus annoying the senators to no end) on the other hand he did not intend to let Popular Assembly to vote themselves goodies from state treasury (thus annoying the Tribunes of the People and the Assembly to no end). The result was a great respect from everybody, and he retained his influence even when he went blind in his old age. As Cicero wrote about 250 years later : “Seeing people were coming to ask him, a blind man, for advice”.

         Since the Samnites held such a large and mountainous territory, the Romans did not occupy or rule Samnium after the peace treaty. That encouraged Samnites to hope for a rematch.

              What happened in the 4th century BC that made the Roman army the well oiled machine, which sometimes lost battles, but never the war? Most probably the drubbing they got from the Gauls. USA had practically no army and "I don't care about the world" policy before they got slammed in Pearl Harbor and subsequent battles, and realized that peaceful doves get barbecued for supper in the real world.   

Temples at Tiber from
1st century BC

Road to Capitoline Hill

        

The Gauls

             

The Gauls were settling in the north of Italy since 6^th century BC, but nobody took notice. Suddenly they were threatening Etruscan cities north of Rome, which forgot their adversarial relations with Rome and yelled for help. However, a Roman army was defeated and the Gauls with their king Brennus streamed to Rome. The Servian walls were in disrepair and not finished, because the Romans were used to winning and not needing fortifications. And walls cost too much. Mistake.

            Civilians fled the city (enacting many touching scenes, like when a citizen dumped his family from a cart to accommodate Vestal Virgins ) and the defenders fled to the citadel on the Capitol. The Gauls from the tribe of Sennones were not providential. They looted and burned, even though not only the besieged but also the besiegers have to eat and have to have a shelter, and if you loot and burn and then besiege, you are on par with the people inside.

            After seven months the Gauls had enough and negotiated with the Capitolian defenders. The Gauls tried several times to storm the Capitol, unsuccessfully. Since then the dogs were not in high regard in Rome (they did not rouse the sleeping sentries) but the geese sacred to the goddess Juno were, because they alerted the garrison.  Their sacredness probably saved them from barbecue. Ever since then the Romans stoically endured goose droppings on their most sacred places.

            The Gauls also heard that the Roman men hightailed it to Gaius Furrius Camillus, the exiled one, and begged him to become the Dictator and lead them against the Gauls. He could have had a supercilious moment and send the ungrateful wretches  to Hades, but no, not he. Camillus started to organize an army. The Roman politicians had quite an endurance of ungratefulness.

           For all the above reasons, the Gauls negotiated for gold with the defenders. From that time comes also the saying: “Woe to the conquered!”, uttered by Brennus, the king of Sennones. When the agreed upon amount of gold was heaped upon the scales, the Romans complained that the Gauls are cheating. Brennus pulled out his sword and threw it on the other side of the scales adding to the weights and pronounced this very true and profound sentence.

           The Gauls left rather hastily, because Camillus was coming to relieve the citadel. Livy said that the Roman army ambushed the Gauls and took the gold back.  (Maybe) The Senate and Camillus as a Dictator came back to destroyed Rome. Whereupon a huge quarrel erupted, because citizens coming back to burned houses and general mess, wanted to move somewhere else. Appeals to their better nature had no effect, so the Senate resorted to an appeal to baser natures, and announced that the building materials from state quarries were free to anybody who finished rebuilding their property within a year. This worked like charm. Canny Romans built their houses not along former streets, but haphazardly, mainly to be over branches of the sewer for instance.

View from Capitoline Hill

            The Gallic invasion had another effect on Romans. They took the Brennus sentence “Woe to the conquered”, which in Latin is shorter and more hitting “Vae victis” to heart. They quite coldbloodedly decided not to be the conquered ever again. Under Camillus’ leadership they reorganized the army, got rid of the Greek phalanx spear in favour of gladius, the short sword, and modified the armour. As well, the legion as the basic unit of the army, was reorganized, placing the youngest and strongest soldiers in front. The walls were rebuilt and strenghtened.

            The army reorganization came just in time, because the good and gentle neighbours of Rome wanted to use Rome’s weakened condition and gleefully atacked her. The Etruscans, the Volsci, the Aequi, the Hernici were all among the attackers. It took Rome the next fifty years just to stay above the water. It seems amazing that Rome is always portrayed as the mean imperialist power trampling over the peaceful nations of Italy, when Rome was only a better wolf in a pack of wolves. It is not sane to consider a nation to be a peaceful victim just because they lost.

Ancient Capua reconstructed

            However, another threat emerged which occupied Romans for better part of next fifty years.  In the Apennines lived the rugged and warlike nation of Samnites. They did not have cities, they made living herding. The numbers of Samnites were increasing, and they decided that the fertile Campanian plain was just the right thing for the their growing numbers, and it would be easy to occupy, since people living there are disgustingly civilized and therefore soft and easy picking. The central city state of Campania was Capua. The city fathers looked around in desperation and hied off to Rome which has just emerged as the top dog in Latium with the defeated Hernici, Volsci, Aequi, and others now termed “Friends and Allies of the Roman People” and happy about it.

            In Rome they asked for help against the Samnites.