The Aequi and Volsci
At the end of the 6th century BC, Rome contracted somewhat in both size and power, as it struggled though various crises, most notably the difficult conversion from a monarchy to a republic. The annalistic tradition's treatment of this chaotic period, most of which is treated with profound skepticism by modern scholars, shows Rome to be caught up in a great struggle between powerful Etruscan and Greek city-states: a conflict that spread war and anarchy up and down the length of Tyrrhenian Italy. Into this maelstrom of armies, warlords and profound political instability entered yet another new source of chaos: the great Sabellian migrations throughout the Italian peninsula. Local to Latium, these migrations took the form of the invasions of the Sabellian mountain tribes of the Aequi and Volsci. The fifty years from 500 BC, a period during which the Roman state clearly struggled, saw the Aequi and Volsci stream out of the Apennine mountains into Latium, until their advance overran the Pomptine district and the Monti Lepini and reached a high water mark on and about the Alban mount, only fifteen miles from Rome. It is also conjectured by many modern scholars that the Latin bastions of Tibur and Praeneste, hard up on the Apennines, fell to the Aequi during this time, which if true would have made the ager Romanus much more vulnerable to depredations.
The Aequi and Volsci were Osco-Sabellian speaking mountain folk: rough, warlike and uncivilized, who coveted the rich lowlands of Tyrrhenian Italy and the wealth of the city-states therein. While the Etruscans and Greeks abandoned Latium soon after 500 BC, the Sabellians stayed and dug in, proving themselves to be persistent and inimitable foes of Rome. The Romans managed to survive the Sabellian threat where many other states in Italy failed, by cobbling together and leading a coalition of the surviving Latin towns and a more congenial Sabellian tribe, the Hernici of the Trerus (modern Sacco) valley. When on the open plain in pitched battle, the Roman phalanx usually prevailed against the less organized mountain tribesmen, who were much more adept at raiding and fighting on hilly terrain. By the latter half of the 5th century BC, after years of unceasing military campaigning and the weathering of several crises, the strength of the Aequi and Volsci were worn down to manageable levels, so that as the 4th century began, Rome could undertake a strong offensive against the Sabellian threat, even after the Gallic sack. Also, as in Campania, which was well-nigh overrun by Sabellian peoples during this same epoch, close contact with the civilized city-states of the Tyrrhenian plain likely had a mellowing affect on the hardy mountain folk after a few generations, especially among the Volsci, who early on conquered and settled several fertile tracts of land in the south of Latium.
The fifty years from 400 BC saw Rome reduce the Aequi and Volsci from serious foes to a minor irritation, the latter enemy in conjunction with a foreign power. The turn of the century saw the Aequi weakened but still clinging to various fortresses on the Mons Algedus: an area comprising the south and eastern portion of the Alban mount, while the Volscians held various fortified towns in central and southern Latium, the most prominent being Velitrae, Antium, Satricum, Privernum, Circeii and Anxur. Anxur, astride the important coastal route to rich Campania was the first to fall to the Romans, after a siege that was commenced in 401 BC (Livy 5.12). At this point Rome could not put forward its full strength against the Volscians, as the intense siege of Etruscan Veii was currently underway. This becomes clear in 397 BC, when Anxur was in turn besieged by a Volscian army (Livy 5.16), to which that year the Romans were unable to send relief. Also in 397 BC the Aequi are heard from, sweeping down onto the Latin plain and making a heavy raid on the colony of nearby Labici, against which again there was no reported Roman response. The following year, 396 BC, the year in which Etruscan Veii fell (Livy 5.23), truces were arranged with the Aequi and Volsci, as Rome dealt with the political and diplomatic fall-out from Veii’s fall. It appears that Anxur, soon renamed by the Romans Tarracina, withstood the Volscian siege: a significant blow to the Volsci.
