"To blunder twice is not allowed in war"
~Latin Proverb
~Latin Proverb
Excerpt From, A History Of The Tyrrhenians by Dioskoros of Syrakusa circa, 490s-480s AE; Modern translation by Hamilket Barak (1980* University of New Carthage press)
According to their own accounts, the city of Veii was founded by the same Tarchon of Lydia who is said to be the founder of the Tyrrhenian League[1]. This, as I have already related, was a claim shared by her rival Tarchnal, a point that was not lost on the two cities as they both attempted to prove their city predated the other[2]. I have said at the beginning of this book, which I related the foundation myth of the Tyrrhenians, that I would only relate to you the story of Tyrrhenus, feeling it better to leave Tarchnal's story for a later point in my writing. That point has now come.
The facts surrounding this legendary figure are inextricably linked with the lives of his two other notable contemporaries, Tyrrhenus and the Trojan Aeneas. The story of Aeneas as the Tyrrhenians recall it is outside of the scope of my history; however, I will relate to you that after the sack of Troy, Aeneas is said to have fled west from Troy after the city's fall. He ended up, first in Carthage where he carried on an affair with their queen Elissa, and then in Latium. It was while in Latium that he carried out a war alongside Latinus, the founder and King of the Latins, against his enemy Turnus.
This war, as I have had it related to me, was fought when Latinus's daughter Lavinia, who was origianlly betrothed to Turnus to ensure his goodwill, was instead married off to Aeneas upon the latter's arrival in Latium. This was allegedly at the behest of Hera, who wished to see Aeneas and his Trojans suffer more. Hera now also intervened to encourage Turnus to declare war on Aeneas and Latinus.
The Tyrrhenians were divided over who to support, and this caused much conflict in the league. Those who supported Turnus in the war were led by Mezentius, and those who supported Aeneas, by Tarchon, who was still the most respected figure in the league. Tarchon's faction appeared to gain the upperhand, and after a particularly bitter argument, they exiled Mezentius and his supporters, who fled to Turnus's court. Tarchon established a pact of friendship with Aeneas, and gathered his own troops from Veii and Tarchnal to assist his new allies.
At this time Turnus was besieging Aeneas and Latinus, and had it not been for Tarchon's timely arrival, would have ended the war right there. Turnus was nearly killed in the ensuing battle, only to be saved by Hera who did not wish to see the war end so quickly. It was at the same time that Euandros and his Arkadians, founder of the city of Pallantium[3] (later, it would change its name to Roma, the name which it still goes by) joined Aeneas, on account of his having known the latter's father Anchises from before the Trojan War. The war began to turn against Turnus, and Aeneas, hoping to finally resolve the conflict, challenged him to single combat. Turnus accepted the duel, and was killed, as Hera, finding the Trojans had suffered enough, declined to save him.
So the story goes about the first interaction between the Tyrrhenians and the Latins. Everything I have said here has been told to me by those Tyrrhenians whom I met in my travels there, and they can only be as accurate as they have been retold to me. As time went on, the children of Tarchon and Aeneas, the cities Veii and Roma, inevitably betrayed their alliance, as two cities in such close proximity on opposite banks of a river could not, for very long, remain on good terms unless one has domination over the other.
The Latins of Roma and the Tyrrhenians of Veii fought three wars between them in a single century, between the 2nd year of the 73rd Olympiad and the 4th year of the 93rd Olympiad. The first two wars achieved little. In the first war, a personal feud between the Veiientines and the leading oligarch family of Roma (led by a man named Fabius) turned into a war for control of the strategic city of Fidenae on the Latin bank of the Tiber, a war Roma, won, although at the expense of losing control of their own fort on the Veiientine bank of the Tiber.
The second war was fought over the same territory, 44 years after the first. The people of Fidenae, not content with domination by the Latins, appealed to the King of Veii, Lars Tolumnius, and switched their allegiance over to his city. They inquired as to what they should do when the Roman ambassadors entered the city, and Veiientine King, remaining true to the cruelty and brutality of the Tyrrhenian people, ordered the ambassadors be murdered.
