Lucanians

Others were afterwards founded.

Later, when Antium was changed into a military colony its navy was destroyed and the beaks the rostra of the ships were taken to rome and placed as ornaments on a speaker's stand outside the senate-house hence the name rostra at this time the forum which had been used for trading purposes of all kinds was improved and beautified it became a centre of political discussions and financial proceedings the bankers and brokers had their offices here smaller fora were started near the river as the forum boreum cattle-market and the forum holatorium vegetable-market manius one of the censors was chiefly instrumental in bringing about these improvements the second and third samnite wars 326 to 290 the results of the first samnite war and the latin war were as we have seen to break up the latin confederacy and enlarge the domain of rome there were now in italy three races aiming at the supremacy the romans the samnites and the etruscans the last of these was the weakest and had been declining ever since the capture by the romans of veii in 396 and caer in 353 in the contest which followed between rome and the samnites the combatants were very nearly matched rome had her power more compact and concentrated while the samnites were superior in numbers but were more scattered they were both equally brave during the first five years of the war 326 to 321 the romans were usually successful and the samnites were forced to sue for peace in this period rome gained no new territory but founded a number of military posts in the enemy's country the peace lasted for about a year when hostilities were again renewed by this time the samnites had found a worthy leader in gaivius pontius by whose skill and wisdom the fortune of war was turned against the romans for seven years 321 to 315 he allured the romans into a small plain at each end of which was a defile a furculae cardinae on reaching this plain they found pontius strongly posted to oppose them after a bloody but fruitless attempt to force him to retreat the romans themselves were compelled to give way but meanwhile pontius had also occupied the defile in their rear and they were obliged to surrender a treaty was signed by the consuls titus veturius and spirius postemius according to which peace was to be made and everything restored to its former condition such was the affair at the cardinae forks 321 one of the most humiliating defeats that ever befell the roman arms the army was made to pass under the yoke which was made of three spears two stuck into the ground parallel to each other and the third placed above them and then suffered to depart rome was filled with dismay at the news the citizens dressed in mourning business and amusements were suspended and every energy was devoted to repairing the disaster compliance with the terms of the treaty was refused on the ground that no treaty was valid unless sanctioned by a vote of the people it was determined to deliver the consuls who had signed it to the enemy pontius indignant at the broken faith refused to accept them and the war was renewed it continued for seven years when 310 the samnites were so thoroughly whipped by quintus fabius then dictator at lake vadimonis in uturia that they could no longer make any effective resistance and at last 304 agreed to relinquish all their seacoast their alliances and conquests and acknowledge the supremacy of rome during this war the etruscans made their last single effort against the roman power an expedition was sent in 311 to attack the military colony of sutrium which had been founded 76 years before the consul quintus fabius went to the rescue raised the siege drove the etruscans into the cuminian forests and there completely defeated them six years intervened between the second and third samnite war 298 to 290 this time was employed by the samnites in endeavoring to unite italy against rome they were joined by umbrines gauls and etruscans The Lucanians alone were with Rome.

The war was of short duration and was practically decided, uh, by the sanguinary battle of Sentinum 295 in Umbria.

The Samnites led by Gnaeus Ignatius were routed by the Roman consuls, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Publius Decius Mus.

With it, a treaty had been made by which the Tarentines agreed to certain limits beyond which their fleet was not to pass, and the Romans bound themselves not to allow their vessels to appear in the Gulf of Tarentum beyond the Lacinian Promontory.

As usual, the Romans found no difficulty in evading their treaty whenever it should profit them.

Thurii was attacked by the Lucanians and despairing of aid from Tarentum called on Rome for assistance.

As soon as domestic affairs permitted, war was declared against the Lucanians, and the wedge was entered, which was to separate Magna Graecia from Helus and deliver the former over to Rome.

On laying and meeting ambushes while on the march.

When Fulvius Nobilior was leading his army from Samnium against Lucanians and had learned from deserters that the enemy intended to attack his rear guard, he ordered his bravest legion to go in advance and the baggage train to follow in the rear.

The enemy, regarding the circumstance as a favorable opportunity, began to plunder the baggage.

Fulvius then marshaled five cohorts of the legion I have mentioned above on the right side of the road and five on the left.

Thus, when the enemy had been met by the stronger troops, they were enveloped also by these light-armed forces.

Sertorius employed the same tactics in Spain in the campaign against Pompey.

