Polybius, the Megalopolitian historian who had been brought to Rome in BC, explained that the Hellenistic world was a multipolar one. But the conflict with Carthage was not inevitable, and the decision by the Romans to march into Sicily came only at the end of a centuries long struggle between Carthage and Syracuse for control of the island.
This post compiles the fragmentary historical narratives of the period to demonstrate that the Romans arrived late to the Sicilian game, but, by cultivating sea power, went on to win it. The Emperor Claudius later consolidated books on the Etruscans and Carthaginians in a museum in Alexandria, although once more this material has been lost. VII, part 2 Roman and allied socii territory by the mid-3 rd century encompassed all of Italy south of the Arno river, 50, square miles, with a population of about three million souls.
This included the Latin socii nominis Latini , Latin territory not yet annexed directly, plus the 24 and by , 26 Latin colonies Rome had established during the 4 th and 3 rd centuries. At the start of the Samnite Wars , , this territory had reached 5, km 2. Roman colonies by , from The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. Roman and Latin territory, Allies and colonies, from T. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome Indeed, the city of Rome in the 3 rd century was a bustling metropolis, if archaic and underdeveloped, with trade connections throughout Italy and around the Mediterranean.
Roman roads by the mid-3rd century, from The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. Mediterranean trade c. The non-voting civitas sine suffragio comprised the population of the non-Latin territories gradually being annexed by the Romans; the Samnites, for example, defeated finally in , were given full citizenship civitas optimo iure , as Romani or Quirites , only in During our period of the middle republic, the Senate had increased in power against the popular assemblies as the number and importance of the Roman magistracies grew, including the introduction of the censors in , the creation of the first praetor in and expansion of the aediles to four in , the year tribune Lucius Sextius was elected to the consulship as the first plebian consul.
The Licinio-Sextian reforms included sumptuary laws which established fines for private wealth in excess of iugera about acres of land or cattle or sheeps, pigs, etc. The Roman state structure of the 3 rd century BC was divided into several political and religious branches, but was dominated by the aristocratic land-owning Senate.
