tinued with a slight interruption till the great Latin War of 338 B.C. So long as this League lasted, Rome on the one side and the Latin communities on the other granted certain reciprocal rights to the citizens of each people. Latins enjoyed all the Private Rights of Roman citizens in Rome; and Romans enjoyed all the Private Rights of the Latin citizens in any of the cities of Latium. During the period of the League a number of Colonies were sent forth, in which the settlers consisted jointly of Romans and Latins, and their numbers were not confined to the small number of three hundred, but usually amounted to some thousands. But the citizens of these Latin Colonies seem to have had no rights at Rome, except such as were possessed by the allied Municipal Towns. They were therefore regarded politically as Communities in Alliance with Rome.

After the Latin war, similar Colonies still continued to be sent forth; indeed, these were the Colonies which chiefly relieved the poor of the Roman territory. At first, no doubt, the Colonists remained distinct from the old inhabitants; but gradually both were fused into one body, like the Sabines and Latins at Rome, like the Samnites and Oscans in Capua.

The Latin Colonies, then, at that time seem to have been merely Allied Cities, bound like them to furnish troops for the service of Rome, and holding their cities as the friends of Rome in the midst of a hostile population. It is to these Colonies that we must attribute chiefly that tenacious grasp which Rome was able to keep upon every district in Italy. The Volscians were overawed by Fregellæ, Pontiæ, Interamna, and Sora; the Campanians by Cales, Suessa Aurunca, and Cosa; the Equians by Carseoli; the Marsians by Alba Fucentia; Umbria by Narnia and Ariminum; the Picenians by Hatria and Firmum; the Samnites by Saticula, Beneventum, and Æsernia; the Apulians by Luceria and Venusia; the Lucanians by Posidonia (afterwards Pæstum). These places were, no doubt, all strongly fortified. The ruins of massive walls built with irregular polygonal blocks of stone, which crowned their rocky citadels, still remain in many places, to show that they must have presented Compare Chapt. xx. § 14.

VOL. I.

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most formidable obstacles to an insurgent or an invading army in an age when gunpowder was unknown.

§ 16. The rights and privileges of these Latin Colonies are only known to us as they are found at a later period of the Republic under the name of Latinitas, or the Right of Latium (Jus Latii). This Right, at the later time we speak of, is known to have consisted in the power of obtaining the full Rights of a Roman Burgess, but in a limited and peculiar manner. Any citizen of a Latin Community, whether one of the Free Cities of Latium or a Latin Colony, was allowed to emigrate to Rome and be enrolled in one of the Roman Tribes, on two conditions: first, that he had held a magistracy in his native town; secondly, that he left a representative of his family in that native town. Thus was formed that large body of halfRoman citizens throughout Italy, who are so well known to readers of Livy under the appellation of "the Latin name." Socii et nomen Latinum-the Allies and the Latin Namewas the technical expression for all those Italian Communities, besides Rome herself, who were bound to supply soldiers for her armies.

§17. FREE AND CONFEDERATE STATES. It will be seen, then, that the mass of the Italian Communities were in a condition of greater or less dependence upon Rome,-the Prefectures being in a state of absolute subjection, the Colonies bound by ties of national feeling and interest, the Municipal Towns by articles of alliance varying in kind. Besides these more or less dependent communities, there remain to be noticed, fourthly, the Cities which remained wholly independent of Rome, but bound to her by treaties of Equal Alliance. Of the Latin cities, Tibur and Prænesté alone were in this condition; in Campania, most of the cities, till, after the Hannibalic war, Capua and others were reduced to the condition of Prefectures, while Nola and Nuceria alone remained free; of the Hellenic cities in the south, Neapolis, Velia, Locri, Rhegium, and Heraclea; in Umbria, Camerium; in Etruria, Iguvium; with all the cities of the Frentanians. But as Roman power increased, most of these Communities were reduced to the condition of simple Municipal Towns.