For two years there was relative peace on Rome’s southern frontier, which likely means insignificant raiding and plundering, being followed in 393 BC by a flare-up of fighting. That year, the Romans colonized Circeii, north of Tarracina on the coast (Cornell, 1995, pg 303), a town they had not held since the days of the monarchy and another blow to Volscian power. Also in 393 BC, the Aequi gathered a large force and fell upon the new Roman colony of Vitellia, which Livy (5.29) states had been settled on their territory, on or about the Mons Algedus. The colony was overrun and its inhabitants either killed or forced to flee. In response, one of the Consuls for that year, L. Lucretius Tricipinitus, was sent with an army and retrieved the colony, while the Aequi, no doubt after the requisite plundering, seem to have retreated back into their mountain citadels. The following year the Romans, perhaps in retribution for the previous years depredations, sent both Consuls and their armies against the Aequi and this year is significant because the Aequi now begin to disappear ominously from the annals. It is important to note also that one of the Consuls, L. Valerius Potitus “…because he was more persevering in slaughtering them in their flight…” (Livy 5.31) was granted a triumph at the end of this campaign, while his colleague M. Manlius Capitolinus was granted an ovation, a lesser form of the same salutation. Thus, the evidence seems to suggest that a major defeat of the Aequi occurred in 392 BC, although the annals suggest that they fought on for another decade or so before passing into oblivion.
With their long-time ally fast fading, the Volscians of southern Latium joined that year with an obscure people, the Salpinians, who may very well have been just another group of Volsci farther away from the frontier. Their combined forces made predatory incursions into the ager Romanus, perhaps in aid of their beleaguered Aequien ally. Concentrating on the Aequi and also suffering from the twin evils of a famine and pestilence that season, the Romans could do little against these raids, but the following year it was resolved to face the renewed Volscian hostilities. Four of the six Consular Tribunes elected in 391 BC were sent against the Volsci and Salpinates, indicating a concentration of Roman strength on this front. The Volscians were met in pitched battle and Livy (5.32) reports they went down in shattering defeat, with 8,000 prisoners taken. This precious fighting resource, so hard to nurture to fruition, was likely sold into slavery, dealing a further grave blow to Volscian military strength. Impressed by the Roman arms and alarmed at the turn of events, the Salpinates retreated into their towns and watched as their lands were ravaged by the foe, the Volscian territory thereafter being subjected to the same condign punishment. A truce of 20 years duration and an indemnity were negotiated as terms for the cessation of Romans ravages (Livy 5.32). The next year, the gravely weakened Aequi and Volsci no doubt rejoiced as the Romans were crushed into the ground by the raging Gauls of Brennus, allowing them a fortunate but ultimately short respite from Roman aggression.
The year 390 BC, notable for the Gallic sack of Rome, has no mention of fighting against the Sabellians. In 389 BC however, with the Gauls having absconded with their plunder, the Romans were able to regroup their scattered armies and turn their dark thoughts towards their more immediate foes. At this crucial juncture Livy states that the Roman’s long-standing alliance with its Latin and Hernician allies was now voided, a development which served to drive these disaffected peoples into alliance with the Volsci. This being the case, it was natural for the Volsci to make common cause with such former enemies, also now in Rome’s sights. The Romans were now on their own, and irrespective of their clearly growing power, they was surrounded by danger on all sides. In the face of this grave situation, six Consular Tribunes were elected in 389 BC, while M. Furius Camillus, the greatest Roman general of the day, was made Dictator. Great achievements, clearly fabricated, are ascribed to Camillus this year by the annalistic tradition, in an effort to soften the blow to Roman pride. Among Camillus’ Herculean exploits, The Volscians are recorded being dealt a major defeat and after once more seeing their lands ravaged, they are reported to have made a full submission to Rome. Next, the Aequi were dealt a crushing blow, followed by the capture of one of their eyries, the town of Bolae (Livy 6.2). Yet even if Camillus was unlikely to be the tireless general fighting on every front, as he is made out to be this year, it is quite possible that these defeats are fact and occurred during course of the campaigning seasons following 390 BC. Two years after the Gallic sack, the Aequi pass into oblivion. In the words of Livy (6.4) “They [the Consular Tribunes] led one army against the Aequans, not to war, (for they owned themselves conquered), but from motives of animosity, to lay waste their territories, lest they should leave them any strength for new designs…”. And with that, the Aequi are not heard from again in Livy, until much later during the closing stages of the second Samnite war, when their home valleys in the Apennines were overrun by the Romans as they conquered Italy.
