Between the close of the third Samnite War and the landing of Pyrrhus in 281 B.C. we find Rome engaged, as was her wont, in quietly extending and consolidating her power. In southern Italy she strengthened her hold on Apulia by planting on the borders of Apulia and Lucania the strong colony of Venusia. In central Italy the annexation of the Sabine country (290) carried her frontiers eastwards to the borders of her Picentine allies on the Adriatic. Farther east, in the territory of the Picentes them selves, she established colonies on the Adriatic coast at Hadria and Castrum (285-283). North of the Picentes lay the territories of the Celtic Senones stretching inland to the north-east borders of Etruria, and these too now fell into her hands. Ten years after their defeat at Sentinum (285-284) a Celtic force descended into Etruria, besieged Arretium and defeated the relieving force des patched by Rome. In 283 the consul L. Cornelius Dolabella was sent to avenge the insult. He completely routed the Senones. Their lands were annexed by Rome, and a colony established at Sena on the coast. This success, followed as it was by the de cisive defeat of the neighbouring tribe of the Boii, who had in vaded Etruria and penetrated as far south as the Vadimonian lake, awed the Celts into quiet, and for more than 4o years there was comparative tranquillity in northern Italy.
At the close of the third Samnite War the Greek cities on the southern coast of Italy found themselves once more harassed by the Sabellian tribes on their borders, whose energies, no longer absorbed by the long struggles in central Italy, now found an attractive opening southwards.
The city of Thurii appealed to Rome for protection, and the plebeian assembly at Rome—recently given full legislative powers by the Hortensian law—voted to send the consul Fabricius to aid the Greeks. The consul easily routed the barbarians and estab lished a garrison in the city. Thurii thus accepted Rome's suze rainty. The Tarentines, who claimed to be the protectors of the Greeks in Italy, were offended at the course taken by Thurii, and rightly feared that Rome's advance to the sea would soon compel all the cities of Magna Graecia to acknowledge the dominance of Rome's influence. While the Tarentines were debating whether to protest, several Roman ships (presumably of the socii navales), bound for the Adriatic colonies of Rome, appeared off the harbour of Tarentum. Since the Romans had long before signed a treaty that no Roman ships of war should sail east of the Lacinian cape, the Tarentines regarded the appearance of this squadron as a hostile act, attacked it, killed the admiral and sank most of the ships. Rome, desiring peace, asked for reparations without mak
ing a hostile demonstration, but the democratic party in Tarentum, bent upon asserting the independence and power of their city, engaged King Pyrrhus of Epirus to come to their aid and, in reliance upon his forces, declared war upon Rome (281).
King Pyrrhus (see PYRRHUS), whose timely appearance seemed for the moment to have saved the independence of Tarentum, was the most brilliant of the military adventurers whom the dis turbed times following the death of Alexander the Great had brought into prominence. High-spirited, generous and ambitious, he had formed the scheme of rivalling Alexander's achievements in the East, by winning for himself an empire in the West. He aspired not only to unite under his rule the Greek communities of Italy and Sicily, but to overthrow the great Phoenician state of Carthage—the natural enemy of Greeks in the West, as Persia had been in the East. Of Rome it is clear that he knew little or nothing; the task of ridding the Greek seaports of their barbarian foes he no doubt regarded as an easy one ; and the splendid force he brought with him was intended rather for the conquest of the West than for the preliminary work of chastising a few Italian tribes, or securing the submission of the unwarlike Italian Greeks. He defeated the • Roman consul, M. Valerius Laevinus, on the banks of the Siris (28o), and gained the support of the Greek cities as well as that of numerous bands of Samnites, Lucanians and Bruttians. But, to the disappointment of his new allies, Pyrrhus showed no anxiety to follow up his advantage. His heart was set on Sicily and Africa, and his immediate object was to come to terms with Rome. But though he advanced as near Rome as Anagnia (279), nothing could shake the resolution of the senate, and in the next year (278) he again routed the legions at Asculum (Ascoli), but only to find that the indomitable resolution of the enemy was strengthened by defeat. He now crossed into Sicily, where, though at first successful, he was unable to achieve any lasting result. Soured and disappointed, Pyrrhus returned to Italy (276) to find the Roman legions steadily moving south wards, and his Italian allies disgusted by his desertion of their cause. In 275 the decisive battle of the war was fought at Beneventum. The consul M. Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of Samnium, gained a complete victory and Pyrrhus, unable any longer to face his opponents in the field, and disappointed of all assistance from his allies, retreated in disgust to Tarentum and thence crossed into Greece.