Let us begin with the second part of “Ab Urbe Condita”, VIII-22:
[…]This was enought to let a thousand bells ring in my head.
Palaeopolis was a city not far from the present site of Neapolis. The two cities formed one community. The original inhabitants came from Cumae; Cumae traced its origin to Chalcis in Euboea.
The fleet in which they had sailed from home gave them the mastery of the coastal district which they now occupy, and after landing in the islands of Aenaria and Pithecusae they ventured to transfer their settlements to the mainland.
This community, relying on their own strength and on the lax observance of treaty obligations which the Samnites were showing towards the Romans, or possibly trusting to the effect of the pestilence which they had heard was now attacking the City, committed many acts of aggression against the Romans who were living in Campania and the Falernian country.
In consequence of this, the consuls, L. Cornelius Lentulus and Q. Publilius Philo, sent the fetials to Palaeopolis to demand redress. On hearing that the Greeks, a people valiant in words rather than in deeds, had sent a defiant reply, the people, with the sanction of the senate, ordered war to be made on Palaeopolis.
The consuls arranged their respective commands; the Greeks were left for Publilius to deal with; Cornelius, with a second army, was to check any movement on the part of the Samnites. As, however, he received intelligence that they intended to advance into Campania in anticipation of a rising there, he thought it best to form a standing camp there.
Livy is not an author known for being fair towards Rome's foes: you can read reknown historians of these days (see the excellent though sterile Cornell, “The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars”) criticizing the image Livy gave of Rome always fighting to defend itself.
We could tell “preventive” war was not invented by G.W. Bush, but we really don't need that: we know that in history civilizations that had no warfare as their main belief flourished (and then extinguished), but the very Livy, with his endless sequence of wars, leaves us skeptical on how much defensive the foreing politics of Rome could be.
Yet, reading Livy and comparing his text with that of other historians more or less of his time, gave me the idea of a partisan, not a liar, sometimes of a person even careful to harm not the feelings of the Rome's enemies contamporary to him.
In the first lines of the excerpt shown we read that Palaeopolis was a city not far from the present site of Neapolis. The two cities formed one community.
Livy looks like the only (yep!) ancient historian to know aout this Palaepolis. This is not a small detail as, when there will be a triumph vs. the won town, it will be a Palaeopolitan one, one vs. Palaepolis, not vs. Neapolis. As it stands, it looks like since the very beginning Livy wanted to distinguish in Neapolis' citizenship a part hostile to Rome, and another friendly part; one side actually responsible for the future war, a dna side that was dragged into it.
A description of the history and strength of the future foe follows, and it makes think about a certain control of the town over its bay.
At this point the casus belli is explained: “many acts of aggression” against the Romans residing in the ager Campanus (Campanian field) and in the ager Falernus.
It is surprising to read so much information in one single sentence: the use of the word populus for Neapolis (as it is obvious that, though Livy tells of two towns, the whole city-state Neapolis will fight against Rome); the comment on the Neapolitan “own strength” can be read as a boldness act or as restating the actual power of the city-state, and the fact that Livy stresses that for a second time may confirm this second hypothesis, though not denying the first one.
The comment on the Samnites' unfaithfulness is more subtle, as you have to know that Samnites eagerly enrolled themselves as mercenaries and, as there was a truce between Rome and Samnium after the First Samnite War, Livy implicitly states the Neapolis enrolled Samnite mercenaries to harm the Romans in its own outskirts.
It is well known that between Rome and Samnium ran no good blood, but it was Rome to provoke the Samnites resentment, as I will read from Livy in another post. But this unfeithfulness of the Samnites to the alliance with Rome is even more an excuse because, as they were mercenaries, those Samnites serving in Neapolis, were private citizens, as we will probably show later on.
Plus, the voiced plague… Apart from the fact that similar plagues happened frequently, so that they were not a sound reason to attack a neighbour, we can imagine that this one was so heavy to leave a trace in the annals. Well, Livy himself (VIII, 18) mentions something alike in Rome, but for year 331 a.C., three years before the events in the excerpt we are reading!
Finally, and quite childishly, Livy tells that Neapolitans attacked the Romans alone… Why the Romans alone? But, more than anything else, what sense might have such an action when it was by the Rome's permission that Neapolis had become a commercial hub using the coinage of the Greek polis?
These facts happened at the beginning of the consulate of Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Publilius (328 BC), the fetiales were sent to Neapolis to “demand redress”.
This expression must not fool anyone: the fetiales were not exactly diplomats. They were priests (so the role of the ambassador was sacred, and therefore untouchable, but also their acts were sacred) in charge of the pacts between Rome and the other nations. In the practice, their role was to declare “fair” a war.
Their rituals were elavorate, and somewhere else Livy describes how Rome declared war. Now, the “redress demand” was the second step of these retuals, and war could be avoided only if the counterpart satisfied the Romans' requests. We will see somewhere else what these requests might be, but usually they were those kinds of requests that would make a saint lose his patience. No wonder, then, if the Neapolitan reply was a bit “stingy” (Neapoletans at that time were not so different than those of these days), and so the war was declared.
At this point the two consuls come into Campania with two hosts (consular ones, i.e. with 9'000 men each, at that time), and do something peculiar: Publilius makes war to Palaepolis (see, Livy keeps on stating that war was not against the whole of Neapolis, but only against Palaepolis), while Cornelius camps permanently in the Campanian plain to prevent the Samnites to retort.
The episodio, as I exposed it, is unanimously mentioned as the beginning of the Second Samnite War. The real foe of Roma was not Neapolis, but Samnium. It is Samnium that Rome wants to attack, and something must have happened within Neapolis to deserve the attention of a consular host.
What that was, it will be the topic of another post.
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