The year 388 BC is also significant for the Volscians, whose former territory about the Pomptine plain was now deemed by the Romans viable for colonization. In the ensuing years, some brave souls indeed were sent hither, but they were in for hard times. Two years later, in 386 BC, the Volscians responded to this aggression. Allying themselves with the Latins and Hernici and gathering a numerous army, they attacked and destroyed the new Roman settlements on the Pomptine plain, forcing the same brave settlers to flee for their skins. In response, the Romans brought M. Furius Camillus out of retirement, sending him into the field to meet the new combined threat. He met the armies of the Volsci, Hernici and Latins at Satricum and reportedly (Livy 6.8) dealt them a major defeat, after which he reduced the town of Satricum, a serious loss to the Volscians, this being one of their border fortresses. Nearby Antium, a powerful town perched on a coastal promontory, withstood a siege by Camillus and so ended the campaign of 386 BC. The following year the war continued and to signify the Romans alarm at the situation, they raised another patrician, A. Cornelius Cossus, to Dictator, who in camp reportedly made a human sacrifice to secure godly favour (Livy 6.12). The Romans were outnumbered, but still their arms prevailed and again the Volsci and their allies went down in shattering defeat (Livy 6.13). Rome thereafter again made an effort to colonize the Pomptine plain while the war shifted away from the Volscians to fighting with the free Latin towns, once again allowing the battered Volsci a respite. Significantly however, the Romans now established a colony at Setia on the Monti Lepini, nearby to the Volscian town of Privernum and quite purposefully so. Four years later in 381 BC, the Volsci, recuperated, took the offensive, recapturing Satricum from the Romans and putting more unfortunate Roman colonists to the sword. The Romans in response once more called upon the services of that eternal bane of the Volscians, old Camillus, now much advanced in years. Leading no less than four legions, 16,000 spears, he set out for Satricum by paths well tread, where yet again he dealt the Volscians a crushing defeat (Livy 6.24), although significantly, Satricum did not fall thereafter to the Roman arms.
Matters were reduced in the following two years to the familiar level of low-level raid and counter-raid, as Rome concentrated on reducing Latin Praeneste, away west on the edge of the Apennines. This changed in 379 BC, when two of the eight Consular Tribunes, the brothers P. and C. Manlii, sought for and were allotted a campaign against the Volsci. Marching into enemy territory they were 'ambushed' and their army destroyed by a combined Volscian-Latin force (Livy 6.30), a great victory for the allies but one which did little to curb Roman aggression. That year, the Romans reinforced their colony at Setia, making it likely that the ambush and destruction of the Roman army that year took place somewhere in the hills and valleys of those mountains, an unfavourable terrain for the Roman phalanx. Never to let such a reverse go unpunished and never short of more soldiers, the Romans in the next year sent two Consular armies into the Volscian territory, one towards Antium and the other towards the Volscian town of Ecetra, somewhere on the Monti Lepini. The Volsci, seeing the large armament sent against them, decided to remain in their fortified towns and watched unhappily as the Romans cleansed their lands of life and produce, in retribution for the previous years loss: “…not a fruit tree nor the seed being left for the hope of a harvest, all the booty both of men and cattle, which was outside the walls, being driven off…” (Livy 6.31). The following year, 377 BC, was a turning point in the war. The Volscians resolved to concentrate their remaining power and meet the Romans in the field and so war blazed forth again on the Pomptine plain about the old battle-ground of Satricum. That year, the Latins gathered an army and combined with the Volscians, leading the Romans to enroll three armies, the largest of which was allotted to the Consular Tribunes P. Valerius Potitus and L. Aemilius Mamercinus. Finding the Latin-Volscian army arrayed for battle nearby to Satricum, the Tribunes deployed their army and went into the attack. When a hard rain came on, Livy (6.32) reports the armies disengaged to wait out the bad weather. The next day the battle was resumed and after a fierce struggle, with great slaughter to both sides, the Romans secured the victory. While many of the Volscians made for Antium, the Latins retreated into nearby Satricum to lick their wounds, following which the alliance was rent asunder by internal dissension: the Volsci wishing to make peace with the Romans, while the Latins were resolved to fight on. In anger at the turn of events, the Latin army in a fit of pique reportedly burned Satricum to the ground and marched off, no doubt to the great delight of the nearby Roman host, which concerned itself with blockading Antium and plundering the lands about. Seeing their erstwhile allies destroy one of their main towns and seeing the flower of their army rotting on the plain, the Volscians of Antium surrendered and made peace with the Romans. This was a more enduring cessation of war which was to last nineteen years, during which the Romans were occupied elsewhere, crushing the resistance of the Latins and Hernici while ever dueling with the Etruscans.
