ce, and a portion of their land
was incorporated in the _ager publicus_ of Rome. A similar fate overtook
the Sabines and Picentes, who had taken sides with the Samnites.

The war with the Etruscans and the Gauls still dragged on. But in 285,
after suffering a severe blow at the hands of the Gallic Senones, the
Romans took vigorous action and drove this people from the land between
Ancona and the Rubicon--the _ager Gallicus_. In the same year the tribe of
the Boii, with Etruscan allies, penetrated as far as the Vadimonian Lake,
where the Romans inflicted upon them a crushing defeat. Another Roman
victory in the next year brought the Boii to terms, and soon the Etruscan
cities one by one submitted to Rome, until by 280 all were Roman allies.

V. THE ROMAN CONQUEST OF SOUTH ITALY: 281-270 B. C.

*Italians and Greeks in South Italy.* The only parts of the peninsula that
had not yet acknowledged the Roman overlordship were the lands of the
Lucanians and Bruttians and the few Greek cities in the south that still
maintained their independence. Of these latter the chief was Tarentum, a
city of considerable commercial importance. From the middle of the fourth
century these cities had been engaged in continual warfare with the
Lucanians and Messapians, and in the course of their struggles Tarentum
had come to assume the role of protector of the Hellenes in Italy. But
even this city had only been able to make head against its foes through
assistance obtained from Greece. In 338, King Archidamus of Sparta, and in
331 Alexander, king of Epirus and uncle of Alexander the Great, fell
fighting in the service of the Italian Greeks. In 303, Cleonymus of
Sparta, more fortunate than his predecessors, compelled the Lucanians to
conclude a peace, which probably included the Romans, at that moment their
allies. A little later (c. 300 B. C.) Agathocles, king of Syracuse,
assisted the Tarentines against the same foe, and incorporated in his own
kingdom the Bruttians and the Greek cities in the southwest. But with his
death in 289, his kingdom, like that of Dionysius I, fell apart and the
Greeks in the west were left again without a protector. Consequently, when
the Lucanians renewed their attacks upon Thurii, that city, being unable
to find succor in Greece and distrusting Tarentum, appealed to Rome (282).
Rome gave ear to the call, relieved and garrisoned Thurii. But this action
brought Roman ships of war into the Gulf of Tare