AD HONOREM SODALIS: VAE VICTIS

North East of the city of Rome was Etruria. A land settled by an ancient and mysterious people, who no doubt had perched there before the Romans but were equally foreigners to Italy as were the descendants of Romulus. The history of the dealings between the Etruscans and the Romans has somewhat played out severally in the annals of nations. The story plainly goes like this, there are two brothers, one younger and the other the elder. The elder exercises a significant amount of control over the younger, teaching him all he needs to know in life and more. Until one day, the younger grows strong enough to challenge his brother, only to discover with dismay that his elder brother was merely a paper tiger. Japan, for example, adored China and for hundreds of years considered it with great respect. After all, hadn’t it received its writing and much of its culture, religion and government from China? But one day the apprentice decided to test his master. A small border skirmish over Korea ended up with the Japanese annihilating the Chinese military and the illusion of Chinese preeminence. It is thus so that the mantle of foremost Asian power passed from Peking to Tokyo.

Almost everything the Romans had for a culture including the very complicated science of engineering was borrowed from the Etruscans. Historians opine that the practice of gladiatorial games and the construction of aqueducts was inherited directly from their north eastern neighbors, both of which have become in common folklore indisputably synonymous with Roman history. So much of Rome is from Etruria that it is no small wonder that Rome became somewhat of a colony or a protectorate of the Etruscans as power descended from Romulus to his successors to the fact the final three kings of pre-republican Rome were Etruscan. Now however, the very same people that had exercised kingly power over the Romans would themselves be the very first to fall beneath the Roman blade. The law of the nature of nations dictates that an industrious people growing from strength to strength can not fail to extend their influence beyond their borders.

After the Etruscans were brutally brought to heel, another relative of the Romans was next on the menu. The Sabines similarly had a long history of close relation with the men camped by the river Tiber. The appellation Claudius for example belonged to a famous and powerful family in Rome but was in actuality simply a Sabine name. Moreover, when Romulus could not find women for his outlaws, he famously ensared the Sabines into bringing their vestal virgins to Rome for a supposed religious ceremony. You may infer what happened thereafter, swiftly followed by a vicious and violent war that was no doubt so destructive that it was apparently only halted by the violated women throwing themselves between the warring parties to force a truce and residing to their ill fate as terms of peace. The Sabines let’s say became like that cousin who is almost always plotting your downfall, or a close relative with a dangerous score to settle. I am not convinced that the spirit of forgiveness was a language they ever spoke, certainly not to the Romans. They always got together with the enemies of Rome to make common cause. Sad to say but they were quickly subdued, though their consistent and persistent appetite for rebellion would cause a shift in Roman colonial and mercenary policy that will one day result in the savage treatment of all subject Italian peoples and consequently the infamous rise of Spartacus.

Samnium was next to enjoy the sweet loving kindness of the Roman whip. What was particularly interesting about the Samnites was that they had viewed themselves as destined to dominate the Italian peninsula after the decline and subjugation of the Etruscans. To the Romans, very dangerous thoughts that needed taming. The Samnites though were not so foolish to attempt this fete unchaperoned. They had a pact of assistance with the Volsci who lived to the immediate south of Latium, Rome itself.

According to the Romans however, both these peoples had to yeet. You might remember the Volsci from one of Shakespeare’s plays ‘Coriolanus’. Heavily borrowed from Plutarch’s “Parallel lives”, Shakespeare describes the life of a Roman general, Gaius Marcus Coriolanus who was sent to subdue the Volscian town of Corioli (Romans had this weird thing of naming Generals after the cities they’d conquered) but Gaius became disaffected with Rome and astonishngly switched sides. Consequently, Rome not long after found itself spitefully under siege from a Volscian army led by Gaius Marcus a.k.a Coriolanus. The siege had begun taking its toll, thirst and starvation plighted the city at which point Coriolanus’ mother Volumnia appears from the city and apparently scolds him like a little boy saying to the effect, “Coriolanus, if you persist with this attack on Rome I will hate you forever, I’ll never speak to you and I’ll never make you dinner!” Coriolanus falls down on her feet and remarks that he can not possibly go against her wishes and calls off the attack. If at all Shakespeare’s rendition is more than fiction, who can blame Coriolanus? Who would dare disown their mother’s dinner table?

