Early Roman Republic, Roman Conquest of Italy (505-264 BC), Roman Expansion: Tibur, Gauls [1/2], Sabellians

Tibur (361-354 BC)

In 361 BC Tibur formed an alliance with the Gauls. The following year the dictator Quintus ⁰³Servilius Ahala defeated the Gauls in a battle near the Colline Gate. After a failed attempt to assist their allies, the Tiburtes together with Gauls were driven back to within the gates of Tibur. In 356 BC the consul ⁰¹Popillius Laenas (fl.359-348 BC) drove the Tiburtes into their city and ravaged their fields. The Romans captured Empulum in 355 BC and after losing Sassula in 354 BC the Tiburtes surrendered and the war was brought to a conclusion.

Gauls (390-349 BC) [1/2]

In 390 BC on their back from the south the Gauls were defeated by an Etruscan army from Caere in the (otherwise unknown) Trausian Plain (390/384 BC). In the service of Dionysius-I of Syracuse, who sacked the Caeretan harbour of Pyrgi in 384 BC, the Gallic mercenaries may have been intended by the Sicilian Greeks as a supplementary land army against the Caere, which was then on good terms with Rome.

In 367 BC Furius (2), during his fifth and last term as dictator, routed the Gauls at the Anio River and the remnant of their army wandered off into Southern Italy. Six years later the Gauls were again encamped at the bridge over the Anio River, and ⁰³Manlius Imperiosus (fl.347-339 BC) defeated a gigantic Gaul and took his torque (neck collar) as a trophy.

  Following their defeat while in alliance with the Tiburtes, the Gauls returned eleven years later (349 BC) and encamped on the Alban Mount. During the battle that followed, the military tribune Marcus ⁰⁵Valerius Corvus slew a Gaul in single combat, who had apparently been distracted by a Corvus (‘raven’) perched on Valerius’ helmet.

Sabellians

The term ‘Sabellian’ refers to a group of languages spoken by different Italic tribes that inhabited a substantial portion of pre-Roman Italy. Umbrian and Oscan are the mostly found of this group: the former east of the Tiber River in Umbria; the latter in the southern half of the Italian Peninsula in the territories of Samnium, Campania, Lucania and Bruttium.

By about 700 BC Sabellian speakers had spread over much of Central Italy, from Umbria to Picenum in the northeast to the Sorrento Peninsula in the southwest. Roman sources document the invasion of Campania and the capture of Capua, Cumae and Paestum by Oscan-speaking Samnites. By the middle of the fourth century BC they had pushed south into Lucania and Bruttium, and southwest into Apulian territory.

The Sabellians who settled in Central Italy were known to the Romans as Samnites. They were highland farmers and crofters and lived in villages rather than towns. The lack of a central administration made it difficult for them to sustain a long war. In 354 BC they made an alliance with the Romans, which probably set their border at the Liris River, creating a barrier in Central Italy against the southward advance of the Gauls and the northward spread of Greek civilization. In 348 BC Rome renewed the treaty made with Carthage in 509 BC.