1 Civitates Liberæ et Federatæ.

§ 18. Whatever is known of the internal constitution of these various communities belongs to later times, when by the Julian Law they had all obtained the Roman Franchise, and had become part and parcel of the Roman State. At Capua, indeed, we learn that the government was now in the hands of a Senate, with an elective chief called the Meddix Tuticus. But Capua, as we have just seen, was, till after 211 B.C., to all intents and purposes an independent city, and affords no clue to assist us in judging of the rest.

There can, however, be little doubt that in the Colonies a constitution was adopted similar to that of Rome herself. The Colonists formed a kind of Patriciate or Aristocracy, and the heads of their leading families constituted a Senate. There were two chief magistrates representing the Consuls, to whom (in the more important towns) were added one or two men to fulfil the duties of Censor and Quæstor." In course of time similar constitutions were introduced into the Municipal Towns also. And it is probable that from the first Rome exerted her influence in favour of an aristocratic government.

§ 19. Thus, by placing the Italian Cities in every possible relation to herself, from real independence to complete subjection, and by planting Colonies, some with full Roman Rights, some with a limited power of obtaining these Rights, Rome wove her net of sovereignty over the Peninsula, and covered every part with its entangling meshes. It is not to be supposed that every step in this process was taken with a full consciousness of its effect. But some general plan there must have been, such as we have summed up in the words Isolation and Selfgovernment. The effects, at all events, were such as would have corresponded with the most deep-laid plans of policy. The campaigns of Pyrrhus took place at a time when Italy was yet not wholly conquered. But few cities of importance, except those of his own countrymen, opened their gates to him. In the first Punic war, not an Italian community took advantage

m Liv. xxiii. 35; xxiv. 19.

"This was so in later times, at all events. Hence in small towns the magistrates were called Duumviri; in larger towns, where one assistant was added as Quæstor and Censor, they were called Tresviri; in the largest, where both a Quæstor and Censor were needed, they were called Quatuorviri. The members of the municipal Senates were called Decuriones.

of the exhausted condition to which Rome was more than once reduced. In the Gallic war that followed, her allies served her faithfully. The invasion of Hannibal exposed her to a pressure as severe as any government ever underwent. Yet when the great General was asked by his rivals at home, "Whether the defeat of Cannæ had caused one Latin community to desert Rome?" he could not answer in the affirmative. More than this. The mass of the Campanians, the poor remains of the brave Samnite tribes, the Lucanians, Apulians, and Bruttians, all rose in favour of the Carthaginian invader. But in Central Italy, where the Roman government was best known, not one city, federate or municipal, opened her gates to the conqueror; and even in the insurgent districts the Colonies remained immoveable as rocks, upon which the seething waves might lavish their utmost fury.

"Ecquis Latini Nominis Populus defecerit ad nos?”—Liv. xxiii. 12.

BOOK IV.

ROME AND CARTHAGE.

CARTHAGE.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

EVENTS LEADING TO FIRST PUNIC WAR.

§ 1. Good fortune of Rome in her successive wars. § 2. Saying of Pyrrhus. § 3. Situation of Carthage. § 4. Origin and growth of Carthage. § 5. Her subjects. § 6. Government. § 7. Army. § 8. Navy. § 9. Her attempts to gain possession of Sicily. § 10. Mamertines of Messana and Hiero of Syracuse: Mamertines seek protection of Rome. § 11. Hiero and Carthaginians defeated by Romans. § 12. The First Punic War follows.

§ 1. NOTHING is more remarkable in the History of Rome than the manner in which she was brought into contact only with one enemy at a time. During the heat of her contest with the Samnites, Alexander of Macedon was terminating his career. The second Samnite war broke out in 324 B.C.; and in the following year the great King died at the untimely age of thirty-two. When he took rest at Babylon, after ten years spent in ceaseless activity, he received embassies from all parts of the known world. If it is to be believed that among these envoys there were representatives of the Samnites and other tribes of Lower Italy, their business at the distant court of Alexander could have been no other than to solicit the aid of his victorious arms to arrest the course of Rome, and protect the south of Italy, so dear to every Greek, from her overpowering ambition. The possibility that the great King might have turned his course westward, to execute the plan which had once presented itself to the young ambition of Alcibiades," occurred to Roman minds. Why should not he have attempted

* Thục. vi. 90.