The idea of calling upon Pyrrhus for assistance was the more natural, as the predecessor of that prince, Alexander I. (see above p. 275.) had endeavoured, but without success, to effect conquests in Lower Italy. In the first war with Pyrrhus, 280-278, two battles were fought, the first at Pandosia, 280, the other at Asculum, 279; in both of which Rome was unsuccessful. But Pyrrhus, after crossing over into Sicily, 278, (see above, p. 173, 174.) once more returned into Italy, 275, when he was defeated by the Romans at Beneventum, and compelled to evacuate Italy, leaving a garrison at Tarentum. That city, however, soon afterwards, 272, fell into the hands of the Romans, whose dominion was consequently extended to the extremity of Lower Italy. 15. The chief means to which, even from the earliest times, the Romans had recourse for the foundation of their dominion over the conquered, and at the same time for the prevention of the too great increase of the needy classes at Rome, was the establishment of colonies of their own citizens, which, being settled in the captured cities, served likewise as garrisons. Each colony had its own distinct internal constitution, modelled, for the most part, upon that of the mother city itself; hence to keep the colonies in perfect dependence naturally became an object of Roman policy. This colonial system of the Romans, necessarily and spontaneously arising out of the rude custom of bereaving the conquered of their lands and liberty, assumed its main features in the Samnite war, and gradually embraced the whole of Italy. Closely connected with this system was the construction of military highways, (_viae militares_,) one of which, the Appian Way, was constructed so early as 312, and to this day remains a lasting monument of the greatness of Rome at that period. Even at the time of Hannibal's invasion, the number of Roman colonies amounted to 53: but several which had been settled returned to the mother city. HEYNE, _De Romanorum prudentia in coloniis regendis_: inserted in _Opusc._ vol. iii. Cf. _Prolusiones de veterum coloniarum jure ejusque causis_, in his _Opusc._ vol. i.