Etruscan-Roman Wars
The Etruscan-Roman Wars were a series of conflicts that occurred between the Roman Republic and various Etruscan city-states, primarily during the sixth to third centuries BCE. The initial tensions arose after Rome transitioned from a monarchy to a republic around 509 BCE, leading to military conflicts over territorial control, particularly with the influential city-state of Veii. The three Veientine Wars, spanning from 483 BCE to 396 BCE, were crucial in shaping the Roman military landscape and advancing Roman territorial ambitions.
As Rome's power grew, it engaged in further military campaigns against Etruscan cities such as Tarquinii and Caere, often responding to Etruscan alliances with external foes. The Roman military strategy evolved, emphasizing infantry formations, which played a significant role in their victories. Ultimately, the Etruscan cities faced fragmentation and defeat due to Roman military prowess and a lack of unified defense. By the end of the conflicts, particularly following the destruction of Volsinii around 264 BCE, Rome solidified its control over Etruria, paving the way for further expansion and influence in the Mediterranean.
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Etruscan-Roman Wars
At issue: Roman control of central Italy
Date: 509-264 b.c.e.
Location: Tuscany, Latium, and Umbria
Combatants: Romans vs. Etruscans
Principal commanders:Roman, Marcus Furius Camillus (d. c. 365 b.c.e.), Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus (d. c. 290 b.c.e.); Etruscan, Lars Porsenna (ruled late sixth century b.c.e.)
Principal battles: Cremera, Siege of Veii
Result:Rome reduced the power and independence of the Etruscan city-states, eventually absorbing them into its empire
Background
At the beginning of the sixth century b.c.e., the Roman city-state sat on the boundary of the Latin and southern Etruscan peoples. Its last three kings—Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus—had been Etruscans. Their rule had linked Rome loosely to the Etruscan league of city-states that stretched to northern Tuscany. These Indo-European people had moved into the Italian peninsula in the tenth or ninth century b.c.e. and developed a very high level of civilization. The nature of their league remains in debate, but military cooperation seems not to have had a high priority.
According to tradition, in 509 b.c.e., the Roman aristocracy revolted against the monarchy. This may have been caused in part by increasing reliance by the kings on heavily armed hoplite-type infantry in place of aristocratic cavalry. Lars Porsenna of Etruscan Clusium is said to have tried to reestablish Etruscan domination, but either he was stopped (Horatio Cocles at the Tiber bridge) or his success was short-lived. The new republic (res publica) headed a coalition of Latin-speaking villages, whose first conflicts with Etruscans involved nearby Veii (seven miles north), a thriving city-state that controlled more than two hundred square miles of rich farm and grazing land. Although no one today imputes imperialistic aims to early sixth-century Rome, its control of central Italy would eventually require its subjection of Veii and Etruscan cities to the north.
Action
Rome’s conflicts with Veii were initially over control of the Tiber Valley and local saltpans. The three Veientine Wars, beginning in 483 b.c.e. and stretching over some eighty-seven years, pitted powerful city-states against each other, a situation Rome had not faced thus far. Both sides fielded armies of mixed arms centered on heavily armed infantry fighting in formations. The first war saw Veii seize the Janiculum Hill (across the Tiber but within modern Rome), and annihilate the Roman Fabian clan—save one survivor—at a battle on the Cremera River (477 b.c.e.). Truce in 474 b.c.e. left Veii in control of Fidenae, a Roman stronghold and key to the upper Tiber.
The second war erupted in 437 b.c.e. when Etruscans murdered four Roman ambassadors. The two years of fighting centered on Fidenae, which the Romans finally took by entering through a tunnel. The third struggle (406-396 b.c.e.) is vested with echoes of the Siege of Troy by Roman chroniclers, and details lack credibility. Any account of this early period must be carefully crafted, as contemporary records are few and archaeology has clear limitations. Literary histories date from much later and often reflect the ignorance, biases, and concerns of subsequent times. In any case, Veii was successfully besieged by Marcus Furius Camillus, who razed the city (396 b.c.e.) but made most Veientines Roman citizens. This breakthrough opened the period of Roman expansion out of Latium.
The Gallic invasion of the 390’s b.c.e. weakened Etruscan cities, but the Celts’ dramatic sack of Rome in 389 b.c.e. proved a minor setback. During the 380’s b.c.e., Rome conducted campaigns against Tarquinii and established colonies in southern Etruria. A major conflict between Rome and Tarquinii broke out in 358 b.c.e., which Etruscan allies Falerii and Caere joined in 357 b.c.e. and 353 b.c.e. respectively. Caere soon capitulated and was saddled with a hundred-year truce; Falerii and Tarquinii negotiated forty-year truces in 351. Falerii became a formal ally (foedus) in 343 b.c.e. In 311 b.c.e., during the Second Samnite War, unidentified Etruscans moved against Roman Sutrium. Roman consul Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus intercepted and defeated the army. He then marched against the northern Etruscan centers of Arezzo, Perugia, and Cortona, whose leaders signed thirty-year truces in the same year. Troublesome Volsinii revolted and was reduced in 308 b.c.e., and Rome’s treaty with Tarquinii was renewed for forty years. These moves by Rome were clearly imperialistic, even if prompted by invasion. The unity of Roman resolve and lack of Etruscan cooperation doomed the cities’ efforts at defense and allowed Rome to pick them off piecemeal.
Rome’s support for one of Arezzo’s exiled ruling families led it on campaigns in Etruria and Umbria in 302 b.c.e. Angry Etruscans reacted by allying with the Gauls in 299 b.c.e. and with the Samnites in 297 b.c.e. The Etruscans’ allies were defeated at Sentinum (295 b.c.e.), and Volsinii, Perugia, and Arezzo negotiated forty-year truces. In 292 b.c.e., Falerii revolted and was crushed. From 285 to 268 b.c.e., Rome sparred with the Gauls in Etruscan territory, being defeated badly near Arezzo in 284 b.c.e. but crushing a Gallic army near Lake Vadimon the following year. In the midst of these struggles, Vulci and Volsinii revolted (c. 282 b.c.e.) and held out until 280 b.c.e. Caere likewise rose up in 273 b.c.e. and quickly fell. Relative peace in the north after 280 b.c.e. facilitated Rome’s defeat of the Epiriot King Pyrrhus (272 b.c.e.) and its seizure of southern Italy. On the eve of the First Punic War (264 b.c.e.), Volsinii was destroyed as retribution for a last Etruscan revolt.
Aftermath
Volsinii’s masters and serfs were removed to Lake Bolsena for settlement, and Roman control over other Etruscan cities remained firm during the First Punic War.
Bibliography
Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Harris, W. V. Rome in Etruria and Umbria. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Scullard, H. H. The Etruscan Cities and Rome. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.