This article concerns the period 229 BC –220 BC.
Year 225 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Papus and Regulus. The denomination 225 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period,when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Battle of Cannae was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Carthage,fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia,southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and their allies,led by Hannibal,surrounded and practically annihilated a larger Roman and Italian army under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. It is regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and one of the worst defeats in Roman history,and it cemented Hannibal's reputation as one of antiquity's greatest tacticians.
The First,Second,and Third Samnite Wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites,who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe.
The gens Atilia,sometimes written Atillia,was a plebeian family at ancient Rome,which rose to prominence at the beginning of the fourth century BC. The first member of this gens to attain the consulship was Marcus Atilius Regulus,in 335 BC. The Atilii continued to hold the highest offices of the state throughout the history of the Republic,and well into imperial times.
The Battle of Telamon was fought between the Roman Republic and an alliance of Celtic tribes in 225 BC. The Romans,led by the consuls Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Aemilius Papus,defeated the Celts led by the Gaesatae kings Concolitanus and Aneroëstes. This removed the Celtic threat from Rome and allowed the Romans to extend their influence over northern Italy.
Titus Manlius Torquatus was a politician of the Roman Republic. He had a long and distinguished career,being consul in 235 BC and 224 BC,censor in 231 BC,and dictator in 208 BC. He was an ally of Fabius Maximus "Cunctator".
The Battle of Faesulae was fought in 225 BC between the Roman Republic and a group of Gauls living in Italy. The Gauls defeated the Romans,but later the same year,a decisive battle at Telamon had the opposite outcome.
The Battle of Placentia was fought in 194 BC,near Placentia,between the Roman Republic and the Boii. The Roman army won the battle. The following year,another battle with the Boii would take place in the same region;known as the Battle of Mutina,it would end the Boii threat.
Marcus Atilius Regulus was a Roman politician and statesman. He was consul in 227 and 217 BC and later censor in 214 BC. He was the son of his homonymous father who was consul in 267 and 256 BC.
The Insubres or Insubri were an ancient Celtic population settled in Insubria,in what is now the Italian region of Lombardy. They were the founders of Mediolanum (Milan). Though completely Gaulish at the time of Roman conquest,they were the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian and Celtic population with Gaulish tribes.
Aneroëstes was one of the two leaders of the Gaesatae,a group of Gaulish mercenaries who lived in the Alps near the Rhône and fought against the Roman Republic in the Battle of Telamon of 225 BC. He and his colleague Concolitanus were hired by the Boii and Insubres in response to the Roman colonisation of the formerly Gallic region of Picenum. After some initial success in Etruria,when faced with the army of the consul Lucius Aemilius Papus,Aneroëstes persuaded the Gauls to withdraw,but they were cut off at Telamon by the other consul,Gaius Atilius Regulus,and forced to fight a pitched battle.
The Gaesatae or Gaesati were a group of Gallic mercenary warriors who lived in the Alps near the river Rhône and fought against the Roman Republic at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC.
Quintus Caecilius Metellus was a pontiff in 216 BC,aedile of the plebeians in 209 BC,curule aedile in 208 BC,magister equitum in 207 BC,consul in 206 BC,dictator in 205 BC,proconsul of Bruttium in 204 BC,and an ambassador at the court of Philip V of Macedon in 185 BC.
Gaius Atilius Regulus was one of the two Roman consuls who fought a Celtic invasion of Italy in 225–224 BC;he was killed in battle and beheaded. Atilius came from a prominent family of consuls for four generations;the family originally hailed from southern Italy.
Over the course of nearly four centuries,the Roman Republic fought a series of wars against various Celtic tribes,whom they collectively described as Galli,or Gauls. Among the principal Gallic peoples described as antagonists by Greek and Roman writers were the Senones,Insubres,Boii,and Gaesatae.
The Battle of Silva Litana was an ambush that took place in a forest 75 miles northwest of the Roman city of Ariminum during the Second Punic War in 216 BC. The Gallic Boii surprised and destroyed a Roman army under the consul-elect Lucius Postumius Albinus. Of 25,000 Romans,only 10 survived,with a few being taken prisoner by the Gauls. The corpse of Postumius was decapitated and his skull was made into a gilded ceremonial cup by the Boii. News of this military disaster probably reached Rome after the defeat at Cannae in the fall of 216 BC or the spring election of consuls for 215 BC,triggering a renewed panic. The Romans were compelled to postpone military operations against the Gauls until the conclusion of the Second Punic War,sending only two legions to guard against additional Gallic attacks. However,the Boii and Insubres did not attempt to exploit their victory. Cisalpine Gaul remained in relative peace until 207 BC,when Hasdrubal Barca arrived there with his army from Spain.
Aulus Manlius Torquatus Atticus was a politician during the Roman Republic. Born into the prominent patrician family of the Manlii Torquati,he had a distinguished career,becoming censor in 247 BC,then twice consul in 244 and 241 BC,and possibly princeps senatus in 220 BC. Despite these prestigious magistracies,little is known about his life. He was a commander who served during the First Punic War,and might have pushed for the continuation of the war even after Carthage had sued for peace following the Roman victory at the Aegate Islands in 241 BC. The same year,he suppressed the revolt of the Faliscans in central Italy,for which he was awarded a triumph. At this occasion,he may have introduced the cult of Juno Curitis at Rome.
The siege of Mutina in 218 BC constitutes one of the first episodes of the Second Punic War. Hannibal's diplomacy in Cisalpine Gaul persuaded the Gallic Boii and Insubres tribes to revolt and drive the Roman colonists out of Piacenza (Placentia) and push them as far as Modena (Mutina),which was then besieged.