Cleandridus the Spartan, when fighting against the Lucanians, drew up his troops in close array so as to present the appearance of a much smaller army.

Then, when the enemy had thus been put off their guard At the moment the engagement began he opened up his ranks, enveloped the enemy on the flank, and put them to rout.

Another thing that happened that just makes the Civil War so interesting is that as Sulla's gaining the upper hand, and it's just starting to look like, okay, the Marian forces are going to lose, all of a sudden a whole new power enters the war.

The Samnites and the Lucanians, two of these Italian peoples, as we've said before, who gave the Romans trouble from time immemorial and who fought against them in the Social War, decide that now is the time, for maybe the last time, to strap on the armor and come streaming out of their mountain strongholds down into the plains to side with the Marians in this war so that Sulla doesn't take command of Rome.

And I've read historians who say that they were provoked.

The Romans make them sound like opportunists or people who just see a fight with two tired combatants and they're going to jump in now as the one, you know, fresh opponent with 40 or 50,000 soldiers.

He's lost a battle against Sulla, and he was pursued so closely by Sulla's forces that they try to run into the city to escape, but the city has to close the gates because Sulla's going to get in otherwise, and they leave a lot of men on the other side who get massacred against the walls, and in a daring escape, Marius is supposed to, the young Marius, is supposed to climb the rope that's let down by the people on the other side of the walls and escape to safety in the nick of time, but he's trapped.

in the city.

And so the Lucanians and the Samnites are going to rescue him, but there's too many armies between them and the city.

At one point, a bunch of Lucanians desert and just leave once they see, you know, the armies facing them.

They were joined by Umbrians, Gauls, and Etruscans.

The Lucanians alone were with Rome.

The war was of short duration and was practically decided, uh, by the sanguinary battle of Sentinum, two ninety-five, in Umbria.

The Samnites, led by Gilius Ignatius, were routed by the Roman consuls, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Publius Decius Mus.

With it a treaty had been made by which the Tarantines agreed to certain limits beyond which their fleet was not to pass, and the Romans bound themselves not to allow their vessels to appear in the Gulf of Tarentum beyond the Lacinian promontory.

As usual, the Romans found no difficulty in evading their treaty whenever it should profit them.

Thurii was attacked by the Lucanians, and despairing of aid from Tarentum, called on Rome for assistance.

As soon as domestic affairs permitted, war was declared against the Lucanians, and the wage was entered which was to separate Magna Graecia from Helus and deliver the former over to Rome.

The Greek colony city of Thurii called on Rome for military support in 282 BCE, when an allied force of southern Italic peoples marched against their city, including a tribe of Samnites, only recently subjected by Rome in the Third Samnite War a few years earlier.

When Rome marched south, they also crushed the Lucanians, another of these Italic allies, which drew the attention of Taurus, the dominant Greek city of southern Italy, more famously known in Latin as Tarentum, or modern Italian as Toronto.

Taurus was the regional hegemonic city-state of the area the Romans called Magna Graeca, or Greater Greece, the heavily Hellenized southern third of the Italian peninsula.

So to check Roman expansionism, Taurus joined the alliance against Rome when Roman military assets and naval ships began operating in southern Calabria.

On laying and meeting ambushes while on the march.

When Fulvius Nobilior was leading his army from Samnium against the Lucanians, and had learned from deserters that the enemy intended to attack his rear-guard, he ordered his bravest legion to go in advance, and the baggage train to follow in the rear.

The enemy, regarding the circumstance as a favourable opportunity, began to plunder the baggage.

Fulvius then marshalled five cohorts of the legion I have mentioned above on the right side of the road, and five on the left.

When even then the enemy, suspecting his ruse and retiring, followed in good order, he commanded the cavalry on the left wing to ride at full speed past the front of the phalanx, covering themselves with their shields, in order that the points of the enemy's spears might be broken by the shock of their encounter with the shields.

When the Macedonians were deprived of their spears, they broke and fled.

Pyrrhus, when fighting in defense of the Tarentines near Asculum, following the Homeric verse, according to which the poorest troops are placed in the center, stationed Samnites and Epirotes on the right flank, Brudians, Lucanians, and Salentines on the left, with the Tarentines in the center, ordering the cavalry and elephants to be held as reserves.

The consuls, on the other hand, very judiciously distributed their cavalry on the wings, posting legionary soldiers in the first line and in reserve, with auxiliary troops scattered among them.