Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic – Conquests

This series of articles will try to explain the reasons for the fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire. It will use respectable sources and literature and will be published weekly. – Part 2 – Conquests

Conquest Campaigns of the Roman Republic

Conquest of the Italian Peninsula

The Roman Republic, once formed and established, began to expand. In the beginning, Rome was only one of a series of cities in the central part of the Apennine Peninsula, so the first expansion of the state was possible only by establishing power over related Latin cities. In the conquests for control over the mouth of the Tiber, the Romans conquered Veii in 396 BC when the dictator Marcus Furius Camillus conquered the city by quick attack.

During that period, the Gallic invasion of Italy occurred and Rome was defeated and plundered. After this defeat began the construction of walls to protect the city. Weakened by that serious defeat, the Romans again had to fight their Latin neighbors in order to confirm their supremacy over them. The war with the Samnites in 343 BC and the separate peace that the Romans signed can be considered the beginning of the Latin Wars, after which Rome established much tighter control over its former allies from the Latin cities. Samnites decided to stay in Campania, while Rome took control over Latium.

After consolidating in Latium, the Romans turned to the fruitful Campania in which they fought the Samnites on three occasions between 343 and 290 BC. The Second Samnite War saw the famous Battle of the Caudine Pass in 321 BC. The Third War was Samnite in name only, as the Romans also fought against the Etruscans and Gauls. The Umbrians also joined the coalition against Rome, believing that all of Italy would soon fall under the rule of the city on the Tiber, so the Third Samnite War can also be considered a war for the independence of the Italian states.

After the Battle of Sentine in 295 BC and the victories of the Romans, the Gauls withdrew from Italy, and the Etruscans and Umbrians ceased to offer resistance. Only the Samnites continued their futile struggle for a few more years. With these conquests, Rome consolidated its position in the central part of the Apennines. Most of the defeated opponents retained their lands and eventually received Roman citizenship, so Roman rule was eventually accepted in their lands and they were assimilated.

In the southern part of the Apennines were Greek colonies that became neighbors of Rome after the victory in the Samnite Wars. In 280 BC, a conflict occurred between Rome and Tarentum, one of the Hellenistic trading cities. Tarentum did not have its own army, so the Epirus king Pyrrhus was hired to fight the Romans. Pyrrhus dreamed of creating an empire, so at the invitation of the Tarentines, he gathered 25,000 soldiers accompanied by twenty war elephants. Pyrrhus won victories against Rome in the first battles, and some of the Roman allies switched sides.

In 279 BC, the famous Battle of Ausculum took place, after which the expression “Pyrrhic Victory” was used, where Pyrrhus triumphed with significant losses. After this victory, Pyrrhus turned to war against Carthage, so Rome had a chance to recover from the previous battles.

The decisive Battle of Benevento took place in 275 BC upon the return of Pyrrhus, who decided to attack the army of the consul Curius Dentatus before he could receive reinforcements. Pyrrhus suffered a complete defeat, so he sailed back to Greece with the remnants of his army, leaving Rome with an open path to the conquest of southern Italy and Tarentum in 272 BC. The last independent city of peninsular Italy, Volsinium, was captured in 265 BC.

Rome as a Dominant Power in the Mediterranean

After conquering the Italian Peninsula, the Roman Republic became a Mediterranean power. The main rival was Carthage with its possessions in Sicily. The problem between these two states was the Sicilian port of Messina, which the Carthaginians had conquered. Rome could not allow only the Strait of Messina to separate their possessions from Carthage and therefore declared war on Carthage. The First Punic War began in 264 BC and in the first years of the war, Rome was superior in battles on land, and Carthage at sea.

After an unsuccessful expedition in Africa, the Romans focused on conquering Sicily, which they gradually brought under their rule. The Roman navy was reorganized during the war and won a decisive victory in the Battle of the Aegate Islands in 241 BC. The peace that followed that same year brought Sicily to the Romans, and a mercenary revolt to the Carthaginians, which the Romans used to conquer Sardinia and Corsica. After a successful campaign in the western Mediterranean, the Romans repelled a Gallic invasion and conquered Cisalpine Gaul in 222 BC.

This period also saw the Illyrian Wars, the first after the incident with Queen Teuta, which the Romans won with the help of allies who made the greatest sacrifices. These allies were opponents in the Second Illyrian War, having rebelled when they saw what was hidden behind the Roman propaganda of liberation. The Romans used the strategy of taking allies with whom they would later settle scores. While the Romans were fighting in the Balkans, Carthage had consolidated and established a strong foothold in the Iberian Peninsula.

In 226 BC, the two powers reached a demarcation agreement with the Ebro River as the border. After a series of incidents, the Romans violated this agreement by issuing a humiliating ultimatum to Carthage to surrender territory and the Carthaginian general Hannibal, which led to the Second Punic War, which began in 218 BC and brought Rome to the brink of collapse. Both sides wanted to fight the war on enemy territory, but Hannibal, by daring and sudden crossing of the Alps, reached the Apennines before the Romans were ready.

This surprise brought him victories over the consular armies at the Battles of Ticino and Trebia in the opening year of the war. Hannibal also won the following year at Lake Trasimene using a strategy of surprise. In Rome, it was decided to drive Hannibal out of Italy with a decisive battle. This battle took place at Cannae in 216 BC, when Hannibal, using a tactic of apparent retreat, destroyed the Roman army and brought the Roman state to the brink of collapse.

After this victory, many of the Roman allies switched sides, and the city itself was saved only by the presence of strong walls. Fortunately for the Romans, Hannibal was also weakened after Cannae and could not proceed with the siege, and supplies were also becoming an increasing problem for him. The Romans changed their strategy and decided to destroy Hannibal’s allies and gradually weaken him.

While Hannibal dominated the Apennine Peninsula, the Romans gradually took control of Sicily and the Iberian Peninsula, whose defender Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brother, was killed in the fighting. The Romans conquered Capua in Italy, despite Hannibal’s attempt to force the Romans into battle by marching on Rome. Capua was devastated, which greatly disheartened Hannibal’s other allies, who began to change sides, and Hannibal felt an increasing lack of supplies.

In 204 BC, Scipio Africanus transferred the war to Africa, where Hannibal was immediately called upon to defend Carthage. The two faced off at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, where Hannibal suffered his only military defeat. The following year, peace was established, and Rome remained the only important power in the Mediterranean, while Carthage was reduced to a second-rate state that would fall prey to Rome at the first opportunity.

Rome then turned against Philip V of Macedonia, an ally of Carthage, who had declared war after Cannae and conquered some territories of the Roman allies. He was defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, after which the Romans returned the territories and imposed restrictions on the Macedonian army.

After the victory over the former ally Antiochus III, the Romans became the undisputed masters of the Mediterranean and no longer had the need for allied states in the vicinity, as well as fictitious independent territories, and it was necessary to get rid of weakened enemies so that Macedonia, Achaia, and Carthage became Roman provinces within two years.

This completed the conquests that made Rome the greatest power in the known world and now it was necessary for internal order to follow external expansion.

Sources and Literature:

Livy. (1971). The early history of Rome. Books I-V of The history of Rome from its foundation. [Harmondsworth, Eng.]: Penguin,

Morey, W. C. (1900). Outlines of Roman history: For the Use of High Schools and Academies

Beard, M. (2015). SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.