Conquests in Latium.While Rome was thus becoming strong, and her people were becoming more united and better organized, she was also gaining power over the neighboring lands. The people with whom she first came into contact were the Latins. A number of Latin towns were conquered and brought under her power, and were made a part of the Roman domain (ager Romanus). She also pushed her conquests across the Anio into the Sabine country, and across the Tiber into Etruria. So that before the fall of the kingdom, Rome had begun to be a conquering power. But her conquests at present were limited, for the most part, to Latium, and it was from this conquered land in Latium that she had created the rural tribes already mentioned.
Rome and the Latin League.Outside of this conquered territory were the independent Latin cities, united together into a strong confederacy. When Alba Longa was conquered, Rome succeeded to the headship of this confederacy of thirty cities. The people of these cities were not made Roman citizens; but they were given the right to trade and to intermarry with Romans. The Latin league was bound to Rome by a treaty, which made it partly subject to her; because it could not wage war without her consent, and it must assist her in her wars.
Review of the Roman Kingdom.In the various ways which we have described, Rome had come to be a strong city, and was growing into something like a new nation, with a kind of national policy. If we should sum up this policy in two words, these words would be expansion and incorporation. By “expansion” we mean the extension of Roman power over the neighboring territory, whether by conquest or by alliance. By “incorporation” we mean the taking of subject people into the political body. For example, Rome had first incorporated the Sabine settlement on the Quirinal; then the Latin settlement on the Caelian; and finally the plebeian class, which had grown up by the side of the patrician class. By pursuing this kind of policy, Rome had come to be, at the end of the kingdom, a compact and quite well-organized city-state with a considerable territory of her own (ager Romanus) about the Tiber, and having a control over the cities of Latium.
SELECTIONS FOR READING
Ihne, Early Rome, Ch. 9, “People of the Regal Period” (5).1
Shuckburgh, Ch. 5, “The Regal Period” (1).
Granrud, pp. 19-26, “The Later Royal Constitution” (13).
How and Leigh, Ch. 4, “The Regal Period” (1).
Mommsen, abridged, Ch. 4, “Reforms of Servius TulliusSupremacy of Rome in Latium” (2).
SPECIAL STUDY
THE SERVIAN CLASSES AND CENTURIES.’Pelham, pp. 36-39 (1); Leighton, pp. 22-24 (1); Mommsen, Vol. I., pp. 132-141 (2); Ramsay and Lanciani, p. 96 et seq. (8); Niebuhr, Hist., Vol. I., pp. 212-236; Taylor, pp. 25-36 (1).
1 The figure in parenthesis refers to the number of the topic in the Appendix, where a fuller title of the book will be found.