The Roman
Republic
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History of Italy)
The passage
from monarchy to republic (510-509 BC) was not only a simple
institutional change. It also involved a profound juridical
and social transformation, as with the emancipation of the plebs
who succeeded in gaining access to the highest offices of State,
previously a monopoly of the patrician oligarchy. The complex
events of the social struggles with the latter class produced
the promulgation of written laws for the first time. These Laws
of the Twelve Tables, carved in bronze (450 BC), were soon followed
by others.
While developing
its own institutions and social structure, the Roman State found
itself involved in a series of conflicts with the neighbouring
populations. Rome so succeeded in strengthening her position
that at the end of the 3C BC rivalled the other four great military
Mediterranean powers: Carthage, Egypt, Syria and Macedonia.
After having
survived the danger of new Gallic invasions, which in
390 BC had crossed the Po Valley and the Apennines to sack Rome
itself after having defeated armies first at Chiusi and then
on the banks of the Allia (387 BC), Rome completed the conquest
of Lazio. It did this by conquering the towns of the Volsci
(Anzio) to the south and those of the Etruscans (Tarquinia,
Faleri and Caere) to the north of the Tiber; Veio had already
been acquired after a ten-year siege at the beginning of the
century (396 BC) by Furius Camillus.
In mid-4C
BC, following its gradual expansion, Rome necessarily came up
against the Samnites who had descended from the heart
of the central-southern Apennines towards the fertile lands
of Campania, where they rapidly conquered the flourishing towns
of Capua (438 BC) and Cuma (421 BC). The rich town of Paestum
had already been occupied by the Lucanians. Rome wisely entered
an alliance with the Samnites (354 BC) against the pressure
of the nearby populations. Conflict with the Samnites for Campanian
dominance was however inevitable and lasted for over half a
century (343-290 BC). It had three distinct phases with alternating
fortunes, such as the crushing Roman defeat at Caudine Forks
(321 BC), until Rome won the definitive victory at Sentinum
(295 BC) against a coalition that also included Etruscans and
Senones, a Gallic tribe.
With her
predominance in Central Italy consolidated, Rome prepared to
extend it over the rest of the peninsula during a ten-year conflict
with Taranto (282-272 BC), who was allied with the king of Epirus,
Pyrrhus. While they enjoyed a modest victory at Ausculum (279BC),
they were heavily defeated at Beneventum (275 BC). Rome thus
achieved total supremacy of the Italian peninsula and set up
a complicated system of alliances between the territory of Rome,
towns and colonies enjoying full or partial Roman citizenship
(`civitates sine suffragio') and the others who, while being
independent, recognized Roman sovereignty in the context of
a confederation extending over some 130 000 sq km and equipped
with well over half a million soldiers Romans and allies).
The economy
of the whole Italic federation, whose territory now extended
from Tuscany (through Pisa-Pistoia-Fiesole-Rimini, but excluding
the upper course of the Arno) to southern-most Calabria, was
strengthened by the construction of the first important inland
road, the Via Appia, running from Rome to Capua and Benevento
(312-268 BC), as well as the development of the fleet and marine
transport. At the same time the monetary system was expanded
with the minting of bronze (300 BC) and silver (269 BC) coins.
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