Adapted from Map of the Roman Conquest of Italy (Wikimedia)

In Construction

Foundation of the Colony of Venusia (291 BC)

Velleius Patroculus recorded that, in 291 BC, as the Third Samnite War approached its end and (which he believed was four years after King Pyrrhus of Epirus had begun his reign):

1. “... [Roman] colonists were sent to ... Venusia”,  (‘History of Rome’, 1: 14: 6).
   

The foundation of this colony on the southern border of the territory of the recently-defeated Samnites, might well have  worried the Italic and Italiote peoples of southern Italy.

Relations with the Lucani

Further Gains in Apulia (317 BC)

In 317 BC, after the surrender of Teanum Apulum and Canusium:

1. “... the Apulian Teates [see below] came to the new consuls, Caius Junius Bubulcus and Quintus Aemilius Barbula, to sue for a treaty, [promising to deliver to Rome] peace throughout Apulia.  By this bold pledge, they succeeding in obtaining  a treaty,... [albeit that it] made them subject to the Romans.  After Apulia had been thoroughly subdued (for Forentum, a strong town [in Apulia, whose precise location is now unknown], had also fallen into the hands of Junius) the campaign was extended to the Lucanii, from whom, on the sudden arrival of Aemilius, [the now-unknown] Nerulum was taken by assault”, (‘History of Rome’, 9: 20: 7-10).
   

Some of these place names are problematic: according to Stephen Oakley (referenced below, 2005, at pp. 268- 270):

1. ✴The advance on Teanum Apulum and then Canusium would have been the natural continuation of Rome’s conquest of the Frentani (above).
   

2. ✴The ‘Apulian Teates’ were none other than the people of Teanum Apulum, which suggests that Livy mistakenly reported their surrender in both 318 and in 317 BC.
   

3. ✴The capture of Forentum is likely enough, albeit that its precise location is unknown.
   

4. ✴The obscurity of Nerulum is an argument in favour of the putative Roman incursion into Lucania, although its location (and hence, its strategic significance) is unclear.
   

The implication of Livy’s record of these hostilities of 318/7 BC is that the Romans were taking advantage of the Caudine Peace to build up their presence in the territory between Samnium and the Adriatic.  However, as we shall see, Luceria still remained in Samnite hands.

Declaration of War (298 BC)

According to Livy, in 298 BC, the Romans received information from their new allies that:

1. “... the Samnites were looking to arms and a renewal of hostilities, and had solicited their help.  The Picentes were thanked, and the Senate's anxiety was largely diverted from Etruria [and the Gauls] to the Samnites”, (‘History of Rome’, 10: 11: 7-9).
   

Soon after:

1. “... envoys from Lucania [a town on the border of Samnium and Campania] came to the new consuls to complain that the Samnites, since they had been unable by offering inducements to entice them into an armed alliance, had invaded their territories with a hostile army and by warring on them were obliging them to go to war.   They admitted that the people of Lucania had, on a former occasion, strayed all too far from the path of duty, but they insisted that they were now so resolute as to deem it better to endure and suffer anything than ever again to offend the Romans  They besought the Senate to take the Lucani under their protection and to defend them from the violence and oppression of the Samnites.  Though their having [already] gone to war with the Samnites was necessarily a pledge of loyalty to the Romans, yet they were none the less ready to give hostages”, (‘History of Rome’, 10: 11: 11-13).
   

After a short discussion:

1. “The Lucani received a friendly answer, and the league was formed.  Fetials were then sent to command the Samnites to leave the country belonging to Rome's allies and to withdraw their army from the territory of Lucania.  They were met on the way by messengers, whom the Samnites had dispatched [with instructions] to warn them that, if they went before any Samnite council, they would not depart unscathed.   When these things were known at Rome, the Senate advised and the people voted a declaration of war against the Samnites”, (‘History of Rome’, 10: 12: 2-3).
   

War with the Lucanians (283 BC)

This apparent confusion has persisted, partly because the relevant entries in the Augustan fasti Truiumphales are now lost.  John Rich (referenced below, at p. 217) observed that:

1. “The Capitoline entry for Curius’ final triumph in 275 BC over Pyrrhus and the Samnites confirms that it was his fourth.  The entries for his first three are all lost in the lacuna between the triumphs of 291 and 282 BC, a period for which the loss of Livy also leaves us poorly informed. 
   

2. ✴Curius’ first two triumphs, over the Samnites and Sabines, are attested as held in his consulship in 290 BC, making him the first to triumph twice in the same magistracy. 
   

3. ✴For his third, we have only the report in his short biography in the late and often erratic ‘De viris illustribus’, 33: 3] that:
   

4. ‘The third time he entered the city in ovation from the Lucani.’
   

