2. External History.—We have said that the military successes of Rome during this period of internal strife were great ; bat we can only briefly allude to them. The irrup tion of the Gauls into sub-Apennine Italy (391 six.), though accompanied by frightful devastations, was barren of results, and did not materially affect the progress of Roman conquest. No doubt the battle on the Allis, and the capture and burning of Rome (390 me.), were great disasters, but the injury was temporary. The vigilance of Manlius saved the capitol, and the heroism of Camillus revived the courage and spirit of the citizens. Again and again in the course of the 4th c. B.C., the Gallic hordes repeated their iacursions into central Italy, lint never again returned victorious. In 307 B.C. Camillus defeated them at Alba; in 300 B.C. they were routed at the Colline gate; in 358 n.e. by the dictator, G. Sulpicius Peticus; and in 350 B.C. by Lucius Eosins Camillus. Meanwhile, aided by their allies. the Latins and the Hernicans, the Romans carried on the long and desperate struggle with the iEquians, Volscians, and Etruscans. Finally, but not till after they had sustained repeated defeats, the Romans triumphed. The causes that led to the decline of the Etruscan power, whin, at the close of the regal period in Rome, and during the infancy of the republic, had been enormous, both by sea and land, cannot be considered at length here. Suffice it to say that the terrible irruption of the Gallic barbarians into Etruria, and the victories of the Samnites in Campania. where also the Etruscans had established themselves, as well as the miserable. jealousies of the different cities, combined to paralyze the power of this people, and paved the way for the final triumph of Rome. But even before the Gauls had crossed the Apennines, the fate of Etruria was virtually sealed. The fall of Veii (q.v.), 396 B.C.; was really the death knell of Etruscan independence. Although the story has undoubt edly descended to us in a mythical dress, the siege of Veil is by no means to be placed in the same category with the siege of Troy. albeit, like it, it is said to have lasted ten years. FaleriCCapena, and Voisinii—all sovereign cities of Etruria—hastened soon after to make peace, and by the middle of the 4th c. tho whole of southeru Etruria had submitted to the supremacy of Rome, was kept in check by Roman garrisons, and denationalized by the influx of Roman colonists. In the land of the Volsci, likewise, a series of Roman fortresses were erected to overawe the native inhabitants; Velitrae, on the borders of Latium, as far back as 492 n.c., Suessa Pometia (442 n.e.), Cirecii (393 n.c.), Satricum (3S5 B.c.), and Setia (382 n.c.); besides the whole Volseian district, known as the Pontine Marshes (q.v.), was distributed into farm allotments among the plebeian soldiery. Becoming alarmed, however, at the increasing power of Rome, the Latins and Hernicaus withdrew from the league, and a severe and protracted struggle took place between them and their former ally. Nearly 30 years elapsed before the Romans succeeded in crushing the malcontents and restoring the league of Spurins Cassius. In the course of this war the old Latin confederacy of the " thirty cities" was broken up (384 B.c.), probably as being dangerous to the hegemony (now rapidly becom ing a supremacy) of Route, and their constitutions were.more and more assimilated to the Roman. The terms of the treaty made by the Romans (348 n.c.) with the Cartha ginians show how very dependent was the position of the Latin cities. Meanwhile, the Romans had pushed their garrisons as far south as the Liris, the northern boundary of Campania. Here they came into contact with the Samnites (q.v.), a people as heroic as themselves, their equals in everything but unity of political organization; perhaps their superiors in magnanimity.