The war swung back and forth for years, until Lars Tolumnius was killed in single combat by Cornelius, and the Veiientines withdrew. When they returned the following year and threatened Roma, the oligarchs of the city elected one of their own, Quintus Servilius, King. Servilius forced the Veiientines away from Roma, defeated them in battle, and retook Fidenae, winning him great admiration among the Latins. The Veiientines appealed the Tyrrhenian League for assistance, but when the Tyrrhenians, eager to see a rival state get cut down to size, declined to intervene, they signed a 20 year peace.
When the peace finally ended, Roma sent ambassadors to Veii to demand redress for supposed grievances, to which the Veiientines responded with anger and prepared for war. They elected as archon Velthur Hathisna, and immediately sent ambassadors to the Capenates and Faliscans to the north, who were wary of encroaching Latin power, and the Volscians to their south, who had just lost the city of Anxur to the Latins.
Yet the Veiientines did not put an army into the field, instead opting to let the Latins atempt to siege them. The siege went on for years, with the Latins conducting simultaneous campaigns against the Capenates, Faliscans, and Volscians. The war finally came to a head in the first year of the 93rd Olympiad[4] a Latin army was ambushed by the Faliscans and Capenates, and his head sent to Camillus, the Latin commander of the siege.
The Veientines rejoiced at the news. A subsequent attempt by Camillus to lead a second army of his own against the enemy led in a similar result, with Camillus forced to withdrawal after walking into another well planned ambush. The Faliscans and Capenates, now confident after their double victory, followed it up by marching to relieve Veii. Camillus prudently withdrrew, harried all the way across the Tiber by the now emboldened Hathisna, who, after a brief succession of archons, had been re-elected for the year's campaign. The Veientines pressed their advantage by besieging and then taking Fidenae after a year long siege.
A Roman army was defeated again in the Second Battle of the Anio, and the Veientines entered the city, torching most of it and besieging the akropolis[5]. Surrounded and with no sign of another Latin army coming to aid them, the Romans begged for terms. Infuriated after three wars and a decade under siege, during which the Romans rebuffed all attempts at peace, the Veientines demanded an unconditional surrender, which certainly meant enslaving or expelling them from the city. The Romans perhaps surprisingly, only offered a minor concession-they would be allowed to leave the city and find sanctuary with their Latin brothers, leaving the city for the Veiientines to do with as they saw fit. The Veientines agreed to the terms, and what Romans were left departed the city for good[6]
*Bonus points to anyone who figures out what this date is in BCE/CE dating and its significance IOTL This dating system is AE, or Anno Hellas, "In the year of the Hellenes", starting with the first Olympiad in 776 BCE
[1]This line has been the subject of much debate among scholars. Earlier in his account, Dioskoros names Tyrrhenus as the founder of the Tyrrhenians. It is possible that Dioskoros is confused, for Herodotos' account clearly states that both Tyrrhenus and Tarchon were both the legendary founders of the Tyrrhenians. On the other hand, Dioskoros may be trying to differentiate Tyrrhenus as a founder of the Etruscans, and Tarchon as founder of the league.
[2] For more on this interesting battle over history, see; Dioskoros II, iv.
[3] That would be between 293-383 AE [483-393 BCE]
[4] That would be 380 AE[396 BCE]
[5] The Romans called this hill the Capitoline
[6] There is considerable dispute over the events as they are described by Dioskoros. His claims are dubious, for the Veientines going from on the verge of complete destruction to besieging the Capitoline in only 2 years has been viewed as highly unlikely by others, notably my fellow colleague Hideaki Kazuo. It is further brought into question by the later account of the Alban historian Naevius, who, while admittedly not unbiased himself, paints a much more deadlocked picture of the war after the Veientines broke the siege. Still, it is hard to find another convincing explanation for the Romans expelling themselves from the city. One other compelling hypothesis, created by Kazuo but not endorsed by myself, is that the Romans fled the city when the situation detereorated after a few years of losses following the breaking of the siege, felt all was lost and decided to flee.
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