5. ... Earlier writers supposed that he held this ovation, like his triumphs, as consul in 290 BC or alternatively as proconsul in 289 BC (so Degrassi).  However, Brennan, [as above], has made a strong case for:
   

6. ✴dating the ovation to 283 BC, when the Romans are attested as coming into conflict with the Lucanians [in southern Italy]; and
   

7. ✴supposing that Curius defeated them and held his ovation as praetor, having been appointed to the office as a suffect following the death of L. Caecilius ... in battle with the Gauls, as reported by Polybius (2.19.8). 
   

8. Since this appears to be the best reconstruction available, I have adopted it in my [reconstructed triumphal list].”
   

Thus, in this reconstruction of the fasti Triumphales (see his Table 6, at p. 248), Rich proposed the following consecutive entries (100-3):

1. ✴290 BC: M’ Curius Dentatus I, consul de Sabnitibus
   

2. ✴290 BC: M’ Curius Dentatus II, consul, de Sabineis
   

3. ✴283 BC: M’ Curius Dentatus III, praetor ? (Ovation) de Lucaneis
   

4. ✴283 BC: P. Cornelius Dolabella, consul, de Gallis Senonibus
   

Probably drawing on Livy’s now-lost account, Paulus Orosius recorded that:

1. “... during the consulship of [P. Cornelius] Dolabella and [Cn.]Domitius [Calvinus: i.e., 283 BC], the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites made an alliance with the Etruscans and Senonian Gauls, who were attempting to renew war against the Romans.
   

2. Perioche
   

3. [11.12] [Book 11.] also contains an account of wars against the Volsinians, and Lucanians, when the Romans decided to support the inhabitants of Thurii against them.
   

John Rich observed that:

1. “The Capitoline entry for Curius’ final triumph in 275 BC over Pyrrhus and the Samnites confirms that it was his fourth.  The entries for his first three are all lost in the lacuna between the triumphs of 291 and 282 BC, a period for which the loss of Livy also leaves us poorly informed.  Curius’ first two triumphs, over the Samnites and Sabines, are attested as held in his consulship in 290 BC, making him the first to triumph twice in the same magistracy.  For his third, we have only the report in his short biography in the late and often erratic ‘De viris illustribus’, 33: 3] that:
   

2. ‘The third time he entered the city in ovation from the Lucani.’
   

3. ... Earlier writers supposed that he held this ovation, like his triumphs, as consul in 290 BC or alternatively as proconsul in 289 BC (so Degrassi).  However, Brennan, [as above], has made a strong case for:
   

4. ✴dating the ovation to 283 BC, when the Romans are attested as coming into conflict with the Lucanians [in southern Italy]; and
   

5. ✴supposing that Curius defeated them and held his ovation as praetor, having been appointed to the office as a suffect following the death of L. Caecilius ... in battle with the Gauls, as reported by Polybius (2.19.8). 
   

6. Since this appears to be the best reconstruction available, I have adopted it in my [reconstructed triumphal list].”
   

Thus, in this reconstruction of the fasti Triumphales (see his Table 6, at p. 248), Rich proposed the following consecutive entries (100-3):

1. ✴290 BC: M’ Curius Dentatus I, consul de Sabnitibus
   

2. ✴290 BC: M’ Curius Dentatus II, consul, de Sabineis
   

3. ✴283 BC: M’ Curius Dentatus III, praetor ? (Ovation) de Lucaneis
   

4. ✴283 BC: P. Cornelius Dolabella, consul, de Gallis Senonibus
   

A summary of Livy’s now-lost Book 11 recorded that wars against the  ... Lucanians broke out in ca. 282 BC, when the Romans

1. “... decided to support the inhabitants of Thurii against them”, (‘Periochae’, 11: 12).
   

This incident  formed part of the growing tension between the Romans and the inhabitants of Tarentum, an important Greek city in southern Italy.   Tarentum regarded  its neighbour Thurii (also Greek) as within its sphere of influence.  Thus, when Thurii turned to Rome rather than to Tarentum for protection from the Lucanians, hostilities became inevitable.

A surviving fragment of Cassius Dio recorded that:

1. “The Romans had learned that the Tarentines and some others were making ready to war against them ... and, by sending men to the Etruscans, Umbrians and Gauls, [had] caused a number of them also to secede, some immediately and some a little later”, (‘Roman History’, 9: 39: 1).
   

Book 13 of the epitome of Livy, which largely deals with the Pyrrhic War, contained:

1. “... an account of the successful wars against the Lucanians, Bruttians, Samnites and Etruscans”, (‘Periochae’, 11: 12).
   

In 280 BC, Tarentum secured the services of the Greek commander Pyrrhus, in what proved to be the start of the so-called Pyrrhic War. 

The Romans seem to have sent an army into Etruria in order to secure their northern flank ahead of the expected confrontation.  The fasti Triumphales record that Tiberius Coruncanius was awarded a triumph over the Vulcientes (from the Etruscan city of Vulci) and Vulsinienses (from Volsinii) in 280 BC.

The Umbrians seem to have resisted the efforts of the Tarentines to secure their help in ca. 282 BC (above): according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, they fought for the Romans on this occasion.