Early Roman Republic, Roman Conquest of Italy (505-264 BC), Conquest of Southern Italy: End of Pre-Roman Italy (273-264 BC)

In 273 BC a colony was sent to Paestum in Campania; the Caeretans obtained peace by ceding half their territory when threatened with an attack by the Romans (evidently to punish some act of disloyalty); and diplomatic relations were established with Ptolemy II of Egypt (62; r.285-246 BC).

In 272 BC a Carthaginian fleet anchored off Tarentum while the Roman army under the consuls ⁰⁴Papirius Cursor and Carvilius Maximus (fl.299-272 BC) blockaded the town landwards. Milo surrendered and was granted safe conduct; Tarentum was forced to dismantle her city wall, receive a Roman garrison into the citadel and to become an ally of Rome. The two consuls defeated the Bruttians (who had to relinquish half of their forestland), the Lucanians and the Samnites. Alliances were made with Thurii, Metapontum, Heraclea and Elea; Locris and Croton were accepted as allies of Rome.

In 270 BC the consul ¹⁰Cornelius Blasio (fl.270-257 BC) stormed Rhegium; three hundred of the Campanian rebels who survived were executed in Rome. The next year, after a brief revolt by the Caraceni led by an escaped hostage named Lollius, the Samnite League (Caraceni, Caudini, Hirpini, and Pentri) was dissolved. They were forced to cede territory; and colonies were planted at Beneventum against the Hirpini in 268 BC and at Aesernia against the Pentri in 263 BC.

  In 268 BC the Sassinates, centred on Sassina on the northern slopes of the Apennines, were the last of the Umbrians to be conquered. To defend the gateway from the Po Valley into Central Italy a colony was planted at Ariminum, where the Apennines meet the Adriatic coast. In the same year the Picentes were defeated, evidently they had rebelled against Rome. Ancona retained its independence and ⁰¹Asculum was granted an alliance, but the rest of Picenum was annexed. To restrain it a colony was placed at Firmum in 264 BC.

The last people of Southern Italy to submit were those of southern Apulia. Two years of warfare (267-266 BC) resulted in the defeat of the Messapians (heel) and the conquest of Brundisium, which received a colony in 244 BC and with its great natural harbour was to become Rome’s most important naval base for expansion across the eastern Mediterranean.

  In 265 BC the serfs of Volsinii turned against their masters, who then appealed to Rome for help. A Roman army arrived, but in the subsequent conflict the consul ⁰⁶Fabius Maximus Gurges was killed. The next year the consul ⁰⁴Fulvius Flaccus starved the town into surrender, razed it and forced the inhabitants to migrate to a new site on Lake Bolsena. Volsinii Novi (‘New Volsinii’) had none of the natural defences of the old city. In 264 BC a Roman colony was established at Castrum Novum on the Etruscan coast near Tarquinii.