The Samnites had long been extending their conquests in the south of Italy, just as Rome had in the center and in Etruria. Descending from their native mountains between the plains of Apulia and Campania, they had overrun the lower part of the peninsula, and under the name of Lucanians, Bruttians, etc., had firmly established themselves, threatening everywhere the prosperity of the Greek and Etruscan posses sions in those regions. But it was the dwellers in the original mountain territory properly bore the name of Samnites, and between them and the Romans now com menced a tremendous struggle; the former fighting heroically for the preservation of their national freedom—the latter warring with superb valor for dominion. We cannot afford space to recount the circumstances that brought about the collision, further than to state that the Samnite colonies had in the course of time become so detached in sym pathy, and so changed in character and interests from the parent stock, as almost to forget their original unity. Hence, hostilities were common between them; and the forays of the Samnite highlanders in the rich lowlands of Campania were dreaded above all things by their more polished, but degenerate, kinsmen of Capua, who had acquired the luxurious habits of the Greeks and Etruscans! It was really to save them selves from these destructive forays that the Campanians offered to place themselves under the supremacy of Rome; and thus Romans and Sanmites were thrown into a position of direct antagonism. The Samnite wars, of which three are reckoned, extended
over 53 veers (343-290 B.c.). The second, generally known as the "great Samnite war," lasted 22 years (320-804 n.c.). At first the success was mainly on the side of the Sam Bites: and after the disaster at the Canaille Forks (q.v.), it seemed as if Samnium, and not Rome, was destined to become the ruler of Italy; but the military genisms of the Roman consul, Quintus Fabius Rullianus (see FAmus), triumphed over every danger, and rendered all the heroism of Caitts Pontius, the Samnite leader, unavailing. In 304 B.C. Bovianum, the capital of Sanmium, was stormed, and the hardy highlanders were compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the republic. The third war (298-290 n.c.) was conducted with all the sanguinary energy of despair; but though the Etruscans and Umbrians now joined the Samnites against the Romans, their help came too late. The victory of Rullianus and of P. Decius Mus, at Sentinum (2.95 n.c.), virtually ended the struggle, and placed the whole of the Italian peninsula at the mercy of the victor. It only remains to be mentioned here that at. the close of the first Samnite war, which was quite indecisive, an insurrection burst out among the Latins and Volsc!ans, and spread over the whole territory of these two nations; but the defeat inflicted on the insurgents at Trifanum (840 n.c.) by the Roman consul, Titus Manlius Imreriosus Torquatns. almost instantly crushed it, and in two years the last spark of rebellion was extin guished. The famous Latin league was now dissolved; many of the towns lost their independence and became Roman m.unicipia; new colonies were planted both on the coast and in the interior of the Latino-Volscian region; and finally so numerous were the farm allotments to Roman burgesses that two additional tribes had to be consti tuted.
from the Mee of the Samnite to the Commencement of the Punic war with Pyrrhus (q.v.), king of Epirus, which led to the complete subjugation of peninsular Italy, is a sort of pendant to the great Samnite struggle. It was brought about in this way: The Lucanians and Bruttians, who had aided the Romans in the Samnite wars, considering themselves cheated of their portion of the spoil, entered into negotiations with the enemies of their former associate throughout the peninsula. A mighty coalition was immediately formed against Rome, consisting of Etruscans, Umhrians, and Gauls in the n., and of Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites in the s., With a sort of tacit under standing on the part. of the Tarentines that they would render assistance by and by. The rapidity with which it took shape shows alike the fear and the hatred inspired by the Roman name. In the course of a single year the whole n. was in arms, and once more the power, and even the existence of Rome, were in deadly peril. Au entire Roman army of 13,000 men was annihilated at Arretium (2S4 me.) by the Senonian Gauls, lint that dauntless spirit which the republic never failed to display in the crisis of its for tunes, and which gave a sublime dignity to its worst ambition, now shone out in the fullness of its splendor. Publius Cornelius Doll:an:11a marched into the country of the Seuones at the head of a large force, and literally extirpated the whole oat ion, which hence forth disappears from history. Shortly afterward the bloody overthrow of the Etrusco. Balsa horde at lake Vadimo (283 shattered to pieces the northern confederacy, and left the Romans lice to deal with their adversaries in the south. The Imeaniaus were quickly overpowered (282 n.c.); Samnium, broken by its long and luckless struggle, and overawed by the proximity of a Roman army, could do nothing. A rash and unpro voked attack on a small Roman fleet now brought down on the Tarentines the vengeance of Rome, at the very moment Rome was free to exert all her terrible power. Awaking to a sense of their danger the Tarentines invited Pyrrhus (q.v.) over from Epirus, and appointed him commander of their mercenaries. This royal adventurer, a man of the most brilliant, but also of the most volatile genius, resembling no modern general so much as Charles Mordaunt, earl of Peterborough, arrived in Italy (280 (ix.) with a small army of his own, and a vague notion in his head of founding a Hellenic empire in the w., that should rival that created in the e. by his kinsman, Alexander the great. It is not necessary to narrate here the varying fortunes of the struggle between Pyrrhus and the Romans, which lasted only six years, and ended iu his being obliged to return to Epirus without accomplishing anything.