Interlude: Scenes From Elsewhere (Rome)

In the late Spring of two-ninety-one, three battles happened in the ongoing War for Dominance in the Italian Peninsula. The first was in Etruria near the City of Vulci. The Etruscans under King Marce Tute of Vulci turned back Decimus Junius Brutus' army as they attempted to cross the Armenta River at the Bridge of the Armata between the recently subdued city of Tarquinia and Vulci. The Romans, bottled up on the bridge, could not bring their favored formations or numbers to bear and were ground down by thousands of casualties.

The Battle of the Armenta Bridge was a moderate strategic defeat for the Romans, as Decimus Junius Brutus was forced to withdraw back to Tarquinia rather than try to force the crossing against the strong Etruscan position on the other end of the bridge. This defeat spelled the end of Decimus Junius Brutus' spring campaign into Etruria for two-ninety-one. The campaign had seen some success, cutting off the Etruscan City of Veii from the rest of Etruscan territory by seizing Tarquinia, however, it failed to rip the heart out of the Etruscan resistance.

In the south, Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges was forced to fight an uprising of Paelignii and Marrucinii instead of bringing his army south to Frentanii lands to ensure they did not join the Samnite War Effort. The Paelignii and Marrucinii were fighting on their home territory and knew that although they could not defeat Gurges in open battle, they could delay him with raids and hit-and-run attacks, similar to how the Samnites were fighting. 

It worked, Gurges was bogged down trying to submit the Paelignii and Marrucinii and it left the Frentanii free to rejoin the Samnite Confederation after having been broken off from them to become Socii after the last war. With Quintus Fabius Rullianus currently besieging Capua, held by a Samnite Garrison, two-ninety-one had ensured the war would continue for some time, necessitating new loans be taken out by the Senate to fund the war.

That was how the War continued to go for the next two years as well, with two-ninety and two-eighty-nine seeing indecisive, back-and-forth fighting. The Paelignii and Marrucinii were finally brought to heel in the fall of two-ninety and the Frentanii submitted in two-eighty-nine, but Capua was retaken in the fall of two-ninety-one at a very high cost of blood and treasure. However, the City's grain stores and treasury had been removed prior to the siege and the Samnite Garrison had been only left with what they needed to resist. In the north, the Etruscans retook Tarquinia in the fall of two-ninety-one, only to lose Veii to a siege. in the spring of the following year.

By the end of two-eighty-nine, however, Rome was firmly on the advance in Samnium, having finally subdued the Paelignii and Marrucinii, crucifying their Kings and Generals and seizing their territory for those Paelignii and Marrucinii nobles who still supported Rome. The Frentanii saw this and submitted after only a few minor engagements, just fighting long enough that honor was satisfied before joining their armies to that of Gurges, hoping to avoid crucifixion and confiscation of estates from their families.

Two-eighty-eight would see the end of the Samnite threat as Gurges and Rullianus marched into Samnium with reinforced armies and fought a trio of engagements with Gellius Egnatius, the Samnite Meddix that had so bedeviled Rome. The first was at Aesernia, where Egnatius put up stiff resistance, but was forced to cede the field as well as the City of Aesernia to Gurges and Rullianus' superior numbers. Next was Bovianum where Egnatius still managed to eke out a tactical victory, forcing Rullianus to retreat back to Aesernia. 

However, Gurges had snuck a march on Egnatius, marching around the lands of the Pentrii, where Egnatius' force was situated, sweeping aside the small, Irpinii Army of fifteen-thousand men, and sacking the city of Maleventum, crucifying its leaders and carting their families off into slavery. The Irpini submitted soon after, though several of their nobles and as many as six thousand of their forces instead marched south to take up mercenary positions in Rhegion rather than submit to Roman rule. Gurges cared not, since he was only looking for a speedy conclusion to the war.

That scene repeated itself in the spring of two-eighty-seven as Gurges and Rullianus now moved to box in Gellius Egnatius in a war of maneuver. Egnatius knew the territory, but that only delayed the inevitable, and in late spring of two-eighty-seven, Egnatius was brought to battle outside Caudinium in the territory of the Caudinii. The Battle of Caudinium was fierce and saw tens of thousands of casualties on both sides, however, it was Egnatius who was forced to flee inland to Pentrii territory with a scant ten-thousand men. Once more, Gurges had his men sack the city, crucifying the leaders and confiscating estates.

In early fall of two-eighty-seven, the Second Battle of Bovianum in Pentrii Lands was practically a forgone conclusion, with only twenty-thousand men to face Gurges and Rullianus' sixty-thousand. Egnatius fought like a lion, even then. It was said that each Samnite slew two Romans for every one of their own that was slain, however, it could not last. Egnatius himself was slain by Gurges as the two commanders met on the field by chance. Seeing this, the remaining Samnites fled south to take up mercenary positions in Locri, though there were a scant six thousand who survived the slaughter to do so.

Once more, Gurges ordered the city sacked, its leaders crucified, and outlying estates confiscated. For this brutality, he became known as Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges Samnicus, or just Quintus Maximus Samnicus for short. This was due to his unceasing dedication to see the Samnites finally brought to heel and crushed under the tread of Roman feet.

