Fabius proposed to make his way through this barrier, and descend at once upon Vulsinii, justly calculating that the alarm caused by his appearance would draw off the invading army. He sent forward his brother Marcus, who had been brought up at Cæré and spoke Etruscan like a native, to examine the country beyond the forest; and sent word to the Senate of his intention, that they might provide means to defend the city, in case the Etruscans ventured to attack it in his absence. The Senate was alarmed by his boldness, and sent off ambassadors, attended by two Tribunes, with positive orders to stop his march. But Fabius was already in Etruria. He ravaged the country far and wide; and the enemy broke up from Sutrium to defend their own homes. He encountered them near Perusia, and, after a bloody battle, defeated them utterly. The result was that the cities whom the Vulsinians had drawn into the war, made a peace for thirty years. The Vulsinians, however, continued in arms.

§ 14. The Samnites were now quite worn out. The war had lasted more than twenty years. The Romans every year invaded their country; and at length, upon the fall of Bovianum, the chief town of the Pentrians, they sued for peace. It was granted, but on hard terms. They lost all their territory on the sea-coast : they gave up all foreign alliances and conquests, and acknowledged the supremacy of Rome.

§ 15. The Senate were more ready to come to terms, because some of her other neighbours threatened to be troublesome. Even the Hernicans, the old and faithful allies of Rome, had risen against her just before the close of the war; but they were reduced in a single campaign, and their towns treated as those of the Latins had been before. Anagnia, their chief city, became a Roman municipal town. Part of the Volscian lands also were occupied by the colonies of Interamna and Casinum (as above noted), and more recently by Sora. At the close of the war, the remnant of the Æquians also ventured to provoke the wrath of Rome. They also were soon subdued, and two Colonies were planted among their mountains,-at Alba on the Fucine Lake, and at Carseoli; and by the next Censors the Equian territory on the Anio was formed into two new Tribes, so that now the

number amounted to Thirty-three.1 This near approach of Roman settlers alarmed the Sabellian Tribes on the high Apennines, and the Marsians declared war. They also were defeated; upon which the Senate at once offered to enter into a league with them on equal terms: and the Marsians long remained the faithful ally of Rome. The Marrucinians, Pelignians, Frentanians, and Vestinians, also joined the Roman league.

1 In the censorship of P. Sempronius Sophus, P. Sulpicius, 299 B.C. "Tribusque additæ duæ, Anienis et Terentina."-Liv. x. 9.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THIRD SAMNITE WAR. (299-290 B.C.)

§ 1. Hollowness of the late Peace. § 2. Rome engaged in war with Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls. § 3. Samnites choose this crisis for declaring war. § 4. Samnium desolated by Fabius and Decius. § 5. Great confederacy organised by Gellius Egnatius, the Samnite. § 6. Fabius and Decius again elected Consuls: great efforts for Campaign. § 7. Decisive battle of Sentinum: self-sacrifice of second Decius. § 8. Victory in Samnium by Papirius and Carvilius. § 9. C. Pontius again appears, and is taken prisoner by Fabius. § 10. Great Colony planted at Venusia. § 11. Submission of Samnites. § 12. Shameful death of C. Pontius.

§ 1. THE peace which concluded the Second Samnite War was made in 304 B.C., and in less than six years from that time the Third Samnite War began. This peace indeed was no peace (in our sense of the word), but a mere armistice on the part of the Samnites, who no doubt were resolved to break it as soon as they felt themselves strong enough to renew hostilities.

Their great want in the late war had been allies. They had fought single-handed against Rome, who was supported by Latins, Campanians, and Apulians. The greater part of the Sabellian tribes had stood aloof in cold neutrality, or had rendered a very doubtful succour. But an opportunity now offered which seemed to present occasion for forming a great confederation of Central Italy against Rome.

§ 2. After the conclusion of the peace before-named, Rome again appears in hostility with many of the Etruscan cities, notwithstanding the thirty years' truce which all except Vulsinii had lately made.a At Arretium (Arezzo) we find the noble house of the Cilnii, from whom C. Cilnius Mæcenas, the minister of Augustus, claimed descent, inviting the Romans to restore

b

b"Mæcenas atavis edite regibus."-Horat. 1 Carm. i. 1.

