Pyrrhic War (280-75 BC)

Velleius Patroculus recorded that, in 291 BC, as the Third Samnite War approached it end and four years after King Pyrrhus of Epirus began his reign:

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

Venusia was among the 30 coloniae populi Romani (colonies of the people of Rome, or Latin colonies) that, according to Livy (‘Roman History’, 27: 10: 7), existed in 209 BC.

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.

Conquest of Picenum (268 BC) 

According to Livy, when the Romans had become concerned about unrest in Etruria and Cisalpine Gaul in 299 BC, they had:

1. “... with the less hesitation on that account, ... concluded an alliance with the people of Picenum”, (‘History of Rome’, 10: 10: 12).
   

While the ‘people of Picenum’ might have been reassured by their alliance of 299 BC, they would surely have been disconcerted by later Roman activity:

1. ✴According to Florus, in 290 BC:
   

2. “... the Romans laid waste with fire and sword all the tract of country which is enclosed by the Nar, the Anio and the sources of the Velinus, and bounded by the Adriatic Sea”, (‘Epitome of Roman History’, 1: 10: 15). This meant that the land beyond their southern border was Roman territory.
   

3. ✴In 283 BC, the Romans defeated the Gallic Senones and and confiscated their lands, at which point the lands beyond their northern border became the Roman ager Gallicus. 
   

Any such fears were vindicated in 268 BC, when, according to Florus:

1. “... all Italy enjoyed peace, except that the Romans thought fit themselves to punish those who had been the allies of their enemies, for who could venture upon resistance after the defeat of Tarentum?  The people of Picenum were therefore subdued and their capital Asculum was taken under the leadership of [P.  Sempronius Sophus, the consul of 268 BC]: when an earthquake occurred in the midst of the battle, appeased the goddess Tellus by the promise of a temple”, (‘Epitome of Roman History’, 1: 14: 19).
   

Eutropius placed the start of this Roman campaign in the previous year, and blamed it on the Picentes:

1. “In the consulate of Q. Ogulnius and C. Fabius Pictor [269 BC], the people of Picenum started a war [with Rome].  They were conquered by the succeeding consuls P. Sempronius [Sophus] and Ap. Claudius [Russus], and a triumph was celebrated over them”, (‘Summary of Roman History’, 3: 7)
   

The fasti Triumphales record triumphs over the people of Picenum for both consuls of 268 BC: [P.] Sempronius [Sophus]; and Ap. Claudius [Russus].

According to Velleius Paterculus:

1. “At the outbreak of the First Punic War [in 264 BC], Firmum [Picenum] and Castrum [Novum, probably in Etruria] were occupied by colonies”, (‘History of Rome’, 1: 14: 8).
   

Firmum was among the 18 Latin colonies that had honoured their obligations to Rome in 209 BC, as recorded by Livy (27: 10: 7). 

Viritane Settlement

Gino Bandelli (referenced below, at column 19) suggested that, with the exception of:

1. ✴the Greek colony of Ancona; and
   

2. ✴the capital Asculum, which was still nominally independent at the start of the Social War;
   

the whole of Picenum became ager Romanus.  Saskia Roselaar (referenced below, at p. 318, note 98) commented observed that:

1. “In 241 BC, the tribus Velina was established in Picenum, which makes it likely that land [there] was distributed to Roman citizens [and possibly also to] Picentes who had received Roman citizenship.”
   

Simona Antolini and Silvia Marengo (referenced below, at p. 213) list no fewer that 15 centres in Picenum that were assigned to the Velina.  The only other tribal assignation listed for centres of this region were at:

1. ✴Asculum, which was assigned to the Fabia on municipalisation after the Social War;
   

2. ✴the Latin colony of Hadria, which was assigned to the Maecia, presumably also on municipalisation after the Social War; and
   

3. ✴Ancona, which, according to Simone Sisani (referenced below, 2006, at p. 317) was assigned to the Lemonia on municipalisation after the Social War.
   

This predominance of the Velina suggests that this was the tribe to which the citizens settled here were mostly assigned in 241 BC.  Of the 15 settlements assigned to this tribe:

1. ✴the Latin colony of Firmum (264 BC) was probably so-assigned on municipalisation after the Social War; and
   

2. ✴three citizen colonies were probably so-assigned at their respective dates of foundation:
   

3. •Potentia (184 BC);
   

4. •Auximum (157 BC); and
   

5. •Urbs Salvia (Giovanna Maria Fabrini  and Roberto Perna, referenced below, at p7 suggested that the foundation was probably a result of the lex Sempronia of 133 BC).
   