In the North, more back-and-forth battling continued until the final defeat of Egnatius, after which, King Marce Tute of Vulci called together the various Kings of the Etruscan League and put the suggestion to them that they should negotiate peace with Rome while they still had their lands, becoming Roman Socii to avoid the fate of the leaders of the Samnite Confederation. This came not a moment too soon because word arrived during the Council of Vulci that Quintus Maximus Samnicus was coming north to assist Decimus Junius Brutus in subduing them.

With that knowledge at hand, the Kings of the Etruscan League voted unanimously to negotiate and become Roman Socii. Decimus Junius Brutus imposed harsher terms on the Etruscans than they would have liked, but he knew that several of their Kings only agreed to negotiate because Samnicus was coming north. The Etruscans would pay higher tributes than normal in terms of coin and grain to offset the war they participated in and help repay the Senate's many loans. The Etruscans agreed and by the end of Fall two-eighty-seven, peace returned to Italy with Rome in a position of unquestioned dominance.

Unfortunately for Rome, much of their territory was bled of manpower and coin, especially in the areas where Samnicus had ordered crucifixion and confiscations, such as in Samnium and the lands of the Paelignii and Marrucinii. Campania had been ravaged by fighting and several dozen talents of the treasury of Capua remained unaccounted for even after the defeat of the Samnites. Even Latium had cities that were ravaged by fighting, such as the City of Nomentum and several smaller towns and villages.

Furthermore, Rome had taken several loans from various sources, two loans of one-hundred-sixty-thousand Drachmae at the rates they had negotiated with Pyrrhus of Epirus. That was the largest concern at the moment, as with five years of interest, they would have to pay two-hundred-twenty-thousand Drachmae, which was roughly one-million-three-hundred-twenty-thousand Denarii just in interest alone. To do that would require Herculean efforts on Rome's part with several areas so destroyed in the fighting.

Furthermore, Rome had taken out two smaller loans of sixty-thousand Carthaginian Shekels, at ten-percent interest which was roughly one-hundred-eighty-thousand additional Denarii of interest alone. A further two small loans of twenty-thousand Drachmae had been taken from the Ptolemies of Egypt at a far more reasonable five percent interest, totaling sixty-thousand Denarii of interest alone. Rome could afford to pay back the Carthaginian and Egyptian Loans in full, though it would drain the treasury severely. They could not afford to pay back Pyrrhus in full.

Over the next four years, Rome would focus on paying back their loans and attempting to fix the damage caused by the War. While they had not managed to make a start on paying back Pyrrhus, by two-eighty-three, Rome would have paid back Egypt and Carthage in full and fixed some of the damage to their lands, mostly in Latium and Campania. Samnium and the other lands brutally attacked by Samnicus would continue to suffer in terms of production and manpower, however.

Unfortunately, as the interest on the Pyrrhic loans continued to mount over these four years, it soon became a debt crisis of immense proportions, only solved by the fact that Pyrrhus had yet to truly press the return of his coin. That more easy-going attitude engendered some amount of goodwill toward Pyrrhus by a number of younger senators, though the veterans of the Samnite War such as Samnicus and Decimus Junius Brutus remained skeptical.

Their skepticism turned out to be well founded, when, in the Summer of two-eighty-three, Agathocles, Tyrant of Syracuse, died peacefully in his sleep. Immediately, several of his mercenary bands seized the city of Zanclo on the Straits of Messina, citing unpaid wages as their reasoning. Locri and Rhegion were threatened by this move, as was Syracuse, and they called upon Pyrrhus to remove these Mamertines from the area. 

Rome, seeing the potential for an Epirote Toehold in Sicily, moved troops to the border with Magna Graecia to attempt to dissuade the Greeks of Southern Italy from calling for aid from Pyrrhus. It did not work as Rome hoped. In the fall of two-ninety-three, Pyrrhus was on his way with a large force, the Greeks of Magna Graecia moved to welcome him in as a protector. Caught off-guard, the Senate resolved to send missives to Pyrrhus to try and get him to remove himself from Sicily.

If their missives were rejected, the Senate was resolved to go to war with Epirus. . .

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AN: So here's what's been going on with Rome. They've managed to defeat the Samnites, Rebels, and Etruscans, but it took them around three years longer than IOTL and required some particularly brutal methods to pull off. There also was the equivalent of two legions worth of Samnite troops and nobles who went south to become mercenaries in Magna Graecia rather than suffer Roman Overlordship.

In the meantime, Rome has gained a dominant position, but a lot of its territory was devastated and drained of manpower. Furthermore, the Senate has a burgeoning debt crisis because it took out so many loans to finance the War with the Samnites, Etruscans, and so on. While they've fixed the damage to Latium and Campania, a lot of their Socii are still lagging behind in terms of production and manpower, and Samnium is still scraping by with the bare minimum due to Samnicus' brutal methods during the war.

It wasn't a good position to go to war with Epirus in, which is why the Senate is trying to negotiate for Pyrrhus to leave Sicily before going to war. The usual Roman Strategy of throwing armies at your opponent until they drown isn't going to be completely usable this time around.

At any rate, next up will be an interlude with how things have gone with the Seleucids and their war with the Mauryans.

Stay tuned. . .