Roman Conquest of Italy (505-264 BC): Gauls (284-283 BC) [2/2]

In 284 BC the consul ⁰¹Caecilius Metellus was sent to relieve Arretium which was under siege by Senones led by Britomaris, but was attacked and killed in a battle and lost thirteen thousand men. This disaster encouraged Etruscans, Samnites, Bruttians, Lucanians and even some southern Italian Greeks (=Italiots), to revolt, but they were unable to unite to form a coalition. The following year the consul ⁰⁸Cornelius Dolabella was sent to avenge the defeat: the Senones were routed and expelled, their land was annexed and a Roman colony was settled at Sena Gallica on the Adriatic.

The Senones’ Celtic neighbours, the Boii, at once joined the Etruscans and marched on Rome; but two battles, one against ⁰⁸Cornelius Dolabella near Lake Vadimo in 283 BC and another against the consul ⁰⁴Aemilius Papus near Populonia in the next year, crushed this combination, and the Boii made a separate peace with Rome. The Etruscans held out until 280 BC, when the forces of the Volsci and Vulci were defeated by the consul Coruncanius, deprived of their coastland, and the cities of Populonia, Rusellae, Tarquinii, Vetulonia, Volsinii, Volterra and Vulci forced to ally with Rome. A colony was founded at Cosa on the coast of Etruria in 273 BC.