The Roman expansion in Italy covers a series of conflicts in which Rome grew from being a small Italian city-state to being the ruler of the Italian region. Roman tradition attributes to the Roman kings the first war against the Sabines and the first conquests around the Alban Hills and down to the coast of Latium. The birth of the Roman Republic after the overthrow of the Etruscan monarch of Rome in 509 BC began a series of major wars between the Romans and the Etruscans. In 390 BC, Gauls from the north of Italy sacked Rome. In the second half of the 4th century BC Rome clashed repeatedly with the Samnites, a powerful tribal coalition of the Apennine region.
By the end of these wars, Rome had become the most powerful state in central Italy and began to expand to the north and to the south. The last threat to Roman hegemony came during the Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) when Tarentum enlisted the aid of the Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus to campaign in the north of Italy. Resistance in Etruria was finally crushed in 265–264 BC, the same year the First Punic War began and brought Roman forces outside of the peninsula for the first time. Starting from the First Punic War (264–241 BC) the territories subject to Roman rule also included Sicily (241 BC), Sardinia and Corsica (238 BC), islands transformed into provinces.
Later, in conjunction with the Second Punic War (218–202 BC), Rome also proceeded to subjugate the Celtic territories north of the Apennines of Cisalpine Gaul (from 222 to 200 BC) and then of the neighboring populations of Veneti (to the east) and Ligures (to the west), reaching the foothills of the Alps. With the end of the period of civil wars (44–31 BC), Augustus undertook the conquest of the Alpine valleys (from the Aosta Valley to the Arsia river in Istria) from 16 BC to 7 BC, completing the conquest of the Italian geographical region. Following the conquest of the entire Alpine arc, and with it the entire Italian territory, he divided Italy into 11 regions (about 7 AD). Conquered territories were incorporated into the growing Roman state in a number of ways: land confiscations, the establishment of , granting of full or partial Roman citizenship and military alliances with nominally independent states. The successful conquest of Italy gave Rome access to a manpower pool unrivaled by any contemporary state and paved the way to the eventual Roman interference of the entire Mediterranean world.
Background
The name of ancient peoples of Italy indicates those populations settled in the Italian peninsula during the Iron Age and before the Roman expansion and conquest of Italy. Many of the names are either scholarly inventions or exonyms assigned by the ancient writers of works in ancient Greek and Latin.
In regard to the specific names of particular ancient Italian tribes and peoples, the time-window in which historians know the historical ascribed names of ancient Italian peoples mostly falls into the range of about 750 BC (at the legendary foundation of Rome) to about 200 BC (in the middle Roman Republic), the time range in which most of the written documentation first exists of such names and prior to the nearly complete assimilation of Italian peoples into Roman culture.
Nearly all of these peoples and tribes spoke Indo-European languages: Italics, Celts, Ancient Greeks, and tribes likely occupying various intermediate positions between these language groups. On the other hand, some Italian peoples (such as the Rhaetians, Camuni, Etruscans) likely spoke non- or pre-Indo-European languages. In addition, peoples speaking languages of the Afro-Asiatic family, specifically the largely Semitic Phoenicians and Carthaginians, settled and colonized some coastal parts of Italy (particularly in insular Italy in western and southern Sardinia and western Sicily).
Some scholars believe that many peoples spoke non-Indo-European languages. Some of them were Pre-Indo-Europeans or Paleo-Europeans while, with regard to some others, Giacomo Devoto proposed the definition of Peri-Indo-European (i.e. everything that has hybrid characters between Indo-European and non-Indo-European).Giacomo Devoto, Gli antichi Italici, Firenze, Vallecchi, 1931.
Roman conquest of Latium vetus (753–341 BC)
The most ancient Roman history from the foundation of Rome as a small tribal village until the end of the Royal Age with the fall of the kings of Rome is the least preserved. Although Livy, a Roman historian, in his work Ab Urbe condita lists a series of seven kings of archaic Rome, from the first settlement up to the first years, the first four 'kings' (Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martius) are almost certainly entirely apocryphal. Historians hypothesize that, prior to the establishment of Etruscan rule over Rome under Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of tradition, Rome had been led by some sort of religious authority. According to tradition, Romulus fortified one of seven hills of Rome, the Palatine Hill, after founding the city, and Livy claims that, shortly after its foundation, Rome was "equal to any of the surrounding cities in military prowess".Livy, Ab urbe condita, I, 9.