The next episode in Rome’s struggle with the Volsci occurred in 358 BC, following two decades of relative peace in southern Latium. That year, perhaps due to news of a Roman army being cut to pieces in Etruria, saw the Volsci of Privernum commit depredations against Roman colonies nearby to them. They were joined in this enterprise, reports Livy (7.15), by some enterprising marauders from Velitrae, a town never friendly to Rome even after its colonization by the city. Border disputes and Roman territorial encroachment likely were more general reasons for the hostilities this year, as during this period new tribes were being created by the Romans (Livy 7.15), representing significant Roman colonizing efforts. The Privertines, on their own, were unequal in this contest. One of the Consuls of that year, C. Marcius Rutilus, led a seasoned army against Privernum. He boxed the Privertines into a camp close under walls of their town and proceeded to lay fire and sword to their lands, “…which from the long continuance of peace, was in a flourishing condition; and he [Marcius] enriched the soldiers with an abundance of spoil.” (Livy 7.16). When the Privertines ventured forth for a contest, they were quickly routed and soon after the town surrendered, putting a speedy and conclusive end to the affair. This small conflict was followed by a more important event: the signing of a treaty between the Romans and the Samnites: a powerful group of Sabellian tribes of the central Apennines, who at that time were engaged in their own war with the Volsci, farther east in the Liris valley. Salmon (1967, pg 187-191) opines that in the treaty the Romans and Samnites likely divided the remaining territory of the Volsci between them, using the Liris River as a demarcation between their spheres of interest. The Volsci were now gravely threatened on two fronts, and their subsequent fighting shows their resolve in the face if these two emerging Italian powers.
A war with the Latin town of Tibur and continuing hostilities with the Etruscans turned Rome's attention away from the Volsci for the rest of the 350’s BC. In 349-348 BC, however, we again hear of Antium, still Volscian, send out a group of settlers to rebuild nearby Satricum (Livy 7.27), burned to the ground 29 years before. The Romans made no immediate response to this move, although subsequent events prove that they looked upon this development as a direct threat. Three years later, in 346 BC, Livy reports the Romans receiving news of Antium stirring up trouble among the Latins. This sounds suspiciously like an excuse for Roman action against the restoration of Satricum, close by to their new colonization's in the area. M. Valerius Corvus, one of that years Consuls, enrolled an army and marched immediately for the rebuilt town. A pitched battle was fought and the Volscians had the worst of it, the survivors making hastily for the safety of the newly built walls. A short siege was enough to compel Satricum to surrender and, significantly, the town was again razed to the ground. For this enterprise, Corvus was granted a triumph. Before his chariot in the procession marched 4,000 Volscian youths in their fighting prime, who were henceforth sold into slavery (Livy 7.27), another crippling blow to the Volscian's capacity to make war.
The following year (345 BC), the Aurunci, a people of uncertain origin who occupied the mountains at the southern end of the Latin plain, took up arms for unknown reasons against the Romans. Although the annals do not make a direct connection between the Aurunci and the Volscians, it is very possible that they had acted the previous year in alliance, as Livy (7.28) states that once the Romans had crushed this new threat in 345 BC, they made use of the same army to descend into the Liris valley, where they managed to reduce the Volscian fortress of Sora. By capturing this strategic town another great blow was made to the fading Volscian nation. They still possessed the strong fortress of Antium on the Latin coast, Privernum and several other towns about the Monti Lepini and Liris basin, but this was a far cry from the previous century when their arms on several occasions threatened Rome with extinction. This proud people were no longer a significant threat and within 100 years they would be incorporated forever into the Roman state.