Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (18 page)

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Chapter 11
The Wars with the Samnites

The Saturates were a loose confederation of peoples living in the Apennine Mountains southeast of Rome. Their soldiers were tough, for their life in the mountains demanded courage and afforded little of civilization's amenities. In 343
B.C.
the Samnites attacked a group of people called the Sidicini, who then sought the help of their powerful neighbors in Campania, a wealthy and fertile region south of Latium; Campania's largest city was Capua, a city regarded by the Romans as wealthy, luxurious, decadent, and effeminate. Capua and Campania joined the Sidicini in an alliance against the Samnites, but their combined forces were not enough to withstand the enemy; Capua itself and Campania were soon attacked by the Samnites and in great danger of being taken over.

The citizens of Capua then asked the Romans for help against the Samnites. The Romans, doubting the sincerity of this emergency appeal, and citing the treaty and alliance that Rome already had with the Samnites, told the Campanians that they could do little against the Samnites, who were their friends. Nonetheless, the Romans said, they would send envoys to the Samnites and ask them to leave Capua and Campania alone.

The envoys of the Capuans and Campanians were distraught. To save their city, the envoys simply gave Capua and Campania to the Romans, reasoning that thus the Romans would have to protect their own property. The Romans now had a substantial excuse for not allowing the Samnites to take Campania. They already had a reason: They did not want the powerful nation of the Samnites to have the additional resources of the fertile fields of Campania and the wealth of Capua. Accordingly the Romans sent envoys to the

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Samnites to ask them not to continue the attack; otherwise the Romans would have to defend their subjects, the Campanians.

The Samnite ambassadors refused Rome's request. To further anger the Romans, the Samnite ambassadors even made a point of immediately shouting out the orders to attack Campania, so that the Roman ambassadors could hear. Both sides prepared for war. The Romans won the first battle, at Mount Gaurus, although with great difficulty; they had never encountered so tough and stubborn an enemy. The Romans also defeated the Samnites at Suessula and, in another battle, even stormed the Samnites' camp. They were unable to follow up their victories, however, because of a mutiny in the Roman army. The Samnites asked the Romans for peace, and the Romans, distracted by their own problems, granted them a treaty in 341
B.C.

The Great Latin War

In 358
B.C.
the Latins had agreed to a treaty that recognized Rome's supremacy over them. Nevertheless, the Latins began to flex their muscles by waging war on their enemies without Rome's consent or troops. In 341 the Latins attacked the Samnites, with whom the Romans had recently made a treaty of alliance. The Samnites complained to the Romans about the Latins' attack on their territory. The Romans could do little to restrain the Latins at the moment, so they summoned the Latin leaders to a conference. Considering how much they had done to help Rome achieve its powerful position, the Latins demanded that one consul and half of the Senate be drawn from the Latins. The Romans were outraged at the Latins' demand for strict equality in government and declared war on them. Helping the Romans in their battles against their former allies the Latins were the Romans' new allies and former enemies, the Samnites. Helping the Latins against the Romans were the Campanians, who hated the Samnites.

The Roman consuls were nervous about the conflict, which was something of a civil war. The political ramifications were serious, for a victorious Latium could shatter Rome's power. The Latins not only spoke the same language as the Romans, but also used similar military equipment, formations, and strategies. The Latin soldiers

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were formidable opponents. Doubtless too the consuls were nervous about their new allies, the Samnites, with whom they had been at war only a few years earlier. This battle was too important for sloppiness; the consuls therefore issued the order that no soldier was to leave his post to fight the enemy.

Titus Manlius Torquatus, the son of the Torquatus who had killed the huge Gaul (see chapter 10), was on reconnaissance when he happened to meet a Latin soldier whom he knew. The Latin baited Titus Manlius into engaging in a duel with him to show whether the Latin or the Roman cavalry was better; Titus Manlius, fearing he would appear a coward if he refused, accepted the challenge, knowing that in doing so he would be breaking the rules set by the consuls. The two men had their duel, and Titus Manlius won. He stripped the Latin of his armor and proudly rode back to his father, the consul.


"Father," he said, "so that everybody may say that I am my father's son, I bring back these cavalry spoils, taken from the knight whom I killed, after being challenged to a duel."


When the consul heard that, he immediately turned away from his son and ordered that the trumpet be sounded to summon the soldiers to an assembly. When the great crowd had assembled, he spoke:

"You, Titus Manlius, showed no respect either for the consul's power or for your father's authority when you, against our direct orders, deserted your post to fight the enemy, and when you, as much as was in your power, undermined the army discipline that, up to now, has made Rome strong. You have forced me to disregard the needs of either the country or myself. It will be better if we receive the punishment for our error than if the country is punished for our wrong; we will provide a sad, but beneficial, lesson to the youth of the future. I am moved by a father's natural love for his children, as well as by your show of courage, misguided though it was, by a false conception of glory. The consul's power must either be reestablished as inviolable with your death, or destroyed forever by your going unpunished; I therefore think that you (if there is any of my blood in you) will not object to restoring the military discipline which has fallen because of your mistake. Lictor, go and tie him to the stake." (Livy VIII.7.13-20)

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Titus Manlius was then beheaded, as punishment for leaving his post.

Although the Romans won that hard-fought battle close to Mount Vesuvius, the Latins were not yet finished. The survivors regrouped, and more Latin soldiers joined them. They fought another battle against the Romans, this one at Trifanum. Again, the Romans won. The consuls then proceeded through all Latium and Campania, stamping out signs of revolt; Latium and Campania both surrendered. The Romans, however, were wisely gracious in their victory: They granted full Roman citizenship to many Latin and Campanian towns, making citizens of the recently conquered.

One of the cities Rome conquered during this time was Antium. The penalty that Antium paid to the Romans was the loss of its fleet. The prows (
rostra, rostrum
originally meant "beak, snout") were taken from the ships and used as decoration on a speaker's platform in the Forum. So the Latin word that originally meant "beak" and had changed to mean "the prow of a ship'' came to mean, first in Latin and later in English, "a speaker's platform."

The Second War with the Samnites

The Romans' second war with the Samnites began with Palaepolis (Old City), a Greek city in Campania that lay close to Neapolis (New City) and may have been part of Neapolis. The Palaepolitans had attacked Rome's allies and had refused to pay reparations. The Palaepolitans no doubt were encouraged in their hostilities by the six thousand foreign soldiers (four thousand of whom were Samnites) who garrisoned their city.

As the Roman army arrived to attack the city, the citizens simultaneously surrendered to the Romans and tricked the Samnites into leaving. The Romans still had the Smites to contend with, and defeated them in a battle. The rest of the war did not go so well.

Disaster at the Caudine Forks

In 321
B.C.
the Roman army invaded Samnium. While the soldiers were raiding Samnite territory, shepherds grazing their

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