Second Wayent War

The only full description of this war is contained in the “ History ” of Titus Livius . The degree of its reliability is unclear, since Livy writes about two wars, one of which, perhaps, is a doublet of the other. The work of Dionysius of Halicarnassus , whose detailed stories often make it possible to clarify the brief and confused messages of Libya, we can not use in this case. From the XII book of “ Roman Antiquities ” only insignificant quotes are preserved. Some references, mainly about the exploit of Aulus Cornelius Koss , are contained in Diodorus of Sicily , Valery Maxim and other authors. Triumphal fasts during this period also did not survive.

The war was caused by the fall away from Rome to Fiden, who joined the Weyam. The Roman ambassadors, who arrived in Weija for explanations, were killed by order of King Lars Tolumnia ^[1] . Military operations began in 437 BC. e., three years before the expiration of the forty-year truce. Consul Lucius Sergius Fidenat won the battle on the left (Roman) bank of Anien , but the victory, according to Livius, went very expensive ^[2] , and the Senate, in view of the military threat, appointed Mamerka Emilia as dictator. He appointed the head of the cavalry, Lucius Quincius of Cincinnatus , and the legates - Capitoline Barbata and Mark Fabius . The dictator drove the Etruscans beyond Anien, and they camped between the river and the Fiden, where the falis came to their aid. Emilius entrenched at the confluence of Anien and the Tiber ^[3] .

In the army of Tolumnia, the right wing was occupied by the veynts, the center was occupied by the fidenates, and the left wing was occupied by the falsies. Among the Romans, the right wing was led by a dictator, in the center stood Quincius Cincinnatus, and on the left wing - Quintius Capitoline. The most stubborn was the battle with the Etruscan cavalry, which was led by the king himself. The military stands Aulus Cornelius Koss , who led the cavalry attack, killed Lars Tolumnia in a duel and removed his armor. After the death of the leader, his troops fled the battlefield. The detachment sent by Tolumni to storm the Roman camp was repulsed by the legate Mark Fabius ^[4] .

Having won, the dictator returned to Rome with triumph, and Cornelius Cossus dedicated the armor removed from the king to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. This was the second case after initiation of the initiation of obese armor ( spolia opima ) ^[5] .

In 436 BC e. the Romans invaded the land of the Weentians and the Falisks, but they evaded the battle. The siege of Fiden was postponed, because the army was struck by an epidemic ^[6] .

In 435 BC e. the pestilence was so strong that the Romans could not even send troops to rob their neighbors. Taking advantage of their weakness, the fidenates and veynts reached the Quirinal Gate . Servilius Prisk, appointed by the dictator Quintus, overtook the retreating enemy and defeated at Nome . Then the Romans besieged the Fiden and after some time they took them thanks to a dig ^[7] .

In 434, the Weynts and the Falis tried to get the support of the Twelve Hundreds to continue the war with Rome, but were refused at the annual meeting at the Voltumna Temple. In Rome, Mamerk Emilius was already appointed dictator, but when he learned that there would be no war, he resigned ^[8] .

According to Libya, after the battle of Nominee, peace was not concluded, but a ceasefire was in effect, which expired by 427 BC. e. Already in 428 BC. e. The Vientians and some of the Fidenates began raiding Roman territory. Lucius Sergius, Quintus Servilius and Mamerk Emilius were assigned to investigate this case. Fidenates accused of attacks were deported to Ostia , new colonists were sent to Fiden, to whom the lands of those killed in the war were transferred ^[9] .

In 427 BC e. the Romans could not declare war on religious grounds and limited themselves to sending the Vezial to the Vejils , who presented the Roman requirements to the Etruscans. The following year, the war began. The military stands with consular authority Titus Quinckius Puneec , Guy Fury and Mark Postumius opposed Wei, but could not share the command and suffered a shameful defeat. The fourth tribune remaining in the City, Aulus Cornelius Koss, declared Mamerka Emilia as dictator, and he appointed him head of the cavalry. Weynts called the rest of the Etruscans to arms, but only the Fidenates who killed the Roman colonists and renewed the war responded to this call. The base for the offensive was decided to make Fiden. The Veientian army crossed there, and “fear seized Rome” ^[10] . A camp was set up in front of the Collins gate , and the city prepared for defense ^[10] .

