had thereby assured themselves of the contentment of the gods with the choice that had been made.  Whatever land or property was acquired in the wars of the league was apportioned among its members according to the judgment of the Romans.  That the Romano-Latin federation was represented as regards its external relations solely by Rome, cannot with certainty be maintained.  The federal agreement did not prohibit either Rome or Latium from undertaking an aggressive war on their own behoof; and if a war was waged by the league, whether pursuant to a resolution of its own or in consequence of a hostile attack, the Latin federal council may have been legally entitled to take part in the conduct as well as in the termination of the war.  Practically indeed Rome must have possessed the hegemony even then, for, wherever a single state and a federation enter into a permanent connection with each other, the preponderance usually falls to the side of the former.

Extension of the Roman Territory after the Fall of Alba—­Hernici—­Rutulli and Volscii

The steps by which after the fall of Alba Rome—­now mistress of a territory comparatively considerable, and presumably the leading power in the Latin confederacy—­extended still further her direct and indirect dominion, can no longer be traced.  There was no lack of feuds with the Etruscans and with the Veientes in particular, chiefly respecting the possession of Fidenae; but it does not appear that the Romans were successful in acquiring permanent mastery over that Etruscan outpost, which was situated on the Latin bank of the river not much more than five miles from Rome, or in dislodging the Veientes from that formidable basis of offensive operations.  On the other hand they maintained apparently undisputed possession of the Janiculum and of both banks of the mouth of the Tiber.  As regards the Sabines and Aequi Rome appears in a more advantageous position; the connection which afterwards became so intimate with the more distant Hernici must have had at least its beginning under the monarchy, and the united Latins and Hernici enclosed on two sides and held in check their eastern neighbours.  But on the south frontier the territory of the Rutuli and still more that of the Volsci were scenes of perpetual war.  The earliest extension of the Latin land took place in this direction, and it is here that we first encounter those communities founded by Rome and Latium on the enemy’s soil and constituted as autonomous members of the Latin confederacy—­the Latin colonies, as they were called—­the oldest of which appear to reach back to the regal period.  How far, however, the territory reduced under the power of the Romans extended at the close of the monarchy, can by no means be determined.  Of feuds with the neighbouring Latin and Volscian communities the Roman annals of the regal period recount more than enough; but only a few detached notices, such as that