The Rise of the Roman Republic63an early date they formed a league, which was chiefly
religious and athletic in purpose. The cities also cele-
brated certain religious festivals in common, but
otherwise they fought incessantly and their merchants
competed for each other’s markets as well as for those
of the Greek and Carthaginian colonies to the south.The Origins of Rome
The Tiber is the largest river in central Italy. Its valley,
running roughly from north to south, is strategically
important because it provides the easiest land route
for travelers—and armies—moving between the Po
valley and southern Italy. The last point at which the
river can be easily crossed lies about fifteen miles from
its mouth, where the valley is broad and marshy.
Seven low hills in the immediate area provide a refuge
from floods and invaders alike. In the eighth century
B.C. one hill, the Palatine, was occupied by a tribe of
people who spoke an early version of Latin. Shortly
afterward, a related group took up residence on the
nearby Aventine hill. These two settlements formed
the nucleus of ancient Rome. They were part of a
larger group of Italic communities that formed them-
selves into the Latin League for political and religious
purposes, but their common ties did not prevent them
from fighting among themselves.
Blessed with rich land and abundant water, the
early Romans were nevertheless too few to preserve
full autonomy in the face of Etruscan influence. The
nearest of the Etruscan cities was Veii, only twelve
miles away, and almost from the first, the Romans
found themselves under the influence of their more
powerful neighbors. Some of the first kings of Rome
bore Etruscan names, and reportedly the last of them
was not deposed and replaced by a Roman republic
ruled by two magistrates until 509 B.C. (although it
could have been a generation later).
In any event, Etruscan influence contributed
greatly to Roman civilization. The Romans adopted the
Etruscan alphabet, though not the language itself, and
learned most of what they knew about metalworking,
civic planning, and architecture from their northern
neighbors. Many religious customs described by Livy,
together with a number of Roman political institutions,
have Etruscan roots as well.
Under the kings, Rome used its dominant position
in the Latin League to subdue the Sabines and other
Italic communities along the lower Tiber, absorbing
their populations and granting citizenship to the lead-
ing families. This enlightened policy, a marked contrast
to the exclusiveness of the Greek poleis,was largely re-
sponsible for Rome’s successful expansion. The
prospect of fair treatment discouraged fanatic resistance
among the city’s enemies and made accepting Roman
hegemony far easier for its neighbors.
The policy was continued after the formation of
the republic. The Romans expelled the Etruscans as
part of a larger movement that involved Rome’s Greek
and Latin neighbors. The Etruscan city of Veii was
taken after an extensive siege in 396 B.C., almost dou-
bling Roman territory. Nine years later, however, disas-
ter struck. The Gauls, a Celtic people from central
Europe, descended on the peninsula and burned Rome
in 387 B.C. The action was a tremendous psychological
blow, for the Gauls, with their vast numbers and sheer
ferocity, appalled the Romans. They sometimes fought
naked and seemed to live exclusively on meat and alco-
hol. Fortunately, they made no effort to consolidate
their victory and retired to the sparsely inhabited valley
of the Po. They settled down to a more-or-less ordered
agricultural life and began the long process of clearing
and draining the region, which in later times would be
known as Cisalpine Gaul.
Among the more serious consequences of the Gal-
lic invasion was that it undermined the loyalty of
Rome’s Latin allies. The Latin League rebelled against
Roman hegemony, but the Romans recovered quickly.
By 338 B.C. all of Latium was again subdued. Once
more, the Romans showed a restraint and a grasp of po-
litical realities that were all too rare in the ancient
world. The towns nearest Rome received full citizen-
ship. Others, farther away, were granted municipal sta-
tus, which meant that their citizens could marry or
trade with Romans but had no voting rights outside
their own communities. The specific provisions of
these agreements were tailored to individual circum-
stances and were open-ended in the sense that Rome
always held out the prospect of new privileges in return
for good behavior. Some towns were merely enrolled as
allies, but all save those that received citizenship re-
tained self-government. The one universally enforced
rule was that none of the federated communities could
make similar agreements with each other.
To ensure communication and provide for the com-
mon defense, the first of a series of paved, all-weather
roads were built linking Rome with her allies (see illus-
tration 4.2). A policy that would be followed until the
end of the empire was thus begun. Because all roads led
to Rome, these highways had the effect of separating
the allies from one another while allowing Rome to
intervene militarily in case of rebellion or some other