The war with the Samnite-Volsci alliance slowly turns in the favor of Rome and they are soon subdued. In all these examples of Rome’s early conquests, it is a fascinating point of curiosity that Rome vanquishes her enemies in the field of battle only to appropriate their cultures and absorb them into herself. This was a strange way of building empire was it not? The name Camilla for example, a well noted Roman name was actually Volscian in origin. According to Virgil, it first belonged to a female warrior of Volscian stock. This I think, is the fundamental difference between Rome and the other empires before it. While in both cases the enemies were militarily defeated, the Babylonians for example had nothing to learn from their subjects, and so the distinctions remained. Meaning in later years these distinct peoples would still have no part in the crucial mechanisms of the empire and would more vigorously agitate for their particular independence. The great king Nebuchadnezzar knew this and begun the notorious culture of relocating conquered peoples by which we get the experiences of Judah and Israel after their destruction and the narratives of Daniel and his three friends.

At around this time, Armageddon fell upon all Italy with an unforeseen vengeance. The Gaulic invasion of Italy remained to be the most horrifying event to ever grace the memory of Italic peoples up until the barbarian invasions a thousand years later. The magnificent yet terrifying spectacle of tall, long-haired, naked men running down the alps with ferocious war-cries would remain eked in the Roman national psyche for centuries until Julius Caesar, by means of genocide, would forever exorcise these demons.

Several factors however ensured this event. First, the Romans had remained militarily naive. Having only fought their neighbors who themselves practiced similar military traditions, they thought themselves invincible to all, while the Gauls were of a different and petrifying military build. Case in point, there was some form of gentlemanly approach to war in Italy, meaning we would all stand in formation, wait for the other side to form up and then basically go at it. The Barbarians on the other hand probably had no sense of formation. They would rush forward, running wildly and screaming in blood lust. Secondly, whatever united league the Romans had conjured in Italy would be greatly diminished in strength by virtue of their wars of expansion. They had not only created many fr-enemies, but had weakened themselves as well.

A massacre ensued. So many men died at the battle of the river Alia in 390 Bc that Rome was merely left defenseless afterward. The Barbarians swiftly moved on Rome and a brutal sack ensued. Only the Capitoline hill held out as a citadel with its defiance coming to an end seven months later oddly enough after a rather simple handsome pay off to the Gauls was agreed. The famous story is here recorded by Plutarch that when the thousand pounds of gold was brought by the Romans to be weighed and dispatched to the Gauls, the Gauls cunningly supplied skewed weights. Roman officials begun protesting at this injustice at which point, the Gaulic king Brennus throws his sword onto the weights and famously proclaims Vae Victis! [woe to the vanquished] This was a hard lesson Rome would never forget.

What rang loud after this horrid event was no doubt the deafening silence of Rome’s allies. None sent aid or a relief army to assist against the siege. It was such an open act of betrayal that when Rome finally recovered from the Gaulic humiliation, mercy was purged from her conscience. Any Italian peoples that had acted treacherously against the Roman state during the Gaulic invasion were to be decimated. Decimation meant the killing, often gruesomely in the presence of family, of a tenth of all men.By means of such a cruel rejoinder, Italy was once again brought to the obedience of Rome. Besides decimation, the Roman senate wisely employed the carrot and stick approach to settling scores and asserting hegemony. It was after the end of the Gaulic menace that the neighbors of Rome were conquered culturally in finality. Citizenship was extended to all free peoples who fell under the umbrella of Rome. In two generations, the Volsci ceased being the Volsci and had come to know themselves only as Romans. So did the Samnites, and the Sabines and all former individual peoples of Italy. By 338 bc there was no longer any form of organized resistance to Roman rule in Italy. Rome was not now just a city, it was now Italia.

This Romanization of the Italian peninsula was however bound to capture the attention of others. At the so called boot of Italy in the south were ancient Greek colonies. Soon Roman Legions will battle Greek Phalanxes as two great civilizations were destined to clash in spectacular fashion.