d by his
colleague. As Curius did not wish to risk a battle with his own army
alone, Pyrrhus planned a night-attack upon his camp. But he
miscalculated the time and the distance; the torches burnt out, the men
missed their way, and it was already broad daylight when he reached the
heights above the Roman camp. Still their arrival was quite unexpected;
but, as a battle was now inevitable, Curius led out his men. The troops
of Pyrrhus, exhausted by fatigue, were easily put to the rout; two
elephants were killed and eight more taken. Encouraged by this success,
Curius no longer hesitated to meet the king in the open plain, and
gained a decisive victory. Pyrrhus arrived at Tarentum with only a few
horsemen. Shortly afterward he crossed over to Greece, leaving Milo with
a garrison at Tarentum. Two years afterward he perished in an attack
upon Argos, ingloriously slain by a tile hurled by a woman from the roof
of a house.

The departure of Pyrrhus left the Lucanians and other Italian tribes
exposed to the full power of Rome. They nevertheless continued the
hopeless struggle a little longer; but in B.C. 272 Tarentum fell into
the hands of Rome, and in a few years afterward every nation in Italy,
to the south of the Macra and the Rubicon, owned the supremacy of Rome.
She had now become one of the first powers in the ancient world. The
defeat of Pyrrhus attracted the attention of the nations of the East;
and in B.C. 273, Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, sent an embassy to
Rome, and concluded a treaty with the Republic.

The dominion which Rome had acquired by her arms was confirmed by her
policy. She pursued the same system which she had adopted upon the
subjugation of Latium, keeping the cities isolated from one another, but
at the same time allowing them to manage their own affairs. The
population of Italy was divided into three classes. _Cives Romani_,
_Nomen Latinum_, and _Socii_.

I. CIVES ROMANI, or ROMAN CITIZENS.--These consisted: (1.) Of the
citizens of the thirty-three Tribes into which the Roman territory was
now divided, and which extended north of the Tiber a little beyond Veii,
and southward as far as the Liris; though even in this district there
were some towns, such as Tibur and Praeneste, which did not possess the
Roman franchise. (2.) Of the citizens of Roman colonies planted in
different parts of Italy. (3.) Of the citizens of municipal towns upon
whom the Roman franchise was conferred. In some cases th