[390-342 B.C.]
Abroad, after the burning of the city, Rome had once more to struggle for very existence. Before the city was so far restored as to be habitable, it was announced that the Æquians and Volscians were in arms. The Æquians seem to have shared in the general disaster caused by the Gallic inroad; henceforth at least the part they play is insignificant. But the Volscians boldly advanced to Lanuvium, and once more encamped at the foot of the Alban hills. The city was in great alarm; and Camillus was named dictator for the exigency. He defeated them with great loss, and pursued them into their own territory. He then marched rapidly to Bola, to which place the Æquians had advanced and gained another victory.
But in the moment of triumph news came that Etruria was in arms. The Etruscans hoped by a brave effort to recover the territory which the Romans had for the second time appropriated. A force was sent against them; but so completely was it routed on the nones of July, that this day was noted in the Calendar as the Poplifugia. Siege was then laid to Sutrium by the victors, and it fell. But the prompt dictator, on the first alarm, marched his troops straight from Bola to the point of danger; and on the very day on which Sutrium had yielded to the foe, it was again taken by the Roman general. Thus Camillus again appears as the saviour of Rome. He enjoyed a threefold triumph over the Volscians, the Æquians, and the Etrurians.
It was two years after, that the Etruscan territory, now effectually conquered, was formed into four tribes. By the addition of these new tribes, the first that had been added since this very territory had been wrested from Rome by Porsenna, the whole number was raised to twenty-five. The late assault of the Etruscans, perhaps, suggested the wisdom of making the free inhabitants of this district citizens of Rome. Men who had lately been subject to the oppressive government of a civic oligarchy, being now mingled with Roman plebeians who had received allotments in the district, and seeing the comparative freedom of all Roman burgesses, were sure to fight for Rome rather than join in an insurrection against her. Here was the beginning of that sagacious policy, which for a time led political enfranchisement hand in hand with conquest. Thirty years later (358 B.C.) the senate pursued the same course with respect to the Pontine district and other lowlands which had been recovered from the grasp of the Volscians. A settlement of poor plebeians, which was attempted in 387 B.C., failed; the emigrants were cut off by the Volscian hills-men. But the territory being now formed into two tribes, so as to make the whole number twenty-seven, the inhabitants had an interest in repressing predatory inroads.
[387-354 B.C.]
Soon after followed the struggle for the Licinian laws; and during this period the annals are altogether silent on the subject of wars.
But before the promulgation of the Licinian laws, there were threatenings of greater danger than was to be feared either from Etruscans or Volscians. The Latins and Hernicans, who since the time of Sp. Cassius had fought by the side of Rome in all her border wars, no longer appeared in this position. The inroad of the Gauls had broken up the league. Rome had been reduced to ashes, and was left in miserable weakness. Many of the thirty Latin towns, the names of which occur in the league of Cassius, were so utterly destroyed, that the antiquary in vain seeks for their site in the desolation of the Campagna. But the two important cities of Tibur and Præneste (Tivoli and Palestrina), perched on steep-scarped rocks, defying the rude arts of the invader, had gained strength by the ruin of their neighbours, and appear as independent communities, standing apart from the rest of Latium and from Rome. It was believed that the Prænestines encouraged the Volscians in their inroads, and in 382 B.C. war was declared against them. Some of the Latin cities joined Præneste; others sought protection against her from Rome. In this war even the Tusculans deserted Rome. But after a struggle of five years, the dictator, T. Quinctius, took nine insurgent cities, and blockaded Præneste itself, which capitulated on terms of which we are not informed. Soon after Tusculum also was recovered; and for the present all fear of the Latins subsided.
But a few years after the temple of Concord had been erected by old Camillus, fresh alarms arose. The Hernicans gave signs of disquietude. War was declared against them in 362 B.C. Next year came the second inroad of the Gauls, and it was observed with consternation, that this terrible foe occupied the valley of the Anio, and was not molested either by the Latins of Tibur or by the Hernicans. In the year 360 B.C. the Fasti record a triumph of the consul Fabius over this last-named people, and another of his colleague Pœtelius over the men of Tibur and the Gauls—an ominous conjunction.
But this new inroad of the barbarians, which threatened Rome with a second ruin, really proved a blessing; for the remaining Latin cities, which in the late conflicts had stood aloof, terrified by the presence of the Gauls, and seeing safety only in union, now renewed their league with Rome, and the Hernicans soon after followed their example. The glory of concluding this second league belongs to C. Plautius, the plebeian consul of the year 358 B.C. The Gauls now quitted Latium; and Privernum and Tibur, the only Latin cities which rejected the alliance, were both compelled to yield (357, 354 B.C.).
While these dangers were successfully averted on the northeastern frontier, war had been declared against Rome by the powerful Etruscan city of Tarquinii, which lies beyond the Ciminian hills. This was in the very year in which the new league was formed with the Latins and Hernicans. But for this, it is hard to imagine that Rome, exhausted as she was, could have resisted the united assaults of Gauls, Volscians, Latins, Hernicans, and Etruscans. As it was, she found it hard to repel the Tarquinians. This people made a sudden descent from the hills, defeated the consul C. Fabius, and sacrificed 307 Roman prisoners to their gods (358 B.C.). Two years later they were joined by the Faliscans. Bearing torches in their hands, and having their hair wreathed into snake-like tresses, they attacked the Romans with savage cries, and drove them before them. They overran the four new tribes, and threatened Rome itself. Then M. Popilius Lænas, the plebeian consul, being ordered by the senate to name a dictator, named another plebeian, C. Marcius Rutilus, the first of his order who was advanced to this high office; and his conduct justified the appointment. The enemy was defeated. The senate refused a triumph to the plebeian, but the people in their tribes voted that he should enjoy the well-earned honour.