History of Julius Cæsar, Vol. 1 of 2Napoleon III, Emperor of the French
History
History of Julius Cæsar, Vol. 1 of 2
Napoleon III, Emperor of the French
Caesar, Julius; Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C.
The terror was extreme, but the energy of the Romans was equal to the
danger. All able men, even to the freedmen, were enrolled, and ninety
thousand soldiers were raised. Under these grave circumstances (458),
Fabius and Decius were, once again, raised to the supreme magistracy,
and gained, under the walls of Sentinum, a brilliant victory, long
disputed. During the battle, Decius devoted himself, as his father had
done before. The coalition once dissolved, Fabius defeated another army
which had issued from Perusia, and then came to receive the honour of a
triumph in Rome. Etruria was subdued (460), and obtained a truce of
forty years.[206]
The Samnites still maintained an obstinate struggle of mingled successes
and reverses. In 461, after having taken an oath to conquer or die,
thirty thousand of them were left on the field of battle of Aquilonia. A
few months later, the celebrated Pontius, the hero of Furcæ Caudinæ,
re-appeared, at the end of twenty-nine years, at the head of his
fellow-citizens, and inflicted upon the son of Fabius a check, which the
latter soon retrieved with the assistance of his father.[207] Finally,
in 464, two Roman armies re-commenced, in Samnium, a war of
extermination, which led for the fourth time to the renewal of the
ancient treaties and the cession of a certain extent of territory. At
the same epoch, an insurrection which broke out in the Sabine territory
was put down by Curius Dentatus. Central Italy was conquered.
The peace with the Samnites lasted five years (464-469). Rome extended
her frontiers, and fortified those of the peoples placed under her
protectorate; and at the same time established new military forts.
The right of city without suffrage was accorded to the Sabines, and
prefects were given to some of the towns of the valley of the Vulturnus
(_Venafrum_ and _Allifæ_).[208] A Latin colony, of twenty thousand men,
was sent to Venusia to watch over Southern Italy.[209] It commanded at
the same time Samnium, Apulia, and Lucania. If, owing to the treaty
concluded with the Greek towns, the Roman supremacy extended over the
south of the peninsula, to the north the Etruscans could not be reckoned
as allies, since nothing more than truces had been concluded with them.
In Umbria, the small tribe of the Sarsinates remained independent, and
all the coast district from the Rubicon to the Æsis was in the power of
the Senones; on their southern frontier the Roman colony of Sena Gallica
(_Sinigaglia_) was founded; the coast of Picenum was watched by that of
Castrum Novum and by the Latin fortress of Hatria (465).[210]
[Sidenote: Third coalition of the Etruscans, Gauls, Lucanians, and
Tarentines (469-474).]
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