"Non quia, Mæcenas, Lydorum quicquid Etruscos

Incoluit fines, nemo generosior est te."-2 Serm. vi. 1.

them to the city from which they had been banished. Perusia also and other cities appear in arms. Even beyond Etruria, in Umbria, we find the Romans at war with the people of Nequinum, a city strongly situated on the Nar (Nera). After an obstinate siege they took the place, and planted a Colony there, under the name of Narnia (Narni), to command the point at which the frontiers of Etruria, Umbria, and the Sabines meet. The Umbrians were so alarmed by this aggressive movement, that they called in to aid them a people who had hitherto been regarded with horror by all Italian nations.

A tribe of the Senonian Gauls, the same who had burnt Rome, had made a permanent settlement on the Umbrian coast-land, between the Utis and the Esis. The Umbrians, once a large and powerful nation, had been gradually confined to the mountain land on the left bank of the Tiber; and these Gauls had been the last enemy who had encroached upon their lands till the late settlement of the Romans at Narnia. We may infer the alarm felt by the Umbrians from the fact of their seeking such assistance.

§ 3. In the year 298 B.C. the Consuls were preparing to resist an attack from the Umbrians and Gauls; and this was the favourable moment chosen by the Samnites for renewing the

war.

Their first step was to overpower the Roman party in Lucania and Apulia; the colony of Luceria alone held out. Then they attempted to draw over the Marsians to their league; but this people turned a deaf ear to the voice of the tempter. The Sabines, however, of the upper country gave a favourable

answer.

With this formidable confederacy on the one hand, and the fear of the Etrurians, Umbrians, and Senonian Gauls on the other, the position of Rome appeared critical. But for some reason the fickle Gauls failed in their engagement, the Umbrians did not move, and Rome was left to deal with the Samnite league on the south, and the Etruscan cities on the north. But no doubt the interposition of the Frentanians and of the Marsians, with their associated cantons, between the Samnites and Northern Italy, must have greatly strengthened the hands of Rome in the ensuing war.

§ 4. The patrician Consul of the year 298 B.C., L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, the first of a great name, invaded Etruria, while his colleague, Cn. Fulvius, entered the country of the Pentrian Samnites. Fulvius gained not that advantage which the Roman people expected over an enemy whom they considered as already conquered. Accordingly, the general wish was to elect Q. Fabius Maximus, the hero of the late war, Consul for the next year. Fabius was now an elderly man, and this would be his fourth Consulship. He was fain to decline the task, but at length gave way on condition that his plebeian colleague should be P. Decius Mus, son of him who devoted himself in the great Latin war; and he also had been Consul twice before. They had been colleagues in the Consulship four years before (301 B.C.), and had cordially united in measures calculated to preserve harmony in the state, as we shall show in the next chapter. They continued firm friends till the death of Decius, and present a most honourable specimen of a Patrician. and Plebeian combined for the common good.

Etruria was neglected. Both Consuls invaded Samnium : Fabius the Pentrian, Decius the Caudine valleys. They overran every part, burning and destroying. It is said that in this summer's campaign, Decius encamped in forty-five different places, Fabius in eighty-six. The campaign served to detach the Lucanians and Apulians from alliance with the Samnites.

§ 5. It appeared as if this brave people were again at the feet of Rome; and L. Volumnius, the plebeian Consul of the next year (296 B.C.), whilst his colleague App. Claudius was sent into Etruria, entered Samnium as if to take possession. But the Samnites rose from under their calamities with an elasticity as great as Rome herself displayed. Probably in the terrible assault of the last year great part of their flocks and herds, their chief wealth, had been secured in mountain fastnesses, and therefore they suffered not so much as an agricultural people might have done. But the chief merit of their renewed vigour must be at

• This was the Scipio whose sarcophagus is so familiar to all eyes. The inscription on it records that he "took several places in Samnium, subdued the Lucanians, and led away hostages." The time of these exploits is not recorded in Livy. He served under the Consuls in Samnium in 297 and 293 B.C., and to one of these years the inscription must refer.