The dictator, passing between the mountains and the Tiber, went to the Fiden and camped one and a half miles from the city. Legat Titus Quintius Puneec was sent to occupy the mountain pass behind enemy lines. The battle took place the next day. The Romans began to press the Etruscans, and then a crowd of people armed with torches gushed out of the open gate. This attempt at a “psychic attack” at first confused the Romans, and their left wing began to recede. The dictator threw Cornelius Koss's cavalry into battle, ordered Quintius Punian to descend from the mountains and hit the enemy in the rear, and he rushed to save the situation on the left flank. With a swift attack, Koss dispersed the crowd of torchbearers, and the ambush detachment's approach completed the encirclement and defeat of the Etruscan army. The Weynts rushed to the Tiber and were partly killed on the shore, partly drowned at the crossing, and the Fidenates tried to hide in the city, but the Romans burst in on their shoulders and began the massacre ^[11] .

The city was plundered, those who survived the massacre were sold into slavery. Emilius returned to Rome, where he triumphed and resigned on the sixteenth day of the dictatorship. ^[12] In 425 BC e. a ceasefire was signed with the Weynts for 20 years.

Complementing the description of the battle of Fiden, Livy reports that he found information from the ancient annalists about the participation of the fleet in this operation. In Libya, these reports are genuinely surprised, since the Tiber is too narrow for the actions of ships ^[13] . In fact, the word classis , which from the time of the Punic Wars became the designation of the navy among the Romans, in earlier times meant infantry recruited from the first qualification class.

The story of Libya about the Second War of Wayte raises a number of questions. The obvious coincidences of the events of the first and second parts of this war (the killing of ambassadors and the killing of colonists, two battles at Fiden, both were commanded by dictator Mamerk Emilius, and in both cavalry attacks by Cornelius Koss decided the outcome of the battle) suggest the doubling of events, often among ancient historians . Nevertheless, it is not possible to reach an unambiguous conclusion, since an alternative description of this war has not been preserved ^[14] . The only episode, the dating of which you can try to establish, relying on extraneous sources, is the feat of Cornelius Koss.

The question of the date and circumstances of the initiation of "fat armor" in the temple of Jupiter Feretriy arose already in antiquity. Livy, referring to "all earlier writers," reports that Koss made the dedication as a military tribune, and dates this event to 437 BC. e., however, Emperor Augustus reported that during the restoration of the temple he saw with his own eyes an inscription on a linen bib, and on this inscription Koss calls himself a consul. Libya, Augustus’s words were perplexed, since he did not dare to reject the annalists' information and the lists of magistrates stored in plain books in the temple of Juno Moneta , but he also could not ignore the words of his high patron ^[5] .

Livy leaves this question unanswered, indicating that in the year of the consulate of Cossus (428 BC), as in the previous two and subsequent years, there was no war, “but there was a plague and such hunger that some annals, like mournful lists, contain only the names of consuls ” ^[15] . And in 426 BC. e., when he was a military tribune with consular power, according to Libya, another battle took place.

Modern scholars are skeptical of Augustus' testimony. The inscription made in the V century BC. e. on a linen bib, it could hardly have survived after four centuries, especially when you consider that the temple by this time had turned into almost ruins, and the Capitol , where it was located, was burned in 82 BC. e. It is believed that the emperor forged the inscription, or even the entire armor, in order to justify the prohibition to Mark Crassus, the fourth “fat armor” in Roman history, with the help of fake antiques, since only the commander who fought under his auspices had these rights ^[16] . How such a dedication could have been made by simple military stands, Livy also does not explain. It has been suggested that in the early days of such a strict rule was not yet.

More logical would have been the assumption that the feat of Cossus was accomplished in 426 BC. e., when he was a military tribune with consular power, and then the head of the cavalry. Indirectly this can be indicated by the words of Livius, from which it follows that Koss commanded the entire cavalry, and also passed in triumph as a military leader ^[17] . Valery Maxim writes that Koss was then the head of the cavalry ^[18] . Diodorus places the murder of ambassadors by fidenates under 426 BC. e., but Kossa says nothing about the feat, and the outcome of the battle of Fiden is uncertain. For the final conclusions, this information is not enough ^[19] .

• Cornell TJ Rome and Latium to 390 BC // The Cambridge Ancient History. - Vol. 7, part. 2. The Rise of Rome to 220 BC - Cambridge University Press, 1990. - ISBN 0-521-234468 .
• Parfyonov V.N. Emperor Caesar Augustus: Army. War. Policy. - SPb. : Aletheia, 2001 .-- ISBN 5-89329-396-7 .

• First Wayent War
• Third Wayent War