At length also the band that for ten years had sheltered themselves in Rhegium were duly chastised for the breach of their military oath, as well as for the murder of the citizens of Rhegium and of the garrison of Croton.  In this instance Rome, while vindicating her own rights vindicated the general cause of the Hellenes against the barbarians.  Hiero, the new ruler of Syracuse, accordingly supported the Romans before Rhegium by sending supplies and a contingent, and in combination with the Roman expedition against the garrison of Rhegium he made an attack upon their fellow-countrymen and fellow-criminals, the Mamertines of Messana.  The siege of the latter town was long protracted.  On the other hand Rhegium, although the mutineers resisted long and obstinately, was stormed by the Romans in 484; the survivors of the garrison were scourged and beheaded in the public market at Rome, while the old inhabitants were recalled and, as far as possible, reinstated in their possessions.  Thus all Italy was, in 484, reduced to subjection.  The Samnites alone, the most obstinate antagonists of Rome, still in spite of the official conclusion of peace continued the struggle as “robbers,” so that in 485 both consuls had to be once more despatched against them.  But even the most high-spirited national courage—­the bravery of despair—­comes to an end; the sword and the gibbet at length carried quiet even into the mountains of Samnium.

Construction of New Fortresses and Roads

For the securing of these immense acquisitions a new series of colonies was instituted:  Paestum and Cosa in Lucania (481); Beneventum (486), and Aesernia (about 491) to hold Samnium in check; and, as outposts against the Gauls, Ariminum (486), Firmum in Picenum (about 490), and the burgess colony of Castrum Novum.  Preparations were made for the continuation of the great southern highway—­which acquired in the fortress of Beneventum a new station intermediate between Capua and Venusia—­as far as the seaports of Tarentum and Brundisium, and for the colonization of the latter seaport, which Roman policy had selected as the rival and successor of the Tarentine emporium.  The construction of the new fortresses and roads gave rise to some further wars with the small tribes, whose territory was thereby curtailed:  with the Picentes (485, 486), a number of whom were transplanted to the district of Salernum; with the Sallentines about Brundisium (487, 488); and with the Umbrian Sassinates (487, 488), who seem to have occupied the territory of Ariminum after the expulsion of the Senones.  By these establishments the dominion of Rome was extended over the interior of Lower Italy, and over the whole Italian east coast from the Ionian sea to the Celtic frontier.

Maritime Relations