Under the Etruscan kings Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus, Rome expanded in a northwesterly direction, coming into conflict against the Veientani (northeast of the Tiber) after the expiration of the treaty that ended the previous war.Livy, Ab urbe condita, I, 42. Tarquinius Priscus fought the Sabines (in about 585/584 BC), as did his successor Servius Tullius.Eutropius, Breviarium ab Urbe condita, I, 7. Again Priscus obtained a triumph over the Latins (he bought the cities of Corniculum and Collatia from the Roman state)Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1.19.Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1.37. and the Etruscans (on 1 April 588/587 BC).Fasti Triumphales Servius Tullius also obtained a double triumph over the latter (on 25 November 571/570 BC and on 25 May 567/566 BC). And finally Strabo recalls that Tarquinius Priscus always destroyed numerous cities of the Aequi.Strabo, Geographica, V, 3.4. The last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, was the first to fight the VolsciEutropius, Breviarium ab Urbe condita, I, 8.Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1.25 and 1.44. and then subdued numerous cities of Latium vetus, making peace with the Etruscans. Eventually the Etruscan kings were overthrown in the context of a wider disempowerment of Etruscan power in the region during the same period, and Rome, whose possessions did not extend beyond 15 miles from the city, gave itself a republican set-up.
With the beginning of this new historical phase, the immediate neighbours of Rome were cities or villages of the Latins, with a tribal structure similar to that of Rome, or even Sabine tribes of the nearby Apennine hills. Gradually Rome defeated both the Sabines and the local cities which were either hegemonized by the Etruscans or Latin cities which, like Rome, had rid themselves of their Etruscan rulers. Rome defeated the Lavinii and the Tusculi in the battle of Lake Regillus, 496 BC, and the Sabines in an unknown battle in 449 BC, the Aequi and the Volsci in the battle of Mount Algidus in 458 BC and in the battle of Corbio in 446 BC, the Volsci in the battle of Corbione and in the conquest of Anzio in 377 BC, the Aurunci in the battle of Ariccia;Livy, Ab urbe condita, II, 26 they were defeated by the Veientani in the battle of the Cremera in 477 BC, in the conquest of Fidene in 435 BC and in the wars that led to the conquest of Veii in 396 BC. Once the Veientani had been defeated, the Romans had effectively completed the conquest of their immediate Etruscan neighbors, and, at the same time, secured their position against the immediate threat posed by the tribal peoples of the Apennine hills.
Rome, however, still controlled only a very small area and its business played a minor role in the entire context of the Italian Peninsula: the remains of Veii, for example, today fall entirely within the suburbs of modern Rome and Rome's interests came to the attention of the Greeks, bearers of the leading culture of the time. The bulk of Italy still remained in the hands of the Latins, the Sabines, the Samnites and other peoples of central Italy, the Greek colonists of the Magna Graecia poleis, and, in particular, the Celtic peoples of northern Italy, including the Gauls.
At the time, Celtic civilization was vibrant and in the process of military and territorial expansion, with a spread that, although lacking in cohesion, came to cover much of continental Europe. It was precisely at the hands of the Celts of Gaul that Rome suffered a humiliating defeat, which was followed by a setback imposed on its expansion: the memory of that defeat was destined to imprint itself deeply on the conscience and future memory of Rome. From 390 BC, many Gallic tribes had begun to invade Italy from the north, unbeknownst to the Romans whose interests still turned to security on an essentially local scenario. Rome was alerted by a particularly warlike tribe, the Senones, who invaded the Etruscan province of Siena from the north and attacked the city of Clusium (Chiusi), not far from the sphere of Roman influence. The inhabitants of Chiusi, overwhelmed by the strength of their enemies, superior in number and ferocity, asked Rome for help. Almost unintentionally the Romans not only found themselves in conflict with the Senones, but they became their main target. The Romans faced them in the battle of the Allia around the years 390–387 BC. The Gauls, led by the leader Brennus, defeated a Roman army of about 15,000 soldiers and pursued the fugitives right into the city itself, which was subjected to a partial but humiliating sackLivy, Ab urbe condita, V, 48 before being driven out or convinced to leave on payment of a ransom.
The hegemony over central-southern Italy (343–264 BC)
After recovering from the sack of Rome, the Romans immediately resumed their expansion into Italy.
Central Italy
The Samnites were just as warlike and rich as the Romans and set out to expand into new lands in fertile Italian plains near Rome. The First Samnite War, between 343 and 341 BC, followed widespread Samnite incursions into the territory of Rome, which were followed by the battle of Mount Gaurus (342 BC) and the battle of Suessula (341 BC). The Romans defeated the Samnites but were forced to withdraw from the war without being able to exploit the success to the fullest, due to the revolt of many of the Latin allies in the conflict known as the Latin War. Around 340 BC Rome found itself having to contain both the Samnite incursions into its territory and those of the rebellious Latin cities, with which it engaged in a bitter conflict. Eventually the Latins were defeated at the battle of Vesuvius and again at the battle of Trifanum, after which the Latin cities were forced to submit to Roman power.