| Battle of Pedum | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Roman–Latin wars | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Roman Republic | Tibur Praeneste Antium Velitrae Aricia Lanuvium | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Gaius Maenius Lucius Furius Camillus | |||||||
The Battle of Pedum was fought in 338 BC, near Pedum between the Roman Republic and multiple cities in Latium: Tibur, Praeneste, Antium, Aricia, Lanuvium, and Velitrae. The Roman army was led by the consuls Gaius Maenius and Lucius Furius Camillus. The battle resulted in a Roman victory. [1] [2]
The Romans had campaigned against the combined force at Pedum during the previous year, 339 BC, but the attempt was abandoned by Tiberius Aemilius Mamercus after hearing of the victory of his colleague, Quintus Publilius Philo, elsewhere in Latium. [3] [4] This move angered the senate, and the unfinished battle became the highest priority for the next year. Therefore, when Maenius and Camillus were elected as consuls, they were ordered to leave at once for Pedum. [1]
The forces from Tibur and Praeneste, being the two cities closest to Pedum, had already arrived there, but the forces from Aricia, Lanuvium, and Velitrae had made for the Astura River with the intent of joining the Volscian force from Antium. They were intercepted and routed by Maenius. Meanwhile, Camillus set off for Pedum itself, where he engaged the larger armies of Tibur and Praeneste. Maenius, after having dealt with the armies at the Astura River, came to Pedum in order to assist Camillus, and the two quickly defeated the two remaining armies. [1]
After the victory at Pedum, the consuls spent the rest of their terms campaigning throughout Latium, effectively bringing an end to the Latin War. Upon returning to Rome, they were both rewarded with a triumph, and Equestrian statues in the Roman Forum, a rare honor for that time. [1]
Marcus Furius Camillus was a Roman soldier and statesman of the patrician class. According to Livy and Plutarch, Camillus triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of Second Founder of Rome.
The Battle of the Allia was a battle fought c. 387 BC between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers, 11 Roman miles north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome was sacked by the Senones. According to scholar Piero Treves, "the absence of any archaeological evidence for a destruction-level of this date suggests that [this] sack of Rome was superficial only."
The Latin League was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient city of Rome, organized for mutual defense. The term "Latin League" is one coined by modern historians with no precise Latin equivalent.
Corioli was a town in ancient times in the territory of the Volsci in central Italy, in Latium adiectum.
Torre Astura, formerly an island called by the ancients merely Astura, is now a peninsula in the comune of Nettuno, on the coast of Latium, Italy, at the southeast extremity of the Bay of Antium, on the road to Circeii. The name also belongs to a medieval coastal tower in the same site, as well as to the river which rises at the southern foot of the Alban Hills, and has a course of about 33 km before flowing into the sea immediately to the southeast.
Gaius Maenius was a Roman statesman and general who was elected consul in 338 BC and appointed dictator twice, in 320 BC and 314 BC.
The (Second) Latin War was a conflict between the Roman Republic and its neighbors, the Latin peoples of ancient Italy. It ended in the dissolution of the Latin League and incorporation of its territory into the Roman sphere of influence, with the Latins gaining partial rights and varying levels of citizenship.
Latium is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.
A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city.
Aulus Manlius Capitolinus was a politician of the Roman Republic and the brother of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus. In 389, 385, 383, and 370 BC, he was a Military Tribune with Consular power. During his 389 tribuneship, he served under the dictator, Marcus Furius Camillus, guarding Rome during the Battle ad Maecium. His following tribuneship in 385 was spent fighting the Volsci, who were aided by the Hernici and other Latins. In his third tribuneship in 383, he fought again with the Volsci, who were joined by Lanuvium and other rebellious cities in Latium. During his 370 BC tribuneship, Manlius and his fellow consular tribunes drove the colonists of Velitrae out of Tusculum and later laid siege to Velitrae.
Old Latium is a region of the Italian peninsula bounded to the north by the river Tiber, to the east by the central Apennine mountains, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea and to the south by Monte Circeo. It was the territory of the Latins, an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. Later it was also settled by various Italic tribes such as the Rutulians, Volscians, Aequi, and Hernici. The region was referred to as "old" to distinguish it from the expanded region, Latium, that included the region to the south of Old Latium, between Monte Circeo and the river Garigliano – the so-called Latium adiectum. It corresponded to the central part of the modern administrative region of Lazio, Italy, and it covered an area measuring of roughly 50 Roman miles. It was calculated by Mommsen that the region's area was about 1860 square kilometres.
The Roman–Latin wars were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome and the Latins, from the earliest stages of the history of Rome until the final subjugation of the Latins to Rome in the aftermath of the Latin War.
The Roman–Volscian wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Volsci, an ancient Italic people. Volscian migration into southern Latium led to conflict with that region's old inhabitants, the Latins under leadership of Rome, the region's dominant city-state. By the late 5th century BC, the Volsci were increasingly on the defensive and by the end of the Samnite Wars had been incorporated into the Roman Republic. The ancient historians devoted considerable space to Volscian wars in their accounts of the early Roman Republic, but the historical accuracy of much of this material has been questioned by modern historians.
The Roman-Aequian wars were a series of wars during the early expansion of ancient Rome in central Italy against their eastern neighbours, the Aequi.
Pedum was an ancient town of Latium in central Italy, located between Tibur and Praeneste, near modern Gallicano nel Lazio. The town was a member of the Latin League.
The gens Maenia, occasionally written Mainia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned soon after the establishment of the Republic, and occur in history down to the second century BC. Several of them held the position of tribune of the plebs, from which they strenuously advocated on behalf of their order. The most illustrious of the family was Gaius Maenius, consul in 338 BC, and dictator in both 320 and 314. In some manuscripts, the nomen Maenius appears to have been erroneously substituted for Menenius or Manlius; there are also instances of confusion with Manilius, Maelius, and Maevius.
The Battle of Pedum was fought in 358 BC, near Pedum between the Roman Republic and a group of Gauls who had entered Latium. The Romans, led by dictator Gaius Sulpicius Peticus and his magister equitum, Marcus Valerius Poplicola, defeated the Gauls at their encampment near Pedum after a prolonged standoff.
Lucius Furius Camillus was a Roman politician and general who served as consul of the Roman Republic in 338 BC and in 325 BC. During his 338 BC consulship, he, along with Gaius Maenius, commanded Rome's legions during the Battle of Pedum, during which Camillus engaged forces from the cities of Tibur and Praeneste. Afterwards, Maenius and he were awarded with a triumph and equestrian statues in the Roman Forum. During his second consulship in 325 BC, he was assigned the duty of dealing with the Samnites as a part of the Second Samnite War. However, he fell ill and had to relinquish his command, prompting the appointment of Lucius Papirius Cursor as dictator.
Marcus Valerius Poplicola was a politician of the Roman Republic who served as magister equitum under the dictator Gaius Sulpicius Peticus in 358 and as consul in 355 and 353 BC.
Lucius Aemilius Mamercinus was a Roman politician and general who, in the early 4th century BC, held the office of consular tribune an extraordinary six times in his distinguished, yet mostly unknown, career.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book VIII
Smith, William (1857). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Volume 2. Little, Brown and Company. p. 560.
Venning, Timothy (2011). A Chronology of the Roman Empire. A & C Black. p. 67. ISBN 1441154787.