According to Simona Antolini and Silvia Marengo, the other 11 (Castrum Truentinum; Cingulum; Cupra Maritima; Cupra Montana; Falerio; Pausulae; Planinia; Ricina; Septempeda; Tolentinum; and Trea) were (or, in some cases,  were probably) municipalised after 49 BC, presumably as a result of legislation enacted by Julius Caesar. Actually, as notd below, Cingulum might have been municipalised slightly earlier than this:

1. ✴Some or all of these 11 centres might have been constituted as conciliabula and assigned to the Velina in or after 241 BC (like the conciliabulum of Interamnia Praetuttorum and possibly the citizen colony of Castrum Novum, both in the erstwhile territory of the Praetutti, to the south).  However, we have no evidence for any centres in Picenum that were so-constituted. 
   

2. ✴Any of the 11 centres that were not so-constituted would have been assigned to the ‘local’ tribe at municipalisation.
   

Caesar gave the impression that many, if not most, of the settlements in Picenum were constituted as prefectures by 49 BC.  Some at least must have been so-designated when the level of citizen settlement led to the requirement of the services of a Roman prefect.  Nevertheless, Cingulum is the only Picene settlement for which we have evidence of its constitution as a prefecture. 

Foundation of the Colony at Ariminum (268 BC)

Sites of the Latin colonies of Sena Gallica (founded in 283 BC) and Ariminum (founded in 268 BC)

Adapted from the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire

In the surviving summary of Livy’s now-lost Book 15:

1. “When the Picentes had been subdued [in 268 BC], they were given peace.  Colonies were founded at Ariminum in Picenum and at Beneventum in Samnium”, (‘Perioche’, 15: 4-5).
   

Two later sources also place the foundation of the colony in 268 BC;

1. ✴Eutropius:
   

2. “In the consulate of P. Sempronius [Sophus] and Ap. Claudius [Russus], .... [the Romans founed two colonies]: Ariminum in Gaul; and Beneventum in Samnium”, (‘Summary of Roman History’, 3: 7)
   

3. ✴Velleius Paterculus:
   

4. “... in the consulship of [P.] Sempronius Sophus and Appius [Cllaudius Russus], the son of Appius the Blind, colonists were sent to Ariminum and Beneventum, and the right of suffrage was granted to the Sabines”, (‘History of Rome’, 1: 14: 7).
   

The new colony [near modern Rimini]was located on the northern border of the ager Gallicus, which comprised the land that had been taken from the Gallic Senones in 283 BC.  A remark by Strabo indicates the strategic importance of this location:

1. “The Apennines, after joining the regions round about Ariminum and Ancona, that is, after having traversed the breadth of Italy there from [the Tyrhenian Sea to the Adriatic], again take a turn, and cut the whole country lengthwise”, (‘Geograohy’, 5: 1: 3).
   

In other words, the new colony blocked the access of the neighbouring Boii and the other Gallic tribes to the coastal plain that extended along the length of the Adriatic.  It also would have supported the the earlier colony at Sena Gallica in the event of any further trouble from the Picentes.

Stephen Dyson (referenced below, at p. 27) characterised the foundation of this colony as:

1. “... a turning point in Romano-Gallic relations: previously, the Romans and the largest Gallic tribes had had only indirect frontier contacts, but now the Romans had moved several thousand [colonists] into territory that the Gauls had considered as their own for [at least] a century.”
   

Nevertheless, it was to be another 30 years before the Gauls made any attempt to attack the colony.

Final Defeat of the Umbrians (267 BC)

According to the ‘Periochae’, Rome defeated the “Umbrians and Sallentines” in 267 BC.  This account can be augmented by the fasti Triumphales, which record that the consuls Decius Iunius Pera and Numerius Fabius Pictor were awarded triumphs in 266 BC for two different victories:

1. ✴first over the Sassinates (Umbrians from Sarsina, in the Apennines); and then
   

2. ✴over the Sallentini and Messapii (from two towns in Calabria).
   

Simone Sisani (referenced below, 2007, at p. ??) suggests that the revolt of the Sassinates had probably been in reaction to the formation of a Latin colony at nearby Ariminum (Rimini) in 268 BC.