Capena, and Falerii (367), and secured the northern
boundary by establishing the fortresses of Sutrium
(371) and Nepete (381). With rapid steps this
fertile region, covered with Roman colonists, became
completely Romanized. About 396 the nearest Etruscan
towns, Tarquinii, Caere, and Falerii, attempted to
revolt against the Roman encroachments, and the deep
exasperation which these had aroused in Etruria was
shown by the slaughter of the whole of the Roman prisoners
taken in the first campaign, three hundred and seven
in number, in the market-place of Tarquinii; but it
was the exasperation of impotence. In the peace
(403) Caere, which as situated nearest to the Romans
suffered the heaviest retribution, was compelled to
cede half its territory to Rome, and with the diminished
domain which was left to it to withdraw from the Etruscan
league, and to enter into the relationship of subjects
to Rome which had in the meanwhile been constituted
primarily for individual Latin communities. It
seemed, however, not advisable to leave to this more
remote community alien in race from the Roman such
communal independence as was still retained by the
subject communities of Latium; the Caerite community
received the Roman franchise not merely without the
privilege of electing or of being elected at Rome,
but also subject to the withholding of self-administration,
so that the place of magistrates of its own was as
regards justice and the census taken by those of Rome,
and a representative (-praefectus-) of the Roman praetor
conducted the administration on the spot—a
form of subjection, which in state-law first meets
us here, whereby a state which had hitherto been independent
became converted into a community continuing to subsist
-de jure-, but deprived of all power of movement on
its own part. Not long afterwards (411) Falerii,
which had preserved its original Latin nationality
even under Tuscan rule, abandoned the Etruscan league
and entered into perpetual alliance with Rome; and
thereby the whole of southern Etruria became in one
form or other subject to Roman supremacy. In
the case of Tarquinii and perhaps of northern Etruria
generally, the Romans were content with restraining
them for a lengthened period by a treaty of peace
for 400 months (403).
Pacification of Northern Italy
In northern Italy likewise the peoples that had come
into collision and conflict gradually settled on a
permanent footing and within more defined limits.
The migrations over the Alps ceased, partly perhaps
in consequence of the desperate defence which the Etruscans
made in their more restricted home, and of the serious
resistance of the powerful Romans, partly perhaps
also in consequence of changes unknown to us on the
north of the Alps. Between the Alps and the Apennines,
as far south as the Abruzzi, the Celts were now generally
the ruling nation, and they were masters more especially
of the plains and rich pastures; but from the lax
and superficial nature of their settlement their dominion