lines in battle,--the first two to carry a short spear (_pilum_), and the third the long lance (_hasta_). INFULENCE OF PARTY CONFLICTS.--The long contest of parties in Rome was an invaluable political education. It was attended with little bloodshed. It involved discussion on questions of justice and right, and on the best civil constitution. It was not unlike party conflicts in English history. It trained the Romans in a habit of judicious compromise, of perseverance in asserting just claims, and of yielding to just demands. PERIOD II. TO THE UNION OF ITALY. (304-264 B.C.) CHAPTER I. CONQUEST OF THE LATINS AND ITALIANS (304-282 B.C.). WARS WITH THE GAULS.--The increased vigor produced by the adjustment of the conflict of classes manifested itself in a series of minor wars. The Romans were now able to face the Gauls, who had permanently planted themselves in Northern Italy. Against them they waged four wars in succession, the last of which ended in a signal victory for the Roman side (367-349). Wars with the Etruscan cities brought the whole of Southern _Etruria_ under Roman rule (358-351). FIRST SAMNITE WAR.--The neighbor that was the hardest for the Romans to conquer was the nation of _Samnites_, who lived among the Apennines of Central Italy, east of Latium. The conflict with this tough tribe lasted, with intermissions, for fifty years. The immediate occasion of the struggle was the appeal of _Capua_--a Greek city in Campania in which Samnites had before settled--for help against their kinsmen in the mountains (343). This prayer the Romans granted when Capua had placed itself under their sway. In the first battle, the Romans under _Valerius Corvus_ won the day. A second Roman army was rescued from imminent danger by the heroism of the elder _Decius Mus_, and a Roman victory followed. After a third victory at _Suessula_, the Romans, on account of the threatening attitude of their Latin confederates, made peace. The Samnites, too, were involved in a war with _Tarentum_, a Greek city on the eastern coast. WAR WITH THE LATINS.--The Latins were not disposed to recognize Rome any longer as the head of the league. They demanded perfect equality and an equal share of the Roman public offices (340). In a battle near _Vesuvius_, the plebeian consul, _Decius Mus_, having devoted himself to death for his country, rode into the thickest ranks of the enemy, and perished, having secured victory for the Roman army. Before the battle, the patrician consul, _Titus Manlius_, punished his son with death for presuming to undertake, without orders, a military exploit, in which, however, he had succeeded. After a second victory of Manlius at _Trifanum_, the Latins were subdued (340), the league was broken up, and most of the cities were made subject to Rome, acquiring citizenship without the right of suffrage; but they were forbidden to trade or to intermarry with one another. Some became Roman colonies.