Early Roman Republic, Roman Conquest of Italy (505-264 BC): Rome and her Neighbours (505-338 BC); Sabines, Triple Alliance

In the late sixth century BC Latium Vetus (‘Old Latium’) was bounded on the north by the Tiber, on the east by the central Apennines and on the south by Mount Circeo, i.e. the area it occupied was roughly that of modern central Lazio in which it has been estimated that during the last decades of the sixth century BC there were about twenty city-states.

The fall of the monarchy left Rome weak, vulnerable and surrounded by hostile neighbours: Latins in the plain of Latium and the Alban Hills: Sabines to the north between the Tiber and the Anio, Aequi to the northeast in the upper Anio Valley, Hernici to the east in the Trerus Valley, Volsci to the southeast between the Trerus Valley and the sea, and northwest across the Tiber the cities of Etruria, especially Veii.

Sabines

In 505 BC ⁰¹Valerius Poplicola (fl.509-503 BC) and ⁰²Valerius Poplicola won victories against the Sabines. In 504 BC ⁰¹Valerius delivered the final blow at the Sabine capital at Cures. The Sabine chief Attus Clausus, vigorously opposed to the war, led his followers down from the hills and integrated with the Romans. Lands were assigned to them in the district where the Anio joins the Tiber, and a new tribe, the tribus claudia, was formed. In 495 BC Attus became consul having Latinised his name to ⁰¹Claudius Sabinus, and thus was the ancestor of the great aristocratic family of the Claudii. 

Triple Alliance

Within a few years of the Battle at Lake Regillus (496 BC), the consul Spurius ⁰¹Cassius (fl.502-484 BC) concluded the foedus cassianum between Rome and the Latin League. This equal alliance was made in order to defend their borders against the incursions of the hill tribes, and to obstruct the advance of Aequian and Volscian aggression. The Latin territories thus served as a buffer between Rome and the Sabellian hill tribes while Rome herself grew strong behind the barrier. In 486 BC the Hernici, midway between the Aequians and the Volscians, were admitted to the league on equal terms.

This triple alliance protected Rome against assaults from the south, while the Etruscans (who had lost the southern part of their empire in the aftermath of their defeat in the Sea Battle off Cumae in 474 BC) were too hard pressed on their northern frontier by the Celts to attempt to regain their dominion on the right (north and west) bank of the Tiber. Successful campaigns by Rome and the Latins allowed them to found new colonies on reconquered territories, and to provide land for their victorious soldiers. These new colonies became independent communities having the same status as the existing Latin states and were known as coloniae latinae (Latin colonies), e.g. Signia (495 BC), Velitrae (494 BC), Norba (492 BC), Antium (467 BC), Ardea (442 BC), Labici (418 BC), Circeii (393 BC), Satricum (385 BC) and Setia (382 BC).